Peer Gynt in Wonderland

As the result of our recent trip to Australia (more on that later), Melanie and I decided to pursue our renewed interest in attending symphony orchestra performances by checking into what sort of concerts were available here in Taiwan.

It was thus that we went over to the National Concert Hall here in Taipei on April 5, 2008 to see what we had expected to be a traditional interpretation of Peer Gynt. That was our first mistake.

For those of you that may not be familiar with Peer Gynt, odds are that while you might not know why this name should sound familiar to you, there is a very good chance that you know many of the songs from this symphony. Especially for those of you who grew up watching the old Warner Brothers cartoons (like Bugs Bunny, etc.), songs such as Morning Mood and In The Hall Of The Mountain King will most certainly ring a bell within the first few bars.

In preparation for this concert, both Melanie and I did a little bit of research online to learn more about the story. The idea of an anti-hero and trolls and belly dancers was all very intriguing, so we were both full of anticipation.

Anyway, getting back to our experience here in Taipei...

To start it all off, we (I) began to suspect that the evening would not go as planned when, as we approached the concert hall, we noticed a distinctly high concentration of children being accompanied by their parents. Melanie later admitted after the show that she had an inkling of what we were in for when, after she had just purchased the tickets from the box office (where, she insists I add, Chinese was exclusively written and spoken), she noticed the word "Choreographer" in the credits of an advertisement as she was heading back home.

For me, I would have to say that things were more clear when we went in and saw that it was pretty much mostly children, running and screaming through the aisles, jumping up and down on the chairs, and staring at the two of us like we were fresh off the mothership in Roswell ("Look, Ma! Foreigners!!!"). Everything crystallized when the MC came out dressed like a giant red rhinoceros beetle.

I will spare you the details of what I was personally subjected to for the next two hours; however, I will offer a brief stream-of-consciousness rant in an attempt to capture the gestalt of the whole experience.

Kids. Ballet with distinctly Chinese movement forms. Butterflies, Beetles, and Bees. Crazy MC in a Rhinoceros beetle outfit. Absolutely intended for an audience of small children. Moral message at the end that combined a commentary between filial piety and the importance of not being an arrogant braggart with little regard for the concerns of others.

The MC did a great job of engaging the kids and explaining the message. Great approach to getting kids involved in different forms of storytelling, the theater and the symphony. Not so great when you're all dressed up for a night of "Serious Music", as the Hungarians would say.

It was surreal watching wings and antennae fall off. Initially tried blocking out the dancers, but the sounds of their footfalls during their leaps and prances ruined any possibility of success there.

So, there you have it. Our night of culture. Next time, perhaps we (Melanie) will do a little (lot) more research before we do something similar. In hindsight, it was a fun and surreal and enjoyable and educational experience that was definitely worth doing once.

Once.

Further proof of job openings for Copy Editors in Taiwan

This motorcycle has a license plate that few in the US would feel comfortable displaying

Don't we usually try to AVOID passengers that are ticking???

See what happens when you just do a word-for-word translation?

I know you are, but what am I?

My parents read this, so I'll exclude the comment I originally had in mind...

Songs from the 90s

Actually, this is more wacky stuff spotted here in Taiwan, but I've managed to observe a theme on this one, so here goes:

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• Found this one in one of the local stores that carries pet goods.
  
  

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• You can...
  ...in the morning, you can...
  
  
  ...in the night, you can...
  
  
  ...when you want to...
  
  
  ...
  
  
  
  

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• I was kind of thinking about the theme from "The Love Boat", but somehow cheezy 70s disco music rings more true...
  
  
  I'm not sure what they are implying here, but I do know that there's know way I'm drinking this...
  

Are You Ready For Prayer Time?

Many (if not most) companies in Taiwan will engage in a semi-monthly "bai bai" ceremony, wherein they sacrifice food, incense and money (actually just paper) to their ancestors to bring fortune and luck. I have yet to really figure out the exact significance of this rite (and admittedly, I haven't really tried), but I think that the ancestor worship is some sort of a cross between Taoism and Confucianist beliefs.

