something super: living, learning and teaching in taiwan
TRANSCRIPT
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Something Super:Living, Learning and Teaching
in Taiwan
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Something Super:Living, Learning and Teaching
in Taiwan
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Copyright 2013 by Lynx Publishing Company
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
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Contents
1 Preface .............................................................................. 9
2 Stranger in a Strange Land ............................................. 14
3 The Lighting of a Fire: Teaching in Taiwan .................. 30
4 Hit the Books ................................................................. 53
5 A Door Opens ................................................................ 64
6 I Think Im Turning Chinese, I Think Im
Turning Chinese, I Really Think So .............................. 72
7 News Junkie .................................................................... 87
8 Whats so Great About Taiwan? .................................. 107
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For my wife Hope.
And thanks to my friend George Liao.
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National Concert Hall at night.
Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.
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Temple at Miaokou (temple entrance), Keelung.
Temple ceiling near Taipei.
Qing Shui Zu Shi () temple art, near
Kaohsiung.
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Preface
I have wanted to write of my experiences in Taiwan over the
last twelve years but, for various reasons, have not found the timeto make the effort. For the most part, my life hereteaching and
other academic responsibilities, studying languages and other
subjects, family life (I am married with no children), travel, and
various hobbies (including tennis, reading, biking, and guitar
playing)have kept me so busy that I have been unable to launch
this project. A friend of mine in the US once commented that I
should spin all this new life in Asia into a tale, and perhaps
now I am ready to do that. Mine has been the vibrant, exciting,
and ever-stimulating life of an expatriate in Asia in the twenty-
first century, chock-full of the unique, exhilarating, and
illuminating challenges, rewards, and opportunities that this
region offers.
I will in the following relate my sometimes-agitated initiation
into Taiwanese life and culture since I moved here in 2000, my
rich teaching life and experiences with students, my assiduous
studies and attainment of a Ph.D., my memorable wedding, myfurther-agitated studies of the Chinese language, and comments
on the heated politics and other issues in Taiwan. In a
concluding chapter, I will show in even more detail what has
been great about Taiwan for me during the last twelve years.
Ultimately, readers will see that although I have encountered myshare of difficulties and trials since I moved here, I have as well
experienced a veritable wealth of good fortune, growth, and
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Stranger in a Strange Land
I stepped with Hope, her mom, and sister into the old Liu
school, an aged traditional Chinese construction in Miaoli that issuch a classic that it has become a small tourist attraction and is
even a county historical landmark, with visitors arriving to view the
time-honored architectural structure and fine, fragile features of the
edifice. There is even a special Chinese word for a building like this:
(c tng), which means ancestral hall or temple. Hanging in
the front room is a list of Liu family names that goes back forgenerations and generations, a traditional Chinese custom. Such
beliefs and inheritance, veritably reaching back into Chinese history,
were moving, and the names seemed to gently pulsate beneath the
display lights. We also traveled to another home that goes back for
generations, where Hopes grandparents lived. This home was
abandoned and dilapidated, with piles of old belongings heaped
around, some of which Hope recognized from her youth. I reflected
on how this was where she used to play with her siblings and
relatives when she was a child, walking across the rice paddies and
fields of vegetables, to the river (a dry trickle now), and into the
small town to buy candy. She often talks with a note of joy in hervoice when she remembers these bucolic days of her youth.
The visit was a consummation and blessing of our marriage, led
by Hopes mom. I wanted to say something more to her during our
visit but managed only to eke out , (Thank you, Mrs.
Liu) and later a (Thank you
all, today I am very happy, very happy). I was moved by the activitiesand reflected on my new life and new home.
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journal, truly a stranger in a strange land (hats off to Robert A.
Heinlein), and even in 2003 when I visited Hopes family home,
after three years in Taiwan, I still had feelings of dislocation,
discomfort, and even disillusion. I can definitely say that I had
not always comported myself easily within Taiwanese life andculture, and I had experienced some pain, frustration, touches of
privation, and even loss. This said, however, even then I also
realized that I had encountered opportunity, pleasure, good
fortune, and happiness. My life in Taiwan had been an
agglomeration, at best a cornucopia, but also something of a
Pandoras box that had released some discomfiting realities, but
had left hope and sometimes even bliss to flit out and comfort
me in the end. All of these ideas, experiences, expectations,
senses, judgments, and reckonings I will comment on at length in
this narrative. For now, as I think back to that day in the arcadian,
hilly localities of Miaoli () nine years ago, I realize that
although this was not my first taste of Taiwanese culture and
family life, it would become one of my most meaningful. On that
day I joined a Taiwanese family as a member, and I knew that my
life had entered a new phase, which opened onto new vistas,
unlike any I had ever seen before. As a result of my marriage (andalso as a result of my having virtually transplanted to Taiwan
from my home country), I was truly entering into another culture,
adopting something like a new home, a new language, new beliefs,
and new aspirations. Throw your dreams into space like a kite,
and you do not know what it will bring back, wrote Anas Nin(19031977), but you will likely find a new life, a new friend, a
new love, a new country. This could hardly describe my life in
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The Lighting of a Fire: Teaching in
Taiwan
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of
a fire.
