Eating in the New Year

GT (http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/english/travel/themed-tours/2011-01/618482.html):

"In operation for 26 years," one sign reads; "Family-run for 35 years," another states, while yet another proclaims they've been "Selling the best foodstuffs for more than half-a-century." In Taipei's Dihua Street, tradition is everything, and this is never truer than during the annual "Southern and Northern Product Fair" that runs for two weeks leading up to the Lunar Calendar New Year's Eve (falling on February 2 this year).

Families get together, neighbors and friends visit, and since Taiwanese are nothing if not hospitable, a good supply of food is essential for the holiday.

Street Life

Supermarkets and department stores do a roaring trade in specially packaged lihe (gift boxes), and bottles of wine or whisky with free customized glasses. But most people, even if they normally buy their groceries at supermarkets, like to go to a street market to get in some traditional xiaochi (snacks) in the days or weeks before New Year. In Taipei, this means a trip to Dihua Street, in the Dadaocheng district to the north of the city center.


New Year's Eve kicks off with the traditional family weilu ("get-together around the stove"), for which hot pot is a popular dish. To perk up the usual meat and vegetables, this will contain a variety of dumplings, mushrooms, tofu and seafood, all of which are on sale.


On New Year's Day itself, cooking is taboo, so pre-cooked meat and preserved vegetables are in great abundance. Most traditional are the larou (cured pork) and lachang (sausages), since la means both "curing" and is also an alternative name for the last month of the lunar calendar. Also seen in giant heaps are beef, pork and cuttlefish jerky, rousong (shredded pork), smoked duck - a specialty of Taiwan's northeastern Yilan County - dried fish, shrimps, scallops, shark's fin and abalone.

Vendors compete vigorously: some wear costumes - either traditional Chinese apparel or eye-catching animal suits - many shout, and all offer free samples to tempt shoppers.

"Around three-quarters of a million people will visit the market between January 15 and February 1," Chen Shih-Che of Original Creativity, a privately run marketing company, told the Global Times. "This is significantly more than in previous years," he added.

Original Creativity helps Taipei City organize the annual event, including bringing contemporary pop, dance and even rap acts to a small stage in the middle of the market.

But this is really just a new face for a long-established tradition that existed for decades before the government got involved. Nanbei huo, that is, the best "produce from South to North [China]," has been sold in Dadaocheng to the north of Taipei Railway Station since before the Japanese colonial authorities instructed local shopkeepers to build porticoed brick buildings in the 1920s, and even before the railway was built in the late 19th century.

Temple Fair

One of the oldest areas of the city, it dates from the migration from the even-older district of Mangka (now Wanhua), slightly further south along the Danshui River. This influx of population was perhaps the result of fighting between rival Fujian immigrants or maybe due to silting up of the river, but whatever the reason, Dadaocheng's wharf became a key northern Taiwan center of import/export, and the local streets boasted many of the island's finest houses and company buildings.

Indeed, several of these still stand, as does the Xiahai Temple at 61 Dihua Street. Dedicated to the Lord of Walls and Moats - more commonly known as City God - and with half-a-dozen altars bearing statues of several dozen different Daoist and Buddhist deities, at other times of the year the temple organizes walking tours of the historic neighborhood.

During the two-week fair, however, it concentrates on offering free "blessed tea" to flagging shoppers, while conducting its usual business of marshalling the services of The Old Man Under the Moon - a Daoist deity - who is said to help find prospective mates for single worshipers.
Most shoppers bypass the temple, however, as there is still much shopping to be done. Having bought hot-pot ingredients and dried meat, they perhaps focus next on the fruit, nuts and candies that relatives and friends will pick at between meals over the coming days.


Once more seen in great piles, and as always available to taste, are quantities of peanuts, pistachio, almonds, variously flavored pumpkin seeds, dates, figs, sun-dried persimmons, chestnuts from Tianjin, and the Taiwanese people's beloved pineapple cakes. One stall even sells Chilean cherries, showing that "North-South produce" now applies to all over the world. Most traditional, and still most popular, are ju (small oranges), since their name sounding like zhu (to offer good wishes) in Mandarin and ji (auspicious) is prized in Minnan Taiwanese - and also they are tasty, nutritious and symbolic of good fortune over the year to come.



