Banyan II

This is my last post from Cheng Da. The most symbolic place of my time here is the Banyan Garden, I think that all alumni from Cheng Da think of the Banyan Garden as the greatest common experience we have all had.

It ties us to the founding of the University in the Japanese time when the crown prince of Japan, Hirohito, in the 1930's planted these Banyan trees. Whatever our origins, education binds us to this place.

Since I graduated from University of Minnesota in 1972, I have been a student in the following postgraduate colleges:

1972 University of Southern Texas for Negroes, Houston, Texas - Education
1973 University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia - Education
1975 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota - Mathematics
1988 Oregon Graduate Center, Hillsboro, Oregon - Compilers
1993 Taiwan National University, Taipei, Taiwan - Chinese
1997 University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, - Chinese
1999 University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, - Applied Mathematics
2009 Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan - Chinese

I can't say that I graduated from all of these programs but at least I gave it the old college try. And college is not an end in itself, but only preparation for better things.

The garden is something that connects us to the world beyond the academic walls. For example, movies are shot there:
 

Wedding pictures are happening, what can be more important than finding a mate for life.

Arts seem short changed in school but in our lives they are what we live for.

These events remind us that the world is much bigger than our small college experience.

If my blog has been a little rough at time, please forgive me, all I know about blogging I learned from this movie:

















Special thanks go out to my wife, Florence Lee, who made this whole adventure possible.

Over and Out.

Cheng Da, Chinese Language Center

I had a wonderful time studying Chinese here. It was easy for me to write this letter of recommendation.

February 19, 2010
Tainan, Taiwan

Dear Prospective Students,

I am writing to recommend the Chinese Language Program of the Chinese Language Institute at National Cheng King University in Tainan, Taiwan. Previous to enrolling in this program, I have tried university night school, privates tutors and other language schools in the States. It is only now with full time classes in Taiwan, that I feel I am making real progress.

The enthusiastic teachers and professional staff at the Language Institute are dedicated to getting all of us speaking Chinese as quickly as possible. Although there is a lot of hard work for each student, both the teachers and staff know that a fun environment makes learning easier. We have field trips, parties and competitions to foster a sense of camaraderie among students, teachers and staff. The diverse student body of students from all over the world also lends to the excitement at school.

There are off campus dorms within walking distance from school. The staff has been helpful in arranging accommodations and negotiating discounts for Chinese Language Institute students. The community of students at the off campus dorms are also a resource for making the transition to full time study in Taiwan. The staff are also helpful in obtaining and renewing visas.

I had some trepidation about coming to Taiwan alone to study Chinese, but the school staff and teachers have made the process go smoothly. I heartily recommend the Chinese Language Programs here at Chinese Language Institute at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan.



Michael Ess

Student of Chinese

Beauty

Well, we all know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think from billboards you can get a good idea of what people think is beauty. These pictures come from youngest to oldest beholders. First the set that hasn't forgotten cartoons.

Now maybe the styliest, college crowd.

School is over for this crowd

The eyes have it. Just a few simple curved lines.

And for the older crowd we have the mother who protects her child by buying the best insect repellent.

On something completely different here's a good idea. Increasing the density of parking bicycles with inclined planes between the horizontal bikes. This way the handle bars don't interfere.

Bing Lang

The legal stimulant in Taiwan is Bing Lang, otherwise is known as Betel Nut. It is common through out southeast Asia like Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia.

It was not part of Chinese culture but something inherited from the aboriginal Taiwanese(from Polynesians), but the immigrants from Fujian now have embraced the Bing Lang. This is the Bing Lang palm, the nuts of these palms are the Bing Lang. The palm grows best in hot weather and with lots of water.

There are twos type sold one in cardboard box. This nut will be split and it will have a red paste and maybe a section of lime to cut the bitterness of the nut. The red paste contains an abrasive to disrupt the cells of the nut and release the stimulant. The abrasive also works on the teeth.

The other way has the nuts wrapped in a leaf and are sold in plastic bag. These are bitter like hell, something like chewing an acorn.

Inside the product looks like:

From the boxes





From the plastic bag










Either one is pretty nasty, people spit the juices into a plastic cup, but then they dump the cup like an ashtray. Or they just spit the juice wherever. Their teeth wind up looking red. Sometimes people say "he's spitting blood" when they spit the juice.

If they spit into a cup, they eventually dump the cup. Bing Lang or Cigarettes I can't tell which is the worst litter. Probably cigarettes, as more smoke than spit.

Either way it winds up looking bad all over. I've tried both, they both seem like a shot of caffeine. I suppose people get addicted like a caffeine habit, but probably worst. It's mostly a habit of the working classes, long hours and physical labor.

Coming to Starbuck soon? A marketing challenge.

