Day 36 (Aug 13): Collections

Friday morning, my third aunt and uncle, grandma, and myself head out to the Chimei Museum, about 30 minutes south of Tainan. The museum is private, and was established by Wen-Long Shi, co-founder of Chimei Corporation, a plastics and tech company, known for its LCD screens. Wen-Long Shi was able to set up a Culture Foundation to support the arts, and opened his museum to the public with free admission, while maintaining quite a large collection of artwork, antiques, fossils, natural science exhibits, and a personal passion - musical instruments. His collection also includes quite a few Stradivarius violins (he's a violinist himself) - but for security reasons, these are kept in a vault in a separate location. Nevertheless, there was plenty to see, and lots to learn from. 

Writing these posts a considerable amount of time after the trip due to a backlog of posts, I thankfully have a travel habit of keeping a lot of pamphlets and maps, and other simple souvenirs, wherever I go - whether it's a map of Taroko National Park, the movie ticket stub from Inception at Dream Mall, a church program, or the museum guide at the Chimei Museum. Along with photos and memories, they provide plenty of detail and reminders to what I did that day (there's a collection of 100+ items from these 40 days). 

Here's a picture of the Museum Guide, and below, you can see a description of Wen Long Shi's collection of Strads. He has also founded the Chimei Philharmonic Orchestra, and has lent his collection of musical instruments to international performers (including Yo-Yo Ma).

We arrived a few minutes before opening times, and took some photos outside, of some Michaelangelo-inspired statues. 

At 10, the doors were opened, and we were allowed to go in (after we checked in with our reservations).  Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the museum, so I can't show you any of the beautiful artwork and displays, but we had a wonderful time. The 1st floor had a movie room that was showing an introduction to the company, museum, and charitable efforts in the arts, while floors five to eight featured the bulk of the exhibits.

Alongside the chronologically galleries of paintings and sculptures on the fifth floor, there were plenty of interactive, touch screens that provided more information about the museum's exhibits (manufactured by Chimei Corp. of course!). In enjoyed the sixth floor, which had walls lined with musical instruments, and a presentation featuring the history of self playing instruments, including pipe systems, player pianos, and even devices that mimicked an entire of ensemble of instruments. 

The seventh and eight floors featured natural sciences, with exhibits centered around geology and ecology, with several displays of animal habitats around the world (with, generally, life-like animals). A few hours later, we had seen a good part of the displays, while the museum halls were beginning to fill up with other visitors and kids (perhaps from camps or schools), and we headed off for lunch. 

We stopped at a Japanese restaurant, Fu Shan - I'd eaten there three and a half years ago with family. There were several small dishes for each course...

... and in no time, the table was looking pretty full.

   

And there was also soup served in a teapot!

I was dropped back at my second aunt's home. Later that day, I had another visit with the doctor to keep me as healthy as possible in my final days in Taiwan. On the way home, we stopped at a shop and bought some warm almond milk, and went home for another great homemade dinner. =)

Day 35 (Aug 12):

I spent most of today resting as well, getting to know Taiwanese television, and calling home. My grandma had brought over some Taiwanese drinks (she had noticed my liking for Sarsparilla). I was feeling much better, and for lunch, we (my second aunt, and Sophia) went to a nearby restaurant. They'd never been there before, but thought it would be neat to try it out!

The menu had a lot of variety, everything from personal hotpot, pasta, noodles, various appetizers, as well as some self-serve buffet food and salad. Most memorable though was the drinks - they had many types of teas, hot and cold. Whenever I have a sore throat, one of my first remedies is peppermint tea, but I don't think I've ever had peppermint tea as good as theirs. 

There's not too much else I remember about today, so I'll move on to a topic I've been meaning to write about (which was originally tagged onto Day 34's post, but decided that today's post would have more space). As any student, conversations seem to always - at some point - lead, or start, with the question, "what are you studying?" As a student of the Arts & Sciences Programme at McMaster - explaining my program (or whatever I'm doing) has never been easy. This challenge is even more difficult with a) a language barrier (how to say interdisciplinary, or inquiry, in Taiwanese?) and b) a lack of similar programs in Taiwan.

In fact, the difficulty (or impossibleness) of forming a clear explanation of Artsci is directly in our oath - as well as the vow to keep on trying. And through the months (so far), I've tried - with family, friends, teachers, loveboaters, relatives, students in other programs, church members - everyone... and I'm still struggling. But here are some things to know about Arts & Sciences at McMaster (the link will take you to our homepage that will give you the encyclopedic definition of Artsci. But of course, that's not good enough.)

