Coming of Age in Tainan

What does it mean to "come of age" exactly? Well, in many cultures, Chinese culture included, people celebrate various ages moreso than others. For example, we celebrated my daughter's first birthday in very unique fashion. Besides the normal birthday cake and gifts, we also put items such as a computer, a ball, paper, a book, and some blocks. The goal is simple - the one year-old will determine what he/she will become when she is older. Take a look at what our daughter decided. Certainly, she will be a physicist.

In Tainan, Taiwan, I had the chance to attend another coming-of-age ceremony celebrating girls who are aged 16. According to many locals, this is the age that traditionally, girls become women. The girls and their families give thanks to the goddess Chiniangma who protects children up until the age of 16. View the video below to see some of the other traditions associated with this ceremony.

To the Markets We Go!

Markets in Taiwan stand out to me as being truly unique. You can get almost anything at these markets, however, what you will find depends on what type of market you visit. I was able to visit traditional local markets, which mainly sell daily staples such as fruits, veggies, meats, rice, noodles, beans, and any other foods locals consider to be important. The other type of market I visited was a night market, something which many locals say you can only find in Taiwan. Night markets here are packed with people who generally are both looking to hangout with friends, get a snack, and/or check out the latest fashions in clothing.

Check out what I found at the local tradional market:

Taiwanese or Chinese? That is the question.

I have been quite busy over the last week meeting new people and learning more about who the people are here in Taiwan and how they describe themselves. I was lucky enough to sit down with two professors from the Chinese language department at one of Taiwan's top universities, National Taiwan Normal University. My main question to them was this: "Would you describe yourself as being Taiwanese, Chinese, or both? And if you would describe yourself as being both Taiwanese and Chinese, which identity seems to affect your daily life and beliefs most? "

The question was complicated and it took me a few tries using Chinese to make sure they fully understood what I was asking. This is ultimately the challenge of learning a second language, there are always times when you want to say something and you just don't have the exact words needed to express yourself. In this situation, all I could do was try to use the vocabulary that I knew and explain what it was I wanted to learn about them. Eventually, they both understood and our discussion lasted nearly 3 hours.

The first professor, Zhu Laoshi, made it clear that she is first and foremost, Taiwanese. She explained that while she certainly feels a connection to her ancestors that came over to Taiwan from Guangdong Province, her connection is to the older customs and traditions of ancient Chinese culture, not the current culture of China that she believes has changed drastically. She went on to explain that many teachers, scholars, and well-educated people from China immigrated to Taiwan, and with them, they brought a deep understanding of Chinese culture and traditions. She is very proud of this fact that she celebrates festivals the way they were celebrated hundreds of years ago. With all this said, she professed a hope that China and its people will re-learn those traditions that she says many people in China have forgotten. For example, she said that while she was teaching in Beijing for a year, one of the more important festivals, Dragon Boat Festival, was approaching. She asked a student if he was looking forward to celebrating and his reply was, "Celebrating what?" She then proceeded to teach the student, a college student at one of China's top universities, the various traditions related to the celebration of Dragon Boat Festival.

I'll write more on this topic later.

Shrimping.....Taiwan Style

The last week has been wonderful. I have a ton of things to share with you all! First, I sat down with two professors from one of Taiwan's top universities. I wanted to get some professionals' ideas about what I should expect as I wander Taipei talking to local people about why they are proud to be Taiwanese. Both of the professors, 朱老师 和陈老师, seemed to feel a very strong connection to China; however, the China they spoke of was not the China of today, but rather, the China of the past. They both mentioned how proud they were that Taiwan and its people have been able to continue to practice many of the ancient customs practiced in ancient China. 朱老师explained that she believes Taiwanese people possess a strong sense of community, and people's kindness and generosity is something that is cyclical and continually gets passed on from one person to the next, creating a harmonious and pleasant society. We certainly have felt this kindness each and every day. People here make sacrifices for one another. For example, every time we have gotten on the train, people jump out of their seats to let Baea and my wife sit down.

