Taiwanonymous

A look at translation in the news: driving in Taiwan

2010-06-12T09:05:00.007+08:00

An article about driving in Taiwan recently appeared on the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei website. It's an excellent article by Steven Crook, and it was featured in local media soon after being published. Just a month or two ago, there was another article critical of Taiwan's traffic that originated from a non-Taiwanese source and made the rounds in local media, so Taiwanese evidently enjoy the criticism, perhaps because they agree with most of it.

But instead of writing about traffic in Taiwan, I wanted to take a look at how the article was translated and summarized by the China Times. There appear to be no mistranslations resulting from a misunderstanding of the text. There are, however, a number of instances where the translator did not bother to accurately reproduce the quotes and ideas of the original article. In no particular order:

Original: ...the way cars are driven and motorcycles ridden here is not quite the same as in North America or Western Europe.
Translation: 「台灣開車、騎機車的方式與北美、西歐大不同」。

Reproduced as "The way cars are driven and motorcycles ridden in Taiwan is very different than in North America or Western Europe."

This type of translation happens all the time. A mitigating phrase (not quite) becomes an intensifier (大, or greatly) when translated between languages. Or intensifiers are added and removed without rhyme and with very little reason.

Original: Nevertheless, there are plenty of destinations and situations where having your own set of wheels makes all the difference between frustration and enjoyment.
Translation: 文中指出外國人在台灣手執方向盤，是「挫折、喜悅，兼而有之」

Reproduced as "According to the article, when a foreigner in Taiwan get behind the wheel, 'there are both frustrations and joys.'"

This is the strangest translation in the article. In Chinese newspaper articles, it often seems that there is no attempt at greater fidelity to a directly quoted source in comparison with an indirect quote. This is not even close to a faithful translation. It uses some of the same words as the original article to make a completely different point. The original article is actually saying that driving your own vehicle is more likely to lead to joy than relying on public transportation (which can lead to frustration). The text quoted in Chinese is a fair summary of the English article as a whole, but the use of quotes (「」) is very misleading.

Original: Highways are well maintained
Translation: 高速公路維修良好

Reproduced as "Freeways are well maintained."

"Highways" is a difficult word to translate when there is little context. In common speech, highway is synonymous with freeway, but in literature provided by the DMV, for example, "highway" refers to all public roads. So, in this article, it is very difficult to be certain of the author's intended meaning. Given the number of potholes in local roads and the patchwork of shoddily resurfaced blacktop in residential areas in Taiwan, I might guess that "highways" refers to "freeways" here, but those potholes are usually repaired within weeks and patchwork residential blacktop seems to get resurfaced every few years.

Original: Taiwan's public transportation is inexpensive, efficient...
Translation: ...台灣交通諸多優點，例如價格低、效率高...

Reproduced as "Taiwan's transportation has many merits, such as being inexpensive and efficient."

The translation has described Taiwan's transportation system with the words originally describing only Taiwan's public transportation.

Original: ...running of amber and red lights...
Translation: ..搶黃燈、闖紅燈...

Reproduced as "Vying for yellow lights and running red lights."

In this case, the Chinese translation makes more sense than the original. (The phrase "running of ... amber lights" was quoted, not written by Steven Crook.) In my dialect of English, "running yellow lights" does not make sense, but it is apparently acceptable in other dialects of English.

Original: ...it doesn't demand any defensive driving techniques.
Translation: ...不必具備安全駕駛所需的技能

Reproduced as "it's not necessary to have safe driving techniques."

A literal translation of "defensive driving" would be simple enough, but "defensive driving" is apparently a concept foreign enough such that it is instead translated as "save driving."

Original: When a car is about to overtake a motorcycle or bicycle, the former usually warns the latter with a short blip on the horn. This is a good idea;
Translation: ...超越機車、腳踏車時，要先短短的按聲喇叭

Reproduced as "when passing a motorcycle or bicycle, one should first give a short tap of the horn."

The original sentence states that honking the horn is a good idea. The Chinese translation goes further by saying that one "should" honk the horn, or to translate it another way, "it is required." This is another common kind of minor mistranslation, done for convenience.

「考照場的設計與台灣實際的道路狀況相去甚遠」。

This quote was in the Chinese article, but I was unable to find a similar quote in the original article. It is possible that the sentence was gathered from a different source, or it could be a summary of several statements in the original article repackaged as a quote.

Stephen Chow film top in reruns

2010-05-05T22:12:00.003+08:00

According to Chinese Television System's general manager Chen Zhengran, a film starring Stephen Chow was broadcast 800 times last year on Taiwan's television stations, setting a record. The 1993 comedy, Flirting Scholar, stars Stephen Chow and Gong Li.

Source

Publishing Trend: Recommendations as Preface

2010-02-20T10:15:00.010+08:00

A publishing trend in Taiwan that seems to have caught on in only the last few years is the inclusion of multiple recommendations for a book placed at the beginning of a book. This is a logical extension of the blurb usually placed on the cover or dust jacket of a book; if a blurb, which is a recommendation of one or two sentences, helps to sell books, then wouldn't recommendation of one or two pages help to sell even more books?

I'll offer three examples from books I have on hand. The first is the book 好想就醬上班去 by 就醬 and 巧可, published in 2009. Jiu Jiang (就醬) is the author of a popular blog, and the two recommendations are written by other popular author/bloggers, 草莓圖騰 and BO2. The first recommendation is two pages and the second is one page including an illustration. (Incidentally, I noticed that 草莓圖騰's new book, in reciprocation, includes a recommendation written by Jiu Jiang.)

The next example, which is also the most extreme, is from a book called 看不見的角落 by 陳維恭. This book was also published in 2009. It is prefaced by a total of nine recommendations spread across twelve pages! For this book of stories from an emergency room, the first piece is written by Taichung mayor Jason Hu, and the other recommendations are mostly written by medical professionals. Like the book in the first example, the potential reader is alerted to the presence of these recommendations on the book's cover.

The third example is the book 台灣糕餅50味 by 張尊禎. It includes three recommendations over four pages written by other authors who are not apparently associated with the book's subject, which is pastries and other confections from Taiwan. It was also published last year.

The recommendations in these books are all labeled as 推薦序, meaning recommendation preface. Prefaces written by a third party always serve as a recommendation of sorts, but these prefaces are plainly labeled as such to better serve their purpose of selling books.

Although the effectiveness of these recommendations is open to question, it is clear to me that these recommendations are potentially a great way to sell more books with little effort on the part of publishers. And so this trend of including transparently labeled recommendations at the beginning of a book is a phenomenon that doesn't prompt the question "Why?" so much as "Why isn't this the norm?".

The closest thing to this in traditional publishing is when paperbacks sometimes include pages full of blurbs at the front of the book. But there are a few differences. These pages of blurbs are usually only found in paperbacks when the hardback edition was already released to favorable reviews. The blurbs rarely extend for more than a page and they tend to be written by authors and professional reviewers. Also, the position of the blurbs at the very beginning of the book signals that they are advertisements rather than being part of the actual book.

With the recommendation prefaces included in the Taiwanese books I mentioned, the recommendation becomes part of the actual book. Most of the so-called recommendation prefaces do make an attempt at serving as a preface--giving an introduction to the subject or describing the significance of the work. They are not simply recommendations or reviews. (On the other hand, several of the shorter recommendations are simply recommendations and nothing more.) And I will further refute their validity as prefaces by noting that in all three books, the author also supplied his or her own preface, perhaps feeling that the 3-12 pages of recommendation prefaces would not suffice.

Experts note Taiwan's lack of porridge

2009-10-02T21:17:00.006+08:00

In international news, the TBS and CTS news networks are reporting on the grits-eating competition held in Bossier City, Louisiana last month. Reports translated "grits" as 麥片粥 and 麥片糊, which both mean "oatmeal", despite the fact that grits is made from corn. This translation is not surprising, given the non-availability of grits and other hot porridges in Taiwan.

Grits eating competition

Even at Jason's Market Place, where most foreign foods can be found, I have not found grits, corn meal, Cream of Wheat or Cream of Rice. Taiwanese experts respond by noting that congee, a rice porridge, is the preferred porridge of Chinese peoples. However, foreign experts question whether Taiwanese-style congee is really a porridge or just watery rice (稀飯) and point to reports showing a 60% probability that "congee" is a fake word. In an effort to avoid looking like a food chauvinist, foreign experts also concede that millet porridge, which is a bona fide porridge found in Taiwan, is pretty good.

Millet porridge from flicker user strwang.

Movie titles translated into Chinese may be based on starring actor

2009-03-25T22:28:00.001+08:00

The conventions for naming movies in Chinese are much different than those for English. For example, one-word movie titles (like Jaws) are thought to be dramatic and punchy in English, but are rarely used in Chinese. To explore some of these differences, let's look at mimetic naming in Chinese movie titles based on a few different factors.

Mimetic titles based on past movies of similar theme

In English, imitative movie titles are only acceptable for B-movies and for parodies (e.g. Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth). For Chinese movies, they are a bit more acceptable. I'll give two examples. The Korean movie My Sassy Girlfriend was a big hit when it was released in 2001. Since then, there have been ten other movies whose titles were translated as "My ____ Girlfriend" in Chinese. It might be true that a lot of these are B movies, and that list includes the American remake of My Sassy Girlfriend, but the list includes a diverse selection of movies such as Friends with Money (translated as "My Wild Girlfriend") and 50 First Dates (translated as "My Amnesic Girlfriend").

Mimetic titles based on no particular former movie

Another example of mimetic naming is the frequent use of the word zongdongyuan (總動員) in movie titles. Zongdongyuan literally means "general mobilization", but to get a better idea of how it is used in movie titles, think of it as "Mobilize!", "Move out!" or "All forces go!". Maybe the most natural translation is just to add the word "Ho!" at the end of the title. None of the movies are actually punctuated with an exclamation mark, but I think that is appropriate as an English translation. For example, the movie Elf was translated as "Elfs, Mobilize!", and the movie Robin Cook's Formula For Death was translated as "Bacteria, Mobilize!" There have been 45 movies titled using "zongdongyuan." I don't know how this meme started, but it is used so widely that it is clearly not seen as a reference to some former movie, it's just a snappy way of titling a movie.

Mimetic titles based on starring actor

Another instance of mimetics in movie titles is when the title of a movie is influenced by the starring actor's past movies. For example, Jim Carrey's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was the first big Jim Carrey movie. "Ace" was translated into Chinese as wangpai (王牌, which literally means "king card"). When Cable Guy was released, wangpai was used in the Chinese title as a hint to prospective viewers that the movie starred Jim Carrey, star of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Later, wangpai was also used in the titles of Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, and most strangely, in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is not a comedy, so I find the wangpai in the title misleading. Also, it does not follow that Jim Carrey fans are the most likely audience for it.)

Another example is Will Smith, who has made three movies using the word quanmin (全民, which means "the people"). The first movie was Enemy of the State, which was translated as The People's Public Enemy. Hitch was then translated as The People's Love God, and Hancock was The People's Superman.

The most extreme example of this phenomenon is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger has made 14 movies that use the word mogui (魔鬼), which means demon. For 13 of those movies, "mogui" is the first word of the movie title; the one exception is the movie Last Action Hero, which was translated as "Last Demon Hero."

The Chinese poster for Terminator 4, or "Demon Terminator 4" as it is translated.

A few more examples are Brad Pitt, who has three movies that use the word huoxian (火線), which means "line of fire"; Matt Damon, who has five movies that use the word shengui (神鬼), which literally means "gods and ghosts", and which, based on its usage in movie titles, connotes stealthiness and intrigue; and Leonardo Dicaprio, who has three movie that also use the word shengui. (When Damon and Dicaprio starred in The Departed together, Damon already had three movies using shengui, and Dicaprio had two movies using shengui, so I suppose there was double motivation for including shengui in that title.)

* * * * *

Data

Movies of the form "My ____ Girlfriend"

我的野蠻女友 My Sassy Girl 2001
我的夢幻女友 My Beautiful Girl, Mari 2002
我的失憶女友 50 First Dates 2004
我的超人女友 My Super Ex-Girlfriend 2006
我的好野女友 Friends With Money 2006
我的恐怖女友 My Scary Girl 2006
我的雙面女友 Two Faces of my Girlfriend 2007
我的人魚女友 The Mermaid 2007
我的機器人女友 Cyborg She 2008
我去世的吃醋女友 Over Her Dead Body 2008
我的野蠻女友 My Sassy Girl 2008

Movies of the form "_____總動員"

汽車總動員 Cars 2006
未來總動員 Twelve Monkeys 1995
海底總動員 Finding Nemo 2003
危機總動員 Outbreak 1995
鐵男總動員 The Longest Yard 2005
精靈總動員 Elf 2003
魔鬼總動員 Total Recall 1990
奪命總動員 The Long Kiss Goodinght 1996
晶兵總動員 Small Soldiers 1998
鴿戰總動員 Valiant 2005
機飛總動員 Hot Shots! 1991
終極警探總動員 Striking Distance 1993
異形總動員 Virus 1999
機飛總動員2 Hot Shots! Part Deux 1993
公仔總動員－校園驚魂記 Terkel In Trouble 2004
靈異總動員 Bless the child 2000
潛艇總動員 Down Periscope 1996
危機總動員:疾素攔截 Con Express 2002
癲瘋總動員 Cool Runnings 1993
脫線總動員 Naked Gun 33 1/3 The Final Insult 1994
蟑螂總動員 Joe's Apartment 1996
綁票總動員 Screwed 2000
天兵總動員 Renaissance Man 1994
波霸總動員 Ladies in Operations 1991
情色總動員 Preaching To The Perverted 1997
病毒總動員 Contaminated Man 2000
終極笑探總動員 Rent A Kid 1995
絕地總動員 Queen's Messenger 2000
奪寶危機總動員 Legacy 2000
緝毒總動員 The Base 1999
小鬼總動員 Bebe's Kids 1992
全線總動員 Freedom Strike 1998
整人總動員 Dirty Work 1998
漢飽總動員 Good Burger 1997
戰略總動員 The Pandora Project 1998
細菌總動員 Robin Cook's Formula For Death 1995
黑金總動員 Montana 1998
布偶總動員 It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie 2002
捍衛總動員 Iron Eagle Iv 1995
神兵總動員 Tall Tale 1995
截殺總動員 Falcon Down 2000
瘋狂總動員 Going Berserk! 1983
賭鬼總動員 Gambling Ghost Are Ready 1991
黑色總動員 Tinseltown 1997
FBI捍衛總動員 Mistrial 1996

Jim Carrey movies with the word 王牌

王牌冤家 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004
王牌天神 Bruce Almighty 2003
王牌大騙子 Liar Liar 1997
王牌特派員 The Cable Guy 1996
王牌威龍２：非洲大瘋狂 Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls 1995
王牌威龍 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective 1994

Will Smith movies with the word 全民

全民公敵 Enemy of the State （1998）
全民情聖 Hitch （2005）
全民超人 Hancock （2008）

Arnold Schwarzenegger movies with the word 魔鬼

魔鬼殺陣 Raw Deal （1986）
魔鬼司令 Commando （1986）
魔鬼阿諾 The Running Man （1987）
魔鬼紅星 Red Heat （1988）
魔鬼總動員 Total Recall （1990）
魔鬼孩子王 Kindergarten Cop （1990）
魔鬼終結者２ Terminator 2: Judgment Day （1991）
最後魔鬼英雄 Last Action Hero （1993）
魔鬼大帝：真實謊言 True Lies （1993）
魔鬼二世 Junior （1994）
魔鬼毀滅者 Eraser （1996）
魔鬼末日 End Of Days （1999）
魔鬼複製人 The 6th Day （2000）
魔鬼終結者3 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines （2003）

Brad Pitt movies with the word 火線

火線追緝令 Seven （1995）
火線大逃亡 Seven Years In Tibet （1997）
火線交錯 Babel （2006）

Leonardo Dicaprio movies with the word 神鬼

神鬼交鋒 Catch Me If You Can （2002）
神鬼玩家 The Aviator （2004）
神鬼無間 The Departed （2006）

Matt Damon movies with the word 魔鬼

神鬼認證 The Bourne Identity （2002）
神鬼認證2：神鬼疑雲 The Bourne Supremacy （2004）
神鬼剋星 The Brothers Grimm （2005）
神鬼無間 The Departed （2006）
神鬼認證：最後通牒 The Bourne Ultimatum （2007）

Searching for the title of a movie in Chinese

2009-03-24T19:52:00.000+08:00

If you want to rent movies in Taiwan, it is helpful to know the Chinese title of the movie you want. In this post, I will introduce two websites that can be used to search for the Chinese names of a movie. The first site is from Taiwan and only lists the titles used in Taiwan. The second site is a Chinese knockoff of imdb.com (which does not have a Chinese site) found at imdb.cn.

For titles used in Taiwan

Use the search page for atmovies.com.tw. (Just enter the English title.)

Notes:

I noticed mistakes in some titles, so if you can't find a movie here, you might want to try the methods described below.
There are also pages where new movies are listed (in theaters and on DVD). Titles of Western movies are in both Chinese and English.

For titles used in China/Hong Kong/Taiwan

There are few ways to search for movies:

First method:

This method is described here.

Step 1: Find your movie on IMDB.com
I found Run Lola Run, an old favorite of mine: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/

Step 2: Now, take that link that you just found, and replace the .com with .cn: http://www.imdb.cn/title/tt0130827/

Second method:

Search by movie title at imdb.cn.

Third method:

Search Google using the "site" operator:
Example: Using google.com to search for the movie The Prestige, I search for:
site:imdb.cn "the prestige"
Then click on the link that looks like a link to the movie.

Notes:

Most movies have different titles in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Some of the entries do not specify which title belongs to which region. Some of the entries may be missing titles for some or all Chinese regions.
The info is all in simplified characters, and you cannot search at the site using traditional characters.
The site states that it "has no relation with imdb.com", but the web addresses are organized identically to imdb.com, which makes Method 1 possible. Some or most of the information is scraped from imdb.com. Another site that uses almost the same web addresses as imdb.com is mov6.com, so you can uses the trick described in method 1, but mov6.com only lists the title used in China, not Hong Kong or Taiwan.

If you know of a better bilingual movie database, please leave a comment. (Wikipedia is another option but is not as comprehensive as the sites in this post.)

Unpaid leave article in LA Times not cynical enough

2009-03-17T19:31:00.002+08:00

I came across this article about unpaid leave in Taiwan via Michael Turton's blog. I wrote about this subject last month. The article does a good job of describing how unpaid leave is used instead of layoffs in Taiwan, and I recommend reading the article, but there is one point that I have a quibble with:

So fearful are some workers that they're going into the offices on their stay-at-home days to impress bosses in the hope of keeping their names off any existing or future layoff list.

The statement implies that this is a spontaneous act on the part of the employees. In reality, I think the motivation for employees working on their days off comes from management exerting pressure. If management hadn't already floated the idea of employees working on their days off, I think very few employees would spontaneously decide to come to work on those days. I mentioned this in the last post, but I will add a bit of explanation.

One method of coercion is for the managers to state that your workload is unchanged, so you can take the day off if you want, but you had better get the same amount of work done. And you are not allowed to apply for overtime pay on the days that you do work. And one more thing, if you do happen to take the day off and still get all your work done, then that shows that your work efficiency during normal times must be low if you can accomplish the same amount of work and still take time off. You might think I added this catch-22 line for comedic effect, but it is what I have personally heard.

A greater degree of coercion is when managers unambiguously state that you should come to work on your days off, and if you don't come, this will be considered when deciding on layoffs.

Like I said in the last post, this is not the kind of thing that is put in writing. That may be why the LA Times will not make this claim.

By the way, I'm not writing this out of bitterness. Personally, I love the unpaid leave and I was disappointed to find that my days of unpaid leave had been cut back. In fact, my secret wish would be that an extended recession period in which employees are forced to take one or two days of leave each week would lead to a change in culture in which part-time careers are possible.

English words used in Chinese, or, Toward a Chinglish lexicon

2009-03-12T21:45:00.001+08:00

While listening to a couple of presentations yesterday, I recorded the words that were spoken in English. The class was in Chinese, but the presentation material (PowerPoint) was in English. Here I have listed the English words used and added some comments about their usage in Chinese.

case - This word has been used in Chinese for so long, it should be included in Chinese dictionaries. But I don't know of any Chinese dictionaries that include English words (although there might be English acronyms in some Chinese dictionaries).

catch - This is a very popular term. It is used for the sense "grasp" or "comprehend". Instead of saying, "I don't understand" it is common to say "I don't catch you meaning."

challenge, highlight - These are both popular and are always used in a negative sense, and they are usually used without an object. "Challenge" is used in the sense of demanding an explanation for a problem, e.g. "I was challenge[d] by the customer". "Highlight" is used in the sense of pointing out a problem.

close - The speaker used this word multiple times and I don't understand why. It's such a simple word that you don't look any smarter for using it. This was used to describe a close relationship.(他們的關係很close)

contact window - This is popular. It sounds like Chinglish to me, but I don't know whether it originated in Chinese or English.

cover - Another popular term. Used in the sense of including or addressing.

co-work - This is used as a verb, meaning to work together, e.g. "You and KC should co-work." There is a Chinese word with this meaning (共事), but I don't hear it used at work.

information - This was used repeatedly by the speaker. The speaker may have liked this word because its meaning is broader than any of the Chinese equivalents.

logo - There is no Chinese term completely equivalent to "logo", but the English word "logo" has a broader meaning in Chinese than in English.

maybe - This word is popular with a lot of Chinese speakers. I don't see any advantages it has over the Chinese equivalent (也許).

methodology - Managers love this term. Methods are mundane so whenever possible they like to replace methods with methodologies.

milestone - There is a direct translation of this term in Chinese (里程碑), but the English term is generally preferred.

notebook - Used to describe notebook (laptop) computers. There is a Chinese equivalent, but "notebook" is shorter. I omitted technical terms from this list, but notebooks are so common they don't qualify as a technical term anymore.

presentation, trade-off - I don't think there are precise equivalents in Chinese so these terms seem fairly useful to me. On the other hand, when do you really need to say trade-off? Isn't almost everything a trade-off, something with positives and negatives?

promote - There is not an exact Chinese equivalent for this word, but 宣傳 seems like a close enough match to me.

soft - This was used to describe a customer ("The customer was soft."). This could mean "easily influenced" but I don't think that is what the speaker meant. It might have something to do with soft power.

step-by-step - There is a perfectly equivalent term in Chinese, but I occasionally hear this English term used instead.

struggle - I've heard this one a number of times, but I'm not sure why it is popular in Chinese.

surprise - This was used to say, "I was extremely surprise[d]!" (我非常的surprise!) The motivation to use an English word here baffles me.

Some more English words used during the presentations:

between, boost, business strategy, contact, customer, data, deliver, department, early stage, error, first, hint, image, improve, index, internal, lesson, marketing, message, promote, quick learning, thinking, timing

I tried to eliminate words that were used only because the speaker was using English PowerPoint slides. I also tried to eliminate English words that were not on the slides but were triggered by the use of English on the slides.

It would be great to expand this into a Chinglish dictionary. I searched for a Chinglish lexicon, but I couldn't find any of the type I am interested in. I am interested in the words Chinese-speakers habitually use when they are speaking Chinese to other Chinese speakers, and especially the non-technical terms. These vary with city, company, and with the individual, so it would take a lot of surveying to determine the extent of use for each term.

God Guan Gong displayed in police station is rich in meaning

2009-03-09T21:26:00.001+08:00

This article comes from today's issue of The Liberty Times. When I was rereading the last translation post on this blog, I noticed there were a lot of awkward phrases in it, so I tried harder this time to make it sound more natural.

By Huang Lixiang and Huang Wenhuang

Idols of Guan Gong are often found in police organizations, especially in investigative units, in the hope that officers will imitate the god's dedication to integrity and justice. Many conventions have arose regarding the placement of Guan Gong, some resonable and some farfetched.

A senior police captain of an investigative unit in Taipei county states that Guan Gong idols are found in almost all of the Taipei county's 15 stations, especially in the offices of the criminal justice units. Unlike in Hong Kong movies, however, police do not burn incense or otherwise publicly worship the idols. Rather, the idols are primarily pieces of art. Although it is not an object of worship, the Guan Gong image is invested with meaning according to its placement, posture and the direction of the blade.

A senior officer states that Guan Gong idols can be classified as literary or martial. The literary Guan Gong is depicted reading the Spring and Autumn Annals, while the martial Guan Gong is depicted holding a scimitar. Police have traditionally favored the martial Guan Gong, whose display of strength and military might serves to intimidate criminals. In recent years, with the increase in popularity of higher learning among police, so the literary Guan Gong has gained popularity, as well as the literary and martial Guan Gong, in which he is depicted with the Spring and Autumn Annals in his left hand and a scimitar in his right hand.

The officer asserts that Guan Gong's expression is usually a reflection of the attitude of the owner. For example, if a new captain of an investigative unit places a Guan Gong with an austere expression on display, subordinates will be dissuaded from engaging in favoritism or corruption. If Guan Gong's blade points inward, the new officer may focus on rectification of internal practices; if the blade points outward, it might indicate preparation for a shakedown of the captain's area of jurisdiction.

The officer explains that there are many taboos dealing with Guan Gong's blade. It is important that the blade's edge not face oneself, so as to avoid inviting a bloodbath. Furthermore, it is rumored that if the blade falls, the police unit will encounter a mishap. Some even associate the dropping of Guan Gong's scimitar with cases of inappropriate conduct and discipline.

Site for Chinese book reviews: aNobii

2009-03-05T21:46:00.000+08:00

The most popular site for buying books in Taiwan is books.com.tw. That's the number one search result if you search for "books" in Chinese. So, I imagined that, like amazon.com, the site would be a good place to look for book reviews. It's not.

There is a great place for reading Chinese book reviews: anobii.com. It is a social site for readers, like librarything.com. Although the site originated in Hong Kong and is available in 14 languages, it appears that Taiwanese users make up the vast majority. For example, there are on the order of 300 users with the book Perfume in English, and around 3000 users with the book in Chinese. There are 197 comments in Chinese, 163 of which come from Taiwanese users. (Perfume is more popular with Taiwanese readers than American readers, so don't read too much into the single data point.)

You can filter the comments and users that are displayed by language and region. You can import booklists, create wishlists, join groups, etc. For more on features, see the Wikipedia page.

While librarything.com hasn't been able to recognize any of the foreign language books I've read, anobii.com didn't seem to have any problems pulling up the info for the Chinese language books I checked. Anobii supports importing and exporting book lists, so if you really like librarything or another site like that, you could use anobii to enter in your Chinese books and then export them.

The name comes from a type of bookworm, Anobium punctatum. They explain this on their blog, but they don't explain why they had to make the name look ridiculous by changing the capitalization to aNobii.

