Two violins...

Two violins.

The first was from last week when Fanfan's parents took us out to TuCheng to see the blooming youtonghua that were/are blooming there. It was there that I took the pictures posted here the other day. It was a wonderful little hike, even though it was hot as the devil, and all the more relaxing when we wandered upon this gentleman playing the erhu.

(You can hear Fanfan and her mom talking about my hat. It just says "帽子" which just means "hat")*



The second is in the underground crosswalk in GongGuan. The guy was playing a beautiful song when we passed by, so I started to get out my camera. He stopped and asked me what I wanted to hear, and I told him I just liked to hear him play. He then proceeded to play something that was either too hard (to impress us) or that just wasn't as aurally pleasant as the first song. I think it's interesting nonetheless, the juxtaposition of two violins, the product of two cultures, in one place.

*

Meiji Shrine

Well, as happy as I am about this new camera, we still have a lot to learn about it. First, this video took EIGHT hours to upload to youtube because of the enormous size of the file (about 500 mb). Second, I got a good laugh upon watching the video not only because I sound like a fool trying to remember my Japanese history class from college but also because Fanfan and I both look like an old couple trying to record a greeting on an answering machine.* We were both oblivious to the fact that the video was still being recorded after about the first minute or two, and it only turned off when I changed the setting to take a panorama of the shrine.



What I was trying to ask about the Meiji Dynasty was whether or not it was responsible for Japan's modernization. I was mixed up, though, in trying to figure out where Commodore Perry's gift of a miniature steam train fit in with the Meiji, since, I know now, Perry's last visit to Japan pre-dates the Meiji Restoration by about 15 years.


*"Hi, you've reached the _________s, please leave a message after the beep, and we'll get back to as soon as possible. Have a good day...........is that it? [It's still on, Honey] What? [The light's still...] I pushed the button [It's blink...] But I... [Push the button again] I did!" *BEEP*

Fascinating videos from 1971 of some travels in China

I saw these videos (of which the above is the first) at Sinocidal today, and wanted to share them:

A couple of years ago I was talking to a friend’s father, back in the UK, about
life in China and he mentioned that he’d traveled there a couple of times in the
early seventies. Naturally I was very interested to hear of his experiences,
particularly as it was during a time when very few westerners were travelling to
China. He was the MD of a large European steel-works at the time, and was
invited to China, by the government, to negotiate the supply of steel to the
country. I believe he visited twice, once in 1970 and again in 1971. He showed
me some stills from the 1970 trip, but I was excited to learn that for his 1971
visit he had taken along, and had been allowed to use, a Cine camera.

As I mentioned this is only the first video, of which there are four. Go to Sinocidal and take a look at the comments and the funny comment about the bear pit at the Beijing Zoo, straight through which they are now apparently building a highway whilst the bears still meander below!

I don't even know why they have recycling trucks in Taiwan.

On any given night in Taiwan, you will pass someone going through stacks and stacks of junk to pull out all the cardboard and plastic they can. They'll be driving small trucks, or riding flatbed bikes like this lady.

(I know I look really serious, but I'm trying to ride my bike and take a video at the same time. Even though it was pretty late at night, you never know when a moped's going to dart out from nowhere).

Everyone tells me that Taiwanese people are notoriously stingy -- which I know, to some extent, is foreigner's saying things that make them sound like they really know the people* -- but I wonder if some of the people doing this aren't poor people. I've seen older couples in their sixties loading a tricycle motorcycle. The man was wearing a nice pair of pressed Khakis, a tucked-in Lacoste polo shirt, and a pair of work gloves. It looked like he had just come from an afternoon of playing golf to his nightly trash pickup.

I honestly don't know why the trash truck is followed by a recycling truck. None of my recycling has ever made it into the truck, as it is gobbled up by the three ladies that wait at the corner to take it off my hands.


* If Taiwanese people are supposedly so stingy, then why do they by cheap-ass breakable crap over and over when they could spend a little extra dough on something more durable?

Colbert's Chinese New Year Special.

[via AsiaPundit]

It appears as though Stephen Colbert devoted an entire episode last night to the upcoming Chinese New Year.

In the episode, Stephen -- the neologist -- talks about China the "frenemy," answers questions about China, has a rather Jon Stewart-ish interview -- meaning, much fewer interuptions and jokes -- with Sheryl Wudunn, and introduces America's new eight-child policy.

Not that anyone necessarily holds Stephen up as a pillar of precision when it comes to the facts -- seeing as he constantly talks about his attraction to "factoids" and the creation reality on Wikipedia -- but I decided to look up some of the things he said.

Right off, I had already read about the oft-repeated misconception about the relation between the word "danger" and "opportunity" in Chinese.

I looked up the stuff about the tiger/panda penises, and it seems to be at least somewhat true. Even here in Taiwan, killing tigers for, among other things, their penises was at some point a problem. I found nothing about panda penises.

The episode was overall not the funniest I've ever seen, but I figured I'd share it because there might be some sort inside jokes that I didn't understand because I don't speak Chinese yet -- for example, does "dao dao yen" really mean something, or was he just blurting something that sounded Chinese. I called my resident Chinese expert, Fanfan, and she said dao yen means "movie director" but she doesn't know what dao dao yen would mean.

By the way, these videos expire on March 13th, but by then they'll be on youtube, I'm sure. If you have any problems viewing -- which is likely, because Comedy Central's Motherload is miserable -- wait a couple of days, and search youtube for it.