In other news, about a week ago, a typhoon hit Taiwan and nothing was open. School and work was cancelled and my plans to visit a local museum were also rendered useless when I found out that the museum was also closed. Luckily, there was one place open that I had wanted to visit for some time, the 掉虾场or shrimp fishing place

About a week ago, a typhoon hit Taiwan and nothing was open. School and work was cancelled and my plans to visit a local museum were also rendered useless when I found out that the museum was also closed. Luckily, there was one place open that I had wanted to visit for some time, the 掉虾场or shrimp fishing place

We arrived at around 10 am and it was quite empty. However, to my surprise, as we were leaving around 1 o'clock, the place began to fill up with people. I asked around to learn more about the activity and while many were able to explain why they enjoyed it, only one person seemed to know when it first started. According to him, fishing for giant Thai prawns started about 30 years ago. People enjoy leisurely activities and loved these giant shrimp and thus, people began raising them on farms in Taiwan. Slowly, people began to develop an interest in fishing for them. Today, you can find a number of these shrimping houses in more rural areas of the island. It certainly was a challenge and I was only able to catch two in three hours of fishing. At 300 New Taiwan Dollars an hour, it ended up being a pretty small and expensive meal, but, it was well worth the experience. 

Am I as healthy as I think?

While exploring Taipei's 228 Peace Park, a memorial to the  thousands of Taiwanese that were killed during protests against the government in 1947, I came across something quite interesting - a stone walkway. You might be saying to yourself, "Oh, who cares." But this walkway is actually a specially built walkway to help people find out how they can improve their health. Check out the walkway below.
When stepping on this walkway with bare feet, you should be able to find out which areas of your body are unhealthy. For example, I found out my heart was a bit unhealthy when a certain part of my foot was hurting during my walk on the "health walk". Check out the chart below to see which part of my foot was hurting most.

Because I'm Happy.......

台湾非常热! 哇塞！昨天，我跟我的宝宝Baea和我的太太 Jolin去公园。这个公园很大，也很漂亮。我们走进去公园 ，然后看到一个很酷的画面。我们看到很多人做yoga. 他们做happy yoga! 他们跳舞，唱歌，也哈哈大笑 ！你看：

Táiwān fēicháng rè! Wasāi! Zuótiān, wǒ gēn wǒ de bǎobǎo BAEA hé wǒ de tàitài Jolinù gōngyuán, zhège gōngyuán hěn dà, yě hěn piàoliang. Wǒmen zǒu jìnqù gōngyuán, ránhòu kàn dào yīgè hěn kù de huàmiàn, wǒmen kàn dào hěnduō rén zuò yújiā. Tāmen zuò kuàilè de yújiā! Tāmen tiàowǔ, chànggē, yě hāhā dà xiào nǐ kàn! :

Today we woke up early and headed to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park. There, we happened upon a group of very happy Taiwanese people. They were doing yoga. The only thing was, it wasn't your normal kind of yoga. They were mainly laughing, laughing, and laughing some more. If there is one thing I have loved so far, it is how friendly Taiwanese people have been. Check it out:

现在几点钟, 谁 可以告诉我

As a lay on the floor of Incheon Airport in Seoul South Korea , I have but one question. What time is it? I've only been awake for 24 hours and only have about 4 more hours until I can be in my apartment in Taipei. I've considered whether it's weird for me to be laying on the floor of the airport but I'm really too tired to care at this point. My body is confused but I know what I'm doing. I'm training you body! It is not time to sleep! It's not 4:30 am. It's 6:30 pm. And you know it!

That's what I'm telling my body. He doesn't like me! Anyway, let me show you the airport while I have the time. Check it out:

So what's the plan, Stan?

So I showed you the map earlier, but now, let me be a little more specific about what we should expect to see. 

First, I will be heading to Taiwan where I plan on answering a number of questions.

First, do people there consider themselves to be Chinese or Taiwanese or both? Second, I am going to try my best to be your tour guide as we visit some of Taiwan's national treasures like the Palace Museum, famous night markets, and a shrimp farm. That's right, we are going shrimp fishing! Fishing for shrimp!

While in China, I will be visiting small villages inhabited by non-Han Chinese. Han Chinese is the group of people that makes up the majority of the population in China, however, there are a total of 56 groups of people in China that have unique traditions, languages and customs. I can't wait to talk to these people and learn more! Remind me again what you all would like me to learn about by writing in the comment section below this post.

Last, I want to capture video of real life activities that you would like to complete using Mandarin. For example, shopping in a local vegetable market.

What else do you want to learn to do using Mandarin? Buy a train ticket? Ask for directions? Discuss playing basketball with a friend? Let me know in the comments section!

--

Bennett Harrold

MandarinAlive!