Chinese meaning of hulu in hulu.com

2009-02-27T22:07:00.000+08:00

Today I came across a reference in Newsweek to the website hulu.com, in which the author described hulu as meaning "named after a Chinese word that means 'holder of precious things.'" After doing a search, I found that this definition was parroted all over the web. That definition isn't far off base, but it's also not quite right, so I wrote this post to clarify things.

According to hulu.com, the primary meaning of their name is the Chinese word hulu (葫蘆), which is a calabash, which is a kind of gourd.

...it is used in an ancient Chinese proverb that describes the hulu as the holder of precious things. It literally translates to "gourd," and in ancient times, the Hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things.

There are many stories, legends, and religious beliefs in Chinese that make use of the hulu. It was used by doctors to carry medicine and Taoists believed it had magical properties. So, carrying precious things is definitely within its scope, and I agree this is a good image for a website that is a content provider, but I want to clarify the meaning by stating that the hulu is not necessarily a signifier for carrying precious things. The most common image of the hulu is a container for alcohol, like a hip-flask.

As for whether there is a more specific allusion for the word hulu, things are not as clear. There are many expressions in Chinese that use the word hulu. Hulu.com mentions a "Chinese proverb that describes the hulu as the holder of precious things." I haven't seen any sites in English or Chinese that can identify which "proverb" this is referring to. In fact, the Chinese version of the Wikipedia entry for hulu.com leaves out the claim of referring to a proverb, and instead states that hulu is an allusion to a baohulu (寶葫蘆), which literally means a "precious hulu." You could say a hulu is precious because it contains something precious, but the literal meaning is that the hulu itself is precious.

Why is there a specific term in Chinese for a "precious hulu"? There are legends and folk stories about magic gourds. In the Disney movie The Secret of the Magic Gourd, "magic gourd" is a good translation of the term baohulu. In the movie, like the story it is based on, which I believe is based on folk stories, the magic gourd is like Aladdin's lamp--it will give you whatever you ask for (although in the movie the gourd is an animated character). I can't say that there is a single definitive image of a baohulu, but this seems to be the most popular one.

Hulu.com also mentions a secondary meaning for hulu:

The secondary meaning is "interactive recording."

I don't agree that "interactive recording" (which would be 互錄 in Chinese) is relevant to hulu.com's mission. The website is used for playback of video, not for recording videos or uploading your own videos. The word "recording" in "interactive recording" refers to act of recording, not to the recorded media, so this cannot refer to the interactive playback of a recording.

Monk Ji Gong is often depicted with a hulu

Jackie Chan with hulu in The Forbidden Kingdom

Actor Yuan Xiaotian in the original Drunken Master

Jackie Chan is awarded a hulu

Chow Yun-Fat enjoys his hulu

Leave a comment if you have any thoughts on hulus, whether precious, magical or conventional.

Wild Child and Young Big-Head Spring's Weekly Life Diary

2009-02-26T21:21:00.001+08:00

In an earlier post, I talked about ways of picking out novels to read in Chinese. When I picked the book Wild Child by Zhang Dachun (張大春) [or Chang Ta-chun] to read, I used a method that I didn't mention. I checked what contemporary Taiwanese literature has been translated into English, and picked one of those books to read in Chinese. I didn't do it this way because I wanted to appreciate the stories in their original language so much as I did it to save money.

The Columbia University Press lists 18 books under their category of "modern Chinese literature from Taiwan." My guess is that this list represents the majority of all contemporary Taiwanese novels that have been translated into English. I would love to read all the books on this list, but at about US$24 a book, I can't afford it.

One of the books on the list is Wild Kids, a compilation of two books by Zhang Dachun: My Kid Sister and Wild Child. All copies of the Chinese version of My Kid Sister were checked out at the library, but I found Wild Child (野孩子), and it was a fast and fun read. It's the story of a youth who walks away from home one day and never finds any reason to go back home. He gets involved with some other street kids, and starts sleeping in a car and working in a junkyard. These young people are also involved with gangsters and crime.

The book looks as if it were written for children: each chapter of the book is illustated with a crayon drawing, and some editions of the book list the author as "Big-Head Spring," which is the nickname of the protagonist. But I doubt many adults will recommend this book to children, because there is coarse language and mention of sex (and murder, but no one cares about that). None of these are worse than what real high school kids say and hear, but the book isn't trying to when a Newbery prize.

There are certainly aspects of a social novel in the book, but it is pretty entertaining, so it definitely feels like entertainment. If you look, you can find some commentary on education and authority. In fact, discussion of education in Taiwan has been focused for so many years on "educational reform," it is difficult to look at any student's less-than-satisfying experience at school and see it as anything but criticism of the educational system. For example, Big-Head Spring finds more sense of accomplishment from learning how to operate heavy machinery in a junkyard than in anything he has done in school. Also, part of what spurs Big-Head Spring to leave home is when he is knocked on the head by an administator at school. Corporal punishment is on the decline, but it was still very common when the book was written.

Another story in the book that made me wonder about the challenges that youths are facing was the story of a girl name Ani. To earn money, her father opened up a temple. Because the temple became popular, perhaps drawing money away from another temple, a gangster comes around and sets fire to the temple, killing the the girl's family. The gangster takes the girl to his home, where he locks her in the apartment and forces her to care for his elderly mother. When the girl gets older, he rapes her. This is the darkest story in the book. It makes you wonder whether this story was inspired by actual events.

My Kid Sister and Wild Child aren't the only books written by Big-Head Spring. There is another book that is in the form of a diary (written for school). That book is titled "Young Big-Head Spring's Weekly Life Diary" (少年大頭春的生活週記). One common assignment in Taiwanese schools is to keep a diary. In the book, the diary entries are have sections on (1) major events in the week; (2) important news, along with the student's commentary; (3) what the student has learned; (4) reflection and self-criticism; (4) the teacher's response.

This book is written by a younger Big-Head Spring, and so it doesn't deal with the darker aspects of delinquency. It is more of a comedy. At the same time, the book talks about the breakup of his parents. This reminded me of a fine piece of literature, REAL Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book. In that book, while the fictional author Robert Hamburger talks about ninjas, there is interspersed the story of his parents' breakup. In Young Big-Head Spring's Weekly Life Diary, the writer is more reflective, but he generally remains upbeat, even while he chronicles the breakup of his family. Here's a quote from Big-head Spring:

Until now I didn't know that even with policemen there are a bunch of crazy people and bad people. When they flip out they can kill people or kill themselves as they please. I think that isn't right. The government should invent a new kind of police who go after the police to protect us. But if this new kind of police randomly flips outs too, there's nothing I can do about it.

See if you can see echoes of that in REAL Ultimate Power:

Ninjas can kill anyone they want! Ninjas cut off heads ALL the time and don't even think twice about it. These guys are so crazy and awesome that they flip out ALL the time.

Well, that may not prove any similarities in structure, but I thought it was funny. In fact, this is one of the funniest Chinese book I've read.

The book touches on politics many times, mostly to comic effect. For example there is a teacher who is a DPP supporter. He is distressed that some kids can't sing any songs in Hoklo, so he makes them learn songs and sing them in class. Another DPP supporter is Big-Head Spring's mom. His dad, on the other hand, is a KMT supporter, which leads to arguments.

At the end of the book are three short critical essays. One of those essays states that Zhang Dachun mentioned that the book is ripe for interpretations according to different critical theories, a Freudian analysis would look at the protagonist's relationship with his parents, a literary sociology analysis would look at the political messages, and the opposition between the pro-DPP mother and the pro-KMT father. A feminist analysis could also look at that dynamic. There are a couple more examples, but what I found most interesting is that these essays all took a light book so seriously. The essays are too short to say much, but I think it's a good idea to gets students who read the book for fun to look at it more thoughtfully.

* * * * *

Like Xiaoye who I mentioned in a recent post, author Zhang Dachun is the winner of a literary award from the United Daily News and has his own blog.

Profits small for bloggers in Taiwan

2009-02-23T20:58:00.004+08:00

There was an article about making money from blogging in the Liberty Times today. Here are some of the key points:

There are over 10 million people with broadband in Taiwan.
Advertisers pay bloggers NT$10,000-20,0000 to sample and talk about products.
Advertisers have worked with bloggers whose web pages draw from 500-50,000 visits per day.
Pay ranges from NT$2,000-$20,000 based on popularity of blog. More involved assignments can pay more.
A blog that draws 30,000-40,000 visitors per day earns about NT$20,000 per assignment.

Lazymeg.com is a Taiwanese blog with about 8,000-9,000 visitors per day. Through Adsense, product reviews, and other advertisements. The author earns NT$10,000-15,000 per month. At 8,500 visitors per day to earn NT$15,000, that's only about US$1.70 per 1000 visitors. The blogger currently doesn't have any other job, and it looks like she posts about twice a day and she does paid blogging assignments pretty often. If the numbers are accurate, then she is making peanuts. That level of pay would be low if it were only based on Adsense, but Meg must spend a lot of time to make a very humble income.

"Atarashi hito" no ho e by Oe Kenzaburo

2009-02-23T14:50:00.007+08:00

In 2005, I reviewed Oe Kenzaburo's first volume of essays written for children, "Jibun No Ki" Shita De. The second volume, "Atarashi Hito" No Ho E, was published in 2003 in Japan and published in 2005 in Taiwan. It is one of the many books written by Oe available in Chinese translation but not available in English translation.

Oe takes the task of writing for children very seriously. One student wrote to him to say that he was inspired to read Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Oe responds with a twelve-page essay in which he outlines a limited portion of the book for the young reader to begin with, and he shares his own feelings and insights from reading the book. It's remarkable to read from someone who so clearly believes in the power of reading that they would go to the trouble of writing such an essay. The themes of the book are the importance of honesty, learning, and reading.

Oe tells some fascinating stories from his childhood and the lessons that he learned. When he ventured into a dangerous part of a watering hole to get a look at some fish that he had only heard of by rumor, he became stuck in a crevice and almost died. Someone pulled him free, but he never learned who. His parents, and especially his father, were not the type of people to bring it up, and Oe didn't have the courage to ask. He admitted that as he was stuck, he imagined himself turning into a fish and living on in the water. Perhaps his parents were disappointed in his failure to strive to save himself.

One of the chapters of the book retells the story told in the New Yorker as "For a Lousy Battery." The abstract is available online, but a paid registration is required to read the full text. (After the article was published, Oe learned that the ending of the story as he remembered it was not true.)

Oe stresses that we need to force ourselves to read slowly. His motivation to read more carefully came from his mother when he was a child. "I finished reading all the books in the civic center. This village had no more books I could read. When I told my mother this, she took me back there and pulled one book after another off the shelves. She asked me, what does this book say? She saw that I couldn't answer well. 'Do you read books to forget them?' she said with an expression of disappointment. After that, when I read a book, I developed the habit of writing what I read on a notecard or in a notebook." For more detail on his reading methods, see my previous book review.

Oe passes along the advice on reading that he received during college from his professor of French literature. "You can decide on an author, a poet, or a thinker, and spend tree years reading his books and books researching those books.... Because you want to be a writer of fiction, you don't need to become a specialized research scholar (meaning I could not become one). In the fourth year you can advance on a new topic." This method of reading has clear benefits for writers, but I was disappointed that there was only little explanation of the benefits to non-writers.

One surprising revelation from this book is that Oe, while not a Christian, seems to believe in the resurrection of Christ. The name of the book in Chinese is For the New "New Man" (給新新人類), where "new man" is inspired by Paul's letter to the Ephesians:

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

In explaining his appreciation of the concept of becoming a new man, Oe writes, "I just think that Jesus Christ--who died on the cross and became a new man--his return to life, that is his resurrection, and his working hard to pass his teachings to his disciples, is the most important event in the history of mankind. I believe the heart of this is in 'being a "new man" and being able to live on.' The essence of this image is in the 'new man' who is able to live on eternally."

One of the only faults of the book is the translation. In one of the essays, Oe writes that long sentences that keep going on without a period make it look as if the author is trying to hide something. He believes that shorter sentences are more straightforward and honest. Perhaps because of this, many sentences appear in the translation that are fragments of a thought. Many times, the paragraph is the unit of a complete thought, and you need to read the whole paragraph to be able to interpret any of the sentences. I wouldn't be confident in my assessment of Chinese writing, but I read the comments of a Chinese reader that felt the urge to rewrite some of the sentences as he/she read the book.

The description above meshes well with Oe's description about reading difficult texts, especially books in translation. In addition to Japanese, Oe is a great reader of French and English. He describes reading a difficult passage this way:

Even when the meaning is unclear, you continue reading along with the momentum of the text. When you read this way, the part that was unclear suddenly becomes clear and you understand it all. It is like when you're climbing on a misty mountain road. When the mist suddenly clears away, not only does the road where you are standing become clear, but also the road you just climbed.

I have to agree that this is a nice feeling that comes more often when reading in a foreign language.

One of the ideas in the book is the importance of faithfully recounting the statements or ideas of other people. During conferences, when a colleague says something that Oe would like to quote, he writes down what he hears and then checks with the speaker that he has quoted him correctly. He does this both when is supportive and when opposed to the statement. This post is already over a thousand words long, but I feel like I have just begun to faithfully recount what is worth hearing in this book.

Veterans support each other for 50 years, arrange to be buried together

2009-02-22T18:55:00.009+08:00

This article comes from the United Daily News. I cut it out of the newspaper when it appeared in October last year, and just now got around to translating it.

By Wu Mingliang

Veterans Yi Tiancheng, Fang Jitang and Ni Jin have supported each other for 50 years. Ni Jin, who has a family, took in his two single friends to live with him. The three made a pact to be buried together. Yi and Fang bequeathed their inheritance to Ni to be used for worship offerings in the future. Ni Jin exhorts his son, "When we have passed away, you should make offerings to Uncle Yi and Uncle Fang just as if they were your father."

In 2005, when Fang Jitang passed away, Yi Tiancheng and Ni Jin held his funeral. Tainan's Veterans Service Department refused to pass on the inheritance to Ni Jin because "the authenticity of the will could not be determined." Ni Jin then filed a civil suit. Tainan district court believed that the will was written clearly; it clearly stated that the inheritance should be handled by Ni Jin. The court ruled that the Veterans Service Department should turn over the the inheritance of over NT$660,000 to Ni Jin.

Photo of Ni Jin by reporter Wu Mingliang

"In our decades serving as soldiers, we stressed feelings and brotherhood," says 78-year-old Ni Jin. Yi Tiancheng is 13 years older than him and Fang Jitang was six years older. "They are both my elder brothers," he says. In his early years as a soldier, pay was meager and he had four children to support. His two brothers would often give him two or three thousand dollars to support him. "Since they were young, my children were brought up by them, just like their own children."

Ni Jin is from Jiangsu. In 1945, he came to Taiwan with the military and entered the 93rd division, in the same unit as Yi Tiancheng, who is from Sichuan, and Fang Jitang, from Zhejiang. The three looked after one another and became fast friends. In 1966 Ni Jin transferred into the Garrison Command's coast guard. He was allotted residence in the Jingzhong Sancun residential area for military families. He treated Yi and Fang like his own family; when they were on leave they would come and stay.

In 1979, Yi and Fang retired from service, one after the other. In the empty space next to his residence, Ji Jin built a house to accommodate his two friends and allow them to live together. "Whatever my family eats, they eat the same thing," he says. A few years earlier, because his son married and had children, Ni Jin moved to a house on Zhonghua South Rd. in Tainan. Yi Tiancheng worried that it would be too crowded for them, so he stayed at the apartment in Jingzhong Sancun. Ni Jin went to visit and chat with his friends every day.

"We were born on different days and will die at different times, but we'll be buried together," said Ni Jin. The three men bought spaces at the ossuary of Tiandu Chan Temple in Tainan. They arranged to be together every day, even after they pass on.

Since Fang Jitang passed away, Ni Jin takes his children to the Tiandu Chan Temple to worship on the anniversary of Fang's death, on Tomb Sweeping day, and during the lunar new year. Ni Jin humorously notes that when you pass away, most people's descendants only come to worship on the anniversary of death, Tomb Sweeping Day, and the lunar new year, but for the three friends, they will have three different death anniversary days, so their sons will have to make two more trips each year. "Each year, we'll have two more meals than other people. Isn't that good?"

Forced out

2009-02-17T20:59:00.002+08:00

Last week I read a short story by Xiaoye (小野). The story won the second annual literary award for short stories given by the United Daily News in 1977. The story unfolds during the last at-bat of a baseball game.

The title of the story is Fengsha (封殺). Fengsha is a baseball term, meaning a forced out. That's when a player on defense tags the base that a runner has to advance to. In Chinese, it also means to ban or prohibit someone from participating in some activity, so the title was picked for its literal and figurative meanings.

It turns out that there was a problem with the story's title. After the story was published, readers wrote in pointing out that the key play in the story was not actually a forced out, but was a tag out.

The author apologized for this mistake, but it is obvious that he couldn't fix things without making huge changes, so the inconsistency had to stay.

Readers also caught another small mistake. According to readers, in Taiwan's little league baseball rules, base runners can't leave base until the batter's ball has touched ground. This is different from the little league rules that I knew. In the league I played, runners could leave base as soon as the ball is hit (ignoring the case where a pop fly is caught). (In the big leagues, runners can, of course, leave base before the ball is hit.)

The story is posted on a bbs here.

On childbirth in Taiwan: Taiwanese women, why aren't you angry?

2009-02-12T19:03:00.005+08:00

The following article is about the state of the childbirth process in Taiwan. The article comes from issue 52 of Common Health Magazine, which is from March 2003. The article is no longer online at the website, but it has been posted in forums and on blogs. One example is here.

The article details the routine practices for childbirth in Taiwan. It laments that practices are 20 years out of date. Although it was written five years ago, I think the article is as relevant and important now as it was then. These same things are going on at almost all hospitals.

I considered writing a rant about this topic, but I instead translated this article because it is well-researched and is more authoritative than the rant I would have written. It is the longest post yet on this blog and also one of the most important.

When I had a chance to talk to the doctor about some of these issues, I first wanted to know about episiotomies. Is it possible to wait and see if it's necessary to perform an episiotomy, or do you have to do it? The doctor gave the standard reasoning for performing the operation, just like that described in the article. However, it's an explanation that isn't based on evidence. The doctor acknowledged that in other countries some people advocate against routine episiotomies, but dismissed that by saying, "This is how we do it in Taiwan." It was not optional. Maybe he had never even delivered a baby without cutting the perineum, so he probably wouldn't be patient enough to wait the extra time the delivery would require. After that, I sensed that the doctor didn't care if I had any opinion on the topic, so I didn't have the heart to ask him about all the other standard procedures.

The situation described in the article also makes me worry about other medical practices in Taiwan other than childbirth. I've had mostly positive experiences with doctors so far, so I would prefer to trust them, but this article makes me wonder: Are practices based on inductive reasoning and tradition or are they based on clinical evidence? Do doctors keep up-to-date with the recommendations of foreign medical organizations or do they ignore research done outside the country?

For another perspective, a perspective that I think is lacking in evidence, the article is followed with the translation of some comments of a forum member who criticized the article. But please read the article first for the more well-researched side.

For more information, see the guide mentioned in the article: Care in normal birth: a practical guide, published by the World Health Organization.

Taiwanese women, why aren't you angry?

By Si Yanfang

Taiwan's birthing situation lags 20 years in the past. The rate of Cesarean births is third highest in the world, and almost 100% of women are given an enema, an IV, an episiotomy, and half of deliveries use pharmacological intervention [by labor-stimulating or labor-inducing drugs]. Standard birthing procedures are almost completely counter to the recommendations of the World Health Organization, moving in the opposite direction of world trends. Are the great number of medical interventions in childbirth in Taiwan performed at the cost of the well-being of mother?

When thirty-three-year-old Jane (real name withheld) recalls giving birth to her second child in October of last year, she is still fearful. She promises that next time she will have a Cesarean. She just wants it to be over as soon as possible; she absolutely does not want to be in the hospital for too long.

When Jane entered the hospital, she was taken to have her pubic hair shaved, given an enema and IV, then she labored from 9 am until 4 pm, lying flat on the hospital bed for seven hours. Because she had a fetal monitoring device strapped around her belly and an IV connected to her arm, it was difficult even to turn her body. She wasn't used to using the bedpan to relieve herself while lying in bed, but when she wanted to get out of bed to go to the restroom, the nurse loudly berated her, "What are you doing! What's going to happen if we miss monitoring the baby's heartbeat?"

From the time she enters the hospital, Jane is not allowed to eat anything. She isn't even allowed to drink water. By afternoon, she feels like she's about to collapse, but the contractions are getting closer and more intense. She doesn't have any energy; even the command to breath is too much for her. She cries out in pain. The nurse coldly tells her, "Who hasn't given birth? How can you be so afraid of pain?"

In the seven hours of labor, not once does the doctor appear. When Jane feels the baby crowning, the nurse uses her fingers to hold back the baby's head, unwilling to let the baby come out. The nurse insists that she "wait until the assigned delivery physician arrives." Jane begs piteously, any doctor will do, she even yells at the nurse, "Get your hands away, I'll give birth by myself!" In this way, she is deadlocked with the nurse for over twenty minutes until the doctor finally arrives. To her surprise, the doctor uses his fingers to push the baby's head back in, then cuts her perineum before he will allow the baby to come out. The doctor's words clearly enter her ears: "Come on! Is it that painful? You make it sound like I can't deliver a baby."

After Jane returned home for her "month of sitting," she cried whenever she thought of the pain and humiliation of giving birth. She cried for the whole month.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

In Taiwan, Jane's birth experience cannot be considered an exception. Many women have similar memories of pain and feeling wronged. In Taiwan today, 99% of women give birth in hospitals. Former World Health Organization director of women's and children's health Marsden Wagner points to the numbers for each item in the survey of operating procedures at obstetrics departments in Taiwan, saying "Your births have many unnecessary medical interventions." He was responsible for evaluating the health of women in children in 45 industrialized nations around the world for 15 years. Looking at Taiwan's rate of Cesarean sections, episiotomies, and other items, he shakes his head saying, "This is the worst situation I have seen!" But when reporters hold these statistics and ask obstetricians in Taiwan for an explanation, the doctors speak reasonably and at length saying, "Birth is a dangerous matter. The greatest consideration in all this medical intervention is the health of the mother and child." But are the many medical interventions during birth in Taiwan performed at the cost of the well-being of mother? I'm afraid the answer is unsettling.

While infant mortality in other countries is dropping year by year, the mortality rate in Taiwan has risen from 5.3 in 1000 in 1990 to 6 in 1000 in 2001, and the mortality rate for mothers has been hovering at around 7 per 10,000, the same as seven years ago. The most apparent example of medical intervention in birth is the Cesarean section. Taking 2000 as an example, Taiwan's Cesarean rate was 34.5%, ranking third in the world behind only Chile and Brazil, which means that one in every three mothers gives birth by Cesarean section. The WHO recommends a rate of 10-15%. Scientific evidence supports a rate that should be controlled at 12%; only then can the numbers for mother and infant mortality drop to a minimum. But Taiwan's Cesarean rate is a full double that rate. Wagner emphasizes, "Check the disparity between what is currently being practiced and what is supported by scientific evidence. This is why the mortality rate during birth for mothers and babies in Taiwan hasn't improved."

Episiotomies: A difficult cut for Taiwanese women to avoid?

In Taiwan, pregnant mothers routinely have their pubic hair shaved for the sake of having an episiotomy. It is seen as decreasing the chance of infection to the perineum and for convenience in suturing the cut, but this explanation has no basis in scientific evidence. In fact, in its 1996 publication "Care in Normal Birth: A Practical Guide," the WHO states that routine shaving of pubic hair does not decrease the chance of infection, and can even increase the chance of infection with HIV and hepatitis for the mother and for caregivers. The episiotomy is performed for fear that the perineum with block the baby's head from coming out, leaving the baby stuck in the birth canal without oxygen for too long. Clinical evidence, however, shows that less than 20% of women require an episiotomy. According to a survey, 98% of births in Taiwan include an episiotomy. Dr. Wagner questions, "Do doctors in Taiwan really believe that all women need the cut's help to be able to give birth? That is simply outdated by 20 years."

Taiwanese doctors universally believe that if the perineum is not cut then it will tear, and the wound created by a natural tear is harder to suture than the wound made by cutting, and will more easily lead to involuntary urination. Some doctors blame it on Taiwanese women, saying that Taiwanese women have tighter vaginas than the women in other countries, and they don't like to do exercises before giving birth, making the perineum less elastic, and furthermore pregnant mothers fear the pain [of tearing] so they ask the doctor to cut it.

But the rate of episiotomies in other countries is dropping yearly. In England, the rate has dropped from 50% 20 years ago to just 14%. In the US, the rate has dropped from 100% 25 years ago to 70% 10 years ago, and has continued to drop to the current level of 33%. Three years ago, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended against routinely performing episiotomies. The American "Obstetrics and Gynecology" journal criticized the US's 30% episiotomy rate, saying the operation was still overused. As early as 1993, the medical journal "The Lancet" indicated that routine episiotomies (performed in every case) more often lead to tears than elective episiotomies (performed only when necessary), and lead to more pain after delivery. Many studies have proved that women who had episiotomies have a higher incidence of pain during intercourse three months after delivery compared to women who for whom the perineum tore naturally, and a higher rate of urinary incontinence because the muscles in the urinary tract and the pelvis weaken.

Because of this, Taiwan performed its own study. The results were consistent: the lacerations caused by routine episiotomies were more severe and more painful 24 hours after birth. Liu Yifang of the Graduate Institute of Nurse-Midwifery at The National Taipei College of Nursing, found that in a study of 64 mothers performed by Tang Yunlong, director of the obstetrics and gynecology at Taoyuan's Lixin Hospital, routinely performed episiotomies primarily result in second-degree lacerations, wounding the muscle layer and requiring stitches. Performing episiotomies only as necessary, on the other hand, primarily resulted in level-one wounds, hurting only the skin and not requiring stitches. The pain index for routine episiotomies was also markedly higher than the elective episiotomy group. There was no difference in the health score of the babies of the two groups.

Director Tang Yunlong, who participated in this study for three months, and who has twelve years experience in obstetrics and gynecology, said, "In the past I was used to performing the cut, because ever since medical school, the teachers have taught to do it that way." But now he avoids the cut as much as possible. "It takes courage to change," he says. "It wasn't until I learned that the study showed that not cutting was better, that I dared to change, because the wound is on the mother's body." Director Tang takes on 20 cases a month. Last year he tried not cutting in a few cases, but found that the tearing was severe. As he had to spend an hour or two stitching the wound, he felt irritated, thinking, "If I had known it would be like this, I would have cut it." But after a month he found he had the heart to to try it, and he got the hang of the technique; delivering without an episiotomy wasn't so difficult after all. "It's like golfing. After a while, you pick up the feel for it." Dr. Tang expressed that the key is waiting, so that the perineum becomes more stretchable, because natural labor is a slow process. "Actually, the pregnant mother on the delivery bed is in such pain that she loses rationality, and she doesn't have the strength to bother with whether or not the doctor is making the cut." In the past, he was used to spending only two to three minutes to perform an episiotomy and deliver a baby, but now that he wants to help mother protect their perineum and wait until it is necessary to cut, he waits around five to ten minutes.

