Steven Crook

A new focal point for international Buddhism (Culture.tw)

2012-01-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

Much has been said and written in recent years about "soft power" and how Taiwan can use its cultural and social strengths to raise its international profile. While such talk usually revolves around whether pop stars and tourism can achieve something politics cannot, a different facet of Taiwan has been quietly enhancing the island's image for years: Buddhism. No one can dispute that the charitable and religious activities of the country's Buddhists, at home and overseas, show Taiwan to be a civilized and generous society.

The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation is probably Taiwan's best-known charity. Foguangshan (佛光山), one of the island's largest Buddhist monastic orders, has expanded rapidly since its founding in 1967. It now operates branch temples, publishing houses and schools on five continents.

Over the years, Foguangshan's base in Kaohsiung City's Dashu District has developed into a complex of shrines, dormitories and museums. About 300 monks and nuns live there, and large numbers of lay followers attend short retreats and courses.

The Buddha Memorial Center (佛陀紀念館) - a new addition to the complex opening on December 25, 2011 - is sure to lead to record numbers of pilgrims and tourists making their way to Foguangshan, which in 2010 attracted 1.4 million visitors.

Since World War II, the building of memorial halls to honor notable individuals has become a tradition in Taiwan. The edifices in central Taipei dedicated to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) are the best known examples of this type.

Occupying a valley less than 1km northwest of Foguangshan, the 34-hectare Buddha Memorial Center houses one of the religion's most precious relics - a tooth the faithful believe was retrieved from the ashes after Buddha was cremated in what is now northern India in 543BCE.

Of the four teeth found, one was immediately carried to Heaven. One is now venerated at Sri Dalada Maligawa, a temple in Sri Lanka, while another is in Lingguang Temple on the outskirts of Beijing.

The final tooth stayed in India until the 13th century AD, when Muslim armies destroyed most of the sub-continent's Buddhist institutions. It was taken to Tibet and worshipped at Namgyal Monastery until 1959, when Communist China invaded.

As the Very Venerable Kunga Dorje Rinpoche - the Tibetan lama who had cared for the tooth relic after fleeing to India with it - grew old, he began searching for someone to whom he could entrust the tooth. He eventually chose Foguangshan's founder, the Venerable Master Hsing Yun...

To read the rest of the article, go here.

Taiwan in one (PINCH Magazine)

2012-01-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Good news for those eager to explore Taiwan beyond Taipei: Heading down island is a snap. The history and character of Tainan – 90 minutes by bullet train from Taipei – have earned it a place not only on itineraries but also in the hearts of many visitors. It’s also a fine springboard for exploring the mountains that dominate Taiwan’s interior.

Tainan folk rise early and you should too. Ask around for a place serving youtiao and doujiang. The former are savoury doughnuts as long as your forearm; the latter is vegan-friendly soybean milk. Like croissants, youtiao are best enjoyed when oven-hot. As with coffee, freshly-ground beans are essential to good doujiang.

The city has a prodigious number of ancient temples where locals sacrifice incense and fruit to Buddhist, Taoist and folk deities. The Great Queen of Heaven Temple is especially colourful and on any given morning you’ll see rites venerating the Queen of Heaven herself, sea goddess Mazu. A parade held in her honor each spring is said to be the largest annual religious event in the world outside India.

At a side altar, singletons ask the matchmaker god for help finding a spouse. Those who pray here and later get hitched leave wedding pictures to show their appreciation, and to encourage lonely hearts. Elsewhere, a tablet commemorates the man who lived on this site before it was a house of worship. A pretender to China’s imperial throne, he hanged himself 328 years ago when his government-in-exile crumbled.

Drifting through the city centre, you’ll pass Baroque edifices added to the cityscape during the 50 years Taiwan was a colony of Japan. Like the Victorians, the Japanese built everything to last. But local architects have found their voice, and there’s no better place to see their work than the Magic School of Green Technology – a state-of-the-art example of sustainable design, with touches inspired by Noah’s Ark.

Heading inland, pineapple plantations, guava orchards and net-covered papaya groves blanket the first ripple of hills. Sampling Taiwan’s superb fruits is highly recommended. Thanks to an excellent road network, it’s possible to get to the mountain resort of Alishan before dark – even if temple-touring kept you in Tainan well after lunch.

Some 2,200m above sea level, Alishan is to Taiwan what Darjeeling is to India. Before air-con, it was a place where the gentry could escape summer heatwaves. And like Darjeeling it’s in the heart of tea-growing country. Taiwan’s Oolongs and Oriental Beauty teas are excellent and affordable – the shocking prices you may have read about (in August 2011, 23,000 euros was paid for 1kg of a prize-winning leaves!) are auction-room publicity stunts.

Cherry blossoms and a sublime Zen shrine give the resort a strong Japanese flavor, but Alishan is truly the stomping ground of the Tsou people, one of Taiwan’s 14 indigenous tribes. Visiting Maoris and Filipinos, eavesdropping on locals’ conversations, have been astonished to find themselves understanding snatches. Only recently did scientists confirm that Austronesian languages and peoples throughout the Asia-Pacific can be traced back to this little island.

When in Alishan, it’s customary to rise in time to see the sun rise over Jade Mountain, which at 3,952m is Northeast Asia’s highest peak. The “sea of clouds” filling the valley beneath you is a stirring sight, and if you’re into birdwatching, you’ll want to continue onto the national park that surrounds Jade Mountain. At least 16 avian species unique to Taiwan make their home in the park, and these feathered beauties neatly embody the island’s charms: Made in Taiwan, found nowhere else on Earth.

This short article appears in the first issue of PINCH Magazine, an online cultural and lifestyle magazine which chose Taiwan as its featured destination. Pinch is put together by the people behind the award-winning luxury travel and lifestyle websites, Black Tomato and Beach Tomato. The photo above is one of the images that accompanied by article, and comes courtesy of the publishers.

Unlocking the past (Shang)

2012-01-04T00:57:00.000-08:00

"Whenever I feel vexed and in need of leisure, I enter their world and entertain myself. I appreciate their ancient beauty and purity, explore the principles of craftsmanship, and understand the social and cultural backgrounds." Yan Hong-sen (顏鴻森) isn't talking about sculptures or paintings or any other works of art.

Rather, he's referring to the hundreds of old Chinese locks he has acquired over the past quarter century. "Often times, I find myself in total forgetfulness while in their midst," says Yan, a professor of mechanical engineering who is now executive vice president of National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan, Taiwan.

Yan differs from many collectors in that he was conscious of a strong desire to build a collection long before he knew what kind of things he would acquire. Also, profit has never been his motive.

"I've never treated my collection as an investment. The true value of a collection lays in the appreciation, study, and discovery of the object, and sharing with the public, not merely through purchase and preservation..."
The entire article appears in the winter issue of Shang, a bilingual magazine produced for the Shangri-La hotel chain by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. The photo here is courtesy of Yan Hong-sen.

Interviewed by Matt-Gibson.org

2012-01-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

Matt Gibson is a friend and successful blogger (that's to say he makes real money from his blog). He interviewed me recently, and has just posted the interview on his blog.

A new year, a new blog

2012-01-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

Today I'm launching a new blog, The Smoking Pen.

In the past few years, several beginning or would-be writers have contacted me, wanting advice, editing help, or even the names and contact details of the editors I work with (an especially cheeky request, that last one). I don't have the time to help these people, so I'm going to post some information of use to writers on The Smoking Pen, and invite those who want individual assistance (for which they'll have to pay) to contact me.

Taiwan for Culture Vultures

2011-12-18T23:31:00.000-08:00

Taiwan for Culture Vultures, the travel app I've been developing on and off for the past half year is now available as a download for iPhones and iPads, published by Singapore-based Guidegecko. As the name implies, it's very much a guide for those who enjoy temples, museums and architecture.

Much of the content can be read online. Among the entries I most enjoyed writing, and places I especially recommend to visitors, are: the Former British Consular Residence in Kaohsiung; Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park; and Lugang's Cheng Huang Temple. Those three entries, and many others, benefited from the photography of Rich Matheson and Craig Ferguson.

For more details about the project, see this post on my other blog.

Ha! Ha! Hot Kaohsiung!

2011-12-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

Ha! Ha! Hot Kaohsiung! is the name of a 120-page booklet just published by Kaohsiung City Government's Research, Development & Evaluation Commission. I was one of the editors for this project.

The booklet has a lot of tourist information (especially about Meinong, Fengshan and Zuoying districts), plus information about restaurants, homestays, shops and hospitals which have received English Emblem awards for bilingual service.

Expat birders race to spot Taiwan's feathered treasures (Taiwan Today)

2011-11-28T00:25:00.000-08:00

Bird-watching contests, in which teams of enthusiasts compete to sight the greatest number of species, are nothing new in Taiwan, but the Second Yushan National Park Bird Race and Bird-watching Activity, held November 12 and 13 in and around Tataka, Nantou County, was a step forward in raising international awareness of the country’s exceptionally diverse wild bird population.

Including migrants, around 470 avian species have been recorded in Taiwan. Among the species which draw bird-watchers to the country are the black-faced spoonbill, an elegant water bird that spends the winter on the southwest coast, and the Chinese crested tern, an extremely rare seabird thought to be extinct until sighted in the Matsu Islands in 2000.

According to Charles C. Cheng, president of the Taipei-based Chinese Wild Bird Federation, Taiwan’s main bird conservation organization, this year’s Tataka event, “successfully integrated bird touring, conservation advocacy, and raising public awareness.”

“We have been conducting similar bird races around Taiwan for more than 20 years, and we’ve done them in three different styles,” Cheng said after the event. He explained that some bird races, like the event at Tataka, are limited in terms of both territory and time, noting that “Taiwan’s national parks and national forest recreation areas are very good sites for this kind of event..."

Go here for the whole article. The photo was provided by Barking Deer Adventures, which helped organized the participation of the two foreign teams. Until 2008, the Chinese Wild Bird Federation was known as Wild Bird Federation Taiwan. It changed its name under duress from China.

Taiwan gets an almost-perfect history museum (Culture.tw)

2011-11-16T01:52:00.000-08:00

Twelve years after the project was initiated, the National Museum of Taiwan History (國立臺灣歷史博物館, NMTH) finally opened its doors to the public on October 29, 2011.

Council for Cultural Affairs Minister Emile Sheng and Greater Tainan City Mayor William Lai presided over the inauguration. Some of those who have donated artifacts to the museum – such as Taipei-based Dutch businessman and map collector Paul J. J. Overmaat – also attended. The celebrations featured local zhentou troupes and folk dancers, as well as cultural heavyweights like aboriginal singer Kimbo and Ten Drum Art Percussion Group.

Taiwan has long had science, literature and fine arts museums. There are also exhibitions devoted to Taiwan's Hakka and aboriginal minorities. The National Palace Museum is, of course, the world's greatest accumulation of Chinese art works and cultural treasures. There are even museums which celebrate the villages where Chinese Nationalist soldiers and their dependents lived after they retreated from the mainland in 1949. But until now, no single institution has presented a comprehensive historical overview of the entire island of Taiwan. The NMTH fills that gap, and does so almost perfectly.

According to the NMTH's Mission Statement, the museum was built to "preserve Taiwan's historical and cultural assets, construct the Taiwanese people's historical memory, facilitate ground-breaking studies of the history of Taiwan's traditions and culture, promote Taiwan's history, and build a diversified resource center for the use of scholars and the general public."

"The displays cover the history of Taiwan, its diversity and ethnic groups, to expand cultural horizons, and encourage Taiwan residents to know and respect each other," the statement continues. "The goal is to make people understand and cherish the multicultural land that is Taiwan."

Rather than present history in a traditional text-heavy format, the NMTH is filled with vivid models and images. The most striking of the former is the full-size replica of a single-mast junk, the kind of vessel that transported goods between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland during Qing Dynasty rule (1683—1895).

The junk is part of a recreation of the waterfront at Lugang as it would have looked in the 18th century, when the town (in central Taiwan's Changhua County) was one of Taiwan's busiest harbors...

The whole article, together with six photos, is here. The museum's official website doesn't yet have much English.

A paperless version of my second book

2011-11-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

I've just noticed (the publisher forgot to tell me, it seems), that my second book, Dos and Don'ts in Taiwan, is now available in Kindle format. However, the publication date listed some way down the page is incorrect; the book came out in 2010, not 1995.

The multi-faceted splendor of Meinong (Unity)

2011-11-06T23:52:00.000-08:00

Meinong is one of the loveliest corners of south Taiwan. Blessed with fertile, well-watered farmlands and a backdrop of steep hills, its population is dominated by the Hakka ethnic minority.

Forty kilometers northeast of downtown Kaohsiung, but easily accessible thanks to Freeway 10 and frequent buses, it draws several different kinds of visitor. Gourmands come for authentic Hakka cuisine; outdoors types enjoy the seven color-coded bicycle paths; shoppers look for souvenirs that hark back to an era before plastic; while eco-tourists seek out beautiful butterflies.

Hakka cooking isn’t to everyone’s liking. It’s saltier, greasier and more vinegary than mainstream Taiwanese cuisine. Meinong’s most famous comestible is bantiao. These broad white noodles are made from rice flour, whereas conventional Taiwanese noodles are made from wheat. Bantiao may be fried with slivers of pork and carrot, or boiled and then served either in soup or dry with a few small slices of pork on top.

Another common dish in Meinong is ke-jia-xiao-chao, a stir fry blending dried squid, dried tofu, strips of pork and green vegetables. Meinong is no exception to the rule that much of Taiwan’s best food is to be found in the island's least pretentious eateries. Near Minsheng and Zhongzheng roads there are at least half-dozen places where customers sit on plastic stools. The service may not be polished, but the prices seldom top NT$120 per person.

Among Meinong's 45,000 inhabitants are a few dozen who make a living crafting oil-paper umbrellas. Few tourist destinations in Taiwan are so closely associated with one particular product as Meinong is with its colorful parasols.

Traditionally these umbrellas were used in both sunny and rainy weather. They also had a symbolic role – because the Hakka word for paper zhi is very similar to that for children zi, they were often given as wedding presents.

Made of thin strips of bamboo and varnished paper, the umbrellas are painted by hand – often with typically Chinese motifs like dragons, birds, delicate flowers or wise sages – and then dried under the sun. You should expect to pay around NT$1500 for a 19-inch umbrella...

Over the past few years, I've written several articles about Meinong, including this longish one, and another about the town's Hakka cuisine. The photo on the left shows a government-issued license to grow and dry tobacco, pasted to the door of one of Meinong's redundant tobacco curing shed. The photo lower right shows one such shed.

Keeping behind the times in Lugang (Verve)

2011-10-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

Nothing ever changes in Lugang, and that is why so many people adore it. Halfway down Taiwan's west coast, the town is a place where tradition has stood firm against modernity.

For this we can thank the crude pursuit of profit that used to dominate the town, some stick-in-the-mud thinking, and the selfishness of a colonial power. Old school commerce made Lugang what it is. For over 100 years, from the early 18th century, the only settlement in Taiwan larger was the then capital, Tainan. Qing Dynasty mandarins seldom made their presence felt in Lugang, as disputes were mediated by the eight guild-like trade groupings called

The shape-shifting nature of Taiwan's coastline dealt the town a series of blows. Silt choked the harbor in 1717, but by 1740 it was again broad and deep. When times were good, thousands of vessels per year unloaded Chinese cloth and crockery, then shipped Taiwanese rice, sugar, hemp and ramie to the Chinese coast. In the late 19th century, sediment again blocked the port. And when the Japanese took control of Taiwan in 1895, they reoriented the island's economy, at a stroke rupturing ancient trade links between Lugang and Fujian. The town might have recovered were it not for the conservative outlook of local leaders. In the early days of the Japanese occupation, believing rail transportation would never catch on, they lobbied against a rail link...

This article appeared in the August issue of Verve, EVA Air's monthly inflight magazine.

Taiwan Balloons Museum blends fun and industrial heritage (Culture.tw)

2011-10-04T02:41:00.000-07:00

Several museums in Taiwan celebrate the industries which transformed the island from an agrarian backwater to an economic powerhouse. Former sugar refineries have been converted into tourist attractions, and there are places where visitors can learn how saxophones are made, or how hot glass is blown to make lampshades.

Taiwan Balloons Museum focuses on a line of business that few people think about unless they are organizing a wedding or a birthday party. In most people's minds, balloons are the humblest of products – cheap, simple and thrown away at the end of the day. But, as anyone who tours this museum will find out, there is much more to making a good balloon than meets the eye...

To read the whole article, go here. I visited the museum as part of this project.

Interviewed by Centered on Taipei

2011-09-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

Trista di Genova interviewed me a little while ago for Centered on Taipei magazine. The print edition is now out, and the text is also featured in Trista's online magazine, where you'll find lots of interesting stuff about expatriates in Taiwan.

English Emblem 2011

2011-09-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

For the third year running, I joined one of the Research, Development & Evaluation Commission's judging teams for the English Emblem program. In recent weeks we visited two dozen businesses in the counties of Taichung, Changhua and Yilan, among them a winery, some homestays, a mushroom wholesaler and two hospitals.

Reviews of a book I edited

2011-09-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

A book I edited last year, Troy Parfitt's Why China Will Never Rule The World, has been picking up positive reviews on Amazon.com.

At the time of writing, 10 of the 33 reviewers had given it five stars, and 17 had given it four. One of the shorter five-star reviews says:

"This book is quite astounding. I hadn't realized when I started it that the book was so chock-filled with condensed and very informative and entertaining historical treatises. And I had thought that maybe the title was a little overboard given that the author had never lived for a substantial period in this sprawling toxic wasteland. Don't be fooled! Troy Parfitt knows his stuff, that is quite clear. He gives his subjects more than ample opportunity to prove themselves, and at every step they confirm his thesis. Of course, anyone who spends longer than a few weeks in China (4 years for me) will soon begin to have inklings of the same conclusion, that the Chinese are not, nor will probably ever be, ready for prime-time, and that we've been fed a steady diet of rah-rah China hype and BS in the Western media. Mr. Parfitt gives an almost scientific treatment to our suspicions. And one that is frequently laugh-out-loud funny.

Old China hands will likely suffer a sore neck after extended reading from near constant nodding in agreement with the author's experiences and well-documented conclusions. But the dreariness of the landscape he paints is regularly interrupted with moments of keyboard-splattering hilarity, as I mentioned, and with lots of myth-busting history dealing with the big players (Mao, Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek) and major events (founding of modern China, the civil war, the war with Japan, and Taiwan).

As the product description says, this book is vital for anyone wishing to understand what China is, what it has been, and what it is likely to become."

A mention in the local newspaper

2011-09-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

I heard about this a few days after the report appeared, but I didn't see a physical copy of the item until last week. On August 3, the China Daily News, a Chinese-language newspaper based here in Tainan, ran a quarter-page report and color photograph about my recent meeting with Yan Hong-sen, whom I was interviewing for a Hong Kong magazine. Professor Yan, an engineer and vice president of National Chengkung University, is quite famous in Taiwan for his collection of ancient locks. He's amassed almost 700 locks, and written a book on the subject.

The English version of the press release on which the report was based is still online.

Delicious street treats at night markets (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-08-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

Taiwan has chefs and restaurants deserving of Michelin stars, yet some of the very best food can be found at eateries that lack air-conditioning, where the only furniture consists of folding tables and plastic stools. Moreover, some of the tastiest snacks are sold by vendors who work in the open air and cook on mobile stoves.

Hawkers of ready-to-eat hot and cold delicacies can be found on every busy thoroughfare in every town and city. For many first-time visitors to Taiwan, the sight of vendors stirring vats of steaming soup and pushing oyster omelets around a hot plate has them reaching for their cameras. Taiwanese – and many long-term foreign residents – react differently. The smells wafting from such places are likely to make their mouths water.

Despite the advent of fancy malls and department stores, the streets where hawkers gather between dusk and midnight continue to attract droves of shoppers...

The entire text of this advertorial can be read here.

Seeing the sights in New Taipei City (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-08-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks after Taiwan Business Topics assigned me to write about New Taipei City from a tourism perspective, I read a review of Dralion, a new show from Cirque du Soleil, in the online edition of an Ohio newspaper. “Captivating yet lacks a unifying theme,” wrote Margaret Quamme in The Columbus Dispatch. “[It] overloads the senses...wildly colorful, randomly multicultural...loud... nonstop movement.”

My immediate thought: These words fit New Taipei City to a tee. Many complain about the dense population and round-the-clock congestion in what used to be Taipei County. Thanks to its 41,000 residents per square kilometer, Yonghe has plenty of loud, nonstop movement. Yet Wulai has just 15 people per square kilometer, and is known for hot springs and birdwatching trails.

There is no “unifying theme,” for sure. In addition to the commuter towns and industrial parks that surround Taiwan's capital, the special municipality has some of the island's most attractive coastal scenery and a good number of mountains. New Taipei City is certainly multicultural. There are Hakka communities, including one in Sanzhi whose most famous son is former President Lee Teng-hui. About one in three of Wulai's inhabitants are Atayal aborigines. The Southeast Asians who live in Zhonghe and Yonghe celebrate the end of the Thai and Burmese lunar year with a raucous Water Festival. Hundreds of Western expatriates can be found in Danshui and Banqiao.

Because Taipei County has had a reputation for extreme urban ugliness, in this article I focus on New Taipei City's manmade attractions – to restore some balance, as it were. And as getting from one part of the donut-shaped special municipality to another can easily take an hour, I chose to home in on three regions: Sanxia, the mouth of the Danshui River, and the area to the east of Keelung's busy harbor. (Keelung itself is not part of New Taipei City). Worthwhile attractions elsewhere in New Taipei City include the Museum of World Religions in Yonghe, the Lin Family Gardens in Banqiao, and the Juming Museum in the hills above Jinshan...

The whole article, which appeared in the July issue of the magazine, is online here. I took the photo above in Danshui District five or six years ago; it shows the less well-known of the two Old Li Houses.

Fred Lobb: Bringing Taiwan's folk stories to an international audience (Culture.tw)

2011-08-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

Every student of the Chinese language takes his or her studies in a particular direction, usually in anticipation of a career in business, translation or academia. Fred H. Lobb [pictured right], a writing coach in California, has used his skills in Mandarin Chinese rather differently. For over 30 years he has been exploring myths, legends and folktales written in Chinese, and translating many of them into English.

Having lived and studied in Taiwan, and married to a Taiwanese woman, he has paid particular attention to Taiwan's own folktales. Some are variations on stories told on the Chinese mainland; some, however, are unique to the island. Since 2007, Lobb has been posting his translations of Chinese folk stories at http://chinesefolktales.blogspot.com.

Earlier this year, BooksfromTaiwan.com, a specialist book seller based in Taiwan, released a compilation of Lobb's translations, Taiwan Folktales: Proverbs, Folk Sayings, and Folktales from Taiwan.

"The book contains the stories and proverbs that I personally enjoy and have found interesting. All my translations come from original Chinese-language sources. For a few of the stories, other English versions exist in print and online, but I didn't read those translations or utilize them in any way," Lobb says...

The complete article can be read here. Fred Lobb's book is published by BooksFromTaiwan.com, which also published the second edition of my first book, Keeping Up With the War God.

Pingtung: Betting the sun will shine (Taiwan Review)

2011-08-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

In the final phase of a business career that led to long periods in the United States and mainland China, Adam Lu and his wife decided they would move back to his hometown in the southern county of Pingtung when he retired. Lu had lived in the rural Pingtung township of Wandan until he was 15 years old, when he moved away to continue his education. His wife grew up in Yanpu, another of the county’s small towns. “I’ve always known Pingtung isn’t a very good place to pursue a career, but I did think it would be a great place to retire to—good weather, a stress-free environment,” Lu says.

Almost three years after hanging up his suits, however, the couple is enjoying life not in the town of his birth, but in a condominium in Kaohsiung City’s Sanmin District. “Access to hospitals and shops is important,” says Lu, whose wife is diabetic. “Also, we were attracted by Kaohsiung’s public transportation. We’re near a KMRT station. Plus, our daughter lives in Kaohsiung.”

Many other Pingtung natives have decided their future lies outside the county’s 2,776 square kilometers. Between 1997 and the end of 2010, the population shrank almost 5 percent to 873,509. During the same period, Taiwan’s population grew more than 6 percent.

Pingtung has substantial aboriginal and Hakka minorities, but in other respects data compiled by the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Household Registration suggests Pingtung folk are not very different from their compatriots in other parts of Taiwan. The county is not a black spot for social problems like divorce, nor for health issues like infant mortality. The population is somewhat older than the national average, though, with 12.49 percent of county residents being aged 65 or over compared with 10.63 percent nationwide.

Economic issues were not a factor in the Lus’ decision to live in Kaohsiung, but are undoubtedly a major issue for many of those who leave Pingtung. The government’s 2009 Survey of Family Income and Expenditure found that while the average number of employed persons per household in the county precisely matches the national average, household incomes are almost a fifth lower.

According to Pingtung County Magistrate Tsao Chi-hung, the county’s people have “a sense of relative deprivation,” which results from decades of the central government and private investors favoring the north over the south, and urban areas over the countryside.

Some investors have steered clear of Pingtung because of transportation difficulties. Until 2004, the county did not have any freeways or expressways. It remains the only part of western Taiwan to lack a high-speed railway station and have no prospect of getting one.

While visitors to Pingtung often adore the slow pace of life, residents bemoan the impact this has on the county’s development. This sentiment is reflected in a local idiom, zhan wei bao shuai, which means, “At the end of the line, all is languid.”

Tsao, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party who was elected to a second term in 2009, thinks two ongoing infrastructure projects will give the county a major boost. One is the building of a world-class auditorium in Pingtung City, the budget for which is NT$11 billion (US$380 million). The auditorium is scheduled to open in mid-2013. The other is the conversion of Taiwan Railway Administration’s Pingtung-to-Chaozhou railroad into a rapid-transit line at a cost of NT$25 billion (US$862 million). “Twenty-four level crossings will be eliminated, meaning road travel will become safer and smoother,” says Tsao, who stresses that the project, due to be completed in 2013, goes beyond cutting travel times, elevating the tracks and remaking the stations. “It’s a good opportunity to adjust surrounding roads, add bicycle paths and reconstruct urban areas,” the county magistrate says.

“There can be no doubt that tourism and high-value agriculture are crucial development directions for Pingtung,” Tsao says. “We should also make good use of our abundant sunshine, which is an advantage when developing green energy and encouraging the public to use solar power...”

The entire article appears in the August issue of Taiwan Review, the Government Information Office's monthly magazine. The interview with the chief magistrate of Pingtung was done by email; the interviews of businesspeople were all done face to face.

Patron of paint (Silkroad)

2011-07-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

Raymond Wang's weekly trips to art shows led him to found Taipei's Jia Art Gallery in 1990. Travelling the world, he seeks and sponsors emerging artists and believes China is now a hotspot for such talent.

"For a gallery owner, the most important characteristics are honesty and having the right attitude," says Wang, chairman of the Art Galleries Association R.O.C.

Wang bought his first painting in 1971 after finding that trips to art galleries were a good distraction from work worries. "Visiting galleries became a weekly activity for me and I became an avid art lover," he recalls...

This interview appeared in the March 2011 issue of Silkroad; the gallery has posted the whole piece on their website.

Blissful retreat (Silkroad)

2011-07-20T02:14:00.000-07:00

Taipei is a city of the 21st century. Home to Taipei 101, the second-tallest building in the world, it acts as the island's commercial centre with more than 90 percent of its inhabitants having access to WiFi. But what lies beyond this city of nearly three million? Try Danshui, a seaside town steeped in history and architecture...

This article appeared in Silkroad, the inflight magazine of Dragonair, back in March, but I've only just received my copy of the magazine. The photo here - which shows Danshui's Fort San Domingo - was taken by Craig Ferguson, and will also appear in the Taiwan guide cell-phone app I'm working on.

Have You Eaten Yet? The 2011 Taiwan Culinary Exhibition (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-07-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

In Europe, it is said that the French live to eat while the British merely eat to live. But on a global level, many people in Taiwan show a passion to eat well that exceeds even the legendary culinary enthusiasm of the French. When greeting each other, Taiwanese people often ask, “Have you eaten yet?” rather than “How are you?”

Step into a popular restaurant in a Taiwanese city and you will find people not only thoroughly enjoying their food, but also taking notes and photos so they can share their experience with other foodies via blogs. Renowned roadside vendors are often surrounded by throngs of people queuing, ordering, and waiting for portions of the fare for which the hawker is famous. Some of these customers are blue-collar folk getting around on bicycles, while others are professionals who arrived in expensive sedans. In Taiwan, great food crosses all social boundaries.

Taiwanese cooking is characterized by a preference for rice over noodles. Yams and taros are additional sources of carbohydrates. Soups – which may contain more meat than vegetables – are served with almost every meal. Pork and chicken appear more frequently than beef or mutton; duck and goose are also popular. As you would expect on an island, fish and seafood are very common. Even though Taiwan's mild climate ensures that vegetables are available year-round, pickles are also popular. Greens are usually fried (often with garlic or ginger), rather than boiled or steamed.

The majority of Taiwanese trace their ancestry to Fujian, the mainland Chinese province closest to the island, yet Fujianese cuisine is not the only cooking style to have strongly influenced the way Taiwanese people cook and eat. Japanese food is also commonplace, a consequence of the 50 years Japan ruled Taiwan. Seaweed is widely used, and Japanese standards like miso soup appear alongside thoroughly local dishes. In addition, refugees from every Chinese province followed Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist government when it relocated to the island; to earn a living, many of these migrants began cooking and selling hometown-style delicacies. A good number of these eateries are still in business, and more than a few have reached the top rank of the restaurant trade.

Each year, gourmets look forward to the Taiwan Culinary Exhibition (TCE). Since 1990, the TCE has been celebrating and promoting the cuisines of Taiwan, the Chinese mainland, and ethnic Chinese communities overseas...

This is part of an advertorial text, sponsored by Taiwan's Tourism Bureau, that appears in Taiwan Business Topics' Travel & Culture special issue. Go here for the whole text.

Natural and manmade beauty fills Sandimen (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-07-16T02:16:00.000-07:00

More than 50,000 of Pingtung County's 873,000 inhabitants are aboriginal, and a string of villages dominated by the Paiwan and Rukai tribes stretches from the northeastern corner of the county all the way to Kenting National Park on Taiwan's southernmost tip. The best known of these settlements is a village that people from the plains often call Sandimen, but which the government officially refers to as Sandi. The township in which it lies – which is the actual Sandimen – contains six villages, some more accessible than others, and of its 7,400 residents, 94% are indigenous. The neighboring townships of Majia, Wutai, and Taiwu also have a strong aboriginal character.

Unlike Alishan – where aboriginal residents, outnumbered by hotel workers from other parts of Taiwan, live in a ghetto-like cluster of dwellings that few visitors see – Sandi remains a proper village. Tourism brings in dollars but it does not rule; on any given day, the majority of those making their way through the streets are local folk. Most adult males divide their time between construction or factory work in the lowlands and on small farms in the hills. Their wives also work on the land, growing mangoes or gathering wild taros, which are then spread on the roadside to dry in the sun. And like indigenous youngsters throughout Taiwan, Sandi's teenagers are more conversant with Mandarin rap music than the language of their ancestors.

Sandi is laid out on a steep hillside above the Ailiao River, and most of the 120-odd households enjoy superb views over the plains. For many visitors, the first stop is the Dragonfly Beads Art Studio (Tel: 08-799-2856; www.puqatan.com.tw), on the left of the main thoroughfare just below the heart of the village. There is no English sign; visitors who cannot read Chinese should look for the giant model dragonfly on the workshop's roof.

Established in 1983, Dragonfly is likely Pingtung County's best-known producer of souvenirs. The glass beads that have made Dragonfly famous are more than beautiful keepsakes. They represent a revival of a tribal tradition, as until well into the 20th century colored beads were treasured by both the Paiwan and the Rukai. Women wore them with pride, since possessing such beads implied high social status.

Dragonfly enjoyed a boom in late 2008 and early 2009 thanks to the home-grown smash-hit movie Cape No. 7. In several scenes, the stars of this romantic comedy wore glass-bead necklaces supplied by Dragonfly. Unfortunately, the production of glass beads cannot be quickly ramped up to meet surges in demand, as new employees need at least three months – and often half a year – before their work is good enough to be sold...

Like the previous entry, this article is in Taiwan Business Topics' Travel & Culture special issue. To read the whole thing, go here.

The trees that shade Taiwan (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-07-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

Despite industrialization and population growth, trees cover a much greater percentage of Taiwan than do concrete or rice paddies. They deserve a place in the hearts of all who live in Taiwan, and not only for aesthetic reasons. They nurture wildlife, anchor slopes prone to landslides, and reduce flood risk by drawing up rainwater. Also, one particular tree species – camphor – played a crucial role in Taiwan's economic and social development.

The government’s most recent comprehensive land-use survey, completed in 1995, found that 58.5% of Taiwan’s land area was covered by trees or bamboo. Hardwood stands – many dominated by non-native Japanese cedars (Cryptomeria japonica) – accounted for more than half of this total, while another fifth supported a mix of hardwoods and conifers. Different countries define “forested land” in different ways, yet there can be no doubt that for its size, Taiwan has many more trees than France or Britain.

The ban on logging in Taiwan's natural forests that came into force in 1991 followed 300 years of exploitation. In the early 1700s, demand for Taiwan's first major export – camphor, derived from the Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora) – resulted in large-scale clearances. According to Taiwan: A New History, edited by Murray A. Rubinstein: “Camphor making forced the pace of exploitation of the densely wooded uplands of northern and central Taiwan, which in turn provoked incessant Sino-aboriginal clashes...The product for which [Han Chinese] literally risked their heads was obtained by felling stately camphor trees and reducing them to large heaps of wood chips. Whitish camphor crystals were then extracted from the chips by a crude but effective distillation apparatus set up on the spot.”

Until the 1880s, camphor was used mainly for medicinal purposes and as an insect repellent. Later it became an ingredient in smokeless gunpowder. Around the time of the Japanese takeover in 1895, Taiwan was supplying two-thirds of the world's camphor, and the trade was enjoying a second wind thanks to demand in the West for film and other products based on celluloid (then manufactured using natural camphor). This lasted until the introduction of petrochemical-based products and synthetic camphor in the 1920s.

The camphor trade drove the growth of inland settlements such as Daxi in Taoyuan County and Puli in Nantou County. It also facilitated the expansion of Taiwan's tea industry by clearing upland areas, which were then planted with tea.

Camphor Laurels thrive in Taiwan's climate, and despite the massive harvesting of yesteryear, they are nowadays quite common, in both mid-elevation forests and public places. Typically three times the height of an adult person, these trees are easy to recognize, having rough bark marked by vertical fissures. In fall and winter, they produce black berries almost a centimeter in diameter.

The tree species currently most important to Taiwan's economy is, of course, the betel nut palm (Areca catechu). The negative impact of this shallow-rooted tree on the environment and on the health of those chewing the nut are well known, yet its popularity has not abated. Between 1961 and 2008, annual betel nut production in Taiwan increased from 3,718 to 144,195 metric tons. Only India grows more.

The trees people in Taiwan most often encounter are in parks, on campuses, or along city streets. Many bear labels giving the species' scientific name and its common name in Chinese, but only rarely is there information in English.

A great many schools, including National Taiwan University's main campus, are shaded by tall, gun-barrel straight Cuban Royal Palms (Roystonea regia), often called Florida Royal Palms by Americans. The bark is pale and smooth, and the upper third of each palm tapers.

There are two good reasons why these ornamental trees are popular in towns. Firstly, their profiles mean they seldom topple during typhoons. Secondly, because their roots only grow longer but not wider, they do not damage foundations by infiltrating cracks when thin and then expanding.

In addition, Blackboard Trees (Alstonia scholaris) can be found on many campuses. Their bark is rough and light gray or charred-looking.

Abandoned houses torn apart by trees are a common sight in Taiwan's countryside, and one of the most dramatic examples of arboreal voracity can be found in Tainan. What is now known as Anping Treehouse is a 19th-century former warehouse filled with Chinese banyans (Ficus Microcarpa). These long ago grew through and destroyed the roof. Their roots have grown across walls and openings in a manner that is almost surreal.

A mature banyan can be a beguiling sight. Aerial prop roots knot themselves around the main trunk or strike out on their own in search of nutrients. Tresses of much thinner roots hang down from the branches. Many of Taiwan's "sacred trees" – large trees believed to be the homes of spirits – are Chinese banyans...

The complete article appears in the Travel & Culture special issue of Taiwan Business Topics, and can be read online here. Rich Matheson, who took the photos for this article, has added some superb images which didn't appear in the print edition of the magazine to his blog. Too many of Taiwan's trees are hemmed in by concrete or asphalt; the photo here (which I took on land managed by the Forestry Bureau in Changhua County) shows a lucky tree that has got space to grow.

Taiwan's night markets (Unity)

2011-07-11T01:24:00.000-07:00

For many first-time visitors to Taiwan, the sight of streets lined with vendors has them reaching for their cameras. Locals react differently: Often, the smells wafting from such places make their mouths water.

In the days of yore, Taiwan's temples served as social and business hubs as well as their religious centers, so it's hardly surprising that some of the island's oldest night markets are associated with places of worship. The most famous of these is Miaokou Night Bazaar in Keelung – miao means “temple” and kou means “entrance.” This market developed around Dianji Temple and is now much better known than that shrine.

Big-city night markets emerged as social institutions in the decades after World War II. Taiwan was rapidly industrializing and hordes of country people moved to the cities to become factory workers. Many of them lived in cramped dwellings that lacked electric fans let alone air-conditioning. Night markets were popular because it gave these blue-collar folk somewhere to go on sweltering evenings. Of course, being able to fill their stomachs for a few dollars was also an important attraction.

A number of night markets have evolved into tourist destinations in their own right. Taipei's Shilin Night Market, which is unusual because it's housed inside a permanent building, falls into this category. Just a few minutes' walk from Jiantan MRT Station, this night market features more than 500 vendors, many of which stay open well after midnight...

The full article appears in the July/August 2011 issue of Unity, the inflight magazine of UNI Airways.

Project work

2011-07-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

For the last two weeks I've been involved in a project run jointly by Tainan City Government (which, following the city-county merger late last year, now administers a very large area) and the China Productivity Center. The latter is a government-supported foundation that helps Taiwan businesses become more efficient. This project, which is related to the English Emblem work I did in 2009 and 2010, offers business owners help translating signs, menus, maps, websites and other materials, so they can better meet the needs of foreign visitors and residents. Last week and this week I visited about two dozen establishments, including stores, restaurants, homestays and a bicycle-rental outfit.

Yanshui (Centered on Taipei)

2011-06-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yanshui, best known for the Beehive Fireworks Festival held here early each spring, is a charming old town. Also, it's ideal for exploring on foot, the side streets being full of quaint houses, small shrines and old-fashioned shops...

The summer issue of Centered on Taipei, a free English-language magazine aimed at Taiwan's expatriate community, features this piece, which I adapted from my Bradt guidebook. Yanshui - previously spelled Yenshui or Yanshuei - is one of my favorite little towns in Taiwan's south.

Tying the knot in Taiwan (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-06-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Couples planning to marry in Taiwan are expected to follow various customs and respect certain traditions. Before any formal engagement, both parties will submit their birth dates and times to a fortune teller who then determines if they are destined to spend the rest of their lives together in blissful prosperity, or if the match is doomed from the start.

Ahead of the actual marriage, the couple has to supervise the designing and printing of invitation cards, and choose wedding cakes to send out to friends and relatives.

In the past few decades, these age-old practices have been supplemented by another convention. Nowadays, some weeks before the traditional wedding banquet, almost every Taiwanese couple will spend one or more days with a professional photographer, posing in various costumes.

Pictures are taken both in a studio and outdoors at picturesque locales. Typically, the groom in his tuxedo and the bride in her white wedding dress will hold hands on a beach, or gaze into each others' eyes while sitting on a lawn in front of a historic building. These images are staged, of course, but far from stiffly formal. A skilled photographer can imbue such portraits with humor and elegance, as well as beauty and lashings of romance.

Just as important is what the photography studios then do with the images. Rather than simply print standard 4x6s, a great deal of thought and creativity is put into combining the pictures with captions, mottoes or song lyrics into an exquisitely produced album. The couple thus gain a souvenir of their youth and their wedding that will endure for decades.

Taiwan's wedding photography culture is very different to the West's, and the island's wedding-photography entrepreneurs can be considered world leaders in their field. This is largely the result of hard work, innovation and years of experience. However, the men and women who work in the industry readily admit nature has dealt them a strong hand.

Strange as it may seem, the brides- and grooms-to-be who step gingerly out of minivans so as not to crease gowns or muss hairstyles have something in common with the extreme sports enthusiasts who flock to Taiwan aiming to work up a good sweat. Both benefit from the island's incredible geographical diversity and year-round sunshine. In not much more than an hour you can get from downtown Taipei to Baishawan's pristine sandy beach. Scenic spots in mountainous Yangmingshan National Park and waterfalls near Wulai are equally accessible.

Taiwan's capital is full of manmade attractions such as Taipei 101. Imposing edifices built during the Japanese colonial era (1895—1945), such as the Museum of Drinking Water, are also popular backdrops. All in all, wedding photographers and their clients are spoiled for choice...

This is the first half of an advertorial text that appeared in the May issue of the American Chamber of Commerce's magazine.

Three culinary treasures (Travel in Taiwan)

2011-06-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

Tell a local gourmet you're heading to Pingtung's west coast, and he or she is sure to rhapsodize about Donggang's Three Culinary Treasures. The town has always made it living from the ocean, so it's no surprise that all three of signature delicacies are seafood.

First and foremost is bluefin tuna, the availability of which peaks around the start of summer. It's often served Japanese-style as sashimi or sushi. If you order some, do try it before you sample any other dishes. Top-grade bluefin sashimi costs around NT$300 per slice, so it deserves a clean palette. In appearance, it resembles marbled beef. In taste, obviously, it's very different.

If raw fish doesn't appeal, order a tuna dish that's been deep-fried or steamed.

The second treasure is sakura shrimp. These are usually shallow fried, seasoned and served on a bed of fluffy white rice.

The third is escolar roe. Dark brown in color and surprisingly like cheese in both texture and taste, this dish is served cold and thinly sliced.

All three of Donggang's culinary treasures can be sampled at Sunrise Restaurant, a three-story landmark establishment that's been in business over 40 years. Like many banquet-style restaurants, the food here is best enjoyed by large groups who can order several dishes.

According the owners, Sunrise's chefs much prefer freshly caught seafood to farmed fish. Despite the emphasis on seafood, the menu caters for vegetarians and those who'd rather eat land-roaming creatures. For NT$400 to NT$500 per person, you'll enjoy a real feast.

Little Liuqiu has several seafood eateries, and one of the best is Baihai Restaurant. It's easy to find. If you're walking from the center of Baisha to Lingshan Temple, it's one of the last buildings on the left.

Not everything on the menu comes from the ocean. Locally-made pork sausages, chopped into slivers and served with lettuce, are a favorite. Baihai also serves up what locals call a Little Liuqiu Pizza It contains neither cheese nor tomatoes, yet in terms of shape and size it does resemble a pizza. Filled with prawns covered with flour and seasoning, it's deep-fried until golden brown – and it goes down a treat.

This short piece was one of three accompanying my ecotourism report on Little Liuqiu and Dapeng Bay in the May/June issue of Travel in Taiwan magazine. I'm not going to post the other two (about places to stay and souvenir buying); see my previous post if you need an explanation of how to read the magazine online.

A big bay and a small island (Travel in Taiwan)

2011-06-02T03:58:00.000-07:00

Despite the best efforts of the Tourism Bureau's Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area (DBNSA) Administration, there are still tourists who've not heard of this area in southwest Taiwan.

Just in case you're one of them, here are some basic facts: Dapeng Bay is divided between the townships of Donggang and Linbian in Pingtung County. The waters of the lagoon here cover 532 hectares and average five meters in depth. Used by the military until the 1970s, the bay later became one of Taiwan's most important oyster-farming areas – it's said a man could get from one side to the other, a distance of 1,800 meters, by clambering from platform to platform.

The bay is stirred by consistent winds, but because the mouth is narrow, the waves never reach any great height. Conditions are thus perfect for all kinds of water sports. For those who like to stay dry, a bicycle path stretching 13.3km rings the lagoon.

On this occasion, however, Travel in Taiwan was not heading south to get fit. We were there to learn about the unique ecosystems of the scenic area, which consists of the lagoon and Xiao Liuqiu, an island 14km offshore.

The DBNSA official showing around the bay, began by telling me something so counterintuitive I had to double-check it. The bay, he said, is saltier than the nearby ocean. Surely not, I thought; freshwater inflow would reduce the salinity. Yet only two small creeks feed into the bay, and year-round sunshine evaporates a great deal of the water. Also, because salt is relatively heavy, it tends to sink and linger rather than being washed out through the bay's constricted opening.

A pleasurable way of seeing the bay is to get on a boat...

This longish article appears in its entirety in the May/June issue of Travel in Taiwan. To read it, go here and click on the cover of that issue (it's mostly green, and bears the numbers 5/6 in the top right corner). The second half of the article, which I've not posted, focuses on Little Liuqiu, and I've blogged about that part of the press trip, and posted some photos. For a previous article of mine about Dapeng Bay, go here.

Sailing and vacationing at Dapeng Bay (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-05-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

As increasing numbers of foreign visitors are discovering, Taiwan's coastline is more than a place to soak up the sun and play in the surf. It is also a paradise for birdwatchers and a heaven for lovers of seafood.

The region that includes Dapeng Bay in the southernmost county of Pingtung is well known on both counts. Each winter, the bay and the wetlands that surround it attract scores of migratory bird species, while the adjacent town of Donggang is renowned for its world-class bluefin tuna and other delicacies.

Dapeng Bay has another advantage, one that is immediately obvious to those who have a chance to get on a windsurfing rig or aboard a sloop. In addition to year-round sunshine, the bay enjoys consistent winds. Yet because the mouth of this 532-hectare lagoon is so narrow, the waves are minuscule. As a result, it is an excellent place for all kinds of watersports. In a word, sailing here is a breeze.

Some 3.5km long and about 1.8km across, the bay has an average depth of five meters. Among its unique features is a small island which consists entirely of discarded oyster shells. This islet, which is a legacy of the years when more than 13,000 oyster-raising platforms covered the bay, now nurtures schools of lively fish.

The Pen Bay, a resort inside Dapeng Bay that will boast world-class facilities, is nearing completion.

The entire region's profile will be lifted this month with the 2011 Dapeng Bay International Regatta, which promises to be the most exciting yachting event in Taiwan's history.

The regatta will be preceded by the inaugural Taiwan Strait Race, a 350-nautical-mile dash from Hong Kong to Kaohsiung, the waterfront metropolis that brands itself Taiwan's “ocean capital.”

The Taiwan Strait Race will begin at 12.10 p.m. Hong Kong time on May 21. In terms of International Sailing Federation (ISAF) ratings, it is a Category 1 offshore race – meaning that participating yachts are required to be completely self-sufficient for extended periods of time, and prepared to meet serious emergencies without the expectation of outside assistance.

The race is being organized by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club with assistance from Kaohsiung City Government and the Chinese-Taipei Sailing Association.

For crews, crossing the Taiwan Strait will involve a lot of physical effort and likely a little discomfort, but they can look forward to a warm welcome when they reach Kaohsiung. Taiwan's second-largest city not only has a comfortable climate and friendly people, but also a fine selection of restaurants, several fascinating museums, and enough retail outlets to satisfy hardcore shopaholics.

Getting around the city is very easy, thanks to the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit system, plentiful and inexpensive taxis, and a growing network of bicycle trails.

The arrival of foreign yachts in Kaohsiung is fitting in an historical sense, because this city is where merchants from Europe and North America arrived in sail boats in the 1860s, seeking tea, camphor and other Taiwanese products. As the yachts sail into Kaohsiung Harbor, they will pass within sight of a relic of that era, a hilltop redbrick villa. It once served as the official residence of the British Consul, and which is now one of Kaohsiung's most distinctive buildings.

Dapeng Bay International Regatta will begin on May 27 with a skippers' briefing in Kaohsiung. The following day, participants will race southeast along the coastline to Dapeng Bay, a distance of 18 nautical miles.

May 29 will see a series of inshore races in what has been dubbed Taiwan's maritime “golden triangle,” the patch of ocean between Kaohsiung, Dapeng Bay and the tiny yet scenic island of Xiao Liuqiu.

On May 30, the vessels will head back to Kaohsiung. On the last day of May, they will leave Taiwan.

The regatta is being hosted by Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area Administration, Kaohsiung City Government and Pingtung County Government, and organized by various sports bodies including the Chinese-Taipei Sailing Association.

The regatta's organizers will assist entrants with entry and customs matters as well as anchorage. Various free services will be provided, including 24-hour security for moored vessels, airport pickup and transfer, plus an evening banquet.

When not sailing, regatta entrants can enjoy the 13.3-kilometer-long cycle track that encircles the bay, or join free on-land excursions organized by the ROC Tourism Bureau.

Several facilities have been added to Dapeng Bay in recent years, but central to the transformation of this former military base (from the early 1940s to the late 1970s) turned oyster farming center (until 2003) into a hot spot for recreational sailing has been the construction of Taiwan's first drawbridge.

This brand new addition to the landscape – inaugurated in early spring – opens so large yachts can enter and leave the bay.

Some 579 meters long and 71 meters high, this striking asymmetrical structure can be seen from several kilometers away.

Since 2009, Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area Administration and Pingtung County Government have been holding an annual windsurfing competition that sees entrants sail from the bay all the way to Xiao Liuqiu, a one-way distance of nine nautical miles. This year's races will last from May 21 to May 27.

Xiao Liuqiu itself is deserving of everyone's time. Just 6.8 square kilometers in area, it is surrounded by pristine ocean rich in coral, fish, turtle and other marine species. The island has a restful ambiance quite different to that of Kaohsiung, and a thoroughly traditional community life.

This is a slightly modified and shortened version of an advertorial I wrote for the Tourism Bureau that appeared in the April issue of Taiwan Business Topics.

1st Taiwan Book Fest

2011-04-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

I'm back from the second and final day of the 1st Taiwan Book Fest, which was held in Taipei's Huashan 1914 Creative Park on April 23 and 24. The event was organised by my old friend John Ross, long-time Chiayi resident and author of Formosan Odyssey, plus an earlier book about Burma. John introduced me and asked a series of questions about my writing experiences before opening the talk up to members of the audience.

A good number of Taiwan-based writers, translators, and readers turned up, including the author of this well-received Taiwan-themed novel, the author of this bilingual look at Taiwan's history, and the writer of several locally-published guides to parts of north Taiwan.

Taiwan Review's 60th anniversary special issue

2011-04-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

For their 60th anniversary special issue (April 2011), Taiwan Review asked me - and other readers, contributors and former editors - for their thoughts on the magazine. They printed my response:

Magazines that give writers 2,500 words - sometimes more - on a single issue are few and far between, and that's one of the reasons why I enjoy writing for Taiwan Review. With that word count, I can really get my teeth into the topic. Few things are more frustrating than researching a subject that I find really interesting, interviewing fascinating people, and then having to leave half of what I've discovered in my notebook.

'Innovative, Unique and Powerful'- Michael S. Berry on Taiwan's cinema (Culture.tw)

2011-04-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

"One of the great luxuries of my profession is that I have an incredible amount of freedom when it comes to determining my research and writing projects," says Michael S. Berry [pictured top right], associate professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). "So if I were to give you a 'wish list' of what I would like to be working on, it would probably be very close – if not identical – to what I’m actually doing at any given moment."

Berry, a jury member at the 2010 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, has written extensively about Taiwanese and Chinese cinema.

He has also translated key works of Taiwanese literature into English, such as Chang Ta-chun's Wild Kids (Columbia University Press, 2000). He is nearly finished translating Remains of Life, an award-winning novel by Wu He.

"I think one of the primary characteristics of Taiwan cinema that draws me in is simply the incredible array of unique and powerful cinematic voices that have emerged from Taiwan over the past several decades, people like Hou Hsiao-hsien [pictured top left], Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang, Chang Tso-chi, Cheng Wen-tang, Chung Mong-hong and so many others," says Berry.

Berry – whose wife Suk-Young Kim is also a UCSB academic, specializing in Russian literature and North Korean theater and film – is currently wrapping up a book project on Hou.

According to Berry, Hou and the others "offer a rich series of perspectives on Taiwan’s history and society, while at the same time using their films to provide much broader and more profound statements about the human condition."

The complete article, which was published yesterday, is here.

A park honoring a Japanese engineer (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-04-11T00:57:00.000-07:00

The Japanese, who ruled Taiwan between 1895 and 1945, left their imprint in every corner of the island. Taiwan's people have mixed feelings about the colonial period. Japanese rule was often harsh, and the economy was organized to meet Japan's requirements and benefit Japanese enterprises. Nevertheless, during the colonial era Taiwan enjoyed rapid development and social stability.

Of individual Japanese fondly remembered for their contributions to Taiwan, none are revered more highly than Yoichi Hatta (1886—1942), a civil engineer. By unlocking the agricultural potential of southwestern Taiwan, Hatta helped feed four generations of Taiwanese.

Hatta's achievements have been the subject of numerous Chinese- and Japanese-language articles and books. His life story inspired a feature-length cartoon – Yoichi Hatta: The Father of the Chianan Canal, released in 2009.

Tourists interested in Hatta and his legacy will soon have a new place to visit. To honor the man and highlight his contributions, the Siraya National Scenic Area has established the Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park. Anyone interested in the lifestyles and architecture of 1920s Japan will enjoy the park, which is expected to become one of the national scenic area's leading attractions.

Around US$300,000 has been spent on the 3.9-hectare park, but more important than the budget are the care and attention lavished on the project. Scholars and historical organizations in both Taiwan and Japan were consulted during the design phase, as were Hatta's descendants, to ensure every aspect is historically accurate.

The centerpiece of the park – which is located less than a kilometer from Wushantou Dam, the landmark with which Hatta is synonymous – is the house where he lived with his wife and eight children.

All four of the Japanese-style wooden bungalows on the site, including the former Hatta residence, have been faithfully renovated using traditional materials. The beams are cypress, an especially fragrant wood which the Japanese call hinoki. Some of the internal partitions are paper, while others are wattle and daub (lattices of bamboo smeared with a mix of soil and rice husks).

The furniture and furnishings inside the buildings [pictured lower left] are either genuine heirlooms from the 1920s and 1930s, or articles chosen and arranged to match the mood of the period. In front of the house is a new bronze statue of Mrs. Hatta, who also showed a great love for Taiwan.

Elsewhere in the park there is a service center and an exhibition hall where visitors can watch multimedia shows about Hatta, his work, and the Chianan Plain. In addition, the tennis court laid out for the use of Hatta's colleagues has been recreated. Hatta was loved by his workers because he took good care of them; he built a school and a hospital, and organized sport events and entertainment.

Within just a few years of graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, Hatta had proved his capabilities while working on water-supply projects in the north of Taiwan. In 1920 he was assigned to a remote site about 30km from the ancient city of Tainan. At that time it was a sunbaked and malarial flatland, prone to both floods and droughts.

Japan was then suffering from food shortages, and Hatta's job was to create from scratch a reservoir and a network of irrigation canals that could transform this unproductive, hardscrabble landscape into rich agricultural land.

That he succeeded is obvious to 21st century visitors driving across the Chianan Plain (so called because it accounts for much of Chiayi County and Tainan Special Municipality). Scenes of bucolic prosperity greet the visitor. Rice – then as now a staple food in Taiwan and Japan – is grown in large quantities, as is corn, sugarcane, and sweet potatoes.

When Hatta arrived, the region lacked roads, so he ordered the laying of a branch railroad that could bring in building materials and heavy machinery. Some solutions were low-tech, however. To compact soil for the laying of foundations, herds of water buffalo were used to trample it down.

Over the course of a decade, Hatta supervised the construction of a number of tunnels (one being three kilometers long), plus several thousand kilometers of canals [pictured lower right], channels and ditches to carry water to fields. Central to the project was the 1,273-meter-long, 66-meter-high rock-filled barrage now known as Wushantou Dam. In terms both of size and technical complexity, the dam is a watershed in the history of civil engineering. Nothing like it had been attempted before in Asia, and it literally changed the face of a good part of southern Taiwan.

In recent years, a coalition of academics, farmers’ associations and civic groups have campaigned to have the entire irrigation system added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The 1,300-hectare reservoir is fed by more than 30 streams, and its nickname, Coral Lake, is inspired by its shape. With numerous peninsulas and inlets, in aerial photos it does indeed resemble a piece of blue-green coral.

In addition to irrigating 100,000 hectares of farmland, the waters of Coral Lake generate hydroelectric power. The surrounding trees, bamboo and thick foliage make the lake an especially good place for camping, barbecues and nature rambles.

In 1931, local people showed their gratitude to Hatta by commissioning a bronze statue of the engineer [pictured top left]. It can be seen inside the Wushantou Reservoir Scenic Area, atop a hillock shaded by camphor and beefwood trees.

The statue itself is rather unusual because of a condition set by Hatta when he reluctantly agreed to pose for it. He said it should not be stiffly formal nor idealized, but rather an accurate depiction of how he looked when working – sitting on the ground, scratching his head with his right hand and gazing wistfully into the distance, as if pondering an especially difficult engineering problem.

When Taiwan returned to Chinese rule in 1945 at the end of a long and brutal war, many symbols and relics of the Japanese colonial era were done away with. Sympathetic locals removed the statue, fearing the new government would order it to be destroyed. Kept hidden until 1981, it was then restored to its original place. These days, visitors will often see fresh flowers in front of the statue – further evidence of the high esteem in which Hatta is still held.

Nearby stands the Hatta Memorial Museum, a one-room exhibition hall filled with fascinating photographs; some show Hatta with his family, while others chart the construction of the dam. In one corner, some of Hatta's clothes have been preserved for posterity.

Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park will be open to the public every day, and admission will be free, at least for the initial period. Wushantou Reservoir Scenic Area is open from 6am to 6pm daily, and admission is NT$200 per person (parking extra).

This is an advertorial I wrote (paid for by Taiwan's Tourism Bureau) that appeared in Taiwan Business Topics, the monthly magazine published by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei. Researching and writing it was much more interesting than many jobs of that kind, so I'm posting the whole text here.

A passion to serve (Taiwan Review)

2011-04-01T16:50:00.001-07:00

Not many people would take a job if there was a serious risk of being caught in a landslide. Even fewer would go back to such a job after being hit by rocks, especially if they were not getting paid to do so. But such is the dedication of Pauline Cheng, a volunteer tour guide at Taroko National Park in eastern Taiwan, that she has done so more than once.

“Twice when leading groups I’ve been hit by falling rocks,” Cheng recalls. “The first time I was hit on my leg and it wasn’t too serious. The second time I was hit on my hands, and because of the pain I passed out and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance.”

After both mishaps, it took Cheng about two months to recover fully from her physical injuries and psychological trauma. Nevertheless, she returned to her duties. When she visits places prone to rock falls these days, Cheng wears a safety helmet like those the park loans out to tourists.

In addition to political leaders from the Republic of China’s (ROC) diplomatic allies, she has guided parliamentarians and Nobel Prize winners at Taroko, usually by speaking in English but occasionally in Japanese.

“On average, I’m asked to show people around three to six times a month,” she says, noting that while some of these tours are as short as three hours, others last an entire day.

According to a report compiled in 2009 by the Construction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of the Interior (CPAMI)—the central government unit that oversees the ROC’s eight national parks—almost 2,000 people serve as volunteers in the parks. Four-fifths of them are interpreters like Cheng. They are on the front lines, dealing with the public, handing out maps and leaflets to tourists and answering questions in service centers...

To read the whole piece, which is in the March issue of Taiwan Review, go here.

Night markets (Travel in Taiwan)

2011-03-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

No visitor to Taiwan should leave without wandering around at least one of the island's 300-odd night markets. Every bit as colorful and bustling as Middle Eastern bazaars, these after-dark attractions are places to eat, shop and slowly wander around while soaking up iconic Taiwan sounds and smells.

This might surprise you, but night markets (which typically run from dusk until nearly midnight) are very different to morning markets. At the latter – which early-birds will find well worth visiting – housewives stock up on vegetables, fruit, meat and fish. Night markets sell very little in the way of fresh cooking ingredients. Instead, they're renowned for offering tasty snacks like squid-on-a-stick, oyster omelets, steamed sweetcorn, and something that resembles a donor kebab – but with pork rather than lamb, and a conventional bun instead of pita.

Here's another surprising fact: Even if the food doesn't tempt you at all, spending an hour or two exploring a night market still brings many a reward. Photographers will lap up the visual possibilities: Piles of gewgaws, racks of clothes, games to play, and people of all shapes and sizes...

This article appears in the March/April issue of Travel in Taiwan magazine. All of the links above go to photos on the flickr website.

Keeping Up With the War God (2nd ed., BooksFromTaiwan.com)

2011-03-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

For some years I've contemplated, admittedly not very seriously, updating and reissuing my first book, Keeping Up With the War God. Last month, the folks at BooksFromTaiwan.com nudged me to revise the text (which involved correcting some bad writing, redrafting several inelegant sentences, and updating some facts) so they could create an e-book version for Kindle machines.

It's out now and available from Amazon.com.

Committee appointment

2011-03-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

I've been appointed to Kaohsiung City Government's Bilingual Living Environment Commission, a 19-strong committee whose duties include the correcting of bilingual signs, and the standardizing of the English names of government units and tourist attractions. The work is very similar to what I've been doing from time to time for the central government's Research, Development & Evaluation Commission.

Eleven members are civil servants; eight are outsiders. I'm not sure how often we'll be meeting.

Translation projects unlock world of Taiwanese literature (Taiwan Today)

2011-03-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

Readers in the English-speaking world have long enjoyed translations of the cream of French, German and Russian literature. Only in the past few decades, however, have English-language editions of the best fiction written in Taiwan become available.

In the 1980s, Indiana University Press published translations of short-story collections by Huang Chun-ming and Kenneth Pai Hsien-yung as part of its Chinese Literature in Translation series. In 1998, Columbia University Press launched its Modern Chinese Literature in Taiwan series with Wang Chen-ho's “Rose, Rose I Love You,” a novel first published in Chinese in 1984.

Of the 18 titles in the series, with two more in the pipeline, the best-seller so far has been Chu Tien-wen's “Notes of a Desolate Man,” said Jennifer Crewe, CUP's editorial director.

Print runs are usually small, however, about 1,000 copies on average, said Crewe...

Go here to read this article in its entirety. Researching this story was very satisfying on a personal level, opening doors to one aspect of Taiwan I had until this year neglected.

Aboriginal food comes down from the hills (Unity)

2011-03-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

Taiwan's indigenous people account for about two percent of the island's 23.1 million people, yet the number of local restaurants serving authentic indigenous cuisine is far fewer than the one in fifty you might expect.

Many lowlanders have a vague idea of what aborigines eat and how they cook: A lot of meat, much of it got by hunting, roasted or barbecued; small fish and shrimp taken from mountain streams; and strange vegetables, quite different to those seen on the lowlands, all washed down with homemade liquor. Although these impressions are broadly correct, what indigenous people eat now on a day-to-day basis is quite different to the aboriginal diet of just a few decades ago.

Millet, yams, and taros used to be the main carbohydrates. But now, because good roads link the plains with the mountains, indigenous people eat just as much rice as their Han Chinese compatriots. At tribal festivals, however, millet-based dishes are still made and consumed...

The complete article appears in the March/April issue of Unity, the inflight magazine of UNI Air. Meatier articles of mine about indigenous food can be found here and here.

Historic Tainan (Verve)

2011-02-26T16:07:00.000-08:00

Few places have modernized so fast and yet retained so many of their customs as Taiwan. And within Taiwan, nowhere is more traditional than the southern city of Tainan.

Tainan's status has changed several times during its long history. Initially a trade outpost of the Dutch East India Company, in 1663 it became the capital of Koxinga's Dongning Kingdom. Then, for two centuries beginning 1684, it was known as Taiwanfu – literally, “Taiwan's prefectural capital.” At the end of 2010, the city and the surrounded county merged, creating a sprawling municipality covering 2,192 km2 and inhabited by 1.9 million people.

Tainan's religious life has been shaped in part by the Dutch, the Japanese, and the British. Missionaries from the UK founded the city's oldest school, its oldest hospital, and its most elegant church. However, the strongest influence by far came from China’s southeastern province of Fujian. Folk beliefs, Buddhism and Taoism dominate today's free, tolerant and diverse spiritual environment.

Religious parades, which feature fantastically-attired troupes of stilt walkers and other performers, can be seen almost every weekend. God effigies often go on local inspection tours to bless and safeguard households within the temple's dominion.

On the fifteenth day of each lunar calendar, households and businesses appropriate patches of sidewalk and set out tables laden with offerings before which they burn incense and joss paper for the gods. Ancestor rites are conducted at home, in front of the family altar, but with apartment living, nuclear families, and the fast pace of modern life, this practice is in decline.

It's often said Tainan has “a god every five steps, a temple every three steps.” That’s something of an exaggeration – though very few streets lack some kind of shrine – and yet also an understatement. Tainan has much more, in terms of tangible antiquity, than places of worship. But let's start with two religious landmarks.

The Martial Rites Temple and the Great Queen of Heaven Temple are side by side, and both date from the late 17th century.

The former is dedicated to Guan Gong, a god whose following includes a great many of Taiwan's business people. The layout is rare in that it's asymmetrical. Walk through the main chamber and turn left to find a pavilion dedicated to Guanyin; note the delicate but weathered woodcarvings of dragons. Behind it there's a delightful courtyard with a 300-year-old plum tree. Musicians play traditional Chinese instruments here every Monday and Tuesday.

The Great Queen of Heaven Temple was a palace until the Dongning Kingdom was overthrown. At the behest of the Qing general who masterminded Taiwan's incorporation into the Chinese empire it became a shrine devoted to Mazu, the sea goddess and the protector of sailors.

The temple's crowning glory is the main Mazu effigy. It's unusual in terms of size (as big as high schooler), age (an estimated 300 years), and material (mud!). Many of the faithful believe that in 2004, when the head suddenly fell off, it was the goddess sacrificing herself to warn her followers about an approaching typhoon. The head has been beautifully restored and the original black face covered with gold leaf...

The full version of this article appeared in the January issue of Verve, EVA Air's inflight magazine.

The Dutch in Tainan, then and now (Travel in Taiwan)

2011-02-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

Even after the recent merger of Tainan City and Tainan County, Tainan is still only Taiwan's fifth-largest metropolis. Yet as the island's former capital, and the place where Han Chinese culture gained its foothold on the island, any attempt to understand Taiwan's history must address this bastion of culture and tradition.

Tainan's current population of 1.9 million is overwhelmingly of Han Chinese descent. But if you could travel back in time to the second quarter of the 17th century, you would find a multicultural, multilingual settlement.

In addition to Chinese migrants speaking Minnanhua (a language now known as Taiwanese), members of the aboriginal Tsou and Siraya tribes, Japanese pirates and traders, you'd see a surprising number of Europeans. That's because, between 1624 and 1662, parts of what's now Tainan were controlled by the Dutch East India Company (also known by its initials in Dutch, VOC).

The VOC was a privately-owned enterprise that by force of arms opened up much of Asia to European exploitation. The VOC's Tainan colony – like its outposts in Indonesia and Japan – was a commercial venture.

Sugar, rice, deer skins and venison were major exports. Significant quantities of spices, ceramics and silver passed through Tainan – then called Tayuan – en route to Japan and China.

Even though the Dutch occupation of Taiwan was brief and ended a long time ago, this period is crucial to the island's history. According to Lien Heng's General History of Taiwan, “As very early Taiwanese history has no written sources, the history of Taiwan was started by the Dutch...”

To read the entire article, get a copy of the January/February issue of Travel in Taiwan.

"Taiwan has a unique culture" (Travel in Taiwan)

2011-02-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

Traditional Taiwan moves to the beat of a drum. During temple rites, massive mechanized thuds alternate with the tolling of a bell. When chanting litany, Daoist priests keep up a constant tick-tocking on small, fish-shaped solid-wood drums. During the solemn rites every September 28 at Taiwan's Confucian temples, drums of five different sizes are played.

Even in the 21st century, drums, bells, gongs, fireworks and firecrackers form the soundtrack for religious parades and temple celebrations. But thanks to the efforts of Ten Drum Art Percussion Group, a performance and educational troupe, drumming - inspired by yet not beholden to tradition - is becoming part of Taiwan's modern urban culture.

The group performed at the Summer Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney in 2000, at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea, and more recently in the Czech Republic.

Since 2007, Ten Drum's base has been a disused sugar refinery in Tainan...

This article appeared in the January/February issue of Travel in Taiwan. The photo shows part of their Tainan base.

My guidebook in Taiwan Today

2011-01-28T23:32:00.000-08:00

Taiwan Today, a government-run website that I occasionally write for, has reviewed my guidebook.

The reviewer is very positive about the text, saying: "Out-of-the ordinary tales and enough wry comments to provoke occasional laughter make Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide... a useful resource for those looking to experience something a little different while journeying around the island... A prolific writer on all things Taiwan, Crook has an intrinsic feel for what tickles the average reader’s fancy... a plethora of revealing observations sprinkled throughout that are sure to amuse and enlighten those already in Taiwan and wanting to learn more."

The photos, however, left him less than impressed. "While the written content is concise, entertaining and original, sadly some of the photographs let the publication down. It is not that the... images are bad; there is simply nothing new, which proves rather a disappointment."

Tainan's Magic School embraces green architecture (Taiwan Today)

2011-01-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

Over the past year and a half, a striking building has been taking shape on the campus of National Cheng Kung University in the southern city of Tainan.

This pathbreaking structure, the Y.S. Sun Green Building Research Center, named in honor of the former ROC premier who died in 2006, is also known as the Magic School of Green Technology (MSGT). Its exterior has several nautical touches, including a ship’s prow, and railings like those on a cruise liner. However, its uniqueness goes beyond outward appearance.

One of the functions of the MSGT, which was inaugurated January 12, is to help people understand why sustainable architecture is important, and how certain design and construction methods can lessen a building’s impact on the environment.

With four stories and 4,799 square meters of floor space, the school is expected to consume just 43 kilowatt hours of electricity per square meter of floor per year—65 percent less than similar office buildings in the ROC.

The design is so remarkable that the building and its principal designer, NCKU architecture professor Lin Hsien-te, were featured in a Discovery Channel documentary while it was still under construction.

“Natural ventilation is the key issue for this building,” architect Joe Shih explained when asked how such large energy savings are possible. Throughout the project, Shih has endeavored to reconcile Lin’s sustainability targets with the properties of conventional building materials, budgetary limits, NCKU’s requirements, local building codes and his own “ways of dealing with light and space.”

“Extensive computer modeling and experimentation were conducted to find the best natural ways to increase indoor ventilation,” Shih said.

The school’s three solar chimneys are a result of these efforts...

To see the rest of this article, go here. Taiwan Today is a web-only publication produced by the Government Information Office.

Sweet reflections (Unity)

2011-01-17T17:14:00.000-08:00

One crop has shaped Taiwan's rural landscape like no other: sugar. This commodity looms large in the island's economic history, having been grown on the island and shipped to overseas markets since the Dutch occupied the Tainan area in the 1600s.

Sugar production peaked at 1.4 million tonnes in 1939. At that time, around one-fifth of Taiwan's agricultural land was devoted to growing sugar cane. Refined sugar accounted for two thirds of Taiwan's exports in 1920, and four fifths in 1950. Jack Williams, a geography professor at Michigan State University in the United States writing in the 1970s, described sugar as “the sweetener in Taiwan's development.”

The industry has shrunk to a fraction of its former size because other countries are able to produce sugar more cheaply. The state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp. (TSC), which still has 4,000 employees and more than 50,000 hectares of land, has diversified into floriculture, biotechnology, animal husbandry, and tourism.

Many of the largest fields in south Taiwan used to be planted with cane, but it is the region's old sugar refineries to which visitors flock. Of the 42 sugar refineries TSC used to operate, all but four have been closed down. Several of the shuttered mills now enjoy a second existence as tourist attractions.

These imposing complexes – some are over a century old – delight architecture aficionados and industrial-heritage buffs. Their surroundings please those who want fresh air and greenery, while the snacks and ice creams on offer keep kids happy.

Trainspotters are thrilled to see locomotives that used to haul cane from fields to mills. Until the 1990s, TSC operated its own rail network, with about 900km of 762mm-gauge track. Some branch lines carried paying passengers as well as cane.

At places like Nantsing in Chiayi County (pictured below left) and Xinying in Tainan, TSC marshaling yards are full of rusting wagons.

One of the very few sugar trains still working can be found 15km west of Chiayi City, at what is now officially called Zhetang Culture Park, but which locals still refer to as Suantou Sugar Refinery. The refinery (pictured top left) started processing raw sugar in 1904, and was active until a decade ago.

On weekends, tourists board the train and enjoy a short ride through the surrounding countryside.The main refinery building is open to the public, and each crusher, roller, pulping vat and boiler is labeled.

At the Tsung-yeh Arts and Cultural Center in Tainan, the atmosphere is one of creative refinement rather than brutal mechanization. Formerly the Madou Sugar Mill, this complex was established by a Japanese conglomerate during Japan's 1895-1945 occupation of Taiwan. Several buildings have been renovated – among them a Kyoto-style wooden guesthouse – and turned into art galleries and exhibition spaces.

The architecture at Shanhua Sugar Refinery, about 10km to the south, is not nearly so elegant, yet it does have a small museum overflowing with documents, tools and photographs from the industry's mid-2oth-century heyday.

Elsewhere in Tainan, a former sugar mill in Jiali has become the Siaolong Culture Park, a venue for festivals and exhibitions.

Perhaps the finest refinery complex in all of Taiwan is the one at Qiaotou, on the outskirts of Kaohsiung. Here you'll find lots of information about Taiwan’s sugar industry in both Chinese and English.

But for the main smokestack, those arriving at Qiaotou's elevated KMRT station won't get the impression they're arriving at an industrial landmark. In fact, it's leafier than most campuses.

Among the buildings are workers’ dormitories and air-raid shelters, plus a small bilingual museum. The refinery ceased operations in 1999. The hundreds of banyan, camphor and mango trees, overgrown railway sidings, and surrounding fields (former cane plantations now lying fallow or afforested) mean butterflies thrive here in massive numbers. This fact is celebrated in the title and details of the 36m-long image that enlivens the interior of the KMRT station: Land of Sugar, Home of Butterflies.

Fields of cane can still be seen in Taiwan's southwest. Mature canes are more than 2m tall, and those on the edge of a plantation need to be buttressed so they don’t get flattened by strong gusts of wind.

As you would expect, the delicacies sold in and around former refineries appeal to those with a sweet tooth. TSC-brand ice lollies are especially worth trying.

For a thoroughly authentic experience, find a roadside cane vendor, and watch as he hacks off the bark with a machete and then chops each cane into sections. Do as the locals do: Buy a bag of chopped cane, chew the sticks until all the juice has come out, then spit out the fiber. Alternatively, buy a bottle of fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice.

This article appeared in the January issue of Unity, UNI Air's inflight magazine.

Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide reviewed by Highway11.net

2011-01-16T23:23:00.000-08:00

Highway11.net, a website devoted to travel, leisure and other issues with a particular focus on Taiwan's east coast, has some kind words for my guidebook. Calling it "a concise guide to traveling in Taiwan," the review goes on to say "author Steven Crook has amassed a wealth of information for anyone stepping of the plane... What makes this particular edition stand out is that while it presents all the information that might be useful for a foreigner in Taiwan, it doesn’t inundate the reader with an abundance of useless or impractical information."

The guide,"offers up a nifty collection of asides throughout the book on little bits of Taiwanese culture, art, society and history. The maps are clear and uncluttered."

One criticism is made: "If there is a simple drawback to the guide it is the same one I make for all guidebooks concerning Taiwan: a disproportional amount of space dedicated to Taipei and the west coast at the expense of the east coast. While I understand that guidebooks are written under strict word counts, it does not make sense that one of Taiwan’s most visited tourist areas gets the least attention.

My guidebook in Action Asia

2011-01-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

Action Asia, a Hong Kong-based magazine that has long championed Taiwan as an adventure travel destination, reports the publishing of my guidebook.

Here's the text:

Until just a few years ago Taiwan was poorly served by guidebook publishers, but there's been a noticeable uptick in quality since 2007 or so. The arrival of a new Rough Guide started the shift, and now comes this latest release in the Bradt series that will appeal to the more culturally-attuned traveller - as well as those keen to avoid the hordes of LP and RG acolytes.

Crook is a long-term resident and the book betrays his love of the island and its people in its attention to the sights and experiences that make it a place simultaneously fast-changing and deeply rooted in tradition.

Taiwan's export-processing zones: Shifting roles through the decades (Taiwan Business Topics)

2011-01-04T05:52:00.000-08:00

Long before the science parks in Hsinchu, Tainan, and Taichung were established, Taiwan's government was administering areas specifically designed to attract foreign direct investment and nurture industries in the hope that they would help drive the island's economy.

The first of these, the Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone (KEPZ), was established in December 1966. Because the original 68-hectare harbor-side enclave – the very first EPZ in the Asia-Pacific region – was quickly filled with factories churning out radios, garments, and other items, additional zones were established in Taichung in 1969 and in the Kaohsiung suburb of Nanzte (now often spelled Nanzi) in 1971.

The Export Processing Zone Administration (EPZA), a unit of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, now supervises seven EPZs and two other special economic development areas with a total land area of 586 hectares.

As of late 1967, EPZ tenant companies were employing 5,625 people. By 1976, the total workforce had swelled to just under 75,000, four-fifths of whom were female. The image of thousands of young women on bicycles leaving the zones at the end of each shift is part of the collective memory of Taiwanese who lived through the 1970s.

According to the EPZA, the zones' contribution to Taiwan's exports peaked in 1974. In that year, goods produced by tenant enterprises accounted for just over 9% of Taiwan's total exports of US$5.64 billion. By 2000, exports from the zones amounted to US$8.7 billion, 5.86% of Taiwan's total exports. The zones' share of exports has continued to decline, and currently stands at around 3.5%.

Until 1986, EPZ tenant enterprises were required to export all of their output. This rule was later relaxed and finally dropped altogether in 1997. The proportion of EPZ-made goods entering the domestic market has since been growing gradually, yet the zones still live up to their name. In 2006, 66.2% of EPZ output was exported.

In their first 35 years, Taiwan's EPZs brought the country something like US$50 billion in foreign currency. “TVs and textiles really helped Taiwan earn a lot of foreign exchange in the 1970s,” says Shen Jong-chin, the director-general of the EPZA since May 2010.

Since Taiwan’s introduction of the concept, dozens of countries around the world have established EPZs. Few, with the exception of China, have been nearly as successful as Taiwan was at providing the predictable, productive, and low-cost environments that investors seek.

Nowadays, when so much of the talk is about such sectors as biotechnology and cultural-creative industries, Taiwan's EPZs seldom make business headlines. Yet it would be very wrong to speak of them in the past tense. According to EPZA statistics, the zones currently host 449 companies. Output in the first 10 months of 2010 was NT$313.1 billion (US$10.4 billion), and for the whole year the figure is likely to exceed NT$370 billion (US$12.3 billion).

In the 1970s, typical EPZ products were hair dryers, fishing poles, and sewing machines. By the 1980s, factories in the zones were making cameras, microscopes, and golf clubs. Nowadays, semiconductor testing-and-packaging operations and LCD companies are mainstays. This progression is outlined in a small museum inside the EPZA's headquarters.

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), part of the ASE Group and the largest IC tester and packager in the world, has 12 factories in the Nanzte EPZ. “The science parks focus on industries that are capital- and technology-intensive, which is why wafer foundries and designers can be found in Hsinchu, Taichung, and Tainan,” says Shen. “For semiconductor testing and packaging, the technical requirements are not so high – it's lower-end but still high-tech – but the EPZ can provide very good tax incentives for packager-testers to locate here.”

“Clearly, for the semiconductor industry, the EPZs do have an important role to play,” he adds...

To read this article, which appeared in the December 2010 issue of Taiwan Business Topics, go here.

The Handy Guide for Foreigners in Taiwan

2011-01-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

I just received my copy of the third edition of The Handy Guide for Foreigners in Taiwan, a 112-page booklet published by the central government's Research, Development & Evaluation Commission. I served as one of five English-language advisers (by far the most eminent of whom was Doris Brougham) updating the book. Rather than go through the booklet word-by-word, line-by-line, we made suggestions as to what should and shouldn't be included, and how the layout could be improved.

The guide is packed with useful telephone numbers and website addresses, and explains to expatriates and visitors how to travel around the island (public transportation and self-driving), as well as studying, investing, and health care.

Copies should be available at local branches of the National Immigration Agency. If you go to this page and scroll down, you'll see a link to the pdf of the English-language edition.

BooksFromTaiwan.com

2011-01-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

All three of my books are now available from BooksFromTaiwan.com, a Taiwan-based Internet bookseller that specialises in ecology-related books, maps and other items.

Local publishers, foreign tongues (Taiwan Review)

2011-01-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

A few decades ago, well before Taiwan had developed as a tourist destination, the island was a dream destination for bargain-hunting bibliophiles from English-speaking countries.

Phil Briggs, an Australian accountant who worked in Hong Kong between 1982 and 1994, describes how several of his business trips to Taiwan ended: “As soon I’d wrapped up my meetings, I’d head to the city’s booksellers and start browsing. One time, I took 26 kilograms of books back to Hong Kong with me. Taipei back then was especially good for dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference books.”

“I knew that, in many cases, these books were being reproduced without the publishers’ or authors’ permission. At the time, I did see the irony of doing something which, while not breaking local law, wasn’t exactly in keeping with the spirit of my profession,” adds Briggs, who is now retired.

Many of the businesses that published foreign-language books in that era have long since disappeared. One that continues to thrive is Bookman Books Co. Ltd. The Taipei-based company now has around 60 full-time employees, as well as bookstores in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung. Since its founding in 1977, it has put out approximately 2,000 titles, with almost one in 10 published in English.

“Before 1987, we did local reprints of US and UK publications with or without permission of the original publishers,” says Jerome Su, Bookman’s chairman. “According to the ROC’s copyright law of that time, any foreign works not registered with the copyright office here in Taiwan were deemed to be in the public domain, and therefore could be legally reprinted to facilitate education and spread knowledge,” Su explains.

Although book reproduction of the kind witnessed by Briggs has been almost totally eradicated in Taiwan, local publishers continue to produce a surprising variety of books in foreign languages. According to the English-language Publishing in China: An Essential Guide released by Thomson Learning in 2004, around one-quarter of the titles published in Taiwan are in languages other than Chinese, with English (19 percent) and Japanese (5.8 percent) dominating.

On the face of it, the 24.8-percent figure is astonishing; few Taiwan bookstores stock more than a handful of items in languages other than Chinese. However, if one adds up books produced locally and aimed at ROC citizens studying English, titles put out by educational bodies such as Taiwan’s foremost academic and research institute Academia Sinica, and publications issued by official agencies such as the Government Information Office (the publisher of Taiwan Review), the tally becomes believable...

The rest of this article can be read online here, or in the January 2011 issue of Taiwan Review. Book piracy is still fairly common in Taiwan, especially around college campuses, as this report notes.

Interviewed by ICRT

2010-12-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I was interviewed on ICRT, Taiwan's only English-language radio station, about my new guidebook. I've known the Morning Show host, Terry Engel, for years; he used to present a weekly radio show in Kaohsiung back when I edited a south Taiwan magazine for Compass Media Group.

The interview went pretty well. Terry graciously allowed me to plug my book and the associated blog. However, as soon as I left the studio, I began thinking how I could have given better answers to his questions. That's the problem with live radio - no going back and editing, then re-editing!

Hunting for souvenirs in Taiwan (Verve)

2010-12-22T04:18:00.000-08:00

Unlike Bali and Bangkok – where tourists snap up paintings, woodcarvings, and even large pieces of furniture – Taiwan hasn't become known abroad for its keepsakes.

Several places are famous within the country for their distinctive local products. More often than not, however, these products are some sort of comestible that can’t readily be packed in a suitcase. Stinky tofu from Shenkeng in Xinbei, for instance, does not travel well.

Taiwan's exports have found their way to every corner of the world. While this is something Taiwanese people are rightfully proud of, it does mean that visitors to the island sometimes struggle to find charming and distinctive mementos that they can take home and share with their friends and relatives.

Fortunately, in south Taiwan there are plenty of options if you're willing to strike out into the countryside. Meinong in Kaohsiung is synonymous with beautifully painted oil-paper umbrellas. The nearby aboriginal village of Sandimen has an extraordinary concentration of artists and craftspeople. Meanwhile in Mudan in Pingtung County, artisans hand-make soap from the town's hot springs...

This article appeared in the December issue of Verve, EVA Air's inflight magazine. The photo here shows Paiwan aboriginal women in Sandimen making glass beads.

Seashore and snows, coasts and canyons (International Herald Tribune)

2010-12-18T15:45:00.000-08:00

While the high-tech industries and savvy businesspeople who drive Taiwan's economy tend to be concentrated in the country's west and north, the east and south are home to two of the finest jewels in its national park system.

Taroko National Park is a 20-minute drive from Hualien, a laid-back city that's just 40 minutes by plane from Taipei. There is no bad time of year to visit Taroko. During summer, the creeks and waterfalls are vigorous. Fall is often very lovely, and in winter there are many sunny days when the park's 144 bird species are active.

The Liwu River drains four fifths of the park's 920 square kilometers (355 square miles) and its watershed would be regarded as one of Taiwan's prettiest even without the 19 kilometer-long (11-mile)gorge that gives the park its name.

The gorge itself is best experienced at the poetically-named Swallow Grotto and Tunnel of Nine Turns, where the sky is little more than a strip of blue, hundreds of meters above visitors' heads.

Both spots have family-friendly paths and at both visitors can enjoy nature's palette: Creamy marble boulders as big as houses, crumbling piles of silver schist-and-gneiss cliffs streaked with browns and golds. Yet these colors seem muted alongside the gleaming blues and greens of the Liwu and its tributaries.

There's just one road through the gorge, the Central Cross-Island Highway. Building this route through Taiwan's Central Mountain Range was a triumph of 1950s engineering. “Some 5,000 to 6,000 men labored on this road," says Yu Teng-lang, director of the national park's headquarters, "and it took three years, nine months and 19 days to complete."

The highway is closed at one point of its western section because of earthquake and typhoon damage, but even so, the drive is thrilling. As Yu points out, in the space of three hours and 100km, one can drive from the dramatic Pacific coast to more than 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) above sea level. Along the way, the climate changes from subtropical to alpine.

Hard-core mountaineers have other reasons for heading to the park's interior. At 3,740 meters, Mount Nanhu is Taiwan's fifth-highest peak. Mount Qilai is slightly lower but extremely challenging. For both, permits must be obtained in advance.

Rather than rush from seashore to snow zone, spend the night at Buluowan, a terrace inhabited by members of the Austronesian Truku tribe until well into the 20th century. The hotel here serves hearty Truku fare, and in the service center Truku ladies can be seen weaving textiles in the traditional manner.

Taroko National Park features high mountains and sheer gorges, including the major one after which it is named. The Taroko Gorge Music Festival (October or November) and the Taroko Gorge Marathon (November) are established annual events. The latter follows what Yu calls, “the most scenic marathon route in the world.”

For fans of natural spas, the open-air Wenshan Hot Springs, closed some years ago after a series of rockfalls, are due to reopen to the public in the middle of next year.

No point on the main island of Taiwan is farther, as the crow flies, from Taroko than Kending. Because this region has good roads and excellent scenery but relatively little traffic, a growing number of people are cycling from Hualien to Taitung, or even all the way to Kending.

Whether one is exploring by car or bicycle, a side trip to Green Island, 33 kilometers out in the Pacific, is recommended. En route to this 17-square-kilometer outcrop of volcanic rock, you'll likely see flying fish and dolphins.

"The first time I visited Green Island I was amazed by the tallest bell corals I had ever seen,” says John Boo, a Kending-based scuba operator. Between January and March, he explains, the adventurous can join a dive that brings them up close to migrating hammerhead sharks. According to Boo, owner of U-Dive Scuba Taiwan Club, there are at least 50 dive sites in and around Kending National Park. “Kending's soft coral sites are among the best in the world, especially one at six to 10 meters depth called the Flower Garden,” he says.

Even though he spends much time underwater, Boo is the first to say the park offers much more than sandy beaches and other kinds of ocean-based fun.The hinterland has tropical forests, a superb marine museum and a historic walled town. Each October, birdwatchers can witness one of Asia's most impressive raptor migrations.

Kending's main resort boasts an outstanding range of accommodation and eating options, and English is widely spoken, and English is widely spoken. Visitors who are more into watching fireflies than sipping cocktails should find themselves a remote bed and breakfast. Even in this category there's no lack of choice - high adventure during the day does not mean having to rough it after dark.

This article appeared in the International Herald Tribune on November 26, as part of advertising supplement promoting Taiwan tourism.

Ins and outs of Taiwan hot pots (Taiwan Today)

2010-11-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

Now that fall is turning to winter and the days are becoming shorter and colder, the people of Taiwan are putting aside their favorite summer snacks and turning their attention to a beloved winter dish, the hot pot.

Like any other meal, a hot pot is best enjoyed with good friends and relatives. For a typical hot pot meal, imagine six or seven people seated around a circular table, in the middle of which is a deep pot filled with a steaming broth.

In the past, a tall chimney would rise up from the middle of the pot, to let off smoke from the burning coals underneath. But now that most pots receive their heat from electricity, the chimneys are gone, and often the pots are nothing more than a huge saucepan...

To read the whole article, go here.

An indispensable guide to understanding Taiwan life

2010-11-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Whatever your reason and purpose for going abroad, be it a short vacation or a long-term work engagement, you will most likely welcome some of the differences to your own country and dread others, depending on the situations you find yourself in. The more adventurous and daring types might jump right into the vast ocean of differences, dealing with any culture shock and confusing ,embarrassing, frightening, and/or hilarious moments as they come. The more cautious, however, will want to go fully prepared.

If you plan to visit Taiwan and want to know beforehand how things are done here and how to deal with the locals in the most appropriate and conflict-free way, Dos & Don’ts in Taiwan might be the helping hand you are looking for. Written by Steven Crook, a long-time resident of Taiwan with intimate knowledge of the goings-on within the local population, this guidebook can serve as your reliable navigator through the sea of possible misunderstandings, embarrassments, and frustrations in this often exotic and unfamiliar land.

Written with Westerners in mind, the book deals with all situations that might be thrown at you during your time in Taiwan, from the first hand-shakes at the airport to dining with new friends or business partners, from exploring the beauty of the island to taking part in the affairs of local families, and from the working world to, perhaps, even marriage. It might be debatable whether such a detailed guide is necessary for a country that is so well-developed and “Westernized” in so many ways. But despite it's modern face Taiwan can still feel different and puzzling for Western visitors, who ask "Why are they burning paper on the side of the street?” or “Why were they smiling even though they knew I would be unhappy about something?” or “How can I make myself understood in this strange, strange place?”

Find all the answers and much more in Dos & Don’ts in Taiwan!

Paperback, 200 pages. published 2010 by iGroup Press; ISBN 9789746521901

This review of my second book appears in the November/December 2010 issue of Travel In Taiwan magazine.

The hazards of ghost money (Taiwan Today)

2010-11-06T17:15:00.000-07:00

Now that most people in Taiwan understand the importance of not smoking in public places, it is time for the ROC government to move against another threat to public health and comfort: the age-old custom of burning joss paper in temples, on sidewalks and outside homes.

Joss paper, sometimes called “ghost money” or “spirit money,” is paper burned during religious rites to honor ancestors and venerate deities. Throughout the country, pious Taiwanese can be seen burning sheets of joss paper at the climax of religious rituals.

Estimates of the amount of joss paper burned each year range from 90,000 tons to 220,000 tons. Whatever the true figure, it is a major cause of air pollution in urban areas, especially during the seventh month of the lunar calendar—so-called “ghost month”—when vast offerings of food and joss paper are made to keep troublesome spirits at bay.

Many business owners also burn ghost money outside their premises on the first and 15th day of each lunar month. Their smoldering braziers are a nuisance for pedestrians. Oftentimes they are placed in the road, presenting a hazard to cyclists and motorcyclists.

Foreign visitors and residents comment frequently and unfavorably on the consequences of burning ghost money. In 2008, The New York Times noted: “During major festivals ... smoke from burning paper chokes Taiwan streets.”

While many Taiwanese people say they do not object to the smell of burning joss paper, there is no doubt that the smoke and particulates generated by the custom are unhealthy...

To read the rest of this commentary piece, go here.

Interviewed by My Several Worlds

2010-10-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

Hot on the heels of their reviews of my first and second books, My Several Worlds website has published an interview I did recently with Carrie Kellenberger via email. In it, I talk about how I got started as a writer and how I put together my three books.

Keeping up with the War God reviewed by My Several Worlds

2010-10-21T18:18:00.001-07:00

My first book, Keeping up with the War God, has just been reviewed on My Several Worlds. The review is here. The reviewer, Carrie Kellenberger, calls the book, "...a terrific read for anyone interested in scratching beneath the surface of the standard fare that is on offer in most Taiwan guidebooks."

Thanks Carrie!

Anping: Where the past is present (Unity)

2010-10-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

Anping, the historic town on Taiwan's southwest coast, can claim to be the cradle of Han Chinese society on Taiwan. In the 17th century, when migrants from the Chinese mainland were starting to arrive on Taiwan's shores, it was a busy harbor and the most important pioneer settlement on the island.

As anyone who has picked up a Taiwan history book knows, Anping was also a point of contact with the wider world as long ago as 1624, when the VOC (the Dutch East India Company) chose this spot to establish a mercantile colony.

The town has long since merged with Tainan, but its old character is still very evident. The most famous attraction is Fort Zeelandia, a bastion built by the Dutch in 1634 and named for the ship on which the first VOC governor arrived.

What visitors see, however, is very different to what existed during the Dutch era. Typhoons, earthquakes and the pilfering of building materials meant that by the beginning of the 20th century little was left of the Dutch structure. The superb on-site museum is a must-see for those intrigued in the fort's history and technical aspects of its construction, which entailed the shipping of bricks from the Dutch colony at Batavia (now Jakarta in Indonesia) and the mixing of cement using sugarcane syrup, clay and crushed oyster shells.

The largest surviving section of the original fortress is a massive brick-and-coral wall. It is battered yet looks ready to survive another few centuries. The watchtower is a crude late-20th century addition, but do climb the steps inside for worthwhile views over the nearby historic streets and the coast.

If you look to your right when leaving Fort Zeelandia, you may notice an elegant 1930s two-story house with octagonal windows and other Art Deco features. The salt merchant who commissioned this abode, Wang Ji-shi (1884-1948), perhaps wanted a house that would distract attention from his given name, which translates as ‘chicken feces.’

The fact his parents named him thus suggests he was a sickly baby; in the Taiwan of yore, grandiose names were believed to arouse the jealousy of disease-spreading spirits. In addition to being venerated by his descendants, Wang receives offerings at a temple less than 50m from his old home. In the Xilong Hall, he is represented by a doll-sized statue that holds a long Chinese-style pipe. The temple attendant adds a fresh cigarette to the pipe each morning, and locals claim Wang – now revered as the neighborhood's protective 'land god' – can smoke a cigarette in ten minutes.

The Dutch were expelled in 1662, but the man who evicted them, Ming Dynasty loyalist Koxinga, kept up trade links with Japan. From the 1860s onward, traders from Britain, Germany and other Western countries set up offices in Anping. The most interesting of Anping's 19th-century edifices is the Tait & Co building. The British businessmen who lived and worked in this whitewashed two-floor building dealt mainly in tea, but also provided banking and insurance services to fellow merchants.

Some of the bricks used to build the ruined warehouse behind the Tait office were purloined from Fort Zeelandia. That warehouse is now known as the Anping Tree House on account of the huge banyans that have grown through the roof. The way in which roots have climbed walls and grown across openings is almost surreal; make a point of exploring every corner of the building.

The forefathers of Anping's inhabitants crossed the sea from the Chinese mainland and the ocean continues to loom large in daily life. Throughout the old part of the town you'll see groups of middle-aged women shucking oysters, men preparing to go out on fishing boats, and seafood being cooked and eaten.

Anping is an excellent place to sample traditional delicacies such as oyster omelets (known as e-zi-jian in Mandarin, but the Taiwanese pronunciation of oe-a-jian is more common) and deep-fried shrimp rolls (xia juan). The latter, crispy concoctions of shrimp, green onion, celery and pork, go especially well with wasabi.

If your taste buds prefer sweet to savory, sample Anping's signature bean jelly (dou hua). Made from the same raw material as tofu, bean jelly is a healthy, refreshing alternative to ice cream. Various toppings are available, including azuki beans (hong dou).

The best way to work off calories is to wander randomly through the alleyways east and north of Fort Zeelandia. You'll stumble across discarded granite slabs which likely came from the Chinese mainland hundreds of years ago as ballast aboard cargo junks. Above the doorways of some of the oldest houses are sword-lion motifs believed to keep evil at bay. Sometimes blue-faced and green-whiskered, each lion grips a blade between its teeth while staring down the observer.

In the past two years, several of Anping's traditional single-story houses have been renovated by the city government. What were once atmospheric ruins now impress in the manner intended by those who built them. It's a change that underscores the town's appeal. As a tourist destination, Anping is timeless – yet dynamic.

Unity is the inflight magazine of UNI Air, a subsidiary of EVA Airlines. UNI flies mostly to Taiwan's outlying islands, the east coast and the Chinese mainland. The article isn't on the Internet, so I've posted the entire text.

Dos and Don'ts in Taiwan reviewed by My Several Worlds

2010-10-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

My second book has received a favorable review at My Several Worlds, a Taiwan-based English-language website. According to the reviewer, Dos and Don'ts in Taiwan "shines a spotlight on Taiwanese culture and customs, and includes some very helpful behavioral tips that every visitor to Taiwan should be aware of."

Foreign photographers share tips on shooting Taiwan (Taiwan Today)

2010-10-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

In terms of natural and man-made landscapes, Taiwan is fantastically diverse. No wonder, then, that professional photographers from overseas say the country is a truly exceptional place for shutterbugs.

In addition to streets packed with people and vendors, there are quaint courtyard houses a stone’s throw from ultramodern skyscrapers, strange and wonderful foods, plus steep mountains wrapped in forests and wreathed in clouds.

Not much of this is obvious to first-time visitors leaving Taiwan’s main international airport and heading for downtown Taipei, however. Rich Matheson, a Canadian who specializes in cultural photography, admits to being visually underwhelmed when he first arrived in 1991. He says his initial impressions were of drab buildings, heavy traffic and small factories.

“But the longer you’re here, and the more you understand the culture, the better your pictures get,” he asserts...

Go here to see the rest of the article. The photo here was taken by Rich Matheson.

Book no.3 has arrived!

2010-09-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received an advance copy of my third book, Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide. Overall, I'm very very happy with it. I'm guilty of clunky wording in a few places, to be sure, and some of my choices of destinations/hotels/restaurants may not please everyone (that's inevitable with a guidebook) but on the whole it looks every bit as good as I'd dared hope.

Now comes promotional work. The publishers will be sending out copies to media outlets in Taiwan, the UK and other places, and I'll be doing some interviews.

The ever polite Swiss

2010-09-23T03:46:00.000-07:00

In the middle of August, the publishers of my second book sent complementary copies of the book to the chiefs of 36 trade and representative offices in Taipei, together with a covering letter. So far, just one of them has responded:

Dear Mr Crook

Thank you for sending us a complementary copy of your latest book "Dos & Dont's in Taiwan".

We shall not fail to recommend this book to Swiss community members in Taiwan and people interested in getting to know more about Taiwan's culture and customs. The practical and useful information can contribute greatly to the better understanding of the daily way of life in Taiwan.

Yours sincerely,

Jost Feer
Director, Trade Office of Swiss Industries (TOSI)

Full disclosure: I am a Swiss citizen as well as a Briton because my mother was born and raised in Switzerland. She's lived in the UK for half a century, and has been a British citizen for decades.

My 'Author Central' page on Amazon

2010-09-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

I've put together an 'Author Central' page on Amazon, the online bookseller, linking to Keeping Up With The War God, Dos and Don'ts in Taiwan, and Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide.

Butterfly kingdom (Silkroad)

2010-09-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

Taiwan's butterflies don't have the international following the island's birds have - a surprising fact given their beauty, variety and ubiquity. But butterfly watching is now a popular eco-tourism activity among Taiwanese people, and two valleys in the south of the island draw tens of thousands of butterfly lovers each year. Both are about two hours by car from Kaohsiung.

One such place is the Purple Butterfly Valley in Maolin, a district occupied largely by Taiwan's indigenous people...

This article appears in the September issue of Silkroad, Dragonair's inflight magazine. Dragonair flies between Hong Kong and both Taoyuan International Airport and Kaohsiung. The other butterfly hot spot described in the article is Meinong's Yellow Butterfly Valley.The photo here shows a Lemon Pansy in Meinong.

Time to address driving standards (Taiwan Today)

2010-08-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

Over the past two decades, Taiwan's road network has been massively expanded. New freeways and expressways have shortened journey times. In urban areas, dozens of roads have been widened and straightened.

Even though the number of cars on the roads has increased, driving from one part of Taiwan to the other is now much quicker than it used to be. Unfortunately, infrastructure enhancements have not been matched by any significant improvements in the standard of driving.

Most local drivers are extremely tolerant when faced with slow or indecisive road-users, yet foreign drivers using Taiwan's roads are more likely to comment on the recklessness and impatience they see every day.

The standard of driving in Taiwan is far from the worst in the world. But the behavior of ROC citizens on the road lags far behind the country's overall level of development.

Driving practices frequently seen outside Taipei include running red lights, failing to indicate when turning or changing lanes, tailgating, passing slower vehicles on the right, and parking illegally. Using a cellphone while driving is common, and more than a few drivers let passengers get away without wearing seat belts.

Western expatriates often ask: How can such courteous and friendly people as those in Taiwan behave so ruthlessly on the roads?

Driving standards are an issue that deserves greater government attention, and not just for the sake of expatriates...

This opinion piece can be read in its entirety here.

Living history (Silkroad)

2010-08-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Chou Kung-shin, who became director of the National Palace Museum (NPM) in May 2008, is leading Taiwan's famous museum at an exciting time in its history: in 2009, annual visitor numbers topped 2.5 million for the first time; the NPM is gearing up for its first branch museum to open in 2012; and the easing of tensions between Taipei and Beijing has allowed the NPM to borrow an increased number of paintings and art collections from museums in mainland China...

This interview was published in the August issue of Silkroad, Dragonair's inflight magazine.

Sitting on a government committee

2010-08-17T02:17:00.000-07:00

The Research, Development & Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan has appointed me a member of the Advisory Committee for the 2010 English Services Emblem Project.

This project aims to boost the level of English in the retail, medical and other sectors of Taiwan's economy, and to help foreigners find businesses where English is understood and labeling and signs are bilingual. Stores, restaurants, hospitals etc that think they offer a decent bilingual service apply to the RDEC for an 'English Emblem.' Those which pass a preliminary test are then visited by teams of judges (I'm one) who inspect the labels and signs, ask the staff questions, browse the website, and give a score which may lead to the business getting a 'gold emblem' or a 'silver emblem'.

In 2009, the team of which I was a member visited hospitals, clinics and drugstores in Taipei, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Hualien. This year, I've been inspecting restaurants, drugstores and shops in the Kaohsiung area.

Without a care in Kaohsiung (Asian Geographic Passport)

2010-08-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

Taiwan's second city is post-industrial in the truest sense of the term. Dominated until the 1990s by shipbuilding and other unglamorous trades, Kaohsiung's quality of life has made such breathtaking progress in recent years that it's become a popular destination for those seeking blue skies and genuine maritime flavour...

Asian Geographic Passport is a travel-oriented bimonthly published by the team behind the rather fine Asian Geographic magazine.The Central Park rapid-transit station, shown here, was designed by the Tokyo office of Lord Richard Rogers' architectural firm.

All's well that ends well?

2010-07-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

In Taipei yesterday I met with the CEO and sales manager of iGroup Taiwan, the local branch of the company that published my second book. It was a successful meeting; they seem sincere about promoting the book and have set aside money to advertise it. (I'm flattered - I've written a book worth advertising!). Also, I was shown copies of the book which have been 'stickered' - that is to say, stickers have been added to the title page to hide the incorrect author's name and illustrator's name and display mine and Joshua's. Aesthetically the result is much better than I expected.

Medical missionary shares boyhood memories of Taiwan (unpublished article from 2002)

2010-07-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

Of the thousands of foreign Christian missionaries who have served in Taiwan since World War II, few can have been better prepared for the island's society, language and environment than Dr. David Landsborough IV.

Landsborough was born in Changhua in central Taiwan in 1914, and spent much of his infancy and adolescence on the island, which was then a Japanese colony. He and his sister, initially the only western children in the region, grew up speaking both Taiwanese (a local language sometimes known as Minnanhua or Hokkien) and English.

In an interview at his home in England, Landsborough said: "I've had a really interesting life. My friendships with people in Taiwan and Quanzhou [the town in the mainland Chinese province of Fujian where he worked from 1940 to 1951] have been so valuable. They've been very kind to me."

"We made friends with Taiwanese children, playing games with them, wrestling, fishing, and visiting them in their homes," recalls the retired neurologist.

Landsborough's father - Scottish-born medical missionary Dr. David Landsborough III - arrived in Changhua in 1896. There, in connection with the Presbyterian Church, he established a small hospital. Changhua Christian Hospital now has more than 1,000 beds.

During the 1920s and 1930s the elder Landsborough and his English-born wife, Marjorie, employed a maid and a cook. Despite the absence of electricity and running water, the family lived comfortably in a spacious two-story redbrick house. It was in this house that David Landsborough IV was born (his sister was born in England), and it was here that he lived after he returned to Taiwan in 1952.

Despite growing up in Taiwan, the Landsborough children were raised on British-style food. There was one significant difference, however. "Irish potatoes were almost unknown," says Landsborough. Like their Taiwanese neighbors, the missionary family ate eat rice or sweet potatoes several times a week. The household baked its own bread, however, and enjoyed imported condensed milk and butter.

Changhua is now an important industrial center with more than 220,000 residents. In the 1920s, by contrast, it was a quiet market town. The only factories Landsborough remembers were pineapple canneries and a fireworks plant.

Traveling with his mother and sister - his father would usually remain at the hospital and attend to patients - the boy saw much of Taiwan. He has fond memories of taking the logging train to the mountain resort of Alishan, and visiting Sun Moon Lake, which at that time was not accessible by motor vehicle.

To get there from Changhua, the Landsboroughs would take first a conventional train, then ride a narrow-gauge railway, then transfer to Taiwan's now-defunct system of human-powered "push-cart" rail trolleys (pictured above). Each trolley seated two or three passengers plus their baggage. An attendant, who controlled the speed using a simple brake mechanism, pushed from behind, his efforts aided or hindered by gravity; there was no other propulsion. "On steep sections the passengers would get out and help push. But on downhill runs it would be like riding a toboggan!" Landsborough recalls.

The rail-trolley network did not quite reach the lake. Passengers got off about an hour's walk away, and completed the journey on foot.

To escape Taiwan's scorching summers, the Landsboroughs spent much of each July and August several hundred meters above sea level in a stone cottage near the peak of Datunshan, a mountain not far from Beitou, a popular hot springs resort in north. "It was cooler and the view from the mountain was breathtakingly beautiful."

Initially educated at home by his mother, David Landsborough IV went on to attend a British high school in Yantai, in the northern part of mainland China. He would return to Taiwan each December. "Coming from the cold winters of north China we reveled in the warmth and sunshine of Taiwan, the food, the plentiful fruit, the games of tennis and the opportunity of seeing our friends."

He then followed in his father's footsteps, journeying to London in 1931 to study medicine. In 1940 Dr. David Landsborough IV returned to the Far East, bound this time for mainland China. He began working as a medical missionary in Quanzhou, where Hokkien is spoken.

Many of Taiwan's people have ancestral links with that part of the mainland, and Landsborough comments, "Having seen where the Taiwanese came from, I can understand them better."

Conditions in Quanzhou were harsh. Tuberculosis, malaria and typhoid fever were widespread. The hospital handled dozens of cases of bubonic plague. Although the area was never occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army, whose forward positions were less than 100 kilometers away, Japanese aircraft sometimes bombed the city.

During a post-war furlough in England he married Jean, also a doctor. They served together on the Chinese mainland until January 1951, when political conditions made staying on impossible. "If it hadn't been for the Communist takeover, it's likely we would have continued in Quanzhou," says Landsborough.

After a brief period in England, during which the couple adopted twin baby boys, Dr. David Landsborough IV accepted an invitation to join the staff of Changhua Christian Hospital.

In 1955 he was appointed superintendent. "I had mixed feelings," admits Landsborough. "My father had a tremendous reputation... but I certainly felt a tremendous welcome." His father's legendary patience was an inspiration. "I never saw him angry, even at home."

While on furlough in the UK in 1957, the couple adopted a baby girl. The younger Landsboroughs sometimes took their children to Taiwan's southern tip, to the scenic coastline that now forms part of Kenting National Park. "We very much liked the far south. The beaches were very natural, very untouched," he says, lamenting the commercialization of the area in recent years.

Accompanied by some of the hospital's staff, the doctor and his wife scaled Yushan, Taiwan's highest mountain, and Snow Mountain, the island's second-highest peak.

Unlike his father, who suffered frequent attacks of malaria and dysentery, the younger Landsborough was able to preserve his health. "I never got malaria simply because I was very careful to always use a mosquito net."

David and Jean worked at Changhua Christian Hospital for 28 years, leaving the ROC in 1980 and retiring to Coulsdon, on the southern outskirts of London – not far from where his father lived between retiring from Taiwan in 1936 and his death in 1957

Despite the death of his wife in 1993, Dr. David Landsborough IV continues to travel widely. In 1991 he flew to California to accept the Taiwanese-American Society's Award for Social Service. At the presentation ceremony he described himself as "a Taiwanese person from Britain, who grew up in Changhua."

In 1996, Landsborough returned to the ROC to receive the Order of the Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon, presented to him by then President Lee Teng-hui. He points out that the award was primarily for the work his father did, and only secondarily was it for the family.

On his most recent trip to Taiwan, in 1999, he visited Master Cheng Yen, founder of the Buddhist Compassion Tzu Chi Relief Association, and toured a large hospital that organization operates in Hualien, eastern Taiwan.

He has returned to Quanzhou three times since 1986.

Landsborough's strong attachment to Taiwan is obvious from the mementos - calligraphy scrolls, photographs and knickknacks - which bedeck his house, and also from his visitors' book. In recent years dozens of doctors, pastors, diplomats and students from the ROC have called on this man, whose identification with the island and its people stems not only from his religious principles and medical career, but also from shared childhood experiences.

Dr Landsborough died on March 2, 2010, aged 96. This article was commissioned by the editor of the Government Information Office's Taiwan Journal just before he was reassigned to another post. The incoming editor didn't use, so it languished for a while before appearing on the local history website Takao Club.

Taiwanese chef cooks up a storm on British TV (Taiwan Today)

2010-07-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Very few people in the UK follow baseball, so Wang Chien-ming, Ni Fu-te and Taiwan's other exports to Major League Baseball in the US are completely unknown to the British public.

Which Taiwanese person, then, is best known to the people of the UK? Oscar-winning movie director Ang Lee is one candidate; his films have been box-office hits there. Another is Ching-He Huang, a young woman whose cooking shows on British TV have brought her considerable international success.

Huang's most recent series, “Chinese Food in Minutes,” was broadcast by Five, a terrestrial TV channel, between February and May this year. According to statistics compiled by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, each of the 13 episodes was watched by an average of around one million people.

The series was based on Huang’s cookbook of the same title, published by HarperCollins last September. That collection was preceded by “Chinese Food Made Easy” (released in 2008 to accompany a TV series of the same name) and "China Modern" (2006).

Huang did not plan to work in television. After obtaining a degree in economics from the University of London, she ran a catering company for a decade.

“It was during those early years that I got my opportunity to do TV cooking,” she says. While promoting a cold-noodle dish, she explains, a friend suggested she try getting on a food show. “I went for a screen test and really enjoyed it. It was a bit of fun and glamour and so different from a hot kitchen...

The rest of this article can be read here.

Progress on the name issue

2010-06-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I finally heard back from the Thai publishers of my second book regarding the misnaming issue. They're adding stickers to the copies which have yet to be distributed, and say they're sending me some more books to me. I'll be abroad for the next three weeks; I'll find out for sure when I get back to Taiwan.

In the blood (Silkroad)

2010-06-10T23:48:00.001-07:00

As founder and chief executive of Taiwan's first cord blood bank, Bionet's Chris Tsai has given families a chance to buy what he calls “family biological insurance.” Among the services his company offers is the extraction and preservation of stem cells from the umbilical cords of newborn babies.

“Rather than compensate with money, we preserve the raw materials for the treatments and therapies that can restore a person's health,” says Tsai, who has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in the United States.

Stem cells – from cord blood, cord tissue, dental pulp or, controversially, embryos – are having a revolutionary impact on medicine. “Ten years ago, I couldn't imagine that stem cells, gene therapy, genetic testing and gene modification could be so widely applied – to treat strokes, for cosmetic purposes, for hair growth and wound healing,” says Tsai, who in 2009 won a Benchmark Entrepreneur award from Ernst & Young.

Since it was founded in August 1999, Bionet has served more than 200,000 clients in Taiwan. About 60 units of stem cells have been retrieved so they could be used to treat the infants from which they came, close relatives or – in at least one case – a complete stranger.

Explaining what led him to found a biotechnology company, Tsai says: “When I was in college, one of my hobbies was analyzing technological and scientific trends.”

Tsai likens what he was doing to monitoring a tsunami as it forms in the middle of an ocean “and then trying to predict where the waves will hit.” Switching analogy, he notes that, “You have to jump on your surfboard just before the wave hits. If you do it too early, you just sit there. Too late and you miss the crest of the wave.”

Bionet now offers a prenatal test for Down syndrome that uses the mother's blood and which is both more accurate and less risky than amniocentesis, a procedure that removes fluid from the womb to check for abnormalities in a baby.

“We were the very first company in the world to introduce prenatal genetic testing for spinal muscular atrophy,” he says. “Until recently, muscular dystrophy was considered untreatable, but therapy using cord-tissue stem cells has shown promise.”

Tsai believes that, between them, cord blood, cord tissue and dental-pulp stem cells can deliver all the applications expected of embryonic stem cells.

This is the entire text of an interview that appeared in the June issue of Silkroad, Dragonair's inflight magazine.

My article mentioned in the local media

2010-06-08T01:13:00.000-07:00

My article about driving in Taiwan has caught the attention of the local Chinese-language media, it seems. The China Times, one of Taiwan's more serious newspapers, ran a summary in today's issue. Also, I'm told, the article has been mentioned in TV news reports.

Getting behind the wheel in Taiwan (Taiwan Business Topics)

2010-06-05T03:23:00.000-07:00

Taiwan's public transportation is inexpensive, efficient and – if you read some Chinese – easy to use. Nevertheless, there are plenty of destinations and situations where having your own set of wheels makes all the difference between frustration and enjoyment.

Even those who have been in Taiwan just a short time will have noticed that the way cars are driven and motorcycles ridden here is not quite the same as in North America or Western Europe. If you can deal with local road behavior and accept slow-moving, dense traffic in urban areas, the ROC (the outlying islands as well as Taiwan proper) is an excellent country to explore in your own vehicle – and not only because magnificent scenery awaits those who leave the cities...

This article (full text here), like the one posted immediately below, appears in Taiwan Business Topics' annual Travel & Leisure special issue. The photo was taken in Taroko Gorge and is courtesy of Barking Deer Adventures.

A drifting ball on the southern seas (Taiwan Business Topics)

2010-06-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

Much-visited yet unspoiled, the island of Little Liuqiu makes an excellent day trip if you are in the Kaohsiung area. As an overnight destination, this uplifted nub of coral surrounded by clean sea is a getaway in the truest sense of the world.

“Little Liuqiu reminds me of Eastern Taiwan, or Kenting as it used to be 15 or more years ago,” says Sam Webster, a Taichung-based American financial consultant who for the last several years has been taking his family to the island about once a month. “There are none of the tourist-oriented stores you see in Kenting. It has a much more laidback feel,” says Webster, for whom the atmosphere is as big an attraction as the sea.

Little Liuqiu's peaceful ambiance belies its blood-soaked history. Early Western sources referred to it as Lamay Island because its original inhabitants were the Lamayans, an Austronesian tribe. In 1621 and again in 1631, Lamayan tribesmen massacred Europeans who survived the sinking of their ships just offshore.

In 1636, a vengeful Dutch East India Company – which at that time controlled the Tainan area – attacked the tribe. Most of those fighting on the Dutch side were recruits from other Taiwanese tribes that despised the Lamayans. The climax was a siege at what is now one of the island's major tourist attractions, Black Ghost Cave. More than 300 Lamayans were massacred and the survivors were sold into slavery. After that, Little Liuqiu had no permanent human population until the ancestors of the current islanders arrived from Fujian in the late 18th century.

Liuqiu earned its name, which means “drifting ball,” because passing fishermen thought its shape resembled that of a ball bobbing in the waves. “Little” was added during Japan's 1895-1945 occupation of Taiwan to distinguish it from Japan's Ryukyu Islands (most of which now form part of Okinawa Prefecture), since “Ryukyu” is written using the same two Chinese characters as “Liuqiu.”

Ferries leave Donggang in Pingtung County for Little Liuqiu eight times daily between 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., with additional service on weekends and national holidays, charging a round-trip fare of NT$410 for adults or NT$210 for children. The journey takes around 40 minutes...

The entire article can be read here, or in the May issue of Taiwan Business Topics.

Diplomat's book highlights Dutch heritage in Taiwan (Taiwan Today)

2010-05-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

he Dutch occupation of Taiwan was partial, brief and ended 342 years ago. However, this period in the island's history still fascinates historians, and physical reminders of the era—most notably the ruins of two fortresses in the southern city of Tainan—continue to delight travelers.

Tourists wishing to explore Taiwan's Dutch heritage have a new, 271-page guidebook to assist and inform them during their travels. “The Real Taiwan and the Dutch” is a comprehensive resource featuring hundreds of color photos, addresses and phone numbers of places to stay and eat, plus global-positioning-system coordinates for dozens of hard-to-reach points of interest.

The book differs from other Taiwan travel guides in two important respects. Firstly, its main author, Menno Goedhart, is a full-time diplomat (the book's subtitle is “Traveling Notes from the Netherlands Representative”). He has led the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office—the agency in Taipei that handles relations between Taipei and the Hague in the absence of formal diplomatic ties—since 2002.

Goedhart says that before he was asked to head the NTIO, he was not aware of the depth and variety of Dutch influences on Taiwan.

“At school nobody spoke about the Dutch in Taiwan, but when preparing for my job here, I started to learn that the Dutch presence was not irrelevant, and was even of considerable importance for Taiwan,” he recalls.

“Even then, I could not imagine what I would find,” Goedhart continues. “There is much more Dutch heritage in Taiwan than I ever expected. And I did not find everything, for sure—that’s why I will stay in Taiwan after I retire..."

The rest of the article is here. Goedhart is to be my neighbour; he's planning to base himself in Xinhua, the town where I live just outside Tainan.

My book, another writer's name

2010-05-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, when I announced the publication of my second book, I said that I was delighted with it in every respect bar one. This is the problem: My name doesn't appear anywhere in the book. In fact, on the title page they've put an entirely different name – 'Shane M. Powell'.

I noticed this when I received my author's copies. I turned on my computer right away, intending to email the editor, and found a message from him in my inbox.

"Hello Steven, I'm told that your name is not on the title page of D&D
Taiwan. There's another name there. I haven't a clue how this happened and
have informed the publisher. When I hear back from her I'll be in touch.
I'm very sorry about this."

The illustrator of my book, Joshua Warren, then told me that Shane M. Powell is actually the author of Dos and Don'ts in Laos. The person credited with the drawings in my book, Louis Cazalis, did the pictures for the Laos book. So it looks like the publisher used a previous title page as a template, changed 'Laos' to 'Taiwan', but didn't update the author/illustrator details.

When I told my wife all this, she asked if perhaps my name appears on the Laos book. That would be an irony; I've never been to Laos.

This is what I then said to the publishing company:

"My name is Steven Crook. I am the author of your newly published book, Dos and Don'ts in Taiwan. I congratulate you on having found an excellent illustrator and doing a superb job of designing the book. However, when I received my author's copies on May 8, I was dismayed to see another person's name (“Shane M. Powell”) on the title page

This mistake is personally damaging in two senses. Firstly, being able to present one's friends and relatives with copies of a new book bearing his or her name is a great pleasure for every author. Your mistake deprives me of this pleasure. Secondly, as a professional writer, being identified as the author of an attractive book is important because it leads to newspaper and magazine commissions.

My first book, even though it was not widely distributed, led to a large amount of work. Dos and Don'ts, I had hoped, would do the same. The potential losses are in the thousands of US dollars.

I do not seek financial compensation. Nor do I seek to have the entire print run destroyed and reprinted. Instead, this is what I would like to receive from you:

1. A small number of copies (say 100) with my name correctly included on the title page. These I can present to friends in Taiwan or sell here.

2. A letter making it clear that I am the author of the work, and that the name on many of the copies is wrong.

3. An undertaking that if the book is sold through any website, that I be identified as the author on those websites.

I look forward to your reply."

I'm still waiting for a response. The company's headquarters are in Bangkok and it's possible the riots there have disrupted business.

The whole affair is annoying and frustrating. However, I've been able to keep a lid on my outrage for three reasons:

Firstly and most importantly, it doesn't make much difference to my writing career. In the 20 months between finishing Dos and Don'ts in Taiwan and the book coming out I was commissioned by a more important publisher to write a guidebook about Taiwan (the associated blog is here). That's due to be published in the autumn and – because the cover is already on amazon.co.uk – I can relax knowing my name will be on it.

Secondly, I realise that a very attractive book featuring my work but published under the wrong name is preferable to a poorly-assembled volume on which my name is prominent.

Thirdly, much worse things happen around the world every day.

Dos and Don'ts in Taiwan

2010-05-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

Finally! My second book has appeared. Dos and Don'ts in Taiwan (iGroup Press Co., Ltd, Bangkok) is a 200-page guide to the culture of Taiwan and the habits and thinking of the Taiwanese. It's aimed at Westerners who plan to visit or live in the Republic of China, and has sections devoted to national identity, family, working, health, travelling, eating, drinking, religion, superstitions, and the sort of behaviour foreign visitors should avoid if they don't want to be seen as rude or unhinged.

I'm not sure where it'll be available in Taiwan. If you want a copy, email me at sccrook [at] yahoo [dot] com, or post a comment below.

In general, I'm extremely pleased with the way the book has worked out. Save for one detail, which I'll write about when I have more time and some answers from the publisher. However, the editor did a good job polishing my text, and the illustrator and designer excelled themselves. It's a book I'm proud of.

Urban jungle (Arbitare China)

2010-05-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

Taiwan was the first territory in Asia and the fourth in the world to formally adopt sustainable building standards. The island's architects, engineers and government officials are promoting everything from the utilization of solar energy to the use of construction materials produced from recycled matter.

Taiwan's best-known green building is the Beitou Branch of Taipei Public Library, designed by a team at Taipei's Bioarchitecture Formosana led by Kuo Ying-chao. The two-story, 1,990-square meter structure is mostly timber. This alone makes it remarkable...

This article appears in the May edition of Arbitare China, a bilingual English-Chinese magazine published in Beijing. Owned by an Italian company, it focuses on architecture and design. The photos accompanying the article (such as the one here, of Beitou Library) were taken by Richard Matheson.

Lessons Learned from the World Games and Deaflympics (Taiwan Business Topics)

2010-05-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

Last year, Taiwan hosted the first large-scale, multi-sports events in its history. The Eighth Edition of the World Games, held in Kaohsiung from June 16 to June 26, was considered an unqualified success. Some 4,421 athletes, judges, and officials from 103 countries took part, and with the possible exception of a few female athletes from Brazil sunbathing topless on a city beach, local media could find no fault with the extravaganza.

Just 10 weeks after the World Games closed, the 21st Deaflympics opened in Taipei. The event certainly bolstered civic pride and raised awareness of deaf issues, but was marred by transportation grumbles and allegations that the needs and opinions of the hearing-impaired were sometimes ignored.

Given the time and resources poured into organizing these two major international events, government officials and members of the tourism industry undoubtedly hope that they represent just the beginning of a long string of such activities to be held in Taiwan. What can be learned from the World Games and Deaflympics experience to help smooth the way for similar future events?

Ron Froehlich, president of the International World Games Association, expresses both the uneasiness he felt in the run-up to the Kaohsiung event and his satisfaction at the Games' conclusion. “Prior to the games we of course weren't sure what to expect, as we were dealing with so many different stakeholders, from the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee to the Sports Affairs Council (SAC), the Ministry of Education, and Kaohsiung City Government. Being an unknown, this was indeed a weakness,” he said by email. But he quickly added that “there is very little that could have been done better and Mayor Chen Chu is to be complimented on the way the city participated and made it such a big event for the citizens of Kaohsiung.”

Froehlich especially praised the sports plaza, where athletes and spectators could try local foods and enjoy cultural performances, as an “enormous success, not only for all the visitors but also for the citizens of Kaohsiung.” He was also complimentary regarding the training and quantity of the volunteers, and noted that “transportation from the airport to the accreditation centers to the hotels to the meal centers as well as the venues was very well organized.”

In the days before the Games began, slow ticket sales were a concern. Eventually 283,151 tickets (72.9% of those available for sports events and the opening and closing ceremonies) were sold, and of the 37 different sports, 29 sold out...

The complete article appears in the April issue of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei's monthly magazine, and is also on their website.

Interviewing Cabinet ministers

2010-04-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

I've been writing feature articles for 14 years, but recently I enjoyed a career first - interviewing a Cabinet-level central government official. In fact, I interviewed two by email, and their answers arrived in my mailbox within a few hours of each other.

The two are Emile Sheng, minister of the Council of Cultural Affairs, and Chou Kung-shin, director of the National Palace Museum. Yes, that's right - the chief of Taiwan's most famous museum is a member of the Cabinet. I'm assuming this is because, back in the 1960s and 1970s, Chiang Kai-shek and his son regarded their possession of the collection as central to their claim that the ROC was the legitimate government of China.

I interviewed Dr. Sheng about his previous job, CEO of the 2009 Taipei Deaflympics Organizing Committee, for Taiwan Business Topics. The questions I sent to Dr. Chou are for an article about Asia's leading museums for Silkroad, Dragonair's inflight magazine. The former is due out very soon; the latter will appear in June or July.

Books no. 2 and no. 3

2010-04-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

Encouraging news from Thailand: It seems my second book, Taiwan: Dos and Don'ts, is finally going to press. Also, the cover design of Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide has been confirmed and the book is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

Petal power (Silkroad)

2010-03-07T22:28:00.001-08:00

First came camphor in the late 18th century, then sugar and bananas gained popularity in the middle of the 20th century. Now Taiwan is exploiting its geographical position to become a leading supplier of orchids. To the surprise of many who had written off Taiwan's agricultural sector, the island has emerged in the past decade as the world's biggest grower of mature and seedling orchids...

The full article is in the March edition of Silkroad, Dragonair's inflight magazine.

Citizenship reform is a win-win proposition (Taiwan Today)

2010-03-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

In the ROC, as in many other countries, reforming the rules that govern how foreigners can acquire nationality is not a priority for the citizenry. However, Taiwan’s government should consider dropping one of its naturalization requirements that requires applicants to renounce their original nationality.

This would encourage thousands of Antipodeans, Europeans and North Americans already settled in Taiwan to apply for ROC citizenship. Given the nation’s economic difficulties and rapidly aging population, this is something the government surely desires.

Most of these potential citizens, some of whom describe themselves as Taiwanese in their hearts, have called the island home for more than a decade. Many have local spouses and children; more than a few run businesses which employ Taiwanese people.

Not everyone in this category is interested in becoming an ROC citizen, but those who have looked into it describe most of the naturalization requirements as reasonable. Applicants must meet certain residential and financial criteria; there is a Chinese language test, a health examination and a background check. However, one complaint surfaces again and again: that candidates renounce their original nationality. This, they claim, is unfair, illogical and pointless.

It is unfair because the ROC allows those who are already citizens to hold dual nationality. There is no legal obstacle, from the ROC side at least, if a Taiwanese who has become a citizen of another country wishes to retain his or her ROC nationality and travel on an ROC passport. The U.K., U.S. and some other countries allow their citizens to hold two or more nationalities. South Korea and Japan are among those who expressly forbid it. Taiwan’s nationality law is almost unique in being asymmetrical.

If the requirement that those seeking to be naturalized give up their old citizenship was designed to ensure the loyalty of new citizens to the ROC, it is illogical. Those who drafted the rule seem not to have considered that some people already have more than one nationality...

The complete article can be read here.Taiwan's peculiar naturalization rules have been discussed in many parts of the web, notably forumosa.com.

Full steam ahead (Silkroad)

2010-02-24T04:41:00.000-08:00

Winter can be chilly in Taipei but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the great outdoors. For thousands of years, mineral-enriched water has been rising to the surface of hot springs near the city, and at this time of year people warm to the prospect of taking a dip. Renowned for their restorative qualities, Taipei's best springs are a short drive from the city - Xinbeitou, Yangmingshan and Jinshan to the northeast, Wulai to the south...

This article appeared in the January issue of Silkroad, Dragonair's inflight magazine. It's not online. The link goes to an article written by a friend of mine, photojournalist Chris Stowers.

The sound and the fury (Travel in Taiwan)

2010-01-25T06:54:00.001-08:00

It had been exhilarating, unlike anything I'd ever experienced. First, the sounds. The eerie creaking of the sedan chair as temple volunteers – like me covered head to toe in protective gear – swung and rocked the icon over a pile of burning spirit money. That was followed by the stewards' whistles as they tried to push the crowd back.

Then the strange silence. When the sedan chair was in position, a few meters in front of a paper-covered frame as big as a truck, the thousands-strong crowd fell silent. Once the technicians had torn off the squares of red paper we could see what lay inside: Row upon row of bottle rockets pointing not at the sky, but at the sedan chair and us in the crowd.

When the fuses were lit, people didn't have to be told to move back. Some tried to take cover behind streetlights; the short cowered behind the tall. The opening shots, however, were into the sky. There were, as you'd expect at a fireworks display, lots of pretty explosions high above the rooftops.

Then rockets came blasting out horizontally. At first they fizzed like tracer bullets over the heads of the audience, but within a second or two the angle of fire was much lower.

Instinctively I turned away from the frame and felt multiple impacts on my back. The physical feeling, I thought at the time, was somewhat like being chased by a stone-throwing mob...

If you go here, you can see the complete article and accompanying photos as they appear in the January-February issue of Travel in Taiwan. The pictures posted above are courtesy of Richard Matheson.

European visitors discover Taiwan (Taiwan Today)

2010-01-16T05:32:00.000-08:00

News stories in 2009 about Taiwan's tourism industry focused on two trends: an ability to attract more overseas visitors than ever before, at a time when tourism around the world is still suffering the effects of 2008's financial crisis; and a growing dependence on the mainland Chinese market. Excluding visitors from Hong Kong and Macao, mainland Chinese tourists now account for about one in four of all arrivals.

Taiwan's Tourism Bureau ensured that the arrival Dec. 5 of the year's four-millionth foreign visitor—a 62-year-old Japanese woman called Suzuyo Goto—was a media event. Ever since mainland Chinese tourists started coming in large numbers in the summer of 2008, debate has been raging as to exactly how much benefit they bring to Taiwan's economy.

Another trend has received far less attention. According to statistics posted on the Tourism Bureau's Web site, one of the few markets apart from mainland China to send significantly more tourists to Taiwan in the first 11 months in 2009 than in the same period a year earlier was Europe.

Europe is currently a small market. In November 2009, the 18,165 residents of Europe who entered Taiwan accounted for 4.43 percent of all foreign and overseas Chinese arrivals.

Even though total visitor numbers—including those coming on business, to study or attend a conference, or to visit relatives—from Europe were flat for January to November 2009, tourist arrivals from the continent grew an impressive 18.3 percent year-on-year. It was the fifth consecutive year of growth.

According to the Tourism Bureau, visitors leaving Taiwan in November 2009 had spent an average 6.27 days in the country. Although the bureau does not compile statistics as to the average length of stay of each nationality, it is very likely that the majority of European visitors stayed significantly longer than that. Within the travel industry, it is an axiom that those who travel the furthest stay the longest. There is another reason why a tourist from Europe is likely to stay longer than one from North America or Asia: Europeans tend to have long vacations...

The complete story is here.

Watershed casino vote reaffirms Taiwan’s democracy (Taiwan Today)

2009-10-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

On September 26, Penghu County residents voted on whether to allow casino developments in international standard hotels and resorts planned for the outlying region, which consists of 90 islands and islets.

The issue aroused the interest of people throughout the ROC, with the manner in which the referendum was conducted and its eventual result seen as having significant implications for the nation’s democratic development.

Out of Penghu’s 73,651 registered voters, just over 42 percent cast ballots, with 17,359, or 56.44 percent, against the proposal and 13,397, or 43.56 percent, in support. The result came as a surprise to those who assumed that securing a “yes” vote in the referendum was a sure bet. After all, Penghu’s pro-gambling faction was backed by international and local business interests, as well as the central government and several local politicians.

However, not everyone connected with the ruling Kuomintang supported the plan. On September 17, Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien, an individual whose views carry significant moral weight, said a “disaster” would strike Penghu if casinos were allowed to open there.

Echoing Wang’s remarks, Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen urged Penghu’s voters to reject gaming September 21. But it was a coalition of non-governmental organizations and religious groups that deserves credit for the upset.

By rebutting several of the claims made by the pro-gambling side, and bringing in experts from overseas whose statements were widely quoted by the local media, the coalition was able to undermine casino proponents’ core argument that gaming would bring economic benefits for the majority of residents...

The entire commentary is here. For me and many people I know, the result of the referendum was a surprise, but a delightful one.

A photographer's paradise (Verve)

2009-10-17T00:41:00.000-07:00

Not every visitor or expatriate develops a deep and enduring love for Taiwan, but few deny the island is visually striking, with streets jammed full of people and vendors, classical courtyard houses a stone's throw from ultra-modern skyscrapers, strange and wonderful foods, and steep mountains wrapped in forests and wreathed in clouds.

This article in the October issue of Verve, the inflight magazine of EVA Air, reports the views of four Taiwan-based photographers: Richard Matheson, Chris Stowers, David Barker and Craig Ferguson.

Old Hakka streets: In search of nostalgia in old Miaoli towns (Travel in Taiwan)

2009-10-08T16:09:00.001-07:00

If you follow Taiwan’s travel scene, you’ll have noticed this trend: Instead of being bulldozed and redeveloped, as often happened in the 1970s and 1980s, traditional downtown neighborhoods are now being cherished, revamped, and packaged as tourist attractions.

When a thoroughfare changes from being simply “old” to an “Old Street,” it undergoes a striking physical metamorphosis. The buildings are scrubbed clean; modern accretions like air-conditioning units, stainless-steel water tanks, and television cables are hidden, either behind the houses or beneath the road; and the asphalt road surface is replaced with stone slabs. Entrepreneurs move in and begin selling goods that tourists like to buy — often snacks and souvenirs, sometimes antiques.

Almost every town in Taiwan, it seems, has an Old Street. Some, like Daxi near Taoyuan, have two or three, depending on who's counting. Xinhua, just outside Tainan, has what I consider to be Taiwan’s finest Old Street — superb early-1920s architecture and businesses that still cater largely to locals, not visitors.Because of their isolation, Nanzhuang and Beipu have retained a lot of their preindustrial character...

The rest of the article can be found, with a little searching, on the publisher's website.

Even a cathedral: Taiwan's rich Christian architecture (Culture.tw)

2009-10-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

Christianity has deep roots in Taiwan. The religion has been a continuous part of the island's religious landscape since the 1860s, although it arrived on Taiwan's shores much earlier. Spanish Dominicans arrived in the north in 1626; at the same time Dutch Protestant missionaries launched a conversion effort in the southwest.

No more than one in 20 Taiwanese is Protestant or Catholic, but Christian places of worship can be found in every corner of the ROC. Among them are buildings designed by world-famous architects, naves rich in local art, and even some intriguing examples of stained glass.

In recent years non-Christian Taiwanese have begun to embrace these chapels, basilicas and mission houses. Some want to learn how Christianity has influenced the development of Taiwanese society. For other Taiwanese, churches as exotic as folk temples are to visiting Westerners.

Many of the missionaries active in Taiwan in the late 19th century – men such as George L. Mackay and James L. Maxwell – were financially backed by co-religionists in their home countries. Some used this funding to purchase plots of land in locations that today would be unimaginably expensive or reserved for government use.

Taipei's Chi-nan Presbyterian Church, which faces Zhongshan South Road right beside the Legislative Yuan, is an example. Designed by Moli Yamasi of Japan and completed in 1916 for the use of students and faculty at what is now National Taiwan University Medical College, this building is something of a pastiche...

To read the entire article, go here.

A second look at Sanxia (China Post)

2009-09-06T22:41:00.000-07:00

Just over a decade ago I went to Sanxia in Taipei County for the first time. I wrote about that trip for this newspaper, and I don't need to refer to my old article to recall what struck me during that visit: the rainy, blustery weather; the magnificence of the town's major temple; and the dilapidated yet picturesque redbrick houses along what was then called Minquan Street.

I revisited Sanxia a few months ago and found a lot has changed, mostly for the better...

The article can be read online here.

Despite typhoon, tourism sector showing resilence (Taiwan Today)

2009-08-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

Within hours of the Jinshuai Hotel toppling into the raging waters of the Zhiben River in southeast Taiwan on August 9, footage of the six-story building’s spectacular demise had been seen by millions of people in Asia, North America and Europe.

The clip is unlikely to bring tourists flocking to Taiwan, and in the wake of Typhoon Morakot - the calamity that led to more than 200 confirmed deaths as well as the hotel’s collapse - the island's travel industry faces serious problems.

Reuters reported August 14 that the tourism sector would see total losses of NT$4.5 billion because several of Taiwan’s finest tourism assets have been put out of action or rendered inaccessible.

The historic narrow-gauge railroad that links the lowland city of Chiayi with the mountain resort of Alishan will not be fully operational for two years, Taiwan's Chinese-language media has reported. However, the main road to the resort should reopen by September 20...

To read the rest of this article, click on this link.