Taipei: Some History

Evidence for human settlement of Taiwan goes back 30,000 years, a history detailed in the National Taiwan Museum, the country's oldest, established in 1908. Its cases are full of artifacts like those below, detailing the natural and human history of the island.




If those totems look similar to what you might find in Polynesia, that's because they are: the indiginous tribes speak varieties of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, and many linguists think that Taiwan is the homeland of the language group, and thus the original population center from which sea-faring peoples dispersed across southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Still, mostly it looks like pretty standard museum fare, though I gotta love this enormous carving:


Through the centuries, Taiwan has been claimed by many seafaring nations including the Portugese, the Spanish, the Dutch, the English and of course the Japanese, as well as the Chinese. The main reason for this is the island's strategic location. Imperial Japan ruled Taiwan from 1985 to the end of WWII when control was given to the Republic of China.



Dr Sun Yat-sen is revered on mainland China as well as in Taiwan (technically, the ROC) as the Father of the Nation--Dr. Sun Zhongshan. I visited the Zhongshan Gardens in Beijing, right beside Tiananmen Square, in Beijing back in 2009 (scroll down a bit). I arrived at the SYS Memorial in Taipei just in time for the changing of the guard. The bronze statue is 5.8 m tall and weighs 16.7 tons.




Taiwan's other "father" is Chiang Kai-shek, the ruling strongman from 1948 until his death is 1975. Well, he started out as President of the ROC, the constitutional government of mainland China, but fled to Taiwan when Mao's Red Chinese won the Chinese Civil War in 1949. With him came about 2 million people, mostly members of the Kuomintang, the political party begun by Dr Sun, soldiers and most importantly the intellectual and business elites.

The CKS Memorial includes a de rigueur giant bronze, and a selection of memorabilia, including a pair of his specially-built Caddies (one posted earlier), sedan chairs, photos with world leaders, military decorations, and a wax likeness in a replica office attending to his Presidential duties.



Before Chiang relocated to the island, administrative duties were managed, or rather mismanaged, by a provincial governor named Chen Yi. His poor treatment of the locals famously led to a revolt and an absurd, murderous overreaction that is known as the 2-28 Incident. The 2-28 Freedom Park and a well-done museum record the episode.

The people were suppressed and discontented:


A 40-year-old woman, trying to scrape by by selling cigarettes, was accosted then pistol-whipped by a government agent in February, 1947:


News of the incident spread, in part by people who took over the local radio station (the station bulding is now home to the museum). Confrontation became more and more heated, with the result that a police officer shot a bystander named Chen Wen-xi. Protests continued to mount, and in "The Suffering" unknown thousands of Taiwanese were killed, exiled, improsoned or "disappeared".


Many of the known dead are memorialized in this elegant structure at the museum:



The state of Martial Law continued all the way until 1987--though Chen Yi was recalled and later executed for unrelated excesses. Chiang Kai-shek continued the lockdown on dissent, and kept the Kuomintang as the only legal political party throughout his rule, sometimes called the White Terror.

With a new democracy begun in 1987, the 2-28 Museum and Peace Park was opened in 1995.

Taipei: Lantern Festival

My visit to Taipei coincided with the Taipei Lantern Festival; a large number of entrants surrounded the Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. 2012 is the year of the dragon in the Chinese zodiac, and so the dragon is a common theme among the floats.





My apologies for not putting up pics from my trip in a more timely manner, but I have been really quite ill, the kind of can-hardly-move, stay-in-bed 'flu-like illness that I virtually never fall prey to. Well, except this time. Still, mostly fine now, and posting will pick up, I promise!

Taiwan-Thailand 2012

That's always good, if slightly ungrammatical, advice.

Regular visitors in the Seoul Patch surely know that I am dedicated to my teaching; I work hard to create and improve lessons to help my students feel more confident and fluent in speaking English. Still, I know I won't live in Korea indefinitely, so it has become important to me to use my proximity to east Asian points of interest for travel. Sure, it costs money to galavant around, but not nearly as much as it would if I was coming from the States--I'm not saving money, but I'm making memories.

