2011Vol.41No.6

THE AMERIC AN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN TAIPEI

S P E CI A L I SSUE J u n e 2 0 1 1 / Vo l u m e 4 1 N u m b e r 6 www.amch am. c o m . t w

TRAVEL& CULTURE

2011

TAIWAN BUSINESS TOPICS June 2011 • VOLUME 41 NUMBER 6 中華郵政北台字第 號執照登記為雜誌交寄 5000

NT$150

6_2011_Cover.indd 1

2011/6/27 4:04:02 PM

ConTenTS

TAIPeI AreA

june 2011

volume 41, number 6 一○○年六月號

Editor-in-Chief

總編輯

Don Shapiro Art Director/

沙蕩 美術主任 /

Production Coordinator

Katia Chen Staff Writer

Jane Rickards

後製統籌

陳國梅 採訪編輯

李可珍

Manager, Publications Sales & Marketing 廣告行銷經理

Irene Tsao

曹玉佳

Translation

Zep Hu

翻譯

胡立宗

American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei 129 MinSheng East Road, Section 3, 7F, Suite 706, Taipei 10596, Taiwan P.O. Box 17-277, Taipei, 10419 Taiwan Tel: 2718-8226 Fax: 2718-8182 e-mail: amcham@amcham.com.tw website: http://www.amcham.com.tw 名稱：台北市美國商會工商雜誌 發行所：台北市美國商會 臺北市10596民生東路三段129號七樓706室 電話：2718-8226 傳真：2718-8182

photo : mark caltonhill

8 Guns and roses: Wanhua makes a Comeback

The popular film Monga has revived interest in the oldest district in Taipei, home to some of the city’s major sightseeing spots.

By Mark Caltonhill

ArounD THe ISlAnD photo : rich matheS on

TOPICS is a publication of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, ROC. Contents are independent of and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Officers, Board of Governors, Supervisors or members. © Copyright 2011 by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, ROC. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint original material must be requested in writing from AmCham. Production done in-house, Printing by Farn Mei Printing Co., Ltd. 登記字號：台誌第一零九六九號 印刷所：帆美印刷股份有限公司 經銷商：台灣英文雜誌社 台北市105敦化北路222巷19之1號1樓

12 A Day Trip to Yingge and Sanxia

Besides the museum and shops devoted to ceramics, “old streets,” and an exquisite temple, the area is ideal for hiking and cycling.

By Mark Caltonhill

發行日期：中華民國一○○年六月 中華郵政北台字第5000號執照登記為雜誌交寄

OFFICERS: Chairman/ Bill Wiseman Vice Chairmen/ William E. Bryson / David Pacey Treasurer: Carl Wegner Secretary/ William J. Farrell 2010-2011 Governors: Michael Chu, Alan Eusden, Douglas R. Klein, Cindy Shueh Lin, David Pacey, Stephen Y. Tan, Lee Wood.

2011-2012 Governors: William E. Bryson, Alexander Duncan, Christopher Fay, William Farrell, Steven Lee, Neal Stovicek, Carl Wegner, Bill Wiseman.

CulTure 16 Generational Change in Taiwan Art

Whereas their elders emphasized Taiwanese identity and social purpose, the younger artists are more self-absorbed, apolitical, and influenced by technology.

By Jane Rickards

20 natural and manmade beauty Fills Sandimen

The area’s aboriginal villages court tourism but retain their authentic local flavor.

By Steven Crook

2011 Supervisors: George Chao, Varaporn Dhamcharee, Jenny Lin, Ashvin Subramanyam, Ken Wu. COMMITTEES: Agro-Chemical/ Mong Yang Tan; Asset Management/ Christine Jih, Winnie Yu; Banking/ Carl Chien; Capital Markets/ William Bryson, Jane Hwang, Jimin Kao; Chemical Manufacturers/ David Price; CSR/ Lume Liao, Fupei Wang; Education & Training/ Robert Lin, William Zyzo; Greater China Business/ Helen Chou, Stephen Tan; Human Resources/ Richard Lin, Seraphim Mar, Ashvin Subramanyam; Infrastructure/ L.C. Chen, Paul Lee; Insurance/ Mark OÆDell, Dan Ting, Lee Wood; Intellectual Property & Licensing/ Jason Chen, Jeffrey Harris, Scott Meikle, Douglas Weinstein; Manufacturing/ George Chao, Albert Li; Marketing & Distribution/ Christopher Fay, Wei Hsiang, Gordon Stewart; Medical Devices/ Nelson Hsu, Daniel Yu; Pharmaceutical/ David Lin, Edgard Olaizola, Jun Hong Park; Real Estate/ Peter Crowhurst, Kristy Hwang; Retail/ Angela Chang, Prudence Jang, Douglas Klein; Sustainable Development/ Eng Leong Goh, Kenny Jeng; Tax/ Cheli Liaw, Jenny Lin, Josephine Peng; Technology/ Revital Golan, R.C. Liang, Jeanne Wang, Deborah Yen; Telecommunications & Media/ Thomas Ee, June Su, Jason Wang; Transportation/ Michael Chu; Travel & Tourism/ Pauline Leung, David Pacey. image: courteS y of wu tien- chang

cover photo : SchoolgirlS examine the S culpture at the QingS hui ZuShi temple in Sanxia (p hoto by m ark caltonhill)

4

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_2011 Contents.indd 4

2011/6/28 2:32:54 PM

ju n e 2 0 1 1 • Vo lu m e 4 1 n u m be r 6

photo : mark caltonhill

photo : t rista di Geneva

photo : tourism bureau

43 The Trees That Shade Taiwan

The Council of Agriculture has been conducting a reforestation and afforestation program for the past decade.

By Steven Crook

AmCHAm eVenTS 39 AmCham Companies Through the Years 47 Anniversary Golf Tournament

24 Kinmen: From War Zone to Tourist Spot

A onetime battlefield just off the mainland coast, these islands are now attracting visitors from both Taiwan and China.

By Mark Caltonhill

28 Paradise Lost? Orchid Island’s Rocky History

If the Tao people of Orchid Island can overcome some modern-day challenges while celebrating and sharing their rich heritage, the future looks bright for this amazing but remote haven.

By Trista di Geneva

THE TAIWAN EXPERIENCE 34 A Guide to the Guidebooks

photo : courtesy of janet hsieh

How well do five recently issued publications help tourists make the most of their time in Taiwan?

By Brent Hannon

40 Janet’s Thoughts on Travel

The host of Fun Taiwan and other TV shows, U.S.-born Janet Hsieh has reached the level of popularity in which she is widely known by first-name only.

By Aimee Wong

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_2011 Contents.indd 5

5

2011/6/28 2:36:39 PM

ADVERTORIAL

PepsiCo Celebrates 30 Years in Taiwan with New Production Facility, Introducing Lay’s Baked Potato Chips to this Market

Pop music star Show Luo is the spokesperson for PepsiCo’s newest product, Lay’s Baked Potato Chips.

PepsiCo (Taiwan), which this year marks its 30th anniversary as a leader in the domestic snack food market, recently inaugurated a new production facility in Tainan, the first plant in Asia to make Lay’s Baked Potato Chips. Built with an investment of nearly US$10 million, the plant boasts a production line that extends for 200 meters – the length of two football fields. It utilizes advanced baking technology to ensure a flavorful, crispy product while reducing fat content by 70% and calories by 19%.

Lay’s Baked Potato Chips are now available at local retail stores in three

6

delicious versions – Vegan, Grilled Seaweed, and Bacon Cheese – especially formulated to satisfy the taste of the Taiwan public. “Bringing this product to the local market was our way of expressing appreciation to Taiwan consumers for their patronage and support over the past three decades,” said PepsiCo (Taiwan) General Manager Cindy Shueh Lin. The plant was inaugurated on May 24 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by such dignitaries as Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te and other city officials, American Institute in Taiwan Deputy Director Eric Madi-

son, and AmCham Taipei President Andrea Wu. Speaking at the ceremony, Cindy Lin praised the investment climate in Taiwan and the cooperation the company has received from the Tainan City government. She noted that the investment has brought increased employment to the Tainan area, and that 80% of the potatoes used in PepsiCo (Taiwan) products are domestically grown, a substantial increase from the 60% of just three years ago due to the “relentless efforts of the company’s local Agricultural Team and our more than 40 contract farmers.” “ P e p s i C o ( Ta i w a n ) h a s b e e n continuously deepening its presence in this market for the past 30 years,” said Lin. “In line with PepsiCo’s global strategy of Performance with Purpose, the company has sought to enable local consumers to enjoy a more diverse selection of delicious products, while also maintaining a commitment to sustainable development.” Performance with Purpose entails three major components: Human Sustainability, offering multi-grain snack Sunbites, Lays LOHAS line with less sodium, and now Lays Baked to create a diverse portfolio of delicious products that promote a healthy and active lifestyle; Environmental Sustainability, reducing water usage by 15% and energy usage by 25% in just the past three years; and Talent Sustainabili-

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_2011_Advertorial_pepsico.indd 6

2011/6/27 8:15:03 PM

PepsiCo invested US$10 million in Taiwan to build Asia’s first production line for baked potato chips. Among the dignitaries at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and press conference were, left to right, Director General Wang Hsin-chi of the Tainan City Government Bureau of Labor, AmCham Taipei President Andrea Wu, PepsiCo (Taiwan) General Manager Cindy Shueh Lin, Tainan City Mayor Lai Chingte, AIT Deputy Director Eric Madison, and Director General Yeh Hui-ching of the Tainan City Bureau of Economic Development

ty, providing an environment where employees can develop and grow with the company. In Taiwan, our average tenure is 15 years, with employee satisfaction consistently growing since 2008 and the turnover rate as low as 2% last year.

PepsiCo offers the world's largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 19 different product lines that generate more than US$1 billion in annual retail sales each. Our main businesses – Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi Cola – also make hundreds of other enjoyable and wholesome foods and

beverages that are respected household names throughout the world.

With net revenues of approximately US$60 billion, PepsiCo's people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet, which we believe also means a more successful future for PepsiCo. We call this commitment Performance with Purpose: PepsiCo's promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages for local tastes; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment, including by conserving energy and water usage, and reducing packaging

The celebratory drum dance at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

volume; to provide a great workplace for our associates; and to respect, support, and invest in the local communities where we operate. For more information, please visit www. pepsico.com.

PepsiCo (Taiwan) Through the Years 1981 1987 1992 2001 2003 2009 2011 To express thanks to the Tainan City government, PepsiCo (Taiwan) General Manager Cindy Shueh Lin presented Tainan City Mayor Lai Ching-te with a special commemorative package of Lay’s Baked Potato Chips – the first product off the production line.

2011

Presco company was founded Tainan factory expanded due to increased sales Local contract farming began Frito-Lay Taiwan was established Poca-Lay’s became #1 potato chip brand due to launch of Natural Potato Chip Seaweed Launch of the first healthier salty snack with SunBites Taiwan became the only market worldwide that has its own uniquely shaped Doritos for its Late Night series.

Asia's first ever Lay’s Baked production line launched in Tainan

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_2011_Advertorial_pepsico.indd 7

7

2011/6/28 2:37:39 PM

A boy band makes a video.

Guns and Roses: Wanhua Makes a Comeback The popular film Monga has revived interest in the oldest district in Taipei, home to some of the city’s major sightseeing spots.

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY MARK CALTONHILL

8

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_wanhua.indd 8

2011/6/27 6:23:53 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

M

onga , Niu Chen-ze’s 2010 movie set against the background of strife between Minnan-speaking long-term residents and Mandarin-speaking “Mainlanders” in the 1980s urban decay of the Taipei district known as either Monga or Wanhua, is a story of guns, gangs, prostitutes, rape, murder and betrayal. But the film, which won awards in Asia and was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, is equally a tale of books, friendship, martial arts, students, religion, love, and loyalty.

But what can today’s visitors expect to find there three decades later?

Firstly, the name Monga (or Manga or Banka) – which by the 1980s was still heard but rarely seen in print – has made something of a comeback. It is now widely used to celebrate the area’s traditions, as well as its emergence as a tourist destination, partly as a result of Niu’s film.

Derived from an aboriginal word Vanka referring to the canoes with which indigenous people brought sweet potatoes, charcoal, and other produce downriver to sell to Chinese settlers, it was adapted as Manga (艋舺; literally “small boat”) in Minnan. These characters meant nothing to the Japanese when

they took over Taiwan in 1895, so they used the similarly pronounced Manka (萬華; literally “Ten Thousand Flowers”), and these characters were preserved by the incoming ROC administration from 1945, but using the Mandarin pronunciation Wanhua . Hence none of the original characters, meaning, or pronunciation was preserved.

The river was the heart of this district, the earliest part of Taipei inhabited

by Han Chinese, but today is largely hidden behind high levees. A good place to start a visit is at the Taipei City Wholesale Fish Market (531 Wanda Road) near the river, where more than 100 tons of fresh fish are auctioned before dawn each day. Smaller quantities can be bought at the retail stalls next door, and there are a couple of restaurants selling cooked fish. Less bloody, the No.1 Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market nearby is also worth a look.

By the 1730s, Manga was the main center of trade in northern Taiwan, the origin of Taipei City, as well as its major port. This dominant role continued until silting of the river led to Manga’s decline.

Another perhaps more important cause was the frequent fighting among ethnic subgroups who had migrated from Jinjiang (晉江), Hui’an (惠安), Nan’an (南

安) and Tong’an (同安) in Fujian Province. These clashes finally led to a mass exodus of the losers, who then established Dadaocheng (大稻埕) as a rival wharf further downstream (at the end of today’s MinSheng West Road).

Manga’s Qingshui Zushi Temple (清 水祖師廟), first built in 1787, was razed during such fighting in 1853, only to be rebuilt in 1867. Largely overshadowed by its larger neighbor Longshan Temple (龍 山寺), its sleepy, restaurant-sided courtyard offers a glimpse of times gone by.

It would probably not look very different from when Canadian George MacKay first came in 1872. One of the most successful missionaries in the entire China region, he nevertheless had great difficulty “taking” Manga. In his book From Far Formosa , McKay spells it as Bang-kah , nicknames it “the Gibraltar of heathenism in North Formosa,” and says that its estimated population of around 45,000 made it the largest and most important city in northern Taiwan.

“The citizens of Bang-kah, old and young, are daily toiling for money, money – cash, cash,” he noted in his journal of 1875. “They are materialistic, superstitious dollar-seekers. At every visit, when passing through their streets we are maligned, jeered at, and abused.

Hundreds of children run ahead, yelling with derisive shouts; others follow, pelting us with orange-peel, mud, and rotten eggs. For hatred to foreigners, for pride, swaggering ignorance, and conceit, for superstitious, sensual, haughty, double-faced wickedness, Bang-kah takes the palm.”

Today foreigners are warmly welcomed, though even the main tourist sights (Longshan Temple, Snake Alley, Xinmending, etc.) are not overrun with outsiders and the atmosphere is thoroughly local. Longshan, for example, is a typical working temple, where Manga residents go to supplicate and thank their favorite deities. Ostensibly A museum-like bookstore and café provides some cultural uplift.

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_wanhua.indd 9

9

2011/6/27 6:23:55 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

a Buddhist place of worship, since the main deity worshiped is the Bodhisattva Guanyin, in reality it is typical of mixed temples with numerous other figures honored in smaller shrines to the rear.

Ghost money and herbs XiYuan Road on the temple’s west side has many stores specializing in religious paraphernalia. Selling everyday items such as ghost money, divination tools, and statues, as well as high art and more bizarre items such as weapons used by jitong (乩童; “divination boys”) for self-harm when possessed by spirits, they are good places for visitors to search for more unusual souvenirs.

Along the east side of the temple is “herb lane,” worth exploring for vegetation used in cooking and herbal cures.

