End of Week 1

This week has been really eventful. In many ways it has been far too eventful. There have been CIEE activities every day. And, while I think it's good to get to know the Americans (since we'll be having class together for 3 months), these activities interfere with time I could be using to get to know Taiwanese people and practice my Chinese. For reason of weariness, I have opted out of the group trip to Jiufen [九份]. I hear that it is a really cool village, but the weather today is unpleasant and I'm going to enjoy a day of rest, on my own! And the first thing I will do today is: write this blog entry! Exciting!

On Thursday we went to Maokong [貓空], a tea-growing area far away from downtown Taipei but still within city limits. It's a really pretty area.





While there we had tea, because it is a great place to sip tea, chat, and enjoy the scenery. The weather's also much milder than it is in Taipei, as it is at a higher altitude.



It was a really enjoyable experience, and I hope to go back and explore some more once the weather gets hotter and sunnier. While we went during the day, most of my Taiwanese friends said I should go at night instead. Apparently the night view of the city is stunning. So I hope to get a chance to do that.

Yesterday we had a "scavenger hunt". CIEE divided us into groups and we were given packets that had names of restaurants that we were to go. We went to all of them, bought food, and took pictures (as we have to make a presentation for Tuesday). Unfortunately, the whole activity took 6 hours, so by the end I was not the only one exhausted.

As I had mentioned, there was a club fair on Wednesday and Thursday. I met some really cool gay students at the tongzhi [同志] (i.e. gay/lesbian) club table. One of them invited me to eat dinner with him and a friend on Thursday, and so began my journey into Taiwan tongzhi culture. We went out to a club last night. I enjoyed both of these activities, and they were wonderful opportunities to practice my Chinese. Most of these students thought that my Chinese was really good, but I was still lost in a lot of their conversation. I guess I still have a lot of work to do before I am fully fluent.

Impressions: I have found that I am much more comfortable around gay men here in Taiwan than I am in the United States. Perhaps it is cultural, or the language barrier, but Taiwanese gays are extremely friendly and polite to me and a lot of fun to be around. There's almost no tension because it's normal for friends to be rather touchy-feely as well, thus the slightest touch isn't cause for awkwardness.

Weather here is rather epic. When I arrived in Taipei, it was cold, windy, and rainy. On the other extreme, yesterday was sunny and hot (the high was 90 Fahrenheit). Summers here are like Xiamen's summers, which I have some experience with; that is, oppressively hot and humid. However, unlike Xiamen (or Raleigh), it rains a lot here. Taipei recieves 92" of rain a year, Xiamen 53" and Raleigh 43".

Tomorrow is 228, a Taiwanese holiday memorialising the "incident" that occurred for several days beginning February 28, 1947. When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, Taiwan was returned to Chinese control. However, because Japanese rule had benefited Taiwan so much, many of the people were very anti-Chinese. One small incident escalated into chaos, with police firing at unarmed protesters and breaking into homes. After this, the subject was taboo, until fifteen years ago when the government apologized and declared the day a holiday. Taipei New Park was renamed 228 Memorial Park, and there is an annual commemoration there. Our group will be going to that event (and we might even get to see Taiwanese President Ma!).

Early Reflections

So it's been three days since I made a substantial post. Apparently each of us have to write a piece on early reflections for the CIEE Newsletter, so I'm probably just going to have part of this entry double as that newsletter submission.

You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned much about the individual students on the trip. This is because I don't wish to offend anyone by their presence (or absence) in this blog. After all, I will be with this group of students for over three months, and the less bad blood between people the better.

I posted pictures last night, of our trip to Longshan Temple and the National Palace Museum. I really enjoyed both of the trips, though it was definitely good that they were on separate days.

Longshan Temple is a 18th-century syncretist temple, where Daoists, Buddhists, and ancestor worshippers come to pray. There was a ton of activity there because the day we visited was a famous Buddhist's birthday. The incense smoke was so thick that it was hard to see or breathe. People were carrying in huge containers of food and flowers, presumably to leave as offerings, and there was a lot of chanting/singing.

In my semester in Xiamen, I visited the nearby Nanputuo Temple [南普陀寺] so often that I became very accustomed to Chinese spiritual practice, and Chinese ritual. I would often light incense and do some of the prayer rituals myself, called baibai [拜拜]. I do this for many reasons. First, as a sign of respect to the temple, the culture, and the religion. Second, I am spiritual but not religious, and Chan/Zen Buddhism is my main philosophical/spiritual belief. As a Chan temple, it seemed appropriate to pray at Nanputuo. But even were that not so, I consider prayer at a Chinese temple to be an enriching cultural experience. Finally, I know that temples, and their monks and nuns, rely on the donations of the public, and of tourists. I know that any money I pay for incense, candles, or charms will not go towards political influence but will be used to maintain the temple and feed the monks and nuns.