To wit, I just returned from eighteen days in Taipei and Thailand. Even though I stayed in Taipei for only four nights, there was lots to see, including Taipei 101, for some years the world's tallest building ...


... the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, which houses two of his specially-built Cadillacs ...


... and some of the most awesome street food I've had to date (and that's saying something). These are steamed/fried buns with delicious fillings, like pork, cabbage or chives:


After arrival at Suwarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, I made my way via the new Airport train to Praya Thai and thence via a 57 Baht taxi ride to Hualamphong train station for the 7:30 night train to Surat Thani. A bus ride, a ferry and a taxi later, I am ensconced at my bungalow.

I make no claim to be a photographer, but I have to justify spending lots of money on a serious digital SLR (Nikon D5100) somehow, so I think I got a pretty good shot of the full moon ...


... and a good pic of a Thai shrimping sampan with Koh Phangan in the background:


Most mornings, I claimed my sunbed at 7:30 AM, swam and laid in the gentle sun to read a book; after breakfast around 9:30 I would return to sunbathe for a couple hours until lunch. A new application of suncream and a return to the chaise lounge from 2 to 3:30 would generally complete my regimen. Yes, I turned red as a lobster, but I did not peel!

The latter part of the day was usually relaxing with a frosty beverage at the Chill Out Cafe, a twenty second amble from my sunbed.

Buddy Kevin arrived at the midpoint of my stay in Maenam, which only increased my enjoyment. We did stuff, like cultural stuff. For example, we visited the "Big Buddha" at Bophut:


After several days of enjoying this amazing beach, we made our way back to Bangkok for a couple of days of sightseeing in Krung Thep. More on that, and more on my visit to Taipei, coming soon.

Vacation Time

In America, we had an aphorism about teaching, to wit: "The three best reasons to teach are June, July and August." This referred to our agrarian-based institutional calendar that school shuts down during the summer months.

In Korean public schools, this translates to "The one and a half best reasons to teach are February and a couple weeks in August."

Needless to say, there is nothing great about February in Seoul. Here are two photos I snapped tonight, first outsde the front door of my building, the second at the little park across the street.



The great thing is that Korea is within striking distance of more tropical climes; therefore, I lehttps://imgur.com/Fbr2Yhhave tomorrow for two and a half weeks in the warmer environs of Taiwan and the downright warmish southern gulf coast of Thailand.

After I finish this post, I am going to sweep and mop my floor (all the other cleaning is done), carry out the recycling, and finish packing. Tomorrow I have to get a haircut in the morning, drop by my school--mainly to water my plants, visit the bank, then head to the airport.

See you in three weeks!

맥주뚜껑, or Maekchu Dduggeong

... or Beer Caps. I have mentioned previously this example of a new style of bar gaining popularity here, a "self-service" wall of coolers from which one may partake of a healthy selection of worldwide beers.



They provide a variety of dried anju, but the coolest thing is that you can bring along your own food or order delivery. They even have a booklet of menus from local restaurants.


Though the chain has several storefronts, in Gyodae, Omokgyo, Sinchon and beyond, I've only been to the one in Sinjeongnegeori near my pal Kevin's abode. Here I am with friendly owner Jina last Friday night:


Good beer selection, good food (if you don't like the food, don't blame anyone but yourself), good friends; the only downside of the place is the music, which is mostly the electronic shrieking and ear-aching beat of what passes for music liked by kids these days. If you think that makes me sound like a crotchety old geezer, tough--I am a crotchety old geezer.

Innumeracy in the News

Several news sources, probably beginning with Yonhap, the Korean News Service, have reported that Seoul's bus and subway fares are going to rise by 150 won next month.

That translates to about 13 cents US money, or a 17% rise. That's significant to some, especially those who use the system on a daily basis.

