My reflection on the course "Chinese Culture in English"

From the course I discovered the beauty of Taiwan and learned more about our culture. However, what I've learned from the course conflicts with what I've known. When we are talking about the beautiful scenery and tourist spots, I thought about the constructions and pollutions the factories and companies brought. For example, we learned that Yunlin (雲林), Changhua (彰化) and Chiayi (嘉義) counties are famous for its wonderful sceneries and the agricultural culture. However, the plan of Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區計畫) is actually ruining all these beauties. Farmers are being evacuated away from the land their rely on. Fishermen can't make their livings because the water is polluted. The Highest Court has already announced that the environmental assessment of the Central Taiwan Science Park is invalid. But the Environment Protection Department didn't use its power to stop the construction. There are hundreds of thousands of reasons to stop the program but our government departments ignore the declaration of the highest court, despite the law of our country and the happiness of the people of the nation, continuously work on the illegal project on Science Park.

And when we are talking about the various and abundant cultures in Taiwan, I thought about the suppression of aboriginals and the disadvantaged ones. For example, once we talked about the groups of people in Taiwan, we mentioned the aboriginals in Taiwan. The seemingly wonderful aboriginal cultures are actually invaded by us (I mean most of the Han people and other cultures). Indeed, they used to do hunting, singing and dancing. Their culture involves a lot of ceremonies for different time periods and they have special dressings and decorations.

But today these are all just something for sale. The unique dressings and decorations have become products in the souvenir stores. The ceremonies have become parts of some tourist programs. Today the aboriginals have to leave their hometown and come to big cities such as Taipei or Taichung to make their livings. Most of them become the labors who build the skyscrapers and the mass transportation systems. These labors work hard and are exposed to dangerous working environments but they received small amount of money, which is just right enough for them to make the ends meet. With insufficient salary, these workers can't rent a place to live and they have no spare money to send back home. This become a cycle for them: they can't earn more money because after their own living expense, there is no more for them to use; they haven't earned enough money to go back home, thus they stay at the cities for a longer time to earn more.

If we take a look around us, we might found that there are plenty of aboriginal tribes living at the countryside around Taipei county. I've been to a tribe of A-may under the bridge between Sanshia(三峽) and Yingge(鶯歌). The experiences and discoveries I had there really struck me and influenced me a lot. If possible, I would like to invite our classmates to visit the tribe.

For me, it is really a suffer to take the course because every time I learned something precious in Taiwan, the reality keeps bothering me. It is really pathetic that at the same time we students are figuring out methods to promote Taiwan, but at the same time people are damaging the beautiful island. If we can have the chance to discuss about what is really happening in Taiwan, we can understand what kind of problem we are facing and come up with some solutions to make Taiwan better.

The followings are the links to some article to what I've mentioned. If you are interested in the issues, please take a look.

中科四期精選懶人包
http://antictsp.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/中科死四期，精選回顧-懶人包/
撒烏瓦知、崁津、三鶯部落後援會
http://support-sanying.blogspot.com/

Judy Chou

Reflection on the Food Presentation

This experience of undergoing a presentation regarding Taiwanese food gave me a good lesson. In the course of selecting representative foods, I discovered that Taiwanese foods included a variety of origins. That made the selection much more difficult than ever. Now, as the diverse people of diverse ethnic groups emigrated to Taiwan, different cooking elements from other cultures affected Taiwanese food culture. Thus, we have restaurants with Tai-style, Mexican style, and etc. Besides, sometimes Taiwanese people integrate different cooking and added their creativity. One of the famous example is the pizza. We try to put fruits into it, which is not the original style. Some Italian people react negatively against pizza with pineapple. However, I love it very much. Once I heard one French exchange student saying that she loved this kind of pizza more than the original one. Taiwanese people are really talented in cooking. Personally, I like Chicken soup with some Chinese herbs. Though some combination of herbs taste bitter, my mother makes soup sweet by adding red dates and fructus lyciis. This kind of soup is beneficial to body. I especially love to drink chicken soup in winter. After drinking this soup, I always feel warm and energetic.

Sharon Zheng

Foot Massage in my memory

My initial impression of foot massage was from one of my relatives whose occupation was a massage therapist. He owned a store with black glasses which blocked light from outside. Thus, I always thought massage was conducted in a dark environment, which aroused my fear without doubt. I received foot massage once from him. During the whole procedure, I felt pain all over in my foot. I even felt pain after the massage was finished. And the relative started to say that my liver was poor, my digesting system was weak, and my body needed more nutrition, which later became a guide for my parents to improve my body condition. They picked Chinese herbs which were said to improve my health status. At that time, I really thought that foot massage was a way to punish people. How could people feel relaxed after foot massage!!?? I couldn’t understand.
Later, I memory about foot massage was connected with a blind singer, Bing-hui Li. He became famous because of his song “wandering to Danshui”. Many TV programs invited him to share his career as an impaired-massure. That was how I knew about an impaired-massure’s life was like. My impression toward this occupation was blind people, low-income, and difficult. They had to rely on other people who took them to their working place.
Now, my impression toward foot massage is associated with bright and clear parlors along the street, which is very different from the past one. I still feel very amazed when watching at the new type of store for foot massage. Different from the dark room which aroused my fear, this new decoration really eases my nervousness toward foot massage. However, now I still cannot gather my courage to give it a try. I still can vividly remember the pain I felt in my childhood. I may try again when my life style becomes more healthier.