Our office typically does not show many signs of having these sorts of religious/spiritual beliefs, so it was interesting when I noticed my coworkers preparing for this particular holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival. I consider it a privelege to have been able to witness one of these ceremonies first-hand outside of the usual temple environs.

Mexican Food in Taiwan

Bean-o-rama's recent post on Mexican food has inspired me to put on this ol' blog with regards to Mexican food in Taiwan.

I'm not sure how to start this, so let's start with a silly scenario.

Let's say that you come to Taiwan and decide that rather than partaking of any of the local cuisines (spanning all of Asia with admirable verisimilitude), you instead opt for getting some Mexican food to avoid the dysentery. You might be curious about how they interpret a burrito. You might be wondering how a culture that only peripherally socializes with cheese would go about making an enchilada plate. You might just hate Asian food.

Regardless of your reasons, I am here today to tell you that you should not under any circumstances follow this urge to try Mexican food here in Taiwan. I am sure there are exceptions to this rule (i.e. you have a friend that makes it at home), but I have yet to actually encounter any. Here are some examples of experiences that I have had:

• There is a very nice restaurant that also doubles as a jazz club here in Taipei called Brown Sugar. It is very snazzy, the jazz is actually pretty darn good, and the drink menu is downright spectacular. The food menu is also pretty interesting, and they somehow manage to do a great job on their Western fare. In spite of all of these things that they have going for them, their version of Nachos (which costs about US$7~8) was a basket of Nacho Cheese Doritos served with a little bowl filled with crappy picante sauce. Seriously.
  
  
• I can't recall the place where I had this, but at one point I ended up seeing somebody order a taco that consisted of a fried shell, corn, mayonnaise, and what appeared to be Campbell's Chunky Beef Stew. Not a single shred of lettuce, tomato, pineapple, or salsa in sight...
  
  
• This isn't really an example of issues with Mexican cuisine, but I also once received a Mojito that consisted of nothing but rum, peppermint schnapps and ice cubes.

There are other examples, but suffice it to say that I have completely given up. Now and then, I might run across a Churro that's probably safe, but I'm even a bit scared to try those out.

I used to complain a bit about the fact that there was no good Mexican food in central Texas - only Tex-Mex. Now that I've had Tai-Mex, I have learned that there are far worse things in this world than black beans served with my fajitas.

Talk About an Understatement

A China Airlines flight exploded on the tarmac today, with no injuries or fatalities. Here is the article from Yahoo! News.

While this in and of itself is not particularly exceptional, the statement from the President of China Airlines (a Taiwanese company) was just a little bit unsettling:

"We are prepared to do its best to get to the bottom of this incident," China Airlines president Zhao Guoshi told reporters at a press conference at Naha airport late Monday. "I apologize for the trouble we have caused our passengers."

For those of you that have wondered why I am so adamant about not flying China Airlines for my various Asian business trips, hopefully the stats towards the bottom of the above article will shed some light on my position...

Typhoon Sepat Hits Taiwan

Melanie was treated to her very first typhoon (also known as hurricane or cyclone) last weekend when Sepat slammed Taiwan with 100+ MPH winds and rain. This is the third such typhoon to hit Taiwan in the last month, but thankfully Taiwan is well equipped to handle these sorts of events, as you can see in this article on Yahoo.


I went downstairs to the front of our building and managed to capture a short video showing the winds and rain hammering our neighborhood. Note that this was during a relatively quiet time during the storm...

The picture above is taken in front of my office on the following Monday - as you can see, aside from the fallen palm, there really wasn't a whole lot of damage.

