Hear in Taiwan

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, my family and I headed up to Wulai to catch the cherry blossom. It was kind of late since the flower mostly bloomed about two weeks ago, but nevertheless Mother Nature has been good to us and we managed to catch some.

Wulai is a mountainous area in New Taipei City famous for its hot springs. But it’s also famous for its cherry blossoms as my parents insisted on driving up there to enjoy the pink and white blossoms.

The Japanese call cherry blossom sakura and it is a tradition that they have picnics and drink sake underneath the cherry trees when they are in full bloom. The Japanese people call the tradition hanami which literally translates into flower watching.

As the cherry blossom originates mostly from Japan, usually it means that the Japanese somehow brought the seedlings to other countries and cultivated them there. Since the flower often blooms and then dies within a week, it is often associated with mortality for its extreme beauty and quick death. The cherry blossom has such great symbolism that it is depicted on the face of 100 Japanese yen coins.

Some of our listeners are remarkable artists. And I’d say they have great imagination and creativity too. Here are some art works done in pencil and blue and red ballpoint pens (I think) by a listener from Mahashtra, India. First he greeted us with calligraphy that looks like something out of video games on the words “Radio Taiwan International”.

Co-worker Yuting Lin and I had some serious discussions about what the next one is. I say it’s some fictional beast, but I can’t make out where the head is. It’s all claws to me with a couple of deadly weapons built into the body (upper right). I marvel at the incredible imagination and detail.

The last one looks to me is a spider with a body that looks like the metallic helmet worn by Darth Vader from Star Wars. But then I realized it’s only got four legs (ending in metallic hoofs complete with screws). So then Yuting says it’s a crab. What do you make it out to be? But wait…crabs also have more than four legs, don’t they??

You don’t know it, but you probably enjoyed “Strange Voyages of Ghosts and Gods” and “Supermen Special Attack Force.” That’s because these are the back translations (meaning it has been translated from English, to Chinese, and now back into English) for two highly successful Hollywood movies. No clue yet? OK, I’ll just tell you then: the first one is “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and the second is “The Incredibles.”

No joke, the full title is ‘Caribbean Pirates: Strange Voyages of Ghosts and Gods: Sea of Spirits’

Here’s a list of some titles that have come to Taiwan and been added to a long, rambling list of “ghosts and gods” (神鬼), movies that seem to have nothing to do with each other save for they all perform pretty well at the box office. The list below also includes the films’ translations in Mainland China.
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At Ming Chuan University there’s no mucking about when it comes to finals — they take their tests very, very seriously. In fact, it’s one of the only universities that I know of that uses “plum blossom seating” (“meihua zuo” in Chinese) during their exams. But I’ll get back to that in a second.

For me as a university lecturer, proctoring these exams is also a test… of my patience.

Now, much of my job as proctor consists of just standing there staring at the ceiling and waiting for the test to finish. I pass time by imagining the students breaking into song and dance routines. Someday I wish they really would.

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One of our listeners from Bangladesh sent pictures of his son holding RTI’s new calendar. The son is four years old and he is holding an RTI 2013 calendar we sent them. The son’s a faithful listener of RTI’s English programs too, apparently. The father said his son was really happy the moment he got our calendar.

I had to put this picture first, because that’s one incredibly sweet smile on his face. Nothing like the excitement of a dad to snap not just one, but many pictures of his son that he is obviously proud of.

I couldn’t help noticing the orange nail polish on his nails!! But he’s definitely one handsome boy. Look at those big eyes! These are just three of five pictures that his father sent us.

We’d love to get pictures from our listeners who wouldn’t mind seeing their photos on our blog. Please send us pictures of your everyday life so that we can learn more about your country. You can mail them to any one of us in the English service.

Thank you again for always listening to our programs and visiting our blog.

In this past week’s Hear in Taiwan, we talked about weiya (尾牙), or year-end banquets. One of the highlights of such banquets, held by employers to thank employees towards the end of a lunar year, is raffles with all kinds of prizes. What’re some popular prizes this year? Employers and employees have different answers. Click here to learn more.

What makes you fat? Apparently a lot of people in Taiwan believe eating rice makes you fat. Government data show that rice consumption per capital has fallen by half in Taiwan. On the one hand it’s because of the popularity of Western-style food, and on the other hand many people blame rice for providing too much starch. However, following a rice-based diet can actually be more healthy. The Agriculture and Food Agency tells you why.

To listen to Hear in Taiwan, visit the RTI English website.

(Photo courtesy of the Central News Agency)

It was nice to have a long weekend during the turn of a new year. Since this year’s January 1 fell on a Tuesday, the government decided to have everyone take December 31 (Monday) off too. So on the last day of 2012, my husband and I got together with some friends and drove more than an hour to Xinwu or 新屋 (which translates into ”New House” in Chinese) in Taoyuan County.  Even though the weather wasn’t favorable…in fact, it was awfully cold, windy and drizzly…we went biking along the Xinwu Green Tunnel trail. At first, I thought that we were going to bike through a tunnel. It was raining that day and I told everyone (except the person who organized the trip) not to worry since we’re biking “indoors”. Little did I know that it was a beautiful path with trees and bushes on both sides of the road which runs alongside the shoreline. That’s why it’s called green tunnel!  The trees on both sides were literally bent over the path towards each other, hence a tunnel. The green corridor is only for bikers (except occasionally a car or two annoyingly barged on to the trail).   

