Reason #4 to Love Taiwan

Comfy student cafes in Taipei.

We - we being four Americans, an Australian and a Taiwanese girl - celebrated Thanksgiving at Exotic Masala House, the new Indian restaurant featuring idli and dosa. I think they're losing money; some menu items are gone, the rice is no longer saffron-colored and we had to ask to get the same orgasmic cardamom & cinnamon kick to our tea.

Well, the Taiwanese member of our group noted that it might have been spiced less dramatically to cater to Taiwanese tastes; maybe other customers didn't like it the old way.

It's still a good restaurant though, and the tea is still fantastic as long as you make sure it's got the right amount of cardamom.

After that, we tried to retire to Cafe Salt & Pepper, but it was full. Not interested in the smoking area (even the girl with the stuffy nose could taste the air) we moved on to Cafe Bastille (Shi-da, not Gongguan).

I love how Taipei has no end of these cafes - Cafe Odeon, Latte (or Shake House - we're not sure), Lumiere, Red House, Bastille, Salt and Pepper, Giuliano, and about a million more. Good beer at a reasonable price - yes, NT180 for Belgian beer is reasonable, the same beer in an American pub would cost you far more - comfortable seats, great atmosphere. Funky and fun without being ratty or juvenile. The actual food at some of these places could stand to improve (although Red House does a decent meal and all of them do good brownies) but relaxing with a Delirium Noel in a tatty grandma-chair with good music and a good vibe...that can't be outdone.

Here's where I put in my plug for Malheur 12% Bier. You have to try this stuff at Red House Pub (nobody else seems to have it). This is amazing stuff. Black as night, so fuzzy and deep that it foams right out of the bottle once opened; you have to have it already tipped into the glass if you don't want to lose any. It tastes like everything that's good in the world. Imagine coffee cake, raisins, peaches, pumpkin pie, well-cooked high-quality steak, a crackling fireplace in the dead of winter, Christmas carols, richly flavored tea, gingerbread, black chocolate, dark cherries, cooked apples, cinnamon, Ethiopian coffee, old mahogany, evergreen trees, nutmeg and the sweet sound of your mother's voice - all distilled into an amazing beer experience. Try it.

Anyway.

It was great that out of our group, the Americans talked about Thanksgiving and the others replied with "Yeah...I've heard about that" for things we consider not only normal, but indispensable. 8-hour bus rides home, cold weather, bickering with relatives (all because you love them, of course), cooking all day, watching parades and American, or as I call it, real football, and eating fabulous amounts of fabulous food, followed by swigs of alcohol and getting along famously with the relatives you bickered with earlier in the day.

Thanksgiving as an expat - the rating: 8. Not as good as being home, but still pretty damned good.

Mom's Pies

OK, so I'm not making an artistically-minded post about old photos of Formosa, nor am I blogging about the state of the Taiwan economy (I pay taxes; where's my voucher?*), but this is quite important matter itself. I'd say its existence is not only important, but truly vital to expat life in Taiwan.

I'm talking of course about Mom's Pies.

Nevermind that the van can be hard to track down, and that they give you some missionary Christian leaflet with every pie. It's really good pie.

Mom's Pies has a van that circles Taipei, hitting up all the spots where people are likely to want pie; the universities (we've seen it at Taida, Shida and Zhengda), AIT, Tianmu and a few other spots. The only regular stop I know is near Shida/Guting on Thursdays from 4:30-7pm.

They also have a call-in service (02-2627-5040 or 02-2627-2051) and they do deliver.

Did I mention that it's really good pie? It made my day on Thursday, which was otherwise a bit cool and gray, and involved a rather strange work schedule that made nothing convenient. They have all sorts of flavors, from apple, pumpkin and cherry cheesecake to red bean, green bean and purple yam. The only downside is that their outermost crust is a little hard...but the filling was so good - so thick you could pick it up and eat it like finger food - that I didn't mind.

Another thing that's vital to expat life, as I'm learning, is having an adorable pet. Here's Zhao Cai, who is as needy and affectionate as a dog, but can be left at home alone for longer periods:




*Just kidding. I only pay 10% taxes and Taiwan's been very good to me financially, once I stopped working for Kojen. I don't mind that I'm not getting a voucher. But then that's $3600 I'm not using on a ticket to Orchid Island or a hunk of jade.