William Butler Yeats
Needless to say, I have a great deal of experience with
students and education in Taiwan and have continually involved
myself, taught countless classes, attended meetings in schools (the
majority of which were held in Chinese), spoken in conferencesat various universities, conducted research on student experience
and attitudes, and observed the lives and development of
students in ever more profound ways. The truth is that I had
been looking forward to a teaching job even in the US in the
years before I arrived in Taiwan. I was a writer, journalist, andanalyst at that time, but somewhere along the line the teaching
bug had bitten me.
I had looked for a job in the California Community College
System in 1999 and just about landed a job teaching journalism
studies in Los Angeles as well as the Bay Area, but things did notwork out and I was forced to decline both jobs. Even when I was
living in Nashua, New Hampshire, in summer 2000 as I was
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but I may only be able to touch on a handful of these tales in the
following.
I have mentioned my job at a cram school in Taiwan, and
although it was a good bit less than fully satisfying, it did
introduce to me certain of the joys of teaching. I could pause herejust to consider these pleasures. Without doubt, many a teacher
asks, What is it about this career? It is by no means one endless
bed of roses, and there are many frustrations and
disappointments, hurts and bruises, conflicts and disagreements.
I have not had a great many such problems during my teaching inTaiwan, but there have been a few dismaying low points,
troublesome groups, and cantankerous students. The rapport
between teachers and students can be sensitive, and some things
we are called on to do, such as failing students, can be
uncomfortable and cause some hard feelings. As well, the
relationship at times can be brittle and based on a hierarchical
worldview, which I avoid at all costsbut which sometimes creeps
into relations with students. As I have often thought, students
and teachers rarely if ever become friends (if they do, this is often
suspicious), and although we can be outwardly amicable, it rarely
goes beyond that into a deeper emotional connection, outside of
the value of any good student/teacher connection.
Even furtherI seem to be starting with the low points in my
examination of Taiwanese students and education, but I will turn
to the high points soonTaiwanese students often exhibit a
disquieting lack of awareness about greater possibilities in theirlives and education and seem to be living cloistered existences
that ignore world affairs and genuinely modern lifestyles trends
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playing this game and that, texting this message and that, and
engaging on Facebook more than they engage with friends and
family (this is hardly limited to Taiwanese students, and such
wasteful dallying is becoming common worldwide). In a related,
but even more disconcerting turn, I have encountered studentswho were coolly and selfishly manipulative within their
educational environments and often unmindfully dismissive of
any idea of higher aims and the hard road to a valuable education.
In a word, too many Taiwanese students can be immature, too
focused on the prize as opposed to the process, and always toobusy to focus on constructive studies (though I can understand
how Taiwanese students can be made to be too busy).
In any event, and in spite of the above problems, I have
treated all of my students equally and well. You win some, you
lose some, I suppose, and teachers have to soldier on against
certain difficulties and problems. But none of this detracts from
the high pointsand oh, the high points I have had. The truth is
that a great many of my students have very nearly venerated me.
In June 2003 when I was leaving NTUT my students gave me a
rousing send-off with a big dinner and a card with the following
sentiments:
The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the
inheritance of a great example.
Benjamin Disraeli
I have received hundreds of cards from students during my
years in Taiwan, but none has touched me this deeply.7
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Another time, in the spring semester 2001, I conducted a
Multimedia English course at NTUT, which featured some
excellent final projects by the students (in fact, I made a project of
my own in this course, an online poetry cycle entitled San
Francisco Journal, and presented it to the students on the finalday). I wrote of the final day of that course in my journal:
Finished the Multimedia English course on Tuesday on a very
high note, with a few of the projects real standouts, including
Eugenias bound comic book, which was a masterpiece. We stayed
late, until 7:00, because of long-running presentations. Only two
students left, and with another student Shelley sitting in, it was like
a full class when we finished up. Quite exciting, everyone seemed to
really enjoy it.
A third fine experience was in June 2004, as I was leavingShih Hsin University because of my acceptance into the doctoral
English literature program at National Chengchi University (
). On my last day of work, a Friday morning, I
walked into my Journalism English classand not a soul was there.
Two of my male students, Edward and Jason, walked in a fewmoments later and asked, seemingly sincerely, Where is
everyone?
Who knows? I answered, and in my mind I was imagining
an entire class of negligent students taking a day off on the last
day of the semester.Hmm, said the two students, Maybe we should just take a
look next door.
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followed up this first semester with a course in which the
students, working in groups, designed and published their own
newspapers every four weeks. The class was a thrilling success,
and the students absolutely loved the opportunity to write and
publish their own newspapers. I have used this same coursedesign a number of other times in Taiwan, almost always with
great success. A course like this reverses any negative feelings one
may have about student life in Taiwan, as pupils dive into the
work with passion and produce truly excellent results (I still have
all the papers they published, valued mementoes). Our last course
together reassembled in the Shih Hsin plaza, and we all enjoyed
the time together, drank coffee, said our good-byes, with the best
feelings I have ever had in teaching.
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Hit the Books
Without question, I have fostered a rich study life in Taiwan,
probably deeper and more encompassing than I have ever had
before. At the heart of this experience is my study of Chinese, but
I will describe this in another chapter. The other important
element of this facet of my life arose when I launched my
doctoral studies in 2004. By this time, I had observed the glass
ceiling that prevents the progress of many teachers in Taiwan
without a Ph.D., and I had considered the possibility of
breeching this barrier. But I knew there was only one way to do
thisI had to get a Ph.D.! No easy task in Taiwan, and of course
the bottom line was that I would need an English-taught program(my Chinese skills would not have been strong enough in 2004).
