2.28: Students

More than half of Egypt's population is under 25. In an article titled "The Arab World's Youth Army", Ellen Knickmeyer describes the youth populations (under 30) in North Africa and the Middle East to be sixty percent of its population. Wael Ghonim, Head of Marketing for Google in the same region and one of the main figures of the protests against Mubarak was only 30 years old. Many other organizers of recent protests across the Middle East and in North Africa, as well as of the worldwide demonstrations in support of the recent revolutions, have been even younger. 

Just two months ago, student protests with tens of thousands of supporters took London by surprise, as students expressed their anger over the three-fold tuition increases. In Canada, six years ago, budget cuts to Grants and Loans in Quebec drove over 100 000 protesting students to the streets of Montreal.

A famous student-led protest turned violent on June 4, 1989. The Tienanmen Square Massacre led to thousands of deaths. Protests for basic rights and freedoms continue today, where activists inspired by the revolutions in the Middle East are being arrested and kept silent by police.

64 years ago, students were the leaders, the peacemakers, the hope, and - the martyrs - of Taiwan, during a dark time in Taiwanese history - the 228 Massacre in Taiwan and the following 40 years of martial law. I gave a brief introduction in an earlier post when I visited the 228 Peace Park in Taipei last summer:

Taipei 228 Monument

"After lunch, we walked eastward to the 228 Peace Park, only about ten minutes away. The park was renamed in 1997 to commemorate the tens of thousands of Taiwanese that were killed in the 228 Massacre. The massacre occurred in 1947, amid tensions between the Nationalist Chinese forces that fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war in China and the local Taiwanese people. An incident involving the KMT police killing a Taiwanese woman illegally selling cigarettes on the eve of February 28th led to more confrontations. Within a week, the KMT had requested reinforcements, with the arrival of thousands of troops randomly and systematically killing the Taiwanese elite – teachers, local politicians, doctors, students - anyone who could potentially pose a threat. The 228 incident marked the beginning of 40 years of "White Terror", the longest period of Marshall law in modern history."

Many of the confrontations between the Chinese Nationalists and the Taiwanese soon after February 28, 1947, were student led. Local Taiwanese leaders demanded rights and negotiated propositions with the KMT to bring order, reduce corruption, and restore the balance of power in their communities. Young students (including junior high and high school students) set up police forces to temporarily maintain peace and order.  The Nationalist government appeared to withdraw and engage in discussions, while in reality, they had called for reinforcements and waiting until March 8, when soldiers arrived and began to round up, arrest, and kill leaders, intellectuals, and students in the communities. The peacekeepers were asked to hand over their weapons before they were murdered with them. And in a short period of time, a generation of leaders and thinkers was lost.

As we commemorate the loss of lives in our history's most tragic moments, whether it's Remembrance Day, or a day like today, the world's current struggles remind us that the fight for basic human rights is far from over. Let us remember that the spirits and guiding principles of the student martyrs of human history still remain at heart in the students today, leading protests and revolutions - small steps that make the world a better place.

Water under the Monument.

Expanding Chaos

I started this blog over a year and a half ago, during a seemingly uneventful summer before the start of university. The title of the blog was inspired by a photo caption that suggested that I was looking "pensive, as usual", and of course, it's also a reference to Harry Potter, where a Pensieve is a magical basin where memories can be stored. Looking back, I thought the idea was at least somewhat original at the time, though a simple search would've revealed plenty of other blogs titled Person's Pensieve. Oh well.

Since then, I've played with much of the site: the sidebar widgets come and go, and I frequently tweak the main site template - fiddling with borders, and more recently, centering all page elements - and I've managed to pick up so html knowledge along the way (though it's still quite limited). Something that has stayed constant, has been the Haiku below the title:

"COLLECTION OF THOUGHTS / TRAPPED IN EXPANDING CHAOS / INSPIRED BY YOU"

My goal is to stay true to these seventeen syllables - more or less a vision statement, if not a definition of what this blog is meant to be. 1) This site is a means of writing things down - whether it's because I have some free time, have something on my mind, or have something to share. Posting it here is a lot like a Pensieve - wand to my mind, I can come back later and see what I was thinking now, or perhaps what I put here can come in handy to those who stumble upon this site on the world wide web. 2) Okay, I admit, "trapped in expanding chaos" is a whole lot of poetic nonsense, but as poetic nonsense, there are plenty of metaphors that can be drawn from that line. As for now, I'll let that line stand for the openness and wide variety of topics I can talk about. 3) This one's complicated. I never said my vision was 20/20.