In a similar vein, Taiwanese like to give gifts of pineapples, since its Minnan name onglai is homonymous with "prosperity has come." At one meal during the New Year celebrations, a fish will be eaten, since niannian you yu (every year have a fish) means "every year have a surplus," another auspicious saying. Naturally, both are on sale in the Dihua Street market.

Everybody's talking

Minnan is the language of the street, though of course everyone speaks Mandarin, and, since the stalls are staffed with temporary student workers, they are happy to practice English on foreigners. "Try one, it's free," is the usual opening phrase.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin spent two hours at the market on January 21, not to shop but to enjoy the atmosphere. "It's great to see events like this revitalizing the oldest parts of our city," he told the crowd, before handing out thousands of spring couplets for people to hang at home.

For those not lucky enough to receive the mayor's gift, there are stalls selling couplets, lanterns, paper cuts and other traditional New Year ornaments, most of them red and many bearing rabbit images, in keeping with this year's Chinese horoscope animal.

Several parcel companies run stalls and promise to deliver fresh produce in temperature-controlled bags to relatives and friends anywhere on the island within 24 hours, as does the local branch of the post office. Even the police get in on the act, with the local precinct taking advantage of the large number of visitors to promote anti-corruption and other public-service campaigns.

Somewhat incongruously, there are one or two shops selling objects such as belts and needlework supplies, not because these have any connection with the upcoming festivities, but because their stores are here year round.

In fact, Dadaocheng is a fascinating area to visit any time of year, such as at City God's birthday in the fifth lunar month, or when the district's puppet museum and theater has a new exhibition or show. At all times, the stores will still be selling the "best from the South to the North," and visitors are guaranteed a taste of Taiwan from times gone by.

read the book first, Malarkey

China Post editorial:

Warnings of war diminished but still relevant 3 years on

Former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Richard Bush arrived in Taipei last week with fellow author and Brookings Institution scholar Michael O'Hanlan to promote the Chinese-language version of their 2007 book “A War Like No Other — The Truth About China's Challenge to America.”

That they received relatively little coverage by local media was perhaps not due to a perception that their findings are no longer pertinent since cross-Strait relations thawed significantly since Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008. More likely it was because their key conclusion — that war in the Taiwan Strait, although unlikely, would be so costly to all concerned that specific precautions needed to be taken — was so serious, that every politician, academic, pundit and concerned citizen, whether in Taipei, Beijing, Washington or elsewhere around the world, would have long ago read the English original or had it translated for their personal use.

When introducing the book, Bush had said they reached an “optimistic conclusion with a pessimistic sub-conclusion.” In most areas, he said, the relationship between the United States and China — which the book characterized as “close cooperation and friendly rivalry”— was pretty good. The one place where the U.S. and China might come into conflict, they had predicted, was over the issue of Taiwan.

If war did erupt across the Taiwan Strait, Bush and O'Hanlan thought armed invasion of Taiwan would be too costly in terms of losses to the People's Liberation Army. Rather, they envisaged a military-backed blockade coupled with missile and cyber attacks. These, they said, would be far harder for Taipei and Washington to deal with than a conventional attack. Moreover, Taiwan's increased economic dependence on China would make a blockade that much easier to enforce.

Whether the United States came to Taiwan's aid would depend on various factors, they said, but hinged on interpretation of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, and which side was deemed to have provoked the conflict. In their absolute worst-of-the-worst scenario, the authors imagined China might attack U.S. Navy ships to inflict a few thousand casualties in the hope of deterring further U.S. participation. Bush and O'Hanlan imagined this having a contrary effect, however, with Washington launching military strikes against Chinese territories, including pre-emptive attacks on nuclear installations. This might then be followed by Beijing using its nuclear weapons before they were wiped out.

Fortunately this “unlikely but extremely costly” war has not erupted. Indeed, three years on, and China's patient cold-shouldering of Chen Shui-bian through the two terms of his Democratic Progressive Party administration has finally paid off. Even before Ma's election, the Chinese Communist Party was entertaining members of his Kuomintang, its erstwhile enemy, at functions in China in preparation for regime change in Taiwan.

In fact, it is U.S.-Chinese relations which have deteriorated during this period. Rather than “close cooperation,” they are now more frequently characterized by rivalry, and rivalry of a decreasingly “friendly” nature.

