Gods Rush In Again: My Latest for Taiwan Scene

You might remember that I had a short non-fiction story published in an anthology of stories by expat women in Asia, all the way back in 2014.

Well, with the King Boat Festival coming once again - it kicks off on October 28 this year and ends one week later - Taiwan Scene has excerpted my original story and published it here:

Gods Rush In at the King Boat Festival

Although a few sections are lost - an exploration of the cultural issues surrounding being a female spirit medium, a longer discussion of my own (continued) atheism despite the peculiar and perhaps somewhat chimerical events I experienced on the beach that day in 2012, the fact that my own wishing plaque on the King Boat was for Taiwanese independence - I'm excited that the story might now reach a wider audience.

Until now, it was impossible to read unless you bought the whole anthology (which you can still absolutely do, and which I recommend, but may be difficult for someone without a Kindle device or app in Taiwan), so having a section of it available to all Taiwanese readers is great news!

Firewalking For Beginners: my latest for Taiwan Scene

I'm back as a guest contributor to Taiwan Scene, this time writing about firewalking in Donggang...but not the way you think. It's actually about being a female traveler faced with sexist (yes, sexist) religious traditions, and having entirely the wrong response to them - something I can only admit now.

In any case, enjoy. 

"Review" if you can call it that: How Does One Dress to Buy Dragonfruit?

Of course I'm bringing up the book again because, hey, my story's in it. So obviously I'm going to do that.

And I always intended to write a review, although of course you know the review will be positive. So think of it more as "nice things I want to say about this anthology my story is in".

So, here are some nice things.

When I received my advance copy of the anthology, of course I began reading it immediately (OK, honestly, I flipped right to my own story, "Gods Rushing In", and read that first, then I went back to the beginning to read the others. I think more people do that than would admit it).

And I have a lot of great things to say for the collection overall:

First, that it includes a range of voices and experiences. One issue I have with writing by and for women is that, probably unwittingly, a lot of it tends to cover the same ground: romance, marriage, children, family, "finding yourself", "happiness", maybe travel (if it involves romance, marriage or "finding yourself"), and works directed at female expats - as not very many works are actually by female expats - tend to focus on the same kind of expat: do they think we're all just trailing spouses, going to coffee mornings and planning Christmas bazaars, while our husbands work? (Not that there is anything wrong with being a trailing spouse who goes to coffee mornings, not at all - just that that's what people, even people who market to female expats, seem to think we all are.) That was probably the one critical flaw of one of the few other books I've reviewed on this blog. How Does One Dress to Buy Dragonfruit? avoids this nicely, and includes experiences of all sorts of women on all sorts of adventures: older, younger, married, single, settled expat, wanderer, hippie, careerist, trailing spouse, equal breadwinner.

Second, that that range of voices is also diverse. One thing I actually don't like about travel writing (or expat or backpacker communities in general) is this feeling that a lot of travelers unwittingly view the world as the playground of white people. I don't think anyone does this intentionally, but somehow the feeling is still there. Including diverse women's voices helps the anthology easily avoid that fate.

Finally, I appreciated that the pieces chosen all carefully avoided the "I came to Exotic, Mystical Asia to find myself" cliche. That's perfect - because that tired trope plays far too well into the idea too many people subconsciously have that the world is their proving grounds, the colorful backdrop full of ethnics and tribals all set up nicely to make travelers look cool, enlightened and worldly. For myself, although I wrote about a colorful Taiwanese festival, I took great pains not to make it all "I had this mystical experience", because I didn't. And honestly, Asia for me is a lot less of the "dignified man in a white Chinese cotton suit doing tai chi looking out over a gorgeous view studded with mountains and bamboo" (cue gong music) and a lot more of, say, Hsinchu Science Park. It's not mystical, it's a continent where several billion people live. I stay because I enjoy language immersion, the food's amazing, the city is convenient (After living in Taipei I feel that if you have to walk for more than one minute to get breakfast, your city sucks). And, okay, I like the festivals, but not because I feel like I need something "exotic" to "find myself", but just because I like them. Compare a folk Daoist temple parade to, say, some Veteran's Day Parade in East Surburbia, and I'm sorry but the folk Daoist parade wins.