In front of Longhsan Temple is a large open plaza. This is an ideal place to learn about traditional life in contemporary Taipei. Members of the local community, most of them elderly males, gather here all day long to pass the time, make friends, and enjoy themselves, and the side streets are filled with small cheap eateries. One store of unusual interest is the secondhand bookshop, antique bazaar, and café at No. 152, Lane 4, GuangZhou Street, one of the nearest things Manga has to a museum.

Another museum-like venture is the government-backed development of

Bopiliao (剝皮寮), a short street of old buildings, one block further east near the junction of GuangZhou Street and KangDing Road. Still a work in progress, it already throngs with local sightseers because it was featured in Niu’s Monga . With official support, many of the small houses along what is said to have been the district’s main street in very early times have been renovated and contain exhibitions of history, art, and local culture. Although there is not yet much in the way of English information, it is still a good place to take pictures and buy souvenirs.

Back on the square, buskers entertain crowds, experts pick lottery numbers for hopeful gamblers, people dance and play Chinese chess, monks beg, and streetwalkers and their pimps approach potential customers.

Although prostitution has officially been stopped, it seems to be tolerated in Manga, where the predominantly elderly women operate openly and there are still STD clinics behind the temple. The showcase platform of this “colorful” slice of local culture, HuaXi Street (華 西街; nicknamed “Snake Alley”) further east, which had open displays of snakes, turtles, and apes, and one of the city’s major red-light districts along adjacent alleys, has largely been cleaned up.

This is probably due to tourist dollars as much as government edict: the sanitized market now specializes in seafood

snacks and foot massages as much as snake blood and happy endings.

There are many temples in the district, and many temple activities. Of particular note is that each yea r in November or December (the 22nd and 23rd days of the 10th lunar month), the Qingshan Temple (青山宮) at 218 GuiYang Street Sec. 2 organizes one of Taipei’s most spectacular street parades, with statues of deities from nearby temples brought to celebrate the King of Qingshan’s birthday. Beyond the bright lights and camera crews, this is also an event that will have changed little since MacKay’s time.

Uniforms and costumes From a transportation hub based on the river, Manga developed into a center of trade. In addition to the fishing and agricultural products sold in its markets, it was particularly known for its textile and clothing businesses. While these have largely gone elsewhere (mainly to China and Southeast Asia), there are still a few reminders to be seen and enjoyed.

Two curiosities in the otherwise quiet Hanzhong Street area are the trade outfitters and fancy dress shops. The former provide uniforms for everyone from shop staff to marching bands, while the latter stock costumes for private parties, trade shows, and cosplay events.

Far more obvious is the modish district of Ximending, Taiwan’s first pedestrian zone. Busy on weekday evenings, it is completely mobbed with young people on weekends, when record companies, cosmetic manufacturers, and others put on stage shows featuring established and up-and-coming music and television stars. Licensed buskers and street artists draw crowds in the wider carfree streets, while the back alleys leading toward KunMing Street are home to dozens of small independent designers selling clothing and accessories to Taipei’s counterculture youths.

There are tattoo artists and body

A silhouette portrait artist shows a finished piece to a customer.

10

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_wanhua.indd 10

2011/6/27 6:23:57 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

Left to right, getting a full-chest tattoo, graffiti in Ximending, and visitors strolling along Bopiliao.

piercers as well as hair salons, manicurists, and masseurs. Street walls are covered in bright murals and graffiti, and the sound of skateboards echoes through the lanes above the chords of indie-music played on portable hifis.

The area is also popular with musicians making pop videos, and with local television and film makers. Of course, Niu was not the first mainstream director to make use of the area’s traditional atmosphere. Hou Hsiao-hsien also chose it for his 1986 film Dust in the Wind (戀戀風塵) and Tsai Ming-liang used it in his 1992 Rebels of the Neon God (青少年哪吒).

Manga was once the entertainment center of Taipei, with numerous theaters doing good business on weekdays and weekends alike. Although many are gone, largely replaced by KTV centers, Ximending still has a range of movie houses showing mainstream and art movies, and is one of the main centers of activity during the annual Taipei International Film Festival.

One reversal of this cultural decline

was the reopening of the Red House Theater (紅樓劇場) in 2002. This fine Japanese-era, Western-style building dating from 1908 was originally constructed as a market, but was converted to a theater by Shanghai émigrés in 1949. Now under city government control, it has handicraft stalls on the first floor, but regularly organizes performances upstairs.

Its reconstruction led to a wider change in local fortunes, and the pedestrian zone around the theater fills with café tables by day and pub seating at night. This is a center of Taipei’s LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community, as can be identified by the leather trouser and underwear specialist stores – Manga’s latest take on the textile industry – interspersed among the cafés.

The rest of Manga, lying to the south of the now underground Taipeito-Banqiao railway line, has its own attractions, but is largely residential.

For locals, two of the highlights of living there are the spacious Youth Park

and even more massive Riverside Park beneath the Huazhong Bridge to Yonghe.

Wanhua Railway Station offers access to the Longshan Temple area for visitors from outside the capital, though Taipei Main Station is within walking distance of Ximending. There are also MRT stations at Longshan Temple and Ximending, and ZhongHua Road is a main hub for bus services throughout the city and beyond.

Out-of-towners can also take advantage of the wide choice of hotels in the neighborhood, ranging from backstreet hovels to high-class establishments. Perhaps the ideal location for those wishing to connect with Manga’s past is one of the riverside hotels with windows offering views of the sunset across the waters that once swarmed with boats.

So what will you find in Manga? No guns, hopefully, though perhaps a few hints of gangs, and definitely a ladyof-the-night or two. And religion to be sure, food for certain, and maybe you will even fall in love with Taipei’s original conurbation.

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_wanhua.indd 11

11

2011/6/27 6:24:02 PM

A Day Trip to Yingge and Sanxia Besides the museum and shops devoted to ceramics, “old streets,” and an exquisite temple, the area is ideal for hiking and cycling.

BY MARK CALTONHILL

photo : mark caltonhill

12

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_Sanxia.indd 12

2011/6/27 6:34:56 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

I

t is easy to zip past the Sanying (三 鶯) interchange on National Highway No. 3 (the second north-south freeway) on one’s way to high-tech Hsinchu, the mountains of Nantou, or the island’s historical heart of Tainan. Easy, with all the new tower blocks stretching as far as the foothills, to pass off the twin towns of Sanxia and Yingge as nothing more than an outer ring of New Taipei City’s commuter belt, housing the latest generation of white-collar workers.

But as a center of northern Taiwan’s “old tech,” and with their own forestcovered hills and plenty of historical traces, the two towns provide many reasons for inclusion on a list of mustsee destinations during a stay in Taiwan.

Indeed, at little more than half-an-hour by train or a couple of hours by bicycle from downtown Taipei, they are among the most visited tourist spots by locals and foreigners alike.

Moreover, with their “old streets” located just four kilometers apart, it is tempting to treat them as a single daytrip destination and quickly knock off their most famous attractions: the ceramic shops of Yingge and the intricately sculpted Qingshui Zushi Temple (清水祖師廟) of Sanxia. This would be a shame, however, as the towns (now “districts” 區 under the latest round of local government reorganization) deserve a more thorough exploration.

Yi n g g e (鶯歌; l i t e r a l l y “O r i o l e Song”) brings to mind the Chinese expression “Orioles sing and swallows dance” (鶯歌燕舞), which, with the idiomatic meaning of “rising prosperity,” is apt for this town, whose affluence based on ceramic manufacturing has made it stand out from 1805 to the present day. This industry, in turn, derived from the threefold convergence of raw material supply (clay), power source (coal, in next-door Sanxia), and mode of transportation (a broadflowing river and later the railway) for shipping out finished goods.

In our post-railway age of transport by truck, in which rivers pose an obstacle rather than an opportunity, and especially with the River Dahan (大漢溪) reduced to a trickle following construction of the Shimen Dam upstream, it is

difficult to imagine how important rivers once were in the economic life of northern and western Taiwan.

This significance is emphasized in an introduction to the town presented at the Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌 陶瓷博物館; 200 Wenhua Rd.; www. ceramics.tpc.gov.tw). Other permanent displays introduce the history and uses of ceramics, from aboriginal “ancestor pots,” through the four centuries of Han Chinese traditions – kitchen utensils, toilets, roof decorations, temple artifacts, and much more – to modern hightech applications.

The museum also has collections of ceramic art, and presents temporary exhibitions of prize-winning modern works. On weekends in workshops behind the museum, local and international artists in residence explain their latest pieces and help teach DIY techniques to first-come, first-admitted students (NT$50 for materials and NT$150 to have one’s masterpiece fired). Two gift shops sell souvenirs, and a café and a restaurant provide refreshments.

DIY training is also offered at numerous galleries along Yingge’s “Old

Street” (sadly renovated in recent years to someone’s movie-set idea of what a historical street might resemble), which is actually a triangle of streets around Jianshanpu Road (尖山埔路) on the other side of the train tracks from the museum. This area is a good source of everything from cheap PRC imports and slightly imperfect Taiwanese madefor-export items at NT$10 and up, to high-end ceramic art valued in the millions of NT, as well as various other handicrafts in other media.

Places to eat Traditional foods stands, tea shops, open-air restaurants, and street musicians create a holiday atmosphere on weekends, and the Taiwan Memorabilia shop at 13 Jianshanpu Rd. and the similarly retro-themed restaurant at No. 85, which claims to sell “Yingge’s Secondbest Food,” take people back to the supposedly idyllic postwar decades.

While there are also a number of interesting stores between the two main tourist areas, probably the best reason to head into downtown Yingge is A-po’s

Yingge’s Old Street is lined with pottery shop after pottery shop. photo : mark caltonhill

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_Sanxia.indd 13

13

2011/6/27 6:34:59 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

Sushi (阿婆壽司; 63 Zhongzheng Rd.).

Selling sushi for NT$35, miso soup at NT$15, and sliced pork, also NT$35, A-po’s is a 45-year-old institution famed (and much imitated) throughout Taiwan.

W h i l e Yi n g g e h a s a l w a y s b e e n something of a one-ring circus, relying exclusively on pottery for its prosperity, Sanxia (三峽), on the other side of the Dahan River and freeway and stretching far into the foothills, had profitable coal, camphor, dyeing, and tea industries.

At first sight, the Sanxia Historical Relic Hall (三峽鎮歷史文物館; 18 Zhongshan Rd.) with its first-floor displays of amateur painting, is unpromising. But upstairs, even though there is very little English-language information, the introductions to the town’s history, and in particular the photos of old Sanxia and displays of tools and artifacts relating to the four industries, make it worth a visit. Located in the old town office, a Japanese-period building, the hall also organizes free guided tours of the town on weekends, albeit in Chinese.

Next door, down an alley to the left, is the Indigo Dyeing Center. This should be the first stop for those of a DIY inclination, since the blue-dyed articles take between one and three hours to dry.

Prices range from NT$200 to make a purse and NT$250 for a handkerchief, to NT$450 for a scarf and NT$600 for

photo : tourism bure au

a t-shirt. For those of lesser artistic skill, the center has a shop selling a wide range of traditional and modern clothing dyed in local style.

The town’s main attraction is, without doubt, the ZuShi Temple (祖師廟; 1 Changfu St.), whose every inch of stone and wood was exquisitely carved under the direction of locally born artist Li Mei-shu. More of his work can be seen at the Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery (李 梅樹紀念館; No.10, Lane 43, Zhonghua Rd.), for which a “cleaning fee” of NT$100 is charged. Dating from 1769, when Fujianese immigrants brought incense from their parent temple and established branches all over Taiwan, the temple has been rebuilt three times, most recently from the ruins of the Second World War. So fine is the work by Li and his workers that it is now a place of pilgrimage for worshipers from the original temple in southern China.

Minquan Street (民權街), running westerly away from the temple plaza, is Sanxia’s “old street.” Almost every town and village in Taiwan with a couple of old buildings now promotes its “old street;” there are dozens in New Taipei City (nee Taipei County) alone. This is one of the best, however, and although it has been somewhat homogenized in line with the city’s tourism-promotion program, it still retains many original

architectural features.

The store fronts are very similar to those in other towns, since they resulted from an earlier attempt to standardize dwellings starting in 1916 during the period of Japanese rule. Nicknamed bamboo houses because they are long and thin and divided into sections, the buildings stretch far back from the road.

Usually only the front quarter is used as a shop and therefore can be seen by the public. For insight into a complete structure, usually with atrium, well, and mezzanine level, visitors may browse the antique shop at No. 59, or pay NT$20 for an even better example at the gallery in No. 96.

A great many properties are still private homes, often renting out the shop front. While there are some antique, s o u v e n i r, a n d m e m o r a b i l i a s t o r e s, increasingly these spaces are taken by traditional food sellers, and visitors can get quite full on free samples simply by walking up and down the short road.

Yet more vendors take up position on weekends on the bridge leading away from the Zushi Temple, which is a hive of activity as most tour buses park on the opposite side.

Two sites of ethnological interest are the aboriginal encampment beneath the bridge connecting Yingge and Sanxia, and the Hakka museum. The first is a

photo : mark caltonhill

Left, some of the deities to be found at Sanxia’s Qingshui Zushi Temple. Right, the author pauses to sample some tofu-flavored ice cream.

14

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_Sanxia.indd 14

2011/6/27 6:35:02 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

spontaneous development that grew up over a span of 30 years and is inhabited by indigenous people drawn to the area for work but unable to find affordable accommodation. The government has repeatedly tried to evict the squatters, but the area looks increasingly like a small village.

The second, the New Taipei City Hakka Museum (新北市客家文化園 區; 239 Long En St.), is designed in the manner of the Hakka round houses in Guangdong and Fujian provinces of China. The extensive exhibitions introduce this famous architectural style known as “earth towers” (土樓), the various branches of Hakka language spoken in Taiwan, the main centers of Hakka population in Taiwan (although Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, and Pingtung counties are best known, there are around 680,000 Hakka living in New Taipei City, but they tend to be more assimilated into the Minnan and Mandarin communities both culturally and linguistically), Hakka life in early Taiwan, Hakka fashions, local tea production, Hakka religion – the Three Mountain Kings (三山王) are characteristically worshiped, the Yimin (義民) Festival on the 20th day of the 7th lunar month (at which Hakka celebrate their role as “Righteous People” in helping put down rebellions in Taiwan), and Hakka music,

song, and opera.

Children can do DIY lantern and doll-making, and there is a restaurant specializing in classics such as Hakka stir fry (客家小炒) and “pounded tea” (擂 茶), plus a shop selling souvenirs.

Enjoy the outdoors For most visitors, all these attractions are usually more than enough for a day trip. Lovers of outdoor pursuits are encouraged to return, however, since this urban itinerary misses most of Sanxia. With an area of more than 190 square kilometers and forested mountains rising to 1,700 meters, but only around 100,000 residents, it is New Taipei City’s second-largest district and one of its least populated.

A short hike of about five kilometers takes visitors to Baiji’s (白雞) Xingxiu Temple (行修宮; 155 Baiji Rd.), whose quiet is in contrast to Zushi’s renao (“heat and noise”), perhaps because it is not Daoist, as it appears to be, but actually Confucian.

Further afield, the Dabao (大豹) Scenic Area down the No. 114 county highway, a route covered by the 807 bus, is popular with cyclists and ramblers, with dozens of marked trails leading from the valley bottom into the surrounding hills.

Those looking for more gentle interaction

with nature can head to the Man Yue Yuan National Forest Recreation Area (滿月圓國家森林遊樂區; 174-1 Youmu Neighborhood), which is famed for its autumnal maple trees, trails, and two waterfalls, for an NT$100 entry ticket.

Accommodations are available at the Great Roots Forestry Spa Resort (大板根 森林溫泉渡假村; 80 Chajiao Neighborhood) from NT$5,000 a night upward.

The Resort also has hot springs (NT$350 per person), a restaurant, and short trails.

For a stiffer challenge, there is a full-day walk of about 20 kilometers through dense undergrowth and across countless steams from Xiongkong (熊 空; “Bear Hollow”) at the end of the bus route, to Red River Valley (紅河 谷) near Wulai, where swimming spots, hot springs, and a bus back to Taipei await. It is easy to imagine this as Atayal aborigine hunting grounds, which of course is what it was, and still perhaps is, as some hikers report seeing aborigines with homemade guns. (Richard Saunders’ book Taipei Day Trips has details of several hikes in this area).

