Of Sympathy

Some background for those who don't know: the folks where I live are mostly veterans or veterans' family members, and those who aren't would have bought or rented their apartments from someone who was in the military. Before this complex was built this area was a community where only people who'd served in various branches of the military could live, and after the apartments were built on that site, only they could  get them (I'm not sure if they had to buy them, if there were subsidies or if it was a part of their pension). You can imagine that a community  still largely made up of veterans of the army of the Republic of China would be super deep blue. Once a person had an apartment he could sell it, let a family member live there, rent it out, whatever. That's how I ended up living here. Our landlady is a Buddhist nun. I don't know how she got the apartment  -  either she bought it from a retired officer before she became a nun, or she inherited it from a family member who had been in the military, or something. Now she lives in a monastery in Tainan, and the rent on this place (which is extremely reasonable for 25-30 pings in Da'an - everyone, rent from nuns!) is basically her income. 

Anyway. So y'all know that I would like to see an independent Taiwan. Someday, at least. I wouldn't be opposed to an independent ROC made up of what is now Taiwan and its various outlying islands, but my preferred outcome - not that I get a say in the matter! - would actually be an independent, democratic Taiwan completely divorced from any notions of being a part of China - like how people view the USA today.

My neighbors all fought for something very different in their youth. You could go so far as to say that they devoted their lives to their country, and by extension, their beliefs about what that country should be - which more or less correspond to the KMT's beliefs about what the ROC should be.

As my student said - when you meet someone like that, who literally devoted his entire life and livelihood to his country and beliefs, and you in four short words tell them that they're just plain wrong, that's not something they're going to take lightly. 

Even if you do believe they are wrong.

And I do believe it - I don't feel that there's One China, or rather I do feel that there's One China and it's the PRC, which will hopefully become something else - like a country that's not totally fucked up - someday, and that Taiwan is a different country altogether. I do not believe that the ROC "is" China - even if it "was" China, at least in some sense, for however short a period -  is a part of China, should rule Mainland China or any of that. I don't mind its continued existence, but it's not "China". Neither is Taiwan. This is why I wouldn't have celebrated the 100th anniversary of the ROC. It wasn't Taiwan's birthday. Nothing happened in Taiwan on October 10th, 1911. Well, maybe Old Chen bought a chicken. Or Miss Lin caught the local shopkeeper's eye. But that's about it. Certainly no country was born in Taiwan on that day. The ROC didn't even rule it at the time - the Japanese did.

 For this, I do have some sympathy. No, I don't think they've got a point - although they have just as much a right to their beliefs as the other side does - and no, I don't think they're right, but I can understand how it would feel to make your entire career about building, then saving, then rebuilding, something you believe in, and then having someone casually say that "nope, you're wrong, everything you've given your life for is wrong. Sorry you screwed that one up, Grandpa. Welcome to The Republic of Taiwan!"

Of course, Grandpa's not going to change his beliefs, but  I do understand the sting of "so this person really thinks I wasted my life?" Because that's what it implies.

This is why, while I won't  deny or lie about my beliefs - and I have some leeway being a foreigner and all - I tend to be more gentle about them where I live now. For a lot of them, it's more than just a few opinions.

It goes both ways, of course. People - people I agree with and sympathize with more - spent much of their adult lives in prison and many died for Taiwanese democracy and identity. It would be just as offensive to them to be told "nope, you're wrong". This is easier for me to accept, because I agree with them.

It's just good to remember that it's not always so easy as deciding the other guy is nuts.

I don't really have an American equivalent -  the wars we've fought in living memory can be debated, but  none of them deal with the actual provenance of the country. It's not quite the same: arguing US politics and foreign policy with a soldier returned from Iraq who genuinely believed he was "fighting terror", while testy and full of land mines (terrible pun, sorry), is not the same as telling a soldier of the ROC that he's just plain wrong, or telling an independence activist who spent her best years in jail and whose family was killed in the White Terror that she's wrong and that the KMT has "changed" so she should accept it.

