Final Report

Jeffrey Hartsough
Final Report
ICLP 2009-2010 Academic Year

Because my blog sort of petered out at the beginning of the last quarter and I covered most of what needed to be covered about the first two quarters already, I’ll be focusing on the spring quarter in my final report.

Spring quarter was intense. I took four classes, reading an autobiography for my one-on-one, radio Chinese, modern Chinese history, and law and debate. The quality of instruction across the board was fantastic, as usual—I was continually impressed by the teachers’ breadth of knowledge, ability to explain vocabulary or grammar, and commitment to the students. They were all understanding and reasonable, doing their best to make our lives more manageable. Although that was difficult at times, to be honest.

Modern Chinese history was a solid class, and a great review class because I’ve already taken two classes covering the time period in the text we used. It was good to solidify my understanding of the people and events, nice to learn it in Chinese, and even better to read some of the primary texts in classical Chinese.

My one-on-one class was a great supplement to the modern Chinese history course, as the subject of the autobiography was born in the late 19th century, and was witness to and an example of many of the changes covered in the modern Chinese history text. The book was very well written with interesting language and I plan on finishing the reading this summer. The only problem with this course was that it was my last priority because my degree of preparation wouldn’t affect other students, which was a bit unfair to my teacher, but she understood, and it was a choice I had to make because of my other two classes.

My final two classes were both fantastic, but real time drains. I really invested a lot of time and effort in these classes, which was wonderful in that I got a lot out of them, learned a lot, improved, and had fun, but it also meant that my experience and time was defined in large part by those two classes. At times it was frustrating not being able to spend more time exploring the city, hanging out, making Taiwanese friends etc. and a couple of travel opportunities were missed because of the two classes, but in the end it was worth it—I gained a lot from the classes, and had a number of experiences that I may not get the chance to do again in the future. Also, that’s the reason I went to Taiwan in the first place.

The radio class was a lot of fun. The first unit was on radio news, which was a good introduction. We had to choose a topic, do research, do interviews, write a report, record it, edit it and splice in interviews we had done. It was a good way to begin to understand the editing program, how to go out and do interviews, and the general structure and medium of radio. My first news piece was on a photography exhibition by the NTU photography club, and the second was on a a group of universities announcing they would be opening up year-long exchanges to mainland students.

The second unit, a 30-minute radio program, was definitely more daunting than the 3+ minute news pieces. I chose to do it on stinky tofu, which was a great choice because it’s a famous Taiwanese dish, and allowed me to travel the city going to famous stinky tofu spots, five different night markets, and a famous tofu village in Taipei County, all in the sake of research. I now can honestly say that I love stinky tofu, and know more than you might believe about it. It was cool finding sound bits and tofu-related music and splicing them in with my interviews and own pre-written stuff. It was cool to get that done.

The third and final unit was also very cool, in which we had to read a novel and rewrite it as a radio play, then record and edit it. It was the first novel I’d ever read cover to cover in Chinese, which gave me a real sense of accomplishment, and since then I’ve read two others. Kind of like breaking the 4-minute mile I suppose. The rewriting process was long, as was the recording, but it was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed ourselves in the recording studio, and editing in the sound effects and such was cool too. A fantastically fun, if time-consuming course.

The final class I took was law and debate. What a class. To make a long story short, we essentially went from initially planning on having a simple debate with the NTU students on something like GMO crops or something, to attending a true national level debate tournament on the Taiwan-China Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), one of the hottest and most complicated topics to hit Taiwan in the last couple of years. It’s essentially a step towards an FTA with China, and so there are questions about the economic, political, and social advantages and disadvantages of signing.

Like all of my teammates, I could go into long detail about the benefits and concerns of both sides, but I’d rather not bore everyone. We learned the rules of Oregon-style debate, learned how to structure an argument, went over logical errors to look out for, watched video of other Chinese debates, learned how to cross-examine, and did hours after hours of research on ECFA, Taiwan’s economy, China’s economy, the WTO, China-Taiwan relations, Korea, ASEAN… the list goes on.

From the time we learned we’d be going to this debate, I, like my classmates, spent at least two-and-a-half hours each day, sometimes upwards of 10 hours preparing outside of class. It was a long and tiring process, but it also showed me how much one can learn and how much progress one can make if fully committed to a subject, and it was inspiring to see how committed out teacher, Fan Laoshi, was to us, she was always willing and supportive, truly a fantastic teacher and an even better person.

Come gameday, there were still more sources to be read, more angles to be considered, and more sleep to be had, but we had what we had and had to make do. Our “For” plan was pretty standard, and went well—we won both debates in which we played “For.” Our “Against” proposal was a bit radical, and that’s what we were counting on, as we’d spent many hours preparing it right up until the final moments. We argued for reunification as a better way of solving the problems Taiwan is facing, rather than simply arguing against signing ECFA. It was interesting to see everyone’s reactions, especially because the first team we ended up using it against was from the military college. One of the few topics that will really throw just about any Taiwanese for a loop, to one degree or another losing the ability to examine the topic from an unbiased perspective.

I definitely learned a lot from the debate process, especially from watching the other debaters and listening to the judges’ critiques, about logic, use of resources, analysis, and speaking. We got better each time, adjusted our plans, and by then end found ourselves in the semifinals. Third place at a national debate tournament in Chinese haha—quite the way to bring the year to a close. Clearly that wasn’t the real takeaway, but certainly pretty cool.

