What Asian Americans think of their ancestral homelands, other Asian countries, and the US

Bit of a ponderous title, I know, but I'm writing this quickly. Lots of cool data just dropped from Pew on how Asian Americans feel about their homeland, other countries in Asia, and the US. 

You can read all of the data here, including some interesting parts on whether Asian Americans would move (or move back) to their homelands -- most wouldn't -- what immigrants vs. those born in the US think, and who different groups think will be the leading economic power in the coming decade (most still posit that it will be the US, China is a distant second.)

I want to focus on the things I find interesting. Pew, of course, won't speculate on reasons for the data unless they're direct responses from those surveyed. I, however, can do what I like! Just be aware that this is my opinion, and I'm just as capable of being wrong as any other person.

Some of the data is unsurprising: just about every group views their ancestral homeland more favorably than any other group. Taiwanese, South Koreans and Japanese view their own homeland more favorably than anywhere else listed, but that's not necessarily true for every group, with (for instance) Chinese Americans viewing the US, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan more favorably than China. This doesn't shock me: I could imagine viewing democratic nations with advanced economies favorably if you or your ancestors came from China -- famously unevenly developed, and certainly not free and democratic. 

Taiwanese have very highly favorable ratings of Taiwan, which is fantastic to see. There's a narrative about that Taiwanese are running away from the "ghost island" because life is getting harder for the middle class, real estate prices are skyrocketing, wages stagnating, and career opportunities curtailed. Perhaps -- Taiwan is hardly perfect -- but that's not reflected in how Taiwanese Americans feel about Taiwan. 

There is data on how Chinese Americans view China and Taiwan broken down by whether they're immigrants or US-born, but not Taiwanese Americans. That data is interesting, and I'll show it here, but not really what I want to focus on. 

Also unsurprising is the overall negative view of China, even among Chinese Americans. No other group shows this. Even Vietnam, the Philippines and India are favorably looked upon by those with that ancestry....but not China! China is not only widely disliked by Chinese Americans, but Asian Americans in general. 

It's also interesting to me that Chinese Americans view Taiwan more favorably than China (62% vs 41%). With all the influence operations coming out of China, backed by massive amounts of money and government support, it must be a blow to the CCP that Chinese Americans still don't like China very much, and in fact Taiwan -- which isn't even trying to court them! -- ranks higher than their own ancestral homeland. 

What's more, despite the CCP's attempt to portray the US as well as Asian democracies, especially those with advanced economies, as cesspools of crime, divisiveness and misery, Chinese Americans not only view them more favorably than China, but also think the US will continue to be the leading economic power in the next decade. Although Chinese Americans rank China's potential to be the world's top economy higher than any other group, it's still not a great result for China. 

Again, The Media has already created my reaction for me.

While Chinese Americans view China more favorably than any other group does, it's still just 41%. That's quite a bit lower than their favorability towards those aforementioned democracies with advanced economies. 

All I can say about this has already been expressed in song. (I prefer the cover, even though I've heard Radiohead hates it). 

In addition, as my glee is unbridled, please enjoy this gif of China disseminating non-stop hate at the US, Japan and Taiwan and then getting their comeuppance:

Also unsurprising is how unfavorably Taiwanese Americans view China: although other groups' favorability toward China is quite low, Taiwanese Americans really round out the pessimism at 2%. 

Gee, I wonder why. 

South Koreans being the only group to view Japan unfavorably was predictable. I'm more interested in how Japanese and Taiwanese view each others' countries. Again unsurprisingly despite the history of Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, Japanese and Taiwanese show an affinity for each other. 

Taiwanese rate Japan better than the US, and comparably with Taiwan. After the US and Japan, Japanese view Taiwan most favorably. Living in Taiwan this doesn't really shock me: Taiwanese generally seem to be very into Japan, much more so than Korea despite modern South Korean soft power. I do still hear Taiwanese in Taiwan say they like the refinement of Japanese culture and the cleanliness of Japan, but find Koreans "arrogant" or "hot-tempered". I don't particularly agree with that -- in general I enjoy visiting South Korea -- I'm just reporting what locals have said to me. It's not surprising that it would spill out into an immigrant population. 

Basically, Taiwanese like K-pop, Korean dramas and Korean fashion. But as a country to visit, they overwhelmingly seem to prefer Japan. I have been told outright that this is a cultural affinity thing (plus, in general, kanji is readable to Taiwanese whereas Korean is not.)

There's a popular deep blue-red (KMT/Chinese) narrative that Taiwanese love Japan because of some sort of colonized mindset. You know, the dog trained by its master loves its master or something. This also pops up in far left Taiwanese discourse, though perhaps not as much. I don't think it's true: ask just about any Taiwanese if they think Japanese colonialism was a good thing, and they'll say no -- colonization is never "good". But, a lot of Japanese culture seeped into Taiwan in those 50 years, and I can understand a certain perspective that Japanese colonialism, while not "good", was better than the Qing colonialism that came before, and the KMT colonizers that came after. 

Yes, the Qing and the Nationalists were/are both colonizing entities on Taiwan. That they came from China and most Taiwanese can trace some or all of their ancestry to China does not matter (and when the Qing arrived, most Taiwanese actually could not say their ancestors were Chinese. Qing settler colonialism changed that). Their mentality was -- and in the case of the KMT, is -- that of the colonizer, and they treated Taiwan like a colony. Some deep blues still do. 