Tsai Ying-wen Campaigns in Wanhua

Yeah, big surprise there, I know.

My friend Joseph, the man behind Taishun Street, shook her hand this week while he was there for the Qingshan Wang temple festival. He's got some pictures and commentary here.

"Why Bother?"

A quick thought on the ever-shifting poll numbers of Ma Ying-jiu and Tsai Ying-wen...

What worries me is that four-ish years ago, when Ma swept into office, it was on a wave from what I could only describe as resignation. Ennui, almost. From my perspective, I could almost palpably feel the defeat-before-we've-even-fought-the-fight from the DPP side, a sort of quiet sigh as they, in droves, decided not to vote.

I don't say the above lightly - I have a lot of local friends, most of them green, and almost none of them voted. Some never vote. Some don't care. Some care, but don't vote. Some thought "why bother traveling home on election day when we're going to lose anyway?" And lose they did, but I have to ask if it really had to be that way, or if the DPP could have at least put up a better fight if it'd had any fight in it after A-bian.

And now, I see it again. A sort of why-even-bother harrumph from the green side - the side that I always thought of as more passionate and invested in their beliefs than all those "I vote blue because my parents are blue but I don't actually care/know anything/think about politics"young Taipei urbanite kids. A sort of self-prophecy of defeat that worries me anew.

I didn't actually think that Frank Hsieh would win back in the day - the A-bian scandals (if you could call them that compared to what the KMT has done to Taiwan) were too fresh, too new, and after 8 years of DPP rule the country seemed poised to return to the blue side - as much as I didn't like it, I couldn't deny it.

I think Tsai could actually have a shot, though. If - if - she can mobilize the base, the independents, the undecideds, the light blues who don't like Ma. She could do it, even if she does lack a certain charisma or spark: Ma, honestly, lacks the same spark. I mean, seriously. No. Just...no. Put on a shirt, pasty-boy.

But despite this, I don't think she'll win, because although she could have the support, I see the same "why bother", the same "oh Ma will win it", the same lethargy and slow unraveling. I see thousands of folks who live in Taipei but are registered down south who won't bother making the trip. I see Taiwanese abroad who won't bother coming back. Why, when you are so sure your candidate is going to lose?

Already Campaigning

Tsai Ying-wen is already starting her campaign for the 2012 presidency, even though we're still not entirely sure who else is running.

This poster appears at the intersection of Nanjing and Dihua Streets in Dadaocheng, which is one of the stronger support bases that the DPP has in Taipei. Around her are several people I've never heard of, one of them appearing on a poster with Chen Chu, and DPP campaigners are already coming through Dihua Street regularly waving banners and making noise - as one does, of course.

I'm amused by the pink lettering, the cute font used on "2012" (looks better than the London Olympics logo anyway) and the self-reference as "Little Ying".

Aww. 好可愛呵!

Some Taipei Election Posters

Updated with more photos!

I've been collecting photos for this post for awhile, and after being deeply amused by David's roundup of Taizhong posters, I've finally decided to publish them.

Mine are mostly leaflets and other thingoes rather than street posters, but street posters are also represented.

I love the one above, which is hawking a candidate and yet made to look like a piece of traditional-style calligraphy for one's door.

I can't get enough of Wang Zhengde's avatar - a bobblehead cartoon Popeye. If you see the free notepads he's giving out, there's a woman (I don't know who) in the likeness of Olive Oyl. NO JOKE. What strikes me about this is how it would never go over well in the USA. It would be considered downright infantile.

I am ashamed to admit that I don't know who the older woman here is - the one that Wang Xinyi is bowing to like she's the reincarnated Confucius. Anyone?

I've already posted this but because it's THE MOST HILARIOUS THING EVER, I'm posting it again.

Photo by Brendan

Yeh Linzhuan has apparently disavowed his earlier slogan of "Take the love and send it out" (a pun on his name - 把愛傳出來). Apparently being the KMT Hippie wasn't working out for him.