Transportation to Yingge is by train, bus, or car, to Sanxia by bus or car.

Alternatively, there are very pleasant bike paths on both the north and south banks of the Dahan River, the northern one continues after Yingge to Daxi (大 溪) and beyond.

Left, the Taiwan Memorabilia restaurant and shop in Yingge. Center, DIY activity at the Indigo Dyeing Center in the Sanxia Cultural Relics Hall. Right, along the hiking path from Sanxia to Wulai. photos: mark caltonhill

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_Sanxia.indd 15

15

2011/6/27 6:35:05 PM

Generational Change in Taiwan Art Whereas their elders emphasized Taiwanese identity and social purpose, the younger artists are more self-absorbed, apolitical, and influenced by technology.

A

s a boy growing up in southern Tainan almost 50 years ago during the martial-law period, artist Tseng Yu-wen was fascinated by the mystic rituals and folk traditions in the local temples that were the focus of daily life. “During the Chiang Kai-shek era, there were no other places we could go to for amusement,” he says, recalling that he particularly enjoyed the puppet performances at the temples.

Tseng was also distressed to see foreigners buying up antiques and folk artifacts and taking them abroad, reducing Taiwan’s connections to its traditional culture.

“I decided to create new memories,” Tseng says of his art works that portray folk gods and calligraphy calling for good fortune. His works, using symbols of a type normally found on farmhouse doors and in temples, combine Western oil painting techniques – such as impressionism in modern abstract brush lines – with traditional Chinese ink painting. “I want to modernize Taiwan’s story and make it colorful,” he explains.

In a 2005 work, The Colors of Taiwan ,

Tseng splashes bright red, blue, green, and peach oils with crazy strokes over a faded newspaper carrying an editorial about China’s anti-secession law authorizing military force against Taiwan if it declares independence. The painting features abstract folk motifs and calligraphy in an effort to offset the militarism with good fortune. Illegible red squiggles recall Tseng’s great uncle, a Taoist temple master and profound influence on the artist’s childhood, who would

Image: courtesy Lo chan-peng

BY JANE RICKARDS

scrawl deliberately unreadable calligraphy in a traditional practice for warding off evil. The work also features the characters Fu (福), Lu (祿), and Shou (壽), representing the gods of wealth, rank, and longevity found on temple roofs, a frequent motif in Tseng’s work in this mid-career phase. Lately, the artist, who trained at the National Taiwan University of Arts and has exhibited in China, France, and Japan, where he won the Nagoya Times award, has moved

Temple imagery: Tseng Yu-wen's abstract depictions of the gods of wealth, rank and longevity.

Images: courtesy tseng y u-wen

16

6_art.indd 16

taiwan business topics • june 2011

2011/6/27 7:26:37 PM

C U LT U R E Sense of humor: Lu Chih-yun, 26, reveals the playfulness of Taiwan's Gen Y with these plastic artworks. The left-hand work is entitled Contradiction, as Lu thinks people in conflict often don't use their heads to think.

Images: courtesy Lu Chih-yun

on to large-scale public sculpture and more abstract art, but still cites traditional Taiwan society as a main influence.

In contrast, a work by 26-year-old artist Lu Chih-yun, Hunting (2009), which belongs to the collection of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, at first glance appears to be about Western pop culture rather than Taiwan. The heads of the dwarfs from the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , along with the heads of other Japanese and Western pop figures including Darth Vader, are mounted on boards in the way Europeans mount trophies such as deer heads. Lu, who has trained at both the Taipei National University of the Arts and Taiwan University of Arts, explains that the theme is still about Taiwan but in a more oblique way – satirizing the way Taiwanese engage with Western culture. “Taiwan kids like to buy these things, like trophies, but they don’t really understand what they are,” she says.

Lu's and Tseng’s works exemplify a generational shift currently under way from baby-boomer contemporary artists to the younger “strawberry generation.”

Although Taiwan’s pluralism means that many artists do not fit this mold, the work of the older generation to a large degree evokes the sense of extreme liberation they experienced with the 1987 lifting of the stifling martial-law regime that had been imposed by the Kuomintang for almost 40 years. Inheriting traditions from earlier Taiwan artists trained during the Japanese colonial period, and also influenced by

trends in Western art, these artists suddenly felt free to express everything they had previously been prohibited from saying. They bravely did not shy away from controversy, says Rick Wang of the AKI Gallery. Feeling a connection to the broader society, they tended to exhibit a strong Taiwan identity that engaged with the island's history and culture on its own terms, rather than those of mainland China.

“The two generations are very different,” says Lu, whose father is also an artist.

“You can really feel it in my family. The older generation felt they should go and influence other people. They felt it was their duty to try to change the world.”

Members of the younger generation of artists, however, having spent their formative years during the pro-independence administration of Chen Shui-bian, tend to take their Taiwanese identity for granted and see no need to express it so directly.

Instead, they live in a globalized and technology-driven world, connected electronically through the internet. They grew up in the midst of pop culture and share collective memories of cartoons, electronic games, and pop music that are frequently expressed in their art. They often stress individualism and a microcosmic view of the world – focusing on small aspects of everyday life – rather than taking a broader perspective of society. And they tend to be alienated from macro-political issues. “We have a sense of humor,” says Lu. “We are relaxed about politics and don’t take everything so seriously.”

Artist Wu Tien-chang is perhaps most emblematic of the baby-boomer generation, and frequently reveals what David Frazier, the Taiwan desk editor for ArtAsia Pacific , calls an “aesthetic of gaudy chaos” reminiscent of ornate temples and the wild religious processions in Keelung, where Wu grew up.

Deconstructing history In his fascinating multimedia installation Unwilling to Part from Worldly Life II (1998), Wu does a post-modern turn on the style of the senior generation of Japaneseeducated Taiwan artists by adapting one of their social realist oil paintings, Market Entrance (1945) by Lee Shih-chiao. Lee’s painting depicts a stylish woman from Shanghai in dark shades with an affluent and arrogant look, walking through a group of poorly-dressed Taiwanese in Taipei’s Dihua Street – the very area where the February 28 (2-2-8) incident would take place two years later.

In Wu’s sepia-tinged video, Lee’s painting is hung in a dark exhibition room, with the painting’s frame decorated with tacky Christmas lights. The painting disappears into blackness, occasionally punctuated with swirling disco lights, before an apparition appears, a video hologram of a man in drag in a long Western dress and dark

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_art.indd 17

17

2011/6/27 7:26:41 PM

C U LT U R E

shades, closely resembling the mainland woman in the painting. Swaying, he dances sensuously to violins and soft piano. When the music stops, the dancing figure recedes back into the original painting and the lights come on again, allowing the audience to appreciate Lee’s original work.

Wu s a y s t h i s p i e c e i s i n t e n d e d t o deconstruct Taiwan’s ethnic history, with the confused gender of the androgynous male symbolizing Taiwan’s national confusion over its ethnic identity. The hypnotic music is from the Chinese-language film Red Rose, White Rose (1994), in which one of the male characters takes another man’s wife – an allusion, Wu explains, to the fact that China has its own land but still wants Taiwan as well. The artist says that Lee’s painting was a prophecy of the 2-2-8 massacre committed in 1947 by KMT forces and “the political chaos that came afterwards.”

After studying art at the Chinese Culture University, during the martial-law period Wu designed magazine covers for dissident magazines (many of the editors and publishers later became founders of the Democratic Progressive Party). He is also famous for a 1990 exhibition at the Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts that featured portraits of the political leaders that shaped modern Chinese and Taiwanese history – Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, Chiang Ching-kuo, and Deng Xiaoping – seated in the manner of paintings of Chinese emperors. Their large bodies are block-like with brutal brush strokes, giving a sense of these rulers’ overarching power. Chiang Kai-shek’s big black coat is decorated with marching soldiers and thugs beating up

cringing victims.

“I like unhealthy topics,” says Wu cheerfully. “I like things dirty and ugly.”

The artist, who admires Marc Chagall and Francis Bacon, in 2000 moved on to digital photography, and this year started to explore video art. His works retain a nativist feel.

As to the other side of the generational divide, Joanne Chi-wen Huang, director of the Chi-Wen art gallery, notes that Taiwan’s Gen Y does not like being called the “Strawberry Generation,” a term many of its members regard as derogatory, with its connotations of fragility (although they may use the term ironically). She suggests that “Balinghou ” (post-1980), a mainland Chinese expression meaning that has taken root in Taiwan, might be better. Other

commonly heard terms include “seventh grade” and “eighth grade,” referring to those born in the 1970s and 1980s.

Huang says this generation has feelings of anxiety without knowing the cause. A negative aspect of their art, she says, is that it avoids deep meaning as if it is floating.

AKI’s Wang adds that their individualism is only superficially similar to that of Westerners. “I see self-awareness in the West as being very complete, but here – although they like the idea of individualism – the overall environment or the overall community where they have been raised is alien to this.” Wang also cites the nameless angst this generation feels, despite living in a wealthier Taiwan with extensive Wu Tien-chang, one of Taiwan's most prominent baby boomer artists, in recent years has turned to artworks involving digital photography. images: courtesy of Wu Ti en- Chang

18

6_art.indd 18

taiwan business topics • june 2011

2011/6/27 7:26:47 PM

C U LT U R E

opportunities for higher education. He suggests that their insecurity might be due to Taiwan’s national insecurity, with its diplomatic isolation.

Identity angst Chiayi-born Lo Chan-peng, one of Taiwan’s highly promising 20-something artists, has made himself spokesman for his peers through his Journal of the Strawberry Generation , which featured in his first solo exhibition, the “Strawberry Generation Studio,” held at AKI Gallery. The Taiwanese youths depicted in his portraits have porcelain skin and appear vulnerable.

They are often dressed in trashy clothes and vulgar heavy make-up, parodying the older generation’s stereotypes about them.

And they frequently have blood smeared on their faces. “The blood is the pain of not knowing who you are,” Lo says, referring to Taiwan’s uncertain national identity.

In Lo’s Strawberry Generation/ The Super Smash (2009), a commentary on cross-Strait tensions, a young ruffian dressed in a rumpled People’s Liberation Army uniform, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, points a gun at the viewer. Next to him a street-wise “chick” in a Taiwanese uniform, wearing sunglasses and sporting pink lipstick and nail polish, aims what seems to be a toy gun. “That’s the way they feel about this adult’s game,” says Wang. “They feel it’s boring and they make fun of it.”

In another portrait, Journal of the Strawberry Generation 12 (2008), a pale and fragile-looking girl holds a lollypop. A

red ribbon in her hand alludes to the protest movement organized by Shih Ming-teh in 2006 against former president Chen’s corruption, but the characters on the ribbon are barely discernable. Wang sees this mere hint at a political message as a kind of insider joke, as only people who lived during this period would recognize the ribbon's significance.

Lo, who trained in the fine arts departments at National Taiwan Normal University and Chinese Culture University, and has works in the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts, paints in oil with a precision that reflects his classical training.

But the images are more than just photorealism – they appear almost as if they had been Photo-shopped, which is intentional, hinting at the generation’s connection with technology. Lo, along with his 20-something girlfriend Maria Pei-hang Huang, another rising young art star, say they are trying to “reclaim” classical painting techniques. They complain that they were taught these skills in high school, and then their Gen X and baby-boomer university professors had them unlearn and deconstruct these techniques, pushing them to switch to multimedia. Now they are rebelling against their elders, Maria explains, by returning to more realistic painting styles.

In her first solo exhibition at AKI Gallery, entitled “Fleshy Fairytale” (2009), Maria also engaged with Western pop culture with a series of paintings featuring mutilated Barbie dolls as deformed beauty stereotypes. Like Lu, Maria says she is referencing Western pop culture to portray her feelings about being Taiwanese. She notes

Looking for a voice? Artist Lo Chanpeng thinks it's hard for the Strawberry Generation to speak out about their true Taiwan identity. image: courtesy Lo Chan-peng

that since Taiwan used to be home to one of the Mattel toy company’s major Barbie doll factories, her paintings tap into Taiwan’s history while linking it to global culture.

Chu Teh-i, director of the Guandu Museum of Fine Arts, laments that Taiwanese art has not gained much international recognition, even though it integrates different Western and Chinese styles in a more diverse and sophisticated way than is done in China. China’s rise, with its accompanying super-hot art market, has not been beneficial to Taiwan artists. Chinese buyers generally fail to understand Taiwan contemporary art, while Westerners prefer to buy Chinese art works. One of Lo’s portraits might sell for NT$500,000 (under US$17,000), a tenth of what an artist of his stature could receive in China, the artist says.

“Taiwan’s collectors have a lot of purchasing power, but they go overseas to buy art works, and people never come here,” says Joanne Huang. But she adds that the growing international appetite for Chinese art could provide Taiwan with more of a platform in the future. The Hong Kong Art Fair, for example, started only in 2008 but has now become a significant international event – and an opportunity for Taiwanese artists to gain wider exposure.

Twenty-something artist Maria Huang Pei-hang explores women's feelings about their body image, left, and the vulnerability of youth, right, along with the way society commercializes youthful looks. images: Maria Huang Pei-hang

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_art.indd 19

19

2011/6/27 7:26:50 PM

Natural and Manmade Beauty Fills Sandimen

BY STEVEN CROOK

The area’s aboriginal villages court tourism but retain their authentic local flavor.

M

ore than 50,000 of Pingtung County's 873,000 inhabitants are aboriginal, and a string of villages dominated by the Paiwan and Rukai tribes stretches from the northeastern corner of the county all the way to Kenting National Park on Taiwan's southernmost tip.

The best known of these settlements is a village that people from the plains often call Sandimen, but which the government officially refers to as Sandi. The township in which it lies – which is the actual Sandimen – contains six villages, some more accessible than others, and of its 7,400 residents, 94% are indigenous. The neighboring townships of Majia, Wutai, and Taiwu also have a strong aboriginal character.

Unlike Alishan – where aboriginal residents, outnumbered by hotel workers from other parts of Taiwan, live in a ghetto-like cluster of dwellings that few visitors see – Sandi remains a proper village. Tourism brings in dollars but it does not rule; on any given day, the majority of those making their way through the streets are local folk.

Most adult males divide their time between construction or factory work in the lowlands and on small farms in the hills. Their wives also work on the land, growing mangoes or gathering wild taros, which are then spread on the roadside to dry in the sun. And like indigenous youngsters throughout Taiwan, Sandi's teenagers are more conversant with Mandarin rap music than the language of their ancestors.

20

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_sandimen.indd 20

photo : Rich Matheson

photo : steven cRook

2011/6/27 6:51:08 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

The Rukai headman and his wife prepare the traditional ingredients for millet wine.

Photo : Rich Matheson

Sandi is laid out on a steep hillside above the Ailiao River, and most of the 120-odd households enjoy superb views over the plains. For many visitors, the first stop is the Dragonfly Beads Art Studio (Tel: 08-799-2856; www.puqatan. com.tw), on the left of the main thoroughfare just below the heart of the village. There is no English sign; visitors who cannot read Chinese should look for the giant model dragonfly on the workshop's roof.

Established in 1983, Dragonfly is likely Pingtung County's best-known producer of souvenirs. The glass beads that have made Dragonfly famous are more than beautiful keepsakes. They represent a revival of a tribal tradition, as until well into the 20th century colored beads were treasured by both the Paiwan and the Rukai. Women wore them with pride, since possessing such beads implied high social status.

Dragonfly enjoyed a boom in late 2008 and early 2009 thanks to the home-grown smash-hit movie Cape No. 7. In several scenes, the stars of this romantic comedy wore glass-bead necklaces supplied by Dragonfly. Unfortunately, the production of glass beads cannot be quickly ramped up to meet surges in demand, as new employees need at least three months – and often half a year – before their work is good enough to be sold.