Here's something I wonder about: of the three "favorable" Asian countries -- Japan, South Korea and Taiwan -- views of Taiwan are the least favorable, though still clearly over 50%. I would have expected more dislike for Japan overall given their history of colonialism across Asia, but it doesn't play out here. China, the contemporary aggressor, gets a lot more hate (ha ha!) than the historical Japanese empire. South Korea makes sense as they've become a soft power powerhouse. 

That could be the same of Japan -- it's easy to forget the atrocities of the Japanese empire when there's a new villain in town, and when post-war Japan has been a major exporter of soft power. 

This might also have something to do with Chinese influence operations spewing disinformation about Taiwan that other Asian Americans are picking up on, but given their overall negative view of China, I'm not sure I can support that notion. However, it might play a role, given that positive views of China go up as educational attainment goes down: 

Asian Americans with higher levels of educational attainment often feel more positively about the places they were asked about than those with lower levels of formal schooling:

When it comes to views of India, 42% of those with a postgraduate degree have favorable views of the country, compared with 35% of those with a bachelor’s degree and 27% of those with less formal schooling.

The pattern is reversed, though, when it comes to China. Asian Americans with lower levels of education tend to feel more positively about China than those with more education. [Emphasis mine]. For example, 17% of those with at least a bachelor’s degree have positive views of China, compared with 23% of those who did not complete college.

For India, I can see this. To many, it may look like just a "poor country" (again, not a reflection of my opinion, just a common one I've heard). Get a bit more educated about the world and you'll see that it does have a real, if flawed, democracy and a pretty vibrant progressive/left movement. And it's simplistic to call it "poor". Like China, it's complicated.

Honestly, having lived in both countries, I enjoyed India far more, and happily return every few years for a visit. There's a vibrancy to India that China lacks. If I never go to China again, I'll be fine with it. 

There is a persistent narrative that Taiwan is less successful than the other Asian Tigers and not quite as nice as Japan. This could have something to do with it -- it doesn't look as shiny as South Korea or Japan for sure (Japan was not an "Asian Tiger" but, given similar levels of development, I'm counting them here). 

I don't agree with this: Taiwan has better universal health insurance, solid purchasing power and better wealth equality. Although other countries do outstrip Taiwan in some indicators, all that really tells me given the wealth equality gaps in those countries is that the rich have more, and can do more. I still think there's an argument to be made that despite its faults and imperfections, Taiwan might just be the most successful of the advanced Asian democracies where it really matters. 

I don't have much else to say, and I know this is an abrupt conclusion, but I suggest you go read all the data for yourself. It's pretty interesting! 

 

The rigged game, and how to feint

This meme just seemed appropriate. 

I have a lot to do today, but wanted to quickly explore the game. 

Here's how it works. People who should be on the same team appear to be split. There are those who think Trump's rhetoric on China and the WHO is right, and we must stand up to these global organizations. This group tends to believe that, as a result, Trump's actual actions constitute good strategy.

Then there's the camp that think nothing Trump says can ever be correct, and therefore we shouldn't stand against China, as this could create "a new cold war". They also tend to view the WHO as mostly good, rather than mostly political.

Both sides are partially wrong. Rhetorically, the Trump administration is mostly correct. Leaving aside "they gutted American industry" - no, we did that to ourselves - and talk of excluding whole groups of Chinese citizens, it's not wrong to point out that China is planning to treat Hong Kong as just another Chinese province, and that they've basically taken control of the WHO.

The CCP is on the brink of committing an unthinkable atrocity and have already committed many others. The WHO is a political organization that prioritizes factional battles over actually helping people. Hong Kongers do need assurance of assistance, both locally and as potential refugees. These issues do need to be dealt with and can't be buried under talk of "engagement" with a government that simply cannot be trusted to keep its promises.

But strategically, Trump is wrong. Ending Hong Kong's special status makes sense in terms of ensuring that China doesn't benefit from Hong Kong while oppressing it. But China's ultimate goal is to make Hong Kong unimportant, an extension of Shenzhen rather than a distinct cultural and economic entity. The CCP so clearly wants to promote cities like Shanghai as finance hubs and gateways to China, and I doubt they've realized that this won't be appealing to much of the world. Hong Kong's relative wealth and visibility make it difficult to control when its residents rebel against CCP brutality. Shanghai, on the other hand, is basically obedient.

On this front, I don't know what to say. The game is rigged. There is no right move. End Hong Kong's special status, and you hand China something that helps them destroy Hong Kong. Keep it in place, and you let China off the hook and help them economically, after all of the horrors they have perpetuated. Someone clearly foresaw this choice when thinking through their government's possible actions - and it wasn't anyone in the Trump administration. China had this in the bag before we even knew we were in a game.

This is basic strategy and it was not foregone that the CCP would figure it out first. In any case, it makes me absolutely furious that the US really should have known that this was the CCP's endgame. After all, Taiwan and Hong Kong have been ringing the warning bells since at least since 2014. The day the first Hong Kong bookseller was attacked was the day the US should have started figuring out what the end game might look like.

Instead, they ignored all of the Asian voices who honestly tried to raise the alarm - when I say that Taiwan has been trying to warn the world about the CCP Virus, I don't just mean COVID19. It's one of the fatal flaws of the West that they just don't seem to hear non-Western voices warning about a rising Nazi-like threat in their own backyard and boom, now we've got a Sudetenland situation.

The proposed exclusion of some Chinese students from the US is also a no-win strategy. CCP incursion into global (including Western) academia is a real thing and genuine security threat, and it's well-known that the CCP has a say in which students can go abroad, asking some to collect information in return for tuition paid. Banning Chinese students who studied at Chinese military universities as undergraduates (not all Chinese students, or even most, as some have claimed) seems to make sense.