Are routine enemas necessary?

In Taiwan, in addition to episiotomies, enemas, IVs, and prohibiting eating are considered routine operating procedure for birthing. Doctors say that babies are fighting a bloody battle for survival; if you don't give an enema, the mother will defecate as soon as she strains herself, drawing the feces into the battle and becoming a source of infection for mother and child.

Assistant Professor Gao Meiling of the nursing department at National Taipei College of Nursing recalls years ago when she gave birth to her first child. As soon as she entered the hospital she was given an enema, but after being in labor for two days without result, she was forced to have a Cesarean. But before surgery, there was no need to have another enema. "Entering the hospital, I had an enema for no reason," she states.

Studies in the 1980s showed that for the vast majority of mothers, not having an enema does not lead to incontinence during delivery. Incontinence occurs in only a very small minority of cases and does not lead to infection of mother's wound on the perineum or of the child. English obstetrician Dr. Ye Xueyuan states that he has never heard that it is necessary to administer an enema. "Not giving an enema does not affect the rate of infection for mother or child, so why do all mothers need an enema? What's the point?" She states that if a mother happens to have a bowel movement on the delivery bed, at worst it will affect cleanliness but it is unrelated to the safety of mother and child. To actually give enemas to all mothers, the price is too high. The WHO considers routine enemas as harmful to mothers and finds them ineffective, even saying the practice should be eliminated.

Taiwanese women give birth while in hunger

Taiwanese doctors universally believe that mothers should give birth on an empty stomach because they consider birth as something dangerous in which a Cesarean section could be required at any moment. If the mother does not have an empty stomach, it will increase the risk of anesthesia. However, anesthesiologist Wang Mingju of National Taiwan University states that it is enough to stop eating eight hours before a Cesarean section. It's unreasonable that for a small number of mothers who need an emergency Cesarean, mothers for whom there are no signs of danger are prohibited from eating.

Taking the Taipei Municipal Women and Children's Hospital as an example, a poster outside the doorway of the labor room explains what mothers "need to know about food and drink during labor." It encourages women to drink more liquids, such as soy milk and milk. Head nurse Huang Yingman asks, "If you don't eat or drink, where do you get the strength to give birth?" And the further a mother is into labor, the more she needs strength. First-time mothers take 12-14 hours on average [to give birth], and women who have given birth before take 6-8 hours. When a mother exerts herself, this often leads to a dry mouth. If she can have a drink to moisten her mouth she will be more comfortable. "But doctors' prohibition on eating and drinking even extends to drinking water," states assistant professor Gao Meiling. "It's actually quite cruel."

Routine IVs: Is it necessary to go under the needle?

When an expectant mother enters the hospital she must begin fasting--neither food nor drink is allowed. No one knows exactly when the mother will give birth, so doctors use an intravenous drip to replenish her energy and to avoid dehydration. The drip is glucose water. "If the mother can drink water, why does she need an IV?," Gao Meiling asks. In Taiwan, 99% of mothers are given an IV. It's worrisome to note that because of this, mother and baby must undergo an unnecessary risk. Studies show that intravenous glucose water causes the mother's blood sugar level to rise, also causing the fetus's plasma glucose level to rise. It also can causes blood in the umbilical artery to decrease in pH. If, during the course of delivery, over 25 grams of glucose is administered by IV, it can spur excess secretion of insulin in the fetus, which means that after birth, the baby can be hypoglycemic and have high levels of blood lactate. Because of this, the WHO views routine IVs as harmful and ineffective, and the practice should be eliminated.

For whose benefit is routine and continuous fetal monitoring performed?

In Taiwan, mothers have an IV coming out of their arm and an electronic fetal monitor strapped around their belly. Because of the monitor, mothers cannot labor in any position other than lying flat on their backs. Doctors explain that this is for constant monitoring of the fetus. A director of a hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department candidly explains his feelings saying, "The key thing is that I'm afraid of being sued. If something goes wrong, I'll have evidence to show that I did all I can do."

The fetal monitor is used to record the fetus's heartbeat and the contractions of the uterus. For high-risk births it is necessary to have monitoring constantly available, but Dr. Wagner states that, "The constant monitoring used for all mothers in Taiwan is unnecessary and has no benefits." He says that the way this is done in Taiwan will only increase the incidence of Cesarean sections.

In Sweden, for one year all mothers were equipped with a fetal monitor. That year, the rate of performing Cesarean sections doubled. The next year, with the elimination of this practice, the rate of C-sections returned to the original level. Even in America, where over 80% of obstetricians have been sued at least once, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not recommend the routine use of continuous fetal monitoring.

The worst consequence is that the fetal monitor ties the mother to the bed. Lying on the back during labor is the position most likely to increase pain for a mother, and it decreases the degree of contraction of the uterus, making it disadvantageous for the progress of labor. The WHO recommends that if the fetus's heartbeat is normal, the heartbeat should be checked once every 15 to 30 minutes. Only in cases where the mother's water has broken and the fetus's position is not settled does she need to lie down. If the fetus's position is fixed, even if the mother's water has broken, she can still change positions as she likes, and the mother should be encouraged not to lie down. Standing up or lying on one's side are both helpful for the expansion of the cervix. Whatever position is comfortable should be used in labor.

Is your position good for giving birth?

Dr. Wagner states, "In evaluating whether the obstetrics department of a hospital has made progress, you can tell just by looking at what position mothers use to give birth." In Taiwan, mothers lie flat on their backs with their legs raised. Twenty-five years ago, it was already proved that this is the most painful and uncomfortable position for mothers and it is not good for the fetus. When the mother lies on her back, the fetus's head constricts the blood vessels connected to the uterus and reduces the amount of oxygen and nutrients supplied to the fetus.

Guo Suzhen, head of the obstetrics department at the Taipei College of Nursing takes out slides she photographed last year in Venice, loudly saying, "Look, the European-made delivery chair even has armrests. Women overseas can give birth sitting or squatting. Can Taiwanese women do that?" On the delivery bed, mothers often hear, "Push hard, push hard, just like you're pushing hard to poop." The birthing chair has a hole in the middle, like a toilet's lid, making it convenient to exert one's self while giving birth either sitting or squatting.

Research shows that entering the second stage of labor, if the mother's upper body is sitting upright, allowing her to see her belly, giving birth in this upright position is more helpful in reducing pain, perineal tearing and infection. The WHO recommends that other than lying on one's back, women should use any position that is comfortable.

Does your birth use drugs?

Another risk of giving birth in Taiwan is that posed by the use of labor-stimulating and labor-inducing drugs. Jian Yuha is a mother who has conscientiously prepared. She and her husband attended the hospital's complete childbirth education course and they watched videos at home for practice. For her previous two births she relied on drugs to stimulate labor and reduce pain. "I don't think I could bear the pain of natural labor without the help of drugs," she says.

Three years ago, she entered the hospital to give birth to her second child. Not long after going into labor, the doctor said, "It's too slow. Let's apply some drugs to help move things along, okay?" After applying the drug, contractions came quickly. Her Lamaze breathing couldn't keep up with it. The pain completely overwhelmed her. Yuhua yelled out, "I can't take it! I can't take it!" A nurse ran over and asked, "Do you want an injection of pain-reliever? It will take away some of your suffering." She immediately agreed, but as soon as she received the injection, the baby was already crowning. She hurriedly switched beds, coping with her large belly, and was sent to the delivery bed in the delivery room. In bewilderment she asked the nurse, "Miss, can my husband come in?" The nurse answer, "There's no need. If we wait for him to come, you'll already have given birth by the time he gets here." At the time, Yuhua was helpless and her family wasn't by her side. She felt stupid. After spending so much time practicing for this, now she wasn't able to put that practice to use. After she gave birth, the pain-reliever began to wear off. She was deep asleep from 1 pm until the middle of night, when she was woken by the 9/21 earthquake.

A survey shows that 64% of women in Taiwan use drugs to stimulate or induce labor. Dr. Wagner says, "This is extremely dangerous. Taiwan's doctors actually believe that over half of all births require drugs. They don't trust Taiwanese women have the ability to give birth on their own." But doctors in Taiwan, assured in their reasoning, explain this away saying that doctors can't wait in the delivery room the whole time. No one knows when exactly the mother will give birth. If you don't use drugs, how can you control the timing? If everyone is crowded in the delivery room and she doesn't deliver, how will the next mother come in? Should I go home? Dr. Wagner responds by asking, do your doctors clearly inform mothers of the side effects of labor-stimulating drugs? These drugs can cause the uterus to contract too much and to tear. Then the baby can't get enough oxygen and dies. He points out that the drugs also cause women to suffer. Labor-stimulating drugs speed up the labor and can easily cause electronic fetal monitors to show an abnormal reading, increasing the chance of Cesarean section. "If you go into labor on your own, you're more likely to come out on your own. If you use drugs to induce labor from the beginning, you are more likely to depend on medical intervention to get you out." says Ye Xueyuan, fellow of the UK's Royal Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology [lit. trans.].

Although inducing labor is usually considered safe, it can result in increasing the length of labor and infection of placental membranes and amniotic fluid, as well as stillbirths, cardiovascular disease and other complications. There is also the danger of tearing the uterus for mothers who have previously given birth by Cesarean section. In the UK, careful evaluation is required before using labor-inducing drugs. The UK Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology [lit. trans.] recommends that when pregnancy extends beyond the expected 40 weeks, doctors should consult with the mother and wait for 7 to 10 days before inducing labor.

Are Cesarean sections safe for mother and child?

When an infant is brought into the newborn intensive care unit, neonatologists are most afraid of hearing the huffing sound of labored breathing, then flipping through the infant's case information to find that it was born by Cesarean section. Although the infant's birth weight and gestation period are normal, neonatologists worry about these newborns who have not been squeezed through the birth canal in a natural birth, whose lungs are still soaked in amniotic fluid when they are removed from their mother's belly, which can result in labored breathing and lead to persistent pulmonary hypertension. Pediatrician Mu Shuqi of Xinguang Hospital says, "According to the standard of neonatal care in Taiwan, the mortality rate for persistent pulmonary hypertension is one in three." She recommends pregnant mothers consider natural birth as their first choice. If the mother's situation indicates Cesarean birth, it's still best to wait for the baby to tell mother, "I'm ready. I want to come out now," by contractions, the water breaking or by blood-tinged discharge.

In emergency situations, Cesarean birth can save the lives of mother and child, but there are risks. From a 1998 report on the mortality rate of mothers in England, the mortality rate for mothers is six times as high for Caesarean births compared to natural births. Even for elective Cesarean births in which there is no indication for it, the mortality rate is still two or more times that of natural birth. In addition, the loss of blood is greater, the rate of infection of wounds is greater, and the post-delivery recovery time is greater. Also, Caesarean birth increases the risk of uterine adhesion and ectopic pregnancy, and can lead to infertility.

Giving birth is not being sick

One Saturday afternoon, over a hundred people were assembled for a mother's training class. Speaking was the director of obstetrics of a medical center. He said that the Cesarean section has become an increasingly advanced, safe and carefree operation. His wife's three births were all done this way. [Speaking about the standard birthing procedure in Taiwan,] one medical center obstetrician says, "Even for my wife, she would go through this set of procedures in a natural birth. I'm not willing for any uncertain factor to occur during her birth. For example, if the weather report forecasts cloudy skies, then I'll prepare an umbrella." The two nurses sitting next to the doctor, who have years of experience in birthing care, nod their heads repeatedly in agreement. "Shaving the pubic hair, having an enema, having an IV, keeping the fetal monitor strapped on, going without food, etc. Our own birth will be done like this."

Dr. Ye Xueyuan, who graduated from Cambridge University and who served last year for nine months at Taipei city's Baby-Friendly Hospital, recalls that when he allowed women in labor to drink water, he was loudly berated by other members of the care staff. He asked, "Why can't she drink water in labor?" The answer he got was, "This is the practice at our hospital." "Taiwan's doctors and nurses don't know what a birth without medical intervention looks like," says Dr. Wagner. He shakes his head and sighs, "They don't see the far-reaching effects of the measures that they uses. They are like a fish in the water who can't see the water."

The enormous waste in birthing

In Dr. Wagner's eyes, Taiwan's routine birthing procedure, which is done in the name of safety, not only has no scientific basis but it actually harmful to mother and child and is a huge waste of medical treatment. In 2000, there were 300,000 newborns in Taiwan. The rate of Cesareans was close to 35%. He points out that among those, 69,000 were unnecessary Cesareans. Medical insurance wasted NT$1 billion on these unnecessary operations. Academia Sinica and the R.O.C. Department of health have asked medical associations of obstetricians to implement a local study of "the number of unnecessary Cesarean sections and their cost." Scholars in Taiwan conservatively estimate that unnecessary Caesarean sections in Taiwan reach 35,000, wasting over NT$3.5 billion. When Dr. Wagner meets Weng Ruixiang, director of Taiwan's Bureau of Health Promotion, he strongly recommends that Director Weng thoroughly investigate why over half of the mothers in Taiwan need labor-stimulating drugs, and see how many are actually unneeded wastes of medicine. Furthermore, the almost 100% rate of enemas and IVs represents the unnecessary use of close to 300,00 glycerin ball enemas, IVs, and needles. Also, 234,000 mothers received unnecessary episiotomies, suffering in vain the pain of the cut to the perineum.

"Birth by Cesarean, electric fetal monitors, episiotomies, etc., these medical techniques can be used, but why not carefully evaluate each mother's situation and wait until it's necessary to use them?" Dr. Ye Xueyuan asks. "Birth is not a sickness," he emphasizes. Is it really necessary to treat every pregnant mother as a high-risk case? He asks, does Taiwan give pregnant mothers first-rate service? Are the needs of pregnant mothers satisfied?

In 1994, the UK Department of Health issued a policy paper on childbirth care titled "Changing Childbirth." It emphasized treating mothers as the focal point, providing them with information and helping them make decisions. Two years later, WHO put forth "Care in normal birth: a practical guide," which also emphasized focusing on the mother and providing her with sufficient information and explanation, allowing her to decide on what she wants and does not want in the process of giving birth. Dr. Ye explains, giving mothers the power to make their own decisions means letting them make decisions, not just doing whatever the doctor is used to doing. In the process of birth, has the pain, worry, and discontent of mothers been resolved? Other than Cesarean sections and drugs, what can Taiwan's doctors offer pregnant mothers?

Childbirth is up to you

In 2001, there were around 260,00 newborns in Taiwan, which is equivalent to 712 per day. Have Taiwan's mothers received proper guidance on birthing? Are mothers comfortable during the process of giving birth? In answer to the above questions, Taiwan's obstetricians without exception give one of two answers: "I can't do anything about that" or "That's none of my business." A professor of obstetrics who teaches at Taiwan's number-one ranked medical school says, I agree that birthing in Taiwan is overly medicalized, but doctors are not the only ones who should take responsibility. His student, a council member of the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, points out that changing routine practices in Taiwan's obstetrics departments is not the work of the association. Dr. Wagner says, "The only ones who can change the overly medicalized nature of birth in Taiwan are Taiwanese women." He takes New Zealand as an example; fifteen years ago, the rate of Cesareans in New Zealand was 20%, but now they have dropped by half to 10%. Episiotomies were practiced in 50% of cases, but are now down to 20%. The credit for all of this goes to power of women rallying together to change to the medical system. Women's groups in New Zealand have unceasingly fought for and defended their health and rights in childbirth.

When more and more Taiwanese women ask, "What do I want for my birth? What kind of birth experience do I hope to have?", and when they are willing to spend time preparing and actively participating in childbirth, Taiwan's doctors will begin to provide accurate and sufficient information to mothers and let mothers decide what they want and do not want in their birth process, providing a safe and comfortable childbirth process and environment.

* * * * * * * * *

This article has understandably angered some caregivers. For just a tiny bit of their perspective, I translated some of the comments of a forum member (musclenet) who called the article inappropriate and misleading. Here are some of his objections:

1. If you don't connect an IV line and you experience a sudden loss of blood, no one will be able to connect an IV line. If you say the incidence of this is very low so there is no need, then I ask you, if you don't give an IV and as a result a small number of people die, should the care staff take responsibility for that? Be more fair to patients. Many preparations are made just in cases. If you think that you don't need to give an IV and there won't be any problems then that's just wishful thinking.

I didn't see this issue addressed in the WHO guide, but it seems that if the only reason you need an IV is just in case, can't you connect the catheter without connecting the IV line the whole time?

2. If you don't care how much pain the patient goes through, then yes, you don't have to stimulate labor, but the problem is: you have to go through pain for a long time! After a few hours of labor, many mothers can't take it any more. If you've been in a delivery ward then you'll understand. You don't need to experience it for yourself, but just look at the experiences of all the mothers. Waiting too long without stimulating labor can also be dangerous for the fetus.

This response involves something that this article did not mention: controlling pain. If the pain isn't relieved, stimulating labor will just increase the pain, although it will hopefully last for a shorter duration. Also, a lot of these issues are tied together. If mothers weren't required to lie on their backs, then maybe fewer of them would need stimulation.

3. Don't think that the way they do things overseas is always right. Doctors overseas can wait because there are less women giving birth. If there are few in one day then that's a lot. In Taiwan's hospitals, there can be twenty or thirty in one day.

You can argue that the standard operating procedure in Taiwan is the best hospitals can do with limited resources, but you can't argue that the necessity of the practices therefore make them the safest or the best for mother and child.

The moon isn't really any rounder in other countries. Take some association or some foreign society of physicians and it sounds authoritative. Practices have to be different for different locations. In other countries, mothers don't "sit a month" after giving birth, but what about Taiwan? This article should be cut because it's misleading.

It's true that it sounds impressive to take a bunch of foreign societies of physicians, but does that mean that no organization is authoritative? The article relies heavily on the WHO recommendations. If that isn't satisfactory, what organization should be trusted? Then, musclenet uses the example of mothers in Taiwan "sitting a month" to bolster his point. This isn't very convincing. Just because practices are different in different places doesn't mean they are the best for each place or that we shouldn't try to improve things.

Speaking about the quote that making mothers go without food and water during labor is cruel, musclenet says:

This kind of description is really that of an outsider. If this wasn't quoted out of context, then the speaker is not professional. You should be asking, "Why must they fast?", not describing how uncomfortable it is or how they dislike it. If fasting doesn't make any difference, why are we making the mothers fast? Do you think it's for fun? Of course it isn't. You've got to be prepared for operation or for emergency intubation. (If you don't fast it can lead to aspiration pneumonia.)

This issue is addressed in the WHO guide. It's a valid concern, but the WHO guide points out that fasting doesn't necessarily prevent the risk of aspiration. Speaking about episiotomies, musclenet says:

Of course you don't have to make the cut, but the problem is that if not cutting occasionally causes a tear that extends to the rectum, the mother is facing incontinence for the rest of her life. If 97% don't need it, that doesn't mean that we can encourage the other 2-3% not to have it, especially when you don't know who the unlucky 2-3% are.

This comment does not appear to be based on clinical studies, but on conjecture. According to the WHO report,

In an observational study of 56,471 deliveries attended by midwives the incidence of third-degree tears was 0.4% if no episiotomy was made, and the same with a mediolateral episiotomy; the incidence with a midline episiotomy was 1.2% (Pel and Heres 1995).

Here is musclenet's conclusion:

This article thoroughly shows the trend of sensational reporting in Taiwan. The original source for this article has it's own secondary motives. (For midwives to gain the trust of pregnant mothers to get a greater income.) I suggest moderators deducts points or lock this topic.

80% of Hsinchu Science Park employees on unpaid leave

2009-02-11T20:24:00.003+08:00

Under the severe impact of the global economic plunge, some 80% of the employees at the hi-tech factories operating in the Hsinchu Science Park are taking unpaid leaves, said the park administration.

I heard this reported on the news this week. The above quote is from an article on cens.com. The analysis seems a little lacking:

Yien Chung-min, director general of the park administration, pointed out yesterday (Feb. 9) that although the global economic outlook is still uncertain, the number of employees on unpaid leave is unlikely to increase further. So far, there have been no major disputes over the practice at the park, thanks to the good communication between management and labor, according to Yien.

I don't know why they would say the number of employees on unpaid leave is unlikely to increase. From what I've seen, the number has only increased. Maybe they feel that an optimistic outlook is good for the economy. Either that or they know something we don't.

The next sentence is a pat on the back that there were "no major disputes." Instead of attributing that to good communication, I think the real reason is that employees are afraid of losing their jobs if they complain.

Personally, I'm glad to have some unpaid vacation. If your job is classified as direct labor, and you have five days of unpaid vacation a month, you only end up losing 5/30 of your salary. The pay deducted is based on days in the month, not working days. So, it's actually a pretty good deal.

If you are direct labor, like most of the women working in the fabs, including foreign workers, then the pay deducted is based on working days, so it's a much bigger loss.

For a lot of indirect labor, the situation is worse than it sounds. They have to take unpaid vacation, but are still pressured into going to work on their days off. The park administration should do a survey of that. If you find that almost all of the employees on unpaid leave are actually going to work, then it's clear managers are pressuring employees to work on their vacation days, and in some cases threatening them with being laid off (the next time there is a need for layoffs). Of course, none of that will be put in writing.

Another sneaky move that companies make at this time it to lay people off, but have the laid-off workers sign statements saying they are voluntarily quitting, so that the company can report that it hasn't made any layoffs.

Managers may remind employees that in the US, layoffs are common, while in Taiwan this kind of unpaid leave is common, so employees should be grateful to hold on to their jobs.

England American English School

2009-02-11T07:40:00.002+08:00

"England School" is the name of a children's school for English that I have driven past many times, usually with a feeling of bafflement. Although the name looks like it's missing a word or two, it's not really remarkable on its own, but the Chinese name for the school is "England American-English School" (英格蘭美語學校). They could have easily made the name simply "England English School" without the "American" thrown in, but they apparently decided against that. I tried to think of some excuses for this odd name, and I thought that maybe England was a person's name. But in that case the name would be England's School or England's English School. [Update: I take back that last sentence. The lack of a modifier for "school" is throwing me off. If the name were England High School or England School for the Wealthy, then no apostrophe-s would be needed.]

Further investigation shows that they advertise their foreign teachers of "American English," and they have classes that take the "Cambridge English Test." One of the logos (the one on the left) for the school shows a coat of arms with a crown on top, emphasizing they school's British side.

The other logo shows a boy wearing a mortarboard with the words "Bel School" written on it. That doesn't even sound like English. (There are a few definitions for bel, but none seem appropriate.)

If you can think of some way to make sense of all this, please leave a comment.

Jewish book title less subtle in translation

2009-02-04T22:14:00.005+08:00

When translated into Chinese, a book by Rabbi Nilton Bonder has received a much less subtle title than the original. The book, originally titled "The Kabbalah of Money," has been translated as "The Jews' Art of Getting Rich" (猶太人的致富技術). I'm not sure if the author would find this title tasteful, but I have no doubt that many sensitive souls would be offended by such a blunt title if it were in English.

There is a mitigating circumstance, though. A previous book by the Rabbi, "Yiddishe Kop" was translated into Chinese as "The Jews' Art of Thinking" (猶太人的思考技術). The new book uses a similar phrase because of branding, and perhaps also because it is eye-catching.

The bottom of the front and back cover lists many wealthy ethnic Jews and Jewish families. The back cover gives a statistic showing the American Jews are wealthier than the general population. Nothing inflammatory is going on here, but it made me do a double-take, considering how sensitive some people are to stereotyping.

The book was published on January 19.

Update: To clarify, I think that "The Jews' Art/Techniques for Getting Rich" is clearly a bad title in English. The words "Jews" and "rich" sound crass together. But I can't judge whether the Chinese title really sounds bad. With a slightly different translation back into English, such as "Judaic Principles for Wealth," it doesn't sound bad.

Pop star goes over top with book blurb

2009-02-04T21:48:00.005+08:00

Why kind of blurb sells books? A new book by writer Jiubadao has a blurb on the front cover by a local pop star that begins with the words, in bold type, "I was raped by Jiubadao!".

The book in question (這些年，二哥哥很想你) was published on January 22nd, and the front cover of the book has recommendations by Selina and Hebe of pop trio S.H.E. Hebe's recommendation goes over the top, stating "I was raped by Jiubadao! Lying on the sofa, I finished this book in one go. It made me cry and made be laugh at the yellow dog peeing. It was really satisfying! Sometimes true stories from life are better than fine words and ornately crafted phrases at raping the emotions. I love it!

我被九把刀強暴了！躺在沙發上，一口氣看完這本讓我又哭又笑黃狗撒尿的書，真過癮！有時候，貼近生活的真情故事比用華麗文藻堆砌的太陽花式的文字更令人的情緒被強暴。我愛！

Some commenters wonder if Hebe understands the word she was using and conclude that a pop star possessing such a confused vocabulary might not be the most fitting person to evaluate a book.

This post is kind of gossipy, but it fits with the theme of the last few posts. I noticed the book cover while browsing at the bookstore, but after searching online I found that this story has been picked up by news services and discussion boards.

By the way, if you know what the part about the "yellow dog peeing" in the quote means, please leave a comment.

Stinky Penguin vs. Big Butt

2009-02-03T23:00:00.001+08:00

The third Chinese book I have read so far this year is called Stinky Penguin vs. Big Butt (臭企鵝vs.大屁股), which gives this post an extremely disreputably-sounding title. The book is written by Taiwanese writer Xiao Ye (小野) and his son Li Zhong (李中). The book is subtitled "The War between Father and Son, Round 1". For some reason (which the book does not explain), Li Zhong started calling his father "Stinky Penguin," and in retaliation, the father calls the son "Big Butt."

The most common form of Taiwanese literature is the essay, which is found in many daily newspapers. These writings are often collected and published as a book. (This isn't my own observation--I read this in a book published by the ROC government.) This book is an example of such: the essays in this book appeared in the newspaper before making it into the book.

This book, published in 1999, is Xiao Ye's 70th book, and counting his 30 movie scripts, it is his 100th work. I read and enjoyed one of his short novels that seemed to be written for young people. So, I chose this book not because of the ridiculous title, but because it was the most interesting choice out of about five books that I had to choose from during the New Year's vacation.

Xiao Ye has been a popular author for years, and according to his Wikipedia article, his popularity started in 1975 with a book (蛹之生) that won an award from the United Daily News. He also won an award for best original screenplay at the 23rd annual Golden Horse Awards. He now has a blog with the Apple Daily.

In this book there are fifteen pairs of essay, where each pair has one essay written by father and one written by son on the same topic. Some of the topics are: getting a driver's license, watching a meteor shower, movies, military camp, reading, college entrance exams, and leisure activities. As you can see, the writing is mostly about everyday life. I usually don't read this kind of thing, but it wasn't bad. Reading books from another culture also has the benefit that you can learn a little more about the culture.