This is hardly unexpected, of course, and the Brookings authors' were long ago criticized by some as being too optimistic, if not naive, in imagining that relations between China, as it metamorphoses into a major power on the world stage, and the United States, as it struggles to maintain its position as the only remaining superpower, could ever be anything other than fractious.

China's scramble for resources to feed the appetite of its developing manufacturing sector (and its concomitant neo-colonial economic and diplomatic endeavors) set it on collision course with similar needs in the already developed nations. Though these conflicts have been temporarily eased due to the global economic downturn, the downturn has also brought into focus other areas of contention, such as the sizable amount of U.S. national debt held by China and China's intransigence with regard to revaluing the yuan.

In former times, such a cooling in U.S.-China relations would have been to Taiwan's advantage. Perhaps due to President Ma's cross-Strait initiatives, however, or perhaps because Washington needs Beijing's help in dealing with North Korea, or perhaps in line with previous Democrat pro-China policies during Bill Clinton's administration, U.S. President Obama is choosing to play a waiting game with China.

So publication of a Chinese-language edition of Bush and O'Hanlan's book is timely and relevant after all. Certainly, their key concern — the improved management of interactions between the U.S. and China during the latter's rise on the world stage — is as pertinent as ever.

Similarly, their key observations about Taiwan's role in that broader scenario — that the PRC's lack of substantial experience of democracy could easily lead it to misinterpret political developments in Taiwan, in particular its leaders' inability to distinguish actions and words that Taiwan's politicians make for political gain rather than those that truly reflect policy intentions — are things that politicians on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should constantly bear in mind.

fish of the day

Yu-dong (漁東) were the entrepreneurs who operated the fishing boats, hiring and overseeing the crew (漁夥) and making the gear (or buying them on credit) from the wholesaler with whom he dealt or sometimes from independent shipowners. The 漁東 sold his catch to middlemen (鮮客), stationed offshore near the fishing grounds, receiving a sealed receipt (賣鮮摺) rather than cash. The middlemen then shipped the catches of several boats to wholesalers (鮮魚行[fresh-fish guild] and 鹹魚行[salted-fish guild]) in Ningpo, from whom he received a commission. The wholesaler bulked, processed, and delivered the fish and either shipped them to importers in other cities, or delivered them to local or nearby retailers (鮮貨鋪[fresh-fish retailer] and 鹹貨鋪[salted-fish retailer]) on twenty days’ credit. Itinerant retailers (行販) normally got their supplies from retail shopkeepers but occasionally got them directly from a wholesale firm. The漁東entrepreneurs periodically took their sealed receipts to their wholesaler in Ningpo, either collecting cash or receiving a bill of exchange (鹹單), which they converted to cash a the ch’ien-chuang 錢莊bank that financed the wholesaler. Payments both ways were such that middlemen in effect received a commission from the 漁東 as well as the wholesaler. It goes without saying that the wholesaler exercised decisive control over 漁東 through setting prices, renting out the factors of production, and issuing bills. Wholesalers in turn were dependent for credit on the kuo-chang 過帳 system of the ch’en-chuang 錢莊 banks.

discussion of fish trade in Ningbo (寧波) in Qing(?) dynasty from "Ningpo and its hinterland" p413 by Yoshinobu Shiba in “The City in Late Imperial China” ed. Skinner

romanization replaced with characters

come on, Obama

China Post editorial:

It was a majestic performance, if your head is buried in sand

Members of Sweden's Nobel Peace Prize committee will have slept well in their beds this weekend following signing of last week's agreement to make significant cuts to the global stockpile of nuclear weapons by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. If the treaty is ratified by both countries' legislatures and implemented, this will see the Cold War adversaries' arsenals reduced to the lowest levels since the arms race of the 1960s.

In any case, the fanfare that accompanied the signing ceremony held in Prague's baroque castle will have been music to Swedish ears. Last year, in what was widely criticized as a partisan political gesture, it awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama just a few months after he entered the White House simply for promising to work for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

So maybe the committee got it right, and maybe the world will be a safer place in the future thanks to Obama and Medvedev's actions. But there was something bizarre about the whole event, or rather, something was missing.