However, when I got to Tokyo (and here to Taipei), I have found that the rituals were somewhat unfamiliar. Not wishing to offend any practitioners, I have refrained from cultural participation at these temples, including Longshan Temple.

We also went to the National Palace Museum. This museum houses a large store of Chinese (here meaning both Taiwan and China) treasures, many brought from the Forbidden City in Beijing when the KMT (Taiwanese government) fled to the island. There is a particularly famous jade carving of a bok-choy (Chinese cabbage) in the museum. It was pretty cool, but I didn't think it deserved all the hype it got. Certainly much of the ivory work and bronzeware was just as interesting.

Other than that, most of my activities have been exploring and eating. This evening (after writing the first part of this entry), I went with my grrlfriend to shop for shoes. This was necessary because my sneakers are rather old and went to China with me (thus they experienced the joy of squatty-potties). So now I have nice new shoes!

This first week (ish) has been a great opportunity to look at Taiwan through a different lens than I ever had before. I had studied in Xiamen, mainland China, where Taiwanese independence is seen as silly or dangerous, and reunification a foregone conclusion. I had heard that the two sides of the strait were culturally identical, the only difference being the political situation. This has proven to be less than completely true.

Certainly there are many cultural similarities. The local language is the same, the temples are South Chinese in style, and most Taiwanese people are descended from South Chinese immigrants. But there are stark differences as well. In Taipei, Japanese kana are a very common sight. People dress more like the Japanese (that is, they are more concerned with fashion), and the city is much cleaner than even Xiamen had been.

I am excited to learn more about Taiwan and its cultural identity, something that the CIEE classes will hopefully cover in detail. I am very accustomed to mainland Chinese culture, so I hope to learn many new things. I know that it is premature to say as much, but I feel that Taipei is a city I could happily live and work in.

Longshan Temple and National Palace Museum Photos

Our first group trips in Taipei were to Longshan Temple [龍山寺] and the National Palace Museum [國立故宮博物院]. More info and narrative to come hopefully tomorrow. But for now here are some pictures.



The roof of Longshan Temple's main gate. If you have the Lonely Planet guide, you'll notice that this roof is on the cover.



One of the many deities and spirits that are worshipped at this temple. Syncretism like this is an integral part of Chinese religious practice.



Candles burnt in respect to gods and spirits. As this was a special Buddhist day (some famous Buddhist god's birthday), there were many.



Fresh flowers set out next to a Buddha statue. All the temples I've seen in China use fresh flowers; I have yet to see one that uses fake plastic flowers.



Wing of the National Palace Museum.



National Palace Museum main building, viewed from the exit/entrance.

Settling into Zhengda

Update at February 21 6:00 PM: I now have internet access! Hooray!

I still don’t have internet access so this is going to be posted when I do.

So I’ve gotten a chance to do a little exploring of Zhengzhi Daxue (政治大學), my university for the next roughly three months, and meet some of the other Americans, but our free time so far has been too managed and organized by the program for us to get a chance to explore on our own very much. I hope that this will change soon, as I hope to make Taiwanese friends while I’m here. After all, the benefit of language study in a foreign country is the opportunity to practice interacting with people of that country, and not just Americans.

Despite being in Taipei City, our campus is very far from the downtown. To get here I had to ride the subway to its end stop at the Taipei Zoo (south-southeast Taipei City), then take a taxi from there to the campus. Being so removed is nice in ways but inconvenient in others. It is very peaceful, but very far from the excitement of downtown Taipei. It’s not as picturesque as Xiamen University’s campus was, but it does have a rather green appeal; the whole campus is covered in green trees and bushes, even during this cold(er) time of year. It has a tropical feel to it.



Also, this area of Taipei seems to have a rather serious stray dog problem. At random times the dogs will congregate, growl at one another, or wander into buildings. There have even been stray dogs wandering into our dorm. I can only hope that they don’t attack or have rabies.



Coming from Tokyo, where I could read well but speak little, to Taipei, where I am decently competent at the language, is quite a relief to me. I can easily buy things, ask directions, act as a quasi-interpreter for others, and order food. Our Taiwanese student “ambassadors” seem surprised to find that I have studied Chinese for so long (even though they have almost all studied English for just as long!), and are all very complimentary about my skills (far too complimentary, I am sure, for I am still far from fluent).