The 20 full-time workers (all are local women) use Bunsen burners to soften and melt thin sticks of glass, which they then use to decorate the thimble-sized beads. Every one of the patterns they create has a particular meaning, and most are quite abstract. The peacock pattern (kurakuraw in Paiwan) symbolizes eternal love. The earth pattern (cadacadaqan) represents the acquisition of wealth. A bilingual leaflet available from the counter explains the various colors and motifs.

The work is hard on the eyes, yet at least the glass does not give off noxious fumes while being heated. That is a blessing the women who work here can appreciate, as for many of them the only local alternative employment to crafting glass beads is farm work, a job that involves not only working under the hot sun but also exposure to pesticides.

Dragonfly is not the only place where visitors can see glass-bead artists at work and buy their creations. The other main workshop is hidden in Sandi's narrow side streets, so visitors are advised to park first (space can often be found in front of the township administration) and then follow the red bilingual signs to Sha Tao Lazurite Art Studio (Tel: 08-799-4849; closed Mondays; credit cards accepted).

Sha Tao is a smaller operation than Dragonfly, but visitors are very welcome to wander into the back where three or

four women are usually creating necklaces, pendants, and other items. Sha Tao also sells belts, shawls, and CDs of Paiwan music.

The owner of this business, Shatao Matilin, is well-known in another sphere.

His eponymous dance troupe, which performed during the opening ceremony of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, has been praised for fusing Paiwan tradition with modern forms.

By Sandi standards, Dragonfly and Sha Tao are large operations. Most of the village's artisans work for themselves and by themselves. Zhou Jinhua, a Paiwan lady in her fifties, is typical. Zhou, who also goes by the Paiwan name Zouzoula, produces bags, purses, pencil cases, and other leather items at Zhuzhen Tingcang Workshop (on the main road at 51 Zhongzheng Road, Section 2; Tel: 08-799-3705).

Zouzoula's cramped work space doubles as her salesroom, and not everything in her store is for sale – like most of the village's artisans, she also makes items purely for her own satisfaction. However, she will make something to order if told the color and other details.

Some modestly priced pieces require a considerable amount of time to complete.

For instance, it takes Zouzoula the better part of two days to produce a leather handbag the size of a thick paperback, which she then sells for NT$800. Before

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_sandimen.indd 21

21

2011/6/28 2:39:25 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND haggling, souvenir hunters should bear in mind that many local artisans earn less than Taiwan's minimum wage (currently NT$98 per hour).

Those willing to drive on twisting mountain roads should devote at least half a day to exploring Wutai or Majia. The main village in the former township is perhaps Taiwan's most beautiful indigenous community, in terms both of architecture and setting. Most of the houses are made of – or at least disguised by – dark gray slabs of slate, the area's traditional building material. The lanes, which have been

photo : Rich Matheson

22

paved with slate, are kept very clean.

Foggy Wutai Wutai is a loose Mandarin rendering of the Rukai place name, Vedaai, and the Chinese characters used to write it can be translated as “fog plateau.” The valley – where thick, swirling mists are common – lives up to that name.

Of the township's 2,933 registered residents, fewer than 50 are of Han descent, and Rukai culture is relatively intact because the district was long iso-

lated from the lowlands. The Japanese colonial authorities completed a road link in 1942, but it was abandoned soon after World War II and not reconstructed until 1972. Even now, access is not always straightforward. For several months after 2009's Typhoon Morakot, the police checkpoint at km26.8 on Highway 24 did not let outsiders through because of damage to the road beyond.

At the time this article was written, visitors could proceed inland during daylight hours so long as they showed a Taiwan ID card, ARC, or passport, and left their address and cellphone number with those manning the checkpoint.

Repairs to the road are continuing, so those on bicycles or motorcycles should expect to get dusty. Ordinary cars will have no problems reaching Wutai Village (at the km40 mark and 1,000 meters above sea level). Continuing on to Ali, or down the side road to Jiamu and Dawu, is a different matter. Anyone contemplating driving to these places should get up-todate information about road conditions and be sure to have a full tank of gas.

The settlement just before Wutai is called Kabalreladhane in Rukai and Shenshan in Chinese. The latter means “holy mountain,” and the name is apt because the main attraction is a Catholic church. Like many houses in the valley, the chapel is a squat, slate-covered structure with small windows. Its most exciting feature lies within: Ninety wooden chairs carved and dressed to resemble miniature tribesmen.

Tiny terraces near Shenshan, on which millet, corn, and taro are grown, give an idea of the valley's agricultural limitations.

Wutai Village has a slate-paved “Art Street” (signposted in English as well as Chinese), along which certain totems and motifs appear again and again. Walls and doors are adorned with depictions of white lilies, symbols of purity when worn by a woman and of success in hunting when worn by a man, and of hundredpacer snakes, revered as the legendary ancestors of the tribe's chieftains.

Also on the street is a memorial hall dedicated to the township's most famous artist, woodcarver Du Ba-nan (19302008). Du, whose Rukai name was Arul-

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_sandimen.indd 22

2011/6/27 6:51:12 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND hadenge Valialane, was a national living treasure. The hall is not usually open; call well in advance if you want to look inside or stay at the associated homestay (Tel: 08-790-2281). Female visitors should be careful where they sit, as certain seats are reserved for ancestral spirits and males. Guns and knives used for hunting are hung above such seats, and according to Rukai tradition those weapons would become useless if a woman were to sit too close.

The mountain scenery is so enrapturing that the total absence of Taoist temples and land-god shrines may not register. But a short stroll through Wutai's cemetery drives the point home: this is not Han Taiwan. Several of the graves bear not a single Chinese character, giving the names of the deceased in romanized Rukai only.

The cemetery is just above the Presbyterian Church, a striking edifice with some distinctively aboriginal features.

The external staircase is decorated with a life-size sculpture of tribesmen dragging a tree trunk up a hill. The crucifix inside is twice the height of a man and consists of two varnished logs. The altar is a massive knot of tree roots. The Bibles and religious tracts on the bookshelves are in romanized Rukai.

Two noteworthy establishments can be found very close to Wutai's elementary school. One is the Rukai Culture Museum (open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Mondays; admission NT$20). Among the two floors of exhibits are carved wooden twin-cups used to toast deals or seal alliances, deerskin jackets, embroidered and woven garments, and hunting paraphernalia such as knives, nets, and a bow and arrows. The labeling is bilingual: Chinese and Rukai. Even though there is no English, the displays are well worth seeing.

The other place of interest is a popular homestay. The members of the family that runs Dream House (Tel: 08-7902312) do not speak English but they are used to accommodating foreign guests.

Prices include breakfast and a memorable aboriginal-style dinner.

One of the area's best-known restaurants, Autumn Moon at the km24.5 point on Highway 24 (Tel: 08-799-1524; open 10 a.m. to midnight daily), is on the right

The Presbyterian church in Wutai (left), and the carved chairs in the Catholic church in nearby Shenshan (“Holy Mountain”).

Photos: Rich Matheson

side of the road as you return to Sandimen. People come to this establishment as much for the views as the Paiwan food, which is hearty rather than gourmet. Hot dishes include chinavu (meat and taro paste wrapped in a green leafy vegetable), stir-fried wild spinach, and deep-fried bee pupae. Along Sandimen's main drag, vendors serve sausages and cuts of boar meat barbecued on slate squares.

To reach Majia, follow the signs to the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Culture Park (www.tacp.gov.tw; open 8.30 a.m to 5 p.m. daily; admission NT$150/80), just outside Shuimen. This well-regarded theme park is managed by the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Executive Yuan agency responsible for aboriginal welfare.

Inside are replicas of traditional buildings and displays of handicrafts and costumes, as well as song and dance performances.

County Road 35 climbs southeast from near the park's entrance and passes several small waterfalls. The two-story pavilion near km10 is an excellent spot to take in the views. The road is fine for normal cars as far as Majia Village at km14; only those on motorcycle, bicycle, or foot can proceed further, and then not very far and only with caution. Wherever they go, first-time visitors to the Sandimen area will very likely leave with a firm intention of returning soon and exploring further.

GETTING THERE To drive to the Sandimen area from other parts of Taiwan, take Freeway 3 to the Changzhi Exit, then Highway 24 inland, and finally Road 185, which is also known as the “Base of the Mountains Road” because it hugs the foothills all the way from Maolin to Fangliao, where it meets the main road to Kenting.

Those depending on public transportation should go first to Pingtung City, and from there take one of the 12 buses to Sandi via Shuimen operated each day by the Pingtung Bus Co. Further information about this part of Taiwan can be obtained from the Maolin National Scenic Area Administration (Tel: 08-799-2221; www. maolin-nsa.gov.tw) and the Pingtung County Government (www.pthg. gov.tw).

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_sandimen.indd 23

23

2011/6/27 6:51:15 PM

Kinmen: From War Zone to Tourist Spot A onetime battlefield just off the mainland coast, these islands are now attracting visitors from both Taiwan and China.

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY MARK CALTONHILL

A wind-lion plaque designed to protect the home.

24

F

or an experience unlike any other in the ROC, make a trip to Kinmen; nowhere else is quite like this tiny archipelago of islands.

Located 230 kilometers from Taiwan proper but as little as two kilometers from the PRC coastline, Kinmen (once better known in the west as Quemoy) for most of the last half-century was as close as Taiwanese could get to mainland China. And then it was only in military uniform, since the archipelago of two inhabited islands and many uninhabited ones was long off-limits to civilian outsiders. Even most of the original residents had long ago fled Communist bombardments and the cultural isolation for the suburbs of Taipei and elsewhere in Taiwan.

Now open to tourists – including visitors from the mainland – and one of the initial gateways for travel to Fujian Province and beyond under the Three-Mini-Links, Kinmen (金門; pronounced “Jin-men”: the K comes from the same earlier romanization system that made Beijing into Peking) is something of a paradise and a paradox.

It is a paradox partly because, while it is resolutely part of the ROC, it has never been part of Taiwan. Rather, along with the islands of Matsu (馬祖), it is a tiny bit of Fujian Province still under ROC control. Moreover, just as its economy is heavily dependent on Chinese goods and Chinese tourists, even its birds, insects, and plants are more Chinese than Taiwanese.

But it is even more of a paradox because although a million or so PRC bombs fell on the islands’ 134 square kilometers, its infrastructure was spared the more damaging urbanization and industrialization that affected Taiwan proper. As a result, it has a far higher proportion of historical buildings preserved.

Architecturally, therefore, Kinmen is fascinating. One absolute must, for all but the most transient of visitors, is to stay overnight in one of these properties, many of which date from the end or even middle of the 19th century and were built in traditional Fuji-

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_kinmen.indd 24

2011/6/27 6:58:03 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

A reconstructed village around a common water source.

an style. The grander buildings belonged to successful candidates in the imperial examinations, who then were sent elsewhere in China to hold official positions, sending back money to the clans that had supported their years of study. These buildings can be identified by the sweeping “swallow tail” roofs, distinct from the “horseback” structures of ordinary citizens.

Many of the “horseback” buildings are also quite substantial, since Kinmen was a key player in trade between China and the Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia and beyond. Even those who could not afford to build a complete new house sometimes added an extra wing or extra story (traditionally Fujianese homes were single-storied). Exploring these architectural details, often executed in the latest fashions of the period, such as Baroque ideas brought back from abroad, is an attraction for visitors to even the smallest village in Kinmen. And with such newfound riches, the builders had to find ever more ingenious ways to protect the inhabitants from the pirates who still plundered the south China coast as they had for millennia, so there are high windowless walls, sniper nests, and hidden rooms to look for.

Some of these houses have been preserved by their first owners’ descendents, but many long ago fell into disrepair, especially after many residents moved to Taiwan to escape the salvos. It is primarily these latter structures that are now set up as restaurants, shops, museums, galleries, and above all as homestays, under an innovative, and initially controversial, program operated by the Kinmen National Park administration. The government organization pays for the renovation of private buildings in return for a 30-year lease on their use. Instead of operating the buildings itself, it puts them up for tender for local people (and occasional outsiders) to suggest projects for their use.

As a result of that program, tourists now have the chance to stay in a 19th century merchant’s home, renovated and refurbished in classical style, in the winding streets of Zhushan Village (珠山),

or in dozens of similarly fascinating buildings. The cost is around NT$1,400 a night for two people, including traditional Kinmen breakfast (www.official-house.idv.tw), Another renovation project, located in the old Jinshui Elementary School in Shuitou Village (水頭), houses a museum explaining the way of life of Kinmen residents in former times, particularly those who went abroad for work, first as laborers and later as merchants. The information, presented in English as well as Chinese, includes the estimate that around half a million Kinmen descendents now live overseas, a figure about ten times the island’s current population.

So many properties have been renovated in Shuitou in southwest Kinmen that the whole village resembles one large outdoor museum. Another good place to view historic buildings is in the island’s northeast at the Shanhou Culture Village (山后民俗文化 村) in Jinsha Township, but visitors will see stunning scenes wherever they travel.

Wind lion statues While in the northeast, the windiest part of the island, take a look at Kinmen’s iconic wind lions (風獅爺). Stone statues of varying sizes and designs – some holding objects such as pens, balls, or ribbons; some freestanding and some bas-relief on the side of houses; sometimes one for each village and sometimes one per house, they are worshiped to this day by local people to protect themselves, their boats, and crops from the strong winds. No one seems to know their origins, but they are a unique feature of Kinmen, and as such are much collected in miniature as souvenirs by visitors.

Other commonly bought items to take home include locally made knives and bottles of Kinmen kaoliang (高梁), a distilled liquor made predominantly from sorghum. Though the latter can be found in any supermarket throughout Taiwan, special designs of

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_kinmen.indd 25

25

2011/6/27 6:58:06 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

bottles and limited-quantity runs are only available at the distillery.

Kaoliang is so synonymous with Kinmen in the minds of Taiwanese that most assume it was always made there, though in fact sorghum is a temperate grain, commonly grown in Shandong and other northern Chinese provinces.

When Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949, by sheer historical fluke they were left in possession of the Kinmen and Matsu groups of islands. (Another common misconception is that Chiang intentionally held this territory as a bridgehead for reinvading the mainland, but in truth, it was merely accidental that these were the last two positions from which he was retreating to Taiwan when the Korean War started and the U.S. Navy entered the Taiwan Strait to prevent any further advance

by Mao’s Communists.)

As mentioned above, many local residents relocated to Taiwan proper, but for those who stayed, the traditional occupations of fishing and trading were no longer possible with the islands under a virtual state of siege. By a stroke of good fortune, one of the island’s senior officers, General Hu Lian, was originally from Shandong. He recognized that Kinmen’s soil and water were suited to growing sorghum and making kaoliang liquor.

According to information provided at the visitor center of the distillery – another must-see of any trip – the plant now produces around 24 million liters of 38% and 58% liquor, generating around NT$12 billion (about US$400 million) to national and local coffers, and making Kinmen one of only two counties in the ROC not in debt to the central government.

While in central Kinmen, another destination for those with a taste for culinary tourism is the Sheng Zu Food & Beverage Corp.

(301 Boyu Rd., Sec.2, Jinning), famed for its production of “imperial tribute candy” (貢糖). Originally peanut flavored, it now comes in around a dozen modern variations on this classic recipe.

The name is said to derive from the confection being so good that it was presented to the imperial court, and while this is perhaps legend – or more likely, PR – the quantities sold from the company’s gift shop suggest it at least satisfies the Taiwanese palate.

Peanuts grow well in Kinmen’s soil and can be seen growing

in fields and drying in the courtyards in front of people’s homes.

While in the countryside, look out for cows as well. For Taiwanese accustomed to water buffalo, these “yellow cattle” (黃牛) are quite unusual. Elderly farmers still use them for plowing and other heavy work, and out of respect and gratitude do not eat beef. Those of the younger generation, however, now keep herds commercially, and beef jerky (牛肉乾) has become another Kinmen specialty.