His old posters really were something - not only did he use "Take the love and send it out" as a slogan, but they were generally covered with rainbows, a smiling Yeh looking off into the distance, and occasionally a butterfly or flower or two.

Underneath his poster is Chen Yumei, who is probably KMT considering the blue color of the poster, but it doesn't actually say. The pink and the feminine, demure pose with sweet smile are also things that wouldn't work very well in American politics.

I have to say I admire one thing about Taiwan in particular this election year: in the USA, when women run for prominent offices they get tarred and feathered by every sexist comment one could conceive of (see: Clinton, Hillary and Palin, Sarah - though the latter deserved what she got. Regardless of her gender, she's a dangerous lout). Hillary got called "fat", "ugly" and "a battleaxe", or "riding on the coattails of her husband" (which was, y'know, somewhat true though not so much anymore). She was attacked as a woman, as a candidate and as a mother. Sarah Palin got the MILF and "I'd hit that" jokes.

That doesn't happen here, at least not in any significant way - not in any way that makes it into the newspapers. Nobody cares if a candidate is male or female; people may not like Tsai Ying-wen but those who dislike her do so on the basis of her party and her positions, not her genitalia. There is no question that if a woman ran for president in Taiwan, she may or may not be elected but if she doesn't come up triumphant, it won't be because she's female.

Of course, tell that to the high profile female names in the Taiwanese business world - they get the sexist treatment aplenty (except, notably, in finance, which I plan to cover in a later post).

Li Dahua is running with the Qingmingdang (People First Party) and we received this in the mail from his campaign. We get a lot of election mail - clearly they don't realize or care that we can't vote.

Notable things about this are as follows:

1.) OMG adorable KITTY!

2.) The People First Party still exists? Wow. Does anyone actually vote for them?

3.) That kitty looks like my kitty, except my kitty is more corpulent by several orders of magnitude.

4.) So he's trying to win votes by posing with an adorable kitty. Really. What's funny is that in Taiwan, this may actually work. In the USA not so much.

...

5.) I'm ashamed to admit it but I kept this flier because the kitty is adorable.

(from XKCD)

Yeah, yeah.

Notable about this green candidate's poster (she's photoshopped here with Su Zhenchang and Tsai Ying-wen, but I am fairly sure she's Taiwan Solidarity Union) is the background of gentle peaches and pinks with peach blossoms. Again, in the USA, no female candidate would run something like this.

A Taiwan Solidarity Union (Tai Lian) paper flag with a giant-headed brown ant screaming about how they want to serve the people. I love how the Japanese children's cartoon (as opposed to Japanese cartoons that are definitely not for children) aesthetic is so prominent in Taiwanese politics, of all places. "Yeah, let's stick an adorable bobble-head ant on it. People will vote for us! We could use an adorable kitty, but Li Dahua's already doing that."

Zhou Ni'an (周倪安), below, is on the other side of this flag. Her slogan is "Zhu Ni An" - which is a pun meaning "Wish You Peace" (祝你安).

I'm sorry, Zhou Ni'an (周倪安), but you look like a character from South Park. Specifically, your expression reminds me of Butters.

Moving on to the poster below of Tsai Ying-wen:

This is another one I've already posted, with pink and hearts and a cutesey slogan and all that, which I rather respect about Taiwanese politics. They can come up with posters like this, which look like they got vomited on by an elementary school Valentine's Day card exchange, and still get elected.

Another poster for her in Xizhi shows a re-imagined map of the MRT Blue Line, with the last stop being Xizhi (in big letters), reiterating a campaign promise to extend the MRT to Xizhi. Which is not a bad idea, really.

And finally, another culprit in the Attack of the Bobbleheads. Hou Jingsheng is a DPP candidate (clearly) who has been giving out these nifty key fobs with pictures of his Bobblehead avatar that are powerful magnets, so you can stick your keys on your fridge, metal door or desk. I have one. It's pretty cool. A much more imaginative gimmick than a pad or pack of tissues (I never understood the tissues - so you can think of the candidate as you symbolically wipe your butt or blow gunk out of your nose?)