As for the pieces I liked best, well, I liked all of them, but a few stood out. The Weight of Beauty, because it absolutely hits the mark when one looks at the intersection of beauty ideals and cultural ideals. (Although when Dorcas expressed surprise that the company would send a sexy sales rep, thinking she would be a man, I did smile...of course they did. Using female sex appeal to sell things is even more notorious in Asia than the West, and we're certainly not innocent of it in the West.) Bread and Knives, because it so beautifully uses a small experience, a moment in time, to capture so many uneasy feelings about both expat life and new parenthood. Finding Yuanfen on a Chinese Bus because it was well-written and perfectly descriptive, and conjures a type of expat a lot of people don't imagine exists: a fierce young solitary woman who has, and is not embarrassed by, a sex drive. Huangshan Honeymoon for taking a situation that most expat women and people in an intercultural marriage would balk at, and turning it into something beautiful, that made perfect sense (my only quibble is that good old Dad-in-law doesn't get off scot-free - not for thinking all foreign women are easy, although that's no good, but for thinking that it is wrong to be "easy". Some people are inclined to a libertine lifestyle and it's not OK to judge them - not me, really, Old Married Jenna is surprisingly stodgy. That said, it's not like my opinion has any impact on the Laobas of the world...so okay). The Truth About Crickets because it was both balanced and jarring, jejune in its storytelling just as something told from a child's perspective should be, with a well-constructed narrative. Waiting for Inspiration because it captures every fear I've ever had about what it would be like to be a "trailing spouse", and Charting Koenji because it perfectly captured the blend of loneliness and curiosity that mark my first few months in any new place.

...and more, I actually have like five more that I want to mention, but at that point I may as well just say something nice about every single work, so suffice it to say that even the ones not mentioned here were fantastic to read, and not mentioning them doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them just as much, for different reasons.

And obviously "Gods Rushing In" was fantastic, amazing, life-changing...the feel-good short personal narrative of the year! Hehe.

So, this is to say that you should buy the book and read it. :)

Expat women! In Asia! In an anthology! With dragonfruit! And me!

   You totally want to read about this guy.

I've mentioned a few times before on this blog that one of my stories - based on this blog post - is going to be published in an upcoming anthology of stories by expat women in Asia (woohoo!). That was all very informal, but now things are being finalized and I'm proud to announce that the book - titled How Does One Dress to Buy Dragonfruit? True Stories of Expat Women in Asia - will be on the market this June!

Yay!

You can, and should, follow the Facebook page here. A list of contributors and more information can be found on the editor's blog here. And I am going to be totally shameless in saying that you should buy a copy (don't worry, Moms & Dads, you're getting free copies. But the rest of you should buy it). You'll (hopefully) see a few reviews on some Taiwan-centric blogs, including mine, because duh.

It's pretty rare that a story from Taiwan makes it into these travel writing anthologies, and rarer still that that story is written by a female expat. I can really only think of one other that I've read - and I buy these sorts of books all the time, so I would know. They're great to bring on vacation because you can read them one story at a time. In the story I try to address the female expat experience and progressive women's issues in Taiwan, along with thoughts on being an atheist in a country that mostly practices folk religion, and what happens when those three things collide at a temple festival in Donggang.

Seriously, you should read it. I think I did pretty good. At least I tried my best to capture the atmosphere of one of these festivals outside Taipei. I haven't read the anthology yet - eventually I'll get a copy - but I'm sure the other writers wrote brilliantly as well.

Anyway, so yeah. Buy the book that has my story in June. :-P

Coffee Shirts and Updated Post

First, go to 7-11 right now and buy one of these shirts made of coffee. They are BRILLIANT. I bought one for kicks ("You'll never guess what my shirt's made of!") and it is easily the most comfortable thing I own, looks good, doesn't attract too much cat hair, and best of all, Tencel isn't lying when they say it wicks moisture. I mean, you can still sweat in it, but you'll get far less of that damp, humid "it's Taiwan, man" feeling around your underarms, underboob and elbows when it's just a bit warm. It totally wicks that away and keeps you dry. For the first time in weeks I woke up in the morning and didn't feel all greasy and sweaty! In the cold snap I never really felt chilly! Plus they're marketed as undershirts but you could totally get away with wearing them as a regular shirt if you're female (if you're male, maybe not so much). Or at least I can, I'm not exactly a fashion maven.

