Category: Taiwanese Culture & People

Citizen Journalism In Taiwan

Funny, I spoke with a friend of mine about citizen photojournalism about a week ago, and I’ve seen two stories on citizen journalism since then.  The last one, from Monday’s Taipei Times, I’ll mention first:

Wu Ping-hai (吳平海) has neither a journalism degree nor experience working for newspapers or TV news programs.

But Wu’s video camera has recorded a footage from a wide range of events, documenting the personal stories of ordinary people and the issues that concern local communities.

Wu posts short documentaries on peopo.org, an online citizen news platform started recently by the Taiwan Broadcasting System.

Two of his films document the study of farmland tree frogs, a species only found in Taiwan, and the experiences of foreign spouses learning Mandarin in Meinung Township (美濃), Kaohsiung County.

Wu was one of more than 700 citizen journalists who have contributed to community news coverage since the creation of the platform in April.

They have generated more than 2,200 news stories over the past three months.

[…]

To ensure the quality of stories, the Web site’s administrators have asked would-be contributers to submit a formal application before posting reports and footage.

Over at The Belmont Club, Wretchard speculates where this is headed:

Here’s what I think people will see in the next decade. Big news won’t go away but readers will be able to drill-down on news stories in a way impossible before. For example, suppose new riots break out in the banleius of Paris in 2017. The reader will be able to drill down into every greater detail. Was a man burned on a torched bus? Click and find the micro-journalist who is following the recovery of the victim in a hospital. Or discover how the riots have affected a particular suburb in northern Paris. Not only will you be able to drill down, but you will be able to interact with the news. With online payment systems I believe readers will be able to support micro-journalist efforts to find out more details about an story, in a miniature version of the way readers support Michael Yon in Iraq today.

UPDATE (Jul 26/07):  Might citizen journalism be a way for Taiwanese nationalists to circumvent the stranglehold that Chinese nationalists have on Taiwan’s mainstream media?  Apparently RCTV in Venezuela carried on in reduced form on YouTube after their license was pulled, so there is some kind of precedent.

Martial Law Mentality

From a story in Monday’s Taiwan News entitled, "Scholars point out martial law mentality lingers long after era":

"The former regime has made many Taiwanese live like walking corpses, living without passion. The 38 years of authoritative rule has also made them stop thinking, with many focusing only on how to make money," [a local professor of sociology] added.

I don’t know if I would go QUITE so far.  "Walking corpses," and all that.  However, I do have an observation – an anecdotal one – about my chats in English with middle-aged Taiwanese.  Every now and then, in the course of a conversation, I will ask them an idle question:  What do they think the penalty or punishment should be for some infraction or another?

What I will hear from such people – almost invariably – is what the punishment for such-and-such a crime IS.

At that point, I often scowl a bit and look at the person somewhat suspiciously.  Because I didn’t ask them what the punishment IS – I asked them THEIR OPINION about what the punishment OUGHT TO BE.  I scowl because I can’t help wondering whether my interlocutor has deliberately evaded answering my question.

I catch myself then, and try to give them the benefit of the doubt.  After all, there’s a language barrier, so perhaps the person honestly misunderstood me.  So I politely follow up by saying that I understand what the punishment IS, but what I would really like to know is what they think the punishment SHOULD BE.

The usual reply:  "The punishment for such-and-such a crime is THIS.  And I AGREE with that."

So I’m faced with two possible conclusions here.  Either Taiwan is a society with a preternatural level of conformity, where all it’s middle-aged citizens agree WITH EVERY JUDGMENT meted out by the criminal justice system…or the middle-aged here have simply learned not to express their honest opinions about such matters.

After all, an openly-expressed opinion about how things SHOULD BE that differs in any way from the way things actually ARE is itself a criticism of the rulers that made things the way they are in the first place.  And criticism of the country’s rulers was the sort of thing that could get someone in heap big trouble in the bad old days of martial law.

Well, that’s my own observation about "lingering martial law mentality" in Taiwan.  Anecdotal?  Absolutely.  Try it yourself, and let me know the results.  Try it with groups of Taiwanese, and try it with individuals.  Taiwanese you know well, and those you don’t.  The middle-aged, and the young. 

I’m very interested in knowing if I’m onto something here, or whether I’m completely off base.

POSTSCRIPT:  Along similar lines, I could relate a story about a place of employment in Taiwan that is known to me.  In this workplace, certain Taiwanese employees freely talk about their support for Chinese nationalism.

Now it so happens that one of the employees there was once a political officer in the ROC armed forces.  And apparently, nary a word is EVER spoken by his co-workers in favor of Taiwanese nationalism.

A brief explanation is in order here.  Up until a few years ago, units in the Republic of China’s armed forces were organized along Leninist lines, headed by both military and political officers.  Political officers were tasked with observing the military officers for signs of disloyalty towards the Party (KMT).  They carried pistols, and were authorized to SHOOT military officers, in extreme cases.

Let me hasten to add that I’ve met this former political officer, and he seems like a very pleasant guy on a personal level.  A great guy, in fact.  But I still can’t escape the fact that none of his colleagues ever speaks in favor of Taiwanese nationalism.  And I don’t think that’s by accident, either.

Conform!

Over at The View from Taiwan is a post about falling afoul of unwritten rules here.  The examples are new to me, but they brought to mind an amusing description of the medical football players have to take before they are ever considered for the NFL.  What follows says nothing about Taiwan, but maybe something about human nature:

     When you get to the hospital, you are herded with the others into a long hallway to wait.  Chairs line the way and at the end of the corridor is a door.  A woman pops her head out the door every so often and beckons to the body filling the seat nearest the door.  In the true spirit of the thing, the masses have somehow determined that the correct way to proceed is for all forty remaining bodies to lift their carcasses up, only to drop them immediately in the remaining empty seat.  It’s a truncated and ridiculous version of musical chairs without the music.  At that rate, you will get up and sit down seventeen times before you are beckoned.  You revolt.  You decide to sit and not move.  You’ll wait for ten or so spaces to open up before you shuffle on down.