Although there are a few such programs available here, it is by no
means an easy or straightforward path. I began by inquiring into
possible journalism programs, given that I had obtained my
masters degree in journalism at BU. I made a few phone callsand once again tested my Chinese to the limit as I asked around
about this possibility, but it quickly became clear that this would
not be doable. I briefly considered the idea of studying
international relations (also impossible in Taiwan at that time,
although there is now an English program in Asian studies atNational Chengchi University). In the end, my way was clear: It
would have to be an English program, studying English literature.
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I inquired about programs at various universities and
received a rude reply from National Taiwan University (NTU), a
more-or-less confused response from Fu Jen University, and did
not really hear from any other schools. In the end, I settled on
National Chengchi University, and it quickly became clear thatthis was my best possible choice. I had landed that part-time job
at the school I have referred to, and this job was connected to the
English department. In this way I met Chen Chao-ming (),
the chairman of the English department at the time and a very
well-known academic in Taiwan. This relationship would proveto be momentous for me. Dr. Chen took a liking to me and was
soon inquiring if I might be interested in entering the Chengchi
doctoral English literature programI think he liked the idea of a
native-English-speaking foreigner in the program. Dr. Chen was
aware that I had never studied English, but he noted I was wellread and knowledgeable about English and American literature
and culture, and so he felt I could enter the program. This I duly
did, with all of the necessary requirements, including letters of
recommendation, an entrance examination, and other
submissions (I submitted my masters thesis from BU as one of
my writing samples, an online work of literary journalism that
covered the Boston subway music scene). I was notified in July
2004 that I had been accepted, and I began that fall. I had in fact
already begun to dabble in the program, auditing three courses in
fall 2003 and spring 2004, getting a feel for this level of study.
Even at this time, however, I often expressed doubts aboutthe possibility of entering a doctoral program. At one point in
2003 I wrote in my journal If Im going to go for this Ph D
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including document design/publishing; purposes and methods of
communication, including cultural parameters and philosophy of
communication; creative writing and composition; and media,
culture, and journalism. Only later did I consider Acts of
memory and memoir in fiction, realism and how it isfictionalized. Is there such a thing as fiction?which did
roughly become one of the topics of my dissertation.
With my acceptance into the program, I plunged into the
densely theoretical studies of English literature. This changed my
life, and on the whole, this was a wonderful, if at timesdiscomfiting, learning experience. Although I was in a field that
was almost over my head, I dove into the theoretical, literary,
aesthetic, and historical studies with abandon. Oh, the enjoyable
times spent studying during those years! I read book after book
after book (sometimes 150200 pages a day), including Bleak
House by Dickens, Moby Dick byMelville (this masterpiece I had
first read when I was about fifteen), The History of Tom Jones, a
Foundlingby Fielding,A Bend in the Riverby V. S. Naipaul,Jude the
Obscure and Tess of the dUrbervilles by Hardy, and To the Lighthouse
and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolfall read two or more times
each. I spent hours studying in parks (often reading as I walkedalong my favorite paths), in libraries, or in Starbucks (Hope and I
would search out quieter outlets and park for three hours
sipping coffee, both of us reading voraciously, she doing research
for her job as a translator and business writer). All of this study in
turn led to homework writing assignments, which was my truepassion. I mean here not only writing skills but also the planning
and execution required to complete complex compositions I
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best methods as I indicated above in my quotes from Sheridan
Baker.
I wrestled with the veritably byzantine theoretical constructs
and paradigms that torture students of English literature
worldwideanyone who has had to plod through the dense,convoluted, and mostly badly written works of Julia Kristeva,
Jean-Franois Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Max
Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Gilles Deleuze, Flix Guattari, or
Jacques Lacan will tell you what a painful process this is. This was
exacerbated by the fact that most of the professors at Chengchi
were slavishly reverential of these authors, and they made every
effort they could to emulate their silly constructs, with complete
disregard for constructive, pragmatic theory and historically
mediated literary studies (approaches endorsed by the likes of
Stanley Fish, Richard Rorty, Wolfgang Iser, J. L. Austin or Erich
Auerbach, I might suggest). It is very much a theoretical programat Chengchi, I feel impelled to warn any students interested in
going there.
In spite of a bit of frustration with this obtuse approach, and
the occasional conflict (I never hesitated to speak my mind in
class, and there were a few dustups), I continued. I had goodsuccess, graduating with an average over 90 and publishing my
first academic paper only four months into the programa piece
written about the Chinese diaspora to the US from 1850 to 2000,
and other cultural topics. I landed my first international
conference presentation a few months later, at the University ofTurku in Finland (the travel to which, in a generous turn, was
funded by Chengchi; the school also funded my conference trip
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A Door Opens
At the end of 2003, I once again did something in Taiwan
that I had never done in the USI got married, twice (yes, twice).In early 2003, in a park along a river in Taipei, I proposed to
Hope and gave her a ring (I had spent a few weeks before
searching for this jewelry with a translating acquaintance). It may
not have been the most romantic location or scene, but it
remains a pleasant memory. Hope may have balked slightly (it wascertainly a first for her), but she was devoted to me, so her answer
was a definite yes. Our minds leaped with the possibilities, but
something important had to happen first, earlier in the year. I
will relate this, but lets cut back in time even further, to how I
met Hope just after I graduated from Boston University (BU) inJune 1997.
