Schedium

One day I went with a friend of mine to a nice coffee shop near the campus of National Taiwan University. I don't know how or why, but we began talking about family values. I don't recall the details of that conversation, but one scene I remember vividly as if it had happened yesterday. She smiled at me and said, " We are more responsible ." What she meant, of course, was that Taiwanese people care more about their families than Westerners. I have challenged this view several times, showing that terms like 'love' or 'responsibility' have different meanings in the West and in East Asia. In this and the next posts, I would like to talk about the phenomenon of the "little thirds" ( xiaosan , 小三, also called 二奶), which, as I will show, derives from traditional East Asian concepts of family life. In this post I will tell a few stories of Taiwanese businessmen who took mistresses during their stay in mainland China. In the second post I w...

41 hurt as fight breaks out during student military training in Hunan Province http://t.co/TNnr3Ing7T pic.twitter.com/JVkhh6ObYz — China.org.cn (@chinaorgcn) August 26, 2014 On August 24 at about 16:30 a fight broke out between students and military instructors at Huangcang Middle School (皇仓中学) in China 's Hunan Province. 42 people have been injured , including a teacher and a military instructor . According to an  eyewitness , one of the students was unhappy about how a military instructor joked with a female student. He argued with the instructor and an altercation followed. The other instructors intervened and punished the whole class: they had to do push-ups, were kicked and beaten with sticks. The student who had started the quarrel apologised to the instructor he had attacked and the incident seemed over.  However, in the evening the commander of the instructors' team sought revenge. As the classes gathered for the evening session, he ordered the stud...

Bao'an Temple ( 保安宮 , pinyin: Bǎo'āngōng) is one of the major temples of Taipei's Datong District . It is located on  Hami Street , in an area known as Dalongdong , one of the oldest Han settlements in the Taipei Basin. Bao'an Temple is just a few minutes walk from the Confucius Temple, and close to Chen Yueji Residence as well as Yuanshan MRT Station .  The first nucleus of Bao'an Temple was built in the 7th year of Emperor Qianlong (1742) by Han settlers from Tong'an , in Fujian Province. The temple is devoted to Baosheng Dadi ( 保生大帝 , literally "Life Protector Great Emperor"), a deity of the Chinese pantheon worshipped in Fujian Province and Taiwan. As is often the case in Chinese folk religion, Baosheng Dadi is a deified historical figure, a doctor and Daoist practitioner surnamed Wu (吳), born in the village of Baoliao, near Xiamen , in Fujian Province. He is said to have performed medical miracles, and after his death in 1036 he began to...

Cisheng Temple (慈聖宮, pinyin: Císhènggōng; literally "Palace of kindness and holiness") is a temple located in Taipei's Datong District . Along with  Xiahai Chenghuang (霞海城隍廟)  and  Fazhugong Temple (法主公廟) , Cishenggong is one of the three major temples of Dadaocheng , an area of Datong which under Qing rule used to be a small port town outside of Taipei walled city . As one of the oldest parts of what is now Taipei City, Dadaocheng has retained its "Chinese" character, shaped by the immigrants who came to Taiwan from southern China over the centuries.  Cisheng Temple was built in the 19th century by immigrants from Tong'an , a district of Xiamen  city, in China's Fujian Province. It is devoted to the Sea Goddess Mazu , one of Taiwan's most popular deities. In imperial times, crossing the strait was dangerous and the Chinese settlers who went there often risked their lives; this explains why so many of them were eager to thank Mazu after t...

Yesterday (August 20) a court in Xiamen , a coastal city in China's Fujian Province,  sentenced a German national to death. The man, whose name has not been revealed to protect his privacy, was found guilty of manslaughter: he allegedly  killed  his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend on a street of the Southern Chinese city. This is the first time a German citizen faces the death penalty in China.  According to reports , the 36-year-old German had met his Venezuelan girlfriend in Munich, where they both studied sinology. They broke up in 2005, but allegedly the man did not get over the end of their relationship. The woman and her new boyfriend later moved to China. They have a child together, who lives with relatives in Germany. 

The Chen Yueji Residence (陳悅記大厝, also called  陳悅記祖宅 ), commonly referred to as "Teacher's Mansion" (老師府), is one of Taipei's lesser known treasures. It is located  on Yanping North Road, in Taipei City's Datong District . It is one of the few remaining residences built during the Qing Dynasty era . The residence is close to other major tourist attractions, such as the Confucius Temple. It can be reached on foot from Yuanshan MRT station .  During the Qing Dynasty, the Chen Yueji Residence was part of Dadaocheng , which at that time was a city of its own. When the Japanese occupied Taiwan in 1895, they set about building a modern colonial capital . They tore down Taipei city walls  as well as nearly all buildings constructed in Taipei walled city under the Qing. The only Chinese buildings that they did not destroy were four out of five city gates  and a part of Taiwan provincial administration hall . On the ruins of Qing Taipei they created the g...

Yesterday the Beijing police confirmed that Jaycee Chan ( 房祖名 ; Fang Zuming), the son of martial arts film star Jackie Chan , and Taiwanese Actor Ke Zhendong (柯震東, also spelt Ko Chen-tung in Taiwan's Wade-Giles system) were arrested on August 14 in the Chinese capital on charges of drug use.  The 23-year-old Ke Zhendong had achieved notoriety on both sides of the Taiwan Strait with the 2011 romantic film You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們一起追的女孩, literally "Those Years, The Girl We Chased Together"). Ke is accused of drug consumption and faces 14 days in prison.  Jaycee Chan, however, is accused of a much more serious crime. The police found in his Beijing residence 100 grams of marijuana which was probably destined for other people's consumption. He faces a prison sentence of up to 4 years.  