From swords to plowshares A last culinary-related destination are Kinmen’s knife makers, who are renowned for using the steel from unexploded Communist artillery shells to manufacture high-quality kitchen equipment. Wu Tseng-dong of Maestro Wu’s Chin Ho Li (金合利) knife factory puts on a show for tourists and will hand-make a knife specifically to a visitor’s needs. His family started out making agricultural tools, but switched to knives after the PRC shelling of Kinmen began in earnest on August 23, 1958. Over the next 44 days, around half a million artillery rounds targeted the island, and roughly the same number fell again over the next two decades, though many of these later missiles contained propaganda materials rather than explosives. Wu’s father and other blacksmiths used the steel to make knives and sold them to soldiers stationed on the island. By word of mouth, they became famous throughout Taiwan for their high quality.

Signs of war are evident all around Kinmen: a tank stands corroding on a beach near the airport; “Danger - Mines” signs hang beside coastal paths on Leiyu (烈嶼), the second inhabited island, better known as Little Kinmen; a grenade-shaped monument stands beside the road; and near Guningtou Village (古寧頭), site of a major battle of 1949 when PRC soldiers landed on Kinmen, there is a temple dedicated to Regimental Commander Li Guang-qian (李 光前). Li lost his life but led his troops to victory and is worshiped by local people as War Lord of Guningtou and guardian deity of Jinnin Town, where a road is also named in his honor.

Many former military sites are now war-tourism hot spots.

These include the broadcasting station at Mashan (馬山) in northeast Kinmen, the closest point to mainland China, where singer Teresa Teng and others exalted the virtues of life in Free China over enormous loudspeakers to PRC citizens.

Mashan also has fortifications and short tunnels, but those built at Qionglin (瓊林) in the center of Kinmen, where the PLA was expected to attack, are more extensive and well worth the NT$10 ticket price. In fact, rather than having a military purpose, these tunnels were largely built by local residents so they could continue their lives as normally as possible even when under attack.

For military fortifications, head to Yongshi Fort (勇士堡) on Little Kinmen, where there are gun emplacements, an arsenal, dormitories, officers’ rooms, a kitchen and tank emplacements, all underground and all connected by miles of tunnels. Visitors can walk or ride bicycles through the tunnels to nearby Tiehan Fort (鐵漢堡).

So much for the historical and cultural attractions, most of Horseshoe crabs, once a local delicacy, are now a protected species.

26

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_kinmen.indd 26

2011/6/27 6:58:09 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

At left, the entrance to the Kinmen distillery. Right, Xiamen's skyscrapers can be seen beyond Kinmen's beach.

which come under the administration of the National Park Service.

But given the islands’ sparse population, there are also natural wonders to explore. Of especial interest are the birds, as these small islands offer permanent or temporary abode to around 300 species, compared with a total of around 500 for the whole of the ROC. The various woodland, marsh, beach, and agricultural habitats are suited to ospreys, storks, cormorants, lesser pied kingfishers, and falcated teals, among others, as well as such local favorites as the Tibetan hoopoe and blue-tailed bee eater.

Good places to see bee eaters feeding, mating, and teaching fledglings to fly are Tianpu Reservoir (田埔水庫) and Qingnian Nongzhuang (青年農莊) in Jinsha Township (金沙鎮) in eastern Kinmen.

Other bird-watching sites include the Shuangli Wetlands (雙鯉 濕地) for kingfishers, waterfowl, and birds of prey; Lake Ci (慈湖) for cormorants; and Lingshui and Xi lakes (陵水湖, 西湖) and the Tiandun Sea Wall (田墩海堤) for oriental skylarks, oystercatchers, terns, and collared pratincoles.

Visitors will also see plenty of butterflies in season, but only the most fortunate will catch sight of Eurasian otters, which live in fresh water but may be active in shallow coastal waters after dark.

The horseshoe crab, once consumed as a delicacy or used as fertilizer, and their shells turned into ladles or hung on walls to

repel evil, is now a protected species. This ancient creature, actually related to spiders and not a crab at all, has barely changed in hundreds of millions of years. Females come ashore in summer to lay eggs in the sand above the high tide line, and their offspring do not reach adulthood until about 14 years of age, making them highly susceptible to environmental stress. Their complete life cycle and Kinmen’s suitable habitats are introduced at the Horseshoe Visitor Center (2 Xihai Rd., Sec.1, Jincheng Township), and small crabs can be explored for at the nearby bay behind the Juguang Tower (莒光樓).

From there a causeway connects to the now uninhabited Chenggong Isle (建功嶼), previously a military base and earlier a leper colony, which faces the Chinese city of Xiamen (廈門) just 10 kilometers away.

One new inhabitant of this islet is a giant statue of Zheng Cheng-gong (鄭成功; also known as Koxinga), who used Kinmen as a base for several years before evicting the Dutch from Taiwan in 1661. Paid for by citizens of the PRC, the gift would seem to symbolize the fact that instead of fortifying against an attack by China, the islands are now welcoming a daily “invasion” of shoppers and sightseers from across the water. The numbers may well grow further if a current move to open Kinmen to gambling casinos proves successful.

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_kinmen.indd 27

27

2011/6/27 6:58:12 PM

Paradise Lost?

Orchid Island’s Rocky History If the Tao people of Orchid Island can overcome some modern-day challenges while celebrating and sharing their rich heritage, the future looks bright for this amazing but remote haven.

B

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY TRISTA DI GENOVA

28

efore the 19th century, Orchid Island was almost unknown on Taiwan, and the current name in Chinese, Lanyu (蘭 嶼), was given only in 1946. Some 800 years ago, the island was settled by migrants from modern-day Batanes Archipelago in the northern Philippines, and it is believed that another wave of immigration came 200 years ago from those fleeing Spanish rule in Itbayat, one of the Batanes islands.

Up until the 17th century, the Tao people of Orchid Island traded frequently with the northernmost of the Batanes islands, aided by favorable ocean currents and a slightly closer proximity than with Taiwan (42 as against 49 nautical miles). Tribal lore recounts intermarriages between the areas, and commerce in which the Tao traded such items as pigs, goats, and millet for beads, gold, python snakeskins, and buffalo leather for their armor, which the Tao wore in burial rites. Through the Spanish connection with the Philippines, the trade even brought Mexican silver to Orchid Island, which the Tao worked to fashion their distinctive conical helmets, a sign of wealth.

Then 300 years ago, contact with Batanes ceased. As the story goes, during one Tao journey there, the Batanes men became jealous when their women started admiring the strength of the Tao males.

The trip ended in slaughter, with only two Tao men escaping to tell the tale. Nevertheless, evidence remains of their shared history. Even

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_orchid island.indd 28

2011/6/27 7:32:48 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

today, 70% of their languages are mutually intelligible.

In centuries past, when the Dutch, Spanish, British and others plied these waters in a bid for trade domination, their vessels would sometimes be shipwrecked during a typhoon and the crews forced to make contact with the “savages” on Orchid Island, as they were described at the time. In some cases, the booty enriched the Lanyu natives with gold, enabling them to arm themselves with gold-tipped arrows.

An expedition representing the Qing emperor was dispatched to the island from Formosa sometime in the first half of the 18th century. Although the original intentions might have been peaceful, the expedition wound up killing scores of natives before departing.

Unwisely, the contingent later chose to return, whereupon the Tao turned on them in a bloody reprisal. When news spread of this and other incidents – such as the looting of a shipwrecked vessel on Xiao Lanyu (Little Orchid Island), where the crew was left to die – outsiders began scrupulously avoiding the place. Interestingly, these incidents are not mentioned in Tao folklore, probably because speaking of death was seen as invoking bad spirits.

According to one variation of that folklore, the Tao are descended from “Bamboo and Stone People,” and sprang variously from the chests or knees of these ancestors. Another version of their mythology relates that the first human was lowered from the sky in ancient times when a golden ladder separated heaven and earth, a belief shared with other Southeast Asian peoples.

When the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki brought Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule for 50 years, the Japanese treated Lanyu as a kind of living anthropological museum, leaving it largely undisturbed and making it possible for the island today to represent one of the best-preserved Austronesian cultures. One Japanese anthropologist, seeking to determine what the Tao called themselves, came up with the name “Yami,” which actually means “we.”

Today they prefer the term “Tao,” meaning “people.”

During the Japanese period, the bountiful wild Phalaenopsis orchids on the island were picked and sold until the flowers’ nearextinction. Today, viewing the island’s namesake requires a severalhour hike into the lush mountain rainforests near Mountain Lake (Datienchih) and Small Mountain Lake (Xiaotienchih).

When the Chinese Nationalist government took power in 1945, the language of instruction changed from Japanese to Mandarin, and the island’s high school boarded students from Monday to Saturday morning. As a result, the younger generations today have for the most part lost the ability to speak their mother tongue.

The Nationalists also confiscated hundreds of hectares used by natives for growing their staples – yams, sweet potatoes, and taro – to build cattle ranches for resettling army veterans, who ultimately departed, finding island conditions too hard. Then, as with Green Island, some of the land was used to build prisons – two for political dissidents and one for prostitutes. Long abandoned, the concrete box-like barracks and other prison facilities can still be seen around the island, along with a few Chinese-style shrines and cemeteries.

Visiting the island in 1967, Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek were reportedly mortified to see the inhabitants living in

half-underground homes. Despite the residents’ pleas, they were forced out of the wooden and stone structures that for eons had weathered typhoons and provided shelter from the heat – and into concrete houses. Just a handful of the traditional abodes now remain, in Yeying Village (Ivalino) on the island’s eastern side.

Missionary influence The Chiangs reopened Taiwan to Western missionaries, who had a strong impact on Orchid Island. Ethnologist Lou Tsu K’uang has written that by 1956, “[Yami]…consider the magic power of the new religion well worth giving a try. They apply religious pictures and the Bible as means to chase away evil spirits in case of sickness, adorn themselves and their children with rosaries and medals, side by side with their own charms [of] strings and tufts of goat’s hair.”

The Church’s influence was in some ways protective. Barry Martinson, who was sent to Lanyu in 1971 for Jesuit training, relates in his wonderful book Song of Orchid Island how the Catholic priest before him, Father Gigers, was well-liked because he dared to scold soldiers when their cows trampled taro fields. The missionaries also provided basic medicines, and sought to arrange educational opportunities on Taiwan for the young people. Martinson says some

Some of the armor worn by the men on ceremonial occasions.

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_orchid island.indd 29

29

2011/6/27 7:32:50 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

Flying fish, a staple of the diet, left, and the view from the observatory, right.

Orchid Islanders still have portraits of him in their homes.

Although both men and women were proficient in weaving, the Tao were shamed by the authorities into wearing more clothes so that Beijing could not use photos of near-naked Orchid Islanders in their anti-Nationalist propaganda. Except for ceremonial occasions, the men gradually stopped sporting the nifty badailai thong, deemed “obscene” and “underwear-like” by outsiders, in favor of Bermuda-style shorts, while women began covering more of their breasts. Most older women now opt for a colorful blouse, skirt, and necklace, and often go barefoot.

Today, islanders have overlaid their traditional beliefs with Christian ones. Asked about her beliefs, Si Garribang, 27, who has taken the English name of Stephanie, she said she “grew up going to church,” believes in and prays to “a God,” and considers that when people die, they become spirits. Her friend Tracy from Hengtou says she used to go to church, but because the men there “drink too much and try to pick up women,” she now prays at home. Another friend, Teresa, gave up going to church because the services “don’t open my heart,” and believes that “everywhere I go and everything I do, God is there.”

Traditionally, the Tao cosmos usually consists of eight or nine superimposed elliptic planes, supported by five massive tree trunks on the lowest plane. Most of the layers are occupied by spirits, but a middle plane is home to human beings, including the Tao. Gods of different ranks reside on the upper planes. The general term for gods is tao ro to (“people up there”). Ghosts, bad spirits (anito ), and “underground people” (tao ro teiraem ), dwell on the planes below the humans’.

Taipei-educated Teresa, a nurse at the island’s lone health clinic, says she returned to the island “to serve my people” and married a Tao spearfisherman. She is proud of being “traditional,” but questions some of the superstitions of the past, such as the warning that mothers of infants under three months old must not go

30

outside, since the anito will be drawn by the smell of mother’s milk and take the child’s spirit. Mothers are taught to rub a leaf onto a child’s chest before taking him or her to a new place, and also to say the child’s name aloud while announcing their departure, or else “the child’s soul might stay in that new place.” But regardless of some misgivings, Teresa generally defers to tradition.

Two central activities – boat-making and tending the fields – define the lives of Tao men and women. Making boats, fishing, and collecting shellfish to bring in income to help broaden the family diet are considered men’s work. Women aren’t allowed to touch the boats, watch the boat-launching ceremony, or even descale and cook fish (except when the catch is too big and the whole family pitches in). Women’s work is to carefully tend the staple crops of taro, sweet potatoes, and millet – the latter now faded in importance under the influence of Taiwan’s rice-eating culture.

The Tao’s most important festivals – the Flying Fish Festival, Boat-Launching Festival, and Harvest Festival – revolve around these fishing and farming traditions. Since the dates of the celebrations vary from village to village, potential visitors are advised to call the Taitung Tourism Office (Tel: 089-357131) for the schedule.

As of this writing, a team of Tao men were constructing a boat to be launched on June 26 and rowed all the way to Taipei for presentation to President Ma Ying-jeou.

Knowledge of how to make sturdy, seaworthy boats was given to their ancestors, the Tao say, by “visitors from the underworld” who showed them how to live productive daily lives, with harmonious relations between men and women as well as with nature.

According to another legend, the Bamboo and Stone Man also gave them solemn advice: “Use only those resources that you need and do not spoil anything that the creator has given to us.”

Yet another belief is that after islanders fell sick with rashes or diarrhea from eating flying fish, the spirit of the King of the Flying Fish appeared to an old man in a dream, passing along strict

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_orchid island.indd 30

2011/6/27 7:32:53 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

Two Lions Rock, a local landmark, left; what remains of a prison, right.

rules about how and when to catch the fish and how to honor the gifts of the ocean. Countless generations later, flying fish are still caught and prepared according to these rules, which include drying them with sea salt and eating them either dry or stewed. One detail, however, nowadays is often neglected: serving the fish with its tail through its eyes.

A peaceful people By the 1950s, scholars described the Yami as “a peaceful people, lacking in martial spirit.” Their weapons were limited to stones and clubs, as well as spears that served only a ceremonial function and to ward off evil spirits. When conflicts arose, the wealthy men of each village (determined by ownership of fields, pigs, and goats) would intervene to make a ruling. If that arbitration failed to settle the matter and the disputants were determined to resort to physical violence, the timing of the contest would be arranged by the combatants’ families and might last for hours until one party was defeated. In the case of death of one of the fighters, the killer was expected to flee into the mountains.

Outsiders have observed that Tao men and women form lasting, monogamous bonds – at least after having children – and that adultery, rape, prostitution, and domestic violence are unheard of (Tracy notes that such transgressions would be a “loss of face” for the offender, as on such a small island everyone would soon learn of it). Men and women live together but usually don’t marry until a child is produced. In Teresa’s case, once she became pregnant, her husband began building his boat – a rite of manhood – and they married upon its completion.

Childbirth is so important that in a practice that linguistic anthropologists call teknonymy, the names of the parents and grandparents change to reflect the name of the first child. The mother’s given name becomes the name of that child preceded by

the prefix “Sinan,” while the father uses the prefix “Siaman” and the grandparents “Siapun.”

The Yami lifestyle in many ways seeks a balance with nature.

For example, during Flying Fish Season, which lasts for four to five months, usually until the end of May, only enough flying fish are caught to meet the family’s own needs for the year. Also during this period, flying fish are eaten almost exclusively, a custom that helps prevent overfishing and allows other fish stocks to mature.

For the rest of the year, men are restricted to eating what are considered “men’s fish” and women “women’s fish,” which tend to be more colorful and tender, with a more delicate taste. There are also “old people’s fish,” which are generally the tougher, less appealing varieties. Octopus, says Teresa, may be eaten by either men or women, but not by expectant mothers, for fear the child might be born without bones.