During the quarter I, along with a few other students, wrote and acted in a short play as part of the NTU arts festival, which was great fun. I also got to participate in a poetry-reading activity, for which I chose a poem by Tang-dynasty poet Liu yuxi (劉禹錫) which in English goes something like this:

In the distant cool of Bashan and its clear waters, I whiled away 23 years of time alone.
Remembering old friends I suddenly hear a flute’s melody pierce the silence, returning from long exile the sights of home have melted away.
A thousand sails pass by the sinking ship, endless saplings spring before the sickly tree.
Listening to the poem you sang for me today, for now I raise my wine and rouse my spirits.

And the Chinese, for those who are interested:

巴山楚水淒涼地，二十三年棄置身
懷舊空吟聞笛賦，到鄉翻似爛柯人
沈舟側畔千帆過，病樹前頭萬木春
今日聽君歌一曲，暫憑杯酒長精神

The key line in this one is the third, hinting at the continual passage of time and inexorable nature of change and rebirth. I love the positive and cyclical attitude towards end and renewal, looking forward and in the moment rather than back, and thought it was fitting for all of us as students of a foreign language nearing the completion of our time abroad.

My final few days in Taiwan after schoolwork was done with were bittersweet. It was wonderful to get to hang out with friends, both from ICLP and Taiwanese, go to night markets, ride my bike, got to KTV, have a couple nice dinners, and do the sorts of things that make Taiwan so awesome. To be honest I’d sort of lost sight of that in the heyday of the final quarter, so even though it was short and very condensed, it was great to get that at the end.

Those final few days made me realize that I not only had improved my Chinese while in Taiwan, but that I’d also created a life for myself. I was so worried about “creating” a “life” for myself in the beginning that I didn’t just let it happen, which I think was a mistake. I was too worried about what I wanted to do and what I wanted to avoid that nothing happened naturally in the beginning and so nothing really happened at all. In the end it was just about taking it all for what it is and trying to take advantage of the moment and maintain some semblance of balance.

Living in a studio not in the dorms had its ups and downs, but I think was a good decision in the end. My default option wasn’t to just hang out with ICLP students, which I did do on a regular basis, but I also got to have time and space to myself, meet a couple neighbors, actively seek out Taiwanese, and have a life away from ICLP. It was great being 5 minutes or so walking from ICLP too though, and having a TV in my room was great for learning a bit about Taiwan, both pop culture, history, economy, social issues, news, etc., and listening practice. I will definitely continue that when I get back home.

As for my goals set out at the beginning of the year, There are two that are worth reflecting on at this point. The first was to “become a resident of Taipei.” I think I successfully did this, but not in the way I thought—I didn’t cook at all (I definitely would have done more cooking for TAS had I stayed at Yale haha), and the language program did become the focus of my time in Taiwan. I got to know the city, Taiwan, and Taiwanese through my teachers, travelling, night markets, friends, and all that anways.

Most important was the connection through the language though—to know the culture and people through the marks left in the language. The language is a beautiful thing, and I’m more excited than ever to continue learning, as the more you know the more you realize how little you do. I definitely will continue to take Chinese in one form ore another when I get back to school, and am toying with the idea of maybe doing my senior thesis in Chinese. That would be an interesting, if challenging experience. I’ve only begun and there’s so much ore depth to come to grips with in this language.

The other main goal for my year was to bring my Chinese and English personalities together, which I think is hard to say, but I’ve definitely come a long ways, to the point that I’d say I’m comfortable with it. The two will never be exactly the same, but I will keep growing and each personality will continue influencing the other. They aren’t one, but speak “one language on unity,” taking account and aware of one another, living in “harmonious relation” with one another. And I don’t think they should become one—that would be strange and wrong, as language brings so much baggage with it, and each language brings with it a different logic, a different way of thinking.

As for a few quick suggestions for future fellows, I would say go to Taiwan. Taiwan gets marginalized in the international scene far too often, and it’s equally regrettable that the same happens in Chinese language learning. It’s a fantastic place with wonderful people, great travel opportunities, awesome food, and a generally different experience than the mainland but in the same language, which is a very interesting experience. ICLP has some of the best teachers and resources you will come by for Chinese. Try living off campus, it will be a good experience again different from other programs. Get language partners—my meetings and conversations with them were always great, covering a wide range of topics of various depth, stretching my language in ways that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to otherwise. Have fun, and explore the city you’re in, there’s always a lot to discover, and there will always be more studying to be done, it’s not about memorizing every character every night. Balance is paramount. Also, keep up a blog, even if it’s just one simple paragraph and one photo every couple days, getting into a rhythm like that will make it much easier. I regret not doing that, and my journal writing was sporadic.

Finally I must thank the Light Fellowship for making this year possible. It is a fantastic program that is run impeccably, which gives us the opportunity to not only learn language, understand other cultures, travel, and develop skills that will help us in the future, but also values that will help us in the future. Acceptance, cooperation, humility, confidence, courage, faith, and humanity, are all things that the Light Fellowship helps us understand and gain to one degree or another. I really can’t thank the Fellowship enough.

I will try and get some other more interesting stuff up on here in the future, some funny stories, random adventures, etc., but for now, this concludes the official portion of my Light Fellowship blog.

