Culture festival, Czech national day and everything else

Friday is here, and it seems like a good time for my weekly review of current events around here.

Last Saturday, 2 of the Chinese tutors and volunteers from the Campus caring groups organized a cultural trip in and around Taipei for the foreign students. Joining the trip were: 4 students from Russia, 4 from Chile, 2 from Mexico, 1 from Paraguay, and I - fortunately, everyone was eager to speak Chinese, so I was not left out among all the Spanish and Russian languages.



First, we went to see the changing of the guards at the Martyr shrine. It is rather similar to changing of the guards all over the world, except the Taiwanese soldiers make the show more interesting by performing a variety of tricks with their rifles - spinning, juggling, throwing the up in the air, throwing them to each other and such. They must spend a lot of time learning this. In my eyes, they look a lot more like circus performers, rather than soldiers.





Next stop was the Taipei Grand Hotel. The hotel is built entirely in the Chinese style, is one of the main Taipei landmarks as well as one of the most luxurious hotels, where all the official visitors stay.



Ultimately, we ended up at the Kuandu Festival, taking place at the Taipei Arts University. The highlight of the festival was a series of shows of traditional Chinese performing arts. The performances took place throughout the afternoon and evening and we only saw a fraction of them, but even the little was more than worth it.

Few pictures and videos from the shows:

Everybody is excited to see the foreigners, even these young actors.



I don't know what this performance is or means.. people walking around and dancing wearing these huge costumes.. Probably about 3 meters tall.



Similar ones, except a lot smaller, waiting for their performance



Now, a few videos: Drumming and dancing..



The lion dance. I saw a similar performance in Hong Kong, this is said to be a very traditional Chinese show. At first, there were two lions, just running about, playing with each other and all. Then one of them proceeded to do the following performance. As you can see, there are two men doing each lion.. one is the front, the other one is the back. I love especially love the facial mimics.



Then, the lion proceeds with an acrobatic part.



After, there also was a show of children, doing the lion dance. Although they didn't do these more complicated things.

I don't really know what is the following performance. All I know is that this is a group from Tainan (southern Taiwan), the show was very entertaining and the male part of the audience couldn't take their eyes off these girls.



There was an elderly man sitting next to our group. Soon after he arrived, all eyes started turning on him. Then the cameras came out. Then some of the bolder people asked this man to take pictures with him, and seemed extremely excited about this. I had no clue who he was. After a little research, I found out that he's an actor, who appeared in the hottest Taiwanese movie at the time, 海角七號. This is the guy:



So now, I guess I and the rest of our group can be seen in the background of many pictures of this guy, that the visitors to the festival took and proudly show around.

There also was a photo exhibition at said arts university. Parts of it were great, parts of it were awful. What I enjoyed the most was the fact that the background music was Vltava, a part of a symphony the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. I was quite surprised to hear it this far away from home.

I also ate a very big, and very cheap (10 NTD) ice cream.



On Tuesday afternoon, as I was walking home from class, I realized it is October 28, a national (foundation) day of Czechoslovakia. I also remembered hearing that the Czech Economic and Cultural office in Taiwan always organizes something on that day. It is strange I didn't hear about anything, I thought. Just then, I met Lenka who told me that indeed there was a reception taking place that evening, in the Grand Hyatt Hotel. I made a few calls and decided to attend, even though I wasn't officially invited (only then I realized that the Czech office has no idea that I'm actually here). Fortunately, I was able to just walk in the reception, no trouble with guest lists or anything. I got to meet many Czechs living in Taiwan (they all seem to be either students, or people working at the Czech office), including the head of the office, as well as many "friends of the Czech Republic" from various countries. The best part was of course the Czech food and beer.. It was very appreciated after 2 months of the local food and Taiwan beer (that's what it's called.)