Linguistics nerd section: When I was in Xiamen, people told me I had a Southern Chinese/Taiwanese aspect to my speech (certain phrases and pronunciations I use are regionalisms of this area), but here in Taipei they say I have “mainland Chinese strength”, or “大陸強” of speech. I think that by that they refer to my precise differentiation of several consonant pairs. In Southern China and Taiwan, people conflate “s” and “sh”, “c” and “ch”, “z” and “zh”, and “l” and “r”. As I do not conflate these consonants, I have mainland strength. I suppose seven years of studying Taiwanese Mandarin and three years of studying Chinese mandarin have left me with a mixture. [End of nerd section]

I take a placement test on Tuesday morning, and our language courses start the following Monday (March 1). I really hope that I am placed into an appropriate level here. Last semester, I was placed into intermediate-mid level. As I have studied Chinese for ten years, this class was far too easy for me.

Impressions: Now that I’ve had more chances to explore Taipei, I am finding that it is quite different from mainland China in ways I had not expected. There are, of course, the obvious differences; there is a strong Japanese influence here, a vestige of the fifty years (1895-1945) that Japan controlled Taiwan. Unlike most of Japan’s imperial possessions, the Taiwanese don’t mind their occupiers, because the Japanese rebuilt the island’s infrastructure and were much less cruel to Taiwan than they were to China, Korea, or Singapore. Thus, Japanese language and writing can be found in many places, and young people (especially girls) dress more similarly to Japanese youth than Chinese. Taiwanese also seem to be more accustomed to foreigners than the people in Xiamen were, and (to my great joy), they seem to LOVE milk here. Which is wonderful. Because I also love milk.

Tomorrow we have another full day of planned events, and hopefully I will have internet by Monday at the latest.
-Sunday, February 21 4:20 PM

Zhengzhi Daxue Arrival

So my program kicked off today, but for some reason my internet doesn't work (this sort of thing always seems to happen :-\). I only have 20 minutes of use here on the school computer, so I'm keeping this brief. I'll expand it more tomorrow.

Suffice to say I am very excited to be starting the program here, all the other Americans are friendly, and I only have 2 roommates instead of 3! Anyway,I'll fill everyone in tomorrow!

Taipei, Day 2: Rainy Day

Today marks my second day in Taipei, and the last day that I'm going to be counting. After all, I will be here for a long time. I know what you're thinking: how is Ryan going to come up with titles for his blog entries without his standard "Day #: Description" to fall back on? I guess I'll just have to be creative.

Today I went out for a little bit with my Swedish roommate. We visited some electronics malls (Taipei is famous for those) and had some la mian [拉面]. Unfortunately, the weather here has gotten no better since yesterday, so I did not feel up to any exciting journeys to any picturesque places. Sorry! There will be plenty of time for those in the future, and I have all the places I want to see marked on a map.

Impressions: Taipei has proven to be infinitely more Western and Japanese influenced than I had imagined. Many restaurants and stores have some signs in Japanese kana, and more than once I heard Japanese being spoken by salespeople. As for the Western influence: I found milk. Taiwanese seem to love the stuff. In fact, our hostel is located next to a "Taiwan Milk King" restaurant/milkateria. Additionally, there are numerous pastry shops and bakeries here, which is something I really didn't see very often in Xiamen.

Prices: As I have said before, prices in Taipei are between those of Xiamen and those in the United States. A good benchmark I like to use is the price of bottled sodas. Here's a little list comparing them.

Chapel Hill, N.C., USA: $1.00
Xiamen, China: 3 yuan = $0.44
Tokyo, Japan: 150 yen = $1.66
Taipei, Taiwan: 25 TD = $0.78

So at least when it comes to my favorite bottled drinks, my first impression was correct! Yay! Food seems to be similar. A meal here (including a drink) costs from 100 Taiwan Dollars, or about $3. In the US, I think I usually spend at least $5.

Speaking of food, I think it's no secret that I LOVE Chinese food. And by that I mean the real stuff, not the watered-down-for-Americans version at 35 Chinese or PF Changs (which are still good occasionally). This evening I had my first actual Chinese meal, stir-fried cabbage in a brown sauce and corn-and-carrot dumplings. Delicious! And all that food cost a mere 80 TD!

Note on currency: Taiwan uses the Taiwan dollar, and the current exchange rate is 1 USD = 32.055 TWD. Not an easy number to do mental math with :-\

Asakusa and Ochanomizu Photos

The final day of backlogged photos. Enjoy!


The view down Nakamise, from the Kaminari-mon gate.


Hozomon gate [宝蔵門], at the entrance to the Sensoji Temple area.


One of the many statues in the Sensoji area. It, like many other statues I saw, is dressed in brightly-colored clothing.