And the final quarter begins

I got back from a week-long trip to Singapore on Sunday evening, and started a new and my final quarter at ICLP on Monday. It’s been an exciting couple of weeks to say the least.

Singapore was great. I went to visit the Queks, some of the nicest and most generous people you’ll ever meet, who lived in LA for a year when I was in 8th grade. I went to Singapore back in 2004 to visit them, but it had been far too long since then, so it was nice to have the time and be close enough to easily make a trip. The best part was just seeing them and hanging out, but I also got to go to a number of museums, see different parts of the city and some of the new sites, play video games (for the first time in… 10 months?), and even do an awesome Boeing 737 flight simulator, all a lot of fun, and made better by the company.



And the food was fantastic! There are all sorts of new interesting combinations of Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, North and South Indian, European, etc. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much or so well for an entire week in my life haha. All in all it was a fun week, and I also got to learn a lot more about the “experiment” of Singapore, and discuss some of its advantages and disadvantages with friends old and new. Everyone was fantastically nice and I really had a great time.

It was interesting speaking English consistently again, and I definitely had trouble at times—an interesting phenomenon many Light fellows, I’m sure, share as well.



The fun can’t last forever, though, and I was back to school on Monday. I’ve got four new classes that I’m looking forward to, and things got back to normal pretty quickly: class in the morning, study in the afternoon, dinner, and gym at night. It’s been a busy week though, with lots of random things coming up, so it’s been a long one too.

My classes are:
1. Zhang Menglin’s autobiography, Western Tide (西潮)， which describes the time from the turn of the century through the 1960’s in China and Taiwan—it should be an interesting look from a personal perspective at that period of history.
2. Radio Chinese. This is probably the class I’m looking forward to most, where we listen to and create our own radio news, program, and plays. It should be really fun and interesting, but a lot of work.
3. An outline of modern Chinese history. This should be a slightly more relaxed class, as I’ve studied modern Chinese history before, but it will be nice to review it, discuss it as we go along, and do it all in Chiense.
4. Legal debate. This is an interesting class, with the goal of having a formal debate with the NTU debate club towards the end of the semester. It should be good to learn a new set of vocabulary, improve speaking fluency, and learn some debating skills as well as logic. It’s a bit disorganized now it seems, but that should improve in the upcoming week (hopefully).



In the meantime, we have a (rainy) 3-day weekend because of Tomb-sweeping festival, which I will be spending in Taipei, and getting ahead on my work in preparation for a quick trip to Beijing next weekend for my godfather’s daughter’s bat-mitzvah, where I will also get to meet up with my parents! Should be fun.

Bee Cannons

Last weekend I did something I don’t think I would have even thought of doing a year ago.

I was running some errands with a friend on Thursday and we decided to bike over to the train station to check times to go down south for the weekend for the lantern festival. We’d been casually talking about it for a couple of days, but things were really uncertain regarding housing, travel, etc. But lo and behold, I found myself with a ticket to the small town of Chiayi without thinking anything of it. Difference one: confidence that things will work out and spontaneously making a trip without any plans. I would have thought that to be brazen and risky a year ago, but not anymore.

That Saturday, amidst the rush to find everyone coming from different places and get on the same train, I again wasn’t worried—things would be all right. Of course, we all got on the train safe and sound, and our adventure began. I spent the journey eating, reading, and talking with the man sitting beside me, a professor from a local university—I wouldn’t have dared bother a stranger a year ago, but would have passively hoped he would start a conversation all along.

We arrived in Chiayi, and within minutes were eating yet again, savoring Chiayi’s specialty—turkey with rice. We revisited a juice lady from our last visit to Chiayi, a rather forgotten town caught between Taichung and Tainan, but not without its own charms, mostly culinary, including avocado shakes. When traveling with friends, the sites become less important, and after preparing for the next day’s festivities, we were yet again hanging out with my classmate Wes’ family, as warm and welcoming as ever. I would have skipped over Chiayi last year, opting instead for its larger and choc-full-of-history neighbor Tainan.

The evening was whiled away with Wes’ relatives wandering around the National Lantern Festival, being held in Chiayi for the first time ever. The real festivities didn’t start until Sunday, but the festival and company were great, complete with fantastic fireworks, dance performances, and lanterns done much more tastefully than their Taipei counterparts. Unfortunately, my camera randomly decided to stop working that evening, so I have to thank Kellan (below, in Kenting over the Chinese New Year break), for the great photos.

Sunday morning we were aroused early to head over to Wes’ cousin’s breakfast shop, a great example of small-scale Taiwanese entrepreneurship. In the last four months, she and her boyfriend have become vegetarians and opened two little cafes, serving healthy and environmentally conscious breakfasts and dinners to locals, with the goal to “save the world.” I love it. Wes and Trevor headed back towards Taipei to catch the sky lantern festival that evening in Taipei County, so Kellan and I explored Chiayi a bit, taking in an old railway station and witnessing some strange burping in a temple, which we later learned was a sign of people connecting with the gods—not what I would have expected.

This awkward down time would have got me itching to get going before, but it’s not really a waste at all. Our patience was rewarded when Wes’ cousin and boy friend took us to the local reservoir and the Chiayi University farm, where we had some awesome yoghurt, and got a few treats for the road. We then made our way by Xinying to Yanshui, the real destination of our weekend foray to the wild wild South.