Thankfully, the storm only lingered for about a day. We had plenty of warning so we rented a bunch of videos, stocked up our pantry with water and instant noodles, and settled down for a weekend at home. In the end, we didn't even lose power, so it was hardly very exciting at all. The worst we experienced was that the windows creaked a bit as they withstood the tempest, and a little bit of water leaked into the ceiling of our little terrace. All in all, considering the recent news of the conditions in India, we got off extremely easy.

2007 Dragon Boat Races

I had a chance to check out the Taipei 2007 Dragon Boat Races down at the river this year. Per Wikipedia, the tradition can be summarized as follows:

The exact origins of Duan Wu originated in ancient China. One traditional view holds that the festival memorializes the Chinese poet Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC-278 BC) of the Warring States Period. He committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he was disgusted by the corruption of the Chu government. The local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish so they would not eat Qu Yuan's body.

Naturally, this holiday is not celebrated in modern day China - no doubt the Communist regime had no desire to venerate a day of opposing the government, and summarily did away with the holiday all together.

Taiwan, on the other hand, along with various other countries with ethnic Chinese residents, has a great time with this one in spite of/to spite the mainland. There were attendees and racers from all over the world, including South Africa, the Philippines, the US, etc. Lots of expats also turned out to watch the races despite the 35C (95F) weather.

To be honest, the races weren't nearly as dramatic as I had expected them to be - even the final race was a little anticlimactic. Still, the crowds were friends, the racers and their friends/family were definitely pumped, and the atmosphere was highly enjoyable, so it was worth braving the heat.

I'm going to try something new for this particular post. I brought my camcorder with me for this trip and I figured I'd use the software that came with it to try putting together a little video to capture the day. It's my first attempt, and frankly the software did most of the work, but let me know what you think.

Wulai Hiking Trip

Melanie and I went to Wulai this past weekend and spent a few hours wandering around the area. Wulai is a very neat place - nestled up in the mountains to the west of Taipei. There are some gorgeous rivers running through the valleys, and what makes them particularly interesting is that there are natural hot springs coming out of the ground into the river.

Getting there is also relatively convenient: we took the subway to Taipei Main Station, transferred to the line taking us south to XinDian, and then took a 20-30 minute bus ride up to the actual destination - roughly 90 minutes total.

If you are ever visiting us out here, then I would suggest forcing us to get out of bed early and hitting the road for Wulai no later than 10am - just to make sure you have enough time to explore. There is a lot to see, and you probably want to be able to take your time seeing it. It is also a lot of fun to switch between soaking in the tide-pools (man-made, but fairly natural) and hopping into the river proper (clean and relatively warm).

Here on the left, you can see that several families actually make a day out of bringing their beach gear and just having a blast. We were there on a slightly rainy day (as you probably surmised from our attire), and there was still a decent turnout despite the weather. What's neat about it is that the village has also started to capitalize on its touristic value by installing more parking, lots of restaurants, coffeeshops, etc. Also, since you are way up in the mountains close to the river sources, the water really is quite clean. It might smell a bit funky, but that's just because the hot springs are typically either of the calcium-carbonate or sulfur varieties - the latter being the stinky one.

In this picture on the left, you can see one of the places where the spring water is coming out in the middle of the river and moving downstream. This picture was taken just a few hundred meters north of the shore area shown up above. The rain caused the image to come out slightly grainy, but hopefully you can see enough to get a good idea for what this looks like. One of the cooler things about this is the fact that even on a day as relatively warm as the day that we visited, you could still see the steam rising from the surface of the water around the spring. The water is really extremely hot in certain areas - right near some of the sources, people even bring cooking utensils and food to boil in the water.

I'm not sure if there are supposed to be any medicinal qualities associated with this manner of food preparation (probably), but there were certainly a few families engaged in this wacky form of outdoor cooking.