It's with these thoughts in mind, that I started the "Resources" page, alongside the "Taiwan" page that highlights my 2010 trip to Taiwan. Back in the high-school days, I had a reputation for making summary notes for most of my classes. Lesson learned: summary notes on pdf files spread among high school students faster than gossip. While at first I made an effort to get "SAVE THE TIGERS!!!" and the occasional pro-Taiwan motto on the notes, I spent most of Gr. 11/12 keeping notes to myself / close friends.

Extensive note-making has been a habit I've more or less dropped after entering university. The sheer amount of material made the idea of typing up summaries for lectures and readings daunting, but perhaps most importantly, I realized that taking the time to fully comprehend and conceptualize as many ideas as I could would be a lot more efficient than dealing with my formatting perfectionism involved in typing notes.

Of course, making study aids is still an important part of keeping up in school, whether its the post-it note amino acids decorating my room, or the self-created sporcle quizzes used to help link texts' to their authors. As someone who enjoys making tests and puzzles (aside: I once wrote a rather puzzling clue as a password hint to a rather important website. nts: spending an hour trying to decrypt a message when you desperately want to access your files was not as fun as I had expected), making study aids has often become more of a time-consuming challenge compared to some actual productive use of study time, but it gives me the opportunity to have some fun, and search for ideal ways to visualize concepts - and visualizing and sharing these ideas is what my blog is about.

Thus, the resources page is a space where I will post some of these study musings, taking a screenshot of thoughts and ideas at this current point in time. Back to Harry Potter, I'll pay a tribute to the swirling threads of memories with my first addition to the page - the swirling mess of lines and boxes that is the first term organic chemistry flowchart.

Day 39 (Aug 16): A final night in Taipei

We got up quite early today (around 7) to catch the high speed rail back to Taipei. I bid farewell to my aunts and uncles who had invited me into their homes and brought me around the city for the past ten days, while my second aunt, grandma, and myself caught the shuttle bus to the Tainan high speed rail station, conveniently just outside my grandma's house!

Here's a link to the post 10 days ago, detailing the Taiwan HSR.

We took a taxi to my grand uncle and aunt's place, where they invited us to a very classy Japanese restaurant, - might as well leave Taiwan with a bang! This was a time to get to know my grand uncle and aunt a little better, and this was also my last meal with my second aunt and grandma, effectively bringing much of my Taiwan trip to an end.

Soon after lunch, we headed to my cousin Tim's house, where we were greeted once again by the twins. A bid farewell to my grandma and second aunt, promising to visit Taiwan again, as they left to take the high speed rail back to Tainan. After resting for a while, a headed back out to Taipei Main Station to meet Robert, a incoming first year McMaster student who I've gotten to know over the last couple months.

Since I promised to show him around campus, he insisted to show me around Taipei. Since I left for Tainan so soon after Loveboat ended, we had to squeeze this for our last day, but it was a nice treat and a reminder of the busy Taipei nightlife. As the sun started to set, we passed by Taipei's second tallest building as we walked towards a very busy beef noodle soup restaurant hidden among the city streets.

 

Taipei's second tallest building.

Left: Pork rice; Right: Beef Noodle Soup

We ended off the night at a night market - Ximending. We went to a few stores, and then stopped by a very popular vendor selling "ô-á mī-sòaⁿ", which translates to a Taiwanese-style oyster vermicelli. The store had plenty of people eating standing up, and despite a long line, bowls of noodles were prepared at a very, very fast pace. Below are some pictures!

Lastly, I bought a starfruit drink before heading back to my cousin Tim's place. The twins were already asleep; I quietly prepared for the next morning, as I had an early flight out of Taiwan to Honolulu, Hawaii, where I would meet my parents and sister later that afternoon. 

Day 38 (Aug 15): Tainan Photoreel

I am nearing the end of my trip in Taiwan, with my final full day in Tainan. Though sick for much of my time in the Southern city, the patience and care from my relatives have been more than enough to keep memories of Tainan enjoyable, and I still had plenty of opportunities to explore the culture in Tainan. Today was no exception.

Hopping onto my second aunt's motorcycle, we headed to my mom's former elementary school. And also the school of my other aunts, and a majority of my cousins. Camera in hand, plenty of pictures were taken today as we toured the city almost Amazing Race-like, guided in spirit by my third aunt who had given me several English printouts detailing the story behind Tainan's historic buildings. There are plenty of images so I've kept most of them small, but you can see a larger image if you click on them.

Photos by my mom's elementary school. Left: courtyard area; 

Right: recently renovated building, remnants of Japanese architecture more than 100 years old 

Left: to be translated; Right: Bridge connecting school to Confucius Temple

Another one of the school's older buildings.

We then headed to Maxwell Memorial Church, named after James D. Maxwell, Taiwan's first Presbyterian missionary. There was still some time before service was to start, so we toured around the building first.