SharonZheng

Face (Mianzi)

Face (Mianzi)
People in Taiwan care a lot about their dignity, in other words, they care a lot about their faces (Mianzi). Most of the Taiwanese tend to would pop their faces (mianzi) in front of others. The main reason why people do such kind of thing is they want to earn others’ respect and higher social status.

On the contrary, if you make people lose their faces (mianzi) in public by revealing their secrets or something they don’t want others know, people would think of you as a rude person because you insult this person to some degree.

In order to keep their mianzi, people usually only share something positive with others during the chatting, conversation, or interaction with others in public.
For instance, if a man lost all of his belongings, in order to save his mianzi, this man might simply act as if there was nothing happened to him.

Saving mianzi doesn’t only happen to men, women also do similar things. For example, when Taiwanese women encounter some thing bad such as domestic violence, rape, or conflict with their husbands, most of Taiwanese women would choose to remain silent instead of asking help from others. The reason why these women do not reveal the negative sides of their lives is they want to save their mianzi so that the society won’t treat or see them with special attitude.

In short, in Taiwan society, you need to save face (mianzi) not only for yourself but also for the ones that you interact with. In this way, you can show your respect to others and earn others’ respect at the same time.

The proud of Taiwan? - Tzuchi

On March 11th we watched a series of video clips made by a group of Taiwanese students introducing Taiwan. I appreciated the hard work on gathering so many fabulous pictures and I did like the video very much because it reminds me how beautiful the island is. However, there is one point mentioned in the clip that I don’t really agree with. Here I want to share my idea with you guys.

In the “famous people/thing” part of the clip, they mentioned Tzuchi (慈濟), the most famous foundation and charity from Taiwan. As we all know, Tzuchi was established by the Dharma Master Cheng Yen in 1966, mainly dedicate themselves to education, medicine and humanistic culture. Of course, we Taiwanese are all very proud that we have such a charitable organization. But after I read the article from the journalist Hu muqing (胡慕情), I don’t really think that Tzuchi deserved such praise from Taiwan and other countries.

Here is the article. http://gaea-choas.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_8012.html【災後半年】慈善有界線

As we all know, after the catastrophe on August 8 in 2009, Taiwan government and Tzuchi help the victims to rebuild their home. The most controversial part of the rebuilding is the “temporary residence” or “eternal home.” The local residents are mainly separated into two parts: the ones who want to stay at the shelter or the temporary residence, and the ones who want to go back to their shabby hometown. Doubtlessly we should respect their choices. Hence it is the government and Tzuchi's responsibility to fulfill their needs and help them to get back on their feet.

However, Tzuchi use their great love and mercy as a disguise, but in fact intruding the locals’ life. Tzuchi helps the local to rebuild their home and at the same time adds some “Tzuchi” flavor to their house: the big rocks with description to remind the broken-hearted locals of how the tragedies happen to their family members, roads named by Tzuchi, and disturbing the locals’ religious beliefs.

Of course Tzuchi is helping out of good will, but we have to make sure there’s a boundary between helping and invasion. Also, we Taiwanese should rethink whether Tzuchi is really Taiwan’s proud.

Judy Chou, Eng dept. FJU

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2010.03.24 AM 00:50
I found an nice article talking about what Tzuchi have done.
慈濟的愛，不如一碗白飯
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/Bernstein/15990229

Guanxi “關係”

In regard to the discussion about the term, guanxi, in our textbook, I have a complex feeling towards the phenomenon that the social network of Taiwanese people is based on guanxi, which is a kind of relationship Taiwanese people share with other people around them or in their lives. As mentioned in class, if I establish a guanxi with a vender owner; in other word, I become a frequent patron, I may be treated some additional service which needs no payment for. This kind of guanxi can be extended to my friends if I introduce them to the vender owner. They possibly have the same service like I receive from the owner.

As a Taiwanese person, I don’t find this social network between people complex. We can benefit people around us and receive some assistance from people whom we share guanxi with. Sometimes, when I am in need of help which my parents cannot offer, they ask for their friends who can help. And they help me without asking for any repay at that moment. Once we use guanxi to ask other to help us, we are expected to repay when being asked for help in the future, which is considered as obligation and etiquette of asking for favor. This guanxi system really makes me feel warm in heart. The practice of guanxi can be seen everywhere. That is a part of our lives.

However, sometimes I do find this system troublesome. I will feel unfair if someone uses guanxi to win a position in job instead of using his or her ability. Though feeling so, I won’t complain too much because I live in this society. Besides, everyone may do that. That is the way our society goes.


Sharon zheng

Orientation

This is a blog for students of Fu Jen Catholic University, who have taken the course Chinese Culture in Foreign Language-English, to reflect and express themselves about what they've learned and obtained in or outside the class.

The basic requirement of the blogging for the course is to post at least 8 articles.

We are group number 2. The group members are Judy Chou, Sharon Zheng, Ann Chang, and Ayai Kojima.