But wait. The story goes on to say:

The city government has come up with a proposal to raise bus and subway fares from 900 won to 1,150 won (traffic card fares for adult) next month, while freezing prices for students and children, officials said.

See the problem? An increase from 900 to 1,150 W is actually 250 W, or a 28 percent increase.

The same error is repeated by Korea Times, and Arirang. The Chosun Ilbo gets the numbers right, and adds a piece of information:

If the committee accepts the proposal, city bus and subway fares will rise from W900 to W1,050 and those for red commuter buses from W1,700 to W1,850 when using traffic cards.

Frankly, it's still a bargain, and is the only way to go anyhow, at least for me, who can't afford a car and wouldn't dare ride a motorbike in Seoul.

Book Report: Seollal 2012

• Operation Spider-Web by MH Sargent - Sargent has created an interesting team of CIA operatives who work, at least in this tale, third in the series, within Military Intelligence. Gonz, Heisman, McKay and Peterson seem to work together well, and I suspect their backstory is covered in a previous tome, but that doesn't matter so much compared to the current plot. And on that topic, I'm not sure I buy the initial story that gets the team involved in the operation that forms the focus of the book; but once they are in it, it is a gripping and realistic series of events. A fun, easy read for those who lkke battlefield action and intel subterfuge. It's an independent brought out on Amazon, Kindle-only.
  

• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - Slow-moving but carefully drawn and totally genuine characters, I would believe this is exactly what happened to Murakami in his youth except he emphatically denies it. It is a sad pair (or maybe even trio) of love stories told from the boy's POV in the Tokyo and environs of the late sixties. The student upheavals of those times form a sort of background, though no one in the action is a revolutonary--if anything, the action and drama is a counterpoint to their inability to act and move. Nonetheless, Murakami is able to paint a dynamic still life of four real people with Beatles music in the background.
  
• Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart - This is without a doubt the strangest book I have read in quite some time. First off, it is set in an indeterminate near-future where people are largely known by their buying power (LNWI = scum = low net worth individuals), and their personal data is easily read on their apparati, personal information devices. The US as we know it no longer exists, it is the ARA or American Recovery Admininistration, and the Chinese National Bank is about to lower our credit rating. In this crazy world, Lenny Abramov falls in love with Eunhee (Eunice) Park, a slim, self-centered Korean girl whose father beats her and whose mother and sister tend to rely on Geejush to save them. Lenny is a flabby, thirty-nine year old of Ashkenazi stock who works for the megacorp that runs things, despite it being in a little-known branch whose job is indefinite life extension. If the author had replaced "True" in the title with "Weird" it would sell a million, at least in yuan-pegged dollars. Seriously, I would not miss this book if I were you!
  
• The Weekend by Bernhard Schlink - Like The Big Chill, except the subject of the weekend together for old friends is still alive--he didn't die (as played by Kevin Costner in his most life-like role), but got released from prison. Jorg is a German terrorist who was convicted of the murder of four people nearly thirty years earlier, spending his first weekend of freedom at his older sister's country estate ; it's very talky, and even at that doesn't manage to explore the key issues to my satisfaction. As with The Reader, I started to like it better as it went on, but I was still left wanting, though I must say the sparks between Henner and Margarete pleased me.
  
  

설날, or Seollal

Seollal is the Lunar New Year, Korea's first or second most important holiday, and its main harbinger is the appearance of domi girls in brightly-colored hanbok at your local E-Mart.

https://imgur.com/0kCNs5y
They are there to hawk gift boxes of various goods, as Korean tradition dictates that you don't return to your hometown empty-handed, apparently even if it means bringing socks:


Other popular gifts include towels, hair care products and especially Spam:




Here are a few other items:




The prices of Seollal gifts can vary immensely, from a few thousand won for dried fish to a hundred bucks or more for mushrooms and 500,000 W for the package of three ginseng roots below:



I lopped the price off the ginseng, so you'll have to trust me that it was 500,000 W--I'm not 100% with my new camera, and assumed the data bar along the bottom was just covering the bottom part of the picture. Live and learn.