Readings from Chinese Writers

2009-01-30T22:15:00.001+08:00

The second Chinese book that I've read this year was Readings from Chinese Writers, volume 1 (1919-1949). It is a collection of texts including short stories and excerpts from novels and plays. Following each text is a list of vocabulary, with a brief gloss in English and French. These are some of the most well-known pieces of literature from the 1919-1949 period, including "The New Year's Sacrifice" by Lu Xun, "Spring Silkworms" by Mao Dun, an excerpt from Family by Ba Jin, and an excerpt form Camel Xiangzi by Lao She. I had already read these texts in English, but it has taken me years to get around to reading this volume, which I bought long ago in America. You can still buy this book online, but I don't think you will find it at any bookstore in Taiwan.

This book was published in China. In Taiwan, I have only seen one volume of modern literature intended for foreign learners of Chinese. In Japan, on the other hand, this kind of book is common enough that I saw some books like this while browsing bookstores at the airport. I suppose there aren't too many people in Taiwan looking for a book of this type, but on the other hand, there are a lot of people studying Chinese in Taiwan, and I imagine that most of them would rather read some good modern Chinese literature rather than more of the usual textbook readings which earnestly and tediously explore Chinese culture. Furthermore, this type of book would not be very difficult to make. The book adds value by first offering some historical or cultural contexts for the texts, and by conveniently defining difficult vocabulary. A version of this book designed for Chinese learners in Taiwan might have some definitions in simple Chinese and some definitions in English, Japanese, and possibly Korean.

For a text intended for advanced learners, it is hard to guess which vocabulary the reader will need defined. Some words and phrases obviously need to be defined, such as rare idioms and words from dialects. For a lot of moderately difficult words, it's not easy to decide whether to include a definitions. So, it seems like this would make electronics texts a perfect solution, where readers can theoretically point to any word and get a definition. However, I still much prefer to read anything on paper and would prefer not to read anything longer than a short story in front of the computer.

In this period of literature, the writing attacks the "half-feudal, half-colonial society" of China. Most of the writers also wage war on subtlety. Ba Jin is the worst in this regard. Lu Xun had some nice words to say about Ba Jin, so I'm a little hesitant to criticize him, but Ba Jin's Family is the most melodramatic book I have ever read. The tears leak from every eye and the hearts of the righteous beat with indignation. Mao Dun's short story, Spring Silkworms, although not terribly subtle, is the best story in the collection. In details the process of raising silkworms and gives readers a look at the poverty of those living off credit and trying to keep up with the changing times. For me it brought back memories of waiting anxiously for silkworms eggs to hatch and of raising silkworms. In "peasant literature" there can be a lot of specialized vocabulary related to working (in this case the work of raising silkworms) as well as dialect used in dialog. The definitions are a great help in reading this.

A few of the English definitions leave you scratching your head, but they are generally a great convenience. The first story, The New Year's Sacrifice, for example, has 241 words defined. The excerpt from Family has 277 words defined, but it is actually much easier to read. If you are able to read "The New Year's Sacrifice," you will probably only need to check a small fraction of the vocabulary in Family.

First Chinese book of year: Virgo Doctors are Like This

2009-01-20T20:39:00.001+08:00

Following up on my last post about reading more Chinese books this year, my first Chinese book for the year is a collection of essays about being a doctor, written by Dr. Ou Wenlin, whose pen name is Ou Yanglin (歐陽林)**. This is the 20th volume of his series of essay collections. In addition to being a doctor, he has managed to write 34 books.

The title of this book is "Virgo Doctors are Like This" (處女座的醫生是這樣的), and as the title hints, it a mostly light-hearted collection of essays. In one story, he tells how he was extorted by a gang member who was selling pens. The extorter says that he is selling a pen for NT$1000, and that if the doctor buys the pen, he would appreciate it so much that his many fellow gang members are sure to help him out when he is need. He never even mentions what happens if you don't buy the pen. In another story, Dr. Ou tells how he tried to go to a "folk song restaurant" (民歌餐廳). Strangely, his purpose in seeking the restaurant was to listen to pop songs from the eighties, so I think the title of "folk song restaurant" is not very fitting. He also describes how he became a hit with his clinic patients by giving out rub-on tattoos.

In a more serious series of essays, Dr. Ou recalls the SARS outbreak in Taiwan in 2003. He describes the atmosphere of fear and distrust. He recalls one patient, a grandfather, who came for a health check at the hospital despite having no symptoms because his son wouldn't let him see his grandchildren after the grandfather returned from a trip to China. He also describes how many people were quarantined, people who came into contact with someone else who came in contact with someone who was suspected of having SARS.

The book is only 215 pages, and like a lot of popular books in Taiwan, there is a low average word count per page, so it is a fast read. It is also easy reading for someone like me who is not a native reader of Chinese. This is the second or third book by Dr. Ou that I've read. Reading it, I get the strange feeling that I know Chinese. (A feeling that can be dispelled by reading something more challenging.)

The library I got this book from has 21 books by the doctor, of which ten are currently checked out, so they are evidently popular.

**Ouyang is a surname, so it looks like his name should be Ouyang Lin, but in the book people call him "Dr. Ou", so I guess the name is Ou Yanglin.

Reading goals for new year

2009-01-15T21:41:00.005+08:00

2008 was a good year for reading for me. I read about 85 books. But that's nothing compared to fast readers. See this interview with Sarah Weinman who read 462 books last year. If that doesn't make you jealous, take a look at the comments, where a lot of other people say that they read the same way.

I've read a number of blog posts lately about setting reading goals for the new year. There's a good guide to reading groups and reading challenges here. Some of the reading challenges are one-year challenges while others are open-ended.

John Biesnecker posts his goal of reading 40 books in Chinese. While I'm not that ambitious, it does inspire me to try to read at least a few Chinese books this year. One obstacle to this plan is that it's not as easy to find suitable reading material in Chinese. If you're looking for a fool-proof list of English books, selecting Pulitzer-prize winners or National Book Award winners are all pretty safe. In fact, I'm considering the Pulitzer challenge.

For Chinese literature, a prestigious prize awarded in China is the Mao Dun prize for literature. There are over 30 recipients so far but critics say the award is overly motivated by ideology. A more international prize is the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature. It has only been issued once so far, by that yields a list of seven nominees. Another recently established award is the Man Asian Literary Prize. There have been two years of awards so far, which includes about eight works of fiction in Chinese. A couple of smaller awards are the Dangdai magazine yearly awards, which have been granted since 2004 and the Crown magazine yearly awards. If that's not enough for you, there's a whole list of awards here, but not I'm not sure which awards would make for the best reading.

Of course, picking a book to read in Chinese isn't as simple as just picking a title. I've got to pick books that are not too difficult. So, rather than choosing from a list, it would be smarter to browse the book store or to start by reading an anthology, and to find authors that are interesting and not too difficult. For simple books, it helps to reads books that are contemporary and local (from Taiwan). Books for young adults may also be simple. Perhaps even farther from the goal of great literature, there are comic books.

I haven't set a goal of how many books I plan to read, but expect to see some more posts about Chinese reading on this blog this year.

Chiao Tung University's English Play: 8 Women

2009-01-12T22:00:00.000+08:00

Last week on Friday and Saturday, Chiao Tung University's English department performed their annual English play. This year's play was 8 Women, the English translation of the French murder mystery, 8 Femmes, which is both a movie and play. The tickets to the play were free and there were only two performances.

This is the second year in a row that I have seen the English play performed by the students. Both times I have been very impressed that an English department could put on a play of such high quality. The costumes, make-up and sets were as good as any that you would see in a professional production. English department students translated the play's dialog into Chinese, and it was then projected onto two screens during the performance.

The English pronunciation was as good as you could expect. In last year's performance, there were a few ringers who had probably started learning English at a young age. Last year, there was also the strange phenomenon of people who were supposed to be from the same town (Our Town) and even the same family, but had different accents. There were some students with English accents, some with American accents, and of course a lot of students with a common Taiwanese accent.

Although last year's play was more to my liking, I would grade this year's performance as an A, but for one problem. It was difficult to understand a lot of the dialog (just like last year). Better and more theatrical intonation would help, but I think it was mostly a technical problem. The performance hall seems to have a bit of an echo, there is a delay between the sound coming from the actors and the sound coming from the speakers, and the volume was set fairly low. I think the sound crew should have been able to solve this problem by turning up the volume and perhaps moving some speakers to different locations where the echo wasn't so strong. Maybe they didn't pay much attention to the sound because the audience could read the dialog (in Chinese).

Last month Tsing Hua University also performed an English play, but I missed that one. If you're interested in seeing one of these plays next year, look for flyers posted around the night market across from Tsing Hua University around December.

It might have been helpful if I had posted about the performance before it took place, but you can still see the website created for the play. It includes a blog. The actresses answer some questions, and you can find that the favorite line of one actress is "Combs never sleep!" and for another it is "I just know more how to arouse the desire." There are also pictures.

Incidentally, I suspect that the choice of the play was influenced by the lack of men in the English department. When the cast came on stage after the show, I only saw about three males. It seems that a lot of English departments are 70-90% female. For the play 8 women, only one male actor was needed, and his role did not have any lines.

Ridiculous copyright notice for online Mandarin dictionary

2008-12-16T20:34:00.003+08:00

The online Mandarin dictionary created by Taiwan's Ministry of Education is arguable the best non-commercial Chinese dictionary online. Even including commercial dictionaries, it is still one of the best. If the dictionary were in the public domain, there would be a lot of interesting things that could be done with it. For example, the dictionary has been converted into a format readable on Palm PDAs. This is most likely in violation of copyright, so it is probably not in circulation now.

I checked the copyright info for the dictionary to see if there were any possibility of using the dictionary content. I found that not only does the National Languages Committee reserve all rights to the dictionary material, they require permission to link to their websites! And they only grant permission to link to the entry page of each site, so you presumably can not link directly to a word definition.

This is another case of taxpayer-funded content produced for the public good that nevertheless restricts those taxpayers from making full use of that material.

Here's the key statement:

You are welcome to establish links to the homepages of NLC reference websites for non-commercial, research and educational purposes after gaining approval from the NLC. Fill out an application form (in doc format) and submit it to the NLC for approval.

(Note: Based on the Chinese version of this note, the comma after "non-commercial" is erroneous.)

According to the ridiculous wishes of the dictionary maintainers, I won't link to the dictionary here.

Taiwanese temple honors WWII Japanese officers

2008-11-03T20:39:00.000+08:00

This article was in the Liberty Times on October 30. I found the article online in a couple of places, but only one of the photos from the newspaper was reproduced online. The first picture, shown below, is the temple. The second, more interesting photo, showed the joss with the traditional Chinese headdress and a Japanese moustache. The article, by Wu Junfeng, is translated below.

Japanese souls have become Taiwanese gods, even keeping a small moustache. Tuku Village of Rende Township in Tainan County is home to Shuaijun Temple, which honors the Japanese officers who died in a plane crash. The golden body of the temple joss wears an elaborate Chinese Wang Ye headdress. The joss is fashioned in the traditional style of Taiwanese gods, making it a peculiar site.

A 76-year old temple-goer from Rende township said that the temple honors General Yamamoto and eleven other officers. In 1945, after Japan declared defeat in the war, twelve officers departed from Taipei going South to meet up with their units, after which they would withdraw.

The airplane approached Rende Township and requested clearance for landing, but the airbase in Tainan hesistated in replying. Because they received no directions or signal, they continued circling. Unexpectedly, the plane then crashed in an orchard near Tuku village.

The temple-goer recalls, the plane chose a sparsely populated area of bamboo grove and orchard to make the forced landing to avoid harming the innocent, eliciting the gratitude of residents.

About 25 years ago, equipment in local factories was often malfunctioning. After maintenance, the source of the problem could not be identified. Through a medium, Qingshui Zushi indicated the problems were due to the haunting of the deceased Japanese soldiers. Residents collected funds and erected the Shuaijun Temple for their worship.

In addition to the principle deity, General Yamamoto, the temple honors General Tatsuta and other officers, with twelve tablets in all. Believers hired a master sculptor to carve the joss. After installation, the temple formally began to receive the worship of believers.

Although the victims of the crash are honored as generals, according to folk custom, they are called "marshals" and they wear a Wang Ye headdress just like a Taiwanese deity. Strikingly, the face does not wear a long beard but instead maintains the small moustache as worn by the Japanese.

In addition to the Junshuai Temple, the Japanese officers are also honored in the hall of Beiji Temple in Rende Township, along with the chief deity of the temple, Xuan Tian, who together share in the offerings of believers. It is a remarkable scene, rare in Taiwan.

Article source 1
Article source 2

Movie review: Cape No. 7

2008-10-23T21:44:00.000+08:00

Taiwanese film Cape No. 7 has become the third best-selling film in Taiwan's history, knocking out Jurassic Park: The Lost World and falling behind only two others (Titanic and Jurassic Park). Many people are watching the film multiple times at the theater and the pirated version is popular too. The bus I was riding yesterday was showing a pirated copy of the film. My coworkers watched the movie at the theater then distributed the video file. It's pretty common for them to exchange pirated movies, but this time was different. The distribution was prefaced by a message saying that we should support Taiwanese movies by watching Cape No. 7 in the theater before watching the pirated version.

My coworkers are not the only ones expressing this sentiment. All kinds of people who have never had any interest in the local film industry are ecstatic about what the success of Cape No. 7 means for local movies and are urging others to watch the film.

Some people had described the movie to me as a romance, others as a comedy. Both descriptions were correct; it's a many-threaded comedy with a serious love story as its main thread. After seeing the movie, I tried to think of some films that I could compare it to, but I couldn't think of any. The closest thing to this movie that I could think of are the locally produced idol dramas. Some of these dramas combine silly humor with bad acting and stomach-turning romance. Cape No. 7 does better than most of these dramas but not well enough to be a breakout movie for Taiwanese cinema.

A short plot summary without spoilers: The angry youth Aga has failed to become a rock star in Taipei, so he returns to his small hometown in South Taiwan near Kending. His stepfather gets him a job as a mailman, but Aga doesn't have the heart to put any effort into the job. His stepfather calls an audition for a warm-up band for a Japanese musician's concert which will be held in their small town (Hengchun). This leads a reluctant Aga to get involved in music again with a ragtag band and struggle against his angst to make good. Meanwhile a young Japanese woman struggles impotently to make sure Aga and the band are up to snuff in time for their performance.

The humor is silly, but audiences starved to see Taiwan in a commercial film have found it endearing. Two of the funniest characters are over 60 years old. The audience got a kick out of hearing them swearing in Taiwanese. The oldest character, Uncle Mao, brags about his musical skills saying "Shi*t, I'm a national treasure!" Uncle Mao probably got the most laughs, followed by the stepfather, Hong Guorong. The stepfather is the town council representative, a local boss, and he introduces himself saying "My name is Hong Guorong. My main hobbies are arguing, fighting, killing, and setting fires." This kind of line has led one of my coworkers to quote lines from the film. These two characters, along with many other elements of the films are things that are uniquely Taiwanese, and people are overjoyed to see Taiwan in a feel-good movie.

The age of these characters is significant. Unlike most idol dramas, all but one of the characters in this movie are adults. While the two leads of the movie are young, there are enough older characters in the movie so that it doesn't feel like it was make for young people only, and the movie has been relatively popular with adults in Taiwan.

The movie is partly a making-the-band film. The first song, an angsty alt-rock song sung in English, comes from Aga and his failed band. The music gets sunnier and better when the band is formed and begins practicing. There is another song in the movie performed by Shino Lin, a minor character in the movie who was formerly a pop star before she was responsible for a DUI fatality. The band's musical numbers supply the film with its greatest source of emotion, coming to a climax with their big performance. The making-the-band premise gives the opportunity for a lot of fun, and I would have been a lot happier with the movie if this element had been expanded and the love story removed. The movie clocks in at 133 minutes and it has a number of threads that go nowhere. It could have been a tighter funnier movie with a lot of editing.

The love story isn't any better than that of a TV drama. The romance begins with the boy and the girl hating each other. In the process of creating conflict and tension for the story, both behave so obnoxiously that you wonder why anyone would like either one of them. They become loathsome to watch, and when they eventually fall in love, you don't care anymore.

In addition to the plot as already summarized, the movie has a story from 1945. From begin to almost end, the movie is intercut with scenes of a Japanese man aboard a ship, reading love letters written to the woman he is leaving behind in Taiwan. This element is very "cinematic", a self-conscious attempt to give resonance to the love story in the movie and to the film as a whole. Some people love it, others find it gimmicky and poorly connected to the main plot. I read the comments of some Taiwanese moviegoers who found the love letters in the movie very touching. Personally, I thought these scenes were boring. I could barely force myself to read the subtitles. (This might have been influenced by the poor quality of the English subtitles. The subtitles in these scenes were strange. Poetic phrases would be followed by poor grammar. It's also worth noting that the subtitles in general are not very good.)

If there were a list of "Stuff Taiwanese people like", this film would be on it. I think this is mainly due to the dearth of Taiwanese commercial films. There have been very few Taiwanese films in recent years, and the ones that were made are mostly art films or idol films that are only of interest to young people. Cape No. 7 is unique, being a music-based romantic comedy with characters that appeal to the young and old, and with many elements of the film lovingly poking fun at Taiwanese identity. The film clearly can't match American films for production value. If you are just looking for a music-based romantic comedy, I would recommend a movie like "Music + Lyrics" (with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore) long before I would recommend this movie. But if you are looking for a feel-good film with a humorous look at small-town Taiwan, then Cape No. 7 is your only bet.

Joe the plumber in Chinese

2008-10-18T11:36:00.006+08:00

In the news right now is "Joe the plumber." In Chinese culture, a plumber is usually an electrician too, so the Chinese name for a plumber is literally a "water-electricity worker." The newspaper I was reading used this same title for Joe the plumber, despite the fact that "plumber" in English does not imply any electrician duties. So, I decided to check the frequency of some of the translations of "Joe the plumber" into Chinese, all using the strange but traditional transliteration of Joe as "Qiao".

Here are the search results from Google:
27,700 results for "水管工喬" (shuiguangong Qiao)
1,700 results for "水管工人喬" (shuiguan gongren Qiao)
938 results for "水電工喬" (shuidiangong Qiao)
59 results for "水暖工喬" (shuinuangong gong Qiao)

So, the top two translations of "plumber" are literal translations of plumber: "water-pipe worker" (shuiguangong and shuiguan gongren).

The third most popular translation is the more common Chinese word for plumber, "water-electricity worker" (shuidiangong).

The forth most popular translation, with 59 results, is "shuinuangong". This is literally a "water-heat worker."

Electronic dictionary commercial

2008-10-11T22:59:00.010+08:00

A commercial I saw recently for an electronic dictionary prominently featured only one English word, and that word wasn't even incorrect, but it still leaves me wanting to correct the commercial.

The commercial shows a student studying English. He has made a bunch of flashcards--they are actually stickies with a word written in Chinese and in English on them. One of the notes gets stuck on his forehead. It says "stupid" in English, and in larger writing it says "bendan" (笨蛋) in Chinese.

The problem is that bendan means "fool" or "idiot," but the word "stupid" is only rarely used in this sense in English (as in "Keep it simple, stupid"). Some dictionaries don't even list this noun form of "stupid." So, while the flashcard is not technically wrong, I find it hard to believe
that a student would need to make a flashcard for this infrequent use of the word.

"Idiot" or "fool" would have been a much better choice for the English "translation"; alternatively, the Chinese word could have been changed to the adjective form (笨). As it stands, it will cause viewers to think that "stupid" and "bendan" are equivalent. But they aren't equivalent and you can't, for example, say "He is a stupid."

Links:

Commercial on official site.
Commercial on Youtube.

Baked raw oysters

2008-10-09T21:19:00.000+08:00

Raw oysters

The most common oyster in Taiwan is the little 蚵仔. (蚵 is written as ô in Taiwanese, and first-tone ke in Mandarin, according to the pinyin input method. The Unihan database, however, lists it as ke2 and he4.) I have not seen any Taiwanese dishes where they are eaten raw. The only oysters that are served raw are the large, foreign-imported oysters. These have a completely different name. They are called shenghao (生蠔). The first character means "raw", as in "raw ginger" (生薑) or "raw fish slices" (生魚片). The second character means oyster, as in "oyster sauce" (蠔油). So, the word "shenghao" seem like a adjective followed by a noun. I checked about ten dictionaries (all at once), and they listed the characters individually, but none of them had shenghao listed as a word, so this would seem to support the categorization of shenghao as adjective-noun. However, I recently noticed that shenghao is used as a single noun.

The first example of this is from a television program where they were talking about harvesting oysters . Shenghao was used to describe them. It's obvious that the oysters are alive when they are caught, so it seems superfluous to use an adjective to describe them as "raw".

The second, better example is from a restaurant menu. Baked oysters were listed as kao shenghao (烤生蠔), which seems to literally mean "baked raw oysters". An internet search confirms this usage is standard. On Google, there are 54,300 results for the search string "烤生蠔" while there are only 7,660 search results for "烤蠔" (with the "raw" character omitted).

So, we have verified that shenghao is used to refer to foreign oysters, even when they are not raw. But what if we want to say "raw oyster"? If a shenghao is not necessarily raw, then don't we need to add a word to make it explicit that we are talking about raw oysters? If we add the word "raw" (shengshenghao), I find only 223 hits; compare that to 805,00 results for shenghao. So, it only accounts for .03% of all usage of the word "oyster", while in English search results, "raw oysters" accounts for (239,00/6,670,000) 3.6% of all usage of "oysters". This seems to indicate the shengshenghao is not a standard usage.

The unsatisfying conclusion: shenghao means "raw oyster" and it also means "oyster". You have to determine its meaning based on context.

And it gets more complex. Foreign oysters are also referred to as muli (牡蠣). When should you use the word "muli"? Perhaps, "muli" is a general term for oysters, which includes shenghao and others? To get started, let's do a search for the different ways of expressing "catch oysters" in Chinese:
"捕牡蠣" 194 results
"捕蠔" 438 results
"捕生蠔" 87 results
"捕蚵" 318 results

At this point, it is getting tedious distinguishing these words, so I leave it as an exercise for the reader. :)

Taiwanese oyster

State of joss carving in Taiwan

2008-10-08T20:05:00.000+08:00

This article comes from the Liberty Times, from the same page as this article. I couldn't find the exact article online, but here is an almost identical news video. As you can see from the pictures (not taken from the article), the carved wooden idols look great with their natural wood grain. It's a shame that most of them end up being covered in paint. I wonder how the artist feels about that.

Due to the government's prohibition on logging and the cheap imports sold in great numbers from China, wood carving is seen as a dying industry. But sculptor Wu Manhe of Hemei township maintains his post, along with his son, and has earned praised for his conscientious work. Wu, who has been carving for over 40 years, says that Chinese-made joss are more crude, and many of them use acrylic glass, which doesn't allow for dignity and detail. They feel lacking in respect, so many Taiwanese believers still prefer locally carved josses.

Wu states that to become a master carver requires a basis in art. You need a foundation in calligraphy and sculpting. These items usually required five or six years of training. In addition, you need to cultivate a calmness, not being angered easily, because if you get angry while working, it changes the spirit of a piece.

Master Wu points out that in joss carving, the traditional ways must be followed in the figure's proportions and the luster of the wood. One should strive not to be creative to avoid losing the dignity of the joss. Although joss carving is on the decline in Taiwan, it won't die out because repect for the gods is fundamental to man's spirit.

Doctor fears baby ghosts

2008-10-06T20:39:00.001+08:00

This article comes from the Apple Daily on Friday. It is an interview with "Doctor Peace." He explains why he doesn't perform abortions, recounts an encounter with a ghost, and tells the surprising reason for mishaps at the hospital. I find the stories about encounters with ghosts which are so common in Asian culture to be boring, but what I found interesting about this is that it shows how a doctor's religious beliefs actually have an influence on his practice and how they allow him to deal with the inevitable losses that happen on the job. Unfortunately, he is not very articulate on these points. The best I can make of it is that he believes performing abortions will put him in close contact with the spirit world, which he fears, and he believes he doesn't have authority to decide life or death.

Q: Why don't you perform abortions?
A: I chose obstetrics and gynecology because I thought only in this department would people come in happy and leave happy. Over the years, I've come across some children who weren't able to leave the hospital, which shattered my fantasy. I believe in karma. The spirit world has its own reasons, so I don't do abortions.

Q: When there is someone who must have an abortion, how do you handle it?
A: I often come across junior high girls who are pregnant. That's a big crossroads in their life. If you don't help her, she'll be done for. So I'll introduce her to a qualified physician that I trust. Otherwise she'll have no one to turn to. If she turns to an unlicensed doctor or tries to buy medicine it would be even more dangerous. I've seen a lot of cases where the abortion has caused harm. There were some where the intestines were pulled out or where the uterus was pierced. When they come in it is because of [the resulting] peritonitis and it causes infertility.

I oppose abortion, but as a counseling physician, I shouldn't be biased or try to guide the patient on the question of whether or not to keep the child. You can only provide neutral opinions, and let her decide, for better or worse.

I had a patient who was pregnant in her second year of high school. At that time I kept telling her she should keep it, but her mother kept telling her to get rid of it! She kept the baby, but in the 28th week she was sent to the hospital because of bleeding. I found that her kid's heartbeat was gone. We hurriedly went into surgery to get it out. The pediatrician got the child's heart beating again and he went on living, but the child had cerebral palsy and died after a year. This made me reflect: was what I did right? If I had accepted the advice of the girl's family at that time, she wouldn't have gone through so much tragedy and she would have had a good future. Fortunately, she's doing fairly well now. She's good looking and she's become a celebrity.

The other reason I don't do abortions is because my body is sensitive, so I can feel some things. In college I saw demons, and later I saw ghosts. When I had been a resident doctor for three years, one night after midnight after I had finished making rounds and was going back to go to sleep, I passed the cancer ward. I suddenly saw an old woman come out of a room. I joked to myself, "This grandma must be bored so she's getting up in the middle of the night to go shopping." I asked her, "What's going on? Why did you come out?" She said her grandson was looking for her and she was going home. I said, "It's so late. Go back tomorrow." I led her to the doorway and she opened the door and entered.

The next day I was writing patients' records and I happened to ask a nurse, "Last night that old woman said she was going home. Can she leave?"
She asked me, "Which old woman?"
"The old woman from room X."
"She died two or three days ago!"
I felt chilled. The deceased patient had been reluctant to leave.

After that incident, I ran into that kind of thing less often, but I have a friend who has a yingyang eye (which allows him to see ghosts) who told me that he saw lots of children in the birthing ward of the hospital as soon as the door opened. Those are the kids who have been aborted or who couldn't leave. I can't see them, but I can feel it.