But let's remember that the students themselves are not tied to any known wrongdoing, and security protocols already exist. If this is a threat it is probably not a highly pressing one - meaning it's showy but of negligible consequence - and that Trump wanted to institute a much broader ban in 2018, long before the Hong Kong protests began. Banning Chinese students as a broad category is a long-term goal of the Trump administration and many Republicans. It's not really about Hong Kong.

There are other things that can be done. Institute stricter security. Ban Confucius Institutes. End CCP funding for academic titles and other programs. You can enforce rules - which I am sure already exist - barring student groups from harassing other students and disbanding any groups that engage in such behavior. Why broadly target Chinese students?

In any case, Trump's rhetoric on Hong Kong doesn't exonerate him from the inherent racism of his administration, and doing everything he can to target Chinese students as a group, rather than looking for institutional ways to counter CCP threats, shows this.

How do we know they are racist, despite talk of helping Hong Kong refugees?  I mean - [gestures vaguely at Minneapolis]. But also, a big chunk of Trump's 2016 campaign was predicated on stoking racism-based fears of refugees, especially from majority Muslim and Latin American countries. Then, once in office, he defunded many refugee resettlement programs and slashed the number of refugees allowed in.  Don't delude yourself that Republicans care about "refugees" as a whole.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't help Hong Kong refugees. We absolutely should. But we should help refugees, from anywhere, period. Trump never wanted to do that, and he's not going to. 

Finally, withdrawing from the WHO is not the way to fix problems inherent to the WHO. I spent a short amount of time supporting the US defunding that absolute joke of an organization, but honestly, the US is just conceding ground here. The WHO is garbage and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus should be removed from office, if not in jail. But it is still an organization that the rest of the world broadly believes in, for some reason, and China will simply be able to control it better. Not necessarily through funding, but through building up a block of allies:

(2/X) So how? I think the answer lies in the group dynamics of WHO members, which in turn influence the WHO leadership. In WHO’s 2017 election of Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was backed by the global south as well as China, which often poses itself as...

— Yu-Jie Chen 😷 (@yujiechentw) March 31, 2020

representing the interests of the global South. See this:https://t.co/Bb8ApcsNV7. Although WHO’s ballots were cast in secret (we couldn’t see who voted what), I would be surprised if there had not been careful coordination between China & global South to ensure Tedros' victory.

— Yu-Jie Chen 😷 (@yujiechentw) March 31, 2020

(Go read the whole thread). 

This rebranding of "authoritarian nations" as "the Global South" (a possibly once helpful way of thinking about the world which I think has lost its luster) is a part of what keeps the dumber among liberals still believing in them. 

A big chunk of China's argument for why it should be considered next global leader is that unlike the evil, imperialist, Western United States, China represents a new and better orientation away from the primacy of Western (and therefore historically imperialist) interests in the world. 

There are a lot of people who believe (correctly) that white, Western countries became rich in great part from plundering the wealth of the rest of the world, and that this is one of the great tragedies of history. However, there's a tendency to twist that argument around and insist that as imperialism in all its forms is most visibly white, that it can therefore only be white, and therefore anything "non-Western" must be preferable.

Frankly, I see the appeal. Nothing sounds better than re-orienting towards leadership by people of color who can build a more equitable post-colonial world.

Except, of course, China's not doing that. 

Their goal is not to break down divisions so that the "Global South" may enjoy the same level of development and well-being as the "Global North", which would include things like human rights. It's to cement its position as the permanent leader of these nations, supporting and replicating its own system of anti-humanitarian, authoritarian repression. It wants supplicants. Serfs. It wants its own colonial empire, cloaked in the language of leftie progressivism. 

The WHO is just a tool in that game. And by withdrawing, we're handing it to them.

Usually I say that when it comes to the CCP, the only way to win the game is not to play, but this is absolutely not what I mean. Opposition is not the same as playing. There are games bigger than those devised by the CCP that are worth playing, and this was one of them.

There are better ways, and if the rest of the world would only listen to Taiwan, perhaps they'd see that.

Rather than flouncing off in a huff and leaving the WHO to China, Taiwan has been trying to raise awareness of its exclusion. That not only helps Taiwan's global visibility, it highlights the ways that the CCP has been slowly taking over international organizations. Engaging, petitioning, speaking out, countering - yes, it feels like playing a game we can't win, but honestly, we got pretty far with it. There was an impact, however unsatisfying in the end.

In fact, one of the reasons I admire President Tsai is that she can look at China's ridiculous carnival games - hoops on an angle, balls that are too big for their buckets, weighted milk bottles, carefully-placed tables of a certain height - and see not just the game, but the rigging. If you can see the rigging, you can begin to devise a strategy to get around it. Tsai does this better than any other leader in the world. 

Even when it comes to issues such as framing the discussion on independence or potentially (maybe) gaining diplomatic recognition, she treads like a trained explosives detector across a minefield, not a tank. Trump? He's a tank with a particularly stupid driver.

She's doing that rather marvelously, and Trump is flailing like the screaming racist baby he is. He may be tough on the CCP, and I do actually think he is right about them, but he doesn't know what to do about it. His strategies will fail, because they were ham-fisted to begin with and certainly didn't take into account what's really going on with these games.

This is why Tsai, not Trump - and not "we have a strategic interest to engage" Merkel (translation: $$$), nor "did well with COVID19 but not so much the CCP Virus" Ardern - is the true leader of the free world. 