I met Hope at BU, when she arrived as one of a group of
international students studying in the College of Communication.
I was the teaching assistant in this program, helping the two
professors and aiding the students with whatever they needed.
These students hailed from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Russia,
Brazil, and other nations, and it was a true cross-cultural
educational experience. I remember meeting them all in our first
get-together early in July, in a common room in the College of
Communication. Even then I noticed Hope, but I had no idea
what was in store. This woman was an excellent, hardworking
student with exceptional English skills she had polished for years
i T i d th US W b f i d d h th d h d t
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horse, Traveler, which I noted they were fascinated by. When the
program came to a close in August, the students gave me a card
indeed, that was the first card I ever received from students
which I have kept. Hope wrote, I have already thanked you
many times, but I still want to say thank you again. That fall,Hope and I began dating, and by the end of the year, we had
fallen in love. (The first Chinese word she ever taught me was ,
yu, moon, on an evening ride back to Boston from Cape Cod.)
A gap appeared in our relationship, however, when I moved
back to San Francisco that December. If I may share, on my lastday in Boston, we waited at the airport for hours as a heavy snow
blanketed Boston, playing games and drinking coffee. When I
was finally set to leave, as we said good-bye at the gate, Hope burst
into tears and wept pitifully, which moved me deeply. I called her
only thirty minutes later after takeoff, to assure her, Its not over.
We kept in touch for the next two years until she finished her
masters program in journalism (I traveled to her graduation in
June 1999). Hope actually moved back to Taiwan after that (it
was a necessary move for her familys sake), but then she realized
she did not want to be without me, and she moved back to the
US. At that time, I took a job in Nashua, New Hampshire, which
became the above-mentioned disaster, leading to the above-
mentioned fruitless search, and in turn leading to my journey to
Taiwan. Now cut to the beginning of 2003.
I have noted that I did not really have relations with Hopes
parents after I moved to Taiwan, and in fact, they were unawareof my presence here. Her mother, with a strong traditional strain,
was essentially against the idea of her marrying a foreigner The
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fell swoop in February 2003. At that time, my mother came to
Taiwan for her first visit to the country. Hope and I planned a
nice visit full of fun activities, and as we were doing this, word got
out in her family and her father and mother picked up on what
was happening. They began to appreciate the import of mymothers visit, and then they discovered that a dinner was
planned at my apartment near Shih Hsin Universitywith Hopes
family invited. When Hopes father realized this, he announced,
If the family is invited, then I as head of the family must go.
And so he did, and met my mother in what turned out to bea delightful evening of affable interaction spent with hilariously
broken English and Chinese tossed back and forth (my mother
was in a daze the whole night). In the end, Hopes father
overwhelmingly approved of my mother and essentially welcomed
me into the family. This was an amazing and gratifying success
that paved the way into my future, for only the very next week,
Hopes mother announced that a truce was in effect and that I
was welcome into the family (at this time, she realized I would be
staying in Taiwan, and she approved of this). At the drop of this
hat, she became a fine friend and has treated me with the utmost
cordiality and respect ever since. I cant tell you the manydelicious dinners she has cooked, tailoring them to my vegetarian
diet, and often delivering them to our door in Yong He (where
my wife and I began purchasing a house in 2006). Ive practiced
my Chinese with her to the hiltbut she rarely understands my
less-than-perfect pronunciation and lack of native skill. Sheherself studies English fairly diligently, but I have to say she has
never been able to speak a single sentence to me The exactitudes
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Express,A Streetcar Named Desire, Roman Holiday, and others. (The
table cards were so popular at the wedding that one Audrey
Hepburn fan filched the Roman Holiday card!) We also had a
friend create a montage video with scenes from these movies,
which was shown to some acclaim at the reception (he really didan excellent job).
Our plans came to a head in November 2003, when we were
married (, ji hn) in a Taipei courthouse by a presiding
magistrate who spoke English, Chinese, and Japanese to three
couples he married that day. We married this first time for
certain legal reasons but also planned a second ceremony in a
local park. Hope had a veritable army of friends who participated
and helped with everything, and our wedding was a joy, held in a
bowl area of the park, such that our families, flower girls, ring
bearers, and then we could walk down a winding path to the
bottom. I had ordered a custom-made vest and bow tie in theRussell family tartan (plaid), chosen to match my middle name.
(Movie lovers will remember that Mel Gibson wore such a vest
made of the Gibson family tartan, to the Academy Awards when
he won best director in 1995.)
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I Think Im Turning Chinese, I
Think Im Turning Chinese, I
Really Think So9
Aside from developing a career as a teacher and studying for
a Ph.D., studying Chinese has no doubt had the most significant
intellectual influence on my life since moving to Taiwan, and
provided me endless hours of both pleasure and pain. My first
encounter with Chinese occurred in the spring semester 1999 at
San Francisco City College, during which I took a Chinese course
( I did this for Hope). Although City College is a fine institution
set on the beautiful hills of south San Francisco, with excellent
teachers and good facilities, this was not a very successful venture.