It was not that nuclear weapons have not claimed a single life in over six decades, or that the greatest threat to citizens of the United States and Russia comes from terrorists with rucksacks, vests and even shoes loaded with bombs (though in Russia's case, insurgents might be a fairer word).

Nor was it that the United States and Russia are essentially now on the same side after spending most of the 20th century with daggers drawn, and both countries' chief concern with regard to nuclear weapons are the so-called rogue states (now to be known as “outliers,” apparently) of North Korea and Iran. The cost to people in the former country is lives of unimaginable poverty, while those in the latter are about to get clobbered by serious sanctions if Obama, Medvedev and the leaders of around four dozen countries can focus their animosity (whereas Israel joined the “nuclear club” and introduced nuclear weapons into the unstable environment of the Middle East almost without censure).

No, the most bizarre aspect of last week's baroque love fest was its anachronism. It was like watching two dinosaurs arm wrestle on television then kiss and make up. Nice spectacle, but hardly relevant to today's more evolved world. Russia may possess thousands of nuclear warheads — which once upon a time gave some backing to its claim of superpower status — but its empire fell apart two decades ago. Moreover, the world very quickly learned that the bombs were little more than the emperor's new clothes, and that the cost to the Soviet Union of possessing them was far beyond the means of what, in reality, was not a superpower at all.

So the pantomime went ahead, and the world applauded, and the pundits discussed the Obama-Medvedev contribution to world peace, and almost no one mentioned China, which, as a growing global power, should merit more attention.

Whether China already is a superpower, will become one sooner or later, or will never exceed its role as regional heavyweight are questions that normally generate many column inches. There can be little doubt that this is China's aim, however, and if any existed, it was surely dispelled by the recent book by PLA colonel and academic Liu Mingfu, in which he made no bones about China's goal of replacing the United States as world leader. Perhaps being modest, Liu said this would take 90 years: 30 to match its GDP, 30 to equal its military and cultural strength, and 30 to surpass its per capita GDP.

Or perhaps he was trying to reduce anxiety. Liu did make it clear, however, that this goal required not just building its economy into the world's largest, but also creating armed forces of equal stature. But he said armed conflict was not inevitable, and described the forthcoming competition as neither world war nor cold war, but more like a track-and-field event or a protracted marathon.

Perhaps the greatest doubt about China's ability to transform into a world force comes not from outside but from within as it undergoes the growing pains necessary for this maturation. All its economic and military clout will count for nothing if it cannot overcome numerous and varied challenges. These include people's demands for rule of law and freedom of expression; government corruption and organized crime; intergenerational conflict as the old elite clings to power and socio-economic imbalances between geographic regions of the vast country; horrendous pollution and growing health problems, as well as a population time bomb that could explode at any time.

But the United States and rest of the world cannot just bury their heads in the sands of the past as the Prague performance suggests they would like. Obama and his colleagues must do more to deal with today's reality, and if he really is worthy of the Nobel prize, China's nuclear weapons should be on his agenda, too.

fish of the day

Taipei Times article:

COA to work on labor rights for PRC fishermen

The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said it hoped the upcoming cross-strait talks could resolve the long-neglected issue of labor rights for Chinese fishermen working on Taiwanese vessels.
“By formulating a policy on [Chinese] fishermen, we can create a more humanitarian working environment as well as ensure the safety of our fishing vessels,” Council Deputy Minister Hu Sing-hwa (胡興華) told a media briefing.

... Policies including labor rights for Chinese fishermen and standardizing import procedures for agricultural goods will be among the four main items on the agenda.

Hu said he did not foresee any major changes in the number of Chinese fishermen working on Taiwanese boats after the signing of the agreement.

The government first allowed local fishing vessels to hire Chinese workers 15 years ago amid a shortage of domestic workers, which officials attributed to the low pay and hard working conditions. It lifted a ban on Chinese workers entering domestic ports in 2003 following protests by human rights organizations over their poor treatment.Council figures show that the average monthly pay for Chinese workers was just under NT$15,000 last year. Although this was higher compared with the pay for other foreign workers, many operators prefer hiring Chinese workers because they speak the same language. While Taiwanese workers on fishing vessels are covered by labor laws, workers from China are not.