Why am I doing this again?

Ahhhh, I remember. This is an investigation to find out more about the people who may or may not consider themselves to be Chinese. How often do we really think about who we are and what we do? If we consider ourselves Americans, what is it about us that makes us American? Is it the festivals that we celebrate. Is it the foods we eat? Is it the way we live our lives on a day-to-day basis?

 For example,
我是美国人。我觉得我是美国人, 因为，我很喜欢吃热狗。很多美国人喜欢吃热狗。我也觉得我是美国人，因为，我每年都跟我的家人一起庆祝感恩节。你呢？
你觉得自己是美国人吗？ 在你的家，你的家的风俗习惯跟美国有关系吗？
Wǒ shì měiguó rén. Wǒ juédé wǒ shì měiguó rén, yīnwèi, wǒ hěn xǐhuān chī règǒu. Hěnduō měiguó rén xǐhuān chī règǒu. Wǒ yě juédé wǒ shì měiguó rén, yīnwèi, wǒ měinián dōu gēn wǒ de jiārén yīqǐ qìngzhù gǎn'ēn jié. Nǐ ne?
Nǐ juédé zìjǐ shì měiguó rén ma? Zài nǐ de jiā, nǐ de jiā de fēngsú xíguàn(customs and traditions) gēn měiguó yǒu guānxì ma?
Do you consider yourself to be an American? What is it about you that makes you American? Share in the comment section below!

Surely, our ancestry plays a large role in all of our lives as well, whether we know it or not! Where our families come from definitely affects the way we live our lives!
For example,

 我不是在芝加哥出生的。我是在威斯康辛州出生的。我的妈妈跟我一样。她是在美国的威斯康辛州出生的。
我的爸爸跟我不一样。他是在爱荷华州出生的。
Wǒ bùshì zài zhījiāgē chūshēng de. Wǒ shì zài wēisīkāngxīn zhōu chūshēng de. Wǒ de māmā gēn wǒ yīyàng. Tā shì zài měiguó de wēisīkāngxīn zhōu chūshēng de.
Wǒ de bàba gēn wǒ bù yīyàng, tā shì zài ài hé huá zhōu chūshēng de. 

我的爷爷奶奶，和公公婆婆都是在美国长大的，但是，他们的爸爸妈妈不是在美国出生的。爷爷和奶奶的爸爸妈妈是在爱尔兰长大的，然后，他们坐船来美国。 公公婆婆他们家是从英国来的。他们的爸爸妈妈可以说是英国人，不是美国人。
Wǒ de yéyé nǎinai, hé gōnggōng pópo dōu shì zài měiguó zhǎng dà de, dànshì, tāmen de bàba māmā bùshì zài měiguó chūshēng de. Yéyé hé nǎinai de bàba māmā shì zài ài'ěrlán zhǎng dà de, ránhòu, tāmen zuò chuán lái měiguó. Gōnggōng pópo tāmen jiā shì cóng yīngguó lái de. Tāmen de bàba māmā kěyǐ shuō shì yīngguó rén, bùshì měiguó rén.

How have other cultures affected your life? How does where your family is from affect your life? Do you do things with your family that may be different from other friends because of where your parents, grandparents, or great grandparents are from?  Let me know in the comments section below!

何老师，你要去哪里？

同学们好！下面是我的旅游行程。
你看一下，我要去几个国家？
你最喜欢哪一个地方？ 

Tóngxuémen hǎo! Xiàmiàn shì wǒ de lǚyóu xíngchéng.
Nǐ kàn yīxià, wǒ yào qù jǐ gè guójiā?
Nǐ zuì xǐhuān nǎ yīgè dìfāng?

Hi students! Below is my travel itinerary. Take a look. 

How many countries will I be in? Which of these specific 

places are you most excited to learn about? 

Preparing for the rain!

It is rainy season in southwest China and I have no shoes to protect me from the rain, leeches, mud and anything else that wants to get into my shoes while hiking. I have decided that despite my disdain for buying new clothing, I should invest in a new pair of hiking shoes. I went to REI and after trying on multiple pairs of shoes of multiple sizes, I was unable to find a pair that fit both feet comfortably. Given that I only have four days until departure for Taiwan, I decided to go big and buy a pair of size 13 hiking boots. I 

am a size 11.5.  They are huge, but, I think my feet are going to thank me.