Left: Front side of the church; Right: Entrance sign

Left: Impressingly large pipe organ on the small second floor balcony;
Right: Inside table with pamphlets, and the image of a burning bush. 

One of the church members kindly opened up the doors to their museum, tucked in the back of the building, offering a brief history of missionary work in Taiwan, and the story behind Maxwell Memorial Church.

Left: James D. Maxwell; Right: Thomas Barclay, another missionary to Taiwan, who founded Taiwan's first printed newspaper, and used a printing press Maxwell donated to the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan

Canadian Connections

Left: pictures of Maxwell (left) and George Leslie Mackay (right), the first Canadian missionary to Taiwan.
Right: Minister who served at the Maxwell Memorial Church and in the Taiwanese community in Toronto.

Left: Guestbook sitting on a historic table advising Christians to listen
Right: An old, but still functioning, pump organ from the church's earlier days, 

demonstrated by our impromptu tour guide. 

I managed to play a snippet of a hymn (Jehovah's Blessings Abound - #2) and he sang along =). 

The museum has kept a lot of symbols and relics from the original building, before several renovations that make up today's church. Can you spot the connection between the pictures above?

We thanked the church member as we returned to the sanctuary and took our seats. After singing a few hymns and listening to some Scripture readings, we left around halfway through the service, since my Taiwanese is not good enough to fully understand a sermon, and we still had plenty of places to visit.

First, we headed down the street to a vendor famous for their almond milk, but unfortunately, they were already sold out by 11 am. Must be good, I'll try to get some next time I go back.

Meanwhile, our next stop was just across the street - Tainan's old meteorology bureau, now converted to an interactive museum. Granted, my Mandarin reading skills were largely unimproved despite 38 days in Taiwan, but my high-school interest in geography and general love for maps allowed me to understand and appreciate the exhibits, perhaps even to a greater extent than the short blurbs could offer. 

Left: Front entrance; Right: Globe on the first floor, by the lobby

Left: Weather balloon! Right: Earthquake map of Taiwan

Outside the weather bureau building was the meterology centre (website found here), an octadecagon shaped structure with a nickname that translates to "pepper shaker", a reference to the top of the building shown below.

Left: A museum model of the building; Right: the actual building!

As I've said many times before, Tainan is a very historical city, and is well equipped for tourists. There were several signs and pathways to lead us to various sites and temples, all in close proximity to each other.

Signs and tiles pointed the way to site to site.

Cultural symbols line the streets and alleys.

Temple entrances had plaques that introduced visitors to its histories.

Left: Tiantan Temple's famous entrance panel reading "One". 

Right: a tiger! found by the walls of another one of Tainan's temples.

Thirsty from walking around in the hot weather, we stopped at a tea shop, where I had a very refreshing grapefruit green tea (or something like that). Our next stop stop was a cultural centre, where many displays were set up showcasing the Chihsi festival. Falling on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, the celebration represents the coming of age as one became 16.

"Seven" is most definitely a theme of this festival.

Left: Seven pairs of red chopsticks. Right: Cultural displays.

We then walked around to the back of the cultural building, where there was a peaceful park amidst the city life. Below is a picture of me with my second aunt =). 

Our next stop was lunch, which turned out to be as much of an attraction as many of our stops this morning. The restaurant's name is Du Xiao Yue, famous for its Tan-zai noodles. It's menu included a brief history of its restaurant, and even instructions on how to eat their signature dish.

Guidelines not only in English, but in Japanese and Mandarin. "Eat them! But never hurry."

Left: History lesson on the menu; Right: The restaurant still has pictures and displays from its early days.

The noodle makers hard at work.

Preparing a bowl of noodles.

Tan-zai noodles! Cost per bowl: 50NT, ~ 1.65 CAD

Later, we made our way back to my aunt's house, where she prepared guava shakes! I was soon back in my room, packing my stuff as I would be heading back to Taipei the following day.

Guava shake!

Later that day, I was brought back to my grandma's house where I would stay the night, before taking the High Speed Rail back to Taipei the next morning - as the shuttle bus stopped steps from my grandma's house. As my eldest aunt was back in town, we had a big family dinner at a restaurant just across the street. I won't throw another album at you as you've seen plenty of photos for today, but just two highlights:

Left: Pig's feet; Right: mmm... fish

We wrapped up the night, talking at my grandma's house. Below is a picture of my grandma's antique clock alongside a picture of our last major family get together - my cousin Tim's wedding in 2007. We won't have to wait too long until the next reunion, this time in Baltimore, Maryland in just a couple of months, as we celebrate my cousin Judy's wedding.