... Council statistics shows 25 cases of hijackings by Chinese crewmembers and 11 cases of murder. Since the government allowed Chinese workers to enter local ports, there have also been 402 cases of Chinese absconding, with 149 still at large. ...

fish of the day

孔子的兒子出生的時候，魯國的國君派人送來一條鯉魚，所以孔子給兒子取名叫孔鯉，字伯魚，意思是魯伯送的魚。

When Confucius' son was born, the ruler of the State of Lu dispatched someone to deliver the gift of a carp, because of which, Confucius named his son Kong [surname] Li [given name, "Carp"], and the style name Boyu, meaning Fish [sent by] the Nobleman* [of Lu]

*ok, that's a pretty lame translation of 魯伯; any suggestions?

btw, the photo includes my mum because she shares her birthday with Confucius

also, both my mother and sister were born on the full moon of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, i.e. Mid-Autumn Festival,

AND, my mother was born in the Dragon Year; how auspicious is that?

language change should be bottom up

China Post: DPP blasts Ma's China proposal as trashing Taiwan's

The opposition camp yesterday blasted President Ma Ying-jeou for what they believed to be his proposal to adopt China's simplified Chinese characters in Taiwan.

Critics from the Democratic Progressive Party accused Ma of trashing the country's culture while kowtowing to China.
But the Presidential Office clarified that Ma only meant to urge people from China to learn the traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan.

... yeah, right
anyway, it is a question that needs confronting
especially if the pro-unificationists are successful
a huge can of worms ... VftH's only observation for now is that any change in language should come from the bottom up not the top down

fish of the day

[photo: Fujianese fishermen prepare lines of hooks at Magong Harbor on Penghu]













China Post: Deckhand on Taiwanese fishing boat bitten by shark

Officials from the Coast Guard Administration's 15th flotilla said they received a radio request for help from the skipper of the Chin Sheng Fa 13 to help Zhang Sanqian, 46, a native from Fujian province who was bleeding profusely because of the shark bites.

...CGA officials quoted other crew members of Chin Sheng Fa 13 as saying that the crew caught the 80-kilogram shark in waters near Green Island during an operation to catch hake.
After Zhang and five other deckhands pulled the shark onto the deck, they had the fish electrocuted. As Zhang tried to pull the seemingly unconscious shark toward the freezer, it suddenly attacked him twice with its razor-sharp teeth, wounding his knee and tearing off large chunks of flesh from the back of his left lower leg.

DPP short on new ideas

The problem confronting the DPP (and others) regarding how to deal with China,
or rather the empty chasm of ideas, is evidenced by the following opinion piece by Paul Lin,
one of the intellectual heavyweights wheeled out regularly by the TT

Taipei Times: DPP needs plan to deal with China


... China’s existence is a fact that Taiwan cannot ignore. It is inevitable that Taiwan has to deal with China and that refusing to do so is not an option. The key issue is how Taiwan should go about it.

... So how should members of the pan-green camp deal with China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)?
First of all, they should clarify Taiwan’s status, a precondition for establishing equality. Taiwan has never denied the existence of the People’s Republic of China, but China refuses to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty, and Ma has never protested against this.

so far so good, though this has not much of substance.

... For example, they must refuse the recent practice of Taiwanese politicians going to China to “worship their ancestors” because this is part of China’s united front strategy and a nationalist ruse to present China as Taiwan’s ancestor.

ok, that's more substantial, but it shows the problems the opposition faces.
any measure like this will easily be portrayed (and dismissed) as an attack on individual liberty,
moreover, given the power of religion to ride roughshod over rationalism and politics, it will be kicked out before it even gets off the ground.

... In addition, they must also strictly adhere to the principle of avoiding conflicts of interest, and anyone with vested interests in China should not be sent there.

again, this will be rejected as an attack on individual rights

During the talks, they should act with self-respect but avoid being arrogant, and there is no need to make statements designed to upset the CCP. They should adopt an equanimous attitude and make clear their commitment to Taiwan’s sovereignty, freedom and human rights at appropriate times.

back to high-minded but substance-lacking ideas
...