Anyway. You HAVE to get one of these. I am gonna go buy out my entire local 7-11 just in case they discontinue them.

In other news I updated my Boat Burning post with lots of text that explains what happens and where to be at what time when they burn the boat (next festival is in 2015). Go have a look!

The Boat. The Boat. The Boat is ON FIRE

I apologize for not having written my boat burning post sooner. That day of staying up all night segued into a high-powered presentation seminar, and I didn't really have a chance to recover until late last week. Then I got sick - I'm still fighting it, so here's hoping I'm fine by tomorrow. Just a bad cold/mild flu, you know, the usual "I feel like crap" crap.

I also started on Christmas gifts - handmade, this year, mostly - and applied for my open work permit with my shiny new APRC, so I've been busy.

I've actually got to head to class now, so here are the photos, and I'll fill it in with text and put them in order later tonight, so stop back in!

Updated:

Sorry I took so long to update this post - that "mild flu" I had earlier in the week, while it didn't get worse, per se, also didn't get better and knocked me out for the better part of the week, even though my courseload was relatively light. I just didn't have the energy to jump back in and finish this post.

I still feel like crap but have decided I'm just going to go ahead and get it done already. So, here's everything you ever wanted to know about the grand BURN-TACULAR finale of King Boat.

First, this whole shebang is not just for one god - although there is one major/most important deity (well, more of a spirit than a deity, he's not a 神(god), he's a 王爺 (god-like spirit people pray to for protection, generally much more fickle than gods, often can even be downright bad guys, generally based on real people who died, and whose ghosts, when prayed to, have seemed to provide good fortune). His name is Qian Sui Ye (千歲爺) or Thousand Years Grandfather, and he died, so it's told, on a boat that caught fire out to sea.

The King Boat is built mostly for him, but his ship had a crew, and when the spirit mediums converge on the beach at Donggang to bring him in from the sea, they're also bringing in the other crew members along with plenty of other local spirits, gods and ghosts. The whole lot of 'em then tour the Donggang countryside for a week, bringing their blessing for a prosperous three years to come. People set off fireworks as they go by - as people are wont to do in Taiwan. People also buy ghost money - both gold for gods and silver for ghosts, and make wishes on wooden plaques:

I blurred out my address and birthday - but there's one small mistake in my Chinese that wasn't due to purposely blurring. Can you find it?

These plaques are for personal wishes - most are for marriage, passing tests, good jobs, children, health, nice houses and cars and general happiness. Mine was a little more political, but few in Donggang would mind such a sentiment. Qian Sui Ye was a Fujianese figure, not a Taiwanese one, as far as I can tell (correct me if I'm wrong, oh experts), so I am not sure he'll be so sympathetic to my plea. Hence the "thank you". Even pirates - Qian Sui Ye was a pirate - probably appreciate a little courtesy.

However, the general wish of the populace for the festival as a whole is prosperity for the town and its rural outlying areas: specifically in the fishing trade. Specifically, the endangered, overfished local delicacy - bluefin tuna. That golden gate didn't build itself: tuna money built it.

People make donations and add ghost money to the King Boat pile on their own, before it gets stacked around the boat - this is how the temple and the hosting family recoup their costs (also, at the parade, lots of donation baskets). The NT$100 for each wish plaque doesn't hurt either.

The King Boat is built over the course of several months leading up to the festival, and housed in a building in front of the temple (to the left as you enter through the golden gate). There need to be "guards" to protect it, who wear traditional hats: these guards have drums (one was photographed above) and they cannot be women - because Chinese culture is totally sexist in many ways.

A lot of things down here are more traditional than up north. Every temple in the visiting parade has a spirit medium to represent their god, not just an idol, and every temple visited has one, too. The two mediums, while possessed, communicate as the two deities or spirits. The temple folks wear traditional hat and costume far more often. The dance-like steps at the parades are more elaborate. The whole thing is imbued with traditions mostly ignored in the Taipei area.

The day before the boat burns, they take it out of it's storage facility and put it on display in Donglong Temple's grand courtyard. You can see how crowded it gets, and beyond that you can see the golden gate of Donglong Temple.