Q: Do they affect the patients?
A: I've treated three mothers for symptoms of premature labor. All three [should have been] able to go home the next day. But strangely, the next day none of them were able to leave the hospital. A mother was affected by placenta previa (placenta is attached in the wrong place). I treated her so that she stopped bleeding and told her she could go home, but not long later she began bleeding profusely and we had to administer a Ceasarean section.

The other pregnant mother had a fetus whose heart was beating at over 200 bpm. I controlled it using medicine, and congratulated the mother that she could go home the next day, but that evening the child's heart started up again. I went into surgery as quickly as possible but the child couldn't make it.

There was also a mother who I treated so that her uterus was no longer contracted, after which she could betransfered to the common ward, but the same thing happened as before and the next day her uterus suddenly contracted and lost blood. We performed an emergency Ceasarean section and fortunately the twins were ok. Afterwards I thought, it's those [ghost] children horsing around! Really!

I know the pain of those mothers whose children are still in the hospital and can't be free, but life is beyond understanding. So every once in a while I go worship the god of health (Baosheng Dadi). I don't do it for myself, but for the health of the mothers. This is the root of being a physician; if the patient is healthy then I'm healthy.

Chinese found in Japanese airport

2008-10-03T21:46:00.002+08:00

Passing through the Narita airport in Japan a few weeks ago, I paid special attention to the use of Chinese in the airport. It's unusual to see any use of Chinese by non-native-speakers, and the airport offered three examples.

In front of the security check, there is a sign in Chinese that reads "請把登機證出示一下" (Please show your boarding pass). The grammar is correct, but the sentence was still strange enough, when seen on a sign, to make Mrs. Taiwanonymous laugh out loud. The problem is that the usage of "yixia" (一下) is much too informal for a sign at the airport. The proper way of writing the sentence formally would be "請出示登機證".

The next thing I noticed was the sign in the picture above. The English message instructs us to remove coats and jackets. The more verbose Chinese message instructs us to "脫下上衣和大衣類等外套". This is supposed to mean "remove overcoats and jackets and other types of coat." However, in Taiwan, shangyi (上衣) is not used to mean jacket. It just means "top," which usually means shirt or blouse. So this sign made me laugh because it looks like it is instructing us to take off our shirts for the security check. (The sign might be perfectly acceptable to Chinese speakers from other regions, but I can't comment on that.)

The last usage of Chinese I noticed was by one of the airport workers. The worker, a young Japanese woman, was talking in competent Chinese to a woman from Taiwan. The airport worker told the woman that she could not bring her big container of hot sauce on the airplane because it was over three ounces of liquid. The woman protested that she bought the hot sauce in the duty-free area, and if it was illegal to bring aboard the plane then they shouldn't be selling it. This did not help things. She then offered to open the container of hot sauce and pour off the top layer of hot oil so that the container would no longer contain an excessive amount of liquid. It looked like the Japanese worker was not going to accept this offer, but I didn't get to see the resolution. I had thought this kind of farce only happened in America, but there it was happening in Japan. Nonetheless, America can still take the blame for exporting this ridiculousness.

Evironmentally friendly temple

2008-10-02T20:27:00.005+08:00

I've had this article sitting around for about a month now, since before I went on vacation. It's translated from the Liberty Times.
----------------------------------------------------

Because the smoke and ashes caused by burning paper money at the temple drew complaints from neighboring businesses, Kaihua temple in Zhanghua stopped burning paper money and instead began implementing "aroma worship" thirty years ago. Many worshipers do not even burn incense, but instead offer flowers in worship. This has reduced smoke and created an elegant and refreshing environment.

Kaihua temple manager Wang Shixiang said that the temple, which is located at the intersection of Zhonghua Road and Minzu Road, used to have a furnace for burning joss money in the courtyard. The temple was busy all day long. Nearby were many businesses and vehicles coming and going, so the smoke and ashes caused by worshipers burning joss money drew protests from the public. Wang said the the temple implemented a policy of not allowing the burning of joss money. Temple goers eventually became accustomed to this, and worshiped by using only incense. Some even use flowers, fruit, or Hawaiian items (?:壇島) instead of incense, which reduces the amount of smoke pollution even more. After the 9/21 earthquake, the temple went one step further by removing the furnace which had already been closed for many years, underscoring the no-burning policy even more. Because of this, the temple remains clean and elegant, and the ornate wood carvings are well preserved.

Kaihua temple was built in the second year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty. It has been renovated multiple times, the last time being six years ago. The temple has been praised as "Zhanghua's number one temple." The main hall honors the bodhisattva Guanyin, the two side halls honor the 18 lohans, and the back hall honers the Three Governors (the governors of heaven, earth, and water), Zhusheng Niangniang (a fertility goddess), as well as Dou Gong and Dou Po (gods that cure smallpox, by tradition. Nowadays, they are likely used as cosmetic gods).

-------------------------------------------

A sidebar to the article has the opinion of three people about Kaihua temple's practice of not burning joss money. All three commenters think it is a great idea and hope that Kaihua temple could spread the practice to other temples.

Scooters getting towed

2008-08-31T21:53:00.004+08:00

There were some illegally parked scooters right in front of the train station. On this day, they were unlucky and got towed.

Jia Pingwa translation in Guardian

2008-08-27T21:11:00.003+08:00

I came across a selection from Jia Pingwa's latest book, Gaoxing, in the Guardian, via Paper Republic. If you are interested in reading it in Chinese, I found the same selection on Dangdang. The selection on Dangdang is just missing a little bit of text at the beginning and end.

I have enjoyed reading Jia's works that have been translated, and it would be great if this selection in the Guardian led to another translation. It's surprising that there have not been any new English translations of Jia's works since Howard Goldblatt's translation of Turbulence in 1991. He is one of China's most popular and critically acclaimed writers, and his banned book Feidu seems like just the kind of things that Westerners would like to see translated.

I considered making a detailed criticism of the translation, but that seems kind of negative, so I'll limit myself to one comment and one criticism concerning the translation.

My eyes felt sticky, as if a lot of goo had suddenly come out of them, and everything looked blurred.
我的眼睛发黏，好像一下子生出许多眼屎，看东西都有些模糊

The word translated as "goo" is literally eye-dung in Chinese. "Eye boogers," as they are sometimes called in English, seems like a fairly good match for the Chinese, but it does sound kind of childish. On the other hand, the medical name, rheum, is too technical.

I'd never seen a young man with so many teenage spots...
小伙子生这么多的青春痘我从来没见过...

"Teenage spots" is a literal translation of "pimples" in Chinese. This struck me as the worst translation in this selection.

I have tried to read Jia's writing in Chinese before, and it's not easy, so I don't envy the translator. Jia's writing is a lot more difficult than the average bestseller, though according to the article about Gaoxing on Danwei, this book is more readable than some of his others.

A couple of the things that make Jia's writing interesting are its earthiness, as in the line about the goo coming out of his eyes, and the many details about rural life, which often deal with practices specific to a certain region, such as this:

Then they shouted: "Shangzhou chowmein-eater!" In Shangzhou, where I come from, the land is so barren that last year's grain doesn't last till the next harvest, and at the Spring Festival, all there is to eat is fried noodles, which we make from persimmon mixed with rice husks.

Usage of sentence-initial besides in English

2008-08-26T19:51:00.006+08:00

I've read a lot of papers written by Taiwanese in English. Most of the writers have a master's degree or a doctorate, and some the writing is impressive. But no matter how good the writing, one things that bothers me about the writing of almost all Taiwanese is the non-idiomatic usage of the word "besides." It is used to begin a sentence, followed by a comma, and it is used synonymously with "in addition" or "also."

Judging by my ear, this is not a correct usage. However, checking the dictionary, it appears to be ok. See these examples:

Besides is an adverb or preposition that means "also, additionally": I would enjoy going on a vacation besides.

And from Wiktionary:

1. also; in addition
2. moreover; furthermore

But let's take a look at how besides is actually used in English writing when it starts a sentence followed by a comma. These examples are randomly selected from an English corpus.

Maybe he should have kept in touch. Gone back for reunions. But he had
been busy building a business, being a big man in his own town just as he
had been a big man at Hanford, Class of 1935. Besides, Cady Partlow
knew he wasn't the old-grad-type.

Used to further argue against the proposition that he should have kept in touch.

Who, then, is of sufficient stature to lodge with Lenin? Who but Nikita
himself? Since he has just shown who is top dog, he may not be ready to
receive this highest honor in the gift of the Soviet people. Besides,
he can hardly avoid musing on the instability of death which, what with
exhumations and rehabilitations, seems to match that of life.

Used to further argue against the proposition that Nikita is ready to receive this highest honor.

"Aren't you sure"? I asked, looking at her searchingly. I wanted to
grab her by the arm and beg her to wait, to consider, to know for certain
because life is so long and marriage is so important. But if she were
just having a normal case of pre-nuptial jitters such a question might
frighten her out of a really good marriage. Besides, in all honesty, I
don't know how you can be sure.

Used to further argue against asking the question.

I want you to find Monsieur Prieur at once and give him this money for the
boy's purchase. There's $600 in gold in this chamois sack. If the old
fool argues about the price, tell him I shall order my husband not to treat
him as a patient any longer. Prieur has gout and depends on Louis' pills
and bleedings. Besides, he owns 300 slaves. One less shouldn't
matter to him".

Used to further argue that he should not haggle over price.

We don't need this type of protection any more. The public is now armed
with sophistication and numerous competing media. Besides, there are no
longer enough corruptible journalists about.

Used to further argue against the need for this type of protection.

Auditors were encouraged. In the regular sections they have always been
more or less discouraged. The philosophy has been that if they could find
the time to attend class why not encourage them to get the credit and
perhaps provide an incentive to do the work more effectively. Besides,
auditors do not count on faculty load with the same weight as regularly
enrolled students. But in this one section we welcomed auditors.

Used to further argue against the practice of auditing.

Both these youths, who greatly admired Henrietta, were somewhat younger
than she, as were also the neighboring Friedenwald boys, who were then
studying medicine and bright though they all were, they could not possibly
compete for her interest with Papa, whose mind- although he never tried to
dazzle or patronize lesser lights with it- naturally eclipsed theirs and
made them seem to her even younger than they were. Besides, Miss
Henrietta- as she was generally known since she had put up her hair with a
chignon in the back- had little time to spare them from her teaching and
writing so Cyrus Adler became interested in her friend Racie Friedenwald,
and Joe Jastrow- the only young man who when he wrote had the temerity to
address her as Henrietta, and signed himself Joe- fell in love with pretty
sister Rachel.

Further argues that the boys could not compete for her interests.

In the course of our talk, Askington mentioned that he spent part of each
week studying. "By yourself"? I asked. "No, I take classes with
different people", he said. "I don't think I've reached the point, yet,
where I can say I know everything I ought to know about the craft.
Besides, it's important to the way a painter thinks that he should move in
a certain atmosphere, an atmosphere in which he may absorb the ideas of
other masters, as Du^rer went to Italy to meet Bellini and Mantegna".

Further argument against studying by himself.

Macneff smiled and said, "I am glad that your scriptural lessons have left
such an impression". How could they not? thought Hal. Besides, they
were not the only impressions. I still bear scars on my back where
Pornsen, my gapt, whipped me because I had not learned my lessons well
enough. He was a good impresser, that Pornsen.

This usage is a little different from the others, but maybe it can be seen as being a further argument against the proposition that Pornsen's lessons left no major impression.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So it appears that "besides" is used in this way (at the beginning of a sentence, followed by a comma) when the author is making an additional argument against something. None of the examples are simply adding further exposition or explanation of a topic. (Besides seems to literally mean that the additional item is of secondary importance, but I don't think that is necessarily so. It can be of secondary importance or it can be of greater importance--a further point that renders the first point of secondary importance.)

Book on Taiwanese religion and note on last post

2008-08-26T19:01:00.003+08:00

Via Steven Crook's blog, I came by what looks like a great on-line book today, Gods, Ghosts, & Ancestors: Folk Religion in a Taiwanese Village, by David Jordan.

After just spending a few minutes looking through the book, I learned the technical name for the idols described in yesterday's post. They are called josses.

Occasionally I have questions about Taiwanese religion, but most young people I know aren't very knowledgeable about the details. And of the things I observe, I probably have a lot of mistaken ideas. For example, I only recently learned that the money burnt to ancestors and the money burnt to the gods are completely different things. Ghost money (冥紙) is normally only burnt during ghost month. The rest of the time, the paper money burnt to the gods is not called ghost money. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of details, so the book mentioned above looks valuable.

Temple not responsible for lost idol

2008-08-25T22:44:00.000+08:00

Translated from Liberty Times article.

By Wu Shicong, Yang Guotang, Zhuo Yingli

When Mr. Chen of of Liujiao Township, Jiayi County returned to Feng Tian Temple in Xingang Township to retrieve the idols of Guanyin and Guan Yu that he had placed in the care of the temple, he found that the Guan Yu idol was missing. He sued the temple in a civil suit, which resulted in Feng Tian Temple being ordered to pay over $120,000 in reparations. The temple authorities appealed and the decision was reversed. The judge ruled that Feng Tian Temple was not responsible for the safekeeping of the idols, and rejected Mr. Chen's petition. Feng Tian temple won the appeal and were judged exempt from reparations.

The ruling stated that in May 2006, Mr. Chen of Liujiao Township, Jiayi county brought the Guanyin and Guan Yu idols from his home where they had long been enshrined and entrusted them to the care of the Feng Tian Temple of Xingang Township.

Chen said that he gave an offering of $2000 and the temple authorities promised to take care of the idols for one year. But when he returned to the temple in May of the following year, he found that the Guan Yu idol was missing. He believes that Feng Tian Temple wrote him a receipt so they should be responsible for compensating him for the loss.

He asked for compensation, including the cost of the idol and the cost of the dedication ceremony, totaling over $200,000, but the district court of JiaYi ruled that Feng Tian Temple should pay $125,000. Unsatisfied with the verdict, Feng Tian Temple appealed.

Mr. Chen quoted the original settlement and requested the Feng Tian Temple give him an additional $80,000. Feng Tian Temple claimed that the idol's owner entrusted the statue to them in order to receive the the offerings of burnt joss sticks [literally, to soak up the burnt incense], and so a contract was not established entrusting the idol to them, and they are not responsible for its safekeeping. As for the offering, they consider it a normal donation.

The judge found that Feng Temple does not accept a fee for taking care of the idols and they cannot refuse. They did not promise safekeeping, so there is no basis for Mr. Chen's demands. The judge threw out the original verdict, and stated that he could not make an appeal. Feng Tian temple won the suit.

As for the ruling, Feng Tian Temple expressed that they would have no statement until they received the written ruling. Mr. Chen's wife said that Feng Tian Temple gave them a receipt, so they should be responsible for safekeeping. She couldn't accept the verdict.

[Note: The receipt notes that Chen gave the temple two idols as well as an offering of $2000.]

A caretaker at the temple presents the idols with tea (or water).

Feng Tian Temple for many years has performed the service of accepting believers' idols. There are three main reasons believers entrust them with their idols. The first is when their homes are being renovated, when the noise and dust caused by construction would be disrespectful. The next reason is when believers move or temporarily live somewhere else and so are not able to worship the gods. The last reason is when believers have a funeral, which according to folk customs makes them unclean and unable to worship.

According to Feng Tian Temple's owner's committee, the time is limited to one month. If the idol is not retrieved within a month, you give up your rights to it, and the temple authorities are fully authorized to handle it as they may, which is not open to dispute. If the idol is adorned with valuables, the owner should keep them. The temple is not responsible for damage or missing items.

Temple authorities said that believers bring idols to the temple for dedication ceremony, for worship, and for safekeeping. They do not charge for safekeeping, but believers can give an offering as they wish.

Some recent homophone confusion

2008-08-15T17:59:00.007+08:00

There aren't many potentially confusing homophones in Chinese, but yesterday I heard a really confusing one. My coworker told me that he and a couple of others were going to buy cheku, and asked if I wanted to buy cheku with them. A cheku is a garage (車庫), so I was understandably baffled. I wondered if they were buying some kind of portable carrier for putting their bikes in. But it turns out they are actually buying biking shorts (車褲). It seems as if the name for biking shorts has been perversely chosen to confuse everyone (not just foreigners) who hears the word.

Most homophones that confuse me can be distinguished by tone, but it is easy to miss the differences in tone and to think of the most familiar word with the same pronunciation. When you buy coffee, they sometimes ask you if you would like tangbao. The first time I heard this question I was very confused. Why were they asking me if I wanted dumpings? (湯包) (See below) But they were actually asking me if I wanted sugar packets (糖包). The pronunciation is the same, but the tones are different.

Another example comes from today: When I paid my phone bill, the cashier asked me if I would like to ding the receipt. I thought she asked me if I would like to subscribe to (訂) my receipt. Once again, my mind began going through a strange series of thoughts trying to make sense of my flawed interpretation of the sentence. I would have figured out what she actually meant in a few seconds, but as the wheels in my head were slowly turning, the cashier asked the same question again and luckily it clicked the second time. She was, of course, asking me if I wanted to staple (釘) my receipt (to the bill).

One last example, also from today: I heard that the doctor prescribed xianweifen. I imagined that this meant "micropowder" (顯微粉). But if I was listening carefully I should have know that it was actually fiber powder (纖維粉).

Guerrilla gardening in Taiwan

2008-07-11T22:00:00.001+08:00

I recently saw some interesting pictures showing gardening in limited spaces in Japan. Taiwan also has a fair amount of guerrilla gardening going on. The most common method is to place potted plants in front of one's residence. This is only "guerrilla" because they are placed on the sidewalk and sometimes the street. A second, sneakier method of guerrilla gardening is to pry bricks from out of the sidewalk and to plant plants in those spaces. These pictures show that method. It may sound selfish to make the sidewalk unwalkable, but sidewalks in residential areas here are already unwalkable. There is rarely of a stretch of more than ten yards of unobstructed sidewalk. These photos come from two buildings in the neighborhood.

Weekend of lychee labor

2008-07-10T21:44:00.001+08:00

It's lychee season, and the wholesale prices are so low that there isn't much profit in harvesting them. The wholesale prices were NT$12 per jin last week, but then dropped to NT$9 per jin on Saturday. If 1 jin is 600 grams, then that comes out to about US 23 cents per pound. At that price, my parents-in-law decided it wasn't worth it to employ day workers to harvest them. The day workers make about NT$1500 per day, which means that they need to pick about 125 pounds of lychees to break even.

It might not be worth it to hire laborers, but family members are free labor. So I spent the whole day picking lychees. To be more precise, someone else cut the fruit-bearing branches from the lychee trees and then I stripped and organized the lychee branches. Unlike other fruit, lychees are sold with the branch (or twig) still attached. To harvest the lychees, you have to strip the leaves from the twigs and cut or break the twigs to a fairly uniform size. You also should pick away the bruised-looking lychees, even though the fruit isn't usually affected by these brown blemishes seen on the outside. Small or unripe fruit should also be removed and twigs that extend beyond fruit should be trimmed or removed. The twigs need to be bundled together, but the bundles are not tied up for wholesale sale. When they are sold retail, they are often tied into small bundles.

Loose or blemished lychees can be sold at a much lower price, about $5 per jin. I've heard that these are used for making juice or canned fruit.

Lychees deteriorate in quality very quickly, so you need to keep the fruit in the shade and soaked with water after it has been cut from the tree.

If this article has got you itching to pick some lychees, there are some orchards in Taiwan where you can do just that. You pay $30-$50 to enter the orchard. While there you can have all the lychees you can eat. If you want to take some home, it costs about $25 per jin.

Picture from here.

Cartilage kebab at KFC

2008-07-09T21:23:00.004+08:00

KFC in Taiwan has just introduced a new product. Judging from picture, it appears to be a chicken kebab with some fruit, perhaps starfruit, between the pieces of chicken. But closer examination shows that it is actually cartilage. The idea is that people will be attracted by this cartilage, causing them to want to purchase it. The consumer will then consume the cartilage, chewing it and savoring the subtle taste of cartilage.

Apparently, this is a food found in Japanese izakaya, which are places for drinking alcohol and eating.

In the above picture, two pieces of cartilage can be seen flying through the air in the vicinity of the kebab. It is most likely that they are flying because they are extremely tasty, not because they were discarded.

Japanese classes in Chinese

2008-07-09T19:58:00.000+08:00

I started taking Japanese classes recently. Before taking the classes, I knew I would inevitably be the only native speaker of English in the class, but I figured that wouldn't cause any problems. If anything, I thought, it might be more efficient taking a class with people who already can read and write Chinese characters. Like them, I wouldn't need a lot of explanation to recognize and understand Chinese characters used in Japanese.

I overlooked a major drawback of taking the Japanese class in Chinese: romanization is not used. The first chapter of the book uses both Japanese alphabets, hiragana and katakana, without any romanization. This means that doing the exercises during class is a painfully slow and tedious act of decoding symbols. It's a pain for the teacher too, who wants us to hurry up and learn to read.

There are a few possible reasons for not using romanization. One valid reason is that Chinese speakers might not be familiar enough with the Latin alphabet for romanization to be an aid in learning Japanese. But actually I think it would be helpful to all of my classmates and the real reason romanization is not used is because of a bias against using "English" to represent an Asian language. (Chinese phonetic symbols have a few more disadvantages compared to romanization, but they could also be helpful.)

The result of not using romanization is that most of class time so far (four or five 2.5 hour classes) has been spent learning to read and write. Any beginning class taught in this style becomes a Japanese alphabet class rather than a Japanese conversation class. In the long term, it won't make any difference, but in the short term it's a drag.

By the way, the teacher of the class is Japanese. His Chinese is very good and 95% of the class is in Chinese.

College entrance exam results released

2008-07-03T21:31:00.000+08:00

Taiwan's college entrance exam results were published today. The test was yesterday and you can already download the results now, which is great. Of all the standardized tests I took in school, I never saw any of the results. The newspapers today have a lot of articles about the exams, and they published a sample of the questions. It shows the importance and the interest of the general public in the exams. It's not something only important to students. Teachers have already voiced their objection with a few of the questions. I have a minor objection too.

There are two translation questions. The students must translate from Chinese into English. The correct translation for the first sentence is "The global food crisis has created/caused serious/critical social problems in many regions around the world." This sentence is ok.

The correct translation of the second sentence is "Experts warn that we should no longer take low-price(d) food for granted." I think they should have picked a more meaningful sentence. In what sense do we take low-priced food for granted? Low is relative, so it's not clear what comparison is being made when we say that food is low-priced. Does it mean low-priced compared to the cost in a hypothetical free-market economy? No, that can't be right because that's not likely to change. Low-priced compared to the future? No, that can't be right because we should take if for granted that food will always be cheap now compared to the future. Low-priced compared to other common needs such as housing and transportation?

For comparison the Chinese sentence is 專家警告我們不應該再將食物價格低廉視為理所當然. I find it equally poor.

If we accept that food is low-priced, the sentence is telling us that we should not consider that the low price is a matter of course. How then should be consider it? An aberrance? Unnatural? Natural now, but quickly becoming unnatural? Do the words "no longer" point us in the right direction? We formerly should take low prices for granted, but now we shouldn't because the prices will go up? After prices go up, should we take high prices for granted?

The meaning behind the sentence seems to be "Prices of food may go up greatly." The English and Chinese sentences are the kind of newspaper language that seeks to get you interested in something, but isn't very meaningful when you look at it closely.

Heatstroke in Chinese and English

2008-06-25T20:52:00.010+08:00

I was sitting on a public bench, almost asleep, when a young man came and sat next to me. He asked me if I had suffered from heatstroke, which is zhongshu (中暑) in Chinese. This isn't the first time I've been asked this question. Is heat stroke especially common in Taiwan?

There was an article about zhongshu in the Apple Daily yesterday that I happened to see. The article lists some of the symptoms: runny nose, fatigue, dry mouth, poor sleep, and urine turning yellow. (No, really! The article says: "尿液變黃") Compare these symptoms to the English definition of heat stroke:

A severe condition caused by impairment of the body's temperature-regulating abilities, resulting from prolonged exposure to excessive heat and characterized by cessation of sweating, severe headache, high fever, hot dry skin, and in serious cases collapse and coma.

It appears that "heat stroke" is a more severe condition than "zhongshu" necessarily is. Zhongshu may be better translated as "heat fatigue."

Zhongshu has meaning in Chinese medicine, which does not seem to fully coincide with the meaning according to Western medicine. According to Chinese medicine, there are two types of heat affliction, the yin and the yang. The yang (half of the word sun) variety of heat stroke (陽暑), is the kind of problem caused by overexposure to heat and the sun. The symptoms are dizziness, fatigue, hotness, thirstiness, and yellow urine. The yin variety (陰暑), is the problem caused when the body is overheated but the surroundings are cool. The symptoms are those already mentioned, (i.e. runny nose, fatigue, dry mouth, poor sleep, and yellow urine.) According to the article, a cool environment is harmful to a warm body because the skin's pores contract, which hurts their ability to dissipate heat, so the heat travels inward. I do not know how much truth there is in this, but there is no doubt that Chinese commonly believe that quickly changing between hot and cold environments is harmful to one's health. This belief does not seem to be as common among Westerners. (It is ironic that Taiwanese stores are more likely to be cold on a hot summer's day, when compared to Western stores.)

The article states that 80% of zhongshu cases are the yin, or "cool" type. It can be brought about by eating or drinking cold foods and drinks, and exposure to air conditioning for long periods, conditions which are also said to cause colds. Articles in the Chinese newspaper like this that explain health phenomena in terms of Chinese medicine are presented as fact. I think most of it is probably true, but it would be nice if they offered the opinion of a doctor of Western medicine.

Singaporean restaurant

2008-05-12T22:42:00.000+08:00

This restaurant, 168 Singaporean Cuisine, is one of only two Singaporean restaurants in Hsinchu that I know of. (The other one is The Curry Garden, which used to be located near Chenghuang Temple, but is now across from National Tsing Hua University in the Three Great Circles area.) For the past few years, it has been a tiny food stall in the Huayuan (花園) night market with barely enough room inside for the owners, an elderly and very hardworking couple. In the last couple of months, they have expanded their operation to a bigger area, still in the same night market, and there are now about five other people working.

The main thing of interest on their menu is the curry. They have curry with chicken, pork, goat, or beef over rice. There is also curry chicken over noodles. The dishes are only about $60 or $70 a plate, so the chicken is mostly bones and the other meat is not of the greatest quality. Despite the small amount of meat, the chicken dishes are good, but the best option is to order a curry and rice plate with an omelette on top. There is a seafood omelette on the menu that is made from squid and shrimp, but I like to get it with just shrimp. The omelette is huge.

The curry omelette is not actually on the menu. The menu lists a Korean omelette over rice, but does not list any omelette dishes with curry. There are other dishes not on the menu. I got one dish with curry and peanuts and dried fish, but I can't remember the name of the dish.