I remember looking on perplexedly as the teacher (a Taiwanese
woman, I believe) spoke to us entirely in Chinese from the first
day, and I was always somewhat lost, even when she voiced the
simple phrase ? (dng b dng, Do you understand?).10
When she gave the class a test, speaking sentences in Chinese,which we had to transcribe, I felt no more comfortable. In a word,
although I passed the course and managed to give a short speech
in the language on the final day of class, I never seemed to really
get it (however, my fondness for writing in Chinese may stem
from this time).As to my life in Taipei, I have noted that when I arrived in
Taipei, I did not have much of any intention of studying Chinese.
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local I had met. This was largely a disaster. I remember how he
became angry with me because I had trouble differentiating
between the words (ch, to go out) and (q, to go). (Both
of these words have a number of other definitions.) I am pretty
sure that all beginners have this trouble, but my teacher thatnight was seething with frustration over my difficulties. That was
our last lesson. At this same time, I also remember going to a
class offered by the cram school I worked at, and being
flummoxed by their use of the Bopomofo system of
pronunciation (a set of thirty-seven phonetic pronunciationsymbols with the tone marks I have discussed, also called
Mandarin Phonetic Symbols), which I had no experience with;
this was one misstep on my Chinese journey that left me
nonplussed, but I soon learned the system expertly. To learn
Chinese well, Westerners must master this system, which is
commonly used to train children in Taiwan.
It was not until December of 2000 when I began to
appreciate that a language gap was present in my life (it was my
interview at ICDF that made me realize this), and that I would
have to get serious. I poked around a few no-name schools in
Taipei, found a little school, and started going to classes afterteaching at NTUT. At this time I dove into the standard
audiovisual Chinese textbook by Zhong Zheng Publishing, used
by all foreigners in Taiwan (Hope notes that this is the very book
used for Chinese study at Harvard University). This book has
proved largely useful, if at times rather sloppily constructed. Itgives an endless list of functions and usages in Chinese, some
grammatical some simply convention a reasonably good list of
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memorizing vocabulary (one of the big challenges of second-
language learning, as my students often tell me), and practicing
reading and writing.
My lifelong wrestle with this bear of a language was now
under way. And ah, the stories I could tell about studying thistrying, enervating but ever fascinating vernacular! There have
been more blood, sweat, and tears shed during this endeavor
than in any other in my life, and my relationship with Chinese
sometimes straddles love and hate. Oh, the byzantine world of
Chineses frayed grammar and usages (rather than a grammar, per
se, the language seems largely to be a mass of usages and
conventions that one must simply memorize and adapt to); its
seemingly useless tone pronunciation system (which even
Chinese speakers often largely ignore, but oh the dumbstruck
stares if you say two words in Chinese and vaguely mispronounce
the necessary tones! At times, I have considered that some
Taiwanese people cannot understand their native language unlessit is spoken by a native speaker); the written languages essential
disconnect from pronunciation (this is not entirely true, but it
seems as much to Westerners); the pronunciation of individual
phonemes, many of which have no parallels in English and soundpeculiar to our ears (q, ch in the Wade-Giles system), (yu
or y in Wade-Giles), (shi, with its vexing requirement to push
the sound into the back of the throat), (zi, tzu in Wade-Giles),
(ci or tz`u in Wade-Giles), (x or hs in Wade-Giles), (a
purring r, j in Wade-Giles), (er), (o), (e), and (, eh
in Wade-Giles); and note that some of phonemes, such as and
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tones of the phoneme and found something like 250 different
possible definitions (I am told that Chinese people can hear a
sentence that says ma ma m m mn ma ()
and it can be understood as a meaningful sentenceand my
friend Charles Chen tells me the sentence means Because thehorse was slow, did the mother scold the horse?); and finally, the
often-incomprehensible experience of actually hearing a native
speaker speak the language (often lightning fastthe language can
make Spanish look positively languid), which is as often as not
mixed with one or another language or dialect related to Chinese,to say nothing of the sounds of those phonemes examined above,
which seem to purr and squeak and chortle and hiss and gurgle
out of Chinese speakers mouths. As an acquaintance of mine
(who spoke the language with some competence) once said, Its
as close as you can come to gibberish while still actually being a
language.
Some analysts (such as Professor Albert Borgmann) have
explained that the reduction of language to alphabet systems, as
opposed to logographic, pictographic, or ideographic methods,
was a major development in human culture, and that it
represented a huge step forward in efficiency. The English
alphabet, with twenty-six characters, is a good example, and the
ultimate efficient conversion is the reduction of all human data
and/or communication to digital systemswith two symbols, 1
and 0. The Chinese language compared to these systems can
appear veritably labyrinthine and inordinately complexthemost complex writing system the world has ever known, as the
scholar Walter Ong (1912 2003) wrote in Orality and Literacy (86)
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some twenty years (Orality and Literacy, 87). But even here,
people would disagree. Charles Chen tells me, Most Chinese
people wouldnt agree with that observation. Although Chinese
spend time on studying the words, we have other ways of
facilitating language expression. Chen notes that common four-word idioms, which are an essential part of Chinese
communication and culture, are a type of information capsule
that economically includes not only literal meaning but also
historical and connotative significance, and these make learning
the language more efficient, as it were (however, others tell me
that in fact learning these idioms is difficult).11
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News Junkie
This chapter may be a bit more objective and detached than
my prior personal narrative, but the media, news, and politics I
will examine fascinate me and are very much a part of my core
personality. As well, if in a once-removed way, they are important
in my life in Taiwan. I am a news junkie, and I consider being up
on the news a vital part of ones life wherever one lives. Evenfurther, I have a serious passion for knowledge about nations
decision-making capacities and methods, their commitments and
views in terms of freedom, order, and equality, their
constitutional laws and canons, their courts and legalist structures,
and their federalist theories and philosophies (this traces to myeducation in international relations at SFSU and also my
graduate study at BU). Taiwan, as a veritably new democracy in
world affairs, has much to offer in these respects. Although the
following discussion and issues may be a bit more clinical than
the other experiences I have related, they are of continuinginterest to me, and in any case, given Taiwans highly politicized
media environment (particularly), and not a little ardent flag-
waving here, its hard to fully exclude yourself from these issues.
