Reflection of Visiting National Palace Museum

I went to visit National Palace Museum with four of our classmates, Grace, Vicky, Enid and Aya. When we arrived at the museum, it was already around 3:00 in the afternoon. We borrowed the audio guide with the museum, it cost us 100 NT. dollars to borrow the ear phones, which was kind of expensive for us. At that time, the museum was full of tons of people, which made us hard to visit our target treasures together. Hence, we divided into two groups, Enid +Vicky as one group; Aya, Grace and I as one group.

We found that the result of using audio guide wasn’t as good as we expected. The audio guide only offered some of the introduction of the treasures in the museum. What’s worse, we couldn’t hear the audio guide clearly because of the noisy environment created by different groups of tourists. Furthermore, we were forced to separate from Aya because of the other tourist. It seemed that everything was in a mass and I could only continued to visit the museum’s treasure with Grace only since it was hard for us to find either Aya or Vicky and Enid.

However, Grace and I were very lucky to bump into a guide who was leading a group of mainlander tourists. We found that the guide’s introduction was more clear and vivid than the audio guide. Thus, both Grace and I decided to follow that Chinese guide to listen to his introduction.

I found that the introduction provided Chinese guide was rich in terms of the art works’ historical backgrounds and the techniques explanation. With the Chinese guide’s help, I understood when did the art works were formed and the story behind each of the art works. Thanks to the Chinese guide Grace and I met over there, we had further understanding toward the art works such as the “Bamboo brush-holder depicting a letter reading scene from the Romance of west Chamber,” the “Aloes wood carving of the nine Elders in Xiang-shan Mountain,” the “meat shaped stone,” and the “Jadeite cabbage” etc.

I think National Palace Museum is a nice place to demonstrate the great art works of our history and country. However, the guided system isn’t very complete. In my opinion, the National Palace Museum and provide further training for the English or other languages tour guides so that these guides can provide better quality of art work introduction. Besides, there were too many tourists to visit the museum at one time, which made it hard for everyone to have chance to take a look on these treasures. If the museum can do further control of the quantity of tourists at one exhibition room at one time, the quality of visiting the museum could be improved a lot.

My Reflection on Zhongli City Presentation

I am familiar with the Zhongli City since it is close to my native place. I used to go there very often when I was a child. The place I went most often was the Yi Ming Temple (義民廟). It used to be a temple to worship those citizens who used to fight against the foes that attacked the village and died in the war. However, if you go to Yi Ming Temple nowadays, you can find several Gods of Taoism, and Buddhism insides.

Whenever I went to that temple, I went for the ceremony of worshiping “God Pig” (神豬). According to the elderly in my family, it is one of important activities for the Hakka people to worship for good luck in the following year. The farmer would bring and kill the heaviest pig that they raised to join this activity. The one who brings the heaviest pig would win the competition and get a great deal of money as reward. It would be a great honor to a farmer.

However, I didn’t like that kind of competition at that time since I felt that it was inhuman and kind of scary to see pig to be placed with that kind of position. Whenever I saw the “God Pig’s” eyes, I felt sense of guilt and sorry for the pig’s condition. Hence, I never go to that kind of ceremony when I grow up.

I like Zhong Li County since I can meet lots of Hakka people who are very friendly and hospitable and eat a variety of Hakka food, which is quite similar with the ones made by my grandmother, over there. Thus, whenever I go to Zhong Li County, I feel a sense of familiarity.

I like Silvia and Carol’s presentation a lot since they introduced several aspects of Zhongli city. Some points that they introduced like the exotic cuisine, and the foreign culture of Zhongli city are the ones I wasn’t familiar with before. I would like to experience the night market and the special foreign cuisine restaurants some day in the future.

My Opinion toward Betel Nut Beauties

When you drive along the street, you would probably see some spicy girls wearing bikini and sit in a transparent store. They are not prostitutes who try to use their charming appearance to attract man to sleep with them; they are Betel Nut Beauties who sell betel nuts and some drinks or cigarette.

These Betel Nut Beauties use their shining stores and charming image to attract the possible customers, who are mostly trunk drivers or workers, to come to their store and buy their products. They actually don’t do anything illegal, however, their wearing sometimes cause them some troubles.

For instance, some men with bad intention might go to the betel nut shops to molest these betel nut beauties. Some police officers might go to these betel nut beauties and ask them to wear more clothes since their spicy wearing and the way they greet the customers might have negative influence on the passing by teenagers. What’s more, it is the betel nut beauties’ actions and wearing that make the parents or other conservative groups of people in this society see them in negative points of views.

I believe that most of these betel nut beauties simply try to use their charming body images to attract more customers to go to their shops. They don’t do anything to disturb others’ lives. Sometimes these betel nut beauties can even be helpful for those who lose their way when driving.

In my opinion, there’s noting wrong for these betel nut beauties sell betel nuts with their attractive appearance. However, they need to keep in mind that their actions can be seen by not only the customers but also the teenagers or even younger generations. If the betel nut beauties only wear few clothes, they might get themselves into dangerous situations since some criminals might see them as easier attack targets.

It’s hard for those who have prejudice toward betel nut beauties to change the way they see these spicy girls. However, they need to keep in mind that their actions can be seen by not only the customers but also the teenagers or even younger generations. Perhaps they can try to put on more clothes and avoid doing some controversial actions so that they won't get themselves into great trouble.

Feedback toward the Cross-Cultural Experiences of Expatriates

2010/5/26
International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF國合會) is an organization that strengthens international cooperation and enhances foreign relations by promoting economic development, social progress and the welfare of the people in partner nations around the world.