In the same spot the week before was the firewalking ceremony - three years ago women were allowed to participate. This year they were not. No reason: it's true that often public/group firewalking is restricted to men, but that's mostly changed. The difference this year was that the host family was the Geng family (耿), who are apparently far more traditional than last year's hosting family.

You can tell who hosts by the little circular plaque on the boat - it's hard to see in this image, but if you look at that circle closely, it bears the Geng family name. 

The families chosen are large, important local families with ties to the temple (as is true with the hosting families of all major festivals: Keelung's Ghost Month festivities have a similar family lot-drawing process). The family pays for everything while the temple helps coordinate and organize, and together they put the whole thing on. The family that will host the 2015 King Boat was decided right after this King Boat finished. I don't know who it'll be, but whoever it is, they already know.

One student told me that to find out the details of these festivals, the county or town government can help but will more often than not give you the temple's phone number (which is what Donggang did to me). The temple will probably know, but if they don't, they will send you along to the patriarch (possibly matriarch) of the hosting family - so you could find yourself calling to ask about a local festival and talking to Old Mr. Chen, some random local guy who happens to represent that year's hosting family.

I think that's kinda cool - I don't see it going down that way in the USA. At least not where I'm from. "Cantine Field administrative office speaking. Mmm hmm. Yeah, we don't know what time the fireworks will start, why don't you call Linda Smith, her family donated the money for most of the fireworks, her number is..." - not likely.

Then, at midnight on the designated day, they start to throw fortune blocks to ask the god when the boat can be transported to the beach. The day chosen for this is theoretically based on the lunar calendar, but this is such a big deal for Donggang that they tend to massage it a bit so it always happens on a weekend night. It's their big night for tourism after all. 

In theory it could take forever to get the boat down there, or it could happen immediately. In practice, the boat usually starts making its way down between 1 and 2am - in 2009 it was on the late side, in 2012 it was on the early side. It crosses the bridge on the main road to the beach at about 2am, generally. Grab a seat - a small foldable camping chair is a GREAT idea and you should definitely bring one - and wait for the boat to come by. A small parade of dragon dancers, lion dancers and a performer in full makeup in a sedan chair representing the god generally precede it.

Then, make your way to the beach. It's worth it to get as close to the boat as possible - if you can't, though, don't fret (and if you just can't handle the crowd and want to go off somewhere to rest, you'll be able to get back to the boat, don't worry - it just won't be immediately). Hanging around by the front or back of the piles of ghost money is your best bet. Once they start piling those around the boat more room opens up and you can worm your way closer. DO NOT climb or sit on the ghost money - locals will do it, but it is considered extremely rude.

If you are going with friends, HOLD HANDS until you are on the beach. The crowd is massive and there's a bottleneck - you WILL get separated otherwise. We did.

Don't fret that masses of people made it there before you - this thing burns big, and you'll get a good view. Trust me.

Idols in LED-covered sedan chairs then tend to block the entrance to the beach. You can get around them, but it's best to just stay on the beach. Try not to have to go to the bathroom. If you do, try asking around on the road to the beach for a toilet. Go before you hit the beach - trust me.

What happens then is that some temple officials bring some possessed rods (they are possessed, as are the rods, from what I understood) to the boat - I couldn't figure out what they were for, but there's a lot of grunting and screaming as they're hauled, arms shaking as though they're trying to hold it with an angry spirit inside - up to the boat. I suspect they are the rods that hold the three masts in place, but am not sure.

Then, when the fortune blocks give the go-ahead, ghost money is piled around the boat in a wave formation - this is done by passing bags and piles of it to the boat to be set up by temple officials. 

Although women are generally allowed to touch ghost money, they're not supposed to if they're menstruating (ah, sexism in traditional cultures). The Geng family decided no women should touch the money at all, as they'd have no way of knowing who was menstruating and who wasn't. I don't recall this being a rule last time, or maybe I just didn't pick up on it.

The gods gave them very little time to get the money in place, so all the men on the beach were asked to help (NO DIRTY WOMENZ!) For anyone who thinks Taiwanese men are weaklings (racism - sigh), they hauled huge garbage bags of paper and wood and giant stacks of money to the boat for at least a few hours, with little to no break. I wouldn't say that's the sign of a weakling. 

In the rush, lots of it was dropped - here you can see the men then picking it up to send over to the boat.