There is more that Taiwan can do, which I'd like to explore in a later post. There are reasons why pivoting away from the US and towards an "Asian Century" is not a bad idea, as long as that century does not include the CCP - again, for a later post.

What I'm trying to say here is: when deciding exactly how not to play the CCP's games, there is more strategy involved than people realize. It's not always a simple matter of walking away, because other players and bigger concerns need to be dealt with.

Taiwan has figured this out. One of the best strategies we can adopt is simply to listen to Taiwan and other Asian voices when they warn of encroaching CCP authoritarianism. For liberals, that means curbing the tendency to equate "we want to engage with the world and that includes China" with being a good liberal and global citizen. Good liberals don't pretend modern-day Nazis are acceptable negotiation partners and listen to marginalized voices around the world, not just dominant ones. For conservatives, it means ending racist platforms in all ways and actually paying attention to the voices of people of color, rather than acting like white saviors.

For both sides, just listen. The rest of Asia - and especially Taiwan - is telling you what to do and where the traps are.

When will the US and the rest of the world open its ears?

How To Choose A Side

This is about us against them. 



After yesterday’s horrifying events in Hong Kong, I spent a fair amount of time on my couch bawling. The day before, police had terrorized shopping malls, beating people up randomly - some of whom were just shopping. Yesterday, the police ramped up their campaign of brutality by shooting at unarmed protesters (including hitting one in the abdomen with a live round), trying to mow protesters down on a motorbike and thanking protesters for coming out “so they could shoot at them” and laid siege to the CUHK campus for no discernible reason. 



In addition, protesters themselves had set on fire a man who was arguing with them after an extended dispute. From the video, which you absolutely should not watch, they were not defending themselves as it was one man against several of them. The man is in critical condition (as was the teenager who was shot in the chest by police). 



I cried not only for Hong Kong, but because earlier that day I had walked through my neighborhood in the late afternoon. It was balmy and breezy. Young lovers canoodled on an old bench in my courtyard. Retirees and their care workers and dogs loitered at picnic tables under the broad umbrellas. Outside my complex, a woman helped her elderly father walk slowly down the footpath, under the hanging vines from an old tree in a sidewalk planting patch. Two construction workers joked on break. 

A group of pedestrians tapped their smartphones waiting for the light to change, a decorative cement compass showing the four cardinal directions was embedded in the footpath behind them. An MRT train whizzed by on the tracks overhead. 

And all I could think was "these streets could be on fire in just a few months”. 



Listening to BBC World Service that evening, the reporter interviewed both activist leader Joshua Wong as well as an anti-protest legislator. 

Wong, as with everyone I’ve heard comment on this tragic event (with one unfortunate counter-example) emphasized that neither he nor other activists and organizers approved of what was done to the man who argued with demonstrators. They not only refused to condone such actions, they actively condemned them. And they are right to do so - it was a stupid, useless move that will cost them local and international sympathy and make people question how ‘peaceful’ these protesters really are. There is no benefit in it - it was something done out of pure rage. The rage itself is justified, but the actions taken as a result are not. 

Even as Wong decried police actions yesterday and in previous weeks and months, he was very clear about this. That the man was ‘wrong’ doesn’t matter - it shouldn't have to be said that never acceptable to set someone on fire. 



The thing is, I haven’t really heard anyone on the protesters’ side defend what those individuals did. This is one of the very few times that the protesters attacked without needing to, rather than fighting in self-defense or going after the police who are going after them (which at this point I think might be justified given the widespread police brutality). In each case where this has happened - protesters and their allies have engaged in long public discussions of whether such actions were right or wrong, and even apologized publicly in one case. 



Looking at the other side, they don’t extend the same courtesy. Following Joshua Wong, the pro-China legislator - I didn’t catch her name - spent her entire interview time ranting about the violent, radical “rioters” and really hammered home that they’d set a man on fire. Her criticism is justified, but she refused to do the simple, humane thing that Joshua Wong had done and admit that her ‘side’ had committed numerous brutal acts as well - including being implicated in the death of protester Chan Tsz-lok among the crimes named above. To her, all police action was justifiable; none of it consisted of mindless brutalization. 

Wong acknowledged the humanity of the man attacked by protesters and condemned such treatment of the movement’s opponents. The lawmaker would not do the same - they’re all just mindless rioters and they have what’s coming to them so we can “keep the peace”. One imagines she thinks that Beijing’s oppressive peace is not only preferable to today’s Hong Kong, but that it’s desirable in its own right as well. She cannot see that - or why - so many of her fellow Hong Kongers disagree. 



Carrie Lam’s press conference followed a similar rationale: the protesters are violent, their demands have gone beyond a call for democracy (except they haven’t, because democracy has not been promised), they are the “enemy of the people" and will be “stopped”. Stopped for what? I have to ask. Stopped so Hong Kong can lose what really matters - its freedom? They will destroy this city, she said - as though allowing China to swallow it whole isn't another form of destruction. 



And that is the difference between us and them. 

We make mistakes. We have overly-aggressive and radical elements. We’re not even close to perfect. But we step back, we acknowledge our wrongs, we engage in discussion of our motives and actions, we’re willing to criticize and even condemn our own (which, by the way, is why it's also so hard to organize our own. It’s not that we’re wrong; that’s just the nature of the double-edged sword of self-criticism.) We evaluate our means vis-a-vis our ends. The difference isn’t that we’re angels and they’re demons - it’s that we’re all flawed, but at least our flaws are not systematic and planned, and we admit it and try to do better. 