Key word: Interdisciplinary. This is what the program is about. Combining cultures, mixing together the disciplines that have been so divided. "We don't have a faculty". Our professors come from departments all over the school, all from different areas of expertise and experience. Sure, we take arts/philosophy/writing based courses, and we also do maths/economics/sciences, but it's more than a double major. Several of our courses are interdisciplinary in nature: more "artsy" courses like Western Civilization and Modern Western Thought feature extensive discussion on the philosophy and development of science, and scientific reasoning, while the more "sciency" courses like calculus feature a society aspect that also involves an essay and presentation. 

The general thought process of a scientist and the articles he/she writes is very different from someone in the humanities, or social scientist, writing an analysis or report. Minds, writing styles, are geared towards different groups of people, and in my opinion, people lose access to fields outside their own. Artsci is about appreciating, and understanding various fields and disciplines - in hopes of bridging new connections and perhaps, most of all, learning as much as we can. Thankfully, we have some of the most passionate teachers to satisfy that desire.

Often enough, some people argue that taking a wide variety of subjects is what high school is about - not university, but I feel that a) high school isn't interdisciplinary, and b) interdisciplinary education at the university level goes far beyond the level of education at high school. I don't want to dive into the issue about education reform (though that's something I am slowly but surely becoming more passionate about), at least for now. Instead, I will direct you to an open letter sent by Dr. Petsko, former President of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, to George Philip, the President of the State University of New York, shortly after its decision to cut the Humanities department. The letter, titled "a Faustian bargain" adds some insight on the importance of interdisciplinary education in today's world.

What is Artsci about? Community. The program is very tight knit ("We put the cult in faculty!"... despite not being a faculty?), and though students tend to follow different tracks (combined honours in dozens of fields), there is a strong sense of togetherness and fellowship.

McMaster's Favourite Word? Inquiry. or perhaps Innovation, but I'll stick with Inquiry for now. Mac likes to  promote the idea of "problem based learning", or PBL, where education is more student/project directed, instead of professor/textbook guided. While I feel that the word "inquiry" is sometimes tosses around too much, it is a core value to several programs at Mac, in both Healthsci and Artsci. Even my biochem courses seem to highlight Inquiry quite a bit. Artsci has a very central Inquiry class in first year, focussing on third world development issues - that brings together politics, a bit of economics, and whatever topic the student chooses. 

What do we graduate with? B.Arts Sc. (Bachelor of Arts and Science). A good chunk of students tend to do a combined honours, which would show up as an Honours Bachelor of Arts and Science (Biochemistry) in my case. The course selection is a bit of a double major, with a set of core artsci classes, and the core biochem (or whatever) courses taking up most of one's elective space.

Where do students go? Everywhere, and anywhere. Naturally, Artscis tend to have a broad range when it comes to fields of interest. But there's one thing we have in common. Actually two. 1) We love to learn - most  tend to continue pursuing education. 2) We're Artsci 'til we die. 

I didn't plan on writing this much, so I'll stop now, and perhaps I'll talk more about artsci in a later post. For now, if you wish to learn more, there was a case study written about the Arts and Science Programme if you'd like to take a look. "Combining Two Cultures", a collection of reports by various professors, and put together by Dr. Herb Jenkins, our first director =). 

Day 34 (Aug 11): Proteomics

As instructed by my mom over the phone ("Austin, you've got to get better quickly!), I was starting to feel better as I recovered with the help of some pills, lots of rest, support from my relatives in Taiwan, and the pressure to get out of bed and to explore Tainan in my final week. Today, as planned weeks in advance, I was to visit my mom's former university and meet one of her former colleagues back when my mom had studied biochemistry.

My second aunt drove me to the National Cheng Kung University, where I was dropped off at the hospital to meet my mom's friend as well as her daughter, who I had met the previous year when she visited Toronto and I gave her a tour of the city. This time, I was the tourist. My mom's friend works in the field of proteomics, and showed me some of the devices and machines in her lab. [While writing this, nearly six months afterwards, I am starting my first course completely focussed on proteins - hopefully, I'll be able to understand more and more about the things she showed me.]

She showed me around the new hospital building, and then brought me to the old hospital, which is still used for research purposes. She also showed me some gels (from protein gel electrophoresis), and the devices, while various people that I was introduced to seem to find some fun (and challenge) in trying to explain applications/information to me through the language barrier.

Soon, by my second aunt's orders, I was dropped back at my grandma's home by noon. As you have probably noticed, I failed to keep my camera on me that day, and actually, my memory for these few days seem to be a bit fuzzy. I do, however, remember lunch at my grandma's house with my family, though I've been informed that this meal actually took place the day before (but since I've already used that post as a note on healthcare, I'll slip it in today). We had gathered together to commemorate my grandfather, following some Taiwanese customs, before sharing a lunch that my grandma had prepared.

Soon, I was back at my second aunt's home resting, and working on my down south trip map, which was to be published just two days later.