taiwanese psychologically in bed with oppressor

nice interview with a pshychiatrist who reckons taiwanese have Stockholm syndrome:

taipei times: Taiwanese have Stockholm syndrome: psychiatrist

A majority of Taiwanese continue to suffer psychologically by sympathizing with their former captors, said a Taiwanese-American psychiatrist, who urged them to shake off their condition by recognizing their own worth and value.
...The KMT belief system is gaining strength, he said, principally through the use of language.
“Expressions such as ‘cross-strait,’ ‘mainland tourists’ and ‘mainland investment’ send the message that the relationship between Taiwan and China is one between a district and a country rather than two separate countries,” he said.
When the relationship between Canada and the US is described, no one says “this side of the Niagara Falls and that side of the Niagara Falls,” he said.

tourist not spy (update)

Taipei Times: Accused ‘spy’ is released


A Chinese tourist who was arrested on Monday for entering a military facility and taking pictures was released on his own recognizance late on Tuesday night.
Prosecutor Tseng Chun-tseh (曾俊哲) ordered the man’s release and did not ban him from leaving Taiwan.

well fat chance he'll come back for a court appearance

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said: “we respect the judiciary’s decision [to release him]. After all, the judiciary released him after conducting a thorough investigation.”

in other words: the KMT is desperate not to have its Chinese-tourist policy tarnished by even this single case

"island nation" or just an "island" ... (II)

Taipei Times: Wu shrugs off criticism over ‘island’ remarks

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday shrugged off criticism of his use of the term daonei (島內, “on the island”) to refer to Taiwan during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on Tuesday, and called on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) not to over-interpret the issue.

... Wu said his meeting with Hu had proceeded on a reciprocal basis and that he also used the phrase “on the mainland” when referring to China during the meeting.

that's not "reciprocal, that's the SAME
"on the mainland" does not belittle China, it ALSO belittles Taiwan

... "If Taiwan is daonei, [President] Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] is just an island chief, not a head of state. It is unbelievable that the KMT chairman belittled the country to such a degree. The KMT is like a vassal that belittles itself when dealing with the Chinese Communist Party [CCP],” DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said.

.. KMT caucus ­secretary-­general Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said Hu’s references to “Chinese Taipei” during his meeting with Wu Poh-­hsiung were a goodwill gesture.
Yang said this could be seen as recognition by Hu of Taiwan’s sovereignty.

er, run that one past me again

don't they get it (again)?

Taipei Times: KMT legislator criticized over tea bought from brother


Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) drew criticism yesterday after she purchased tea from her brother’s tea plantation in China with caucus funds as gifts to her party’s legislators.

Yang said the money belonged to the caucus and should not be considered public funds.Yang drew criticism within the KMT after she gave each KMT lawmaker a 7kg brick of pu-erh tea in the shape of a gold ingot earlier this month.

... each caucus receives a monthly subsidy from the Legislative Yuan, with the KMT caucus receiving approximately NT$810,000 per month.
The caucus’ secretary-general receives about NT$300,000 from the fund for the caucus’ public relations, the story said.
... Yang said she chose the tea as a Dragon Boat Festival gift for fellow caucus members because many people consider drinking tea healthy.
... She also said she had covered part of the cost with her own money.“The tea came from a company jointly owned by my brother and his good friend. If anyone has a problem with the purchase, I will accept the criticism with humility,” she told reporters.

but not return the money, note.

The Liberty Times quoted an anonymous KMT lawmaker as saying that Yang’s purchase could be seen as a conflict of interest because she chose tea from her brother’s plantation.
.... "The fund is not granted to her to buy products manufactured by her family members,” the legislator was quoted as saying.
The legislator said Yang had made such purchases on more than one occasion since becoming secretary-general of the caucus three months ago.
“It is ridiculous for her to give [caucus members] tea leaves almost every month. Plus, the tea is made in China rather than Taiwan,” the legislator was quoted as saying.

actually, you have to laugh: "almost every month"
it seems that if she'd done it just a couple of times, KMT legislators would have connived with her, but they just got fed up with the same tea month after month.

a friend of taiwan?

TT: Obama picks Republican governor as China envoy

A Republican governor whose name has come up as a potential challenger to US President Barack Obama in 2012 intends to go to work for the president as ambassador to China, a source close to the governor said.

the big news (for Taiwan, at least) is that the ambassador was a Mormon missionary in Taiwan:

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (洪博培), who is fluent in Mandarin from his days as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan, has accepted the appointment, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity before a White House announcement expected yesterday.