During and after that, they announce how much was given to the gods (it's always a "GREAT YEAR!" but apparently this year really was great - what with the economy and overfishing of bluefin tuna, I guess the people of Donggang needed all the help they could get. The announcements are all in Taiwanese - they don't deign to change to Mandarin for foreigners (which includes people from Taipei)  but are general welcome messages, accounts of how much was donated, that sort of thing.

Then, the god gives the go-ahead at about 4:30 in the morning, maybe 5, and there's a ceremony on the boat. A suona (that reedy oboe-like instrument that large groups of old people play during temple parades) is played and the life-size anchors on either end of the boat are lifted, to represent Qian Sui Ye and the other gods returning to the sea - but this time with their bounty of ghost money to ensure that they'll be good to the locals for the next three years.

A little while after that, fireworks are draped all around the money (not on the boat itself as far as I could tell) and lit with blowtorches.

Three years ago temple guys kept us well away from the popping firecrackers - the Geng family didn't. Super-traditional - our only defense was our own sense of caution. This proved to be enough - nobody wants to be too close to thousands of firecrackers going off and setting a ten-foot-high mount of money and offerings aflame.

In theory this could start anytime - in practice, it always happens between 5 and 5:30am, and the main part of the burning happens just at sunrise. It's quite poetic, really, the boat going up in flames as the sun tilts its head above the horizon, as Qian Sui Ye symbolically sails back out to sea on his burning vessel.

Most people leave not long after - I try to stay until all three masts have fallen. This year it took longer and we stayed until about 7am, when all but one mast had collapsed. The crowd thins as the skies get lighter, generally.

I took tons of photos with different filters:

It really is something of a transformative experience - you get super tired, jostled by people, sweaty and sandy, totally ready to collapse, and then as morning comes you're blinded by a great ball of fire, representing the amalgamated folk beliefs of an entire region, all their hopes, all their worries for the coming year, sent off on a fiery sea - it's like a kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve, with the promise of new chances and new discoveries. It's something right in front of your face that is connected, cycle after cycle, through the depths of history.

And some other poetic crap.

It's more fun to watch things burn, so let's do that:

The boat itself is a real boat, as in, I do believe it could set sail (it's obviously not a modern design, however). It's built out of a fragrant wood - the whole beach smells of sweet, smoky wood as it burns - but I don't know which kind.

Generally speaking, it continues all through the day and well into the next night, if not the second day after that.

This is the "I Love Taiwan" guy. You know who I mean.

Afterwards, we stumbled back to our hotel, took showers and slept until about 2pm. Then we got up, washed up again briefly, and went out to eat (there was an excellent Vietnamese place near our hotel with nourishing food). We felt almost jetlagged, and very lazily wandered Donggang until the sun set again.

I have said before and maintain my belief: Taiwan may have many ugly buildings, but Taiwan is not ugly. Plenty of its architecture is interesting, lovely, quirky, attractive, worth a second look. Donggang, being a fairly wealthy little town with a compact town center (be prepared to walk a lot, but things aren't that far apart), has a fair number of these interesting little gems:

And a large-breasted cow:

She's advertising milk powder.

We returned to Donglong Temple at dusk:

It was still active - we were tired, so we rested a bit, didn't really exert ourselves too much.

At Donglong Temple, we picked up some lucky rice - limit of 6 per person. You actually empty these into your regular rice, cook them and eat them with dinner to ingest the good luck.

They're emblazoned with good luck sayings and the name of Qian Sui Ye.

We also saw this fat dog.

Anyone who says Taiwa is straight-up ugly hasn't looked closely enough.

Then we headed back to the beach to see the fire blaze on.

We ran into a spirit medium for Ji Gong (濟公) who was not possessed: he was taking photos of the blaze, in fact.

He took a liking to us, and let us wear his costume!

See?!

I make a better Ji Gong than Brendan. I think. I've got the eccentricity and gregariousness to pull it off.

Then we walked slowly to Donutes, Donggang's only Taipei-style coffeeshop (it's like an Ikari mixed with a Cafe 85 plus gelato). They're all over Taiwan, just not Taipei, and offer an indoor seating space - the only coffee/cake shop in Donggang to do that.