Now accompanied by a ICLP teacher, his friend, and a former ICLP student now working in Taipei, the five of us meandered through the streets of Yanshui, packed with vendors stretching for hundreds of meters. Time passed slowly in the heat though, so we got some water and headed to the shady schoolyard to pass the time until evening.

Stomachs and bladders full, it was soon time to ready ourselves for battle. At 6pm we opened our bags—mine was larger than the one I usually take on week-long trips—and each donned a second pair of pants, a long-sleeve shirt, two sweatshirts, cheap gloves, a face mask, full-head motorcycle helmets and towels wrapped around our necks. We weren’t the only crazy ones layering up in the 85-degree sultry heat, and as we moved towards the town temple, the numbers grew.

A bit of background, thanks to ever-reliable Wikipedia:

It is said that the Fireworks Festival originated from a cholera epidemic which broke out in the early ruling period of Kuanghsu Emperor of Ching Dynasty (around 1875) and lasted for more than twenty years.

In order to drive out the evil spirits and ward off the disease, the survivors invited the spirit of Kuan Kung (Kuan Ti), the Chinese god of war. Kuan Kung is worshipped as the God of War; since he was adept at managing finances, he is also worshipped as the patron saint of businessmen.

The deities of Heaven are able to inspect the land on the day of Lantern Festival by carrying the statue of Kuan Kung in palanquins and paraded around Yanshui and letting off masses of firecrackers, and the epidemic soon receded.

And the tradition continues today. Every year since the epidemic, tens of thousands of Taiwanese flock to Yanshui to get pelted with fireworks. (video) In recent years they’ve gotten their act together and introduced some order to the concoction, with maps of routes, a host explaining the traditions and safety precautions, and safe areas. That doesn’t mean it’s any less ridiculous, or insane might be the better term here. (Apparently there’s a similar event on the east coast where a man wearing only underwear stands on top of a temple, and, protected by a god, has fireworks shot at him by the crowd below, probably to their mixed feelings of horror and glee.) The South really is something else.

Looking back, the first round was a bit of a disappointment, although at the time it was certainly excitement enough. Young clan members, decked out in gear bearing their clan name and logo (pretty cool stuff eh? what do you say Mom, Dad?) scarred with the memories of years past, shoved their way through the crowd towards the bee hive carrying miniature ancestor shrines on their shoulders—wouldn’t want a little death to prevent them from missing out on the action. After sweating through my shirt, the guys in charge of the hive (each hive is apparently sponsored by different temples, clans, and companies in the town), began blowing their whistles and casually sauntering in slacks and t-shirts back out of the crowd. The countdown had begun and accompanied by a chorus of visors ratcheting down, our sea of spectators old and new began undulating with expectation.

The hive erupted with bottle rockets spiraling outwards in flashes of burning light whizzing above and bouncing in between the crowd, jumping to make sure none of them got caught in any folds of clothing and exploded, as that was the real danger. The helmet, layers, and towel (cotton to prevent melting or catching on fire), were decent protection, especially because after two minutes or so, I didn’t get hit. High off the collective energy, I couldn’t help but be excited.

We regrouped and aimlessly followed the floats through the streets, before everyone slowed to a halt outside a clan’s home, where they held set of little boxes of firecrackers into the sky. That continued for a little bit, until—KAKAKAKAKA somebody stepped into the open space and with a long string of firecrackers and flung them towards the crowd, and us! We all started jumping, doing that silly little dance that Speedy Gonzales always used to dodge bullets—the real fun had begun. This firecracker-whip nonsense continued for another 20 minutes or so, with the only casualty being some burns on my shoes. So far so good.

And then a shower of sparks slowly trickled down on either side of us, erupting out of firecrackers strung above us between the buildings on the narrow street. The strange group mentality became strikingly apparent to me for the first time. Everyone’s heads turned towards the nearest curtain of sparks, hours of gelling and perms so loved by young Taiwanese covered by helmets, the eerie singularity of the group was odd and empowering. Not long thereafter, we seemed to be at a standstill. There were still some people setting off firecrackers, but there was nowhere to move and the crowd had quieted down noticeably. And then all heads turned again as the unsuspecting warehouse door to our right grumbled to life.

What first looked like a two-story tall shipping container slowly emerged from the building, and kept on coming long after I thought it was done. Soon the entire width of the four-lane street was blocked by this “hive.” The crowd again began to murmur with anticipation, but this time there was a definite hint of apprehension as well. I found myself pushed to the fourth or fifth row by an eager clan palanquin, but readied myself, shielded by a few rows of people, shutting my helmet visor as the whistles began piercing the air.

And then I was in the first row! Before I knew what had happened, my bodyguards had fled, and were now pushing forward me as fresh meat. Excited and somewhat confused, I jived away, testing my luck. And I got lucky, eight times. Luckily, I was wearing my backpack, so the majority of my back was protected, but my shoulders, arms and legs were the fortunate recipients of 8 stings. My helmet undoubtedly took some hits as well. After about six or seven minutes of this, I decided to let others have a chance at their luck, shoving and weaving my way to the side of a clan shrine, flashing its lights away and deflecting a couple more bees my way, before the hive finally settled five or so minutes later.

Talk about a long ordeal! There must have been tens of thousands of bottlerockets, whose smoke choked the street, much to my dismay as my face mask had slipped off amidst my sweaty groove. The mosh pit died down and everyone turned their gazes skyward as another 10 minutes of fireworks erupted from the top of the container, reflecting off of hundreds of de-fogging visors.