Specter of nuclear waste Given the Tao’s reverence for nature, it understandably came as a shock when they discovered that the structure built on the island in the late 1970s was not a fish cannery, as they had reportedly been told, but rather a storage facility for low-level waste – consisting of contaminated clothing and sludge – from Taiwan’s three nuclear power plants.

After large protest demonstrations were held outside government buildings in Taipei in 1991, the authorities agreed to cancel an expansion plan for the repository and to halt any further shipments of waste. In 2002, half the island’s population of 4,000 showed up in front of the facility to demand complete removal of the stored material. The state-owned Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) then agreed to increase its payments to the community with an additional one-time donation of NT$200 million (US$5.7 million), to provide the residents with free electricity, and to move the waste

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_orchid island.indd 31

31

2011/6/27 7:32:56 PM

AROUND THE ISLAND

within nine years. But no other site has yet been found, and the utility has now postponed the promised date of removal to 2016.

Meanwhile, the barrels have rusted and the concrete casings holding them have cracked, increasing the concern of the inhabitants of the island.

Nuclear matters aside, members of Lanyu’s younger generation have often felt that their life choices are limited, whether for study or work. Like Teresa, Tracy, and Stephanie, an estimated 25% of the population has moved to Taiwan as a land of opportunity. But the three women are also representative of the trend for some Tao people to trickle back after a stint in Taiwan, often motivated by a desire to “serve our people.”

This is a positive development for Orchid Island, since such individuals are well-equipped to contribute to meeting Lanyu’s bright potential for eco-tourism. In the past few years, running a minsu (“homestay” or bed and breakfast) has become a good source of income for many here. The island features some of the region’s best diving, snorkeling, and spearfishing, although powerful currents usually necessitate hiring a local guide. There are also job opportunities in running nature tours to glimpse the famed Scops owl, flying fox (Taiwanese fruit bat), and birdwing butterflies.

Teresa points out that government grants are available to help Tao people start small businesses, but few people have the skills necessary to draw up a business plan and submit an application.

Land rights are another issue. In Tao tradition, land was handed down through the male line, while women inherit the jewelry. It was only rather recently that residents were able to register their land and obtain a deed. (One of Stephanie’s jobs as secretary of the Tao

Teresa, a nurse at the health clinic, left, and Stephanie, secretary of the Tao Foundation, returned to the island to serve their people.

Foundation is to take part in a project under the Council of Indigenous Peoples to try to identify land ownership in all six villages.)

Despite many challenges, Orchid Islanders seem to be navigating their own way, with a cultural reawakening – and pride – in keeping their rich heritage alive. Tourism, including eco-tourism, may open the way to a more prosperous future. But can they transform Lanyu, raising their quality of life while still maintaining the best of their traditions? Can they “sell” their culture without “selling out?” The trick will be finding the right balance between old and new.

—Special thanks to Academia Sinica’s now-discontinued Orchid Island Research Group, Teresa, and the Taitung Tourism Office.

TOPICS can be found in the Eslite, Kingstone, Caves and Hess bookstores in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung.

But why wait until we’re on the stands? Make sure of getting a copy by filling in the subscription form below.

Subscriptions

Fill out this form and post or fax to 886-2-2718-8182 with your payment or receipt. AmCham will begin your subscription upon receipt of payment.

Taiwan HK/PRC

q1 year = NT$1,500 q1 year = US$68

q2 years = NT$2,700 q2 years = US$130

Name: _________________________________________________________________

q1 year = US$75 q1 year = US$90

q2 years = US$140 q2 years = US$170

Membership ID#: (if applicable)_______________________

Company: ___________________________________________________________________________ Telephone: ____________________________ Mailing address:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Email Address: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ qBill to Account (members only)

qAMEX

qMaster

qVISA

qCheck

qTelegraphic Transfer

Credit card number: _________________________________________________ Cardholder’s name: ______________________________________ Expiration date: ________________________________________________ Total amount (NT$/US$): ______________________________________ Signature: ______________________________________________________________________ Date: ______________________________________

• Acct. #: 141-53-80050-0-9-0

• Please make checks payable to: American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei • Please direct telegraphic transfers to: American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei Chinatrust Commercial Bank Chungshan Branch (Please fax your transfer receipt to AmCham.)

American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei

32

Elsewhere in Asia USA/Europe

Tel : 886-2-2718-8226

E-mail: amcham@amcham.com.tw

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_orchid island.indd 32

2011/6/27 7:32:58 PM

photos: courtesy of tourism bureau

A Guide to the Guidebooks How well do five recently issued publications help tourists make the most of their time in Taiwan?

BY BRENT HANNON

A

fter years of being neglected by guidebook publishers, Taiwan is suddenly a very popular guidebook destination, with four brandnew or newly updated Taiwan guides hitting the shelves this spring alone, plus a fifth book that was published late last year.

Bradt Taiwan (published October 2010) and Michelin Green Guide Taiwan (January 2011) are both entirely new Taiwan guidebooks, while Lonely Planet Taiwan (March 2011), National

34

Geographic Taiwan (March 2011), and the Rough Guide to Taiwan (April 2011) have all been freshly updated.

What should a would-be visitor to Taiwan – or a Taiwan resident who wants to see more of the island – make of all these guidebooks? A better question might be, what is the purpose of a guidebook, and how well do these new books fulfill that purpose? First, a full disclosure: I wrote large sections of the new Michelin Green Guide Taiwan, and many years ago, I wrote some of the

essays that still appear in the updated National Geographic guide (more on that later).

Back to the question: what is the purpose of a guidebook? According to the godfather of guidebook writing, Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler, a guidebook should accomplish three things: it should educate, it should be fun, and it should save a traveler’s life. In the book Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story, by Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the author explains what he means by

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_11_guidebooks.indd 34

2011/6/27 7:49:20 PM

T H E TA I W A N E X P E R I E N C E “save a traveler’s life.” He notes that “on those occasions when you emerge from the railway station in an unknown town at midnight the guidebook should say, ‘turn left, walk two blocks and you’ll find a good, reasonably priced place to stay.

Turn right, and you’ll get mugged within a block.’”

That requirement, however, does not apply in Taiwan. A traveler emerging at midnight from a train station in Tainan, Chiayi, or Hualien, or anywhere else in Taiwan, would not get mugged.

At worst, if he or she turned the wrong way, it would take a little longer to find a hotel. Taiwan is not Papua New Guinea or Detroit, so Taiwan guidebooks need not be concerned with saving lives, except maybe to issue common-sense warnings against swimming in strong currents, or climbing carelessly up the cliffs of Taroko, or walking unprepared into the central mountains.

That leaves two requirements: a guidebook should be fun, and it should educate. As I see it, a guidebook’s sense of fun flows from a writer’s enthusiasm, from his or her love of a country’s food, people, scenery, and culture, and from a more general joy of travel. As any guidebook writer will tell you, this enthusiasm is hard to maintain in the face of relentless fact-gathering, and the presentation of those facts. After all, how much enthusiasm can a writer muster, after a month on the road, for yet another gardenvariety tourist sight?

The answer to this dilemma is to highlight a country’s key virtues, and describe them at length and with passion, or what Wheeler would call “fun.” The National Palace Museum is ten times more interesting than the Sheng Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, for instance, and it merits ten times more text and far more enthusiasm. Other key Taiwan attractions include the High-speed Rail, Chung Tai Chan monastery near Puli, Taroko Gorge, Shihlin Night Market, and eight or ten temples (Lungshan Temple in Taipei; Zhushi Temple in Sanxia; Da Tianhou, Dongyue, and Chenghuang Temples in Tainan; Lungshan Temple in Lugang; Zhenlan Temple at the start of the Mazu pilgrimage in Dajia, and several others).

Depending upon the writer’s tastes –

and these will vary – Taiwan’s “A-list” of tourism virtues might also include Kenting National Park, the beaches and sights of the southeast coast, the hikes and scenic drives in the central mountains, Alishan Forest Railway, the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage, Taipei 101, the unique lantern festivals held in Yenshui, Pingxi, Taitung, and elsewhere, the night markets in the west coast cities, and the dazzling variety of bird life.

More broadly, the island’s virtues include the excellence of its cuisine, the friendliness of its people, and its remarkable multi-party democracy and attendant freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, and media. A good guidebook must identify these virtues, recommend them to travelers, and explain them at length.

Wheeler’s last requirement is that a good guidebook should also educate.

“It’s remarkable how a little knowledge can make simple sightseeing much more interesting,” he writes. As an example he cites the Hindu temples in Katmandu: a trident is the symbol of the god Shiva the destroyer, and because Shiva rides a bull, a traveler can always find a bull in the temple iconography. Just this nugget of knowledge adds to the enjoyment of Katmandu, writes Wheeler.

The “education” aspect of a guidebook exists throughout the book, because the standard format, followed by all five of the new Taiwan guides, is to offer essays on a country’s history, cuisine, culture, geography, sports, religions, and so on, while the meat of the book then consists of detailed descriptions of the attractions of a particular city or region, usually accompanied by brief explanations of its history, geography, and local culture, followed by hotel and restaurant listings.

“Education” is therefore essential to both the essays and the practical information, and in practice, it is a complicated combination of text, photography, maps, and presentation that requires accuracy, straightforward writing, and a user-friendly layout. It favors facts over opinions, and detailed observations over generic descriptions.

In addition, “education” means writers should concentrate on a country and its people, not on themselves. Nothing mars a guidebook more than first-person

quips and comments that are meant to be witty, but in reality are just annoying.

And when the quips and comments pile up, as they sometimes do, the annoyance level increases until it is hard to concentrate on the book. That’s the tipping point at which a naval-gazing writer becomes more important than the country in question.

With Wheeler’s suggestions in mind, here are the five new Taiwan guidebooks, in order of publication. The ratings are on a scale of one to 10.

Bradt Taiwan Fun Rating: 4 Education Rating: 6 Map Quality: 6 Total Rating: 16 In many ways, the new Bradt Guide is a pleasant surprise. It doesn’t spend much time on essays about culture, cuisine, history, or nature, and instead gets straight to the meat of the book, where it presents a wealth of comprehensive how-to travel information. The layout is straightforward and non-demanding, and the information is thorough. The book’s chief virtue is breadth: virtually everything is here.

Bradt Taiwan is a deeply personal guidebook, as the author – a long-term resident with genuine knowledge of Taiwan – digresses in some unusual directions and discourses at length about some unusual topics, while giving short shrift to a number of highly notable attractions. For example, in the Sun Moon Lake section, he barely mentions the new Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, or the remarkable Chung Tai Chan Monastery. On the other hand, he writes rather extensively about Paper Dome, a large tent made partly of paper that was donated by a Japanese village to commemorate the 9-21 earthquake that hit Nantou County in 1999. These are curious choices, but the author really does seem to prefer Paper Dome to Chung Tai Chan.

The Bradt guide’s level of enthusiasm stems more from its choices of coverage than from its prose, which is refreshingly straightforward. In terms of voice, the author avoids first person, thank goodness, and instead prefers second person –

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_11_guidebooks.indd 35

35

2011/6/27 7:49:20 PM

T H E TA I W A N E X P E R I E N C E

the “you” construction – which has the effect of turning him into a tour guide.

Look at the Bradt guide that way: the author is a knowledgeable tour guide with a taste for unusual sights and a penchant for aboriginal culture, the natural world, and temple life and religious festivals. Your personal tour will miss some landmark attractions, but you will see many smaller sights that few people see, such as the Formosan Macaque Ecosystem Education Hall and the Endemic Species Research Institute, both on the Jiji Branch Railway near Sun Moon Lake.

One shortcoming of the Bradt book is that many of the place names do not include Chinese characters, which could make them hard to find, and that the maps also lack Chinese characters, a failing that is shared by all five guidebooks. A final sour note is the cover, which features a grumpy old aborigine who looks like he had just been refused payment when he asked the photographer for money.

Michelin Green Guide Taiwan (no rating due to bias) I happen to think this all-new guidebook is excellent – please take that for what it’s worth – because I know how Michelin operates. They use multiple writers to cover a destination, which ensures that each writer thoroughly covers his or her own turf, and they require those writers to be “on the ground” in their respective regions for a minimum of 15 days right before the publishing deadline, which ensures that their facts are up to date. With the new Taiwan guide, five writers did the bulk of the reporting and writing.

The editing and fact-checking are thorough, the layout is classy and helpful, and the photos are plentiful and of decent quality, considering that most were taken by the writers. Actually, none of the new Taiwan guides has first-rate photography, a failing that seems to be a guidebook tradition.

The Green Guide essays on history, nature, art, cinema, and so on are impressively detailed and highly readable, although the quality of writing, reporting, and photography in the area chapters

36

varies somewhat from region to region, depending upon who is doing the work.

Overall the book’s voice is consistently third person, its enthusiasm level is high, and it is intelligent and does not talk down to its readers. The maps are superb – by far the best of any of the five new guides – and all place names and most addresses are accompanied by Chinese characters (but not Hanyu Pinyin).

One of the book’s strengths is the Michelin “star” system, in which writers rank the most important sights, and write about the worthiest attractions in great detail. Each section also includes a “don’t miss” portion, while the maps also include the “starred” sights, a system that ensures that travelers do not miss the island’s key attractions. A newcomer to Taiwan who picked up this book would know exactly what to see and why.

Lonely Planet Taiwan Fun Rating: 6 Education Rating: 9 Map quality: 3 Total Rating: 18 Perfunctory photos, plenty of text, simple “mud maps,” and youthful backpacker-style writing – where would we be without Lonely Planet? And thankfully, this iconic brand’s new Taiwan guide is much improved from its 2007 version; it is more professional, and it has fewer of the smart-aleck asides that marred the previous book. The layout is better as well, with blue headlines and information boxes that make it easier to navigate, and the cover is superb, a stylish and colorful photo of a temple lantern.

In the new guide, the two writers combine to present a great deal of information. Hiking and biking are well covered, and so is temple life, and the book is filled with informative, entertaining essays on a variety of topics.

These include, just for example, items on shrimp fishing (the kind where people drink beer and cook their catches on a barbecue), Tzu Chi founder Cheng Yen, the Mazu pilgrimage, temple rivalries, and many more.

The hotel and restaurant listings, however, are not as extensive as one

might expect. Lonely Planet was once famous for the comprehensiveness of its listings, but in this regard the other guidebooks have caught up with it, except for the woeful National Geographic book. The update also retains some flaws from the previous edition.

The writing is occasionally condescending, and it retains some of its distracting quips, such as “We’re not big fans of sunrise viewings” and the observation that “plenty of horribly unfit” Taiwanese trek to the top of Yushan.

The voice is generally third person, though it occasionally veers into first or second person and then back to third, sometimes in adjacent sentences. Maybe these quips and inconsistencies don’t bother most readers very much, or maybe they are an acquired taste, like stinky tofu. That’s the best way to view this book: as a vast night market that has everything from stinky tofu to barbecue sausages to grass jelly to grilled squid, and it is up to the reader to pick and choose from among the selections.

National Geographic Taiwan Fun Rating: 2 Education Rating: 3 Map Quality: 5 Total Rating: 10 National Geographic Taiwan is a rewarmed leftover that reads like a brochure and lacks enthusiasm, insight, and depth. All the other guidebooks were written by authors with extensive knowledge of Taiwan, or long-term residents, while the National Geographic was written by a Bangkok resident who appears to have little knowledge of the island and little interest in it.

The book has no Chinese characters, and it has few of the detailed suggestions or street-level descriptions that are the hallmarks of good on-the-ground reporting. The total word count is far less than any of its competitors, and most of the information that it does contain is generic, with little that is unique. Such an approach might have worked 20 years ago, but in today’s tech-savvy world, where writers must add value beyond what can be found on the Internet,

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_11_guidebooks.indd 36

2011/6/27 7:49:21 PM

T H E TA I W A N E X P E R I E N C E National Geographic simply does not compare with its competitors.