In spite of these interests and my efforts to keep up on the
news, I should at the outset say that in part because I cannot votein Taiwan (and also due to my language skills), I have not been
truly connected to political issues here. Indeed, some might ask
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politically neutral, neither KMT nor DPP.14 The KMT has a
troublesome, dark historical legacy hanging over its head, and the
DPP to me appears to be a feckless and ineffective party with
weak leadership. Both parties seem to indulge more in
combustible party politics, name-calling, and not a little dirtydealing, as opposed to operative policy making in Taiwan. I have
had no interest in involving myself in the fiery anger and enmity
you see across these party lines, although I have had a few sharp
discussions with acquaintances in Taiwan as I have faced off
against either a KMT or DPP partisan.
As to the issues, I read the news and keep up, such as on a
large media merger that is currently being proposed here (with
hints of Chinese influence in the deal, which always raises the
intensity of an issue); a recent controversy over the construction
of new housing and urban development in Taipei; financial
turmoil in both the national pension funding and national health
care systems; elections and occasional referendum issues (I
remember particularly the 2004 election pitting the DPPs Chen
Shui-bian and the KMTs Lien Chan, complete with an
assassination attempt against Chen, and a tearful claim by Lien at
14I refer here to the two major political parties in Taiwan, the Kuomintang (KMT,
) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, ). I will not go into the
details of the platforms of these two parties except to say that the somewhat
conservative KMT (transferred from China after the Nationalists lost the civil war)
ruled Taiwan as an authoritarian one-party state until the lifting of martial law andfirst democratic elections in the 1980s and 1990s. The DPP, nominally a more
liberal, perhaps center-left party, was founded in 1986 in this free era. The two
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the close that the razor-thin vote had been tainted by political
machinations); aboriginal peoples issues; occasional news
involving Taiwans twenty-three diplomatic allies (I had more
contact with this news when I was a writer at ICDF); news of
Taiwanese citizens and activism in the US; a fair number ofanimal rights and welfare cases in the country; the ever-present
economic news, including that of the Economic Cooperation
Framework Agreement signed with China in 2010 and updated
since then; the environmental and traffic issues I have referred to;
various fishing and farming issues; and larger incidents such as
natural or manmade disasters, or major crimes such as a
campaign shooting in Taipei that killed a man in 2010. I have
also followed the imprisonment of Chen since his conviction on
corruption charges after his last term ended in 2008 and would
have to say that I agree with the liberal view that he should be
released on a medical parole or even pardoned by President MaYing-jeou. Another issue in the news is foreign spouses, which
could have some impact on me, but this tends to focus on wives
from other countries and their children in Taiwan. I also keep up
with a good bit of cultural and softer Taiwan news (the Taipei
Times provides a fairly good selection of these stories).One key larger issue in Taiwan is a focus on Taiwanese
identity and cultural/national sovereignty, colored by the several
colonial eras that have impacted Taiwan (European, Chinese, and
in many ways most importantly, Japanese, from 1895 to 1945), as
well as the influence of Taiwanese aboriginal affairs, and that ofother nationalities and ethnicities that currently reside in Taiwan.
I will refrain from going into more detail here but those
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which is often seen in less-than-savory journalistic practices and
professionalism (in both English and Chinese publications).
In terms of news, the truth is that except for several news
English and international affairs classes I have taught, I have
found that students are generally not terribly interested in thedaily news, and thus I havent found myself speaking about these
issues a lot in my everyday life. I do however discuss political and
social issues with my wife, friends and colleagues, and I have
made some public comments about issues in the Taipei Times,
which I will share below.
Though I find the politics in Taiwan to be messy (those
famous pictures of Taiwanese legislators fist-fighting in their
assemblies and hurling chairs at one another are rather
unpalatable, but this has been known to happen in other
countries as well), there are to be sure commendable assets here.
At the highest level, no doubt that Taiwan transitioned into afree democratic polity after its years of suppressive rule under the
former KMT government is a major achievement that deserves
the highest acclaim. Though I cannot vote in Taiwan, I am proud
to live in such a free democratic nation. However, the fact that I
cannot vote is bothersome and is related to essentially Cold Warera limits on how foreigners can obtain citizenship and voting
rights in Taiwan. One has to give up ones home citizenship in
order to do this. This limit is a shame in a free democracy like
Taiwan and, to be sure, has limited my ability to participate in
civic affairs. I will not exceed this limitation, as I have nointention of ever giving up my US citizenship (I have continued
to vote by absentee ballot in the 2000 2004 2008 and 2012 US
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the people, ensure social tranquility, and promote the welfare of
the people, that the nation is a democratic republic of the
people, to be governed by the people and for the people, and
that all citizens of the Republic of China, irrespective of sex,
religion, race, class, or party affiliation, shall be equal before the
law. So far so good, but in a bizarre and essentially hostile turn,
the document claims Tibet, Mongolia, and even mainland China
as its own territory (something of Taiwans own one China
principlebut Taiwan is not truly culpable, as this document was
mostly created in China in a different age; note that in my
reading, rather than China proper, the ROC constitution refersto the voting rights and interests of Chinese citizens residing
abroad). These are completely impossible claims, and I (with
quite a few others in Taiwan, I believe) feel they should be
eradicated. This points to the possibility of amending or rewriting
the constitution, an option endorsed by a number of liberals here,as well as (as far as I know) Taiwan independence advocates. In
any event, it is necessary if Taiwan ever hopes to enter the
modern world as anything resembling an independent nation.