A quick examination afterwards revealed a few charred spots on my sweatshirt, a couple of cracks in my shoes, and a helmet powdered in ash. All in all a successful run, I’d say. Thankfully I had been wearing by backpack however, which covered a large portion of my back, and now has a few little souvenir marks on it. My clothes were already thoroughly soaked with sweat, and we decided it was time for a quick break, and we headed back to the center of town to get something to rehydrate.

Looking out across Yanshui from the main square was a strange sight—part Fourth of July, part urban battlefield. By 7:45pm the town was already enveloped in a haze worse than the worst of Beijing summers. Sounds of explosions echoed through the narrow streets, bouncing their way into the square, accompanied by flashes of light coming from at least 6 different places, the occasional firework erupting from the buildings. At one point someone set of fireworks in the middle of the night market. The vendors weren’t phased for a moment, crouching below their aluminum carts, tending to their frying shrimp and filling cups with winter melon tea.

After hitting up one more bee hive, which for some reason set off all of its bottle rockets almost at once, sending a wave of welt-inducing light forth in about 20 seconds, we decided it was time to go. We had a high-speed rail train to catch back to Taipei. Walking through the streets was an eerie experience. Helmet in hand and line of sight no longer hindered, I could see the fireworks being set off down every alley—every other street to either side of us had a group of people huddled together, and families were hanging out of their windows above, enjoying the spectacle of silly tourists below. We walked through heaps of red paper, the remnants of firecrackers thicker than leaves on the floor of a New England forest submitting to winter. Purple sparks from low-blowing fireworks floated down our sides, flickering out on the floor, while we watched the faces of the audience get lit up by the next spat of fireworks. It was an eerie scene, to say the least.

We eventually made our way to the train station and back to Taipei, everyone too exhausted to do anything but space out on the subway home. All the way home, I couldn’t stop thinking, “There’s no way I just did that. Did I really just do that?” A year ago, no, but now—yep, I did.

Home

hiking up alishan at 5am for the sunrise, which
unfortunately was blocked by fog. all part of a fun trip
over our chinese new year break with some classmates,
where we met up with some taiwanese friends
and some of my classmate's relatives. great times!

back to the beached oil tanker in kenting haha. good stuff.

random trip to “正妹" university with a classmate
and a couple taiwanese friends haha

A couple of weeks ago, Light posed the fellows the following question:

What perceptions of home have changed for you? Have the qualities you value in home changed as a result of living in a new country, community, and culture?

An interesting and important question indeed, with different levels to discuss: individual, family, community, city, nation, state, and the world. Some questions that I have found myself repeatedly confronted with as an American abroad are: What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to become an American? Is there a timeline or a set of checkpoints that one has to go through? The same questions I suppose apply to becoming that cliché “citizen of the world.” And how does something like the earthquake in Haiti challenge that notion? What level does one identify with when that happens, and how do you act on that? A question that is both harder and easier for diaspora, of which Haiti has a lot. All questions I don’t really have answers to. (a couple of interesting blog posts about the Haitian earthquake as it relates to this at bagnewsnotes: 1 2)

I feel like it’s difficult for me, as well as many of my classmates to have a definite sense of home, as we’re always in-between places it seems. You’re at school for a while, then home for break, then back at school, maybe somewhere else for the next break, home for a bit, and then back to school, etc. While permanence isn’t the most important aspect of home, I think it’s an important part of that feeling of comfort and routine that comes with being “home.” While abroad, however, comfort and routine seem a bit antithetical to the concepts of challenging yourself in that new environment. At the same time, that’s part of the challenge—getting comfortable in the new, strange environment.

It’s been interesting doing that in Taiwan, because it’s been a different set of challenges than the mainland. Not that things are difficult in the mainland, but the challenges one is presented with are often more concrete or straightforward, whereas challenges here have been more subtle and complex, and mostly in terms of culture, and the way people interact. As of late I’ve been a bit more sensitive/aware of the different ways that people make and view friends here, and all of that plays into that sense of comfort. In that way, I feel like Taiwan has been a better challenge in some ways—on a more intellectual/interpersonal level, but maybe I’m just used to it all now too. Knowledge of the language and culture, but also the city, is important too.

That being said, the most important thing is undoubtedly family. When I asked my mom what she thought, she came back with the question: “when we visited you over Christmas, even though we were staying in hotels, did you feel at home?” I could only say yes and no. It was a different kind of comfort and feeling from home, but in some ways it felt more like home than Taipei does for me now. To some degree maybe family, friends, experience and place become entangled in one’s sense of home and the different identities one has in different places. Back in the Qing dynasty, officials sent to Taiwan were not allowed to bring their families with them during their two-to-three year terms, to prevent them from “sprouting roots” in Taiwan—exactly for that reason.

Finding a new home is a difficult thing then, with so many factors coming together to create that sense of “home,” which can only be embodied so far in the house you live in—it’s more about where that house is in relation to the others in your community and the people in the house. When I think of “sprouting roots” I think of a banyan tree slowly dropping more and more roots into the earth as time passes—much like the “tree house” in Anping, Tainan. One must have the right environment and soil to flourish, and may be uprooted many times before finding that, though…. Enough of these silly metaphors.