They have always done a very brisk business. I'm not sure if it is because of the location or the cuisine, but there are usually a number of Indonesians who are eating here. There are usually people lined up in front of the stall waiting for their orders, so be prepared for a little wait.

You can see some red sauce on the shrimp in the above picture. That is the hot sauce, which is more flavorful but less spicy than the normal hot sauce.

Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

2008-05-09T21:20:00.000+08:00

Three books I’ve read in the last few weeks are Mr. Muo’s Traveling Couch by Dai Sijie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe.

Mr. Muo’s Traveling Couch is Dai Sijie’s second novel. I wrote about his first novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a couple of weeks ago. Like the first book, this book is translated from French and reads very well in English. In the previous review, I noted what aspects of the first novel marked it as French despite the story being entirely centered in China. Mr. Muo’s Traveling Couch, on the other hand, is a truly French-Chinese novel. Mr. Muo is a disciple of Freud, returned to China from France. He seeks to procure a virgin to bribe a judge (Judge Di) to acquit his love. Based on this description, Mr. Muo sounds like an unsavory character, but his ineptness and neurotic ways make him a comic hero. Muo compares himself to Don Quixote, which is the most concise description.

The French title of the book is Le Complexe de Di, which alludes to the Oedipus Complex and the character Judge Di in the novel, who is an allusion to the character Judge Dee from Robert van Gulik’s novels (as mentioned in the story). The English title refers to Muo’s traveling Freudian dream interpretation business.

I finally got around to reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in the Potter series. The book is short, only about 200 pages, which was not enough for me to develop a full blown case of Potter fever, but it is easy to see what is appealing about the book. As for story matter, spells, magic, and potions are all fun things. As for writing, Rowling does a great job of constantly creating anticipation. Near the beginning of the book, Harry finds a letter addressed to him but it is intercepted and confiscated by his uncle. The next day the mail addressed to Harry is again confiscated. The next day he receives twelve pieces of mail, then twenty-four, then the next day the residence is deluged with mail, which, once again, Harry does not receive. You want to know what happens next, don't you? This is just a simple example of what is happening throughout the book. Just about everything is foreshadowed or hinted at such that the reader has to know what happens next.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe should come with a warning label. It is difficult to enjoy this book if you don’t like tripped out poetry. Using poetry or “experimental” prose to describe a drug experience seems natural enough, but the psychedelic writing isn’t confined to acid trips. There is an author’s note that explains that this is needed to understand the experience, but it felt like it was necessary to allow the author to show off. Furthermore, if prose isn’t in fact sufficient to describe the experience, video would be a better choice.

This is the story of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. It is the also the story about acid-related culture. A lot of notable figures from the sixties are mentioned, such as The Grateful Dead, Allen Ginsburg, the Hell’s Angels, and the Beatles. It’s interesting stuff, but the author’s voice got in the way of the story.

Snow Crash, White Noise, and Momoko's Picture Diary

2008-05-02T22:48:00.002+08:00

Three books that I read in the last couple of weeks are Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, White Noise by Don DeLillo, and Sakura Momoko's Picture Diary.

Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash is a book popular with programmers, and it is easy to understand why. The protagonist, Hiro Protagonist, is a hacker and the plot revolves around new exotic types of hacking—neural hacking performed via a human’s AV inputs. Most importantly, the book gives an importance and an air of mystery to programming by inventing for it a history that dates back to the beginning of history. I read some reviews that complained that the research scenes where this mythology is exposited and analyzed are boring, but they were probably the most interesting part of the book for me. The theories are far-fetched and incomplete, but at least interesting.

The other part of the book that was most fun was the hypercommericialized world of the future, where gated suburban communities have evolved into city-states and the US government warns not to use the hyper-inflated currency as toilet paper.

I enjoyed this book so much that I recommended it to a friend even before I was finished reading. However, after finishing the book, I’m not sure if I should cancel that recommendation. My main complaint is that there is just too much action. It was originally supposed to be a graphic novel, which may explain why the action is so non-stop. I also wasn’t happy with a brief “love” scene that I would like to say was out of place, but it actually seems right at home in the action movie genre.

White Noise by Don DeLillo also left me with a mixed but mostly positive reaction. The book is neatly divided into three sections. The first section of the book is almost plotless. It introduces the narrator, a professor of Hitler studies, his wife, his children from his many marriages, and a friend who is a visiting professor. The focus is the intellectual discussions with the professor friend about the supermarket and about modern society. In the second part of the book, a “real” plot unexpectedly emerges when a chemical accident occurs in the fictional town. The third section of the book takes off in a different direction.

The dialog in the book is unusual—clearly not intended to reflect actual human speech. Several times when reading a scene, I had to backtrack to assure myself that the dialog was not occurring in a dream. Sometimes it is satiric and terse, like Catch 22 or a two-man comedy routine, sometimes it is dense like a computer-generated post-modernist theory generator.

I found the book interesting from beginning to end. The only negative element that led me to have a mixed reaction to the book is that it is so saturated with little theories and analysis, some of them interesting and some of them nonsense, that you don’t have time to digest it all. After finishing the book, you can’t help but wonder if you missed a major part of the novel.

The last book here is a comic diary by Sakura Momoko, author of the Chibi Marukochan comics and cartoons. The book is titled Momoko's Picture Diary (桃子的繪圖日記 in Chinese). The book has almost a hundred drawings, each one illustrating a short anecdote from the author’s life. Most of the anecdotes are only a few sentences. They are mostly unconnected and are not dated but appear to be in chronological order, so the book still belongs in the comic diary genre. I think picture diaries are great. Would the autobiographical American Splendor comics have been popular as a novel? Probably not, but add artwork and they are classics. The drawings are in color and the book is hardbound.

Italian-Indian Restaurant

2008-04-23T23:01:00.001+08:00

This restaurant (which seems to be called Bistro, judging from the sign) is one of the remarkably few Italian-Indian Taiwanese restaurants. You might be disappointed to find that there are no dishes on the menu that mix Italian and Indian, but both the Italian dishes and the Indian dishes are prepared well enough that you can forgive that omission.

The restaurant is in Hsinchu across from National Tsing-Hua University in the Three Great Circles area. A good number of the customers are foreigners. I suspect that the Indian food is not the most authentic, but it gets the approval of some Indian customers (as well as myself). There are often some young South American people eating here. I assume they work at the university. So this little restaurant clearly has international appeal. There is an English menu, and the proprietor, shown in the picture as a speck of orange shirt, speaks English.

Above is the chicken curry, which goes for NT$70.

This is the lamb curry, which is the only item on the menu for NT$80. I recently read some tips for photographing food. One of the tips was that it is not a good idea to photograph foods with brown sauce. While the above photograph may resemble vomit or worse, I assure you that it looks better in person. I've eaten there at least ten times and the only complaint I have is that the last time I went, the curry was a little spicy. The dishes are cooked to order, so they are always hot. The other curry choices are shrimp and fish.

This is the pesto spaghetti with ground chicken, which is NT$60. There are other spaghetti dishes on the Italian side of the menu, but the one shown above is by far the best, in my opinion. The picture doesn't do it justice. It would be great if there were some other items on the menu besides curry and spaghetti, but at under NT$100, these dishes are a steal. In fact, I constantly worry that this restaurant will go out of business, so give it a try.

A Handful of Dust, Artemis Fowl, and Night of the Wolf

2008-04-23T22:34:00.000+08:00

A few of the book I have read in the last couple of weeks are A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer, and Night of the Wolf, by Fritz Leiber.

I decided to read A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh after reading some comments on the cover of the book The Tortilla Curtain. The author of the The Tortilla Curtain was compared to Waugh. Considering that I detested The Tortilla Curtain, this is probably not the best method for choosing a book to read. After reading A Handful of Dust, I can see the similarities between the writing. Both books have a light, witty tone that is used to describe tragedy. However, Waugh does a better job of keeping the tone light. The book describes adultery, death, and captivity, so keeping a light tone is not easy. The author accomplishes this by an almost total lack of internal dialog or introspection by the characters.

I had yet another flawed method for choosing the next book, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Instead of getting suggestions based on a book that I didn't like, I got this suggestion based on a book I haven't read. On the Freakonomics blog, the author asked for suggestions for what to read after finishing the Harry Potter series. There were a number of people who recommended Artemis Fowl in the comments. I haven't read Harry Potter, but I decided to take this suggestion. My verdict is that it is a fun book for a small hypothetical child, but I would not recommend it for adults. The novel is about a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind who is trying to ransom gold from elves. One of the interesting elements of the book is that it describes Artemis using the internet to gather information. However, it might have been better if it were more hackerish, for lack of a better word. In one part of the story, a character sends data and/or firmware to a piece of hardware using email. That's a little too iPhone-ish for a computer whiz. What I'm saying is, Dear author, please rewrite your children's novel as a cyberpunk novel. That's not asking too much, is it?

The Night of the Wolf by Fritz Leiber is a collection of four short stories and novellas. The first story reminded me of the brief outlines of a science-fiction novel written by fictional author Kilgore Trout, as described by Kurt Vonnegut; the story is a what-if idea that is interesting but doesn't have any real feeling. After the first story, I almost stopped reading the book, but I am glad that I finished it. The remaining three stories were very good. This book is out of print now, but these short stories are probably included in other story collections of Fritz Leiber. The original names of the stories are "The Creature from Cleveland Depths", "The Night of Long Knives," "Sanity," and "Let Freedom Ring."

All New People, Pere Goriot, and The Moon and Sixpence

2008-04-15T21:30:00.001+08:00

Three of the books that I read in the last few weeks are All New People, Pere Goriot, and The Moon and Sixpence.

I first read Anne Lamott's writing when she wrote for salon.com some years ago. That was before Salon had become a political magazine, before subscriptions were offered and before you had to watch advertisements to read the articles. That was when Salon was possibly the first general-interest internet magazine. The fact that I can still remember her name is evidence that her writing left a deep impression on me. (Although I think I did get her name mixed up with Anne Tyler, and for that reason I have a few unread Anne Tyler books on my bookshelf.)

All New People is Tyler's third novel, and I thought it was very good--worth reading again. The book flap states that the story takes place in Marin county in Northern California. It seems to me that there is a Berkeley-esque feeling to her writing. I get a similar feeling from Maxine Hong Kingston and Ursula Le Guin, other writers who have lived in Northern California. I tried to describe that quality, but it sounded silly, so I will just say that they are sensitive writers.

The structure of the book is pretty free form. There is very little plot. The editorial reviews at amazon.com describe the book well. The narrator describes her childhood so well that I remembered many things from my own childhood that I haven't thought about in years. One recurring thought as I read this book was that if Taiwanese people wanted to know what life is like in America, this would be a fairly good start. The story takes place in the late sixties or early seventies. Although I wasn't around then, the book's world still felt very familiar.

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The next book here is Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac. I was inspired to read this after reading Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. I enjoyed it, although I prefer Balzac's Eugenie Grandet. Much of the plot is concerned with money. The protagonist needs money in order to establish himself in society. Unfortunately, reading about people losing money is painful to me, in the same way that it is difficult to watch a gory movie. One thing that I found amusing is that the last ten pages of the book is almost pure babbling. Even if you loved the book, I don't think you could deny that it is babbling.

The last book here is The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham. Below is the picture of the book cover. The book is loosely based on the life of Paul Gauguin. I didn't catch on to that until almost the end of the book when the painter moves to Tahiti. There are a lot of similarities in the story to Cakes and Ale, also by Maugham, and the writing is very good in both books, but I didn't appreciate this book as much. The narrator can barely understand the heartlessness of the main character and the reader is in the same boat. After reading the story, there's a good chance that you'll want to take a look at Gauguin's art and see if you can see the genius or the painter's idiosyncrasies in it.

Eastern-Style Western Food

2008-04-07T19:41:00.004+08:00

An article in the New York Times from a couple of weeks ago describes Japanese-style Western food in Japan, called yoshoku. The article is relevant to Taiwan because much of Taiwan's idea of Western food comes via Japan. Not all yoshoku dishes are common in Taiwan, but the dish that is arguably Taiwan's most popular "western" food, jukao (焗烤) is probably a Japanese import. (Jukao is rice or noodle casserole with cheese on top.)

Link:
Spaghetti Stir-Fry and Hambagoo: Japan Looks West

Pronunciation Web Site

2008-04-07T19:33:00.002+08:00

I came across the web site forvo.com on Lifehacker today. This is the kind of the site that make you think, "Why didn't I think of that? I did think of that, didn't I? I must have." It's a multi-lingual pronunciation site. You can search for recordings of words in different languages or you can request that other users record their pronunciation of a word.

Chinese Theme Songs to Cartoons

2008-04-02T20:10:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I posted about cartoons that were shown in both America and Taiwan. I thought it would be interesting to see the Chinese theme songs in English, even if the Chinese theme songs are totally different from the American versions. Here are the lyrics for the theme songs of The ThunderCats, The Smurfs, She-Ra Princess of Power, and Dennis the Menace.
The Chinese lyrics came from here.

ThunderCats theme song, translated from Chinese

Thunder Planet exploded
The ThunderCats took a spaceship and escaped, escaped
On the ship was the most wise Magical Cat,
Tiger Cat, capable of becoming invisible,
Fleet of movement Leopard Cat,
The most fierce Fierce Cat,
There were the strange cats, the little Kai Cats,
And king of the ThunderCats, Lion Cat
Mutants from Plun-Darr pursued, pursued
The Thunder Eye of the mysterious sword they wanted, they wanted
We have the most wise Magical Cat,
Tiger Cat, capable of becoming invisible,
Fleet of movement Leopard Cat,
The most fierce Fierce Cat,
There are the strange cats the little Kai Cats,
And king of the ThunderCats, Lion Cat
Plun-Darr mutants, you come on, come on
The most brave ThunderCats don't fear, don't fear
Beat you until you are utterly defeated

Key to proper names:

Thunder Planet - Thundera
Thunder Eye - Eye of Thundera
Magical Cat - Jaga
Tiger Cat - Tygra
Fierce Cat - Panthro
Leopard Cat - Cheetara
Kai Cats - WilyKat and WilyKit
Lion Cat - Lion-O

The Smurfs theme song, translated from Chinese

Little elves, little elves
In a little world,
A beautiful little village,
Live a group of cute blue elves
Wearing a little white cap
Their faces glow with blue light
Innocent and lively, happy and peaceful
Peace-loving, clever and alert
Not afraid of hardship or difficulty
United in cooperation
[To] defeat the enemy
Every one is brave
Little elves, little elves
Carefree, happy and healthy
The sound of their happy voices in song travels everywhere
La la la la la la
La la la la la la

Note: The name of the show is The Little Blue Elves.

She-Ra Princess of Power theme song, translated from Chinese

Superwoman, Superwoman
Magical Superwoman
Riding a flying horse from the magical kingdom
Swift and mighty magical sword
The power to uphold justice
Going all out against the Thousand Demons King
Fighting evil and overthrowing tyranny
Upholding loyalty

Note: The name of the show is Magical Superwoman.

Dennis the Menace theme song, translated from Chinese

There is a child
His name is Adam
He's a real hassle
Tell him to help out and he won't
But will make a mess of everything
And he'll come around pestering

There is a child
His name is Adam
He's something else
Look at all the tricks he's got
Mother can't control him
He makes people cry and laugh in equal halves

Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan
Naughty Adam
Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan
Naughty Adam

Note: "Dan" is the second syllable of Dennis's Chinese name, Adan. The name of the show is Naughty Adam.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Mistress, The Tortilla Curtain, and Cakes and Ales

2008-04-01T20:54:00.001+08:00

Three of the book I've read over the last few weeks are Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, The Tortilla Curtain, and Cakes and Ale.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a novel written in French by Chinese author Dai Sijie. As I read the book, I looked for signs that this novel was translated from French rather than Chinese. The first sign is the title. If the book were written in Chinese, there would have been no need to specify that the little seamstress is Chinese. Also, it's no coincidence that the author mentioned in the title, Balzac, is French. The book mentions non-French literature, but of the novels mentioned by name, almost all of the them are French. And of the novels mentioned by plot, I think all of them were French.

Another clue is when the book states that the seamstress puts her hair in a "chignon." It can be argued that there is some difference between a chignon and the more common word "bun", but it is clear that neither the narrator nor the little seamstress would know the difference. Another word that seems slightly out of character is "auto de fe." I don't think any translators from Chinese to English would have dared putting such a grand-sounding phrase in an English translation. It is in a much higher register than the rest of the vocabulary of the novel.

I don't have any problems with the previous two words mentioned, but I did have a problem with the translation of currency. The narrator mentions that a room at a hotel cost "five-pence." Rendering Chinese money as "pence" sounds too English for me. Another strange item is that when the narrator mentions the phonetic pronunciation of "Balzac" in Chinese, he writes it as "Ba-er-zar-ke." If that was transcribed from Mandarin, it would be "Ba-er-za-ke." Perhaps the author is not transcribing Mandarin Chinese, but I still find it doubtful that the third syllable would be pronounced "zar."

The novel as a whole is funny and creative, and it does not waste any words. The ending is surprising, funny, and fitting. The book is set during the Cultural Revolution. I have read a dozen other books that concern the Cultural Revolution, and this book is totally original.

The Tortilla Curtain, by T. C. Boyle, begins with the narrator, a white upper-class liberal writer, accidentally hitting a man with his car. That man is an illegal immigrant from Mexico whose luck goes from bad to worse. This scene brings to mind the car accident that sets in motion the novel Bonfire of the Vanities. But where Bonfire of the Vanities was a brilliant and hilarious satire, The Tortilla Curtain only makes a half-hearted attempt at wit and is lukewarm as a tragedy. To put the book in the best possible light, it was a social novel that may have been controversial when it was written ten years ago. However, reading it now feels like reading an old newspaper.

One of the problems with the story is that the tragedy of the immigrants is too relentless. The author is presumably trying to show how the whole world is up against them, but reading the story, you instead feel that the author has some grudge against the main characters. Or worse, you feel that the novel is shaming you into thought or action. For these reasons, I quit reading less than half way into the book. I skimmed the last few pages of the book and was satisfied that I wasn't missing anything.

The last book is Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham. This is the first book I have read by Maugham. As I started reading, I thought his writing was too caustic for me, but as the story develops, the narrator paints an affectionate portrait of Rosie, and he also turns his critical eye on himself as a boy, which balanced things out. So I ended up really enjoying this book. The structure of the novel is impressive. Half-way through the book I began to wonder if there was in fact a plot, but the story is wrapped up nicely in the end.

Cartoon Lyrics

2008-04-01T20:02:00.000+08:00

I read this post today where the lyrics from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, which have been translated into Chinese, are then translated back into English. I thought it was funny, so I should steal the idea and translate some other cartoon lyrics into English. I looked at a Taiwanese web site that has the lyrics for about forty cartoons in Chinese, mostly from twenty or more years ago. Most of the cartoons shown in Taiwan were Japanese cartoons that were not shown in America.

Other then Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a few of the overlapping cartoons shown in both Taiwan and America are He-Man, She-Ra, Popeye, The Smurfs, Thundercats, Voltron, Transformers, and Dennis the Menace. But I don't think any of these cartoons have the same theme song in English and Chinese, at least not lyrically. So the backwards translations would have to be based on fan translations from English. Well, there's always rap lyrics to back-translate into English. Quick, translate "then I put the mack down" into Chinese and then back into English...

Taiwanese Restaurant - Song Shi Shougong Bu

2008-03-28T19:12:00.001+08:00

At most of my favorite little restaurants in Taiwan, there are one or two dishes that the restaurant does quite well, while the rest of the menu items are average. But at this little restaurant, Song Shi Shougong Bu, not only do they have a good amount of variety on the menu, most of the things on the menu are really good. Below is the storefront, found on 31 Changchun (長春) Road in Hsinchu.

Below are the steamed rouyuan. If you want to eat rouyuan in Hsinchu, most natives would recommend that you go to Chenghuang temple, where they serve the deep-fried Hsinchu-style rouyuan with large pieces of pork and bamboo shoots inside. However, I much prefer the steamed rouyuan, with the soft skin and the filling made with more finely ground pork, as served at this restaurant. In addition to the sauce, which is just as important as the filling, there are two other sauces on top of the sauce, as well as cilantro. Two of the small dumplings go for NT$30.

Next is migao, a glutinous rice dish served with a generous amount of sweet-hot sauce. Also NT$30.

Here is a plate of black stinky tofu with pickled cabbage on the side. The heap of white on top of each piece of tofu is pureed garlic. There is also some sliced red pepper to go with the tofu. The spiciness from the red peppers and the freshly deep-fried tofu go together well with the cold and slightly sweet pickled cabbage. The skin of the black stinky tofu might be a little thicker than normal stinky tofu, but I could not detect any difference in taste. Cost is NT$40.

Next is a bowl of noodles with cilantro and pureed garlic on top. Also NT$40.

All of these items are very common, but I can't think of any other restaurant that has all of these items on the menu. There are other restaurants where you can find slightly better versions of some these dishes, but the combination of variety and tastiness of this restaurant makes it a great place to eat.

Work in Taiwan--The Carrots and the Sticks

2008-03-26T20:41:00.001+08:00

Looking back at my last job in America, compensation and discipline were fairly simple compared to work in Taiwan. Working at a good company in America, you get a salary, a health plan, possibly a 401k plan, and possibly an employee stock purchase program. In Taiwan, the base salary is quite low, but the company pays for a variety of benefits.

The most important "extra" compensation is the 14-month and sometimes even 15-month salary. An extra month's salary is given for the lunar new year, and an extra half month's salary is given for each of two other holidays, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. In addition to the these bonuses, which are not considered benefits, gift certificates are a common gift given during holidays. Where I work, we are allowed to choose between gifts, such as vacuum cleaners or hot plates, and gift certificates for grocery stores, bookstores, etc.

The year-end activities are usually the most extravagant. There is the end-of-year meal, and there may be a year-end entertainment event. I could go on about all the money and effort spent on these productions, and the prizes given. Prizes range from new cars to instant noodles.

Where I work, funds are given to departments for various events. Upon completion of a project, I was happy to find there was a project-completion bonus, however it was paid to the department rather than myself. So that means another group dinner. Then of course is the fenhong (分紅), the yearly bonus given in stocks or cash, which can exceed the year's salary for a company with strong revenues.

Next there are big events put on by the company, events that resemble a carnival or a sports event. We get tickets to spend on food from the vendors that come to these events. Company jackets are commonly issued to all employees, and they get a lot more use than the shirts and hats that are sometimes given. Then there are the health exams. And the regular showings of movies--newly release DVDs projected on a large screen. And there is chunjiu (春酒), the department meal after the lunar new year. And I should mention the generous amount of vacation time given for marriage, pregnancy, and death of relatives. And the red envelope given by the company for marriage. And the subsidized daily meals. And subsidized language classes. And a birthday present. And the bus rides to work for employees that live in certain locations. The list goes on.

A possible reason for the low base pay and variety of fringe benefits is that when sales are down, many of the benefits can be temporarily eliminated. Also, I think it is likely that these benefits give employees a more tangible reward than does an increased salary, even though there has to be considerable overhead for all these programs. However, the better answer is that these benefits can all be tied to an increased value place on collective benefits--benefits which can be shared, either with family or with other employees, and benefits that promote the collective identity.

There is another side to the company's slightly paternalistic role. Discipline. Most of the benefits that I mentioned above are common at many companies, but I am not as familiar with the methods that companies use to discipline employees or to gently keep them in line. However, some of the methods used at my work are too precious not to share.

Example 1. Members of my department received an email stating that the department had one of the highest rates of usage of the company bulletin board (an electronic message board). You might think that a bulletin board that people use is a good thing, but apparently not. If we are leaving messages on the bulletin board then we are not working. The new rule is that employees may not post to the board during work hours. If you break the rule, you will be warned the first time, and posting a second time will result in some discipline.

Example 2. Salary is considered confidential. If you tell someone how much money you earn, you can supposedly have 10% of your salary deducted. The policy did not leave any exceptions, such as being able to let your spouse or immediate family know how much money you make.

Example 3. This one is the crown jewel of arrogance and stupidity. Employee use a PowerPoint template layout to create their presentations. As the company changes its advertising material, including its slogan, this layout is changed, perhaps about once every two years. Some lazy employees have the audacity to use a layout with an old slogan. To solve this problem, a memo was sent out stating that employees who used an old PowerPoint layout when they give a presentation to customers would have their pay docked. This one still boggles my mind. I doubt if any managers had the nerve to actually implement this policy.

Example 4. Employees are not given much control over their computers. They are allowed to study English during work time. There are even English lessons on the company network that include audio and video. However, you are not allowed have any mp3 files on the computer. Computers are periodically checked for mp3s and newly installed software. All software should theoretically be authorized, even including freeware applications that do not require installation. Files of extension .exe are blocked for download from the internet. Web-based mail is blocked. Translation services are blocked (because they could possibly used to translate a forbidden web page). Proxies are blocked. Some other entertainment web pages are blocked. In fact, any non-business web browsing is forbidden, as you are reminded every time you log in to the computer. USB ports are disconnected.

Example 5. Docking pay has been used for other actions. If you miss a class that you are enrolled for, you automatically have $500 deducted from your pay. It is possible that you did not personally enroll in the class and it also possible that you applied for vacation during the time of the class. Even so, your pay could be docked without any form of notification if you did not request an absence from the class (to be approved by a supervisor). I don't check my pay receipts very carefully, so I could have been fined for this for all I know. I have my doubts about the legality of this. I'm not sure if this policy is in place any more.

In summary, there are a variety of unique carrots and sticks used to manage and keep harmony with employees in Taiwan. As for the carrots, some of the policies are great and companies put on some spectacular events. As for the sticks, they usually are not a big deal, but can be amusing in their clumsiness.

Madame Bovary and The Hours and The Kite Runner

2008-03-20T22:45:00.001+08:00

Since my last book post, three of the books that I have read are Madame Bovary and The Hours and The Kite Runner. There are a bunch of other books, which I will post about when I have a chance.

Madame Bovary is supposed to be one of the best novels of all time. I definitely enjoyed it, but it baffles me how you can look at any book, no matter how good, and conclude that it is one of the best books of all time.

This may sound silly, but the most memorable passage for me was the description of the young Master Bovary's cap.

That cap belonged to the composite order of head-gear, and in it the
heterogeneous characteristics of the busby, the Polish shapska, the bowler, the
otterskin toque and the cotton nightcap were simultaneously represented. It was,
in short, one of those pathetic objects whose mute unloveliness conveys the
infinitely wistful expression we may sometimes note on the face of an idiot.
Ovoid in form and stiffened with whalebone, it began with a sort of triple line
of sausage-shaped rolls running all round its circumference; next, separated by
a red band, came alternate patches of velvet and rabbit-skin; then a kind of bag
or sack which culminated in a stiffened polygon elaborately embroidered, whence,
at the end of a long, thin cord, hung a ball made out of gold wire, by way of a
tassel. The cap was brand new, and the peak of it all shiny.