We - the Westerners who have had the privilege to stay in Taiwan long enough to know it at least a little bit better than the occasional traveller - are not the first generation of foreigners who have been to this island and have had the chance to discover its treasures. Most of the people who came here long ago did not write down their impressions, feelings and observations, and their memories are now lost to us. Yet some of them did, passing on to future generations their invaluable knowledge and experience. One of these Westerners was Owen Rutter (1889-1944), a British historian, novelist and travel writer, who visited Taiwan in the 1920s, during the Japanese colonial era. In this post I share with you the 7th chapter of Rutter's book Through Formosa , in which he describes Taipei (called Taihoku by the Japanese) and the general development of Taiwan as a colony. This part of the book is interesting for several reasons.  First, it shows us the Taihoku of the 1920s from...

The Kaohsiung Incident of 1979 (Chinese: 高雄事件, pinyin: Gāoxióng Shìjiàn)  marked a turning point in the history of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. It was one of the last acts of repression of political dissent carried out by the Guomindang one-party state. Although in the short-term the old brutal ways of the regime triumphed, in the long run the opposition was strengthened, and the most progressive forces of Taiwanese society, including many liberal Guomindang politicians, realised that the days of authoritarianism were numbered.  Many opposition leaders involved in the Kaohsiung Incident were soon to form a new political elite of the ROC, who would advance the cause of democracy, human rights, and constitutional government. Although many within the ruling Guomindang also endorsed democratisation, the contribution of those people who were unjustly arrested and punished by the state because of their ideas to the progress of Taiwan's political system and civi...

One evening I was walking along Ren'ai Road (仁愛路) , close to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall , when suddenly I noticed a peculiar old building on my left. I was surprised because I had never seen it on any Taipei guide. On second thought, though, I wasn't sure whether it was an old building at all. It actually looked brand new. Was it one of those neoclassical oriental structures so beloved by the old KMT guard? After all, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, too, looks like an ancient building, but in fact it was constructed in the 1970s.  I drew closer and saw that it was a bell tower. It stood lonely behind a huge high-rise building and next to a gloomy construction site. I looked around to see if there was any plaque that explained its history. I went into the archway at the centre of the tower. Suddenly I heard a coarse coughing and the sound of steps, and I stopped. An old man emerged from the other side of the tower. His scrawny upper body was naked, his skin was dark, and he...

A few weeks ago on a Saturday I decided to go to Taipei Botanical Garden  to take a walk and escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Established during Japanese rule in 1921, the botanical garden is in itself a tourist attraction worth visiting. Located  just a few minutes walk from Xiaonanmen MRT Station , the park has about 1,500 species of plants, and there are also animals such as frogs and squirrels. However, I didn't go there to enjoy the nature, but to see a building that I'd been wanting to visit for a long time. It is a small, Chinese-style building, with a traditional curved tiled roof, white walls, and full of Chinese-style decorations. It is hard to believe that only a century ago, this structure stood in the middle of present-day downtown Taipei, on the location of today's Zhongshan Hall . 

The case of a foreigner that assaulted and insulted a bus driver in Taoyuan has become a major piece of news in Taiwan yesterday. On August 4, a US national of Taiwanese descent named Jason  accused a bus driver of not halting at a stop. The driver, surnamed Chen, claimed that the passenger had not pressed the stop button on time, while Jason himself argues that he did. Jason was travelling with his pregnant wife.  A female passenger sunamed Lin uploaded a video in which Jason can be seen shouting at the driver and threatening him. He can be distinctly heard saying to the driver: "I will f*** kill you, bitch". Jason was furious because the driver had not stopped after he pressed the button. He insulted him repeatedly. The word "f***" can be heard 17 times. Jason also demanded the driver apologise to him. Several elderly people intervened and apologised on behalf of the driver in order to soothe the man who had turned violent and had entirely lost his te...

Over the past few years Taiwanese and Hong Kong media have often exposed cases of mainland Chinese children urinating or defecating in public areas. The anger felt in Hong Kong and Taiwan against mainlanders' misbehaviour has even prompted China's Xinhua News Agency to publish " Six Guidelines and Six Taboos ", a guide for Chinese tourists travelling outside the mainland.  As I have argued  in one of my posts, I believe that, although it is right to expose and criticise those individuals who misbehave, it is not acceptable to blame 1.3 billion people for the faults of a few. It is also necessary to try and understand the background of these people. Only a few decades ago, China was a predominantly poor and rural country, and old ways of life may have survived despite the country's recent economic development. Furthermore, it must be noted that in mainland China itself public urination and defecation has led to violent altercations . Admittedly, there seems to...

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon an article about Huang Yuting , commonly known as Tingting (婷婷) , the ex-wife of Taiwanese actor  Shao Xin (邵昕). The article appeared on the popular Taiwanese tabloid Apple Daily , a newspaper that often talks about the private lives of celebrities. Tingting and Shao Xin divorced two years ago. This year, a friend introduced Tingting to a man who is now her boyfriend. They have been together for about half a year. He has already proposed to her and they are planning to get married.  What interests me about this article is not the gossip. What I find fascinating is how Tingting and her boyfriend explain and articulate their relationship by using a mix of traditional Confucian values and of modern concepts of love. Let us examine the text a little closer. In an interview, Tingting stated: There is almost no resistance [on the part of our families] to our being together. My mother likes him. His parents, too, have accepted me (我們在一起幾乎...