Qingshan Wang III (Dang Ki)

Some photos of the dangki - otherwise known as a jitong or martial diviner - we saw at San Qing Gong near Guilin Street on the day after Qingshan Wang's birthday.

As mentioned in a previous post, dangki invite possession by spirits who then control their movements. They are handed a 'tool kit' of implements to injure themselves as per the inhabiting spirit's wishes, and while they don't injure themselves deeply, there is a lot of blood loss. The blood is used to write talismans or texts used in divination.

It's a...scary sight, to be sure.

Qingshan Wang II

Just a video of some costumed guys dancing to techno (above), bajiajiang and dragon dancers (below). Enjoy!

Qingshan Wang Festival I

We saw Dang Ki! In Taipei! Dang Ki (in Taiwanese), or Ji-tong in Chinese, are young men or women who offer themselves up for spiritual possession and then beat themselves with painful implements (pronged clubs, spiked mallets and balls, whips and long needles, to name a few) while their bodies are in the deity's control rather than their own. The blood shed - there is always blood, usually from the back or forehead - is used to write talismans and charms.

It happened today (November 19th) in Taipei, at Sanqing Gong between Guilin Street and Huanhe Road, between 3 and 4pm.

I do have photos and a video, but had to take them on a friend's camera (unfortunately the video has no sound) so they will be posted later.

This is all related to the birthday of Qingshan Wang, and the festivities that take place the day after. More photos and information below.



So I've spent yesterday evening and this afternoon in Wanhua, enjoying the Qingshan Wang birthday festivities. For those who don't know, Qingshan Gong is one of two temples at either end of the famous section of Guiyang Street, north of Longshan Temple and southwest of Ximen. Qingshan Wang - or Lord of the Green Mountain - was a guy named Zhang Gun from the Three Kingdoms era sent to Fujian. Due to his wise, benevolent rule, the locals in Fujian worshipped him as a deity who protected from epidemics and brought peace.

He is called Lord of the Green Mountain because, a thousand years later, an official named Cui brought his likeness to the top of Qingshan, or Green Mountain, as per a verse found on the back of a tablet.



A statue of him was brought to Taiwan when Fujianese settlers moved there, and it is said to have ended up on Guiyang Street because, while carrying it through town, it became too heavy to move in one spot, marking the place where he would like his temple to be built.



His birthday is on the 21st day of the 10th lunar month (this year's November 18th), though the best party in Wanhua is the day after, starting at noon and going until midnight.



Other than the Dang Ki - that is really quite rare, especially in northern Taiwan (I hear it happens a lot more often in the south) it was a noisy street festival such as can be seen at all times of year, celebrating any number of Daoist deities. They began at Qingshan Temple at 5pm (the best photos come from the pre-processional line-up, loop around Wanhua, head through the Guangzhou Street Night Market, stop at Longshan Temple and then continue through the small streets.

One other interesting note was that they did not have typical ba jia jiang. These performed similar duties to ba jia jiang but were made up quite differently. Anyone with any information on this is encouraged to comment; I'd like to know why.



They had red guys...

...and green guys...both of whom reminded me of Thousand Mile Eyes and Ears that Follow the Wind (Matsu's companions), but then there was this fellow:


I haven't seen him before.




There was also a Wealth Beckoning Child - at least I believe this is what he is portraying. I haven't seen one before. Around him were palanquins of the temple's sponsors (you can ride in a sedan chair if you contribute $100,000 NT or more to Qingshan Gong. A few older ladies - probably the wealthiest women in Wanhua - were doing just that.


We also took some great photos of the masks of the largest costumes:







...and of course a generally good time was had by all.



The next Qingshan Wang birthday processional will be held on December 7th, 2009 at 5pm, with the biggest festival taking place on December 8th in the afternoon.

Xiao Lu Niu Fandian

I'm not sure why they're a "fandian" when that means hotel, but whatever. They're good.

This place does beef noodles and some other stuff, but forget the other stuff and just get the beef noodles. I'm not in the habit of recommending beef noodle joints (although this is the second time I've done so) because they're all over the city and they're all so, so wonderful.

But this place deserves a mention because their beef noodles approach what for me is perfection. The meat is not as good as Zhang Mama but the big sell here is that the noodles are homemade. They're barely noodles at all - they're the floppy, doughy kind that are almost like long gnocci. I love those!