As I read the description, I had two interpretations. The first is that it the description is a masterfully precise description of an especially complicated cap. However, because of time, culture, and translation, the description is difficult for the modern reader to fully understand. The second interpretation is that this is an overblown, satiric description that is not meant to be understood. Either way, the end result is that I have imagined an impossibly complex monstrosity of a cap, a cap that makes Master Bovary look incredibly ridiculous, even when holding it.

The next book that I read was The Hours by Michael Cunningham. I haven't seen the movie, but I would like to. The book is quite short and there isn't a lot of action in it, so it does not seem like it would be difficult to contain all the action in a two hour movie. On the contrary, most of the story is about thoughts and how the characters interpret everything they see, which would be difficult to make into a movie.

One of the nice things about the book is that because it is only 200 pages, I felt like I could take my time reading it slowly. Some of the sentences are a little complex for a contemporary novel. (They remind me of the only Virginia Wolf book I've read, To the Lighthouse, even though that was almost ten years ago.) So I enjoyed the writing a lot more than if the book had been 400 pages.

At Amazon.com, The Kite Runner has over a thousand reviews, so it hardly needs another one. But here are a few comments anyway. Most of the summaries of this book state that it is the story of two boys. In fact, only about one-third of the book concerns the narrator's childhood. In a lot of books, the first third is just exposition, but in this book, the first 80 pages are clearly the best. In the last third of the book, the characters do not seem so real and the plot is more of a foreign thriller, as opposed to the memoir style of the beginning of the book. Particularly jarring for me was the letter from Rahim near the end of the book. It seemed a little too touchy-feely, bordering on psychobabble, for something coming from an Afghani. On the whole, it was still a good read.

The quotes on the front and back cover clearly state that one of the themes of the book is redemption, or "betrayal and salvation." From the moment of betrayal, I was considering what exactly redemption would require. There were not many ways that I could come up with that would offer full redemption. However, the author creates a situation that offers an almost tit-for-tat chance for redemption. You could complain that it was too neat, but if it were anything less, I think a lot of readers (like me) would feel that full redemption was not achieved.

Indonesian Restaurant in Hsinchu

2008-03-20T21:44:00.001+08:00

The last restaurant review I wrote was two years ago. Since that time, the restaurant went out of business, was replaced by another restaurant, which also went out of business, and now stands vacant. The life of restaurants here are often very short. One restaurant that has stood the test of years of time is a little Indonesian restaurant shown below. One good reason for its survival is that, despite the large number of Indonesians who live in Hsinchu, it is the only Indonesian restaurant (I know of) in the city. (Although there is another one not too far away in Chupei [Zhubei]).

The storefront, down the street from Sogo.

On weekdays, the restaurant has a small menu, mostly of fried noodles and fried rice. On the weekends, there is a buffet. The price of your dish is based on how much you take. When I first came the this restaurant a couple of years ago, I was disappointed in the food because it was cold. Most Taiwanese that I know aren't picky about the temperature of their food. Many Taiwanese buffets are designed so that the food can be kept warm by keeping the metal containers in a bath of hot water. However, when you go to a buffet at noon, chances are that half the dishes are cold. The best remedy is to (a) go earlier, at about 11 am, and (b) eat a lot of hot rice with your meal.

Over the past year or two, I apparently have gotten more accustomed to cold food, because I have been quite happy with this restaurant for my past few visits. The food wins points for novelty--half of the time I'm not sure what I'm eating. There are also some foods packaged and ready to take home.

Here's the plate from my last visit. The largest object on the left is some kind of fritter. This seems to be pretty popular, judging from other people's plates. Also popular was shish-kebab--when I arrived at about 11 am, they were already all gone. There is always a potato and chicken curry (curried potatoes are on the rice). On the left are some pieces of fried pineapple with fried chicken (lots of pineapple and a little chicken). Another mashed potato fritter is peeking out from behind the first fritter. There are diced potatoes with a tangy tomato sauce. And there are two or three other things on the plate that I can't even describe.

This plate was $110.

The to-go items include dumplings, a dessert made of glutinous rice and congealed coconut milk, and a drink of purple glutinous rice and coconut milk. Imported bottled drinks are popular.

Dropped sounds in Mandarin

2008-03-12T21:26:00.000+08:00

Beijingers sometimes drop the sh, zh and x in the middle of words/phrases. --source

This quote from the Beijing Sounds blog got me thinking, what sounds are dropped by Mandarin speakers in Taiwan? When I say it got me thinking, I don't mean it literally, I mean it rhetorically. In fact, I have thought about it before, and my thinking didn't get me far. There are unnecessary syllables that get dropped, such as 麼, which is sometimes dropped from 怎麼樣. And very commonly there is a "g" sound at the end of a syllable that is not pronounced, but that is because the speaker is not aware of the correct pronunciation, or perhaps does not make a distinction.

But in all the Mandarin Chinese I have heard over the years, I can only think of one word where the sounds actually undergo a significant change, something like a contraction in English. That word is 大家 da4jia1 (everybody). The 'j' sound gets partially dropped from this word. The resulting sound is somewhere between da4jia1 and da4ya.

Maybe I just don't notice other words like this because I have an iron ear, but I don't think so. I think this is one of the reason that Mandarin is not such a bad language for foreign learners. When spoken quickly, it does not become slurred and transformed like most other languages.

Morning Musume to Hold Concert in Taiwan

2008-03-09T13:25:00.001+08:00

Things are looking up for Taiwan in the area of Japanese concerts. Last year, Hamasaki Ayumi, Kuraki Mai, and Koda Kumi came to Taiwan. This year Amuro Namie and L'arc en Ciel are returning for concerts, and Morning Musume will hold their first overseas concert open to the general public.

Last year was the year that Hello! Project's management company finally got serious about marketing to Asia. For some reason that I am still curious to know, Morning Musume's seventh album was never released in Taiwan. But since that time, almost all Hello! Project albums have been released. Even singles, which have never been very popular here, have been released for groups like C-ute and Viyuden. Last year saw the creation of the official Hello! Project web page and fan club in Taiwan. Viyuden came to Taiwan and met some fan club members.

Now, after ten years, Morning Musume is finally coming to Taiwan to perform a concert on May 27. The best seats are reserved for fan club members. The $3000 fan club seats have already been sold out and there is a good chance that the $2500 fan club seats will be sold out by the deadline, March 13. These seats are given randomly, in contrast to the regular seats. Sometime after the 13th, tickets will go on sale to the general public through the normal ticket vending systems, where you can pick your seat.

I've already ordered tickets for myself and the missus. Fan club registration requires an ID number, which the official site assumes is a Taiwanese identification number. You cannot submit the web registration form without this number. However, ID verification is only done through Javascript. So, if you turn off Javascript in your web browser, you can successfully enter a non-Taiwanese ID number, which is fortunately not verified server-side.

Morning Musume's fan base has a much higher percentage of females in Taiwan compared to Japan. It will be interesting to see the proportion of females at the concert. I was surprised by the high female turnout for Amuro Namie's concert two years ago and the low female turnout for Kuraki Mai's first concert in Taiwan last year.

Most Japanese singers who come to Taiwan attempt to sing one of their songs in Chinese, or at least sing the chorus of a song in Chinese. They also expect the Taiwanese fans to be able to sing their songs in Japanese. In my experience, the fans typically make a decent showing at this. Although they are no match for the native fans of the musicians, there are a surprisingly large number of fans who can sing their favorite songs in Japanese (or English). Previously, Goto Maki of Hello! Project did some singing in Chinese, but Morning Musume should have a good chance of singing decent Chinese at the upcoming concert because the two newest members are from China. I expect Taiwanese fans to have friendly feelings towards the Chinese members, Li Chun (李純) and Qian Lin (銭琳). It will be interesting to see how the Chinese members reciprocate this feeling.

Sam the Sudden and The Birthday of they World

2008-03-08T16:00:00.001+08:00

In the last week or two, I read Sam the Sudden, by PJ Wodehouse, and The Birthday of the Universe and Other Stories by Ursula Le Guin.

Sam the Sudden is first book I have read by Wodehouse, the author of the Jeeves books, and it was a lot of fun. I have had the book on my bookshelf for about ten years. I think I picked it up for free outside a Friends of the Library store. It might have been given away for free because the back cover is dirty. In the story, Sam falls in love with a girl he sees on a gravy-stained poster. After reading that passage, I began to suspect that the junk on the back cover of the book could possibly be gravy. Twenty- or thirty-year-old gravy.

The other unpleasant aspect of the book is that the type size was very small. That is the major reason that it took me ten years to decide to read the book. Some people criticize book buying on the internet because it takes the serendipity out of book buying, the chance find of an old book at a used book store. If buying a book and reading it is too crassly commercial, I know how to bring the serendipity back into book buying. After buying a book, just place it on your bookshelf and forget about it. After the book has aged five to fifteen years, it is ripe for a serendipitous read.

Sam the Sudden is a comedy. I am usually worried about reading an old comedy because I don't know if the humor has aged well. Fortunately, even though the book was first published in 1925, it was very funny. Here are a couple of jokes:

"If you really want to know what happened, I'll tell you. I did not kiss that ghastly Blair pipsqueak. She kissed me."
"What!"
"She kissed me," repeated Sam doggedly. "I had been laying it on pretty thick about how much I admired her work, and suddenly she said 'Oh, you dear boy!' and flung her loathsome arms round my neck. What could I do? I might have uppercut her as she bored in, but, short of that, there wasn't any way of stopping her."

******************************************************

"Well, it's like this: I saw her mother yesterday."
"Ah! That is a treat I have not had."
"Do you think girls get like their mothers, Sam?"
"Sometimes."
Hash shivered.
"Well, the 'ole thing is, when I'm away from the girl I get to thinking about her."
"Very properly," said Sam. "Absence, it has been well said, makes the heart grow fonder."
"Thinking of her mother, I mean."
"Oh, of her mother?"
"And then I wish I was well out of it all, you understand. But then again, when I'm settin' with 'er with my arm round 'er little waist--"
" You are still speaking of the mother?"
"No, the girl."

The other book that I read was a book of short stories and a novella by Ursula Le Guin. This is about the ninth book that I have read by Le Guin. All of them I have read so far have been good, but after reading the first couple of stories in this book, the idea finally cemented in my mind that this is an author whose works I definitely intend to read completely. The stories were inventive and logical, and more importantly, she always has something interesting to say about being a human

Life place

2008-03-05T19:25:00.001+08:00

The Chinese word shenghuoguan (生活館) is a word with a simple literal meaning, but looses the meaning when you scratch the surface. Shenghuo is life, and a guan is a place. Some other places that use the word guan are restaurants (literally "rice place" 飯館) libraries (literally "book place") and the list goes on with places like bowling alleys ("bowling place" 保齡球館) or arts museums ("fine arts place" 美術館).

So, what is this shenghuoguan, literally "life-place"? You won't find this one in a dictionary. Looking at examples of shenghuoguan does little to improve the definition. You will find that a shenghuoguan could be a shopping mall, a restaurant, a web page, a real estate company, or as the picture shows, a supermarket. The answer seems to be that a shenghuoguan is a place of business with the ambition of becoming a part of your life. Perhaps because providing goods and services is too mundane, so these places instead offer us a place to live for minutes at a time.

As expected, the word doesn't do well in translation. Keji Shenghuoguan (科技生活館) takes "Science Park Life Hub" as their English name. Other than the people who work there, I cannot imagine that the little mall is the hub of many people's lives. Sure, Burger King and the telephone company are nice, but I prefer that they not become integral parts of my life.

A search on the web shows that it isn't just Taiwan that is using this word, which appears to be a fairly recent creation. From China, there is Nalan Beauty and Fashion Life Home (納蘭美宮時尚生活館), another shenghuoguan.

The picture below shows a new sign up at the supermarket. The old sign (on the left) describes the place as a supermarket. The new sign (on the right) shows that the supermarket has now become or has hatched a shenghuoguan.

An overly ambitious supermarket that wishes to be a shenghuoguan.

Overheard in elevator

2008-02-28T19:41:00.000+08:00

I particularly like overhearing conversations in Chinese where the speakers misunderstand each other. When I speak in Chinese, misunderstandings happen all the time, so hearing other people's misunderstandings is comforting in that you realize a certain amount if it is inevitable, and not all of it is due to your foreignness.

Here's a conversation between two fortyish men in an elevator:

A: ...他們也qie1工--

B: [Interrupting] 什麼叫做qie1工?

A: 人員不夠.

B: 噢, 缺工.

A: ...他們也qie1電.

B: [Quietly, as if to himself] 缺電.

*********************************************

A: ...they are shot on workers--

B: What does "shot on workers" mean?

A: They don't have enough employees.

B. Oh, short on workers.

A: ...and they are shot on electricity.

B: [Quietly, as if to himself] Short on electricity.

I'm not sure why one of the men had a problem with pronunciation of one syllable. His pronunciation was otherwise fine. The mispronunciation was not what I found amusing. Rather, it was the way that the other man repeated the correct pronunciation. There was no hint that he was correcting the pronunciation, he just repeated the word quietly with the correct pronunciation, as if for his own benefit.

I wish half of the population could respond so gracefully to my mispronunciations. Two of the most common responses I get are: (1) no response, I only later realize the mistake (2) (From the very few who know me well enough) a burst of laughter, sometime to be followed by the cell phone being taken out and the explanation: Hold on, I've got to call my friend to tell her about this one.

Fish maw

2008-02-20T10:27:00.004+08:00

The most expensive meal I've had in the last few years was at Japanese restaurant in Taipei. One of the dishes that I did not recognize was a long white thing that tasted like neither meat nor vegetable. It looked like a mushroom more than anything else. It's taste was not strong--the texture is clearly what is unique about it. It was soft like soggy tofu. Clearly a delicacy. It wasn't bad, but I didn't hear anyone exclaiming how good it was.

My coworkers told me that it is biao ( 鰾, which is fourth tone according to the dictionary, but was pronounced as first tone by my coworker), a bladder that a fish fills with air to rise or sink in water.

I didn't think I was likely to see this dish again, but then I saw it again a couple of weeks ago, this time at a Chinese banquet. So, I decided to learn a little more about it. In English, it's called a fish maw or a swim bladder. A fish fills it with oxygen from the gills to increase its buoyancy, and lets out air to decrease buoyancy. Not all fish have one.

Next time someone asks me how to describe this fish organ in English, I will be able to give them the following unsatisfying answer: it's called a fish maw, a swim bladder, or a gas bladder; but there's a good chance that an English speaker won't know what you're talking about even if you manage to remember all of those terms.

Links:

Wikipedia entry: gas bladder

How stuff works explanation

Placing group orders for food at work

2006-09-05T19:10:00.000+08:00

In the essay described in the last post, one of the headings in the table of contents reads “TSMC shopping network: every day is shopping day.” Unfortunately, the section describing this phenomenon was not included in the forwarded email I received, but it is easy to understand what the author is referring to. At many companies, employees pool together to make huge group orders of things. By ordering things in groups, you can get discounts on the items and possibly free delivery. Some of the things that people order are not easily available outside of Taipei or wherever they come from and some things are ordered because the quality is better than what is available locally. Also, shopping while at work is a good way to pass the time. In short, it's one of the few genuinely fun things about working in an office in Taiwan. Some people or departments like placing orders so much that they gain a reputation for constantly ordering things.

Most of the things that people order together are food. There must be other things, but I can't think of any. Things that I have ordered or seen other people order include: cakes, pies, ice cream, plums, strawberries, nuts, chicken feet, duck heads, dumplings, pudding, dried seaweed, fruit-flavored vinegar, bottled juice, and some Chinese desserts that aren't so easy to describe. (There are also the usual lunchtime or afternoon orders for drinks, noodles, and other snacks that are delivered from within a couple miles.)

This is one thing that I have ordered at work, a mango flan (from here). I thought it was very good, although I prefer eating mine without the leaf.

Life at Taiwan Semiconductor

2006-09-05T10:37:00.000+08:00

I recently received a forwarded email with a long essay attached. The essay is written by a production line supervisor who works at Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC). It is a humorous look at what life is like for a new college graduate working at a high-tech company in Taiwan. The essay is about 33 pages long, and it appears that the piece is only a fraction of a much larger piece. As a production line supervisor, the author’s job is to keep the line running smoothly, trying to minimize machine idle time, scrapped wafers and operator errors, while dealing with machines that go down and getting high-priority (super hot) lots through as quickly as possible.

The essay was a pleasure to read, so I tried to locate the rest of it on the web. The content has been posted to a few blogs and message boards (here's one), but I found no official source for the story, and none of the postings had more content than the one I was sent by email. It’s likely that the author did not intend for the story to become public, and there are likely some people at TSMC who would be embarrassed by the story. However, the story has become public. I first heard about the article from a friend working at a high-tech company. Then I received the forwarded piece from an unconnected source a week later.

If I'm not feeling lazy (likelihood: low), I may do some quick translations of parts of it, even though they won't be as clever as the original.

Here's a sample:

Public Address System

When the phone line is busy or reception is bad and a connection can’t be made, or when the person you are trying to reach is not carrying one of the company’s PHS phones, dialing 180 will connect you to the PA system. The whole fab can then hear your call. There are a few ways that a call can be made:

"CVD area, Chang Hsiao-mo please dial extension 3030” is the normal version.
"Chang Hsiao-mo, please dial extension 3030 immediately” is the version when the line supervisor is about to erupt with suppressed rage.
“Anayou Momo-san, wakananai.” There is also a Japanese version when a Japanese vendor is searching for a lost countryman.
"Hsinchu rice noodles are oily and fragrant and delicious.” In the Taoyuan-Hsinchu-Miaoli area, there are many Hakkas. Over the PA system, the voices of a lot of employees and vendors carry an especially friendly native feeling.

In addition to the normal versions, the PA system is sometimes used to sing Happy Birthday. But there is also a version where some muddleheaded person dials 180 and then forgets to hang up the phone, letting the whole fab listen to the sounds of rubbing as he puts the phone in his pocket.

Sometimes the noise in the fab decreases the effectiveness of the broadcast and you can’t make out the name or the extension that was mentioned. At these times, you will hear things like:

“Whoever just called for Chang Hsiao-mo, please dial Chang Hsiao-mo at extension 1234.” Or,“Whoever just called for Chang Hsiao-mo, please page him again.”

Names of Chinese Dog Breeds

2006-08-29T22:20:00.000+08:00

Among popular dog breeds, the Shar-pei, Shih-tzu, Pug, Pekingese, and Chow Chow all come from China. I collected some information about the names of theses breeds in English and Chinese, mostly from Wikipedia, and added a few of my own guesses.

The name of the Shar-pei comes from shapi (沙皮), meaning “sand skin” in Chinese, which describes the roughness of the skin. Of all the Chinese breeds, this seems to be the only case where the English name of the breed comes from the Chinese and the Chinese name remains unchanged.

The spelling of the Shih-tzu (or Shi-tzu) is strange enough to scare off anyone from trying to pronounce it. I prefer to pronounce it “sheet-su, ” but many people prefer the inelegant-sounding “shit-su” The proper pronunciation for it would be shizi, which is Chinese for lion (獅子). However, perhaps because the English pronunciation bares so little resemblance to the Chinese word, even the Chinese don’t call the Shih-tzu a shizi, but instead call it the Xi Shi dog (西施犬), whose pronunciation is closer to the English “sheet-su.” (Xi Shi is a famously beautiful woman from Chinese history.)

Or perhaps Chinese do not call the Shih-tzu a “shizi” because “shizi” is also used to refer to the Pekingese (獅子狗). However, in Taiwan, the Pekingese is most commonly called a Beijing dog (北京狗). It seems most likely that the Chinese name came after the English name.

The origins of the names of the Pug is more clear. According to Wikipedia, “the word ‘Pug’ may have derived from the Latin Pugnus (fist); the Pug's face can look like a clenched fist.” The original Chinese name for them is supposedly "Lo Chiang Sze," but I don’t know what that would be in Chinese. In any case, the name currently used in Chinese for Pugs is just a transliteration of “Pug,” ba-ge (巴哥).

Chow Chow surely sounds like Chinese, but as far as I could tell searching online, the name does not come from Chinese. It supposedly comes from “chow,” slang for a ship’s cargo. Its Chinese name (鬆獅犬 puffy lion dog) has no relation to its English name.

(Bonus: The Lhasa Apso is from Tibet. Lhasa is the capital of Tibet, and “apso” comes from the Tibetan name for the dog, Abso Seng Kye. Apso apparently means “bark.”)

Sausage on a bone

2006-08-18T18:02:00.000+08:00

I recently noticed that Domino's Pizza in Taiwan is selling sausages with chicken bones stuck up them. My first thought was that someone at Domino's must have had a bright idea. Maybe they already tried sticking chicken bones in dinner rolls and pizzas and potatoes and then finally decided that they worked best stuck in sausages. But after checking around, I found that there are a number of restaurants in Taiwan that offer "sausage with bone." Domino's calls their product German sausages skewered on a bone, but I don't think the Germans are the ones to blame. This apparently was invented by the Japanese.

Domino's web page calls this delicacy "sausage with bone." However,
that description fails to communicate the fact that the chicken bone has
been inserted into the sausage. This is the opposite of the de-boning
process, so it should logically be called the boning process, but in the
culinary sense, boning is the same things as deboning so we can't call
it "boned sausage." I think "sausage on a chicken bone" gets the point
across.

Above is Japanese Pizza Hut's version of sausage on a bone. The bones
are manicured so neatly that you might even forget that they are bones!
The sausages on the bone above appear to be dancing on the plate.
Poetry and sausage in motion.
You may suspect that the sausages aren't really as beautiful as the pictures
present them. Well, see above for a thorough vindication of Domino's truth in
advertising. This picture was taken from this page, where you will not find more
pictures, and not a single negative comment about them. I think the Taiwanese
are more culturally prepared for this food than westerners due to eating pizzas
with unshelled shrimp on them.

By the way, have you noticed how utterly lacking in bones your average
hamburger patty is?

Local Foreign Celebrities II – The Survey

2006-08-18T15:00:00.000+08:00

In the previous post, I tried to guess who the most famous foreigner in Taiwan is. For my definition of "famous," I was using a combination of notoriety and importance. If it was merely a question of who is most well known, I have no doubt that the answer would be Margarita, a Russian model and entertainer. In the comments of the last post, Michael Turton suggested that Richard Hartzell should be the winner. Michael is the Taiwan expert on things that are important, so he is clearly emphasizing importance over superficial notoriety. However, superficial notoriety is easier to measure, and it’s also what I happen to know best, so I took a pole of my coworkers to measure just that.

I wrote down the Chinese names of eight foreigners, mostly in the entertainment and news industry. To make things interesting, I first predicted the results:

Here are the predictions, from most well known to least well known:

Name (Nationality. Field)
1. Margarita (Russian. Entertainment)
2. Aisha (Japanese. Entertainment)
3. Jeff Locker (American. English, News)
4. Mai (Japanese. Entertainment)
5. Father Josef Eugster (Swiss, Health)
6. Jeffrey Mindich (American. News)
7. Richard Hartzell (American. News, Opinion)
8. Dan Bloom (American. News, Opinion)

And the results, from a poll of seven people:

1. Margarita (Russian. Entertainment) (7/7)
1. Aisha (Japanese. Entertainment (7/7)
1. Mai (Japanese. Entertainment) (7/7)
4. Jeff Locker (American. English, News) (6/7)
5. Father Josef Eugster (Swiss, Health) (2/7)
6. Jeffrey Mindich (American. News) (1/7)
8. Richard Hartzell (American. News, Opinion) (0/7)
8. Dan Bloom (American. News, Opinion) (0/7)

They all knew Margarita, Aisha, and Mai, while none had heard of Richard Hartzell or Dan Bloom. The results aren't surprising when you consider that the people surveyed are all under 30 years old, and most young people only read the entertainment and sports sections of the newspaper, if anything. In hindsight, the accuracy of the predictions would have been more convincing if the predictions were written in a separate, earlier post.

The survey results show that if you want to be a famous foreigner in Taiwan, it helps to be an American male fluent in Chinese, but it's even more helpful to be an attractive female of any nationality who is not overly concerned about her dignity.

Edit: Another person I could have included in the survey is Christopher Downs (夏克立). I think at least a couple of people would have known who he is.

Local foreign celebrities

2006-08-11T14:41:00.000+08:00

I recently saw someone with a book about living in Taiwan written in Chinese by a foreigner. The book's English title was "Foreigners and Smelly Tofu," and was written by Richard Hartzell. It was the third book in a series of at least eight books. It looked as if the books were composed of articles written for newspapers or magazines. I read a few of the articles in the book, including one where Hartzell met the Taiwanese writer Sanmao. The articles were polished and generally interesting and Hartzell seems like a very likable person, but they were obviously intended for a Chinese audience, so I don't think they are quite as interesting for a non-Chinese audience. The books appear to be out of print now. If he has the rights to his articles, it would be an interesting experiment to slowly release the articles on a blog. There might even be some money in it.

I had heard of Hartzell from forumosa.com, where I might have even got advice from him, and I had read a couple things he had written, but my friend who was reading the book had never heard of him, nor have I ever heard any other Taiwanese mention his name. It's strange that after having a newspaper column for years, he's not at least a minor celebrity. There's not a lot of competition for the foreigner celebrity.

So who is the most famous foreigner in Taiwan? I used to think that, if we don't count ethnically Chinese foreigners (because no one considers them foreigners), then entertainer Makiyo is the most famous foreigner. But it turns out she is only half Japanese, so she does not really qualify as a foreigner. So, my vote goes to Father Josef Eugster, a Catholic priest from Switzerland. People of all ages have seen him on TV talking about foot massage. The Taipei Times writes of him, "He may not have touched the hearts of millions of Taiwanese, but he's easily Taiwan's most famous and influencial [sic] foreign priest for having touched people's feet." He even has a page in the Chinese version of Wikipedia under his Chinese name, 吳若石.

Sea of Scooters

2006-08-08T14:31:00.000+08:00

I got this in a forwarded email recently. I actually translated this about two months ago, but haven't had a computer until now. Searching for the text on the internet, it apparently came from the China Times on 2005-11-04. See original Chinese text here or here.

"Wow! That's astonishing. So many scooters." Driving past Providence University, people are astounded to see the parking lot near the school's entrance. A dark mass of almost 4,000 scooters. School officials say that it is the largest parking lot of any college or technical institute. Even overseas universities are awed by the sight.

With such a large parking lot, not just finding a space, but even finding where you parked is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Guo Yuanhao, a student of the businessment managment department, says that he often sees students walking around the parking lot because they have forgotten where they parked. Wu Kexuan, student of the information management department, says that the parking lot makes you realize the importance of friends, because when you can't find your scooter, you can get a group of friends to help you search.

When Providence University President Yu Minde was invited to speak overseas, he suddenly thought of introducing the school's parking lot. As expected, it astounded the foreign students and left a deep impression. In foreign countries, you rarely see so many scooters parked in one place.