General Update

during a bike trip along taipei's rivers

down south in kenting, exploring some of the awesome rock formations
Happy New Year! 祝大家恭賀新禧，萬事如意！年年高升，虎虎生風！Last night was interesting, with everything closed and all of Taipei either back home in the South or inside eating their 團員飯 with their family, I ate at KFC with some classmates (it was either that or McDonalds… and it was an interesting group of locals who were eating there—either young and alone, or clearly in a fight with their spouse or something), and then biked around, set of some little firecrackers, and watched thousands of dollars worth of fireworks explode throughout Taipei’s alleys as we cruised through the ghost-town-like streets.

Outside of class, the past couple of months have been great. I haven’t been worrying so much about spending time with my classmates, in part because we have an informal language pledge between us, which is great, but also because it’s not worth fretting over anymore. That being said, I’ve also settled in better to life here, and have had consistent meetings with language partners, as well as been hanging out with some other Taiwanese friends on a more consistent basis.

I just had a wonderful New Years lunch with a friend and her family, which was great fun and also incredibly delicious! (I’m not a very gracious crab eater, however). I hung out with a friend a couple days ago just talking in a coffee shop, and was astounded when I looked down at my watch and SIX hours had passed. I’ve had a number of casual meals with one of my neighbors, and hung out with him a few times later at night. I’ve developed relationships with the people I go biking with, and it’s no longer a passive relationship. Calligraphy has been a lot of fun, and its initial solemn atmosphere has gradually dispersed. Anyways, in all, I’ve made good steps forward, and in some ways am kind of disappointed I’ll be leaving in the summer.

I feel like I’ve finally started to understand some of the subtle differences between Taiwan and the mainland, and of course the United States. Just like anything, that of course always takes a long time, but I can start to see it, both because of my one-on-one class and because of my interactions with friends outside of class. Of course, TV is also really important. I watch a fair amount of TV here, mostly variety shows, and one of my favorites is a discussion-based show that brings 50 parents and 50 young people together to talk about a certain issue. Some of the topics are silly, like whether or not young children should have cell phones or not, but others, like those about finding a husband/wife, homosexuality, etc., are much more pointed and interesting. It’s also fascinating to see how the generation gap manifests itself. I’ll talk about that more later in another post once I have my ideas better collected.

Other than just hanging out more, which I value more highly than I used to, I’ve been biking more and seeing different parts of the city, spending more time in night markets and trying new foods, and just trying to get out more. I went to Dihua St. the other day, a hubbub of stalls selling all sorts of goods for the Chinese New Year. I’ve been to a couple of temples, and done some of the other sites too finally. While I obviously can’t bring myself to not care about my studies and homework, I’m trying to take better advantage of this environment, even if sometimes that just means watching some TV in my room.

I’ve also gotten into a better pattern of doing work and exercising, which always makes life better. I unfortunately lightly sprained my ankle a week or so ago, but it wasn’t too bad and it’s already pretty much back to new. Rehab will continue though.

Happy New Year all!

School Update

taipei 101 from a hike one day back in october or something

so MAN!

random alley, there's a lot of interesting places
in taipei in terms of light, overlapping of space
and intersecting functions

So we just got out on break for Chinese New Year, which is in just two days! It’s a long-awaited break, both for students and teachers. Even though this quarter is a little bit shorter, days seem to be passing slower for some reason. Classes have been good, however, especially my listening class and my one-on-one class. The listening class is challenging, both in terms of the vocabulary and actual lessons, as well as discussion in class. My one-on-one class has been great because my teacher’s great, and I’ve been able to learn more about Taiwanese history and identity, while discussing it with her. I’ve also been learning a tiny bit of Taiwanese with her as well, so it’ been fun. I now buy all my bananas in Taiwanese haha.

My two other classes, one reading and one classical Chinese, have been good but not great. Classical moves a bit too slow and the teacher sort of underestimates us. She also has a strange habit of spending the first 10 or so minutes of class talking about something random, probably because ICLP has told her to develop a relationship with her students, but it just comes across too forced. The reading class is taught by the head teacher, who is great, and while the articles are interesting and have good vocabulary and stuff, a lot of class time is spent going over little problems that classmates have that should have been dealt with at home by preparing well before class. So that’s a bit frustrating, and really puts a damper on any sort of real discussion.

I definitely feel like I’ve been making progress again, both in more formal class topics and in regular day-to-day stuff. Watching television has been helpful with that. Variety shows, soap operas, movies, and news are all good ways to get exposed to a wider range of vocabulary and ways of speaking. Something else I’ve been doing this semester is not really spending time sitting down memorizing characters. I’ve been spending more time listening to lessons and reading lessons to try and see how I can naturally absorb the new vocabulary in context, rather than memorizing individual characters. I’ve found it’s actually been helpful, and while I’m maybe not remembering as many characters as I could, I’m remembering more complete patterns and am able to use them more correctly as a result.

It’s definitely still not easy, got to keep on working at it. That’s all for now. More interesting/non-academic stuff later.

New Year New Classes

Taroko Gorge!

Sun Moon Lake!

Fail boat. A italian tanker ran aground in
one of the typhoons this summer.

Cute couple.

A beautiful island with all sorts of cool tide pools and
stuff connected to the mainland by a bridge that
looks like a dragon.

haha we went shrimp fishing when we
were in Hualien and ate the spoils. Fun night.