Some helpful info:

Transport: Kaohsiung Bus Company (高雄客運) from Kaohsiung Main Station (from the only MRT exit, turn left and it's down the side road on the left. Buses every 20 minutes, takes about 1 hour. Last bus at 10:30pm or so.

Bus drops you off near Guangfu Road in Donggang - get off the bus, walk straight ahead until the Cafe 85 and then turn right. That's Zhongshan, the main thoroughfare of Donggang. If you hadn't turned you'd eventually have come upon Donglong Temple on your left.

Many hotels partner with a van service that can pick you up at the door of your hotel once an hour (when in that hour depends on the hotel) to head back to Kaohsiung - inquire about this and you won't have to walk to the bus stop (where you got dropped off, across the street by the 7-11).

A taxi from Kaohsiung Airport will cost about NT$700. The buses do stop at the airport.

Hotels: Always book in advance because you're not going to get a room that night if you show up without a reservation.

Donggang doesn't have many downtown hotels - we stayed at the Dai Que Hotel (代卻大旅社) which is serviceable and clean, but very, very basic. NT$700/night for a double, $1200-$1500 for a 4-person room (2 double beds). TV, air conditioning, drinking water, toiletries, private bathroom included but it's NOT fancy. Bring your own towel. Trust me. Run by a gaggle of obasans - one will break your knuckles, one has teeth destroyed by betel nut and one dresses like a hooker despite being in her 60s and will talk your ear off in Taiwanese (she's my favorite). It's central - close to the beach, harbor and temple.

Dapeng Bay Hotel (大鵬灣大飯店) - nicer, but far more expensive option on Zhongshan Road.

Near Dai Que Hotel in the lanes around Bo'ai street we came across a few more homestays that I can't find information for.

Food and Coffee: You can eat at the night-market like area around the temple or the beach, but my recommendation if you are not a vegetarian is to go to Huaqiao Harbor, which will be in all the guidebooks. My top pick restaurant is Yu Nong (魚農), the first restaurant on the right after the bathrooms once past the main harbor gate. The "you buy we cook" places before the gate are also good.  Try the fried tuna belly, the fish balls, the other local specialty - cherry blossom shrimp rice (櫻花炒飯). Or keep going past the first clutch of restaurants to the BBQ guy with a truck - get the oysters (NT$100 a portion), the handmade tempura sticks, or the snails.

Donutes, Donggang's only real coffeeshop, is at the far end of Zhongshan Road, just south of Bo'ai Street (about as far from the bus stop/Donglong Temple as you can get, but in Donggang that's not very far), near the bridge at the other end of town. 24-hours a day and has all the caffeine options a hardened Taipei'ite will need to weather a few days outside the city. It's very close to Dai Que Hotel, another bonus.

What to bring:

- insect repellent
- money (plenty of ATMs in Donggang, none by the beach)
- a small folding chair that you can easily carry
- a small towel to wipe off sweat
- water - try to drink it slowly so you never have to pee, because, uh, good luck with that if you do
- wet wipes (trust me - you'll feel so grungy, these will be so welcome)
- either some alcohol if you want to daze around pleasantly buzzed, or some Red Bull if you want to stay awake
- extra camera batteries
- Panadol/ibuprofen/Tiger Balm (the crowd gives some people headaches or you might get stuck next to Mr. Stinky)
- a few snacks
- sandals you can stand in for awhile (you won't want to get sand in trainers or boots)
- good walking shoes (Donggang doesn't have buses, but it's very compact. You'll walk a lot).

Beef Sashimi, Goose Liver Sushi and My Interesting Month. Plus Links.

BURN IT!

October has proven to be quite the interesting month - I've spent much of it shuttling between Taipei and Donggang for King Boat, one of my favorite festivals, eating some really ridiculously good food and generally making merry. Here's a recap:

Beef sashimi

                 
Last night we went out for beef sashimi at 無雙牛肉 in Yonghe, in a lane off Lehua Night Market (#24-1, Alley 6, Lane 111 Yonghe Road Sec. 1 - you have to enter the night market to get there). Although you can get it elsewhere, I'm sure, this was my first beef sashimi experience and I was pleased. The first plate we got was thawed, but served cold, and had a velvety mouthfeel. The second was more frozen - I preferred the first, but the slight crunch of ice with the second was also good. The chef is a real foodie and has lots of rules (sashimi before soup, don't harass, bother or disturb the boss, beef sashimi only on Wednesdays). Another good find there is the beef soup, which has a slightly cloudy but deeply flavored and textured, a real umami-bomb of broth.

