From youth we learned your name, distant, cold
and strange,
Your orbit never fit to conform to those of other
spheres.
Crossing Neptune drowned your hopes for
acceptance.
Your name brought joy and laughter from
children,
Who’d conjure images of Disney’s animated dog,
More than the ancient gods whose names remain.
Farewell Pluto; silent, cold, and distant
sentinel.
Though you have not moved or changed,
As a planet you are no longer famed,
And we shall miss you,
Yet we won’t forget
Those years when
Our solar system
Numbered
Nine.
Pluto is declassified as a planet. If you wish to
read more follow this link.
Life here in Taiwan is going very well. Summer is
in full swing. Some friends of mine and I went up
to Ping Ling where a cool river with a great
swimming hole runs along the side of a beautiful
lush green mountain. Long necked white birds
swooped down the river valley in search of food,
their white bodies and wings in stark contrast
with the deep hue of green leaves pushing out
from every possible rock and cranny, competing
for the summer sun. High above, especially in the
morning, eagles flew searching for their own
breakfasts. During the day the water was cool and
the large flat rocks by the river baked hot by
the summer sun. I felt like a reptile, constantly
alternating between jumping into the water to
cool off and then basking on the rocks to dry off
and warm up again. My friends and I spent the day
swimming and sunning, some of the gang did some
diving off the cliff opposite the river bank
while others critiqued the performance offering
armchair advice, the armchairs being the shallow
cool bank on the opposite shore. We all spent the
night in Ping Ling. I had my tent set up on a
nice grassy spot under the shade of some trees.
We even climbed a few of those trees in the
evening. And at night we conversed by a fire and
alternated between watching the stars and the
fire flies.
Upon awaking the next day
some of us hit the water right away, while others
went to town to fetch breakfast. A typical
Taiwanese DanBing affair with coffee. My favorite
kind of breakfast. We swam till well past noon
and then we headed to the beach. Breakfast was
long digested and the meat eating friends I
traveled with were craving a fish barbeque on the
beach. I'm a vegetarian still, but my friends and
I went to the fish market to get something from
that days catch.
Dasi is a fishing town
where the boats unload into ice buckets and tubs
of salty water on the docks and you buy the catch
of the day still flopping around straight off the
boats. Tuna is in season so they bought a huge
black tuna, had it cleaned, and then went and bbq-
ed it on the beach. All claimed it was a mighty
good feed. I wandered down to the Taoist temple /
town restaurant and ordered a fried rice for my
dinner, and brought it back to the beach bbq
along with the beer. There we ate and watched the
surfers and families play on the beach till sunset,
when everyone left and we had the beach
to ourselves.
Ironically I was already a
little drunk before we arrived in Dasi. This is
because we had stopped in a larger town known as
TouCheng to pick up a few supplies. TouCheng is
the nearest town with a grocery store. In front
of what looked like a Taiwanese Safeway were two
middle aged men behind a sample table. But rather
than the run-of-the-mill sausages or sushi
samples, there were 3 small colorful bottles of
alcohol drinks - Kind of like Smirnoff Ice
drinks - and 2 big bottles of Gao Liang, a
Taiwanese white alcohol like Vodka but 50%+
alcohol at least. The men offered my friend and I
a shot glass of each. The first 3 colorful
bottles were almost like soda. Though the plum
flavor of one was a bit disturbing. Not one of my
favorite Asian drink flavors. Ever had plum tea?
Very bitter. Strangely enough though I think I am
becoming accustomed as it is less disturbing each
time and even occasionally pleasant. Then came
the shots of GaoLiang. Whoowhee. Talk about
Grandma's moonshine! The first one was like jet
fuel. Good thing I quit smoking a year ago. It
would not have been wise to light a flame near my
mouth for that one. But we saved face and nodded
approvingly to our Taiwanese hosts. They
suggested the second one was not as strong - and
indeed, it was only battery acid in comparison.
After returning from the shopping expedition and
seeing the state Jack and I were in, our friend
Trevor also tried a shot. Afterwards he ignited
his paper shot glass. You could not see the flame
in the noon-day sun, but the cup quickly turned
black and shriveled with the pale blue flames.