Second Class Field Trip - Ping Tung

Every semester, the Chinese Language Institute has a field trip. It's a very international event as the students come from all over the world. It's an exciting time as we are not in our usual classes and we can mix with all the students.
This semester we took a 2 hour bus trip to Ping Tung in Southern Taiwan. Ping Tung is known for being hot and in Taiwan that counts for something because all of Taiwan can be considered hot.

Before the arrival of Chinese in the 1600's, Taiwan was populated Malay-Polynesian people from the south for about 6000 years. In this way, very similar to the Philippines. When the Chinese, arrived they pushed these indigenous people from the coastal lands up into the less hospitable mountains. The history of their exploitation reads a lot like the history of the American Indians.

But recently Taiwan has tried to retain the culture of these diminishing tribes. One way is these cultural parks that provide employment for the indigenous people and an educational opportunity for the majority Taiwanese and Chinese.
    

The park is up in the hills close to the mountains, it good to get away from the chaos of the cities and back to a more natural setting. Poinsettias grow wild in Taiwan. They can be bushes about 6 feet tall.

The cultural of these people reflects their Polynesian origins. Bamboo was the building material.

They had games like this swing that some of tried.

We learned some indigenous songs and words. And exchanged some of our own. Here the Russian girls sing one of their national songs.

This guy,馬柔堤 ma3 rou2 di1 a student fron Indonesia, saved my life on the last field trip. I got lost and was walking away from the buses at the end of the day. If he hadn't spotted me, I might still be lost in the mountains of Taiwan.























This is our group, find Waldo(Mike).(Hint: not too many have gray hair.)

Chinese TLAs

English is full of TLAs, that is Three Letter Acronyms. These are just abbreviations for phrases that are too long. For example:

SOS    save our ship
SOB    son of a bitch
SOL    Shit out of Luck
LOL    laughing out loud

But of course abbreviations are not limited to 3 letters:

OZ            ounces
GIGO        garbage in garbage out
SNAFU     systems normal all fucked up

And science would be a slower moving field if we didn't have acronyms:

GFP            Green Fluorescent Protein
FRET          Forster Resonance Energy Transfer
HOMFLY    Hoste, Ocneanu, Millett, Freyd, Lickorish
                  and Yetter

But what happens in Chinese? You can't just pick out one part of a Chinese character and use that. What happens is that characters just get lost.

For example the my school's full name is: National Cheng Kung University, as an acronym NCKU. In characters:    國立成功大學 but usually people just say 成大.  Similarly, National Taiwan University, NTU, 國立臺灣大學 is usually called 臺大 . Of course with every abbreviation, the speaker and the listener have to be on the same page.

Florence and I use to work in the HsinChu Science and Technology Park, in characters: 新竹科學工業園區.
Not much Science or Technology would get done if we had to use the full title, so sometimes it's called HsinChu Science Park 新竹科學園 losing 3 characters. And if you're really in a hurry you can use just 2 characters:新科. Similarly, here in Tainan we have 臺南科學工業園區(Tainan Science and Technology Park), and it is called 南科. Of course speaker and listener have to be on the same wavelength.

Taiwan has a National Health Plan(which the US does not) the full name of the health insurance card is:
健康保險卡, but it is usually shortened to 健保卡. Of course, the speaker and listener have to be reading each other's mind.

For the beginner in Chinese, these abbreviations are a killer, because we're listening for the full phrase and think we got it wrong when it's shorter but new.

Here's a nice sign, I think the first 2 characters are a proper name but the last two characters are an abbreviation that I can't make out. I think it has something to do with music. Duh.

Ubiquitous Motorcycles

Motorcycles are everywhere in Taiwan. Here is the typical student parking at Cheng Da. But we are not a commuter college, most students who live in the dorms probably have a motorcycle(or at least a bicycle). Or maybe they live in off-campus housing and rather than walk(like me), they ride.




















Parking the motorcycle/scooter is always a problem, and the pedestrian is the one who has to look out.

But every kind of service is done with the motorcycle, the mail is delivered by motorcycle.

The littter is picked up by motorscooters(the yellow flag tells everyone that this is a slow moving scooter that makes frequent stops):

And the parking meter enforcement is on motorscooter. There aren't any parking meters, the metermaids(not always women) just go around giving out tickets every hour or so and if you're on their route you get a ticket. You need to pay the tickets eventually. Probabilistically when you're parking of the street a lot you get a lot of tickets. No more meters, just the law of large numbers.

I'm kind of excited to go to Thailand where there are even more motorcycles than in Taiwan!

Taipei, Wanhua Neighborhood

While in Taipei, I visited one of the original neighborhoods on the Tamshui river, Wanhua. This was the heart of Taipei even before Japanese time, developed during the Qing Dynasty. The neighborhood has had a bad reputation for the gangsters that controlled it in the 1950's until recently. That Wanhua is the setting for a new movie called Monga. This big billboard was in the heart of the Wanhua neighborhood. The current residents don't like the attention the movie brings up about the violent past of their neighborhood.



