From there, we headed up the path (roughly 1km walk) towards the trolley. There is a little train that will take you up the path if you aren't up for the walk, but Melanie and I decided (perhaps somewhat foolishly) to make the trek on foot. The walk was quite pleasant, but it is all uphill, so it will probably be a little bit trickier than you might imagine - particularly when it starts raining a little harder :)

One of the high points (somewhat literally) of this area is the waterfall, which is reportedly 80m tall. The two pictures shown here do not really communicate the scale of it, but it really is quite impressive. There is a little commercial village up at the top of the trail, directly across from the waterfall, where you can get a great view while purchasing your "authentic" Taiwanese & aboriginal goods. There are also (once again) more places to purchase food and drink, so we decided to have a nice dinner here before heading back down again. There is also a tram that will take you up to the falls proper, but we decided to pass on this since it was getting late, and it was a bit too dark and foggy by then for us to expect a much better view.

Overall, it was a very fun trip. If you're ever out this way, we just might take you...if you're nice to us...

Lunch with Grandpa

Melanie and I met with my grandfather for lunch again, this time at a restaurant in Ximen.

The restaurant was down in the basement of a department store, down in the B1 food court. It was very delicious and affordable - mainly serving Beiping-style (Northern Chinese) cuisine. This includes great stuff like Dao Xiao Mien (knife-cut noodles) in a delicious beef broth, Xiao Long Bao (steamed dumplings), etc.

It was great to see my grandfather again. It had been a few months since we last had a chance to get together - mainly because we live on opposite sides of Taipei, and neither of us actually drives here. We did not have a chance to spend a whole lot of time together because he was a little tired due to the trek from where he lives over to Ximen, but it was still fun to get to hang out and chat for a while.

If the house is a rockin'...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_re_as/taiwan_earthquake

This 6.2 is probably the second-biggest earthquake I've had the "pleasure" of experiencing. I was in LA for the Northridge quake back in the mid-90's, and that one was much scarier; however for that shaker, I was on the bottom floor of a 2 story building.

This time around, I was on the 7th floor of a 10 story building in Taipei. On top of that, the office is built near recently reclaimed land, which tends to move and shake a whole lot more than nice solid rock. Good times...

Still, it really wasn't all that bad. While the pucker factor briefly spiked when I realized that it probably wasn't just the caffeine, I found myself settling down to merely nervous as it progressed. Overall, it felt more like a windy train ride than a hardcore earthquake.

I am quite thankful that nobody appears to have been hurt, and I sincerely hope that I never get to experience a big one.

Another Cheap Knock-Off

I don't even know what to say about this, except to maybe provide a little background.

So - I presume that everybody knows who Larry King is so I won't bother 'splainin' this part.

What I will point out is that there are certain trademarks to Mr. King's appearance: the suspenders, the rolled-up sleeves the tie. He also has a pretty characteristic set, and certain mannerisms that are readily identifiable as his own.

Given his popularity, credibility, and broad success as a newscaster and interviewer, it is only natural that an aspiring "newsman" would want to emulate him. Rather than imitate his easy manner or non-confrontational interview style, some supplicants at the alter of Mr. Zeiger chose to follow a different route.

I have no idea who this guy is, but he pops up regularly on our TV set here in Taiwan.

He is surly, aggressive, rude to his guests, and talks down to them at every opportunity. What he lacks in wit and charm, he makes up for with his gloriously pink suspenders.

As far as I can tell, this guy is basically a Taiwanese Rush Limbaugh who chose to model his look, mannerisms, and set on the King. Go figure.

More Fun Stuff From Asia

As previously mentioned, Taipei has a very good bus system. Aside from the homicidal tendencies of their drivers, the Taipei Metro system has excellent coverage, clean cabins, and frequent service.

Also, in what I am guessing is an attempt to improve the connection between the transported masses and the people serving them, all of the buses have the name of the person driving them attached on a placard to the back of the bus.