Them? They engage not in one-off mistakes, but systematic brutalization and murder. Their goal is to deny Hong Kong the rights and freedoms they currently have, let alone any hope for democracy. You can’t look at those videos of police actions and see otherwise, so they must be aware of this, but they won’t admit it. They don't discuss it, and they certainly don’t apologize for it. 



And that’s a big part of why they are wrong and we are right. Period. There are not two sides here. There never have been. 



These events hold some important lessons for Taiwan, too. 



This wave is coming for us. Don’t pretend it isn’t - China is hell-bent on annexation, and while they may not succeed, they will attempt it in some form. It may not be full-scale invasion, but then Hong Kong didn't experience that either and look where they are. There is no such thing as peaceful unification, which means there will be protests. Those protests may turn violent, especially if we have elected a government that is more likely to excuse police violence. 

We need to prepare and organize now. 

We need to clarify our means and our ends now, too. It's imperative to make a commitment to peaceful protest, with fighting in self-defense only. Hong Kong balks at the notion of violent protest; non-participatory Taiwanese are likely to react similarly, if not more conservatively because the fight will seem at a greater distance, with China across the water holding no official sovereignty over Taiwan. Culturally, I also suspect Taiwan is in a place in its history that doesn’t look kindly on violent protests, even though it has a history of rebellions, many of which were violent. As the tsunami rolls in, we need to figuratively seek higher ground. 



It's also important to remember that despite our best efforts, such things may occur. We need to be ready to condemn them even as we stand together. We need to be ready for the ‘other side’ to condemn us even as they refuse to admit their own brutality, even if it is more systemic, more widespread, more hateful, and in the service of a totalitarian, anti-liberty goal. 



Finally, as we accept that this is coming for us, we need to make some hard personal calculations. Do we stay or go? If we stay, do we join the fight? A lot of people are going to have to decide to risk their lives to stay and fight if we have any chance of weathering this. A lot of us are going to have to risk our lives only to be maligned by ‘them’ as ‘violent rioters’. 



We're already at us vs. them, though I’m not always sure who will fall on what side. Hong Kong is learning what makes a side the right one, and what the risks really are. It's learning what it means to dig in and fight. 

Taiwan's going to have to learn that too, and soon. 

Downeasters: A Trip through Rural Pingdong County

I'm baaaaack!

I haven't been in Taiwan long, but I've been taking advantage of the short time since my arrival. My husband, friend and I almost immediately departed for a four-day trip around southern Taiwan, focusing on the lowermost east coast stretching from Xuhai (旭海) to Kending, while avoiding Kending town because we're just not into that scene.

The purpose? To take a trip around  Gangzai (港仔), Xuhai (旭海), Manzhou (滿州), Jialeshui (佳樂水), Kending (墾丁), Mudan (牡丹) and Weeping Lake (哭泣湖) on the eastern end of Pingdong County, hike along the coast to a well-known shipwreck on one of the most isolated stretches of Taiwan's coast, the only part of the coast at least in this part of the country that lacks a coastal road. That means, to see this, you can't just drive a car to a lookout point. You have to hike along the foreshore, and let me tell you, beaches it ain't.

I'm clearly re-adjusting to Taiwan. Until I bothered to read the Chinese I thought there was a dessert shop down by the beach and thought "yay!"

We also planned a short hike to Cacevakan (I do not know how to pronounce it), the site of the ruins of a 700-year-old Paiwan village, and a short, easy circle of the Xuhai grasslands. In between we drove around the Kending peninsula and stopped at various beaches and coastal areas - some stone, some pebble, some sand, and spent a night on Weeping Lake in the mountains between Pingdong and Taidong.

This is also a special trip for me because it marks the first time I have ever driven a car on the main island of Taiwan. I have driven on Matsu before, and very briefly (like helping to park) on Orchid Island, but Taiwan itself has always terrified me. I'm an inexperienced and nervous driver in the USA, so Taiwan's inattentive scooter drivers, betel nut stand lights that make it hard to suss out actual traffic lights and general sense of all sorts of random crap being thrown at you as you go down the road have turned me into a confirmed non-driver.




























Until now. You see, I've just spent the past 4 months in a small town in the Hudson Valley where you drive, or you starve. I carpooled with my sister to work and did most of the driving as I needed the practice. I took the car out on my own - a first for me. I drove more in four months than I had in 34 years, because I had to. I now feel confident enough behind the wheel that it would not be crazy to suggest me as a driver on a trip.

So, we rented a car in Pingdong as I refused to drive in Zuoying where the HSR spat us out. People say it's easy to get on the freeway from the station, but years ago we tried with my friend Emily behind the wheel, couldn't find it, and spent an hour circling Zuoying looking for a way out. NO THANK YOU. Pingdong is a smaller city, I felt that I could handle it especially if the rental office was on the outskirts (which it was), and if we then kept to highways that skirted towns and country roads. And I did! I really did! We returned the car without a scratch on it.

Along the road to Gangzai

I would like to say that I have changed my mind about driving in Taiwan and my insistence that public transit ought to be better, that I have decided to re-think my lack of desire to visit cities with inadequate public transit such as Taichung, that I am more amenable to driving in various parts of the country. But that would be a lie. I still think public transportation is better. I will still seek out buses and trains whenever possible. I still feel that public transit outside of Taipei and perhaps Kaohsiung is insufficient, and requires the attention of the government. I am still not a proponent of driving. I would still prefer not and still recommend that others try to avoid it.