I should add another caveat here: I am listed as having contributed several features to the book, which I did – eight years ago.

Those essays have been reheated for the new edition, but not rewritten, a once-over-lightly approach that pervades the entire book. The days of drop-in guidebook writing ended 15 years ago, but apparently nobody told National Geographic. The book is a major disappointment, and there would be no real reason to buy it.

The Rough Guide to Taiwan Fun Rating: 7 Education Rating: 10 Map Quality: 5 Total Rating: 22 With its rustic layout, undetailed maps, and mediocre photos, the new Rough Guide is unimpressive at first glance. But readers should ignore this book’s modest looks: Rough Guide Taiwan is actually a very impressive guidebook with a wealth of information that is presented in professional, straightforward prose.

The two writers miss almost nothing as they march matter-of-factly through every region in Taiwan, stopping occasionally to discuss its festivals, cultures, and cuisines. The book’s simple, uniform style makes it one of the easiest guides to read, and all place names are accompanied by Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin.

The Rough Guide Taiwan specializes in detailed basic information, such as distances between sights, travel options, walking trails, bus routes, and ticket-buying information.

When it comes to providing hands-on travel information, Rough Guide is perhaps the best of the new guidebooks, as it offers extensive information on restaurants, hotels, bus routes, car rentals, airline listings, mountain permits, phone numbers, useful websites, and anything else that might be of use to a tourist.

It is possible to get lost in this labyrinth of information, and the book’s biggest flaw is that it doesn’t rank the sights very well, either by writing more extensively about the best ones, or rating them so that a reader would know which ones are most worthy.

Nonetheless, its breadth and depth of detail are remarkable, and the book is a worthy addition to the fast-growing family of Taiwan guidebooks.

6_11_guidebooks.indd 37

Taiwan: the Bradt Travel Guide

By Steven Crook Bradt Travel Guides, UK, 2010. 344 pages.

ISBN 978-1-84162-330-6

National Geographic Traveler: Taiwan (third edition)

By Phil Macdonald Random House, New York, 2011.

272 pages.

ISBN: 978-1-4262-0717-4

Lonely Planet Taiwan (eighth edition)

By Robert Kelly and Joshua Samuel Brown Lonely Planet, 2011. 404 pages.

ISBN 978-1-74179-043-6

Michelin Green Guide Taiwan Michelin, 2011. 388 pages.

ISBN 978-1-907099-26-7

The Rough Guide to Taiwan (second edition)

By Stephen Keeling and Brice Minnigh Rough Guides, London, 2011. 448 pages.

ISBN: 978-1-84836-657-2

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

37

2011/6/27 7:49:28 PM

AmCham Companies through the Years As AmCham Taipei turns back the clock during this anniversary year to review its six decades of service, it is also asking its member companies to share photo remembrances of their early presence in Taiwan.

Lady Margaret Thatcher, the former U.K. Prime Minister, stayed at The Sherwood Taipei during her two visits to Taipei, in 1992 and 1996. The photo shows her being greeted at the front door by the hotel’s Chairman, B.V. Riu, on her arrival on the second trip.

Vincent Siew (third from the left), then Minister of Economic Affairs and now the Vice President of the ROC, was a guest of honor at the opening ceremony of the Grand Hyatt Taipei in September 1990. On the far right is Bernd Chorengel, President of Hyatt International Corporation.

6-historical page.indd 39

Famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti gets a joyful welcome at the Landis Taipei in February 1990 from Chef Claude Herchembert and Landis President Stanley Yen.

Some of the early staff of the Grand Formosa Regent (now known as The Regent Taipei) posed at the construction site as the hotel was nearing completion. The opening ceremony also took place in September 1990.

2011/6/27 7:55:34 PM

Janet’s Thoughts on Travel

The host of Fun Taiwan and other TV shows, U.S.-born Janet Hsieh has reached the level of popularity in which she is widely known by first-name only. pho t o s: c o ur t esy o f j a net h si eh

A

self-described “ABT” (Americanborn Taiwanese), Janet Hsieh has developed a wide following for her Discovery Travel & Living shows Fun Taiwan and Fun Asia . She has also written two books, Traveling with 100 Toothbrushes and the newly-released Backpack to The Future (愛上旅行的理由). The energetic travel show host from Houston, Texas, boasts a double-major in Spanish and biology from MIT and has five languages under her belt: English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Spanish, and French. Besides Taiwan and the United States, she has also lived in Ecuador, Argentina, India, and France. Janet was interviewed for Taiwan Business TOPICS by Aimee Wong.

40

Where did your love of travel come from?

We’ve always been traveling, all of my life basically. Whenever we had any sort of extended holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, we were always traveling and sometimes it was just short trips – we would just drive to Mexico, Corpus Christi, or drive to New Orleans or even Austin and San Antonio, but to me that was traveling, to me that was taking a holiday trip. So we weren’t home very much whenever we had a long holiday. It also helped that my dad was a consultant for IBM, so he was always flying around and he had tons of frequent flyer miles, so we would get free tickets. That was when with frequent flyer miles you could

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_11_jannet.indd 40

2011/6/27 7:51:37 PM

T H E TA I W A N E X P E R I E N C E

take two flights and you would get one flight free, it was when flights were really cheap, back in the day. Ever since I was a kid we’d always traveled. We’d go camping, we’d go to the desert on the border of Mexico, go rafting.

Where was your favorite place to go?

As a kid? Oh, anywhere. As long as I was traveling, I was happy. I didn’t really care. When you’re young, you don’t really know where you’re going because you don’t look into it, you don’t do research.

It was just kind of the thrill of being on the move – that was more exciting than anything. But I can say I did really enjoy the outdoors trips. The camping trips – I love camping trips – we’d go rafting, we’d go tubing, you know, where you sit in a tube and just roll down the river. Those were really good memories as a kid.

How did you learn so many languages?

The best way to pick up a language is just to live there. When I lived in France, I literally immersed myself in the French culture. I studied four hours a day, and outside those four hours I was out on

the street, just talking to people. Avoid speaking in English or your native language. Try to make friends with locals.

But most importantly, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to say stupid things, but it doesn’t matter.

All in all, you’ve traveled to about 45 countries, including the many stops made for Fun Asia. Which country is your favorite?

I don’t have a favorite, I really don’t.

It’s like asking, “what’s your favorite movie?” You have a favorite movie for every mood. You have a romantic movie, you have an action movie, you have a touching movie, you have a cartoon. I don’t really do favorites. Like with food, I don’t have a favorite food. I have foods for different moods. But if you were to ask what are some of my top choices for now, today, I would say Fiji for relaxing, anything water-related, just happiness; Australia for adventure sports; Argentina and Brazil for their happy-go-lucky lifestyle with culture; France for food; Italy for food; Japan for food; Nepal for the mountains; India for the culture – just the

colors, the culture, the contrast; Palau for diving; South Africa for the diversity of people, of atmosphere, of things to do.

Where for shopping? Maybe Thailand.

I’m not that big on shopping, but I like markets and Thailand has a lot of traditional wet markets and they also have Chatuchak, the weekend market, which has anything and everything.

You’ve said that after trekking the globe and visiting so many different locales, Taiwan still claims a special place in your heart. Why is that?

Taiwan is a very small place, so you won’t have like vast grasslands like Mongolia and you won’t have towering peaks like the Himalayas and you won’t have long stretches of beaches like the whole Brazilian coast. [But you’ll find smaller versions of all three]. The fact that you can find all three of these things on one small island is what amazes me. You have snow and you have tropical island beaches, you have alpine trees, you also have birds and moss and tropical fruits like pineapples. It’s such a diverse, vibrant, rich tiny place.

I get a lot of criticism online, because

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_11_jannet.indd 41

41

2011/6/27 7:51:44 PM

T H E TA I W A N E X P E R I E N C E people see the show and say I’m overreacting. It’s just a stream, what’s so exciting about it? But when I go to these places, I’m not comparing it with other streams in the world. You can’t win if you compare. There’s always going to be a bigger or better or higher or whatever place, but my attitude when I go there is that I just came from the city a two-hour drive ago, and here I am in the middle of this beautiful cold stream where the water is as clear as it can be.

Or when I’m in the middle of the mountains, like Hehuanshan (合歡山) – you look out and it’s so beautiful. No, it’s not like the Scottish Highlands that go on forever and ever and ever. But when I’m standing there, I’m thinking, “my god, just four hours ago I was standing on the corner of ZhongXiao Donglu at the 7-Eleven, cars everywhere, and now here I am with nothing but green mountains.” That’s what I love, and that’s what I try to depict in the show.

That’s what I’m feeling, so I guess that’s what I love about Taiwan, the fact that you can do all these things in such a convenient way.

What do you hope to accomplish through your television shows and books?

My goal at first was just to know Taiwan more for myself, and I never thought that it would get to the point that it would be broadcast all over Asia. The more I got to know Taiwan, the more I was like, when you have something good, when you taste something good, you want to tell all your friends about it. It was the same thing.

Where would you suggest going for a traveler with about one week to spend in Taiwan?

You could tailor-make an itinerary for people who want to do adventure sports and then you could tailormake it for someone who likes history or food, or people who want the beach or people who want the mountains or cities and shopping, or whatever their interests. But my favorite places are on the east coast, like Taitung.

Is there any place you wouldn’t recommend?

I would probably skip Sun Moon Lake. I think it’s become too touristy, compared to what else Taiwan offers.

I think it’s famous for being famous, whereas there are so many more beautiful places in Taiwan.

Any other suggestions?

For more adventurous travelers, I’d recommend going to a yexi wenquan (野溪溫泉) [an undeveloped, open-air hot spring where travelers bring shovels to dig their own pool; they are found all over Taiwan, but the most famous areas are in the mountains near Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung. “You literally have to move the stones out to make your own pool so it’s deep enough to sit in it. It’s so much fun, a really cool experience. The reason you have to dig out these holes all the time is because the water changes and the tides will come, or there’ll be a heavy rainfall and all the rocks will fill back in.”

42

Janet’s Recommended One-Week Travel Itinerary Days 1-2: Taipei If friends are visiting Taiwan and have no particular preference about where to go, spending two or three days in Taipei would be a good way to start off the week. Evenings could be devoted to the night markets. Janet says she would include Shilin “just because of the fact that it is so historical,” but adds that “I also like Raohe for the food, and then there’s the rainbow bridge that’s right behind it, so you can buy stuff in the crazy market and walk just half a block across to the rainbow bridge – it’s beautiful there.”

Taipei 101 would also be on her list. “You know, the touristy thing.”

So would hot springs. “I would probably take them to Beitou for a nice soak, and Wulai too – I really like Wulai.”

If time permits, she would also include a visit to Danshui before heading to Taitung by train or airplane.

Day 3-4: Taitung and outer islands “From Taidong, either go to Ludao (Green Island) or Lanyu (Orchid Island), and then bike or just enjoy the area near Taitung.”

Day 5: Hualien “Either drive or take the train up to Hualien, go to Taroko, eat.”

Day 6: Yilan “Keep driving or take the train up to Yilan, stay in a minsu (bed and breakfast), and again, eat.”

Day 7: Dongbei Bridge “Instead of taking the tunnel, I would go to Dongbei Qiao. The whole coast is beautiful there, so just drive along the coast all the way around to Keelung, maybe stopping in a couple of places – for example, Toucheng for surfing and Longdong for rock climbing. After a seafood dinner in Keelung, it would be back to Taipei, and you could end the day with a hot spring massage.”

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_11_jannet.indd 42

2011/6/28 2:41:27 PM

Camphor Tree

Blackboard Tree

Royal Palm

The Trees That Shade Taiwan The Council of Agriculture has been conducting a reforestation and afforestation program for the past decade.

D

espite industrialization and population growth, trees cover a much greater percentage of Taiwan than do concrete or rice paddies. They deserve a place in the hearts of all who live in Taiwan, and not only for aesthetic reasons.

They nurture wildlife, anchor slopes prone to landslides, and reduce flood risk by drawing up rainwater. Also, one particular tree species – camphor – played a crucial role in Taiwan's economic and social development.

The government’s most recent comprehensive land-use survey, completed in 1995, found that 58.5% of Taiwan’s land area was covered by trees or bamboo. Hardwood stands – many dominated by non-native Japanese cedars (Cryptomeria japonica ,

BY STEVEN CROOK p ho t o s : Ri ch Mat hes o n

柳杉) – accounted for more than half of this total, while another fifth supported a mix of hardwoods and conifers. Different countries define “forested land” in different ways, yet there can be no doubt that for its size, Taiwan has many more trees than France or Britain.

The ban on logging in Taiwan's natural forests that came into force in 1991 followed 300 years of exploitation. In the early 1700s, demand for Taiwan's first major export – camphor, derived from the Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora , 樟 樹) – resulted in large-scale clearances.

According to Taiwan: A New History , edited by Murray A. Rubinstein: “Camphor making forced the pace of exploitation of the densely wooded uplands of northern and central Taiwan, which in turn provoked incessant Sino-aboriginal clashes...The product for which [Han Chinese] literally risked their heads was obtained by felling stately camphor trees

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_11_trees.indd 43

43

2011/6/27 8:00:33 PM

T H E TA I W A N E X P E R I E N C E

A “sacred” Fig Banyan (Ficus Religiosa) tree in Tainan City.

and reducing them to large heaps of wood chips. Whitish camphor crystals were then extracted from the chips by a crude but effective distillation apparatus set up on the spot.”

Until the 1880s, camphor was used mainly for medicinal purposes and as an insect repellent. Later it became an ingredient in smokeless gunpowder. Around the time of the Japanese takeover in 1895, Taiwan was supplying two-thirds of the world's camphor, and the trade was enjoying a second wind thanks to demand in the West for film and other products based on celluloid (then manufactured using natural camphor). This lasted until the introduction of petrochemical-based products and synthetic camphor in the 1920s.

The camphor trade drove the growth of inland settlements such as Daxi in Taoyuan County and Puli in Nantou County. It also facilitated the expansion of Taiwan's tea industry by clearing upland areas, which were then planted with tea.

Camphor Laurels thrive in Taiwan's climate, and despite the massive harvesting of yesteryear, they are nowadays quite common, in both mid-elevation forests and public places. Typically three times the height of an adult person, these trees are easy to recognize, having rough bark marked by vertical fissures. In fall and winter, they produce black berries almost a centimeter in diameter.

The tree species currently most important to Taiwan's economy is, of course, the betel nut palm (areca catechu , 檳榔). The negative impact of this shallow-rooted tree on the environment and on the health of those chewing the nut are well known, yet its popularity has not abated. Between 1961 and 2008,

44

annual betel nut production in Taiwan increased from 3,718 to 144,195 metric tons. Only India grows more.

Urban trees, holy trees The trees people in Taiwan most often encounter are in parks, on campuses, or along city streets. Many bear labels giving the species' scientific name and its common name in Chinese, but only rarely is there information in English.

A great many schools, including National Taiwan University's main campus, are shaded by tall, gun-barrel straight Cuban Royal Palms (Roystonea regia , 大王椰子), often called Florida Royal Palms by Americans. The bark is pale and smooth, and the upper third of each palm tapers.

There are two good reasons why these ornamental trees are popular in towns. Firstly, their profiles mean they seldom topple during typhoons. Secondly, because their roots only grow longer but not wider, they do not damage foundations by infiltrating cracks when thin and then expanding.

In addition, Blackboard Trees (Alstonia scholaris , 黑板樹) can be found on many campuses. Their bark is rough and light gray or charred-looking.

Abandoned houses torn apart by trees are a common sight in Taiwan's countryside, and one of the most dramatic examples of arboreal voracity can be found in Tainan. What is now known as Anping Treehouse is a 19th-century former warehouse filled with Chinese banyans (Ficus Microcarpa , 榕 樹). These long ago grew through and destroyed the roof. Their

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_11_trees.indd 44

2011/6/27 8:00:36 PM

T H E TA I W A N E X P E R I E N C E

roots have grown across walls and openings in a manner that is almost surreal.