_______________Begin Digression_______________

In case you had not already guessed, folks like Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow and the like weren't born with their English names on their birth certificates. Instead, they have the luxury of choosing their sobriquets by employing a few common methods. In no particular order, they typically are chosen based upon:

• Direct Romanization (DR)
  i.e. Ang Lee, Zhang Zi Yi, Chow Yun Fat




• Phonetic Approximation (PA)
  i.e. Kong Fu Zi = Confucius, Chow Sing Chi = Stephen Chow, Li Lianjie = Jet Li



• Whatever Frickin' English Word They Happen to See (WTF)
  i.e. Battery Su, Pony Lin, Singer Huang, Asahi Lin

There are, of course, more common western names, such as Michael or Andy or Kevin or Vincent, but having lived in Taiwan for the past 15 months or so, I can't help but notice the more unusual ones, typically falling in the latter category.

_______________End Digression_______________

Getting back to the buses...

What you are looking at here is one of my favorite recent examples from the "WTF" category of names.

That's it.

Yes, that was a lot of set up for a relatively minor payoff. What's your point?

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This one should go a little faster...

Melanie and I ran across this shower gel at Watson's the other day. At first, I thought it was just another example of not consulting an English speaker before coming up with the product name; however, while combining Man and IQ might seem like clever branding to some and an oxymoron to others, it is certainly not the most unusual thing about this product.

The most bizarre thing has to be the active ingredient - 10W40.

That's right - 10W40.

Where I come from, that's called motor oil, so I am still not sure what they were thinking.

Maybe they had a fortuitous mishap while changing their oil and discovered its miraculous moisturizing properties.

Maybe they felt that Penzoil and Quaker State had left too many markets untapped.

Maybe they felt the best way to appeal to the manly metrosexual was by combining cars and skin care...

Whatever their reasons, the coup de grâce has to be the fact that the back of the bottle explains that this shower gel is produced by a company based out of San Jose, California.

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This one is definitely quicker - I promise...

If the Mummy ever decided that the reason his victims always get away is because he simply doesn't have the right footwear, this is what he would buy.

This can't be right...

China heralds year of the fluorescent green pig

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - Chinese scientists have successfully bred partially green fluorescent pigs which they hope will boost stem cell research, Xinhua news agency said.

A research team at the Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin managed to breed three transgenic pigs by injecting fluorescent green protein into embryonic pigs, Xinhua quoted Professor Liu Zhonghua as saying.

"The mouth, trotters and tongue of the pigs are green under ultraviolet light," said Liu.
Genetic material from jellyfish was injected into the womb of a sow which gave birth to the three pigs 114 days later in Harbin, he said.

China celebrates the start of the Year of the Pig in February.


...I really don't know how to react to this...

Good times grocery shopping

This one takes a little bit of explaining...

1. The Mandarin word for the number three is pronounced "San".

2. In Taiwan, there is an adjective used to describe a food that is pleasantly chewy (i.e. a gummy candy). This word is pronounced and written as "Q".

3. Many Mandarin speakers, particularly in Taiwan, have trouble pronouncing the "TH" sound. Instead, it usually comes out as "S".

Put it all together, and "3Q" magically becomes "Thank You". Given the relative ease in typing these two characters vs. the complete words in either language and you have the shorthand that nearly all Taiwanese use when sending instant/short messages to each other.

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Here, you can see our lovely model is holding a flattened dried squid. This is in our local grocery store - similar to Albertson's in some ways and VERY different in others...

Buses in Taipei

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I have the sneaking suspicion that either the bus drivers in Taipei are out to maim their passengers, or they just spend a little too much time playing video games.

With the recent move to the new office in Neihu, I have had the opportunity to ride the bus to the office with increasing frequency. While there are occasionally a few friendly bus drivers that conscientiously operate their piece of heavy machinery in such a way as to minimize the amount of jostling that their passengers undergo, the other 99% seem to really hate the people that keep getting on and off their bus.

I have seen cases where the bus drivers accelerate/decelerate suddenly for no obvious reason, take turns at breakneck speeds, and even start driving off before their passengers have fully boarded/alighted. This is exacerbated by the fact that the drivers have large comfortable seats that have independent shocks to smooth their rides.

