Taiwanese Heed Ford Prefect’s Advice

Listen. It’s a tough universe. There’s all sorts of people and things trying to outdo you, kill you, rip you off, everything. If you’re going to survive out there, you’ve really got to know where your towel is.

– Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The big news in Taiwan was Saturday’s march in Taipei protesting China’s passage of its anti-secession law last year.  Since I didn’t know the location of the starting point (the Songshan Tobacco Factory Park), I decided to wait at the march’s terminus on Ketagalan Blvd, near the Presidential Building.

I arrived at 3:15 pm, and was shocked by how few people there were.  The march was supposed to reach there by 3:30, but only 1000 people were present, tops.  Many more would arrive later, as the march was about a half-hour behind schedule.  But this was unbeknownst to me at the time.

It was quite a warm day – perhaps the warmest this year.  This fellow was wearing traditional Taiwanese rain gear:

He was a pretty good dancer:

…though the heat quickly forced him to lose the hat and coat.

(By the way, can anybody tell me what material they’re made of?  I think the fibers are from the bark of palm trees, but I’m not sure.)

Here’s a close-up of the dog:

Lemme just say: any dog that stands tough against communist aggression is all right by me.

I have no idea what the Chinese on the following sign says.  Obviously, the bearer thinks the country should be called the Republic of Taiwan rather than the Republic of China.  But it must be admitted that R.O.T. would be a pretty unfortunate acronym, however.*

By quarter to 4, there were about two to three thousand present.  A musician played a couple of rock songs.  The chorus of one was "Taiwan-guo, Taiwan-guo" (Taiwan the country, Taiwan the country).

Meanwhile, a lot of folks headed over to a nearby stand to get a free(?) towel.  I started to follow them, but stopped myself because I wasn’t sure how they would feel about giving a foreigner some of their freebees.  I needn’t have worried.  One gentleman saw that I didn’t have a towel and gave me his.  A lot of Taiwanese are like that.

Here’s the towel he gave me.  It was a bit long, so I had to fold the edges to get it all in the shot:

The reason for the give-away was to highlight the troubles facing the Taiwanese towel industry due to Chinese competition.  Does anyone remember Ross Perot’s "giant sucking sound to Mexico"?  Well, near as I can recall, Mexico never had 800 missiles pointed at American cities and military instillations, nor did it lay claim to every square inch of American soil.

(Just imagine the NAFTA debates if it had.)

4 pm, and the marchers began arriving:

Somewhere in the line of marchers, a woman waved to me and yelled, "We love you!"  I’d be lying if I said it didn’t choke me up a little.

Anyways, here’s another shot of the marchers.

And not a KMT flag to be seen.  But then, when was the last time the KMT marched to protest ANYTHING that China did?  Was it last year, when China passed its anti-secession law?  No, the KMT leader’s response at that time was to scuttle off to Beijing on a whirlwind appeasement tour.

Talk about giant sucking sounds!

But back to the rally.  At 4:15, I had to leave due to a prior commitment for Saturday evening.  It was a pity I couldn’t stay to get more shots, because the place was really starting to fill up. 

One marcher’s message to the Chinese leadership:

Hey, Hu Jintao!  Can you feel the love tonight?

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* On the other hand, it DID work out pretty well for Cary Grant’s character, Roger O. Thornhill, in North by Northwest.

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UPDATE (Mar 20/06):  Click on comments to read an English translation of the tall vertical protest sign.

UPDATE (Mar 25/06):  Estimates for the number of marchers ranged between 45,000 on the low end and 170,000 on the upper.

UPDATE (May 25/06):  Have a Happy Towel Day.

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