Few days ago, I was walking back to the dormitory, and observed a rather interesting scene. I snake climbed up the fence of the basketball courts, right by the entrance (so nobody dared to walk in or out). The students were just standing away, looking at the snake with respect in their eyes. Then, this elderly lady came in with a long stick. Without hesitation, she started ferociously beating the snake with the stick, until it was rather obvious that the snake is dead. Poor animal. But I guess this is a perspective of a Central European, where all snakes are protected by law and killing one could possibly bring at least a hefty fine. Not so in Taiwan.

My hairstyle poll finished! The winner is the 1956 James Dean look, followed by the 1984 almost-afro, and 1990 mullet. Thanks to all those who participated. I thought, now that I have the results, today would be a good day to overcome my fear and go get the haircut already.. To the famous '100 NTD a cut' place where "Human comes in, monkey comes out", no less.

Here's the result.


.....What I wanted ............. How it turned out .......

Could have been worse I guess.

Media Coverage

Taiwan is a pretty small country, located pretty far away from the Czech Republic. No wonder that the coverage of Taiwanese events in Czech media is pretty weak. During the 7 weeks I've been here, I've noticed only 3 Taiwan-related reports in the Czech newspapers / radio. These were:

1. Typhoon Jangmi

2. Taiwan purchasing weapons from the U. S. and consequent protests from the People's Republic of China.

3. About half a million people protesting against the Taiwanese government and demanding for the president to step down, in Taipei just this Saturday. 

The last event got me thinking. While I have very little knowledge about the Taiwanese politics, my understanding is this: The political scene is essentially bipolar, the two leading parties being the Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). One of the main differences in their policies lies in the position towards the PRC / mainland China, and independence of Taiwan.

During my first visit to Taiwan in Fall 2006, there were massive protests going on, demanding the president of Taiwan at that time, Chen Shui Bian, to step down. Chen Shui Bian was a member of DPP, and the protesters were mostly KMT supporters.

Two years later, Fall 2008. I'm in Taiwan again, and once again, massive protests are happening, demanding the president to step down. Only this time, the president is Ma Ying Jiu of the KMT, and the protests are organized by DPP. 

I wonder if this idea catches on. The winning party will be happy to have their president in the office, while the losing party will be out in the streets protesting. Hopefully, the other candidate will win the next elections, so that the protesters can go home for a few years, while the other party comes out to do the protests.

Weekly review and Wulai trip

If I keep decreasing the frequency of posts like this, I will be down to twice a semester by January. Before I'm off to the weekly "Research Methods" struggles (building a questionaire this time), here's a quick update about this past week:

At this very moment, there is classical music playing over the speakers in the dorms. Not sure why, as that's never happened before. Students have confused looks on their faces. It reminds me of the scene in Shawnshank Redemption. Maybe someone sneaked into the supervisor's office to put the music on and liven this place up, and is being taken to solitary confinement as a punishment as I'm typing this. Other than the standard and obligatory stuff, we were planning to go see a baseball game on Tuesday with my friend Nick, but the game was cancelled due to one of the teams sweeping the series early. I started mapping out the apartment rental options. January 7th received a whole new meaning. I bought a guitar and immediately realized that it's pretty difficult to play it. However, my room is so small that I can't get it out of my sight - which will keep me from giving up learning. I just hope my practicing won't cause the next international dispute. I can imagine an online discussion about the cacophony coming out of the foreigner's room springing up soon. I quit the billiard club and started going to judo twice a week instead. The club was rather strange, there was hardly any teaching and we were asked to "practice" for the whole 2 hours - meaning: just chase the balls around the table, with no rules in place. The Taiwanese also strongly objected the idea of actually playing.

I went to Wulai on Monday. Wulai is a small town about 40 minutes outside Taipei. It is a popular destination on the weekends, but dead the rest of the week. It is notable for great scenery, a waterfall with a cable car directly above, hot springs, aboriginal population (The indigenous population of Taiwan is related to Malay and Polynesians, and settled the island about 4000 years ago. The Han Chinese people from Chinese mainland are said to start coming to Taiwan and settling down from 13th century. At this time,  about 2% of the population of Taiwan are aborigines). In the case of Wulai, the "aboriginality" is used mainly as tourist attraction, with shopkeepers wearing the traditional costumes, an occasional dance performance, and related statues and design all over the town. Naturally, Wulai also has a shopping lane. 