A mature banyan can be a beguiling sight. Aerial prop roots knot themselves around the main trunk or strike out on their own in search of nutrients. Tresses of much thinner roots hang down from the branches. Many of Taiwan's “sacred trees” (神木) – large trees believed to be the homes of spirits – are Chinese banyans.

The most famous sight in the Penghu County village of Tongliang is its banyan. Thanks to 100-plus years of careful pruning and buttressing, it has grown a canopy covering 660 square meters, beneath which vendors sell prickly-pear ice cream to tourists.

Trees not only counter climate change by capturing carbon, but also lower energy consumption in urban environments because their shade prevents non-reflective surfaces such as sidewalks from soaking up the sun's heat. Furthermore, they remove particulates and other pollutants from the air.

Despite these benefits, trees are often sacrificed so roads can be widened or land developed. This problem is not unique to Taiwan. A study by American Forests, a nonprofit conservation organization, concluded that the 448 largest urban areas in the United States lost 3.5 billion trees between 1995 and 2005.

Nonetheless, Taiwan's cities have likely seen a net gain in tree cover in the 21st century. The Hsinchu City government planted 118,866 new trees between January 2002 and the end of last year. Between 1999 and its merger with Kaohsiung County last year, Kaohsiung City Government's nurseries produced an average of 70,000 saplings per annum.

At least one expert believes the number of trees in Taiwan's capital has increased over the past decade. Chao Jung-tai, a senior scientist in the Division of Forest Protection, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI), says that while he has not seen any data more recent than 2006, “total green area, at least in Taipei City, is increasing.”

“According to statistics on park-and-green-area per person in Taipei, the trend was upward from 2001 to 2006. This is mainly due to increasing public awareness of the importance of green areas in urban areas,” he explains.

Unfortunately, a great many urban trees are hemmed in by concrete or asphalt, with no visible soil whatsoever. According to Chao, many of Taipei's roadside trees do not have enough space. “Also, the way people trim trees here is usually inappropriate, in that they trim for their own benefit without considering the needs of the trees. In addition, trees are usually pruned by non-professionals,” he says.

dustrial Taiwan.

The Chinese Flame Tree (Koelreuteria henryi Dummer , 台 灣欒樹) is familiar to country folk of a certain age because its berries can be crushed to make a pulpy soap. As recently as the 1970s, some Taiwanese used these berries to do their laundry.

The tree has red and yellow blossoms during summer and fall.

The bark of the Machilus zuihoensis Hayat a (香楠, a member of the Laurel family that does not have an English name) is sometimes used for making incense sticks. The Chinese Crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia subcostata ,九芎), a deciduous broadleaf species, provided wood for building, tool making, and charcoal production. Because the brown bark regularly peels off, the trunk is usually so smooth that even monkeys struggle to climb it. For this reason, its common name in Taiwanese translates as “monkey slip tree.”

Bilingual interpretive signs donated to Hsinchu Zoo by Applied Materials Taiwan (AMT) as part of its support for Earth Day 2008 explain that the maroon bark of the Chinese Hackberry (Celtis sinensis , 朴樹) can be used to treat swelling, and that high-quality paper can be made from fiber in the bark of the Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera , 構樹). The Malabar Chestnut (Pachira macrocarpa , 馬拉巴栗) is sometimes called “the money tree” in Taiwan because it represents wealth and health. Potted Malabar Chestnuts are used to adjust fengshui inside buildings.

AMT, a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, has also adopted 100 cherry trees in Hsinchu, where the

Soap, medicine, and paper In Kaohsiung's 67-hectare Wei-Wu-Ying Metropolitan Park, hundreds of saplings have been planted alongside mature banyan, camphor, and mango (Mangifera indica ,芒果) trees that date from when the site was an ROC Army base. These transplants belong to 14 different species. Several are worth a closer look because of what they contributed to the economy of prein-

Mango trees lned a highway in Tainan County.

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_11_trees.indd 45

45

2011/6/27 8:00:37 PM

T H E TA I W A N E X P E R I E N C E

producer of semiconductor, display, and solar equipment maintains sales and service offices as well as a manufacturing center.

A good English-language resource on the uses of local tree products is Taiwan's Traditional Knowledge Website (http:// tk.agron.ntu.edu.tw/). Compiled by a team led by Professor Warren H.J. Kuo of National Taiwan University's Department of Agronomy, the site includes a description of Amis aborigines making clothing, puttees, bags, and hats from the bark of a bird fig tree (Ficus superba var. japonica , 雀榕). According to the tribe's traditions, before a tree can be felled, an elder must explain to it why it is being cut down, and pray that all goes well.

Taiwan's newest forests For most of the post-war period, the central government's reforestation and afforestation efforts concentrated on vulnerable hillsides, with the goals of soil and water conservation and landslide prevention. In 2002, however, the Council of Agriculture's Forestry Bureau launched a lowland tree-planting program to mitigate the impact of WTO entry on local farmers.

Because the opening of Taiwan’s markets was expected to lead to lower prices for farm produce, lowland afforestation was seen as a way of helping local farmers while at the same time increasing tree cover.

“The Forestry Bureau has been asked to plant more trees all over the island. However, the most likely, if not the only, partner able to offer big plots of land is the Taiwan Sugar Corp.

(TSC), because sugar plantations are no longer profitable,” says TFRI's Chao Of the 11,288 lowland hectares afforested by the end of 2009, more than four-fifths belong to TSC. Three plots totaling 29.7 hectares, just east of the Southern Second Freeway in Tainan's Xinhua District, are typical of Taiwan's newest forests.

The trees are thriving – saplings planted in 2004 are now over four meters tall – yet the landscape looks almost as dominated by a single crop as when sugarcane grew here.

On the south side of a narrow country road, every tree is a Formosan Ash (Fraxinus formosana Hayata , 光臘樹). This semi-deciduous tree is notable for its tiny leaves and white flowers; the wood is good for making furniture and sports equipment. On the north side, the landscape is dominated by Indian Beeches (Pongamia pinnata , 水黃皮), whose glossy green leaves can be turned into biodiesel.

“TSC gets a subsidy of NT$120,000 per hectare per year from the Forestry Bureau if they plant trees on their spare land.

Meanwhile, the Forestry Bureau gets credit for planting more trees,” says Chao. However, he sees some drawbacks from the current system of encouraging afforestation. “According to the terms of such contracts, landowners cannot cut down the trees for 20 years. However, TSC is free to do anything when the contract expires. If I were them, I would cut down all the trees, sell the wood, and then sign another 20-year contract.”

Trees are important weapons in the fight against climate change, so the pledge by President Ma Ying-jeou before his election to afforest a further 60,000 hectares looks like a step in the

46

right direction. However, some scholars have called on the government to review this policy because it would take up land that could be used for food production.

A March 11, 2011 report in the Chinese-language Liberty Times quoted National Taiwan University's Kuo as saying that the government's afforestation policy should not ignore the issue of food security. The same report quoted Lee Ken-cheng, executive director of Mercy on the Earth, Taiwan (a local environmental group) as arguing that if the government really wants to reduce carbon emissions, it would do better to cancel large development projects. According to Lee, 60,000 hectares of forest would absorb just 1% of Formosa Plastics Group's Sixth Naphtha Cracking Plant's annual carbon dioxide emissions.

Landowners who sign afforestation contracts with the Forestry Bureau are provided with seedlings, but have to supply their own fertilizer and labor. On its land, TSC uses a technique popular with pineapple farmers: Long sheets of plastic are spread over the ground to keep weeds from crowding out seedlings.

The Forestry Bureau does not use plastic sheeting on its own land, nor does it spray pesticides. Instead, weeds are mowed and left on the ground as mulch. This method is labor- and energy-intensive; the trimmers burn fossil fuels, which produce carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

Plastic sheeting retains moisture, and in the south’s dry winters should speed growth of the trees and protect topsoil from erosion. The use of sheeting, which Chao describes as “an alternative and non-toxic way to control weeds,” may therefore be the lesser of two evils. “The spraying of herbicides isn't required if you apply plastic sheeting on the ground,” says Chao. He adds that plastic may kill some species of soil insects, “and increased soil-moisture may affect some humidity-sensitive soil animals.”

Chao recommends the use of biodegradable plastic sheeting because conventional plastics “take hundreds of years to degrade, while for biodegradable plastics the degradation process is shortened to months.”

Plastic sheeting, mowing, and herbicides are not the only options for keeping weeds at bay. A reforestation and riverbank restoration project in Kengneikeng Recreation Area, just outside Ershui in Changhua County, makes use of straw, which is both biodegradable and water permeable. This project is supervised by the Forestry Bureau's Nantou District Office.

The “increasing public awareness” Chao talks about was evident during the furor surrounding the removal in 2009 of old trees from the grounds of the former tobacco factory in Taipei’s Songshan district. But public interest does not always make life easier for those in charge of Taiwan's trees. A 2005 paper by three National Taiwan University scientists noted: “Strong public concern about cutting [down] trees has made it difficult for forest managers to implement thinning in overcrowded plantations [a practice that promotes diversity and boosts the bird population] or even to restore monocultural [single variety] forests back to forests nearer to natural conditions.”

Taiwan will continue to have lots of trees, that much seems sure. But what kind of trees they are, and where they are allowed to grow, is less certain.

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_11_trees.indd 46

2011/6/27 8:00:38 PM

AmCham Hits the Links As part of the Chamber’s 60th Anniversary celebrations, a golf outing was held June 3 at the Miramar Golf & Country Club in Linkou, with 15 teams participating. Despite rainy days most of that week, the weather was fine – and the golfers enjoyed an opportunity for both exercise and networking.

Congratulations are due to the winning HSBC team consisting of Lee Wood, Simon Chang, Alan Stout, and Jack Whiteford. The runner up was the Corning 1 team of Alan Eusden, W.S. Lin, Hyley Huang, and Keith Glovins, while third place was taken by Corning 3 (Wilson Lan, Ivan Huang, Bruce You, and Eric Lin).

AmCham expresses its appreciation to the Event Sponsors:

Hole in One

Hole & Hole Event

Prize Sponsors

Golf Lesson by Brent Osachoff

Drink Sponsors

Goody Bag

6-golf page.indd 47

2011/6/28 2:42:16 PM

Have You Eaten Yet? The 2011 Taiwan Culinary Exhibition photos c our tes y of taiwan c ul i na ry ex h i b i t i o n or g a ni z i ng co mmi t t ee

I

t o u r i s m B u r e a u , r e p. o f C h i n a

48

n Europe, it is said that the French live to eat while the British merely eat to live. But on a global level, many people in Taiwan show a passion to eat well that exceeds even the legendary culinary enthusiasm of the French. When greeting each other, Taiwanese people often ask, “Have you eaten yet?” rather than “How are you?”

Step into a popular restaurant in a Taiwanese city and you will find people not only thoroughly enjoying their food, but also taking notes and photos so they can share their experience with other foodies via blogs. Renowned roadside vendors are often surrounded by throngs of people queuing,

ordering, and waiting for portions of the fare for which the hawker is famous. Some of these customers are blue-collar folk getting around on bicycles, while others are professionals who arrived in expensive sedans. In Taiwan, great food crosses all social boundaries.

Taiwanese cooking is characterized by a preference for rice over noodles. Yams and taros are additional sources of carbohydrates. Soups – which may contain more meat than vegetables – are served with almost every meal. Pork and chicken appear more frequently than beef or mutton; duck and goose are also popular. As you would expect on an island, fish and seafood are very common. Even though Taiwan's mild climate ensures that vegetables are available yearround, pickles are also popular. Greens are usually fried (often with garlic or ginger), rather than boiled or steamed.

The majority of Taiwanese trace their ancestry to Fujian, the mainland Chinese province closest to the island, yet Fujianese cuisine is not the only cooking style to have strongly influenced the way Taiwanese people cook and eat. Japanese food is also commonplace, a consequence of the 50 years Japan ruled Taiwan. Seaweed is widely used, and

taiwan business topics • june 2011

6_11_SeeTW.indd 48

2011/6/27 8:09:03 PM

s e e i n g ta i w a n Japanese standards like miso soup appear alongside thoroughly local dishes. In addition, refugees from every Chinese province followed Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist government when it relocated to the island; to earn a living, many of these migrants began cooking and selling hometownstyle delicacies. A good number of these eateries are still in business, and more than a few have reached the top rank of the restaurant trade.

Each year, gourmets look forward to the Taiwan Culinary Exhibition (TCE). Since 1990, the TCE has been celebrating and promoting the cuisines of Taiwan, the Chinese mainland, and ethnic Chinese communities overseas. During the 2011 event, which will be held in Hall 1 of the Taipei World Trade Center from August 15 until August 18, celebrity chefs will once again demonstrate their skills and give master classes, and dozens of food items – some highly innovative, some utterly traditional – will be available for sampling and purchase.

Taipei is undoubtedly the best place in the world for this kind of event, given the broad range of excellent cuisine from all parts of China that is available here. Increasing numbers of foreign tourists – especially those from Hong Kong and Singapore – say Taiwan's food is one of the main reasons why they choose to spend their vacation here.

The TCE every year focuses on particular aspects of Taiwan's fabulously diverse cuisine, often tieing them to trends in the travel industry.

At the 2008 exhibition, for instance, a prominent theme was LOHAS, an acronym meaning “lifestyles of health and sustainability.” In the same year, one pavilion showcased seafood available around Dapeng Bay in Pingtung County, while another showed how a combination of hot-spring bathing and appropriate cuisine could rejuvenate the body and refresh the soul.

In the following year, cooking styles from central Taiwan's Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area were highlighted.

Last year's organizers drew inspiration from tea-related cuisine, the hugely popular Taipei International

Flora Exposition, and south Taiwan's Siraya National Scenic Area. And to create an authentic night-market dining experience, the organizers of the 2010 TCE set up a dedicated dining area where high-end versions of favorites like stinky tofu, meat-filled pot-sticker dumplings, and Tainan danzai noodles could be enjoyed.

The themes this year include the popular farm-raised fish known as the grouper, the high quality of Taiwan rice, and – in line with the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China – memories of Taiwan banqueting from decades past and a spotlight on food retailers that have been in business for at least a century.

Usually, groups from mainland China are also invited to attend and introduce the cuisines of their home regions. In addition, roundtables and presentations tackle current issues. In 2010, one panel of experts discussed personal and environmental health in the context of concern over toxins in food and the widespread desire to lead a low-carbon lifestyle.

The TCE embraces liquid refreshment as well as solid nourishment.

Tea has been grown in Taiwan for almost 300 years, and it was one of the island's earliest exports. It makes sense that the jamboree invariably features the island's best infusions, among them prized oolongs such as Pouchong and Tieguanyin. During last year's event,

there was a cocktail bar event every afternoon, and given the rapid development of Taiwan's alcohol industry – and the international success of made-in-Taiwan Kavalan Single Malt Whisky – visitors can depend on having an opportunity to taste the newest beverages.

Cooking competitions are an exciting part of the exhibition. There are separate divisions for professional chefs and students of culinary arts, and toplevel local and foreign teams display their ingenuity by conjuring up delicious dishes, even though they may not know what ingredients they will be given until just before the contest.

Whether you are a fastidious gourmet, a sheer glutton, or somewhere in between, your taste buds will revel at the TCE. With comestibles fried, braised, boiled, baked, stewed, steamed, roasted and barbecued – or served raw – something is sure to make your mouth water.

If you plan to attend, be prepared to queue. The TCE often gets 40,000 visitors in a single day. Ticket prices have yet to be confirmed, but will likely be similar to last year's NT$250 for adults and NT$150 for young children and senior citizens. For more information, go to www.tcff.com.tw or call +886 (0)2-2561-7508 or +886 (0)2-25684726. Alternatively, call the Tourism Bureau's 24-hour information hotline at 0800-011-765.

june 2011 • taiwan business topics

6_11_SeeTW.indd 49

49

2011/6/27 8:09:04 PM

p51.pdf 2011/3/29 7:22:32 PM

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K