The guess speaker Mr. Shih briefly introduced the ICDF (國合會). He told us what the organization did for our countries and those countries which have diplomatic relations with us. I think what the people in ICDF do for the countries which don’t have strong economic power or have great problems of people’s livelihood were very touching to me. These volunteers not only need to sacrifice their time of being with their family but also need to try their best to get involved in the foreign culture within a short period of time.

What’s more, these expatriated people might also encounter some difficulties or dangers such as the attack from the civil strife of the foreign countries they go to. Even though there are so many possible dangers or inconvenient things that they might encountered during the process of expatriate, these volunteers still devoted themselves toward the people who are in need in those developing countries. I think their attitudes and actions really worth admire from the public.

Throughout the speech, I think the part that related to Mr. Shih’s living experience in other countries were the most interesting parts. The pictures that were shown by Mr. Shih gave me a vague idea of the living environment and living experience toward those countries.

I think I might not be able to experience what Mr. Shih had experienced before since it’s hard for me to tolerate the loneliness of being alone in foreign countries. Besides, it’s hard for me to bare the environment of the Africa countries mentioned by Mr. Shih. However, I will introduced the projected mentioned by Mr. Shih to my friends in case that some of them might have interest in such kind of voluntary works in the countries which have diplomatic relations with us.

ICDF Website: http://www.icdf.org.tw/english/e_about_bg.asp

Taiwanese Puppetry as a sub-culture

Many of my friends are infatuated with the Pili Puppetry series. Two of them draw drawings featured with characters that have appeared in the Pili series. I love to watch those series as well. Personally, because I have watched Pili puppetry with my father since I was seven. I had deep affection to it, which has accompanied my childhood till now. To me, the pronunciation of Taiwanese is very different from the use of Taiwanese I use in my life. It sounds more scholarly and educated. Sometimes, I really wonder how the script-writers come up with diverse use of vocabulary and complex plot. It is very fascinating to me because listening to the utterances from each character is one enjoyment. For different groups of characters the pronunciation differs. There are different word choices for characters to indicate the same thing. By listening to the conversation, you can simply identify which group the character belongs to.

For my friends, they adore the design of the puppets. For them, each puppet is a piece of art. The delicate clothing, weapon, and hairstyle of each character show how creative the production team is. They also invent different poems, theme songs, names for attacking skills for their characters. Thus, creating a new character is not an easy job. And the successful establishment of a character makes my friends crazy. They all adore the creativity and originality of the production team. When there is a comic expo, many people dress themselves like characters in the puppetry series to pay tribute to the characters and their makers.

I think Pili really does a great job in making the puppetry appealing to younger generations. I have heard from my father that Pili employs college students to write scripts and perform theme songs for characters. With the employment of young generation, I think Pili can keep absorbing new energy and create more fascinating plot, songs, and characters.

Sharon Zheng

My thoughts over Chinese Calligraphy

Each student in Taiwan must have the experience of practicing calligraphy in class. To me as an elementary school kid, it was such a torture that I wanted to escape. To write a good calligraphy, posture was extremely important. We were asked to hang our wrists up in the air and move our arms steadily, which for me was a task. My right arm got sore in several minutes. What’s worse, if I wrote bad calligraphy, the teacher would punish me by hitting me on the hand with a strict. That was the reason why I was afraid of practicing calligraphy. Writing a good calligraphy requires plentiful patience and practice. I still remembered that I envied classmates who could write beautifully. It was an honor if someone could be picked by the teacher to represent the whole class to attend the competition.

However, my attitude changed. Somehow, as I grew up, I found calligraphy artistically beautiful and worth practicing because it could train my concentration on things. I adored the structure of each character and develop my interest in imitating the strokes and the structure of characters with ball pan. Even though I still wrote bad calligraphy, I could write beautifully with ball pans. I even tried to buy models for calligraphy for myself to imitate with ball pan. In the course of imitating, I found much peace within myself and could concentrate more on what I was working on. Each character has to be balanced and you have to be steady enough to write characters properly.

Now, I do think that writing calligraphy is a good way to train oneself to be concentrated and stable. It takes efforts to memorize the whole structure of a character. I feel very peaceful and sharp when practicing writing. When I finish duplicating one model, I often feel a sense of achievement. Whenever I feel upset or anxious, I will sit down in front of my desk and start to write something until my handwriting becomes steady and straight. It is said that you can judge one’s disposition and mood by looking at the handwriting. I often look at my own handwriting. If it is very careless, I would take one model out and start writing. To me, practicing writing calligraphy becomes one way to cultivate my patience and disposition.
Sharon Zheng

Thoughts on Techo Sam Thà Tsú (the Third Prince)

The sensation the Techo Sam Thà Tsú made in the World Games in Kaohsiung was a great success in promoting local culture in Taiwan.
Personally, I do not think very highly about this innovative way of presenting local culture. I prefer the original way the deity is. To me, this way it looks more like a deity than an entertaining thing. Because of the success in the World Games, other places begin to perform Techo Sam Thà Tsú. Sometimes the background music may be other contemporary songs such as "Sorry Sorry" by a Korean group. This phenomenon shows that people become more acceptable toward this invention.

Even though I do not like it very much, I try to think otherwise. To appeal to people who are not familiar with one culture, this kind of performance can effectively attract their attention and interest. I cannot deny that this invention works very successfully.

I learn from this experience that change is not a negative thing. Through renewing tradition, we may inject new energy and meaning to those old things. I hope that after this class, I can try to create something new from our cultural heritage.

Sharon Zheng