Pictures follow:

Wulai town

Waterfall

Scenery

Public hot springs (the little pool people are sitting in; it really is hot)

Making a good use of the aboriginal tradition

How to increase the taxi business? The Falls Area is 1.6 Km away. But if the 1. mysteriously disappears, it appears to be 6 km. That's pretty far to walk, isn't it. Fortunately, there are 5 taxis standing around this sign. 

The shopping lane is surprisingly empty on a Monday afternoon..

How awesome would it be to put that old man statue in my dorm room? Of course there would be no more space to live, but I'm sure my roommate wouldn't mind.

101 galore and english homework

Taipei's biggest (pun intended) sight, landmark and claim to fame -all in one- is the Taipei 101. With the height of 509,2 meters (including antenna), it is still the world's tallest building. Toronto's CN Tower is taller, but it is not officially a building (it is a tower); Dubai's Burj Dubai is also taller, it is a building, but it is not yet completed, hence doesn't deserve the "building" title yet. Therefore, we citizens of Taipei can still proudly look up this magnificent structure, at least until September 2009, when the Burj Dubai is due for completion. Who knows, maybe it will fall before that happens.

During my first trip to Taiwan 2 years ago, the very first thing I did (after landing at the airport and checking in the hotel) was go up the 101. This time around, I am not a tourist in Taiwan, but rather an alien, so I've been staying away from the building so far, and very slowly, and carefully, getting closer and closer. There is a mountain (more like a hill), called 象山, or the Elephant mountain, just minutes away from the 101. This is the perfect place for a walk, 101 admiration and photo-taking. In fact, it somewhat makes sense to go here rather than up the 101. Other than Taipei 101, there are no really tall buildings in this city. It makes sense, as Taiwan is quite prone to earthquakes, which probably makes the construction a whole lot difficult. Therefore, when you actually go up the 101, the view is rather monotonous, as everything else is tiny and flat compared to the building. No problem with that at the Elephant mountain.

Pictures follow. 101, over and over and over again.

Is this why they call it the Elephant mountain?

Just a few minutes walk from the busy Taipei streets

Almost hard to believe that.

Taipei again. Where did 101 go?

The locals come here to relax, and excercise. Here's an outdoor gym..

These things are often found in outdoor areas of Taipei. You put some paper in, and make a stamp. The stamp is different for each location. Good to make a collection.

I'm definitely going back there at night, must be a great place to watch the city lights.

Now, about the English homework. I was walking home from the gym, when I girl approached me. She explained that she is a freshman here at Zhengda, and their homework for an English class is to befriend a native English speaker. She asked me to fill out a form "What was your first impression of Sherry? What did you talk about?". The fact that I am not a native English speaker didn't bother her. The fair hair is enough. The girl also asked for my msn "for further purposes". I wonder what will the students be asked to do with their new "native friends" next time.

Taiwanese schedule, Chinese struggles and Bookstores

As my schedule here gets busier and busier, and the workload increases, my posting frequency is likely to decrease. Here's an update on what's been going on for the last few weeks or so.

I have just about finalized my Taiwanese schedule. It goes roughly like this: 

Classes at the university - Research Methods, Communication Theories, Cross Culture Communication. The first two are mandatory for my program, last one I had a choice over. Each class lasts 3 hours, once a week. These take up my mornings of Tuesday - Thursday. There is a reading of approximately 50 pages of textbooks / journals a week for each class (100 - 150 altogether), plus additional assignments, which also take up quite a lot of time, at least until i get used to the scientific language and refresh my statistics knowledge.