The broth is also deep and thick, resounding with flavory and iron-y goodness.

A great place to grab a warming bowl on a cold day.

It largely goes unnoticed because it looks just like every other beef noodle joint - woman out front in an apron, card tables and plastic chairs inside, menus on clipboards, a fat little chihuahua named "Lucky" (I call him "Xiao Pangzi" or "Little Fattie"). It's also right next to the famous Jingmei Night Market, so most people who come and aren't from the neighborhood would rather eat in the market.

That's fine - more homemade noodles for me!

Xiao Lu Niu Fandian is located in Wenshan District, Jingzhong Street #21. Basically take the MRT to Jingmei, get off at Exit 2 and walk straight ahead past the Family Mart, Come Buy and string of small shops and it's right in front of the bus stop for #74 and #284 on the lefthand side of the street.

Pasta'ai

We headed to Zhudong yesterday morning to catch transportation to Wufeng for the paSta'ai festival, held every two years by the Saisiyat aboriginal tribe. It's a really cool festival with a fascinating background story, which you can read here:

http://indigenous.pristine.net/peoples/saisiyat/pastaai_en.html

The festival goes all night but we stayed until 2 or 3 am (after midnight, non-Saisiyat were allowed to join in and dance - which is odd, because the day David visited, outsiders had to leave by midnight. I'm not sure where the disconnect is there.

We got off in Zhudong and called Ah-Q Mama, our contact in Wufeng, in a daze. We had no idea where anything was. We enjoyed our hour in Zhudong, though, buying mountain fruit (apples etc.) from various vendors and snacking on them.

We found Ah-Q Mama through a website (www.amue.tw) that my students at, of all places, an investment and fund management firm, helped me Google. She is a lovely woman, petite in stature but big in personality. Ah-Q and Susu were among the friendliest people I've met in Taiwan, and that's saying something. If you are in the Wufeng/Dabajianshan/Guanwu area and need a place to stay, I highly recommend their charming, very country-fied homestay.




We were picked up by Ah-Q Mama and her husband, Susu in Zhudong. They are a very friendly "Taya-su" (I presume that's another name for Atayal because I can't find an aboriginal tribe named 'Taya' when searching) couple who run a homestay up the mountain from Wufeng, where you can see Dabajianshan. They drove us to the site, and then Susu helped us pick up Emily, who came later (all the buses had stopped running by then).

Ah-Q is a sociable woman who until recently held a huge grudge against "Talu" people - it took me awhile to figure out that she meant "dalu" people, or Mainlanders. By Mainlander, she meant anyone of Han Chinese origin. All "Talu" were, apparently, scoundrels until a few years ago when the government began to promote and preserve aboriginal culture instead of destroying or assimilating it.

She also told me why most aborigines vote KMT - "when we had no food, they took care of us and gave us food. The DPP steals money and doesn't care about aborigines. They only care about their kind of Talu." She agreed that, in fact, the KMT is just as corrupt and steals just as much money as the DPP, but maintains that the DPP doesn't care about her people, so she won't vote for them.

Her accent was quite thick as Mandarin is not her first language; she's a native speaker of the "Taya" tongue.

I noticed one cultural difference that caught me off-guared. We shared some of our Zhudong-purchased fruit and chocolate with her and Susu. They immediately accepted and munched on wax apples and Lishan apples, as well as Meiji chocolate, with relish. I'm so used to the Taiwanese refusing something on the first offer, or even the second, before accepting that it took me a moment to see that there was a legitimate cultural divide here.


There's not a lot to do in Wufeng - it's a small hill town without much of anything except a few houses, a school, a church, the paSta'ai grounds and great views.

Really great views. On the way up, we met groups of Saisiyat who had already begun, ah, celebrating.

By celebrating, of course, I mean drinking home-brewed millet wine. I love millet wine, so I was fine with this, even though I'm sure some of it was brewed in a bathtub somewhere. My sister liked it, too.

She really liked it.

This guy is a tribal chief, so said Ah-Q Mama. He put leaf talismans on our arms or foreheads as well as on our cameras.

Before entering the festival area, we donated money and got these leaf amulets that do - well, something. Ah-Q Mama tried to explain what but Mandarin is neither my first language nor hers (she speaks to her husband, Susu, in their own tribal language which I believe is Atayal), so I wasn't very clear.