Now VftH may not like missionaries of any religion, and particularly the Mormon variety, but hopefully JH Jr. (the real JH is a billionaire businessman) has a personal connection with (and many friends in) Taiwan, which should influence his response to the incessant chanting of "台灣是中國的一部分".

a rare pro-government posting ... well almost,

... perhaps:

TT: Premier defends move to allow Chinese students in

Recruiting Chinese students to study in Taiwan will help boost cross-strait ties, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄)said yesterday.

I’m not sure about that, and I don’t know what kind of students will come (though hopefully not student-spies), and I’m sure the majority of Taiwanese students going to the PRC are just getting a cheap poor-quality education, but the bit I do agree with Liu is:

… “If Chinese college students are allowed to study in Taiwan, it will provide good opportunities for students from the two sides to learn from each other,” he said.

When the former Yugoslavia broke up and the various new states and factions within the states began fighting each other, I remember thinking that the European Union (and in particular, the peoples of individual European nations) would intervene to help keep peace or even take sides.

My conviction was based on the fact that every (“every”) German I’d met had lain on the beach at Dubrovnik (Croatia), and every Dutch I’d met had had a skiing holiday at Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). These millions of individual vacations add up to a lot more influence than government-to-government relations, which tend to wilt when economic winds change direction.

Similarly, no country could ever invade Thailand, because every European paedophile and backpacker has made friends there. I’ve long suggested, therefore, that Taiwan promote its tourism more effectively in the West (not, of course, by promoting child prostitution), so that holiday-makers’ memories of Taiwan’s “friendlier-than-Chinese” inhabitants will save the country from PRC invasion.

And it can only help to have PRC students learning about the functioning of an open and democratic society, where ideas start from the ground up rather than the government down. The more that come and take classes and make friends with Taiwanese students, the more voices there will be in China cautioning against military action, and the more chance that China will change for the better.

Ma discovers time warp

TT: WHO document does exist, says MOFA official

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed the existence of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between China and the WHO in 2005, contradicting comments by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) a day earlier.

The existence and content of the MOU have been discussed publicly on numerous occasions by MOFA and its Chinese counterpart, but on Monday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) raised eyebrows by saying he could not be certain that the document existed because the Chinese Nationalist Party “was not in power in 2005.”

in other words: when Taiwan's history is written (the next "official" one after Lien Chan's baba's)
only periods when the KMT was in power will be included

class action, anyone?

you'd laugh if you didn't want to cry:

TT: Officials ordered to smoke

Officials in Gong’an County, Hubei Province, have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported yesterday. The Gong’an County government has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said. Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, the report said. “The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax,” Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong’an cigarette market supervision team, was quoted as saying. The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in Hunan Province.

reason to be cheerful?

TT: WHO invites ‘Chinese Taipei’ to WHA

Taiwan has received a letter from the WHO inviting it to attend as an observer at this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting next month under the name “Chinese Taipei,” Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) said yesterday.

...Taiwan’s presence at this annual meeting of the decision-­making arm of the WHO would mark the first time the country has been allowed to participate in a meeting or activity of a specialized UN agency since losing its UN membership to China in 1971.

But Taiwan is NOT going to this meeting; "Chinese Taipei" is,
and actually Taiwan was not a member of the UN; China (ROC) was and was replaced as "China member" by China (PRC)
the people of Taiwan were never represented and have never been asked their opinion
that's 23 million people, in case you think it's just a little unimportant island, and 17th (or so) largest trading nation in the world
(sorry, back to the TT article)

... Taiwan launched a campaign to participate in the WHO in 1997, but to no avail amid opposition from China.

so am i the only one worried that Ma&Co. have promised China something in return for what Ma calls the "goodwill of the 'mainland authorities'"?

... The officials at yesterday’s press conference declined to say what had transpired between Chinese and Taiwanese negotiators that led to Taiwan being granted WHA observer status.

man on golf course agrees with woman on bus

today i played golf with a man and his son
(or a boy and his father,
or, in blog-strives-for-jounalistic-accuracy: a man who said the boy with him was his son)
and they said that Chinese is the number one foreign language learned in Thailand now

"The future belongs to China", says woman on bus

At first i thought this woman was learning English on the bus in Bangkok's Sunday rain

i ASSUMED she'd be learning English, it's the world language, right?

turns out (sorry, you cannot really see in the photo) that she's learning Chinese