Chinese classes - take up my afternoons of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. At the moment, I'm taking 6 hours weekly of Chinese at the language center here, 2 hours one-on-one tutoring (these teachers are volunteers and the tutoring is free), and will likely also add Czech-Chinese language exchange with my Taiwanese friend Cecilia, who is very interested in everything Czech and is planning to go study there in a few years. Speaking of the official Chinese courses, the class has changed a bit. Now, there is a girl from Denmark (family is Chinese), girl from Italy (family is Chinese), girl from Canada (family is from Hong Kong), teacher (from Taiwan) and me. 

Student clubs - I signed up for Billiard, Judo, Kickboxing and Guitar club. I do not yet own a guitar and am undecided about Billiard (might just go play unofficially with friends), but still, these take up 4 evenings a week. I never did any of those things before and am quite curious how will I handle Chinese as the teaching language. I joined softball and rugby in Hong Kong and as far as Cantonese goes, I only picked up how to say "first base", "second base", "third base". Don't remember the home plate. 

I also try to go running / swimming / to the gym every once in a while, plus the weekly "4 free beers" Czechoslovakian meeting on Wednesdays (been slacking off on that one lately.. something must be wrong with me..?!)

Weekends are dedicated to studying, exploring, sports, sleeping and the occasional party. They always go by very fast.

After a little over a month in Taiwan, it is also time to review my progress in Chinese, even if this self-assessment is very difficult. The transition to traditional character has been smooth, better than expected. I picked up some of the common phrases people use and use them myself, occasionally. Others usually understand me quite well. As for my understanding, it depends on the topic. My language classes are great, but lot of the vocabulary I learn there is difficult to use in normal conversation. For example: Desert, agricultural product, coal mine, high speed railway, canyon. However, just several days ago, I spent a whole evening with a Taiwanese friend, and during the 4 hours of talking, we said no more than 5 English words. Sure it was awkward or slightly frustrating at times, but it worked. I also met some Korean tourists - the fact they didn't speak English didn't bother me, but when I learned that they don't know Chinese either, I gave up attempting to have a conversation with them.

Nevertheless, I try to speak Chinese at every opportunity I have, and often time (the sports clubs especially) have no other choice. Icarry around flashcards with vocabulary to learn on the bus. I listen to Taiwanese radio to be exposed to the language. (although this is a problem. All the radios I found so far only play the local pop, which is very difficult for me to listen to. The songs are all overly sweet, 我愛你，我想你, I love you and I want you. If anyone knows a radio station with some spoken word in Chinese and tolerable music, which I can listen to online, please let me know).

The other day, I went to a bookstore. Bookstores in Taipei are great. Huge, spacious and a great place to spend time in.. As long as you don't mind the fact that almost everything is in Chinese. Many people just go to a bookshop, pick up a book or a magazine, sit down and read it all afternoon.. Then they leave without buying anything. Nobody seems to be bothered and surprisingly, nobody sleeps in the bookshops (unlike the libraries). So I also went there, to search for books in Chinese that I could read. I picked up Trainspotting, The Lord of the Flies, some Oscar Wilde.. nothing seemed to work.. until I found the children's section and the fairy tale books. 小紅帽 - Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Piglets, 丑鴨子 - The Ugly Duckling.. The moment I learned how to say / read the 大野狼, "Big bad Wolf", I understood everything perfectly. Sure, the 5 year old children around were giving me strange looks and had a good laught at the 奇怪的外國人, weird foreigner, reading the same books as they did, but it was great nevertheless.

Taiwan facts and observations, Part II. With pictures

As I promised, I've been diligently gathering observations about Taiwan to add to the post earlier. Some of you (my Taiwanese friends especially) reading this will undoubtedly recognize that I got the idea through a conversation, or interaction, with you. Don't take it personally :)

What else is there to say about Taiwan then?