The grounds, before night fell.

We ate a delicious dinner of fragrant fish in broth and stinky tofu with a spicy dip...

...served by this very nice woman. (The kid is a proud owner of a blue lightsaber).

There were lots of bonfires, which struck me as dangerous considering all the drinking going on.



The dancing began at 7pm, when few in the audience were still sober. The guy next to us thought it was time to join in and crashed into this group soon after I photographed them, and was then carried away by officiators to the area set up especially for drunk people.

More dancing.

...and while the dancing was great, the best part about it was the party atmosphere - food, drink, merriment and socializing. Millet wine - mostly home-brewed - flowed freely and was openly shared. We tried some good wine, some bad wine, some strong wine, some sour wine and some sweet wine and bought the best of the kinds we sampled to share with our new "friends" in the stands. Above is Emily with her new Saisiyat partying gear.

Everyone was drinking - 13 year olds were sharing bottles. Old folks were dancing. A guy from Taizhong in a colorful do-rag puked into a bag behind us. I guess that's what one can expect at a harvest festival. Every indigenous harvest celebration around the world seems to have one thing in common.

Alcohol.

Home-brewed millet wine. The dictionary definition of "tastes like it looks".

The carnival atmosphere at times overshadowed the dancing. With all the drinking and partying going on in mid-November, I bet there are a lot of birthdays in mid-August in the Saisiyat community.

The dance also involves dancing and shaking giant talismans, either to celebrate or call the ta'ai to the festival. I'm not clear on which.

Line dancing! People stay up all night to do this and often do so for three days straight. There are areas in the back where dancers can rest or sleep away the day. At midnight we were allowed to join in the dancing, at which point women in traditional garb came by with buckets of millet wine and poured shots into our mouths. Fun, if unsanitary!

Some people had trouble staying awake past 2am.

At the end of the formal ceremony, just as the crowd was allowed to join in, they had a fire ceremony.

More fire ceremony. After dancing until about 2-3 am we called it a night and headed back to the homestay with Ah-Q Mama and Susu.

Susu feeds the various animals living at the homestay...

...and one of these animals was an adorable orange kitten.

Ah-Q Mama not only is the laobanniang of the homestay, but also makes her own woven goods for sale. We bought a few purses and other items. Both businesses were started with government grant money that a "Talu" helped her secure, so she's OK with them now.

We woke up with horrid hangovers from the home-brewed millet wine, but nothing cures a hangover better than a breakfast of home-grown food, clean air and mountain views.

The cloud sea sets in around 2pm.

Ah-Q and Susu were kind enough to drive us back to Taipei that night for the same fare as the bus plus a hundred extra or so...it was good that they did as I collapsed in the front seat and tried not to vomit for most of the ride. You know it was a good trip when you come back barely standing!

Some Information:

Pasta'ai is held every two years in Wufeng (Jhu Family Village) and Nanzhuang. Wufeng is the more remote celebration, and Nanzhuang is the more well-known one. It usually spans 2-3 nights in late autumn, at the end of the harvest season. To find out exactly when it is on any given year (even numbered years only) you can do an internet search in early autumn or, if you can't read Chinese, have a friend do it for you. Every ten years there is a 'grand ceremony' where the Saisiyat repent killing the ta'ai but I don't know on which year that is held.

To get to Wufeng, take a Guoguang bus to Zhudong. The big bus terminal, across Chongqing Rd. from the West terminal, has buses leaving from Guoguang Bay #17 every 15-25 minutes. This building is shared with Ubus, so walk past the Ubus area to get to Guoguang. Buses run from 6:15amto 10:25pm.

From Zhudong, be sure to be dropped off as close to an actual bus terminal as possible - our friend had to take a taxi 2km because the driver dropped her off on the outskirts. Take a Xinzhu Transport Company (Xinzhu Keyun) bus to Wufeng - some continue to Qingquan, some terminate in Wufeng, and get off at Jhu Family Village - you'll see a crowd. The last bus to the festival departs Zhudong at 6:25pm so come early!

Alternately, you can drive. I wouldn't know anything about that! Catching a taxi or shared car will cost up to $1000 NT one way. The ride to Wufeng is 40 minutes to an hour.

Accommodation is hard to come by - you can either plan to be up all night and catch a morning bus back, arrange transport to a homestay as we did, or stay in the only nearby hotel which, while quite nice, is a long walk from the festival grounds and charges $5000+ per night for a double room.