The back of the Kaminari-mon gate lantern, it reads "風雷神門", or "Gate of the Wind and Thunder Gods", which is the Kaminari-mon's full title.


Nikolai Cathedral, huge Orthodox church and the largest Byzantine-style building in Japan.


A covered bridge portion of the Yushima Tenmangu Shrine. To the left are ume [梅], or plum blossoms, in bloom. While I missed seeing the most-famous sakura [桜], or cherry blossoms, bloom, I am glad I was there to see the ume.


The deserted yard of Yushima Seido [湯島聖堂], a famous Confucian temple that has served as the site for many universities and schools. This was literally all there was to see there. Not sure why it's famous, but it is.


Main building at Kanda Myojin Shrine. Many Japanese will brave rain and cold to go pray at shrines and temples.

Shibuya and Harajuku Photos

Since I didn't get to post these before, here are a couple photos.

The Meiji Jingu Shrine building.Notice the whiting out? That would be my camera acting up again.


A newly married couple. Shrines often perform marriages, and so they are very formal affairs.


A formal procession for some event or another. Perhaps a wedding.


The first torii gate I saw in Japan. At the park surrounding Meiji Jingu shrine.


The view from atop a Shibuya department store.

Tokyo, Day 6: Departure

Snowing in Tokyo. It snowed as I got into the city and it snowed as I was leaving. I could say something witty and predictable about how the weather came full-circle, but I won't.

Today was, as all days spent flying between countries, a complete drain.

This morning I woke up at 5:45 am and set out from my hostel. And found that it was snowing steadily. Now, normally I love snow, but when I'm carrying a huge nearly 50-pound suitcase and a heavy backpack, snow is not such a good thing. Luckily, though, I got a free ride on the Tokyo subway (saved $15!). Not that I cheated the system. I was willing to pay for the ride, but the ticket machines were off so early in the morning and there were no attendants. So I had no choice, really, but to go through without paying. After all, I had a flight to get to. The train ride to Narita was long and crowded. It took two hours to get from my hostel to the airport, and the train was packed the whole time. I hadn't seen so many people in such a small vehicle since China!

So I know you're supposed to get to the airport two hours early for international flights, but I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Because when I arrived there, it looked like this.



Our plane boarded, left 30 minutes late (they had to de-ice the planes), and four hours later we touched down in Taipei. I don't think they were prepared to have so many people coming from other countries; only seven of the thirty-five customs gates were open, so I had to wait in line for a good half-hour. But it was all okay, because right after customs was this welcoming display:



Thanks Taipei! That makes the wait worth it! Next I had to get from the airport to the hostel. Airports always seem to be located far away from the cities they serve. I guess it makes sense, because they take a lot of space. So I bought a ticket for a bus and then waited in line for an hour to board the bus. Outside. In the rainy, windy cold. Had I mentioned that it is raining and cold here too? And again, I don't think they are well-prepared for so many visitors to the city, because buses come one per 20-minutes, and each bus only seats 30 people. Now, my flight had 65 rows, and each row had 5 to 7 people. It clearly doesn't take long to overload the bus system.

An hour bus ride and a quick subway ride later, I found my hostel. I got all checked in (I have a Swedish roommate! He's friendly.) and then I tried to find a place to eat. Imagine my joy when I heard the familiar tinkling of an ice-cream truck! Then joy turned to sorrow when I was told that in Taiwan, it is the garbage trucks that play happy music, not ice-cream trucks. Sad.

So I went to a place that had pastries and I was actually able to buy two pastries for $2. I love the cheap prices! So far, things seem to be somewhere between China and America prices (which is what I had expected anyway). Plans for tomorrow? Who knows. Since I'm FINALLY in a hostel that doesn't kick me out at 10, I might sleep in.

-Update 9:08 PM- I think I might just relax around the hostel tomorrow. But fear not, loyal readers (though I have no way of knowing how many of you there are!), for I will still have interesting stuff for you to read about tomorrow!

Impressions: My first (probably presumptuous) impressions on the differences between Japan and Taiwan. Taiwan seems to be very similar to China in that it is very gritty and casual. I can tell that people live here. In Tokyo, everything is clean, trendy, and formal, but it seemed as though people were just travelling from store to store, only there to shop and do business. I guess it's like the difference between a commuter college and a lived-in college.

Random Photos 2: You Know You're In Japan When...

I was handed this magazine at the corner in Nihonbashi. I guess they're tackling their declining population problem head-on. That, or they're taking Confucian ideals to a new extreme.


Buy our credit card and you too can be an effeminate man dressed in purple drinking champagne!


FINAL FANTASY!