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Whats So Great About Taiwan?
I have criticized elements of Taiwans life and culture,
sometimes strongly, in this narrative. Some people will resentthisfor these people, there could not be a better land than
Taiwan, and to critique it is absolutely off limits. But as I have
discussed, this is not the way I think, and I hope, needless to say,
my aim has never been to heap blame on Taiwan. I have simply
felt the need to point out some problems in this nation that Ihope can be solved. I should not have to repeat that I like living
in Taiwan, and as much as or more than any other foreigner in
this nation, I am here for the long haul.
Without question, in spite of my complaints and criticisms,
there is much to love about life in Taiwan. I mean particularly life
in Taipei, but I have had great times all around Taiwan. In the
following, my aim is to look at some of the real pleasures of living
here. Readers from other lands are going to discover some details
about a miracle called Taiwan, a miracle that has given pleasure
to people of all ages, nationalities, and ethnicities for years and
years, and has offered up a world of at once joy and gratification,liberty and opportunity, majesty and revelation, and achievement
and prosperity. Such successes may be hardly matched by many
others nations around the world. I have described exactly these
advantages and assets in this narrative thus farbut lets take a
further look at all Taiwan has to offer!In some ways, first and foremost, the outdoor locations in
T i h id d f th b t ti f h Th
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also spelled Taitung) are all enjoyable, bucolic regions with nice
cultural activities.
Taiwan has very nice national and local park systems, with
locations such as Yangmingshan, Ali Shan (a mountain with
famed sunrises lighting banks of clouds, which Hope and Iobserved early one morning in 2001, in a near-mystical setting),
Guandu Nature Park, the Xitou Nature Education Area (where
my wife and I were treated to gorgeous forest canopy scenery as
we strolled along a highly-elevated walkway), the Northeast Coast
National Scenic Area, Puli Mountain Town, the waterfalls at Shi
Fen, the Xin Beitou Hot Springs, Sun Moon Lake, and Taroko
Gorge. Taroko Gorge is one of the major natural landmarks in
Taiwan, replete with mystical, cultural, and spiritual significance.
Unfortunately, I have never fully explored this mecca, and the
closest we came was a scooter ride a kilometer or two into the
main mouth, where we debarked and took a rigorous hikestraight uphill (you find these sorts of trails in Taiwans steep
terrain, ladder trails I call them), where we entered a Buddhist
temple, aglow with candles, incense smoking, perched high on an
overlook with a magnificent view of the area.
But there is yet more, and in another natural turn, my goodfriend George Liao and I began a series of hiking and biking
excursions in the north part of Taiwan in summer 2011, which
developed into a wonderful succession of vigorous outdoor
activities and expeditions to some of the finest natural locales on
this island. These journeys included biking trips to Fushan,during which we biked along the old highway that goes along the
Nanshih Stream; the bikeway near Fulong on which we traveled
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included the well-known Wuliaojian trail, at the end of which we
encountered a desiccated lake, evaporated in the summer heat; a
muddy hike to Sunluo Lake in Datong Township, during which I
slipped and fell more than once (the slick, mossy trails in Taiwan
can be treacherous); and a hike to the Wufengqi Falls, with theirbeautiful plummeting curtains of water (even more astounding
after a recent rain, George told me). After some of these hikes
and rides, we soaked in the phenomenal Jiaoxi hot springs,
stocked with mineral baths, bubbling and pouring water massages,
a delightful childrens water slide, the standard ice pool (dip in
there if you dare; my friend George, the nut, spends tens of
minutes at a time lolling in them), and baths so hot they leave
you gasping (nothing better in the world for sore legs and back).
The natural wonders that Hope and George have treated me
to so many times have themselves left me gasping in Taiwan and
provided a spiritual fulfillment that touches that which is mostessential in me. If readers will allow me room for a bit of reverie,
upon retiring to his Walden Pond cottage, Henry David Thoreau
wrote, I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn
what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that Ihad not lived.16 I of course have not lived the life that Thoreau
didone would hardly expect that from this city boy in Taipei,
with a population of over 2.5 million peoplebut in small ways, if
only on weekend trips to the country, I have reached for
something deliberate and essential, and, in Thoreaus view, I havetried to live. Hiking high in forested hills in Taiwan, ambling
along warm sunlit beachfronts biking on moonlit evenings
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and me warily from nearby trees on a hike near Ali Shan, or the
six-foot king rat snake I saw two men wrestling from under a
footbridge on one of my hikes), or reveling in the wondrous
butterfly population here (Taiwan is justly known as a land of
butterflies, with as many as four hundred species fluttering
colorfully through the air)all of this does more than just provide
welcome relief from the chaotic, crowded conditions in Taipei; it
has given me deep satisfaction and insight into a spectacular
Asian environment that has opened my eyes and provided new
appreciation for our interconnected world with its shared natural
wonders, which eclipse all that is nationalthe earth, mother ofall peoples. Citizens in Taiwan are fortunate that the government
is doing a fairly good job of providing sanctuaries for feelings and
experiences like this.