If you are driving, you can get directions to any one of a number of mountain homestays from the proprietor (or get a Chinese speaking friend to get them for you). Four-person rooms should be in the $2600-$2800/night range.

It is probably possible to catch a ride back to Zhudong by hitching, and possibly even from Zhudong to the festival, but don't plan on that without a backup, and beware that this festival involves a lot of merriment...so you may not want to be in a car with someone who's been hittin' the home brew behind the wheel.

Food and drink is available at the festival so don't worry about bringing your own. Do bring a flashlight, warm sweater and bug spray.

Nanzhuang is the more well-known of the two sites because it's more publicized and also easier to get to. You can take the train to Zhunan and take a bus from there, and I've also been told by a friend that there is a train all the way there. The last bus departs at 9:30pm for Nanzhuang, but in general there are more transportation and accommodation options.

Here are some "extremists" for you.

Apologies for the poor quality of the video. My camera doesn't do well at night.

Except they're not "extremists" at all.

Some photos and videos from the student protest and accompanying support protest at National Democracy Memorial Hall continuing last night.

They're students - and not the radical kind; they're students from medical school and teacher's college. One boy is studying to be a dentist and his father is at the protest supporting his actions there. They're smiling kids with glasses and in jeans.

Supporting them, marching in a circle in front of the gate, are some more "extremists" - they are grandmothers, parents, middle managers, retired people, office workers and day laborers. There are even a few foreigners. Again, not extremists. Average people who happen to have political views that are inconvenient, so they are wrongly labeled.

I wrote awhile back that nobody was doing anything about the martial law imposed while Chen Yunlin was visiting, and am happy to be proven wrong. It would be better, however, if more people were there. Get those 600,000 demonstrators back; that'll show Ma how this country really feels about his actions during that visit.

It also worries me that this is getting approximately zero international press. BBC had a story, otherwise people worldwide seem to think all the hullabaloo is over the arrest of Chen Shui-bian (we weren't sure if he was taken into custody or formally arrested; this morning's Taipei Times says he was formally arrested yesterday).

It seems other stories have appeared in various newspapers, including the South China Morning Post - but, ahh...tell that to the otherwise worldly and well-educated friends I've spoken to who haven't got a clue what's going on here until I mention it. If that's a sample of the world of people who should care, it sure is an ominous sign.


Protesters - look at those extremists! - supporting the students.

Extremist banners with extremist Chinese characters on them. I forgot what this one said, but I see the characters for game and for tragedy - so probably something about amending the parade law. How extreme!

Protesting students and strawberry balloons. Sorry - extreme strawberry balloons. The balloons are there, presumably, as a smart-aleck comeback to the student generation being labeled the "strawberry generation" - soft and unable to stand up to pressure.

Which would also explain why so many of the adults I talked to (the students were listening to speakers) seemed to be parents who were there supporting their offspring.



The extreme gate to Freedom Square and Nat. Democracy Memorial Hall (aka Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall).
Woman reading the names of students protesting and asking for a change to the parade law. There's another faction that says Ma and the entire executive cabinet and chief of police should step down.

The number of extreme hours that the students have been there.


The protesters gather to chant a few times.


Let's see - someone's auntie, a kid who works in an office in Neihu somewhere, a nice elderly couple who could be your neighbors. Extreme, huh?


There were a few speakers through the evening while I was there. This guy was especially passionate and - from what I could tell with my poor Chinese - eloquent.

Zhang Mama Beef Noodles

Cold. Wet. Breezy. Gray.

The weather in Taipei is unseasonable - it usually doesn't get like this until December. I wore a coat for the first time in months and braved the drizzly wind to walk up Heping Road, from Guting to Technology Building. Why? Thanks to an afternoon class I don't have time to go to the gym this month so I have to get my fitness where I can. (I only have one day off all month, so I'm not joking when I say I don't have time).

I was hungry and resolved to stop at the first Taiwanese joint serving either breakfast or standard noodle/rice dishes. That first stop happened to be Zhang Mama Beef Noodles, on the southern side of Heping E. Road, just before the car park and inlet to Guting Market.

The restaurant was sparse, with a few dark tables, stool chairs and counter. Their selection of Hakka-style xiaochi was unimpressive, but I was only hungry enough for noodles and didn't want any, regardless.