Pingdong is an incredibly scenic county. Unfortunately, it's also one you can only fully enjoy if you drive or cycle. We took Route 1 (the main highway to Kending) to Route 9 (the turnoff for the mountains to Taidong, a right-hand turn to go left because driving sucks). Then we turned on County Route 199 (199縣道), stopped at a well-known Paiwan restaurant at Weeping Lake (哭泣湖 or "ku qi hu", transliterated from Paiwan "tzukudji" - it is not an incredibly tragic lake nor is it lined with weeping willows), and then turned onto Route 199-jia (199甲) to take us down to Gangzai via Xuhai. This route will take you over low mountains and, as you near Xuhai, will spit out gorgeous views of the blue ocean rippling between green bejungled hills before you start to descend.

Before you set off on this trip, I highly recommend making reservations at Vais Paiwan （凡伊斯山野菜館) - the address is 屏東縣牡丹鄉東源村51號 along County Route 199, phone #08-883-0463, open 10-5pm. They're famous for their vegetables - don't go overboard on the meat, just order lots and lots of super-fresh, well-prepared veggies. You can also get Paiwan snacks, mountain pig and more.

View from 199甲

Mountain pig at Vais Paiwan - it was good, but the vegetables were better

Our next stop after Vais Paiwan was Xuhai's pebble beach, where flat, round pebbles make a downpour-like sound as the waves roll in.






















It's also a good place to watch the sunrise, but we were there in the late afternoon. A gorgeous coastal road connects Xuhai to Gangzai (港仔), which, true to its name, has a tiny little port, with lots of pretty places to stop and take photos along the way. In Gangzai, we arrived late enough that all we could really do was get dinner and turn in early. We stayed at Li Mama's  （#08-8810066）and found a fantastic dinner spot down by the water (walk back along the main road and turn right at the Earth God temple, continuing left along the short road closer to the coast - the entrance to the beach is to the right) - I especially recommend their dish of non-spicy green peppers, which are not the same as green bell peppers.

Oh, if staying in Gangzai and addicted to caffeine, I highly recommend bringing your own coffee setup - I brought those one-cup coffeebags and a bag of creamers. You won't get morning coffee anywhere else in town, although down the road an outdoor cafe setup in a field claims to have coffee, but does not appear to open early in the morning. 










































The next morning I, jetlagged as hell, woke up at 5am because the gods hate me. But, I had the chance to see the sunrise while Brendan and Joseph snoozed so I threw on flip-flops and, without brushing my hair, walked down to the beach in my pajamas. Folks in small towns in Taiwan tend not to care too much about your personal style. Of course the beach was full of the few other tourists staying in Gangzai, and they were silhouetted black against the lightening sky and water as I walked up. 

Would you believe that this is a moonrise? It is - it's not a sunrise photo at all. 

Gangzai has a sandy beach dotted with rocks and other detritus - a pleasure to walk down, but I would not recommend swimming. It is backed by several high sand dunes that a.) coat the entire town, daily, in a fresh film of fine grime and will cause you to feel grimy, too; and b.) can be traversed by renting a Jeep or ATV, a popular activity in town.

You can beachcomb for fun, drive around the dunes, or explore a half-buried pillbox.

I hadn't brought my phone, which is currently my only easily portable camera, so I have no photos. The world has enough photos of sunrises, I figured, I would just enjoy this. I could go into some long "off the grid, enjoying the sunrise"cliche, but really I just couldn't find my phone in the dark and couldn't be bothered.

Loving a good foot dip, I rolled up my PJ bottoms and let the surf wash over my toes a few times. Happy with this, I wasn't paying much attention when a larger wave rolled in, soaking me to the waist. I tried to splorp backwards to get to shallower water, but my flip-flops sunk into the roiling sand, I lifted up a foot and the surf immediately snatched my shoe away.

Okay, I thought. I'm here in PJs, with only the bare minimum of clothing, no technology and now just one shoe, watching the other one quite literally sail off into the sunrise. You win, Mother Nature! The power of the elements serves to illustrate the ephemeral nature of man! Waiter, another cliche please! Give me a TED talk!

Later, we packed up all manner of snacks and sun protection for our hike to the shipwreck. This hike was kind of a one-shot deal for us, first of all because we needed a permit (which we didn't have, but nobody was checking), and secondly because it's widely believed that this particular shipwreck is going to end up washed away by the upcoming typhoon season. The ephemeral nature of man and his works indeed!

We drove our little Vios down to Jiupeng village（九棚村) and following the incredibly scenic road along the coast down there to the very end, where it terminates in a concrete building and two small shrines. There is no food to buy - bring your own. The last general store is back in Jiupeng's "downtown", such as it is. Along this road you will find several inlets to the coast, one with a sandy beach. One lets out on a rocky outcropping you can clamor over, complete with maypole-or-prayer-flag area. From here, look to the right. In the far distance you will see an oblong shape down the coast. Look closer. That's the shipwreck.










































It looks so close! Soooo close! You could just walk there, right? 


Ha. Ha.

Keep driving, to the end of the line. As far as you can drive. 

Go to the end of the line where you'll hit the coast, a few buildings and two shrines. 

At the far shrine you can turn onto the rocky coastline. There is no trail, and the "Nanren Road" that the map promises continues this way does not exist. You'll pass a sign saying no trespassing without a permit...but nobody will check. You cannot see the shipwreck from this starting point, it's obscured by another small cape. To see it again, you'll have to round that. To get to the actual wreck, you'll have to pick your way across 4km of rocky tumbles.