The City of Taipei has revitalized a city block of the old Wanhua neighborhood to show what it must have been like before WWII. It traces the origins of Taipei from when it was just a small trading town on the river to the current 2-3 million people.



















There are displays about what Taipei was like long ago when it exported tea and ginseng. I saw a bag of tea for export in which it says "black tea" in English and "red tea" in Chinese characters. So this difference is at least 100 years old. The dried leaves do look black, but the brewed tea is definitely red.



















And when foot binding was part of being an upper class Chinese women.


















As part of the revitalization there is fountain system with a 5 minute display that cycles, here is a small portion of it.

Customized Motorcycles

There is a great movie in Taiwan called "Cape No. 7",  it's available with English subtitles and Florence has a copy that I sent her. In the story the hero escapes the rat race of Taipei and find love and success in Southern Taiwan. He escapes on a 50cc Suzuki motorcycle. That's the first motorcycle I ever owned in Minnesota in 1967. In the movie, he gets a job as a mailman delivering the mail with his Suzuki 50. He has to "customize" his bike with green tape to make it a "mailman bike".

There are some crazy customized motorcycles in Taiwan. The longer a bike lives the greater chance that it could be customized. And if it's still working, Taiwanese will never throw it out. Here are some examples from Tainan.

The next one is so pretty, I need two pictures. This one of the famous Kawasakis.

Of course not all are so pretty, using decals doesn't produce a good result.

In Tainan this is the closest I could get to my old bike. Mine was green and only 50cc.

I also use to own an old "Allstate", which was a Vespa knockoff. They still have them in Tainan but now they usually just guard a parking spot.

Safety on a bike mostly a matter of being seen by the other drivers, this guy on a three wheeler has the right idea. Nice color.

NCKU Library

I spend a lot of time at the NCKU library which is the best library in Southern Taiwan. They have an extensive collection of English books and it's a quiet place for studying. (Yes, I do study a lot.)

They have these large heavy tables where you can spread out for a few hours of homework, ...

At least in the English section the books are arranged by the Dewey Decimal system, so I feel right at home.

The space is really big with plenty to place all of the books the shelves. There is no "Off Campus Storage", with all the hassle that involves. It's great to see the classics of Mathematics, some more that 100 years old, out on the public shelves.
There is mathematics from 200 years ago that will never understand so the idea of "Old Mathematics" as being obsolete is just not viable with me.
 

Part of the reason they have so much space is the automatic shelving system, whereby only the space between active shelves is open.

Hsin Chu

I took a side trip to HsinChu, my wife and I worked at the National Center for High Performance Computing in HsinChu in 1992 to 1994. Our children spent two years in the Bilingual School of the HsinChu Science Park. I think it was a good time for our family, I'm a little nostalgic about HsinChu.

Armed with my google maps I sent out for HsinChu. It was a 4 hour bus ride from Tainan with a bus transfer in TaiZhong. I got let down on the main road Guang Fu Lu. HsinChu is famous for Gong Wan and Mi Fen, Gong Wan are pork meatballs and Mi Fen are rice noodles and there are plenty of shops selling them on Guang Fu Lu.

Our rented house in HsinChu was a typical place with a small foot print but five stories high to get a high total square footage. But the stairs could be tough. Here's the front:

Eli and Ely went to this school for 2nd to 4th grades, 15 years later it seem like it hasn't changed.

All the parents had to decide where their children would go to college, US or Taiwan. The Taiwanese National Exam to get into college is so tough that the bilingual school was probably not rigorous enough to get you child to pass the National Exam. So if the child was going to college in Taiwan, they eventually transferred out to a Chinese school.

Florence and I worked at NCHC, the National Center for High-Performance Computing. In those days we were "electronic migratory workers" going wherever the computing jobs were. Our kids when to a dozen schools before we eventually settled in Bellevue. Sorry about that.

I visited the NCHC building and the guard took my picture.

From NCHC I walked to the Gu Chi Fong Museum/Temple that was one of my favorites in HsinChu. Google maps are good but they don't show gates, this can be particularly a problem when the gate is closed and you're in a walled off area. I was looking at a 1 mile walk back and I explained my problem to a security guard. He showed me where I could climb over the wall.

Gu Chi Fong has fallen on hard times since the 1990s. many of the displays are packed up and the layer of dust is pretty thick. The garden area is blocked off. Anyway I have some pictures from the 1990s. The temple business is still going strong.


Buddhist Statues

From Gu Chi Fong I walked back to the train station. It is another station built during the Japanese Time that is still going strong.

Station Front

Station Back

The train back to Tainan took only 3 hours but costs twice as much as the bus ride, $561NT. I have one crazy picture from old HsinChu:

I checked out the cab, there wasn't any blood, so I think this was a case of the hand brake wasn't set and the van rolled down the hill until it was stopped. Those cement telephone poles are strong.