I ordered the tomato beef noodles after considering the hongshao beef and mountain chicken noodles. At 150-190 kuai a bowl, Zhang Mama is not cheap as far as beef noodles go.

But boy, are they good. The noodles aren't homemade, which is a shame, but the soup and meat are delectable. It comes in a heavy ceramic bowl with a ponderous matching spoon, making it all the more fun to slurp up. The broth was very tomato-ey and full of bursting, citrusy flavor (besides the tomato acids I think there was a hint of lemon juice thrown in), not too oily but with a slightly buttery finish. It was almost an Asian minestrone, but better. Much better.

The meat was delicious - tender to the point of falling apart, fatty in a good way without being too fatty. I did have to peel off a few chunks of lard - I just don't like lard - but they came off easily.

The flavors were intense, and for once I didn't feel the need to add chili pepper. They had already added a hint of spice; just enough to make itself known and frame the other flavors, but not enough to blunt your tastebuds.

Obviously, beef noodles in Taiwan are ubiquitous. It's hard to wax poetic about something that's on every streetcorner (ah, 7-11, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. I love thy Tai-ke doritos, I love thy CC Lemon...), but this place does good enough beef noodles that it's worth it's own blog post.

There's another amazing place in Jingmei that does good beef noodles; I'll get their address and post about them next.

What a perfect way to warm up your insides against a nasty, gray Taipei day.

Zhang Mama Beef Noodles - Heping E. Road Section 1 #18 / Tianmu West Road Inside Lane 41 / Minsheng E Road Section 5 Lane 138 #13

Now that Chen's gone...

I haven't said anything about the fraught visit of Chen Yunlin because, frankly, I've been working my butt off and haven't had the time to go see the protests - or lack thereof - for myself. I did notice as I rode the MRT past Jiantan that the Grand Hotel looks as though it's under siege - some fortresses aren't so well-protected.

I've also had little to say because the other blogs (notably David on Formosa) have captured my own sentiments already. I'm not sure if this is another White Terror, but there is definitely cause for concern.

We'll see what happens now that Chen has departed. One can hope that the martial law mentality will depart with him.

What concerns me more is the reaction of most Taiwanese people I talk to. They're "angry and sad" but nobody wants to do anything. They're upset, especially with Ma - (some of these are translated from Chinese and I'm not totally fluent so bear with me) -

"He doesn't know how to govern."

"We put our faith in him and now look how he acts."

"Taiwan wants to be separate from China but they're acting the same way!"

"He can't make a balance. When Zhang Mingqing was pushed he didn't provide adequate protection for his visit, and now he's going totally overboard with Chen Yunlin."

Not even one person I've spoken to supports the Ma administration's action, but nobody is doing anything. Why isn't there more of a public outcry among the Taiwanese about this? Where are those 600,000 people now that there is someone to protest in front of? Are they that afraid that they'll be rounded up and arrested, like in the old days?

Maybe.

Aside from the protesters - who from all reports seem to be a smaller and calmer crowd than in the recent marches - everyone is staying home, living life as usual, and pretending that it's just not a problem (or acknowledging that it is and doing nothing).

What gives?

Oh say can you see...

...by the dawn's early light...

...hundreds of expats, hungover from last night.

So I work in Taipei 101 twice a week. In between classes I tend to hang out at the Starbucks in the lobby if I'm not hungry enough to go to the mall and eat. This gives me a killer vantage point from which to observe the comings-and-goings of Taiwan expats who work in business.

What did I see late this morning?

1.) A line at Starbucks, and for once the majority of customers weren't Taiwanese office folks gearing up for yet another 12 hour workday. Peppered between them were slack-faced yet smiling foreigners with stars in their eyes and dark circles under them.

2.) Other expats - the older ones - looking somewhat downtrodden, probably because their man had been cast aside like an old lion (thanks, Christopher Hitchens) about to be retired from slashing gladiators.

3.) Taiwanese office workers sitting in said Starbucks talking about foreigners ("How strange," one young girl in a purple suit and eye glitter with the telltale ID tag dangling from her neck, "they elect a black man and then they all go get drunk. Nobody's doing any work today! Foreigners! I just don't get it.")

4.) More expats, the happy ones, wandering around like sleep-deprived zombies, occasionally shuffling down to Watson's for more Panadol, silently commiserating about their massive collective hangover.

