Handy Experience

I don't know if I have ever touched as many people as I did that day. The day was a light gray Sunday in March. Thousands upon thousands of people were walking down the street, and I was high fiving like crazy. While quite unfamiliar with American political campaigns, I am sure that parades like those in Taiwan don't happen. On March 16, thousands of people walked down busy streets, side by side with lenient traffic. The motorcycle cops driving along were more for show than for necessity but the real eyecatcher was all the people. The people turned out in droves to show their support for Frank Hsieh or Mah Ying Jeou. The last weekend for political rallies is not to be sneezed at, so there I was on Jeng Tiao Road near a loud, excited woman who would intermittently start up the chant. The chant is a Frank Hsieh chant that basically means "let's turn things around." It is a short, sweet phrase that's easy to pick up but it is hard to get into a chant when the language is unfamiliar. But there is a universal language and a political language that these people would understand: a smile and then a thumbs up and an open hand for high-fiving. So there I was, smiling my face off, directing thumbs up toward passing cars and holding out my hand for hundreds of people marching by to high-five. I was touching hands of people I would probably never touch - but who can deny a raucously happy old man with one tooth who is walking several miles for a politician? There was more meaning and importance in just high-fiving these action-minded people than worrying whether or not someone had just sneezed into their hand. Several people even grasped my hand instead of simply high-fiving it and said it was good that young people were getting involved. I was touching people who I had never seen before and will never see again. Campaigns in Taiwan are different than that in the United States of America by the fact that one doesn't see people of all ages walking down the street together rallying for a cause. Miniature parades of cars blasting slogans, drummers to disrupt the peace of a giant tree, people letting off small firecrackers are seen all over, as well as quieter but effective groups of people waving flags and holding out upward turned thumbs. The overall atmosphere is one of action, movement, and change - much better than ugly plastic signs in front yards. Jessica likes the color green for many reasons. Plants are usually green, including cherimoyas, unripe avocados, and leaves of most trees,. Green stands for the environment/ecology and makes an excellent tea which she much prefers over black/red. She is wearing her green "I wear bubble tees" shirt today. Buy one!

City

I had only been in Taipei city for two hours - and half of that was spent in the airport claiming baggage and marveling at the shiny, brightly lit marble floors. From the airport, we loaded our suitcases and boxes into a friend's car and started the drive home, through the city. The city is a gorgeous place. Despite the cloudiness that is expected to stick around for the duration of my stay and the darkness of night, the streets and stores were lit up in a delicate kind of "look at me" gorgeousness (which is more than New York, or even Chicago can say. They say "feast in my glory.") This is home, even though I haven't been here for five years, and before that, I don't know how long. Conscious memory tells me I can only recall once, but memory is a fickle thing. We drive down the road between highways, and the highway, and then the streets lined with stores bedecked with neon signs. Leaving the airport area, the walls along the streets are lined with flashing red lights. In America, this only ever happens at Christmas time. We pass a river, along which are lines of streetlamps hovering over the sidewalks that run along the river. It reminds me of the lights on a bridge in Washington, D.C., one that I crossed along time ago to dine at a fantastic Lebanese restaurant, or else of The Bourne Supremacy, when Bourne gets shot in the shoulder in Berlin - no, he was in Moscow. There's an archway of circles that reminds me of downtown St. Louis. These roads with roads criss-crossing over each other that make me smile a little because in the darkness it reminds me of Wacker Street. The way that the cars turn in the road and the movement of the buses reminds me of Chicago's Michigan Avenue. I haven't even gotten to the big name stores yet, and Taipei has all the glory everywhere. Then at a busy intersection, there's a complex pedestrian bridge that crosses every which way a pedestrian would want to go. The huge contraption reminds me of a mall in Providence. Everywhere I look in the lively night, there are lit signs. It is unlike New York - less flamboyant and eye-searing - and the closest I can equate is Chinatown, but even that's not right. I look out at the road over which I am staying today, and the thick tree-lined medians set against high rise buildings seems so much like Central Park, set admist the big city. I can hear buses and that to me is the real sound of big cities, not taxis honking at each other. I remember seeing a forked street last night, with a building jutting out to split the roads. This reminds me simulatiously of Tainan and New York City. Two entirely different places. I am sitting at someone else's computer and there is literally a world between myself and the home I've been living in for the past years. This one city, seems like a mix of all the little things of cities all over that I have encountered. The roar, the movement, the ever present clouds even. Maybe it doesn't matter what city I just came from, Los Angeles or St. Louis or anywhere. I haven't been getting my cities mixed up - this is everywhere. Jessica can be immediately pegged as a "tourist" or "American" merely by the fact that her tshirt's sleeves end about a foot before her wrists. She is in Taiwan from March 13 to March 24 and welcomes non-creepy blogworthy readers in Taiwan to buy her copious amounts of delicious Taiwanese food while she's here.

Get your act together, fools

On PBS the other day, I saw part of a documentary on the creation of the state of Israel. I didn't know this, but apparently, the success of the creation of the Jewish State was helped largely by Jewish Americans holding fund raisers, raising awareness, and even going to Israel against British law to prepare for what they felt was an impending war with the neighboring Arab Nations. Taiwan is not in quite the same situation. Yes, there are plenty of successful and influential Taiwanese Americans that are quite concerned about Taiwanese recognition as an independent nation on the world stage. However, the Taiwanese living in Taiwan are divided on the issue. Some believe they are Chinese, even though they've lived in Taiwan all their lives. Others believe they are Taiwanese, a separate nation already independent due to a functioning government. In addition, the Taiwanese in Taiwan often are dismissive to the Taiwanese in America saying, "What do you know? You don't live here anymore." In turn, the Taiwanese in America find that the Taiwanese in Taiwan have a skewed view due to the government controlled media. From personal anecdotes from friends that go back for the summer or for a stint to live, many Taiwanese youth don't care much about the issue either, unlike the Taiwanese American youth, who are very well aware of the political issues facing Taiwan. The exception is when I meet them outside of Taiwan when traveling. Since they're comparatively rare in the world, I'm always surprised when I meet one, and they always seem somewhat relieved. It seems that many Taiwanese people don't really have a sense of being Taiwanese until they leave Taiwan and see the discrepancy between how they view themselves and how the world views them. If Taiwanese American youth have had to struggle with their identity between being Taiwanese and American, the youth in Taiwan still don't have much sense of their identity in Taiwan and might not even be aware that there's an issue. American politics in the last eight years has been fairly divisive between Democrats and the Republicans, but I have no doubt that every American, regardless of party, unites together against a common cause. I'm not so sure about the Taiwanese in Taiwan. They don't seem to have a sense of themselves, nor a sense of urgency. On the odd chance that China invades, I'm not so sure a Taiwanese neighbor will not stand idly by to watch another get hauled away. Not every democratic citizen has to be heavily involved in politics. But they should at least be aware of the issues. Taiwanese people in Taiwan need to get their act together and start working with each other and expatriates towards common goals and develop their culture, instead of bickering along party lines outside of election time. There's no easier victory than where your opponent defeats themselves. But what do I know. I live in America. Wil Chung is a programmer that is working at a startup. He likes writing on blank cards and the smell of cedar at night. Recently, he wrote a program to find all 27x word score words in the TWL scrabble dictionary.