• Vast majority of girls are super slim (at least by European standards), but still want to lose weight (please don't!)
• Speaking of beauty perception, the idea here is that the whiter the skin, the prettier and better, especially with girls. This is a complete opposite of Europe/America/Australia, where people are crazy to have a tan. This is also a reason why girls here open their umbrellas when the sun is out.
• The Taiwanese often play drinking games in bars and clubs.
• Not everyone here is a kung-fu master, contrary to the Western stereotype.
• Each person seems to have their own unique way of holding and using the chopsticks.
• Apparently, there is a "haunted tunnel" somewhere close to the university. People prefer to take the slower and longer way and drive around, rather than go through.
• Out on the street, two girls holding hands are seen almost as often as a guy and a girl holding hands.
• Couples are never, ever, seen kissing out on the street, or in a club, or any other public place.
• Elementary and high school students wear school uniforms, which are usually not very flattering.
• There are very convenient lockers in night clubs, mrt stations..
• I have yet to see a public toilet that you have to pay for.
• At 4 a.m., the young people are returning home from clubs and bars, and the old people are already up, walking around and getting ready for their morning exercise.

Now for some pictures:

V signs in pictures!!! (This particular one is from Hong Kong, but it's exactly the same in TW)

Hello Kitty, aneb Pitomá kočička. There's no escaping it.

Colorful plastic raincoats and rubber boots are a common apparel, even for shopping in the city center. Question for the TSU Bermuda people: Who does this remind you of?

Imagine you're out in the streets of Taipei, in the middle of the day, and suddenly become very very tired. What options are there to solve the problem?

A) Look for a public library, and go sleep there, as everyone else does.

B) Look for a hotel, which offers either accomodation for the whole night, or a "rest" (休息) for an hour or two. Even if the translation really means "to have a rest", somehow I doubt most people use the service to take a nap.

C) Be creative in finding a place to sleep, like this guy below.

These signs can be seen in the MRT. The fair-haired foreigner is causing trouble, not adhering to the rules and gets mad when the attendant tries to get him to behave. I can only hope this is just accidental, and not a common perception of foreigners in Taiwan. Although I've just recently heard that the local students are very annoyed by the behaviour of foreigners here in the dormitories, and there have been some rather serious warnings posted (Behave yourself, or else..!)

The last pictures doesn't really tell much about Taiwan, but I like it. No entering the zebra ass.

Night markets

What is the most popular place to go on any given evening in Taiwan? To a night market! There is probably at least one in any larger town, and at least 10 in Taipei alone.

A night market is an area of usually few streets, packed with shops selling just about anything (but mostly clothes, accessories, bags, sports goods), street vendors selling the same stuff - usually a guy with a rack with wheels, or a big suitcase, easy to fold and unfold. In addition, there is a number of restaurants and tiny stands, selling all the famous Taiwanese delicacies (more about that later). As the name indicates, it only comes alive in the evening, and most places close no earlier than 11 pm, many even at 1 am. Not surprisingly, people go there for shopping, and eating. Sometimes, I get the feeling that these are the only 2 things the Taiwanese enjoy doing.

The biggest and most famous one of them all is the Shilin night market in the northern part of Taipei. It's pretty far from Zhengda, but definitely worth the visit to see what Taiwan is really like.

Upon my first visit, several things struck me. The first is the huge amount of people. There is no other choice but joining the crowd, accepting its pace and very slowly progress through the maze. Kinda like in the picture below.

The second thing (in fact, usually first) thing one invariably notices, is a really strong, penetrating and bad smell. Kind of like rotten garbage. This is the most famous Taiwanese delicacy, Stinky tofu. I don't know what it is that they put inside, but it really smells horrible. Although the night market atmosphere simply wouldn't be the same without it. Stinky tofu is a topic of many conversations and a nightmare for the tourists.. The local are usually keen to enquire whether a visitor has tried it, and liked it. I am proud to announce that after several visits to night markets and nearly a month in Taiwan, I finally got the courage to try this specialty, and... it wasn't too bad, actually quite tasty! In fact, I wasn't sure if what I was eating is actually stinky tofu, as once it gets on the plate, the smell magically dissappears and the taste does not resemble it either. 