I was one of the hungover ones. Still am, at 10pm the next night. At least it's a good hangover; the Belgian beer kind, not the nasty Chinese chemical beer kind. We stayed at Red House pub in Shida until it closed, talking, laughing, hoping, drinking and singing the national anthem. Red House was otherwise quiet - we wanted a gathering of friends, not a liberal, libertine throng. The party was going on much louder at Jr. Cafe, Carnegie's and The Brass Monkey, but the only one of those places I actually like is Jr. Cafe and still didn't really feel like dealing with it.

I like my Presidents...

...well, the fine folks (folk, I guess) down at Octopus Pie said it far better than I could.

Totally worth the hangover. And when will I learn that just because we're celebrating (what I hope is) a new era, that doesn't mean four Belgian beers are somehow less potent. Ow.

It's good to be a citizen of a country in which we now take it for granted that anyone, from any background, can rise to the rank of President of the United States. Good on us for not being assholes, for once.

Mister Ma Mayen't be Moderate

I just finished reading this fairly short article in The Washington Post by John Pomfret. I normally skim these because something about his pragmatic perspective (which I usually admire, even if I object on some idealist principle or other) strikes me as...dunno...unrealistic.

Generally speaking, though, this piece hit the mark in most respects. Yes, it's true that the only way Taiwan is going to be able to keep a separate government is to improve ties with China (I don't like it one bit, but that's life). Yes, it's true that China is shortsighted, priggish and unwaveringly stupid in its dealings with Taiwan and failure to grant Taiwan even a small modicum of respect. It's also true that it's about time that China at least recognizes that Taiwan's government is at the very least, a democratically-elected government. I doubt they'll recognize it as 'legitimate' anytime soon, but one can hope.

But there are a few points that are off the mark:

For China and Taiwan, they are tantamount to the US elections. While they are not going to usher in new governments, they could set in motion a new era of relations between China and Taiwan -- unless knuckleheads on Taiwan or China mess it up.

Uh, no. They are not tantamount to the US elections. Little history is going to be made unless something drastic happens at these negotiations, and that is unlikely. Locals don't seem terribly excited about them - only newspapers, government staff and some top businesspeople show any signs of caring.

And will Taiwan's independence extremists succeed in once again ruining the prospect for better ties with China as they push an agenda that is actually hurting the cause of Taiwan's independence?

They're not extremists! Well, some are. If you want extremists - those guys with that van on Dihua Street who advocate China joining the USA as the 51st state (well, 53rd after Canada and Iraq I suppose) fit the bill better. They're activists, and more people agree with them than foreign correspondents seem to realize - but so many independence-minded people don't dare say so, and realize that recognized, de jure independence is unrealistic now. That doesn't make those who voice their views extremists. It means they're exercising their right to free speech.

Looking at the last protest, I don't think 600,000 people (the author himself offers this figure below) can be labeled as 'extremists' - they're a legitimate political bloc.

Since Ma was inaugurated, there have been a number of protests against Ma and his moderate stand on China. Most recently on Oct. 25, 600,000 turned out against Ma. In late October, a Taiwanese legislator and six associates helped beat up a Chinese official, Zhang Mingqing, who was holding initial talks in Taiwan about Chen's visit.

Argh. At least he got the estimate of protesters right. But even I don't think they really 'beat up' Zhang Mingqing, despite feeling that they did push and intimidate him.

Also, Ma's stand on China is not 'moderate' - it's far too friendly for Taiwanese comfort. Hence the protesters. Why else would 600,000 people turn out?

Well, if you look at Taiwan's situation honestly, the only way actually to ensure its continued existence as a government separate from China, is to improve ties with China. That's what Ma is trying to do. Why would Tsai and her people want to stop it? The only reason I can determine is that they want to create a crisis because only in a crisis do their politics have any traction among most of Taiwan's people.

It's a lot more complicated than that - I don't think Pomfret has gone out and actually talked to a lot of Taiwanese people. Their ideals - an independent Taiwan - have a lot of traction among Taiwanese people. Maybe not 100%, but definitely a huge, huge number. Take the 49% who voted for Frank Xie in the last elections and add a big contingent of those who voted for Ma simply on the basis of A-bian's tenure, or because they want independence but want to go about it more pragmatically.