This is the condition in which we arrived at the
docks and the fish market in Dasi. Quite a trip.
A few of us stayed on the beach all
night. A dark orange moon was rising over the bay
while the many colored lights of the fishing
boats, going out for the night time catches,
ploughed across the horizon. Turtle Mountain
Island was barely visible standing out in the
distant background as a dark silhouette in the
sky. My friends had labor day off so they stayed
the next day as well. I had to work so I caught a
train back to town. It's so cheap and easy to
take trains here. Just show up at the station.
Hop on the train and buy a ticket from the
conductor. For a trip to Dasi from Taipei it's
less than 100 NT$.
That was the
end of last weekend. Now that summer's here I'm
looking forward to many more weekends of the same
or better. Hope you are all having fun as well.
Enjoy the summer for those of you in the Northern
hemisphere - and for my kiwi friends down south,
have a nice winter!
Today is a national holiday in Taiwan. Schools and
businesses are closed. But it is not one of the
many holidays shared with the mainland due to a
common Chinese cultural history. Two two eight, as
it is referred to here, is unique to Taiwan and is
a testament to the desire of all Taiwanese to live
in a free and fair society. To understand the
events that took place it is necessary to know
what
was happening in Taiwan – then known more commonly
in English by the name Formosa – after the
surrender of the Japanese in 1945. Formosa
(Taiwan)
had been occupied by the Japanese since the end of
the Sino-Japanese war in 1895. Following their
surrender at the end of WWII Taiwan was returned
to
the Chinese government. At the time this was the
Nationalist Kuomintang party (KMT) being led by
Chiang Kai-Shek. The Nationalists were in control
of much of the mainland at this time but the fight
with the Communists had in many ways just begun
now
that the common foe, the Japanese, had been
defeated. In fact by 1949 one and a half million
mainland Chinese from many different provinces,
including around 600,000 soldiers, would be moving
to Taiwan permanently. But the story of 228 begins
a few years earlier. While Chiang was struggling
to
hold onto the mainland, he sent the cruel and
repressive Chen-Yi to serve as Governor. While the
Formosan’s had initially welcomed the arrival of
the Chinese troops and new governor it was not
long
before their happiness faded and they found
themselves under the thumb of a cruel and corrupt
government. On February 27th, 1947, a woman who
sold cigarettes on the street and another
by-stander were beaten to death by police for not
having a proper license to sell. This event became
the catalyst that sparked a demonstration the
following day. On February 28th around 2,000
people
gathered outside of the Bureau of Monopoly in
Taipei. Chen-Yi responded with machine gun fire,
killing many on the spot. Several days of dissent
followed. The Formosan’s, gathering mostly in
large
unarmed groups, were easy targets for the Chinese
soldier’s machine guns. Flyers, signed by Chiang
Kai-Shek, promising amnesty to leaders of the
movement if they came forward to discuss their
grievances were disseminated and dropped by
airplanes. Those who did come forward were
imprisoned or killed. Many who were imprisoned in
the following decades of martial law (known as the
White Terror) were not released until the 1980’s.
To this day the KMT and the military refuse to
offer up files which may incriminate those still
alive, or perhaps in order to protect those whose
historical image they wish to preserve untarnished
by the truth. But without a doubt it can be said
that the tragic events of 228 struck a chord in
the
hearts of all Formosan’s and solidified their will
to be a self-governing and free people. Fifty
years
later the differences between main-landers and
Taiwanese continue to diminish with inter-marriage
and time. Those sons and daughters born to the
soldiers and refugees of the mainland now speak
Taiwanese instead of their original provincial
dialect, and are having children of their own. A
thriving democracy, with all the privileges and
problems there of, now thrives on an island which
has spent most of its modern history under
oppression and occupation. It is no wonder that
228
has become a day of remembrance and hope for all
Taiwanese, and for anyone who hopes that the world
of our future can escape repeating the tragedies
of
the past.
Find me Mostly on Facebook these days...
The Time of Nine - An ode to Pluto
Hu's the leader of China...?
Journal - Taiwan May Day weekend!
February 28, 1947 - Taiwan's 2-28 Memorial Day