The funny thing is that while this would probably never be considered even remotely acceptable in the US (at least on those few occasions when I've had the opportunity to ride the bus), for the most part, this seems to be the norm here in Taipei. Old people literally being thrown into other people's laps doesn't even so much as solicit a dirty look or a sigh.

I'm still trying to figure out if the problem is really with the drivers, or if I've just become too soft after living in the West for most of my life.

One cool thing that I have seen time and time again is a profound respect for the elderly. Every time somebody that looks even somewhat frail gets on the bus, at least one young person - usually the one sitting closest to the entrance - will immediately stand up and offer their seat to them. In the year that we have been living in Taiwan, there has not been a single exception to this phenomenon, which just gives me a warm fuzzy. I have always tried to be courteous and polite, but seeing this sort of behavior makes it seem like it's less of a choice and more of a moral imperative.

Keep it up, Taiwan!
(The courtesy part - not necessarily the crazy bus driver thing)

Famous People

I bumped into Jane Goodall at the Grand Hyatt - Taipei earlier this evening. She was in town to promote her Jane Goodall Institute on Sunday, and just happened to be in the executive lounge, where I was waiting for a couple customers for a meeting.

At first, I didn't recognize her - my colleagues in the Taiwan office told me her Chinese name, but it was meaningless to me until I clued into the fact that it was some elderly white woman holding a chimp doll (replete with fake banana) while still managing to look dignified.

My colleague (Glenn) all but dared me to go ask her for an autograph, so I went for it after she finished what appeared to be an interview and headed for the cookies. I introduced myself and was somewhat taken aback when she turned out to be friendly, even to the point of being slightly chatty. She asked me for a card, recruited me for the local branch of her Institute, and then agreed to snap the above photo with me (it's just a camera phone picture, so cut it a little slack).

I have to say that she was quite a nice lady. Having read about her quite a bit back in my Academic Decathlon days (we read "Woman in the Mists" - a book about Diane Fossey, written by Farley Mowat), I felt that I knew something about her, and got a real kick out of the fact that I was actually fortunate enough to bump into her on the 23rd floor of a hotel in Taipei of all places.

Now, if I can just figure out how I can get away with giving interviews holding a stuffed primate...

Food facts from Asia

Sign seen in the Taipei airport
The more common word used here would be "congee", which is a rice-based porridge. If the purpose in translating into English was to attract more western clientelle, then I would have to say that they have failed. This conjures images that are more Dickensian than epicurean...




Sign on the door of a McDonalds in Singapore
Feeling too lazy to hop in the car? Can't be bothered to roll off the couch and take a trek through the drive thru? Well...do we have some great news for you!!!





Strong Bull - Fear It or Love it?
This is the local equivalent of Red Bull. The effects are similar except that you don't get the jitters. Also, it tastes better and is easier to chug since it is not carbonated. There was apparently some sort of issue several years back where the bottles were contaminated, resulting in a recall; however, they have since recovered nicely and are supposedly cleaner than ever.

STRONG BULL!!!

More random wackiness from Taipei

I'm pretty sure that this is a band of some sort. I was just impressed by how naughty the poster was in such a public place (subway station).

11/1/06: Melanie pointed out that I'm on crack and that this photo was actually taken at the airport in Stuttgart, not Taipei...doh!

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This is basically a crock pot - except that it's got a name a billion times better than crock pot cuz it's Supa Fine. Turns out this is a fairly common brand out here.
I have this scenario in my head of a tenacious young Taiwanese entrepreneur asking one of their American Negro in Taipei friends for suggestions on what to name his company, and getting this as the response.



Maybe he knew exactly how sweet this name is...maybe he didn't... Not that it matters. The name is tight, son! Supa Fine!

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"Extra Fancy" bread sticks...

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"Little Negro" branded congee

No - really