That is a LOT of people; that's most of the nation. Pomfret discounts them like so much fairy dust because it's inconvenient to recognize that this sentiment does, in fact, exist.

Taipei Travel Expo 2008

Brendan, Becca, Emily and one of Becca's friends went to the Travel Expo at Taipei World Trade Center today. The goal was to find cheap tickets to Singapore for my sis and her friend so they could travel over the Zhengda class break.

I wish I'd had my druthers together enough to go here to plan our trip next year. The deals really were fantastic. We got them roundtrip tickets for about $7000 NT each. The best deal on teh Internets was $10,000 and change. My tickets to India, Egypt and home were purchased back in August so we had nothing to buy; we went to help Becca and marvel at the crowds. They say that the only TWTC expo that exceeds this one in visitor volume is the infamous computer expo. We'll be going to the next one of those, as well.

And man, was it ever crowded. The tickets were expensive at $200 NT, but the real bargain hunters didn't mind; it was a small price to pay for, frankly, huge savings. I'm not normally a fan of these huge expos - it's mostly about advertising anyway, and selling package tours - but really, truly - there were a lot of great discounts to be found.

Other than the reign of package tours over stalls selling unfettered airline tickets (seems the Taiwanese really like their tour groups...this I knew), my only other issue was that many geographical areas were far too small, whereas others were far too big.

I realize that the big destinations (Korea, Japan, Australia and the SE Asian countries) represented are so over-staffed because that's where the demand is, but we had gone looking for just a little information on Egypt (our destination in February) and found nothing but a few fliers for package tours in Chinese. Plus a pimply faced teen dressed up in a gold vinyl Pharaoh costume, which was pretty awesome.

Some destinations had their own booth, to our surprise - Iran, Turkey, Nicaragua, Panama and other destinations you don't expect Taiwanese travelers to think of (though obviously some do) - some of these possibly because they are among the few countries who recognize Taiwan through official diplomatic channels.

Others were sadly lacking. All of Africa save Egypt and South Africa was one tiny booth with a few leaflets and Ethiopian coffee. The coffee was good, though.


One good thing, though, was the free stuff. We got free t-shirts for the Singapore tickets and free pens from a Japan stall.

I did also notice a huge section of the expo devoted to domestic travel. Even Taizhong was represented - the general theme for that booth was "Taizhong - our city is kinda boring but our county is gorgeous". Yep.

I thought this was great, though - Taiwan is a fantastic tourist destination if you know where to go. I'm half happy that word isn't out in the West about this (more solitude, authenticity, and enjoyment for me) but half upset, because it really ought to be. As I mentioned recently on LPTT, the advantage of Taiwan over China is not quantity, but quality. There is less to do here, but it's all of a higher caliber.

They had a massive aboriginal culture section, which I loved. It had the usual glass bead jewelry and millet wine, but they also had information in several languages and a few culture tours you could sign up for, as well as dancing, free food and wine tasting, and exhibits and information. Not bad.

We picked up some gorgeous plum wine - though not nearly as good as the stuff Sasha brought back from Japan recently - with a label that says "The Feeling of Slightly Drunk".

Oh, and they also had a dude in a giant koala costume.

Awesome. Truly awesome.

All in all, not worth NT $200 if you aren't looking to buy tickets, tours or reservations but totally worth it if you are.

Also, tissues. Lots and lots of free tissues. I can now wipe my butt on tissues from a five-star spa in Thailand.

The Youth Vote, Not I

Since I've moved to Taiwan, nobody but the Arlington Democrats has sent me any campaign literature or made any attempt to court my vote. So all I ever got in the mail was an absentee ballot and a stodgy envelope full of pictures of old guys (there were a few women in there, too, but not many...not enough) telling me to vote for Jim Moran, Mark Warner and Barack Obama, as well as two or three other people I've never heard of because I'm so distanced from local politics.

Then I read this Washington Post article on getting out the youth vote and the realization hits me.

I'm no longer "the youth vote".

I get thick mailings from stuffed suits, not messages on Facebook. I get campaign news from The Washington Post, not from text messages and blogs.

Damn. Not even 30 and I feel ancient.

Because I have nothing better to write about...

....here's another picture of Zhao Cai (now nicknamed "Zhao Zhao" because it rolls more easily off the tongue) with his new collar, cuddling with our Domo pillow.

Awwwwwww.