I don't have any photos yet, but Lee Denghui has been posing on posters for this guy as well as candidates in both the DPP and Taiwan Solidarity Union.

His headband says "Hot Blood" on it - even folks who lean blue will often readily admit that the DPP has cornered the market on passionate displays of political vitriol, and Hou is definitely playing up that side of his party's reputation.

Hee hee! He totally looks like he'd slap a few blue legislators in the Legislative Yuan.

So now we've seen some of the key features of Taiwanese election campaigning: 1.) Little cartoon avatars with impossibly large heads; 2.) fist pumping galore (don't have a strong platform? Make a fist and look determined!); 3.) clunky-cute puns on candidate's names and 4.) When none of that works, go for adorable animals and odd movie references.

Here are a few more bits and bobs I've come across recently:

Photo by Brendan

We keep seeing these tanks rolling around Taipei; I actually don't know what party they're from but I'd guess KMT. Err, given the KMT's history of military oppression, is this really the best symbol, the gimmick that says "elect me! I won't kidnap you in the night and shoot you down by Machangding and not tell your family what happened to you for decades, if ever!"? Really?

Gimmicks! This one, from a DPP candidate, says "We listen to what's in Taipei's heart" and indicates that he's campaigning in Da'an and Wenshan districts. It's a children's school folder - yet another useful gewgaw for me (KMT gewgaws are much less imaginative, and anyway I don't like the KMT). There's a flier for the candidate inside.

See? Now you can give your kid one of these and Little Johnny can take it to school and show his friends, who will go home and tell their parents to vote for this guy. Smart!

Keeping in the "cute animals" theme: Zhang Honglin is campaigning in the Green Party - 綠黨 - not to be confused with the "Green" faction led by the DPP and usually consisting of other small parties with similar ideologies, like Tai Lian. (The Green Party, like the Qingmingdang - the Green Party still exists? Wow).

It seems all the underdog parties have been employing adorable animals to try to get votes. Since Li Dahua got the ADORABLE KITTY, Ah-Hong clearly gets the OMG HAO KE AI FLUFFY DOG! The dog's name is Apple, and Apple says, basically, "Hi, I'm Apple. Cast a ballot for me!"

I wonder if Taiwan would be much different if we elected a Fluffy Dog to a representative office?

And finally, this grainy iPod Touch photo (sorry, the camera quality really is crap) of an awesome procession of drummers, reminiscent of Taiwan temple fairs...actually, I am pretty sure that's exactly where they got the drummers - by calling up one of the organizations that trains drummers for temple festivals and hiring them out for political work.

If you saw the Taipei Times photo of a ba jia jiang (the guys at temple fairs in face paint and costume who do martial arts demonstrations as symbolic guardians of the gods) selling goods at Carrefour a few years ago, you'd know that this is totally fine and cool.

it's iPod Touch Photo Day on Lao Ren Cha!

Ahem. Uh. Guys. Yeah, guys? So. We need to talk. I hate to tell you this but...YOU ARE NOT COOL. You are not 'hip', you are not 'with it', you are not 'all that', and this is a 'fail', not a 'win'. Eric, you are not and never will be James Bond. "New Taipei City So Happy?" Really? Couldn't you have taken the money you threw away on those sunglasses and paid an English editor, perhaps?

Oh yeah. And guys? That stance and the sunglasses makes me feel a little too much like you're about to have me shot for political subversion. Y'all have kind of a *history* with that if y'know what I'm sayin'.

(Photo by Brendan)

Considering the interesting comments on my last post about women and marriage in Taiwan, my next long post is likely to be about men and marriage in Taiwan. I'm no sociologist, but I have been asking around in a very informal, unscientific way (and a way appropriate for class: basically having them read a current events article on birth rates/marriage stats in Taiwan and having it be a discussion question) and am collecting a fair number of Taiwanese men's views on marriage here on the island.

