November172009
Crowd Lu (盧廣仲) is a popular Taiwanese artist who my China Post friends Taco and Min introduced me to. Aaron noticed the striking similarity to John Mayer. I told Taco that Crowd Lu is the Taiwanese John Mayer. She said John Mayer is the Taiwanese Crowd Lu.
November162009
A Halloween field trip
Aaron and I spent part of our Halloween getting to know our community a little better. We joined the Tsing Hua University chapter of the Tzu Chi Foundation, a worldwide Buddhist charitable organization, visiting a home for people with cerebral palsy and other mental and physical disabilities. We took a bus to the group home in Jhudong, about a half hour outside Hsinchu, where the patients live and receive nursing care.
We then helped the folks, two volunteers to each individual, board another bus to a nearby Catholic charity home. That’s where the big Halloween party was taking place on the front lawn. Halloween’s not widely observed here, but there’s definite awareness of the holiday, with some kids wearing costumes at school or jack-o-lantern posters on a few storefronts. We watched little girls perform dance routines to American hip hop, followed by some of the disabled folks modeling their costumes (a cross dressing guy, a policeman, princesses and the like). A group sang songs, accompanied by acoustic guitar, including “(Good Riddance) Time of Your Life” by Green Day. At one point, because we were at a Catholic home (the Buddhists are open to working alongside other religious groups), there were some hymns and the illumination of a cross atop a building.
I was helping out a young woman named Ya Chi, along with a really lovely Tsing Hua senior studying chemistry and finance named Elizabeth. We hugged Ya Chi, gave her tea, fed her some noodles, scratched her back and tried to help her enjoy the day. This was the first Halloween party we’d been to where Aaron adjusted a fellow partygoer’s wizard hat and helped clean off his chin, as “Get Low” blared in the background and all the guests yammered in Mandarin
It was a nice afternoon.
November152009
“In the last 24 years, Hsiao has caught about 20,000 rats in the fields so his mother could eat rat meat with every meal.”
A story this week from United Daily News. Unfortunately, no photos.
November102009
The views from the Hsiangte Temple overlooking the Liwu River were awesome.
November92009
The dizzying Tunnel of Nine Turns.
Marble striations against Liwu River.
The Tunnel of Nine Turns.
Dorks in hardhats.
Pavilion honor Chiang-Kai shek's mom.
We checked out the magnificent Taroko Gorge over the weekend, hiking between sheer marble cliff faces and alongside the gunmetal grey Liwu River. The gorge is one of Taiwan’s seven national parks, which altogether cover 9% of the island. The scenery was stunning, punctuated by elegant pagodas and plenty of butterflies. The weather, sunny and warm, was perfect.
10PM
Red gate on Nanjing Street in Hualien.
Would you buy noodles from this man?
A Hualien garage on Taiwan's east coast.
Uncanny resemblance.
Aaron and I got out of town this past weekend, heading across Taiwan to Hualien, a lovely city on the island’s rugged east Coast. We ate some delicious clams picked right out of the ocean, and a fresh pineapple and mango smoothie, and a lighter-than-air sesame puff, with Aaron gamely eating a pig’s intestine stuffed with sweet rice and jammed, hot-dog style, with cucumbers, pickles, garlic and other unidentifiable objects. We also ran across a traditional Taiwanese pastime: batting cages.
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