Speaking of food, eating is undoubtedly the main reason to go to a night market. There are hundreds of places to eat, as well as hundreds of different foods to eat. Most are of the snack variety. They range from the normal noodles and beef and oyster omelette, all the way to the more obscure ones, like chicken feet, duck tongue, sea snails (don't know what they're really called), Pig blood cake, snakes (mostly in the touristy places) etc.

Couple pictures to illustrate:

Snacks on the stick

BBQ Squid on the stick (delicious!)

One of my favorite parts of the night market life is this: Most of the vendors selling things off of their trolleys and racks in the middle of the street do it illegally, they don't have the required licence. The police are aware of this, and make frequent checks of the situation. Therefore, at all the entrances to the night market, there is a guy standing, looking out for police. When he spots them coming, he informs his buddies at the shops via a walkie-talkie. The guy informed screams to warn all the other vendors. They all pack up within seconds, and run off with their trolleys and portable shops to all the dark corners and alleys to hide (not easy, considering they have to maneuver through the huge crowds. The police walk through, don't find any illegal vendors, and go away. The hiding vendors are again informed about that, and come out of their hidaways to unpack their stuff again. This might take place as often as every 15 minutes, so the guys spend more time packing/unpacking/running/hiding, than actually selling stuff.

Pic below -vendors trying to dissappear.

There are many other curious things to be spotted: 

A begging grandpa monk with an iPOD..

What does this guy do for living? Stand on the stool and yell all night: Come to our shop, unbelievable prices, T-shirts, jeans, skirts, all for 80 dollars only. Best selection, great quality, unbeatable prices!!! Come buy!

Some children in uniforms, probably on a field trip (why?), the teacher / supervisor is nearby, rushing them and trying hard not to lose any of them.

On my last trip to a night market, I met some bored shop-assistants, trying to solve the Rubic's cube. I helped them do it, and had to promise to come again soon to actually teach them. 

Perceptions, perceptions

Often times, people back in Europe (where the society is pretty homogeneous in terms of race, ie. people are not that used to seeing and interacting with people of different races) comment that the Asian people all appear to look very similar, and are very difficult to tell apart. I suppose the hair  and eye color are at first an important distingushing feature, which suddenly dissappears with the Asians (at least from our point of view). Personally, I never had that problem (Oh, are you really my classmate? Sorry, I can't tell, you look exactly the same as everybody else.), though admittedly it makes recognizing people from far away or from the back a bit more complicated.

Naturally, the local people would laugh with this notion of Asian similarity, and can not only recognize their friends in the crowd, but also in most instances tell the nationality of an Asian person (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Philippino etc.) A mind-boggling idea in the heads of most Europeans without significant Asian experience.

But this works the other way as well. Just yesterday, I went to buy some noodles in the little cafeteria here. I ordered and went to sit down with my friends. 15 minutes later, as my noodles still hadn't arrived, I reminded the lady at the counter - she put on an anguished face, said that she had forgotten, and proceeded to start making my noodles. I went back to sit down. 15 minutes later, the noodles still weren't there. I went to ask the lady again - she put on an exasperated look and said: "I just gave you your noodles a minute ago!!"

After I made it clear that she indeed didn't give me any noodles, the story changed: "Ooh, I'm so sorry, I gave the noodles you ordered to a different foreigner, you know, you all look the same, it's not my fault, I really can't tell you guys apart"

The strange part is, the only other foreigner who came by the cafeteria (and who ended up taking the food) was a latino guy from Central America. I'm sorry, but do I really look just the same as a latino guy?

Upon further investigation, I realized the explanation here is "Well, all the foreigners have colored hair, colored eyes, they really all look the same."

Something's gotta give.

The link you've all been waiting for...

Ever imagined yourself alongsideJames Dean in Rebel Without Cause, or John Travolta in Grease (and perhaps Pulp Fiction), or Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing? Ever wondered if you could pull off sporting an afro, or a mullet, and not foolish? Now you can! Many people have been asking me about the big secret, here it is:

http://www.yearbookyourself.com

I also added a poll on the right hand side, please vote and help me with my hair issue.