The Asahi Beer building. You can see that the building kind of resembles a giant beer...and the golden object next to it? Who knows? My guidebook simply says it's "an adjacent big golden object."


A women-only subway car. These were set up during certain peak hours to minimize the problem of groping (gropers are called chikan, [痴漢]).


They dress up statues in colorful clothes. Not sure why.


Subway pandas with lots of advice!

Tokyo, Day 5: Ueno, Ginza, and Sengaku Temple

NIHONESE KITTEH! I found it in Ueno, guarding a sleeping hobo. Yes, there are both cats and hobos in Japan.

So today was my last day in Tokyo. I leave for Taiwan at 10 AM tomorrow, meaning I have to leave the hostel by about 6 (since it takes over an hour to get to Narita airport by subway).

With the lessons of yesterday fresh in my mind, I set off with pants that are not too tight. My destinations: Ueno [上野] and Ginza [銀座]. Ueno looked really interesting in the guidebook, a "vital town where you can feel history and culture." On my way, I ran across Ameyoko [アメ横], a famous street of stores. It was boring, and most of the stores were closed when I went by. My real target was Ueno's huge Onshi Park [上の恩賜公園], a huge public area containing temples, museums, statues, and even a zoo! Before you get all excited, no I did not go to the zoo. I had originally planned to, but it was freezing outside so I said screw that. I did, however, go to the National Museum of Nature and Science. I made sure to check the gift shop, but everything there could have been purchased at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.


I SWEAR I did not pose the dinosaurs like this. Apparently Japanese kids are just as perverted as we are. Go figure.

On the rooftop of the museum is (and I really don't know why this is there) a "Parasol Garden". The featured parasols are special though. When you walk near them, they open up. But you have to watch them closely, because it takes them like five minutes to open, so you may think they aren't working.



After the museum, I went around to a bunch of temples. For those of you out there asking: does he HAVE to go to so many temples? No, and when you go to Tokyo, you can go to as few temples as you want. But for me, as a Sinophile, temples are fascinating. *Steps off soapbox* Anyway, The most famous of the temples in Ueno is the Toshogu Shrine [東照宮], which is famous for its giant bronze lanterns.



Sadly, Toshogu temple itself was closed for construction. So all I got to see was a giant cloth covering that had a picture of what the temple WOULD have looked like, had I not arrived while they were working on it. Wow, thanks. Then I attempted to find another famous temple, called the Kaneiji Temple [寛永寺], but as we know I fail at directions, so that didn't happen.

I was cold and hungry so I boarded the subway for Nihonbashi so that I could enjoy the same delicious ramen as I had yesterday, and then I went to Ginza. It was incredibly upscale. There are huge Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Armani buildings and tons of upscale restaurants and cafes. I'm sure I looked really out of place, sipping hot cocoa and people-watching in my hoodie and jeans.



I got bored of my perch in the Ginza coffee-shop very soon, and walked around Ginza a bit more. It was around 3 PM so I had a couple hours left before my hostel reopened, so I decided to retrace some of my steps. I bought a couple of charms that will supposedly help me do better at school and bring me luck.

I went to Asakusa, to look at some of the shops and see if there were any souvenirs I wanted. I noticed that the main Sensoji temple that I had visited (and even been inside) recently, was under construction. Suddenly the strange fabric "building" I had seen before made sense. The Sensoji temple is, and has been, under construction. Not sure how I missed that one the first time around X_X. But I did discover a whole new section of the temple grounds that I had missed before, including lots of miniature shrines.

My final stop was Sengakuji temple [泉岳寺] in the Shinagawa area [品川] on the southern side of Tokyo. This is where the Forty-seven Ronin are buried. Their (embellished) story is something of a Japanese legend, and represents loyalty to one's lord and to bushido, the way of the samurai.



That was my last stop before I went back to Asakusabashi and my hostel. I ate ramen again (cheap and delicious!) and here I am.

Random Photos: You Know You're In Japan When...

Collection of pictures that could only be found in Japan:


New J-pop Album. In case you can't read it, the album's name is "Funky Monkey Babys: BEST"


Vending machines. They're EVERYWHERE in Japan. And it is glorious.


Fantasy Denim. Rabbit head not included.

Fried octopus. A couple reasons it's on here: 1. I don't want to eat any octopus that looks like that. 2. Octopus is pronounced "tako", so any discussion of Mexican food or octopus is not complete without mentioning that fact.


"The feelings of reverence and yearning of the people for the Emperor and Empress are ever increasing." And people say only Chinese (and North Korean) national sites are so exaggerated.


It says ESP Science Research Area.


Anime-style boy in underwear. The Japanese says "It's not a dream, future."


Now that one's just confusing.