Listen to the boss.

                                     

Another cool temple in Donggang

The week before that, I returned to 貍小路 (Tanuki Koji) on Anhe Road, one of my favorite Japanese-style restaurants (an izikaya, really), which happens to be very close to my apartment. Despite the price (you won't get out for less than NT$1000 per person unless you forgo sake, and why do that?), and the difficulty of getting seats, I absolutely love their food. The old Taipei Times review points to the potato, cheese and fish roe dish, beef sashimi and grilled fish as your best bets, along with sea urchin. The urchin is great and I always love the fish, but the beef sashimi is no longer available. My recommendations are the milkfish sushi, the stuffed chicken wings (stuffed with meat, fish roe and some red pepper for a hot aftertaste), the blanched tomato in sesame sauce and the sea urchin.

我很貴

And then there's the one thing you absolutely cannot miss: the goose liver sushi. It's lightly seared goose liver (not sure if it's foie gras or just goose liver, and I don't want to know) with a touch of a delicious sauce served as one-bite sushi. It seems like a large portion for one bite, but the goose liver melts in your mouth and creates an explosion of earth-shattering flavor. Unless you're a vegetarian, you absolutely have to try it. It will change your life. Just don't sit where I sat: I'm pretty sure they had to clean that cushion after my visit. It was that good.

Between these two memorable restaurant visits, I went to the boat burning that marks the end of King Boat festival. Not only is it an exhausting, but fascinating and in some ways transformative experience to stay up all night on a beach full of people and watch a life-size boat (and huge pile of ghost money) burn at dawn, it also makes for some really cool photos. I'll wrote another post on that later.


                    

                    

After the burning, we slept in and spent the rest of the day in Donggang - I'll write more about that later. What I'll note here is that we ran into an off-duty spirit medium the next evening - I thought he was doing some sort of ceremony around the still-burning remnants of the boat and ghost money, but no, he was taking photos.

And then he let us do this (in fact, it was his idea):

                       

                       

As you can see, I am way more comfortable as 濟公 the eccentric monk than Brendan is. Clearly I am a kindred spirit to Ji Gong (hah!), no matter how unflattering his robe is on me. An eccentric monk with a benevolent heart who enjoys meat and alcohol? Sign me up! Except for the monk part.

Part of the "South Taiwan, So Cool" Exhibit                    

Before heading down for the boat burning, I stopped for a few hours in Kaohsiung. This doesn't get its own post because the show is over, but Pier 2 was having a really interesting exhibit on products designed and made in southern Taiwan (South Taiwan, So Cool!). Some of it was graphic design, with a huge display of southern Taiwanese graphic design from the 19th century up until modern times, some was artsy design or traditional cottage industry stuff (think Hakka Blue, Meinong oilpaper umbrellas), some was manufacturing (think Kymco bikes), some was local goods (think baked goods).

                         



The entire exhibit was in Chinese, which was a shame - I can read but I'm slow, and I had to get to Donggang, so I only had the time to read a few plaques. Foreigners who can't read at all would be at a loss here, and yet I can imagine there are foreigners who are illiterate in Chinese but would be quite interested in something like this. Signage in English, even if it's kind of Chinglishy, would have been a good idea.

I also stopped at the Dome of Light just for fun - I love it and haven't been there in years - and got some famous Gong Cha lightly salted cream green tea (near MRT Yanchengpu). Now, I just found out that there's one right near my apartment on Tonghua Street, but at the time I didn't realize that and I thought it was all special. But I don't regret going all the way out there. That tea is GOOD!



Donggang's famous place for eatin' is Huaqiao harbor market (華僑市場), where I ate very well for those two weekends, ping-ponging between a guy with a truck that sells grill-your-own local fish, snails, cheap oysters (one serving is NT$100, three servings is massive) and handmade Taiwanese tempura (甜不辣) among other things...and Yu Nong (漁農), the best restaurant at the harbor in my opinion, which does a mean tuna belly and some fantastic fried fish balls.