With almost 4,000 scooters parked together, security is a concern. If a thief comes to steal a scooter, people can't be sure whether he is a thief or a scooter owner. For safety, the school has installed a system of security cameras surrounding the parking lot. Police also especially strengthen their patrolling in the area to avoid giving thieves an opportunity.

Road Rage Scooter Style

2006-06-14T15:33:00.000+08:00

One of the scariest and most cringe-inducing sounds you will hear is the sound of a car smashing into the plastic shell of a scooter. Following the crunching sound, you will often see someone sitting in the middle of the street, looking dazed, their scooter fallen over nearby. (If you are unlucky, then that person is you.) Most of the scooter accidents I have witnessed have been at very low speeds, and may leave no more than a bruise. However, every time I hear the sound of plastic being crushed, it's as if I'm hearing bones being crushed, and I fear for the worst.

Naturally, the scooter rider is always the victim when a scooter and car crash, regardless of whose fault it was. However, last weekend I witnessed one person's attempt to even things out in an incident of severe road rage. Until then, the only offensive action I had seen a scooter rider take against a car was when one guy threw some batteries at a car.

I was waiting at a red light when I heard the familiar sound of a scooter getting smashed. When I looked over to see what happened, strangely enough, I didn't see any fallen scooter, I just saw a very angry young man, about 17-20 years old, already standing up. His friend pulled the scooter around directly in front of me. The scooter must have been bumped without being toppled, but it had probably knocked off the angry youth who had been sitting behind his friend. He hurriedly pulled something long and thin off of his scooter. As his friend on the scooter looked on expressionlessly, he pulled off the sheath (probably cardboard) of the object to reveal a watermelon knife (西瓜刀), which is a 12-15 inch square blade attached to a wooden handle. He yelled out in rage--I'm not sure if he said something or if he was just yelling. He lifted his blade as if he would bring it down on his victim any moment. I imagined body parts being severed any moment as I looked on.

The car that hit the scooter was farther down the alley. With a bit of relief, I thought, maybe no one will get hacked up, the kid will just hack on the car a little. My first impulse was to follow after the guy with the knife and see what happened, but I would rather keep all my fingers and hands, so I don't know if he caught up with the car or not.

Seeing someone with a 12-inch blade held in the air is a lot scarier than seeing someone pull a baseball bat out of a car. When someone pulls a bat out of a car, he is making a decision to forego the best weapon he has--two tons of steel. With a blade, there seems to be no decision to limit the amount of force. As if compensating for his vulnerability, the scooter rider chose a weapon more dangerous than any car owner is likely to have. (However, if you aren't concerned about looking cool or instilling fear, it might be a good idea to wrap the blade in a sheet of newspaper, as in Hong Kong movies. At the very least, this will lead to a moment of hesitation in the victim, perhaps even convincing him that he can stop the blade with his hands.)

I read at least one article in Taiwan's newspaper a few months ago about youths on scooters (in Hsinchu) randomly hacking at pedestrians late in the night. But the incident I witnessed was even more persuasive in convincing me to avoid provoking other people on the road, even scooter riders, and as a corollary, it's rarely a good idea to gently nudge a fellow scooter rider in the ribs with the scooter's mirrors when he gets way too close. (The mirrors only extend about an inch and half beyond the edges of the handles, but it's still possible.)

Meaning of 3C

2006-06-06T15:00:00.000+08:00

I've seen the abbreviation "3C" on signs for electronics stores and in reference to electronics but I was never sure what it meant. Computers, cameras, and...? I finally got around to checking on the internet, and according to a number of web pages, 3C stands for "computer, communications, and consumer electronics."

Mandarin phonetic symbols in trailer for Jet Li's Fearless

2006-06-02T11:57:00.000+08:00

I finally got around to seeing Jet Li's latest movie, Fearless. I had delayed seeing the movie because the rental version available in Taiwan does not have English subtitles (although the retail version does).

On the DVD, two trailers were included. One of the trailers billed Fearless as Jet Li's last martial arts movie. I hope this does not mean that Jet Li will turn into a sad figure like Jackie Chan, always harping away about how he wants to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor. Anyway, one of the trailers included some nice nonsense Chinese for Westerners.

Intercut with scenes from the movie was a burnt-yellow background, suggesting aged parchment, with Chinese characters flying past. Along with the Chinese characters were some Mandarin phonetic symbols (zhuyin fuhao注音符號). It's bad enough that they included phonetic symbols (which are mainly used in Children's books) in the flying sea of what wanted to be an ancient Chinese text, but the symbols flew past in strings of gibberish! Imagine the following text dramatically moving across the screen, "Integrity... Peace... Courage... Cabnap... Grunplitk... Uwsugls." Gives you chills just thinking about it.

Going rates for hongbao

2006-05-24T13:13:00.000+08:00

I recently received an invitation to a coworker's engagement ceremony. Although I barely know her, I thought it would be a good opportunity to see what an engagement ceremony is like... until I found out how much it costs to show my friendship. I was told by multiple people that the I need to bao hongbao (包紅包), to put some money in a red envelope for her. The rates are:

not attending ceremony: NT$1200 (US$37)
attending ceremony: NT$1600 (US$50)
attending ceremony with guest: $1800 (US$56)

But of course you get something in return. You get a box of cookies. And the other party will be required to return the favor at your own wedding and the weddings of all your children. I'm not sure, but they are probably also obligated to send you money for your children's manyue (滿月) (one-month old) celebration. Going rates for that are NT$500-NT$600 (US$15.50 - $18.60) , although close friends or wealthy aquaintances might give NT$1000. And of course, you get something in return: oily glutinous rice (油飯), and possibly red hard-boiled eggs, cake, fried chicken, and rice-wine (?) chicken soup (雞酒).

One of the invitees to the engagement ceremony was a new coworker who has probably never even talked to the coworker who is getting engaged. When asked, he said that he gave NT$1600, and he would not attend the ceremony because he hardly knows her. When everyone else heard this, they laughed at him and berated him for his foolishness. Everyone knows that he only needed to give $1200! He went to see if he could get his red envelope back and remove the excess $400. But it was too late.

What's the price for opting out of all this reciprocity? It sounds a little dangerous, but I think I'm going to find out.

Almost finished with translation

2006-05-11T14:11:00.000+08:00

For the last couple months, I have been really busy translating a book. The book is not very long, but it is, after all, book-length. I expected to learn a lot from the process, but the main thing I learned is that it takes a long time to translate a book when working only on evenings and weekends. It bugs me when people say they "learn" obvious things, like "bad things happen to good people," but I didn't quite grasp the fact that I needed to give up most leisure activities to get it finished in a reasonable time frame.

I had imagined that the most difficult part of translating would be to find natural ways of expressing the meaning of the Chinese in English. However, the most difficult and frustrating part of translating was dealing with logical inconsistencies, shifting subjects in sentences, and half-completed thoughts. Many of these problems might not bother you if you weren't reading the text too carefully, but I couldn't bring myself to duplicate the structures in English.

I'm pretty sure it was a gamble by the author to get the book translated. Unless the potential publishers are bilingual, they cannot decide whether to publish the book in English before the author has paid to have it translated. The author tried to translate it, but it was too rough to allow anyone to make a judgment about it. So I wish the author the best of luck in getting it published, and I wish myself to soon be able to reclaim my free time.

Taike's analogue

2006-05-11T12:58:00.000+08:00

After reading a blog entry on the meaning of "taike" (台客), I finally realized something about all the attention that this subject has been getting lately. In all the newspaper articles and discussion about taike, there is some interesting social analysis, but the reason people are interested in this topic is humor: Taike are Taiwan's version of rednecks, and describing them is Taiwan's version of the "You might be a redneck if..." joke. Conditions are ripe for a Jeff Foxworth-like comedian to make a whole career off the joke. It goes something like this: You might be a taike if... you have a picture of Vivian Chow on your scooter's mud flap. You might be a taike if... you find yourself playing pachinko at one in the morning.

Giant Moth Pictures

2006-04-29T15:03:00.000+08:00

I saw this giant moth on the concrete outside my apartment. My landlord's wife said it had been there since morning. It was not dead, but its wings were damaged and it only moved when she poked at it. I had an interesting conversation with her about the moth. I said, "Those four white spots--they're transparent."
"No, they're gray," she said.
"No, look," I said. "They're transparent."
"I can see it clearly," she said. "They're gray."
"You can see the gound underneath them. They're transparent."
"No, they're gray."

Image Museum in Hsinchu

2006-04-13T10:26:00.000+08:00

Last weekend I finally checked out the Image Museum in Hsinchu. It is a very small film and photo museum, with a theater that has daily showings. The museum had a very small photo exhibit, some old photo and film equipment, an antique theater air-conditioning system, and some film memorabilia. Not much to get excited about, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the theater has daily showings of a variety of international films. Because the theater was in connection with the museum, I had always imagined that the theater would show only classic Chinese or Taiwanese films, inevitably without English subtitles. However, the theater has a variety of themed film festivals in progress, with contemporary movies from around the world. Judging by the theater's brochure, most or all of the movies are not actually projected from film, but are shown from DVDs, but with an admission price of NT$20, you can't complain. For registered Hsinchu residents, admission to regular film festivals is free.

Currently, the website for the museum is not being updated, but information on the upcoming showings is available at the Bureau of Cultural Affairs website. When I access the website of Taiwanese organizations, I usually try the English pages first, but like a choose-your-own adventure story, I often run into a dead end and have to start over, this time from the Chinese version, where the useful information is kept. If you download the Word file showing the detailed information on each themed film exhibition, you can see the English names of most of the movies. Or you can just pick up brochures at the museum.

De-honorific Chinese character for Devil?

2006-04-11T16:16:00.000+08:00

I knew that there is a unique character (祂) in Chinese for the third-person pronoun of God, but I only recently came across something distinctive for referring to Satan. (For an interesting discussion about the use of the characters 祂 and 祢 as respectful or honorific ways of referring to God, see the comments section here.) In the work I was reading, the third-person pronoun 牠, which is normally used to refer to animals, was used throughout the text when referring to Satan. I wondered, is this a unique example of a de-honorific? Not to play the devil's advocate, but was the devil being demoted to a beast? Does this have anything to do with the traditional image of a hoofed Devil with tail and pitchfork?

I checked the most common edition of the Chinese Bible, the Union (和合) version. The Bible is not particularly fond of using third-person pronouns, and Chinese uses them even less than English, so it took a bit of looking to find some examples. The results were not conclusive in showing the beginnings of this usage. This translation does not even use the 祂 character for God, so, as expected, its treatment of Satan is very even-handed. In the temptation of Jesus in the desert, for example, the normal third-person pronoun 他 is used for the Devil. When Satan is characterized as a dragon, the pronoun for animals, 牠 is used.

In a commercial I saw for The Lord of the Rings recently, the Orcs were referred to using the pronoun for animals, 牠. Orc is translated as half-beast person/entity (半獸人), so to translate this as 牠 indicates that there is some room for a value judgment in using the characters 牠 and 他.

How is Satan/the Devil portrayed physically in the Bible? The first instance is the serpent's temptation of Eve. It is later stated that the serpent is Satan/the Devil. Thus, although the humanoid 他 seems like the most logical choice for a third-person pronoun, using the animal form 牠 is a defensible position, even without trying to determine what is the essential form of the Devil.

Chinese that you won't learn in a "Practical Audio-Visual Chinese" textbook

2006-03-31T16:50:00.000+08:00

I've been sick, but I'll make an effort to get in a post this week. This is the first installment of "Chinese that you won't learn in a Practical Audio-Visual Chinese textbook." Today's lesson: how to describe the victory symbol that Asians love to flash when they have their photo taken.

to show victory (V) sign: 比ya

The verb is bi3 (比), which means to gesture with the hand. That which is gestured is ya (or yeah), which is a declaration of how happy one is or how unbelievably cool the picture will be. The "yeah!" should be exclaimed as if you were an excited but quiet ten-year-old who just learned that he won an award for coolness. It is possible to make a V with your fingers without saying "yeah," but it is not recommended. What do you mean "it's too hard"? Come on, even a baby can do it. Look, the baby is shaming you with his effortless mastery of the victory sign.

Luxurious pizza, anyone?

2006-03-23T15:26:00.000+08:00

Today is the last day of the local pizza chain Napoli's large pizza for NT$150 deal. I don't see English listings of pizza toppings on their catchily-named web page, http://www.0800076666.com.tw/, so I'll type them out here for posterity:

Supreme – sausage, ham, green onions, green pepper, mushroom, peas, and pepperoni
Seafood – krab strips, shrimp, squid, and dried seaweed
Hawaiian – ham and pineapple
Smoke House Chicken – smoked chicken and mushrooms
Mediterranean Fisherman – teriyaki sauce, tuna, dried pork, octopus, onions, dried seaweed, and mayonnaise
Japanese BBQ Pork – teriyaki sauce, pork, green peppers, and onions
Vegetarian – green peppers, mushrooms, corn, mushrooms, and peas
Scallop Squid – seafood sauce, scallops, squid, dried seaweed, and red peppers
Roasted Seafood – seafood sauce, krab strips, shrimp, and squid
Luxurious Pizza – shrimp, squid, smoked chicken, bacon, mushrooms, peas, and onions
Smoked Salmon – smoked salmon, olives, pineapple, onions, and pickle sauce
Abalone and Scallops – seafood sauce, scallops, xingbao mushrooms, abalone, olives, baby corn, shrimp, krab strips, and peas

Hawaiian is considered by some to be an unusual pizza, but it is the most normal one here. The supreme pizza should actually be called a supreme plus, where the plus stands for peas and ham. You might be thinking, that's Canadian bacon, not ham! If a pizza restaurant has pizza with tuna and mayonnaise drizzled on top, or if over half of their pizzas include seafood, then I'll just assume that the ham is a piece of lunchmeat and not Canadian bacon until proven otherwise.

It seems that "western" dishes allow chefs to release all the creative energies that are suppressed when cooking Chinese cuisine. For a bowl of beef noodle soup, there just are not many options for spicing it up—the most unusual thing you can do is to add tomatoes. However, when it comes to pizzas, bread, and pastries, anything goes. A cheese pizza is a bare canvas just asking Chinese chefs to let their imaginations soar. Dried seaweed strips? That's a good starter! Baby corn and peas? Now we're talking.

Yesterday, when faced with all this creativity, I tried the teriyaki pork pizza. After eating it, I just don't think "pizza" is the right word for that creation. Today I'll try to order something more traditional, unless curiosity gets the better of me.

ChinesePod review

2006-03-22T13:07:00.000+08:00

One of the challenges of language learning is the law of diminishing returns. At an advanced level, you just don't get as much mileage out of learning fifty new words, or practicing listening for five hours as you did when you were beginning. However, if you want to get to the level where you can understand the Chinese news well enough that you actually enjoy watching it, you'll just have to put in a lot of hours practicing. (At least that's my guess--the results I have achieved using the non-practicing method are less impressive than expected.) So, how to practice?

I think repetition of the same material is more valuable than just listening to streaming radio, and an actual recorded Chinese lesson sounds like the most direct way of learning, so long as the material is interesting. If you search for Japanese language learning podcasts, there are quite a few available, but for Chinese learning, I've only seen one podcast with a significant amount of material, and that's from www.chinesepod.com. They recently put up a couple of advanced lessons, so I decided to give it a try.

The ChinesePod lesson consists of an introduction, a short vocabulary section in which they describe five to ten words, a text read aloud, and discussion. I think they have done a good job with the very difficult task of producing something useful for all the different levels and types of advanced students.

In the two lessons, I think I only learned one new word, but that does not mean it was a waste of time. On the television news, there are not too many words that I do not know, but it is very difficult to catch everything when the news is read rapidly. Daily conversation, even when spoken rapidly, is just not comparable to news broadcasts. The language of a news broadcast, which is written first then recited, is simply at a higher level then conversational commentary on the same topic. Therefore, I think that one needs to practice specifically for this type of listening activity. Just as ChinesePod has done, it is nice to have a brief introduction to a topic. Proper names can be introduced here, and introduction of any particularly difficult vocabulary is helpful. The main part of a listening lesson should be a piece of news, read just like normal Chinese news, but more slowly. Last, a discussion can help review one's comprehension and keep things interesting.

My biggest complaint with the podcasts is that I did not care for the classroom tone of the show. Co-hostess Liv spoke quite naturally, but hostess Jenny sounds like what can only be a Chinese teacher, with unnaturally perfect pronunciation and intonation, and a tendency to firmly steer the conversation to a planned path. I'm sure a lot of listeners will appreciate the clarity of her voice, but for me it brought back memories of tedious Chinese classes. (I make an exception to the criticism here for reading the news. In reading the news, speaking unnaturally is only natural.) There was obviously a lot of preparation that went into the show, but my advice would be to relax and let the discussion proceed more naturally. If the hosts talk about something that genuinely interests them, then it will probably also interest us listeners.

Another way that this show was helpful was in offering some exposure to the way Chinese is spoken in China, which is different from in Taiwan. Here are a few of the differences in pronunciation and vocabulary that I picked up in the podcasts: shu2ren2 (熟人) instead of shou2ren2, ben3zhi4 (本質) instead of ben3zhi2, yi4yi (意義) instead of yi4yi4, and dan1ci2 (單詞) instead of dan1zi4 (單字). Of those, hearing ben3zhi2 pronounced as ben3zhi4 was the most unfamiliar.

I have to give them a lot of credit to ChinesePod for making advanced lessons available for free. If they could regularly put advanced lessons on the web, I would consider paying for them, but a few lessons here and there seems more like a free service than an attempt to make money. Although a few lessons will not lead to dramatic improvements, they are worth the listen.

No Borders series continues on National Geographic

2006-03-22T09:41:00.000+08:00

I said it before, and after watching last week's installment of the series, I have to say it again: The No Borders series on the National Geographic channel is an excellent series of documentaries. After the first series of documentaries was shown, they had been showing reruns for the past couple months, but starting Saturday the week before last, they have begun showing new installments of the series. I didn't write much about them in the last post, and I don't plan to write much in this post because there is simply too much to say about them.

Last Saturday's documentary was "Omar and Pete." The story began with Omar's release from prison, where he has spent most of the last thirty years of his life. Omar is an intelligent guy who became a Muslim while in prison, has been off drugs for years, and is determined to start a new life for himself. His parole agent and most of the people working in the parole system are black, like him, some of them also former addicts, and they believe in Omar. He has a family and community to return to, and he lives in a transition house where his old friend Pete is making a successful transition to life outside prison. Failure is unthinkable.

However, it's not as easy for Omar as it first looks. He talks about momentarily going back to the old thinking, where he starts thinking about getting high, getting a .38 and calling up his cousin to do some damage. For me, watching a horror movie produces about zero grams of horror, but hearing Omar describe how close he was to returning to his old life produced real dread.

Again, there is so much to talk about in this powerful documentary on the subjects of addiction, incarceration, community, and being a man, so I can only recommend that you keep an eye on the National Geographic channel and catch a rerun if you haven't seen it yet. The regular time for the series is Saturday at 11pm, for now.

Looking out for your rights (and interests)

2006-03-20T11:27:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I heard that the Japanese word "kimari" is sometimes used to rebut a logical argument, meaning, "that's just the way it is." I wondered what stock phrases in Chinese are used as to justify bureaucracy. In Chinese, you can of course say, "that's the way it is" (jiu shi zheyang 就是這樣) or "there's nothing that can be done" ("mei banfa" 沒辦法or variations such as "menr dou meiyou" 門兒都沒有), but there is another more unique phrase with a more bureaucratic feel to it. When any kind of policy is introduced, it is polite to explain why. For example, if the wastebaskets of everyone in the office were taken away to save janitorial labor, then it would be nice to provide some explanation to the workers. If you can't think of a convincing explanation, then there is a stock formula to fall back on, "To protect the rights and interests of everyone." On the doors of bathroom stalls, there is a sticker that reminds us to conserve the toilet paper. Why? To protect the rights and interests of all employees, of course (為保護全體同仁的權益). In can also be used in conjunction with perfectly valid reasoning. For example, why can't I put open packages in the shared refrigerator? Well, the foul smell might "affect the rights and interests of others" (影響他人的權益). Beware, whoever is munching away on that dried squid, your stinkbag may already be violating my human rights!

Pay attention to that job application head shot!

2006-03-20T10:31:00.000+08:00

Job applications in Taiwan often ask for the applicant's height, weight, sex, and a small photo. Ever wonder what they do with that information? Does the hiring manager look at your height and weight and then imagine the size of your belly? Do they use your smile to assess whether you will be easy to get along with, or easy to cow? If you have a good body, would it be in bad taste to include a body shot along with the face shot?

Recently, I overheard some coworkers going through the interviewing and hiring process, so I got a closer understanding of this issue. I was first alerted to the hiring process when I heard three girls huddled around a computer exclaiming how cute one of the job applicants was. However, there was a bit of disappointment when they noticed that his height was not on par with his good looks. After looking through all the applications, they were still disappointed that they could not find a single hunky applicant that was 180cm or taller.

On the more serious side, here is what they were really looking for in a job applicant: The foremost requirement is that he or she graduated from one of the top tier colleges. (There are five public universities in Taiwan that are considered top tier, if I remember correctly.) Then, of course, there is the technical competency and English ability. Next, the applicant must show an interest in the job. (Fake interest will do just fine.) Next, the applicant must seem willing to work overtime. Last, he or she must not be too outstanding. Let's face it, this is nobody's dream job, so anyone too capable will be gone before long.

Also, this hiring process makes no claims to being gender-unbiased. The hiring manager joked that he could hire a cute girl for one of his workers. The co-worker then replied, in all honesty, he would prefer a male co-worker because a male would be easier to teach and to work with. I had to restrain myself from exclaiming, "It's fine if you think that, but you can't SAY that! Don't you realize that the company could be sued (...if you were in America)?" I don't think they would have appreciated that.

Bathroom in Neiwan Restaurant

2006-02-22T21:21:00.000+08:00

A friend took this picture in the bathroom of a small restaurant in Neiwan. The sign reads, "This hose is for washing your butt, so do not deposit toilet paper. Please cooperate."

The Hsinchu Zoo

2006-02-17T12:39:00.000+08:00

With extremely low expectations, I visited the Hsinchu Zoo for the first time last weekend. My coworkers had already told me that the zoo was very small and that the entry fee is only NT$10, a price so low that it sounds like an apology in advance. I had also read the following review:

If you are a true animal lover it is recommended that you don't visit this poorly run establishment as you are going to come away feeling angry and frustrated at the way the animals here are treated. However if you have never been to a zoo before, it will certainly give you the opportunity to see how a zoo shouldn't be run and view animals you might never have seen before.

However, a free entrance into the zoo is included with a full ticket for the annual Hsinchu International Glass Art Festival, which is now in progress, so I gave the zoo a try. Sure enough, some aspects of the zoo were so dismal that I wondered if the zoo had been the subject of a Dongsen news expose. On the other hand, there were some beautiful birds, interesting animals, and a lot of opportunities to get close to them, so I had a good time.

The zoo was established in 1936 and is Taiwan's oldest zoo. It seems to have come from an era when the purpose of a zoo was to allow people to come in close contact with wild animals, even at the expense of the animals' comfort. For example, in the crocodile exhibit, one can come so close to the little crocodiles as to, say, spit some binlang dregs on a crocodile's back, judging from the stain. The zoo was also founded to satisfy our curiosity about these animals, rather than to educate us about ecology. So, the title of the article on one variety of goose reads "Delicious meat quality." In short, the zoo is not trying to recreate the native habitat of the animals, it is a zoo created for its customers--humans.

In the last decade or so, zoos have added petting zoos as a way of allowing visitors to have contact with animals. In the Hsinchu zoo, you are close enough to the animals that brave visitors can pet animals even in the regular exhibits. The ostriches and emus are in an area small enough that they aren't far from visitors. The deer in one part of the zoo are not even fenced off. One docile deer actually stood on the brick path while others crowded around and took pictures with the deer. There was a general lack of supervision at the zoo, so I can't say whether or not that was intended.

Highlights of the zoo were some beautiful colorful birds, a big group of playful rabbits, the primates, tigers, Malaysian bears, and an animal similar to a tapir. In one exhibit, peacocks and other birds strolled around beneath a bridge. Looking lonely but picturesque, the only authorized mammal in the exhibit, a small goat, rested on a ledge on the faux stone wall. Fouling up the view somewhat, were rat trap cages and many huge rats, which could be seen scurrying though the majority of the zoo's exhibits. Another exhibit, which appeared to be a petting zoo, but was not open for people to enter, had dozens of rabbits as well as goats and more. The rabbits hopped over each other and were butted by the goats, making for a fun display. One child tried to throw snacks to the animals, but his throws were too weak. His mother helped by holding him up on the railing so that he could throw farther. The food was also flying in one of the monkey exhibits. The ground of the monkey island was littered with crackers.

Walking through a short corridor between some cages, I was very surprised when a monkey repeatedly threw its body against the Plexiglas walls that surrounded the corridor, as though it were trying to topple me. For me, that was the most disturbing part of the zoo, but I would not blame the Hsinchu Zoo, in particular, for that. In all the zoos I have seen, it seems that there is at least one primate that looks angry, crazy, or in deep depression.

Another slightly bizarre display showed some taxidermy. One of the best-preserved items was a pangolin. It is in the armadillo family, but on close inspection it actually looks very different. The bizarre part of the display was not bizarre in the positive sense (like the two-headed rat or mummified chupacabra taxidermy that can be seen here). It was bizarre how poorly made some of the taxidermy was, especially the lion and leopard, which make stuffed animals seem lifelike.

No report of a zoo would be complete without pictures, so this report is unfortunately incomplete.

To all the real MCs

2006-02-16T16:25:00.000+08:00

Dear Real MCs,

I don't know if you guys know me, but I'm MC l33t. (As you probably know, that's pronounced "MC leet." I wouldn't want my name to get messed up in any of your shout-outs! lol!) I'd like to begin by giving props where props are due. (Props.) I wanted to let you guys know how I feel about some of the negative feelings that I've been getting from you real MCs. I'm gonna be honest about this--I'm a fake MC. I was going to be a real MC, but life has been kind of hectic lately, and I've got so many things going right now. Anyway, enough about me. lol Well, the other fake MCs and I have been getting a lot of shout-outs from you guys lately, which is definitely cool, but the thing that bothers me is that they are all so negative. I mean, fake or real, we're all MCs, right? Just because I don't really have the time to be a real MC doesn't mean that I'm a suckah or a wankstah. And, maybe I do front every once in a while, but can you guys cut me some slack? My friend Jim says my beatbox is getting better, and I've got some really cool lyrics that I'm working on, and I'm working on my confidence. Are we cool? (I mean "cool" as in "ok.") Thanks for hearing my feelings. Oh, and I want to give a shout-out to my fellow fake MC, Edison Chen!

MC l33t
Piece out