Random block of text in the Confucius Temple
in Tainan. I could read the whole thing and
understand it! In classical Chinese! Exciting.

This random couple was following me everywhere.

Winter break, as with all breaks it seems, was all too short. As I mentioned briefly in my last post, my parents were here for about three weeks, and those were three action-packed weeks. We visited so many places that were all so awesome in all very different ways by so many different modes of transportation it was ridiculous. We took the high-speed rail to Tainan, rented a car and drove (much to the amazement of our Taiwanese-American friends in the US) around the island, took a bus to Sun-Moon Lake, and finally the slow train to Yingge, with stops in Taipei in-between.

I won’t spend too much time on the traveling, but rather let the pictures do the talking. It was interesting being the sort of guide/translator though. My parents sort of relied on me much more than they needed to, and at times I found myself simply translating and deferring to them rather than just going ahead and making decisions. It made me realize how strange that position of translator can be. You may know the answers or what to do, but out of respect for the position of translator or just out of the trained passivity you’re left standing, waiting to be told what to do without even knowing it—a weird position to be in. Nonetheless, I’m amazed at my parents’ willingness to travel, without worry, to countries where they know absolutely none of the language. Obviously I could help them out here, and knowing English always makes things easier, but it’s definitely a different experience that I haven’t really had in a while. Maybe something to think about for some travel in the future.

Classes started last week, and I’m definitely more excited about class this semester. I’ve chosen my classes and they’re all relatively challenging, covering interesting topics, and allow for good discussion beyond just understanding the text usually. I’m in a listening class with no text, there’s just the new vocabulary and the recordings. We listen to 15-20 minutes per day and discuss it the next. These are real speeches that were part of a university series, so it’s nice to be listening to real speeches, and learn better how speeches are given in Chinese. I’m taking a similar class that’s reading-based. My one-on-one class is focused on problems of Taiwanese identity and history, which I’m excited about learning. Taiwan is all too often overlooked in the history of China, and it’s got a lot of really fascinating, unique social problems that have roots in its history. Finally, I’ve got a classical Chinese class, which is going well so far.

That’s all for now. It’s been raining a lot as of late, but it’s beautiful out today so I’m going to take the opportunity to get out for a bit.

Peace

Fall Term Interim Report

Looking down the above-ground metro tracks near
my apartment during rush hour.

Jeffrey Hartsough
Interim Report
Fall 2009
ICLP, Taipei, Taiwan

Classes:
Introductory Classical Chinese
This was a solid introduction to classical Chinese using the textbook A First Course in Literary Chinese by Harold Shadick. The class covers a range of texts from various authors and a wide range of topics mostly in prose but also including one unit on Tang dynasty poetry. After taking eight weeks of classical Chinese over the summer, the class was not as challenging as it could have been, especially in the beginning and with two classmates who hadn’t studied classical Chinese before. At the same time, however, that allowed me to do a little extra preparation for the class in less time and understand the text more fully. The teacher was great, and did a good job of keeping the class moving. He not only knew the linguistic aspects of the lessons, but also the historical and philosophical background of it all, and would always be sure to include as much of that as he could, while still managing class time well. He was also available in the afternoons to meet with for any additional questions, which was of course great. I should have used that more than I did, however.
Thought and Society, Review (one-on-one class)
This was my one-on-one class, which was a “review” class of a book that I’d never studied. Thy had me take the calss because it was a core text and they wanted to make sure I had a grasp of the material, which it turned out I already knew about 80+% of the new vocabulary and the text wasn’t particularly challenging. Again, while it was nice to have an easier class at times, especially while trying to get used to life here in Taipei, it was also frustrating to feel like the class wasn’t helping me progress. My teacher was really nice and always came well prepared with copious notes and exercises, but it was hard to really get something out of it when I already knew most of it, and therefore had less motivation for the class. I also felt it took a while for her to really open up, she was always nice and courteous, but I felt like it took a while for her to feel comfortable and really relax. It seems like the teachers here are very serious about their work and have all undergone extensive training in teaching Chinese, but sometimes they can also be a bit too serious and not really willing to go beyond the strict student-teacher passing-on-of-knowledge relationship.
Aspects of Life in Taiwan
This was my best class because of the challenging textbook which covered a lot of different topics in greater detail than the Thought and Society class, I had challenging classmates, and the teacher was excellent. The teacher did a great job of balancing time between going over sentence patterns (not so much grammar anymore), correct and subtle understanding of how to use new vocabulary, discussion of the text, general debate, and writing formal speeches. The class was run superbly and this was easily the class that I got the most out of, and it was also fun. One of the biggest realizations I made last semester was through that class: the difference in logic between Americans and Taiwanese/Chinese. There were numerous occasions in the class where the teacher would sit for a silent moment after hearing my response, and then start the following sentence with “your grammar was correct, but…”My Chinese-American classmates didn’t have a problem with the logic of my sentence, and my teacher understood it grammatically, but my mind would connect the dots or think of the question in a different way. I think that’s going to be a big challenge, not necessarily to overcome, but to be more conscious of, as my Chinese improves and in tougher topics.

The gorgeous scenery in Kenting national park--one of the best
aspects of life in Taiwan? I think so.

Newspaper reading class
This was an interesting class. We didn’t have a textbook, so we had to choose articles on our own, and then our teacher would prepare a glossary of vocabulary, grammar, and background information. Our teacher worked really hard on the preparation, but her control of class time wasn’t as good as it could have been. It was nice every once in a while to have a class where we would talk about something completely random, but towards the end there was a bit too much of that. Nonetheless, thanks to her thorough knowledge and willingness to use and teach new words when having those random conversations, even those were great learning opportunities. The articles we read weren’t necessarily on the most useful or interesting of topics, but we had topics ranging from retina implants to basketball and the mafia to fireworks, so each had a different set of vocabulary, which is always a good thing.

A classmate blowing glass at one of our activities during the
Thanksgiving week break. I made a glass, with the help of
the real glassblower, right. Definitely one of those 10,000
hours things.

Overall
I’d say that the teaching was excellent, and every teacher had a very firm grasp both of the language and of teaching methods. There are also extra group classes, of which I took the pronunciation clinic and the one on Chinese characters. The Chinese characters one was absolutely worthless/uninformative for me, and the but the pronunciation clinic was definitely helpful. The only real problem with classes was placement. I don’t think I can really blame to program per se, because there’s always the problem of where to place someone when they’re coming from a different program, and that’s the second time I’ve done that this year. I think that in the end it was all right though, and I’m in a good place going into the next quarter. Each class had it’s own rewards.

A nighttime view of Taipei 101--my parents and I went up it on its last
night as the tallest building in the world, without even knowing it!

Living in Taipei

Apartment
My apartment has been great. It’s only 5 minutes or so from class, 5 minutes from the MRT subway system, and right next to dozens upon dozens of restaurants from every corner of the world—and all wonderfully cheap. It’s a simple studio with all the basics and a decent amount of space. The really great thing is the location though—right next to class, which means no time wasted commuting to school on a regular basis. It actually takes me less time to get to class here than it does from Pierson back at school haha. And my neighbors have finally started to talking to me! Haha, I know that sounds bad, but it just took some time and a little more proactive effort on my part. I have dinner with one of them on a weekly basis too, which is nice.

Extra-curriculars

My parents visited over the winter break, and we visited Tainan (above),
Pinglin, Hualien, Taroko Gorge, Taitung, Chiben, Kenting, Kaohsiung,
Sun-moon lake, Yingge, and of course, Taipei.

My dad after his spill showing my mom how to go down a hill on the
electric scooters we rented one day to go around Sun-moon Lake.
Luckily my mom was smart enough to not follow his example.

My guitar and calligraphy brush haven’t gotten much use in the last three weeks between finals and my parents coming, but I’ve definitely improved. More importantly, however, I’ve been able to meet some other NTU students through them, and they’re both fun. The calligraphy club isn’t quite as silent, focused, and hard-working as I thought it was at the beginning of the semester. It’s a great way to spend my Fridays after a long week, practicing my characters, listening to the teacher mindlessly lecture on, and then everyone relax and just hang out after the teacher leaves. I’ve also been exercising on a regular basis, which comes with occasional conversation with other students in the gym.

Bikes litter the floor on Friday nights at the Zhongshan Hall Square,
inconspicuously tucked away behind the 10-something story KTV
palace called Party World

My other consistent activity has been riding my fixed gear bike that I purchased here in October. It’s fun and good exercise, but I’ve also met a bunch of cool people through it. Every Friday night that it’s not raining (it rains so much it seems!) I make my way over to Ximending after calligraphy on my bike, and hang out with some other people who ride bikes until late at night. It’s a nice diverse group who’s just there to ride their bikes and hang out, which is cool, and in terms of language, it’s good exposure to a completely different setting from what you learn in class. I feel like that’s been pretty good for my informal speaking.

The annual gay pride parade in Taipei--an interesting experience,
and definitely not something that you'd see in the mainland.

The other thing that I may do a bit too much of, but I use the excuse of language practice to justify it, is watching TV. There’s all sorts of… I hesitate to say good, but interesting programs here. I haven’t become a Taiwanese soap opera fanboy, but I do watch them on a relatively regular basis, and there are of course the incredible number of variety shows. TV here is definitely much different than in China—definitely more advanced in terms of the topics, variety, advertisement, etc.

Now that's a bird. Unfortunately, I forgot it's name.

Hanging out and exploring the city
To be honest, I haven’t explored as much of the city as I maybe should have. I’ve definitely seen quite a bit of the city, but I haven’t been doing the tourist thing so much. Before my parents came over the break, I think I’d opened up the Lonely Planet a total of like 3 times after the first week of being here. At the same time though, I don’t have a problem with that. I’m not a tourist here, I’m living here. I’d rather take this chance to understand what it’s like to live here on a regular basis, what things people do on weekends (like write Light Fellowship reports in their room ;) haha), instead of feeling the pressure to get to every sight and activity in the Lonely Planet. It was wonderful to get to do a lot of that stuff with my parents over the break though, and I’ll definitely use breaks in the future to do some more of that as well.

Temple kit #37: sensory overload cupola supreme.

Moving Forward

I think I’m in a good place to attack these next two quarters academically and in terms of motivation. It’s not about comparing the experience to other experiences, be it my SYA experience in 11th grade or time in Harbin this summer, and it’s not about what it isn’t or about your expectations, it’s about what it IS, about being in the moment and appreciating what you’ve got. I have to accept ICLP and Taiwan for what they are and make the best of it.

More details soon as the blog continues!

And a kitten for your viewing pleasure.