In Donggang we enjoyed some good Vietnamese food, too - one of the best things about heading down there is enjoying the tasty and generally authentic Southeast Asian food available due to the large SE Asian communities in the area.

One small part of The Dome of Light

             
I also did what I would consider to be one of my best presentation seminars - I'd done great ones previously for some other clients, but this one really knocked it out of the park. We got a fantastic group of people from Moet Hennessy (the luxury conglomerate that also owns Glenmorangie, Ardbeg and other wine and spirit purveyors. I linked to Glenmorangie's Taiwan Facebook page because I heard a whole presentation about it the other day) who already had strong English and were very receptive to advanced-level skills, bonus lessons and tips, and feedback. It capped off with a 20-minute talk on whiskey tasting, delivered by a fantastic presenter. It went 10 minutes overtime (final presentations are meant to be ten minutes) but was so interesting that nobody bothered to stop him from talking.

It was much better than the time I did a similar seminar and got to hear a presentation about erectile dysfunction in obese Asian men at 9am on a Saturday in a hospital conference room. I'm happy that I now know a lot more about whiskey (which I was already a fan of, the peatier the better), but could stand to know a bit less about erectile dysfunction in obese Asian men.

Finally, I got my permanent resident certificate (woohoo!). They say the process is supposed to be quick. It's not, at least not for me. I started it in May and got the card in October.

Oh yes, and I met Jet Li.

                             

I'll leave you with some links - 

US isn't doing so well in gender equality (duh)

An honest discussion of the wage gap

Sexism in the skeptic/atheist community: the scandal continues. I'm a skeptic and an atheist but not a part of the community, and not interested in being a part of it. This is a part of the reason (also, I just don't like joining groups. Dunno, I'm weird like that).

A really good answer to guys who feel they've been "friend zoned" - either be her friend, or don't, but make that decision for you and don't blame her for her lack of interest (but do walk away if she strings you along with no clear answer)

Boosting the birth rate in Taiwan (which I personally don't think is necessary beyond attaining replacement level birth rates)

Is paying a new graduate in Taiwan NT$20,000 a month for a 25-day/month work week even remotely acceptable? I don't think so, but the government doesn't seem too concerned. They keep the minimum wage at about NT$17,000+/month and don't seem to be doing much to address the issue. I might write more on this later.

Even Nice Can Be Annoying - a good answer to why women get annoyed when men hit on them.

Mitt Romney Greets a Gay Veteran, Has His Ass Handed To Him - Mitt Romney would probably not say right to a gay person's face, or address the LGBT community, that he supports continued discrimination against them, that he believes it is right and legal to restrict their rights and block legislation seeking to end such discrimination. That it's OK to treat them as second-class citizens because his religious opinion is more important than their rights. (If he did do that I'd still think him vile and bigoted, of course, but at least I'd say he's got a pair of brass ones, no matter how misplaced his ideas). Had he known that veteran was gay he probably would have changed what he said - to what, exactly, I don't know. If you're not willing to say something to someone's face, or address a group head on with your views, it is a good sign that your views are terrible.

Same for a lot of Republican candidates and legislators talking about women's issues, by the way. I doubt Richard Mourdock would go up to a rape victim who was impregnated by her rapist, and tell her how to feel (specifically that she should feel the child is a 'gift from God' - a god she may not believe in), and that feeling any other way is unacceptable to him because for some reason his opinion matters.

I do think there is hope for the Taiwanese economy (these guys are my clients, by the way, so I'm kind of biased). There may not be hope for wage growth or sane working hours, but I don't believe Taiwan's economic prospects are so dire as many locals believe.

"I'm feminist and it's tradition in China? On keeping your last name" - a great blog post by Jocelyn. Only one quibble -  it's not longstanding tradition in China. It's a relatively recent change, and even now the husband's name + "tai tai" (太太), a la "Madame Chiang Kai-Shek" was the typical form of address for a woman - among others that all stressed the husband's name over any mention of the wife's. Even in Taiwan many of the older women still go by their husband's last name. In our apartment complex, plenty of articles in our local newsletter refer to women with two last names - theirs and their husband's. I wrote something quite different awhile back, on how it's normal in Taiwan not to change your name, but I did. 

I am, however, considering legally changing it back and just going by my married name socially, as other than my marriage certificate, that's what I do anyway.

And just a final interesting photo: