Taiwan–Day 6 (Sunday): World Confucius Youth Camp, Day Two



Some of the students of the camp

Today the camp once again began early–all participants reconvened at the Temple at 8:30 AM. The first activity of the morning was composed of an introduction to Chinese calligraphy and a workshop of producing our own calligraphic pieces. The "art of beautiful writing" ("calligraphy" > Gr. kallos ["beauty"] + grapho ["write"; cf. telegraph and biography]) is a Chinese tradition that is held in great reverence. Its origins lie at the beginning of Chinese civilization. The complex visual nature of Chinese characters, each of which represents a word or concept rather than a sound, has perhaps led to the high development of the art. Although the pieces I produced today will not command respect any time soon–or ever, for that matter–it was very enjoyable to attempt to imitate a few characters with a smooth brush and silky, black ink.
With our own Chinese puppets!

A trip to a museum of Asian Puppet Theater took up the second half of the morning. This art form too has a long tradition in Chinese nations and other East and South Asian cultures. The short performance of the Taiwanese variant was entertaining; it involved expertly manipulated 8"-tall puppets performing such delicate actions as combing hair, sword fighting, and even smoking a pipe (the miniature pipe blew real smoke!). The rest of the museum explained the history of Chinese puppet theater, and also introduced a few puppet forms that were entirely new to me. Of these, the most intriguing were shadow puppets, which, by means of a light source behind them, cast their colorful forms onto a translucent screen, and water puppets, a thousand-year-old form that is the cultural treasure of Vietnam, in which the puppets and their boats are controlled by means of an unseen, underwater rod. At the end, we received our own Chinese puppets to take home with us!
After a lunch of "local specialties," we were led on a tour of the Dadaocheng neighborhood, where we visited the Temple of the Xiahai City God, the patron god (in the traditional Chinese mythology) of Taipei (whose name comes from the mainland Chinese city from which he migrated). Like patron gods in pagan mythologies, and also like many patron saints in Christianity, this city god is worshipped so that he might protect Taipei and aid its citizens in their livelihood. Today this temple is a sight of pilgrimage for that god's sake, but also for the sake of Yue Lao ("the old man in the moon") or the Matchmaker God, whose effigy has been housed in the temple since 1971. Many single Taiwanese men and women, who, having focused for years on achieving academic and professional success, have not concentrated on starting a family, come here to pray that this Chinese Cupid might match them with a spouse. In just the few minutes we were here, I noticed several young, professional women and a few young men come in and bow before the god with incense sticks in their hand. Newly wed couples can also be seen returning to the temple to thank the god for answering their prayers.



The Longshan Temple, located in the old neighborhood of Mengjia, is a famous Chinese Buddhist temple, which also includes a Taoist shrine. It was constructed c. 1738 by Chinese settlers from Fujian Province, who obtained for it a replica of the statue of Buddha housed in their hometown. The temple seen today, has been renovated a few times since the original construction; it remains a finely decorated, beautiful classical structure.

The Red House
After dinner, we made our last trip of the camp–the Red House Theater in the busy Ximending shopping district. The Red House, built in 1908 by the Japanese as a market house for the upper-class Japanese living in Taipei during the Occupation Period, and then converted into a theater in the 1940s. It has two parts: an octagonal entrance building, Western style, and a cruciform brick house behind. Inside this building we had the final ceremony of the camp, and the presentation of bamboo certificates written in Chinese with our names inscribed. Each participant also said a few words to the group; I thanked both funders, staff, and participants for an exciting, enjoyable, and educative experience. 

Taiwan–Day 5 (Saturday): World Confucius Youth Camp, Day One


As I have mentioned before, I had the pleasure of meeting Director Heylen, the primary advisor and liaison for our research, on the second day of my trip. On that day, Director Heylen told me about a cultural event that had been advertised on the radio: a two-day "World Youth Confucius Camp," undertaken by the Taipei City Government and Taipei Confucius Temple. It described itself as an opportunity to come to understand the Confucian culture with first-hand experiences and educational visits. Excited by the idea of the camp, as well as its price ($0), I registered online that same day. Now that I have experienced it, I can say with excitement: What great fortune I have had for this camp to coincide with my trip! I have learned today more about Confucianism and Chinese culture than I could have in one day by any other means. I look forward to attending the second day of the camp tomorrow.



The Confucius Temple of Taipei, located in the north-west center of the city, is the center for the dissemination of Confucian ideas in Taiwan. The current temple was completed in 1939, according to the classical style of traditional palaces in south China; its predecessor, which had been built in 1881, had been damaged in 1896 during the Japanese Occupation Period, and subsequently abandoned. Within the walls, Dacheng Hall and the Danchi (platform) provide the main venue for the memorial ceremony of Confucius, the Chongsheng Shrine is for worshipping the ancestors of Confucius and the four sages??, the East and West Side Buildings allow for worship of Confucius' disciples and other great Confucian sages and scholars, and Minglun Hall used to function as a classroom.

Our camp began at 8:30 with a tour of the Confucius Temple, during which we learned much of the information above. For the next activity, we were shown the basic elements of the art of Koji pottery, which is native to Taiwan, and involves cementing together chipped pieces of colored glass; and then everyone created their own flower-and-fruit ceramic! A lunch of beef noodles at a local restaurant followed (free of charge, of course), during which I had the opportunity to talk more to the young Westerners who are currently studying Chinese in Taiwan.

What followed lunch and the morning activities was nothing other than–recess! A professional Taiwanese jump-roper taught the basics of the Chinese yo-yo and spinning top. The yo-yo, shaped like a skinny-necked hourglass, spins on a string strung between two sticks, one held in each hand. By manipulating the sticks in various ways, you cause the yo-yo to spin fast on the string, and then you can attempt tricks, such as tossing it up into the air and then catching it on the string. After our exercise in the Taipei humidity and heat, we had tea as a refreshment.

During the mid-afternoon, a university professor gave a lecture on the ancient Confucian ceremonies and their continuing modern manifestation. The basic course of events of a ceremony is as follows: resonant drum rolls open the ceremony; the ceremonial gates are opened, the remnants of the sacrificial animals are buried in the ground (in order to compensate the Earth for that which was taken from it); spiritual music is performed; the participants bow three times (out of reverence for Confucius); the sacrificial feast of various foods is presented (in order to please the spirits); various presentations of music and dance are made; a blessing is chanted; offerings of libations are made; the Principal Presentation Officer consumes the sacrificial meat and wine; Confucius' spirit is escorted away; the prayer inscriptions are incinerated; and the gates are closed.

We expressed gratitude to our teacher in the traditional Confucian way, and received from him gifts in return. Afterwards, we travelled to the fourth-floor dining room of a restaurant for dinner. The final event of the night, held in the same large room, was a presentation of skits about the life of Confucius. My group's skit attempted to portray Confucius' famous willingness to accept students from noble and poor families alike into his school, and not to charge high tuition. Between the four skits, all of us had a good laugh, and perhaps also saw something that will help us remember a part of Confucius' teachings and character. Our camp continues tomorrow. 

Taiwan–Day 4 (Friday): Tour of National Taiwan Normal University, Watermelon Festival

As I have mentioned before, the Center for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation at George Mason University and National Taiwan Normal University work together closely in order to promote academic interaction between students and scholars from the two countries. Thus, during our time in Taiwan, NTNU has been the "home base" of we three GMU students in Taiwan. Today, we met again with Professor Ann Heylen, the Director of the International Taiwan Studies Center, who has been working closely with us, Professor Chen Mei-ying, who teaches modern Taiwanese culture and has also been interacting closely with us, and Meng-chia, a student and assistant in the Center. Ying, as she asked us to call her, gave the tour of the campus.

National Taiwan Normal University, commonly referred to as "Shida" (pronounced Shuh-DA, short for Lao Shi Da Xue ["Teacher University"]) was officially founded in 1946 but has been in existence as an educational institution since the early 20th Century. It was founded as a school for the training of teachers and educators for the Taiwan school system. Since then, the university has added new departments in liberal arts, physical education, fine arts, and other fields. Yet in becoming a full-fledged national university, it has never lost its reputation as the top school in Taiwan for the training of teachers. Today the population of undergraduate students is around 7,000, placing Shida in the "medium-sized" category of Taiwanese universities. Its central campus is located in its eponymous district (Shida District), which is in the south central region of Taipei (south of the Chiang Kai Sheck Memorial). The busy Heping Road runs from east to west across the main campus, dividing it into a larger southern and smaller northern segment. Our tour began on the latter.

A statue of Confucius greets students and visitors alike as they enter the grounds from the street. On this side are found both the large university library and also the Mandarin Training Center (where many of the North American students I know at the hostel are studying Chinese this summer). Ying brought us into the library, which is large and has thirteen floors, all of which open to a central atrium, creating a pleasing feeling of openness and light. We found ourselves scooting around the perimeter of the main floor, because when we arrived, there was in fact a conference being held in the library. I believe that the subject was the work of a famous Taiwanese artist, who had taught at Shida for some time; his daughter was in attendance as a presenter. This university is a busy place!

Our group next traveled across Heping Road to the other half of the campus. We walked through the main entrance, where there is a statue of Chiang Kai-Shek (produced by the university art department in 1977), in front of the oldest building of the university, built in a mixed Japanese and Western architectural style. Turning right, we passed the music building, the physical education building, and the large athletic area that is the western terminus of the campus (composed of basketball courts, a track, and a large field). As we reversed direction and began strolling down what might be called the "central yard" of the campus, we passed the aquatic center, college of liberal arts, and the buildings of other departments. Along this way, there were many small stands, staffed by a few students. These were all related to the Watermelon Festival (which I will describe below).

Director Heylen and Ying treated us to lunch at a nice, small restaurant a few blocks away from the campus. The meal ordered was tasty, traditional Taiwanese cuisine. All together, we were an assorted group, coming from Taiwanese, American, Belgian, and Chinese backgrounds, and various mixes of them. Interesting conversation is bound to occur when such people gather together. And so it was! Our conversation flowed from experiences in the Taiwanese school system, to differences between Taiwanese and Western education, to foreign language acquisition in Taiwan, Europe, and America, and even to past "scholarly pursuits" of Taiwanese boy-band celebrities. Not excluded from the lunch was a good dose of laughter. It was an overall wonderful time.

Upon finishing lunch, all six of us went in different directions. The campus festivities, which I first had learned about on Wednesday and then had seen earlier today on the tour, drew me back to the Shida campus. The Watermelon Festival was being celebrated; on this day every year, it is traditional to give a watermelon to your sweetheart. The bigger the watermelon, the greater the love expressed. In addition, each type of melon has a different significance–red signifies romantic love, while yellow signifies close friendship. The words for each melon and its associated emotion sound similar in Chinese–hence, the association. This afternoon, in the central yard, various games and activities were being held, and so I decided it would be fun to participate. The one booth-hand who spoke passable English explained to me the deal: there were six stations set up, each with a different challenge. By completing every challenge, and receiving the corresponding stamp on a paper, one would be entered in a raffle for a bicycle. The competition was on.

For the first activity, I had to fold a leaf of paper into a small boat, place it in a water-filled plastic channel filled with obstacles (ping-pong balls), and blow it from one end to the other. In spite of the terrifying, hazardous obstacles (a few ping-pong balls), I was able to propel my boat with no problem, thus earning my first stamp. In the next activity, I competed against another student, trying to earn more ticks on a pedometer by jumping up and down as fast as I could for the length of one iPod song. My discouragement upon learning that I had lost to my opponent was quickly lessened when I was told that every participant received a stamp. The same thing happened at the next station, where I lost a set of rock-paper-scissors to a girl more flexible than I (whoever lost each round had to move his or her legs farther apart). The next two stations involved ping-pong balls and water challenges, and I was able to complete them. The last involved filling out a questionnaire about certain Taiwanese energy drinks, some of which apparently have been exposed as containing dangerous chemicals. The middle-left group of characters got my circle–they had such a sinister look. With my last stamp earned, I entered my name in the raffle. I did not win bike. Too bad, because I'm sure the Cat's Pajamas could use one.


Remembering that my new friend Jessie would be competing in one of the swimming races that day, I decided to visit the pool and look around. The stands were full of NTNU students shouting, laughing, and cheering for their friends. A student of physical education explained to me that teams were composed of students from the same school departments or clubs, and that the departments competed throughout the day. He then showed me the English Chat Room in another building, where I met three friendly Taiwanese students, all studying English (and doing a very good job, from what I experienced). One of them, Mark, joined me for the rest of the day, telling me about his hometown in the south of the country, about his family, about his studies, and about his views on Taiwanese history, society, religion. We then left the campus and walked around the night market for a little while.

A Chinese girl from Beijing had recently joined us at the Cat's Pajamas (my hostel). She attended high school in the United States, and is currently a student at an all-girls college. With her came a girl from Taipei, who was the former's exchange partner for a cultural program. The three of us ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant, and talked about life in China, Beijing, and America. Later that evening, the three of us went out to a café with an English fellow who earned his master's degree in comparative literature and linguistics of Germanic languages (i.e. fascinating things like the Norse sagas, Icelandic epics, and Old English literature), and a girl from the south of China who is a student. The Minimal Café was full of cats. That's right–twenty or more cats prowled around the inside and outside of the shop, free to pet–if you could snag one. I imagine the niche market they are catering to is not too big. Yet the café had a fair amount of people for the rather late hour. The quiet cats did not at all disturb our pleasant conversation.

Taiwan: Day 3 (Thursday): National Central Library of Taiwan

The National Central Library serves the same function in Taiwan as the Library of Congress does in the United States--its self-defined mission is "to acquire, catalog, and preserve national publications for government, research, and general public use." Because of its large collection in English and its prominent status (which means anglophone staff), I knew it was a good place for research. Also, since the library is located just across the street from the Chang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (a prominent landmark of the city) I knew I would have no trouble finding it. After a quick trip on the MRT (or mass rapid transit, as the Taipei Metro system is commonly called), I was already there.

After I had received my one-day pass, an assistant helped me to find in the database the few books I needed. All of them had as their focus school curricula in either Taiwan or mainland China. Just like the Library of Congress, the NCL does not permit visitors themselves to browse the shelves, but rather provides visitors with the books they request, which they then take to a reading desk. Thus I received my books and found a desk on adjacent to the back wall of the library, which had a nice view of grassy school field, where children were playing. I spent a few hours on these materials, interspersed with a few periods of studying basic Mandarin Chinese (the pinyin system).

One very interesting article is called "Continuity and Change of Values: An Analysis of Literary Textbooks of Taiwanese Junior High Schools," written by Christine Kämmer. The article describes the results of her investigation of the values promoted in Taiwanese textbooks for secondary education. The textbooks she investigated were issued in the years 1999 and 2000, when the central government had a larger degree of control of the textbook requirements than it does today. Thus Kämmer's research not only provides insight into not only the education of Taiwanese children, but also the government's own vision of the ideal values for the youth.

Kämmer's main conclusions are as follows: that individual self-cultivation is at the center of the government's program for education. Role models in the literature read are meant to play a large role in influencing children's behavior. In these textbooks, family values were emphasized, as were simple and honest lifestyles, including farming and teaching. Relationships were also emphasized, and proper interaction within them. Although Confucius is not mentioned in the article, values held by Confucius in high esteem are evident. This article served as a good introduction to the Taiwanese educational system in the very recent past.

Day 2: Exploring Taipei, Meeting Research Partners

To travel in and get to know a foreign city, especially a large and world-class city like Taipei (which has earned an impressive "A-" in GaWC's ranking system), it is necessary to learn the basic layout of that city. Knowing the names and locations of major streets, landmarks, and districts will make everything easier. With this in mind, I decided on Wednesday morning to talk a walk around central Taipei.

The hostel is located in the Shida District, this also being the Chinese name of National Taiwan Normal University and the local night market. Immediately surrounding the hostel are apartment buildings, but only a two minutes' walk westward will bring you to the night market. Walk one more block, and you will find Shida Road, the street where lots of college students can be found at night, visiting food, drink, and clothing shops. Bordering this road on the west is NTNU. This means that I am staying very close to lots of great things, and places where I will spend a lot of time.

I walked northward many blocks, observing the structure of the buildings along the main road, which included many tall modern buildings, like mini-skyscrapers, that would not be out of place on street in New York or downtown Baltimore. Other buildings lining the road were in less pristine condition, and others showed a strong influence of Chinese architecture. Of course, along all of these buildings and alongside the streets are displayed various Chinese characters, naming the building, advertising the wares, and giving directions. It was only mainland China that switched in the 20th Century to the simplified Chinese characters--Taiwan did not--so all of these characters are Traditional. This means that they are slightly more complex--more elaborate--than would be signs expressing the same things in Simplified.

At the end of my walk, I wound up at Liberty Square, home to the Chiang Kai-Sheck Memorial, a very prominent structure near the center of Taipei, which commemorates the late leader of the Kuomintang (the republican Chinese fighting in the Civil War, who fled to Taiwan after the communists seized control) and president of Taiwan. Also in the same large plaza are the National Concert Hall and National Theater, two buildings of traditional Asian exterior architecture, but Western interiors.

For dinner, a large group of students from the hostel, along with one of the staff members of the Cat's Pajamas, went out to dinner for Korean barbeque. For anyone who has not tried this: Try it! Two large heating elements were brought out and hooked up to the table. On them, we cooked some of our own meats and vegetables. All the while, dish after dish of potato pancakes, fish, chicken, noodles, vegetables, soup, and other things were being brought out to our table. In addition, the restaurant had a great atmosphere and good view from the second-story window. It was an overall great evening.

Travel and Day 1: Plane, Taipei Zoo, Maokong Gondola, Shida Night Market

The voyage from Maryland to Taiwan took in all around twenty-four hours. The longest leg was from Detroit to Japan, for which we flew for twelve hours. I had some things to read and a Chinese film to watch, so the flight was not too bad.
Arrival in Taipei,where a strange creature greeted me

Departure from BWI--Sunday



















The hostel I am staying in during my time in Taiwan is called the Cat's Pajamas. The heads of CAPEC have recommended it for a few years to their Taiwan Studies Scholarship recipients, presumably because of its price, location, and the positive reports of returning students. My own report should be considered as following this trend: the Cat's Pajamas is great! It is a wonderful place for a student staying in Taipei, because of the special, small community that it initiates one into. The foreign guests and the young Taiwanese hosts all congregate in the common areas, talking, laughing, and cooking together, and go out into the city for market-trips and meals, sight-seeing, and social evenings.

There are about twenty guests in the hostel, which means that it is just about at capacity (the extent of the hostel is the basement and street-level floor of one building). Among these guests, the Anglosphere is heavily represented: there is a Londoner, a few Canadians, and some Americans, including one of the other two students of GMU who received the scholarship. There is a girl who grew up in Chile and now attends an American university, a young French pair, and a girl from Southern China. After my first full day, I had met and begun to get to know all of them (with the exception of the Chinese girl, who today returned to the hostel after finishing a mini-trip to another city in Taiwan).

Most of the Americans and Canadians are here to study Mandarin Chinese at Taiwan Normal University, having received scholarships from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education for this reason. Each has been studying Chinese for a different length of time, and yet there are some whose ability to speak is truly impressive. The owner and hired staff at the hostel, who are all young Taiwanese students or recent graduates, are also very friendly and lots of fun. They have shown us some great and fun places in their native city.

On my first day in Taiwan, I went to the zoo with two of the other students here, who have both been here for a few weeks. Afterwards, we went on a trip in the Maokong Gondola, which goes up the side of a mountain which affords great views of that part of the city. The top of the Taipei 101 tower can be seen just over the top of the mountain next over. In the evening, we visited the night market in the Shida District (named after Shida University, called in English National Taiwan Normal University, which is the one working with us in our research), where we had dinner. It was lu wei, a dish for which we selected the vegetables and meats by putting them into a basket, which the vender then cooked in oil and added sauces to. This Taiwanese dish was delicious!
My first plate of lu wei

A panda from the zoo

After Taiwan: To China

My location for the first two weeks of the trip will be Taiwan, where I will be doing research and exploring the island and city. I will spend the third and final week, however, across the Taiwan Strait in the People's Republic of China. This part of my trip is not directly connected to CAPEC; rather, I am making it on my own initiative. I think it makes sense to seize this rare opportunity of visiting a nation that is both vitally important to the modern, global economic and political system, and also fascinating from a cultural and world-historical perspective.

To spend seven days in China will be a wonderful thing, and I am thankful that various people and professors at George Mason have helped me to plan and arrange the trip. That being said, one cannot do justice to a country of 1.3 billion people, 3.7 million square miles, and more than four thousand years of history in a single week. Some tough choices soon will have to be made in planning for the trip. One thing that is certain, however, is that the focus of my visit will be Beijing, which has been the capital of China since AD 1271, and the educational and cultural center for as long (Brief history of Beijing).

Two other cities may be added to the itinerary, if time constraints allow it, on account of their historical value and overall coolness. The first is Xi'an, a city over 3,000 years old that is located in eastern central region of China (Map). This city was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road (MapSummary), and the capital of China for various dynasties of the classical and early medieval eras (to make use of useful Western historical terms). It is also the location of the well known Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang (About the Terracotta Warriors), the first emperor of unified China. Xi'an is not close to Beijing; in order to travel there, I would need to take either an overnight, high-speed train, or a plane.

The second potential city of my trip is Qufu, which is closer to Beijing than Xi'an, but would still require an overnight train ride (Map). It is here that Confucius, the greatest Chinese philosopher, was born, in 551 BC. The city's three main attractions are the Temple of Confucius, the Cemetery of Confucius, and the Kong Family Mansion. The Temple was established in the 5th Century BC, just after Confucius' death. The nearby Cemetery is where Confucius was interred; it also keeps other tombs from even earlier in the First Millenium BC.

With regards to the Mansion, Kong was the surname of Confucius, and naturally has remained the name of his descendants, who inhabited this mansion for centuries. Kong Fuzi ("Master Kong") is the name which was rendered into Latin (the international scholarly, literary, and scientific language of Europe), along with the Analects themselves, during the late 16th Century, by Matteo Ricci, a fascinating Italian Jesuit missionary to China, who became a great admirer and scholar of Chinese civilization, and was the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City (Learn about Ricci). Given the obvious connection with my research and interests in general, this city would also be a marvelous addition to the trip. We shall see what is possible.