     When four empty chairs are between you and the next guy, those behind you start to shift uncomfortably in their seats.  Someone is not obeying the rules.  That’s not a good thing.  You start to feel like the grandpa snaking through the mountains on a single lane highway with twenty cars crawling up his back because he’s going five miles under the speed limit.  You surrender and take up your role in the mindless shuffle.  Despite your sense of the absurdity, you feel much better.

-Tim Green, The Dark Side of the Game, p 8-9

Premium Mainland Quality

Now, with 5% MORE diethylene glycol!

Package of sliced cheese in Taiwan. The package declares the cheese has Premium Mainland Quality. (Cheese is actually from New Zealand).

(Photo by The Foreigner)

These cheese slices are actually made in New Zealand, not China.  (And, just to cover myself, they do NOT contain diethylene glycol.)

All kidding aside, don’t the boys in marketing realize that when it comes to foodstuffs, the expression "mainland quality" may have lost some of its cachet in recent days?

UPDATE:  Looks like "Mainland" is the brand name.  Oh well.  Still good for a cheap laugh.

i-1

Miramar Shopping Complex

Went to Miramar Shopping Complex to see Spiderman III a while back, and was a bit sad to see that the Welcome grocery store in the basement has closed down.  That wasn’t a bad little store (in its variety of  foreigner food).  But with a Carrefour across the road in one direction and a Geant across the road in another, I guess it was pretty tough for them to turn a profit.

After the movie, I took a ride on the Miramar Ferris wheel for the first time.  These pictures I took of Taipei are a bit grainy, but what do you expect at ISO 3200?

Taipei, Taiwan at night from the Miramar Village Ferris wheel.

That tall building is Taipei 101 off in the distance:

Taipei, Taiwan at night with Taipei 101 in the background. Taken from the Miramar Village Ferris wheel.

With the wall of buildings in the foreground, this looks a bit like the planet Krypton:

Taipei, Taiwan at night with Taipei 101 in the background. Taken from the Miramar Village Ferris wheel.

A close-up of Taipei 101:

Taipei, Taiwan at night with Taipei 101 in the background. Taken from the Miramar Village Ferris wheel.

And another:

Taipei, Taiwan at night with Taipei 101 in the background. Taken from the Miramar Village Ferris wheel.

These streaks aren’t reflections off the windows, I tell you!  They’re meteorites, containing creepy viscous alien life-forms!

Taipei, Taiwan at night from the Miramar Village Ferris wheel.

i-6

Old Wive’s Tale?

People have told me of a Taiwanese superstition that says it’s bad luck if things in a pregnant woman’s home are moved around.  The saying goes that if they are, the result will be that the woman will give birth to a deformed baby.

Which is all prologue to this brief story about a German study in the May 22nd edition of the China Post.  (Sorry, no link available).

Women advised not to renovate during pregnancy

Bonn, dpa

Women should not have their homes renovated while they are pregnant or in the first two years of a newborn’s life because the baby’s immune system is not resistant enough to deal with the dust, and fumes from construction materials and paint.

[…]

It’s also advisable [for such families] to allow new furniture and construction materials to air out outside the home for two to four weeks before using them in the apartment.

Interesting that there might be a rational basis behind this particular superstition.  (Though the article doesn’t actually mention anything about deformities, per se.)

What An Excellent Day For An Exorcism

From last Friday’s China Post:

Four clergymen were ordered yesterday by the Taoyuan District Court to face a detention of 30 to 40 days for injuring a woman during an attempted "spiritual healing" of her.

The priests allegedly used bed linens to bind the woman when trying to exorcise evil spirits from her, following the same practices as seen in the movie "The Exorcist."

[…]

Taoyuan District Court ruled to have the priests detained…on the grounds that exorcising evil spirits does not require such violent practices.

Uhhh, am I correct in understanding that the Taiwanese court just claimed to have expertise in the field of demonic possession?

Your honor, we find the defendant’s soul is legally the property of Marge Simpson, and not of, the devil.

Turns out the woman was suspected of being taken over not because her head was spinning ’round, nor because she was speaking in tongues while spewing pea soup all over, but because she was a square peg:

The four clergymen were invited to expel evil from the woman by her younger sister, who thought something must be wrong with the woman, as she liked to stay home alone. [emphasis added]

My handy copy of mad Arab Abdul Alhazred’s Necronomicon (as always, the final authority on such matters) says absolutely nothing about introversion being a sign of possession by malevolent spiritual beings. 

Putting mayonnaise on perfectly-good LOBSTER, on the other hand…

IC Chips For ARCs

If you’re a foreigner in Taiwan, you probably have a Alien Residence Certificate (ARC).  This card allows foreigners to live here, and is about the size of a driver’s license (complete with photo and personal information).  Anyways, Friday’s China Post revealed that new ARCs will be embedded with integrated circuit (IC) chips as an anti-terrorism measure.

I, for one, am just hoping that these ICs aren’t as flaky as the ones currently embedded in Taiwanese bank cards.  Because I have had four (count ’em: 4) ATM cards crap out on me here within the last four months.  Three in December ’06, and one in April ’07.  PIN numbers reset from 7-digit phone numbers WELL-KNOWN TO ME, to Lord-knows-what.

Given that record of dependability, I suspect it’s only a matter of time before I’m apprehended by immigration officials at Taiwan-Taoyuan International Airport.  As Mohammed Abu-Foreini of Khandahar.