We did not make it to the wreck, but we do have some photos of it from the little cape. We all agreed that, given the time it took to reach the cape, that we would never make it over even rougher rocks to the wreck and back. It looks easy, but it is incredibly hard on your legs and feet - I kept struggling to keep my balance in the shifting stones, and I'm still sunburned from the complete lack of shade. If you want to keep going, I suggest buying some cheap working gloves from 7-11, the knitted kind, to make it easier to scramble over larger rocks. 




It looks like such an easy thing, just picking your way through these smaller rocks - but it's really not. You're completely exposed, which you can deal with, but the rocks themselves radiate heat and they're small enough that they don't afford good balance. I had to keep my head down to keep from flopping all over the place, and even then I tripped and stumbled often.

It seems like you should be able to get to that first cape in maybe 30 minutes?

Yeah...it took something like 2 hours. It's only, at most, 1.5km away from the road's terminus and probably less than that.

In the end we didn't make it past the cape. From the cape, there is a view of the ship but it was agreed that the rocks beyond were simply too rough to attempt to go any further, considering the effort and time it had taken us to get this far. 




Turning back and sitting exhausted for awhile at one of the shrines, we drank tons of water, ate cereal bars and dried mango slices, and inspected some local beachcomber's collection of finds.

You can also start this hike from Manzhou or Jialeshui, starting at Little Yehliu, where the walk may be easier but it's 8km, and you are more likely to be asked for a permit. We never did figure out how one even obtained a permit. I'd say it's impossible, but Taiwanese hiking groups do this hike. 






























































We got lunch back in Gangzai at the restaurant on the main road next to Li Mama's (also good - don't miss the cuttlefish balls and fried oysters) and then continued back to Xuhai, where a much easier hike awaited us. A turn-off in Xuhai will take you up a winding but fairly well-maintained mountain road that spits you out at a high-altitude parking lot. Pay a small fee, park your car (you could hike up the road, but I do not recommend it), and a lovely, easy hike among scenic grasslands awaits. There are restrooms and food stalls here, too. Also, tour groups. 






























































This hike is so easy that a child could do it, and many did. People brought their babies and small dogs and set up entire picnics. It was a nice counterpoint to our death march earlier in the day, with only a few uphill sections. You are rewarded with stunning coastal and mountain views. I recommend sun protection. Take your time and enjoy the view. 

The next day we took off from Gangzai and headed south. We stopped briefly in Manzhou for cold drinks and to see the Yu Family Home, a 120-year old courtyard house that is still occupied, sort of (the Yus live in New York, but return fairly regularly and were in town for tomb sweeping). It's a private home but if you pop by and someone's there, they'll most likely let you in to have a look around. Across the street is another home from the same era in a state of considerable disrepair.

























Manzhou is also a decent place to stock up at 7-11 and grab a bite to eat. You can probably get directions from folks hanging out at the banyan tree at the center of town (no joke), and if you stayed to poke around you could probably find some more interesting old houses and temples.

















































We skipped Eluanbi (Brendan and I had been there years ago) because it seemed to be full of holidaymakers and instead focused on Kending sights to the east, including a much quieter and more pleasant beach than the one in Kending town, which is kind of gross and overdone.

We stopped in Jialeshui (佳樂水) where we are fairly sure the restaurant where we ate lunch, which was directly across the street from the parking lot, passed off intestine as "fish belly", despite our skeptically asking if it was indeed what we'd ordered. In addition we learned that drinking 100 cups of coffee in a short time can kill you.





Who knew? We also found that the banyan forest was closed on the weekend (so much for being a good tourist site). But, we went on to Little Yehliu, where you drive past the first parking lot (which is for a beach that looks a bit rough for swimming) and up to a further one. I suppose without a car you could walk it, but I wouldn't want to. Again, that's not a call for you to get a car, it's a call for the destinations down here to have better public transit.

 







































You pay a fairly large fee (290 for three people and one car) and hop on a shuttle bus that stops at all the least interesting rock formations. The shuttle eventually pulls up at the end of the road, which has much more interesting rocks that you can actually get out and climb over. Your shuttle will leave in 10 minutes but you can take any leaving shuttle and stay as long as you like. There's a guy there selling coconuts you can drink from and bottled drinks. This final stop is really what's worth coming for.



After Jialeshui we drove back up Rt. 200 towards Gangzai, but turned at Changle (長樂), a small Paiwan town to get on Rt. 172 (a left-hand turn coming from Kending, a very weirdly angled right coming from Gangzai that you will probably miss, which bears a sign for Gaoshi/高士). Having trouble finding the turn, we stopped in Changle to ask directions. Someone had left a cover half-off a rain gutter near where we'd parked, so as I stepped out of the car, my entire left leg went right in the hole and I fell forward.

Joseph, who was also out of the car, and a local woman giving him directions ran up and helped get me out. I hadn't broken anything but still have a nasty scar several inches long below my knee. The woman probably tells everybody she meets about the foreign lady who fell in a rain gutter in Changle. As we were asking directions to a hike, you could generously term my scar a "hiking accident" - but we all know what really happened.

Route 172 twists further up into the mountains from Changle and eventually meets County Road 199, although that is not clear at all on Google Maps. It is both narrow and surprisingly well-maintained. It is very sparsely trafficked - we passed maybe 3 cars for most of the length of it. Driving along that for several kilometers, on the left you'll come to a clearing with several government signs (on the right if you come from Mudan and the dam).

This is Cacevakan, the trailhead to a short hike up the mountain that leads to the 700-year-old ruins of a Paiwan village.



