A few links for today.
Daily Links:
- Taoyuan Aerotropolis: it's all about the gambling.
- Birding Taiwan on the plants of Dasyueshan
- Traffic behavior a mirror of Taiwan society.
- Taiwan to consider legalizing surrogacy.
- TRI says GDP growth this year to be 1.7% and next year, 2.8%. Isn't the booming growth from ECFA amazing?
- Woman kidnapped in Malaysia still alive.
- Reuters describes in detailed report how China's military is built with European technology.
- I finally got around to reading the November CRS report on the US-Taiwan Relationship's policy issues. Outstanding job by Shirley Kan in presenting US policy on Taiwan's status.
Asia Scholar James Manicom is speaking in Tokyo on Jan 15 (via H-Asia)
*James Manicom: Japan and China - Troubled Waters*
Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Time: Door opens at 7:00pm, Program starts at 7:30pm
Venue: Temple University Japan Campus, Azabu Hall 2F
(access: http://www.tuj.ac.jp/maps/tokyo.html)
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Who is Shirley Kan? In Chinese characters?
ReplyDeleteShe's American.
ReplyDeleteMay I use this space to ask: WTF is with the Taiwanese and the absolutely retarded rubber duck craze?
ReplyDeleteI know they love their cartoons, but this "art" is just dumb. (yeah, I read the TT article that explains the artist's concept, but that is also dumb).
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteAt least it's a welcome diversion from the ho-hum of K-Pop and J-Pop versions of cute. I agree it's kitchy, and I'm not really a fan of the Dutch artist's work; as a matter of fact, I think I agree with you. At least, however, Taiwanese are getting exposed to something outside of their own backyard. Hopefully, such exposure will happen much more often.
Kan's name in CHinese is apparently:
ReplyDelete簡淑賢.
Anon @ Dec 22nd 12.13pm
ReplyDeleteThere's no accounting for taste. I don't particularly like the duck either, but then I'm a bit of an oddball in that I like Marmite on toast and Boards Of Canada.
You might as well ask WTF is it with me and my "absolutely retarded craze" for Marmite and BOC?
Different people like different things, because they are different people. That's as deep as it gets.
Wrong again, MFagan.
ReplyDeleteThe duck craze has thousands of followers in addition to all the businesses that follow the herd and offer all things duck related. Pathetically, even my local bakery sells bread in the shape of ducks.
Completely different that your individual quirkiness.
The duck craze is partially traditional Taiwanese herding tendency and partially because the Taiwanese see something truer in the rubber duck than in Ma.
ReplyDeleteFor pity's sake. Only an absolute quack would want to tell people what type of duck they can and can't like.
ReplyDeleteNo one is saying that can't like it, Fagan. Just that the rubber duck craze is really really stupid, like the egg tart craze, and the koala craze, and similar lemming migrations.
ReplyDelete@MFagan,
ReplyDeleteThe only absolute quack is you who keeps insisting your opinion is right and everyone else is wrong.
You butt into every thread with your backwards and uninformed logic for no other reason than to annoy people and to make yourself look foolish. Enough already.
I do not understand why this rubber duck, which was originally a bath-time toy, can be such a phenomenon all over the globe. Practically every major commercialized cities with sea-ports want to have the duck floating in their ports, so much that they are willing to pay a fortune for that.
ReplyDeleteThat said, what the Taiwanese man said is also dumb struck. He signed and paid for the permission of the Dutch man who got this rubber duck idea, and now he said that he can do whatever he(Taiwanese) wants because the duck is not registered in Taiwan, so the Dutch man has no claim of copyright and so on. The Taiwanese just said that they are still living in the counterfeit business boom era; they just think that they can do all the counterfeits and plagiarisms they want, and no authors or artists or companies and do anything about it.
That said, what the Taiwanese man said is also dumb struck. He signed and paid for the permission of the Dutch man who got this rubber duck idea, and now he said that he can do whatever he(Taiwanese) wants because the duck is not registered in Taiwan, so the Dutch man has no claim of copyright and so on. The Taiwanese just said that they are still living in the counterfeit business boom era; they just think that they can do all the counterfeits and plagiarisms they want, and no authors or artists or companies and do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteMr. Fan Kechin (范可欽） is not Taiwanese. He is descendent of Chinese refuge and he, I believe, still view himself as Chinese. President Ma YJ said if you call them (himself and other Chinese refuge descendents), they will be offended.
So please don't offend Mr. Fan by calling him Taiwanese.