(photo courtesy of Tourism Promotion Bureau)

We rented quadracycles for two or four riders, with colorful canopies overhead. The riders are seated next to each other, two to a row. It was my first time seeing the vehicles and I was thrilled. We had so much fun. There’s only one person who gets to control the handlebar but the other three have pedals. So they can help pedal especially when it’s an uphill or when you want to go fast. The biking trip was great, especially when we had four quadracycles trying to race each other. But on the way back, we were headed into the biting cold wind so we were definitely not laughing or talking as much.

After my day’s worth of exercising on the four-wheel vehicle, we were headed for the Yongan Fishing Port for lunch. The port has a long building where one end houses restaurants that cook freshly caught seafood on site. On the other end, which we didn’t have time to roam, there were booths selling dried seafood goods. 

From the port we could see the beach.

This bridge at the port reminded me of the one in Danshui, except this one is colored blue (whereas the Danshui one is white) and smaller and narrower. But just like the Danshui bridge, it’s only for pedestrians.

Every New Year’s Day I marvel at the passage of time, and wonder whether I’ve used it wisely. Another day, another month, another year has gone by. Have I done as much as I could have? Have I loved as much as I should have? Have I valued each minute and cherished everything with which I’ve been blessed?

On a recent night’s commute home after a long day at work I decided to take a different route — a road less traveled. I do that sometimes, especially on those ho-hum grey days where nothing seems particularly good or bad. I was delighted to discover a huge clock proclaiming “National Standard Time” hanging from the front of the Application and Certification Building (whatever that is).

Years ago I had stopped carrying a watch (because my cell phone had supplanted the need). So I found something enthralling about this huge clock on the edifice of a building in central Taipei counting the seconds and reminding us that time is unstoppable.

Like most people, I struggle with time — not just with being late (which I resolve to change this year). Some people long to turn back time to the good old days, when they were younger, in love, or innocent. Others are anxious to fast-forward to an expected future happiness, a relationship, a job opportunity.

I, on the other hand, feel anxious that I’m not using the NOW to its fullest. I think about work while I’m taking my morning shower, and I relive the past as I lie in bed at night. Rarely do I allow myself to luxuriate in the now of this very minute or second. How easy it is to forget that all we have is the now — a string of “nows” that last a lifetime.

You don’t have to visit the National Standard Time clock in order to refocus on the now, but it can’t hurt. I may even add this stop to my repertoire of routes home from work — just as a reminder — until it becomes part of a routine, a habit that goes unnoticed.

For now, though, I’d like to wish you and yours a very happy 2013 full of conscious living in the now. Oh, and if you can’t make it to Taipei, you can make a trip to the National Standard Time web site.

Even though X’mas is over, there’s still Christmas spirit lingering in New Taipei City. Like this restaurant on Beixin Road. It’s already a big restaurant full of western flavor, with wooden beams across the ceilings (you don’t find that in any other Taiwanese houses), old fashioned wooden chairs and a fireplace (well, a fake one) right inside the entrance. But with the Christmas season, the owner has put up many Christmas decorations and ornaments.

That’s the fireplace (on the left) I was talking about, with the velvet red sofa and Christmas design cushions next to it in the waiting area (?), just right inside the front door.

Bored by your store-bought Christmas ornaments? Raid your house for something more personal.

Last year when I pulled out my boxes of store-bought Christmas decorations I felt thoroughly uninspired. I felt no personal connection to the little straw reindeer I’d purchased at Ikea, and was bored before I’d even begun hanging them on my tree.

It suddenly occurred to me that I could use all of those tacky vacation souvenirs I had accrued over the years — the porcelaine clogs from Holland, the terracotta warrior keychain from Xi’an, China, etc. Turns out my cupboards were full of readymade Christmas ornaments. I’d long detested the flotsam and jetsam of other people’s (and my own) vacations, which I couldn’t bare to either keep or throw away. Now, the second year in running, they’ve become cherished additions to my now very personalized tree. I’ve even begun purchasing uniquely Taiwanese souvenirs to top off my humble tree, which is like no other in the world.

Blue and white slippers like these can be found in any household in Taiwan, and in recent years young hipsters have reappropriated them as part of their intentionally unassuming style.

No Taiwanese Christmas tree is complete without an Atayal Tribe hunting knife.

How about a miniature bag of moichi — glutinous rice treats?

Chinese new year ornaments work perfectly — they are often red, and you can just leave them up for another month to get the double-holiday whammy out of your decor.

Okay, so this little fragrant sachet shaped like a “zongzi” (or pyramid-shaped rice dumpling) was probably intended for the Dragon Boat Festival in  June, but it’s green and bejewelled! Hello Christmas ornament, I say.

And finally, this little scooter speaks volumes of life in Taipei, and looks oh-so-right on a Christmas tree.

So that’s my decorating tip for Christmas: don’t buy any more impersonal ornaments, just dig out all of those tacky souvenirs you hate and discover their newfound potential as a beloved, memory-filled tree decoration! Merry Christmas~!