I will now endeavor to conclude my story about my life inTaiwan. Readers have seen that my life here has opened new
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doors and offered unexpected new opportunities, which have
given me endless satisfaction and gratification. I have continued
to enjoy the incongruity and continuing unfamiliarity of this all,
at one point writing that it is nice to think that there is still time
to just be a foreigner here, a stranger in a strange land. I have
literally grown older in Taipeiand I may be looking at growing
older still (but beware, the second half goes faster, as the father
Nathaniel Fisher said to his son in an installment of HBOs Six
Feet Under).
Reflective as always, one day, in my journal I wrote:
If anyone has multiple identities, its me. It does make life
interesting. Yet its not just having the different hats, its coming up
with something interesting surrounding all the different experiences.
I would like to have a story to write, an adventure tale of sorts,
conveying what I have learned. Not a groundbreaking story, but thestory of a move and a lot of changes that occur in lifechanges in
location, culture, language, friendships, family relations,
work/career, and environment. What lessons can I pass on? Life is
full of change and challenge? People always either underestimate or
overestimate you? Keep your eyes on the prize, and always keep
learning? Enjoy life, take it easy, one day at a time? Work hard, playhard, and maintain high standards? Kick back, relax, and meditate
daily? Trust yourself, be confident? It seems I have learned it all in
Taiwan.
I continued:
My story would need a conflict, something to make life less
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It seems I have encountered something like this in Taiwan. I
have found conflict, been tested and changedno endless coffee
klatches or boozing in pubs for mefelt a bit of suffering, sought
and found adventure, traveled to new places, met new people,
forged new friendships, experimented artistically and
intellectually, and through it all grown and developed in
meaningful ways. In sum, it seems that I did find something like
inspiration for a new life and history in Taiwanor so I hope this
book has indicated. I concluded the above explorations in my
journal, interrogating the most personal aspects of my story, and I
found that after some challenging problems and losses, boy
meets girl, and then
Boy and girl decide to relocate to her strange, distant, Asian
home. I guess this is where the excitement starts, adjusting to a
cluttered new culture and drifting along, hoping that boy and girlcan find the spark that will enable them to get married and do
something meaningful.
Where the excitement starts, indeed. After something of a
bumpy beginning, the excitement started for this boy in Taipei,and it has amplified and flourished and expanded and diffused
and increased. That boy and that girl did find that spark, and got
married and did something meaningful. As to the future, I hope I
enjoy it as much as I have the recent years. I never saw this
coming back in 2000! Its almost like some magical Chinese tale
maybe a Monkey King (, sn w kng) emerging from a
mythical stone!with transformation, something of a pilgrimage,
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feelings of (to say nothing of!)18 lead you to the
best and most prosperous futures you can find.
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Sources Cited
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the
Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso, 2006.Baker, Sheridan. The Practical Stylist, with Readings and Handbook.
Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988,
1971, 1963.
Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word.
London: Routledge, 1982.Smith, Anthony. National Identity. Middlesex, England: Penguin
Books, 1991.
Wickberg, Daniel. What Is the History of Sensibilities? On Cultural
Histories, Old and New. The American Historical Review 112 (3)
(2007): 661684.
Som
Something Super: One American Lives, Learns and Teaches inTaiwan is a personal memoir about American David Penderys life in
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meth
ingSuper:On
eAmericanLives,LearnsandTeaches
inTaiwan
Taiwan since he moved there in 2000. His story examines political andeducational issues in Taiwan, the many unique elements of Taiwanese life
and culture, and his personal experience in the Asian country.
Drawing on notes from his personal journal and other of his ownwritings, personal communication, numerous published writings, andreferences to other writers and scholars, Pendery crafts a collage that tellshis story of life and travel in Taiwan, teaching and student life, satisfyingfriendships, his new family life, his educational path, studying Chinese,and his employment in schools and other locations.
The prose in the work is sophisticated, but at times hard-hitting,as Pendery does not shy from criticizing what he feels are problems inTaiwan, while suggesting improvements. In spite of the criticisms, the bookconcludes with a heartfelt affirmation of the nations outdoor grandeur, the
rich aesthetic life to be found in Taiwan, and the rewards and surprises hehas found in his work, education, and new relationships during the last 12years. In the end he finds his journey has been like some magical Chinesetale, and he has found something super in Taiwan.
David Penderywas born in Cincinnati, Ohio,and grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico.He moved to San Francisco, California inhis early 20s. He completed his B.A. inInternational Relations at San Francisco StateUniversity, and his M.S. in Journalism at
Boston University. After working in journalismfor several years in the United States, herelocated to Taipei, Taiwan in 2000. In Taiwanhe has worked as an editor and teacher. Heobtained his Ph.D. in English Literature from
National Chengchi University in Taipei in 2010. He is currently an assistant
professor at National Taipei College of Business in Taipei. He is marriedwith no children.