If you go up here, when you enter the ruins, remember to maintain a respectful silence, do not enter any of the houses (it's OK to walk on the path), do not litter, and although you can picnic at the rest spot just before reaching the ruins, I'm not sure I'd recommend it as I don't know how sacred the space is. The government has done some work to make this site accessible, but it's unclear how much that is supported by the local Paiwan, so it's better to err on the side of more respectful if you go.

As the signs will tell you, the inhabitants of this village buried their dead inside their houses - doing so was supposed to confer protection and bring in good luck - so stepping into any house ruins you see likely means stepping over graves - not something you want to be doing.








A view from the hike up to Cacevakan



The hike is about 500 meters there - 250 to a T in the trails, then head left and it's about another 300 to the ruins. You can head back via the same trail or a slightly shorter but much rougher one that brings you back to the T from the right (you can also go up this way). In many areas on the rougher trail you may have to butt-slide down as it gets steep and gravelly and the wooden steps are all but disintegrated.

If you keep quiet on the trail and come in early morning or late afternoon, you may catch a glimpse of macaques in the trees. There are beehives, so take care and don't wear anything too smelly.

It may seem deserted, but people do come up here, most likely local Paiwan. At the resting spot there were fresh betel nuts laid out to one side, and at the ruins there was a stone slab covered in coins, glass jars and candy.

And again, contemplating these ruins, I would be tempted to pontificate on the ephemeral nature of man and his works as they face off against the unstoppable elemental forces of nature, but again, I'm not a walking TED talk, so I won't.

We stayed briefly and then hiked back down - well, I hobbled, my leg was throbbing - and continued along Rt. 172 to where it meets County Route 199 near Mudan and its reservoir and dam. The views around here are nice, and the entrance to the town is decked with a large aboriginal-design archway.









Heading further up the mountain from Mudan, you may want to stop for some views back down toward the town and dam.




You'll also pass a strange-for-Taiwan town, clearly aboriginal and newly built, full of A-frames on tidy streets. We're not sure what the history is behind this settlement - whether it's for workers who man the dam and reservoir, a rehousing of locals who lost their homes in mudslides or some other housing program, or even what it's called (though Google Maps lists it as "Shimen Village" or 石門村). I'd be curious to know as one does not usually see European-style A-frames in small Taiwanese mountain towns.




As we drove along we passed several trailheads for hiking. With more time and a leg that wasn't banged up by an aggressive rain gutter, I would have liked to have checked some of these out. Unfortunately, we had neither, but someone with time to spare might really enjoy exploring some of these trails. As it got dark we pulled into Dongyuan (東源), also known as 哭泣湖 or Weeping Lake, which we'd passed on our first drive in. Dongyuan/Weeping Lake has Vais Paiwan (the restaurant noted above), a "scenic area", the lake itself with an easy trail through the meadows and forests around it, and Gu Zi (Ku Qi?) Stone House, run by a local pastor and his wife (reservations: 08-8830463 or 0933381844). You can spend the night in the spacious, eccentrically-decorated room below, and have coffee overlooking the lake in the cafe above, which opens between 9 and 10am. We pulled up to the Stone House and waited for someone to show us the way - the house itself is down a short dirt trail from the road.



If you want something to eat, you'll either have to walk, drive or cycle (if you're on a bike) the 1km into town, so if you don't feel like leaving once you've checked in, make sure you're set for food. There are no locks - "nobody here would steal anything" - so while you're probably fine you may want to keep valuables on you. Breakfast is at Lai Lai Noodle House, 1km away in town, and is free. I liked the noodles with a tea egg and mountain vegetables - Joseph wasn't so keen. Lai Lai is run by the pastor's wife's sister and is next to the large church. Many of the aboriginal towns around here boast fairly large churches as much of the community has been converted to Christianity. The room comes with a very large table, a large wooden platform that functions as a "bed" and holds three - better if you're family - a stone-wall bathroom, separate kitchen area with sink but no stove, hot water kettle and some toiletries. It's decorated with wood, stone and aboriginal fabrics. The slate-and-stone edifice is also dotted with old tools, broken jars and other eccentric bric-a-brac.



Our plan for the next morning was to walk around the lake, have coffee upstairs, and then drive up to Dongyuan Scenic Area to see if it's a worthwhile detour. Unfortunately, we woke up to driving rain and, uh, didn't do anything except have breakfast and then coffee. That's also why I have no pictures of Stone House - the light was awful and didn't really capture what the place is like.

So, after returning in the rain from Lai Lai, we packed up and, when the cafe opened (we were the only customers), had locally-grown coffee and ginger flower tea overlooking the lake. More a pond than a lake, really, but the scenery was nice. If you are driving this way it is well worth a stop - and you wouldn't really notice it if you didn't know it was there - but isn't really a destination in its own right.




After coffee we started the slow drive back down to Pingdong, our best-laid plans ruined by the downpour. We would eventually stop in Kaohsiung briefly to have a meal with our dear friend Sasha at Dan Dan Hamburgers (a very local southern Taiwanese hamburger joint that boasts fast food and thread noodles in combo meals).






I would again wax rhapsodic about man's helplessness in the face of nature, but remember the even that got me on that whole line of thinking? My reliance on human technology laid bare at sunrise as I watched my flip-flop bob away in the surf?

Well, what I didn't mention was that after a few minutes some girls further down the beach came up to me, my dripping shoe in their possession. "I saw you lost your shoe before - is it this one?"

YES!

"It washed right back up on the beach down there."

Ha ha.

Man 1; Nature 0.





An ancient tree grows on the grounds of the Qiaotou Sugar Refinery in suburban Kaohsiung while on one side a guy hangs out with his stuff, and on the other a couple takes wedding photos. Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, man beats nature.