I'd just ask friends, but I seem to have this thing where my expat friends are quite varied by gender (that is, I have some of both), but my Taiwanese friends are almost exclusively female.

Anyway. I'm still working on that because I have to do actual research so in the meantime, please enjoy some fun iTouch photos from around Taipei, including some of election-related gems.

Some of these were taken on Brendan's gadget, but only one was taken while I was not actually there.

Oh, and I cheated with two - the photos that are actually of decent quality were taken on a real camera. But they're still funny.

Domo is gonna eat the kitty. Clearly he likes his meat marbled and fatty.

Young boy on the stairs at an oddly deserted Taipei Main Station, around 11:45pm.

MONKEY! Monkey monkey monkey monkey. Took this one in Nicaragua.

"No Frills Seasoning" kind of scares me.

Jurassic Jewelry...home of the renowned T-rex tooth necklace.

Run of the mill campaign ad, but look at his little cartoon guy in the bottom left. He's Popeye! For real!

This is my favorite guy, the siphon brewin' coffee guy at Drop Coffee House (I mistakenly called them "People Say" but it's Drop). Go spend exorbitant amounts of money on their amazing coffee, and enjoy sitting in a restored Japanese house! Go now!

Clunky Puns

Ah, Taipei district elections.

The Chinese language has a proud history of puns - word play is considered one of the highest forms of comedy and wit, and while I question any "wit" that's based on a pun, since it's more difficult to pun effectively in Chinese (at least for me), I can sort of almost be OK with it. I will even do it sometimes, to which those who have heard my "下很大！" joke on rainy days can attest.

Well, as a friend of mine noted, Presidential candidates have the money for professional staff to come up with their witty lines and groan-worthy puns - that's how we got "馬上改善經濟“ (actually not sure it said "gai shan" - it was years ago during the Ma/Xie election). It means "Immediately improve the economy". For those who don't speak Chinese, "Immediately" is "馬上", which also means "on the horse", and now-President Ma's name is the same "Ma" as "horse". And of course those ads had pictures of President Horse riding...a horse. Ha ha. Oh, you slay me. (Ba-dum ching!)

District candidates...don't have that money. As you can see here:

We've been kind of following the Zhongshan-Datong election because we have a friend who lives in that area, and we haven't seen much happening in Jingmei. The fight seems to be between Yeh Lin-chuan, the KMT candidate above with a penchant for the color scheme of a Pretty Pretty Princess dollhouse, and one A-Yu, whose last name is not that important.

(I do love the super-feminine Yeh Linchuan poster on the ubiquitous blue truck with the ubiquitous undershirt wearing dude driving it).

I originally mistranslated this poster as "(Yeh Lin) Chuan comes out to love" because, as many of you know, I am capable of heroically misusing the "把" construction. I was corrected: his name is used as a pun here. The "chuan" of "Linchuan" is added to the phrase to say "Take the love and send it out".

Aww. Peace, man. Love yer scrolling purple characters. I think you should add a few more flowers, though.

Then there's A-Yu, who, instead of the usual tissues or notepads (I still have my "Ma and Siew" notepad. I drew devil horns on Ma and have him saying "I love China!") has been giving out face masks:

A-Yu's name (餘) is basically the same as pronunciation as 魚 for "fish", so the little card says "With one fish, eat three times" and three reasons why you should vote for him (the usual stuff, like he'll help bring development, he'll speak for you in city government etc.). Under that it says "Plus, get a side dish: Twenty years of experience!" - though that seems to be referencing some other guy also on the ad.

Sigh. I mean, it's cute & all, and Americans do it too, even if our candidates don't do it themselves ("Obama-rama" or "That's my Bush!" anyone?). But I feel like you either need to be truly witty or hire someone who is, or you get kind of clunky puns like the ones above.

(BTW, simply because I lean green with a dash of brown, I'd vote for A-Yu if I could vote here).