ESWN on Censorship in Taiwan in the Bad Old Days...

Don't miss ESWN's great post on censorship in Taiwan and the Eileen Chang novel The Naked Earth:

As a literary work, Naked Earth does not get much respect. It is well-known that this book was commissioned by the United States Information Services with a general outline being supplied to the author to write the novel on demand. The author would eventually write Chinese-language and English-language editions. This was anti-Communist propaganda completed in 1954, even if it was better written than most books in that "politically correct" category. The assumption was that the book would be published in "free China" (namely, Taiwan and Hong Kong) so that people can learn how horrible things are inside China.

However, there was a problem. It happened that the author was also given some leeway with respect to the details. And that would prove to be troublesome.

[Taiwan]

Museums and the Art Market in Taiwan

Taiwan's gov't news portal offers this quick overview of art museums and galleries in Taipei, with some attention to elsewhere:

Several galleries in central and southern Taiwan have established themselves in the art market. Some of the best known include Gallery Pierre 臻品藝術中心, East Gallery 東之畫廊, and Modern Art Gallery 現代藝術空間 in Taichung; New Phase Art Space 新生態藝術環境 in Tainan; the Up Gallery 阿普畫廊 and Duchamp Gallery 杜象藝術中心 in Kaohsiung; and Gallery Venus 維納斯藝廊 in Hualien 花蓮.

The increase in art galleries around the island has been partly due to the great expansion of art collecting in the 1980s. Sotheby's and Christie's both began holding art auctions in Taiwan in the early 1990s, with varying degrees of success, focusing primarily on traditional painting and works by Taiwan's Japanese-trained impressionists.

Another major development has been the annual Taipei Art Fair International 臺北國際藝術博覽會, which promotes the local art market both regionally and internationally. The event gives local art collectors a chance to appreciate and bid for masterpieces by world-renowned artists, drawing around 70,000 to 80,000 visitors each year.

[Taiwan]

Re-imbursement Program: Troops STILL buying own equipment

Appalling story from the land of History's Greatest National Debt:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 - The Pentagon has not completed guidelines for allowing soldiers, their families and charities to be reimbursed for some combat equipment they bought for use in Iraq and Afghanistan, a year after the passage of legislation calling for such a program.

The measure, which allows for groups and individuals to make claims of up to $1,100, called for the Department of Defense to set rules for a reimbursement program by February 2005.

The sponsor of the original legislation, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, says he plans to introduce an amendment to a defense bill this week to take authority for the program from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and give it to military commanders in the field.

"We should not be sending our young men and women into harm's way less than as well prepared as their nation can prepare them and provide them with the kind of protection they deserve," Mr. Dodd said. "The Pentagon has never acted on this legislation despite the fact that it is the law of the land."

and...

Army surveys have shown that infantry members spend hundreds of dollars of their own money each year on gloves, boots, flashlights and other tools used in combat.

Meanwhile those shits in the Bush Administration are considering widening the war to include Syria on a selective basis, because as history teaches, war can always be tightly controlled....

However, one option under consideration was bombing several villages 30 to 40 miles inside Syria that some officials believe have been harboring Iraqi insurgents. The officials said the U.S. government has complained to the Syrian government about the matter but has not received a satisfactory response.

One other official, however, said military and other intelligence officers say the intelligence on the insurgents' presence in the villages is "not unambiguous." They said it is not clear whether the insurgents are present as a matter of Syrian government policy or local or tribal hospitality, or simply because insurgents have intimidated villagers.

O my country!

Philip Bowing in IHT on Weapons Purchase

A more robust analysis than some, although still not grasping the KMT position yet.

Behind this conflict lie various strands of opinion unfavorable to arms spending. The Kuomintang-led opposition coalition has always supported reunification and now believes that, given developments on the mainland, it can be achieved freely and peacefully.

Beijing's current efforts to further cross-straits exchanges and economic integration have been strengthening this view and thus undermining the argument for arms purchases.

[Taiwan] [China]

COSPLAY in Taiwan

I was poking around some of the Taiwan blogs today while I procrastinated from writing a paper....Brian David Philips, an energetic and prolific writer at The Life of Brian, frequently blogs on CosPlay. He's got a collection of articles with Cosplay tags and some great pix for those interested in the topic.

[Taiwan]

Tourism Bureau Launches New Website Aimed At Americans

TravelAgent magazine notes:

The Taiwan Tourism Bureau is spending $2.6 million in North America, including a new web site launched in January, to get American travelers' attention. Last year Taiwan received 382,822 Americans. That figure was up from the 272,858 Americas who visited in a SARS-ridden 2003. In 2003, the Taiwanese government laid out a six-year plan with the goal of doubling the number of visitors to 5 million by 2008. The Taiwanese are using several pillars including the world's most extensive collection of Chinese art in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, some of the best Chinese food in Asia and some 10,000 Buddhist, Taoist and Confucius temples.

Hmmm....it seems like this is your basic Taiwanese thinking about tourism in Taiwan. Did anyone actually survey Americans to see whether they liked Pingtung Pig's Feet, or thought Buddhist temples in Taiwan or the looted art objects from China worth the 14 hour flight from the far side of the US? The Bureau's main website is here. I'd love to get a look at their website aimed specifically at Americans....

[Taiwan]

US Navy League: Taiwan's Attitude Toward its own Defense Blase

This very long article from the US Navy League actually makes an attempt to understand the political nonsense going on in Taiwan domestically, though it cites many of the same sources as the other articles do.

Meanwhile, Taiwan appears headed in the opposite direction. Defense spending has declined in real terms by 25 percent in the last five years and the military conscription term will soon drop from its already inadequate 16 months to just 10 months of service, said James Mulvenon, deputy director for Advanced Studies at the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis. .......

Despite its link to delays of the special budget, the KMT won at the polls in December. Mulvenon said responsibility for the apparent public ambivalence about Taiwan's defense posture and China's growing military might lies primarily within the Chen administration.

"Many in the president's office believe that China is a 'Paper Tiger' ... and when the Chinese threat is communicated to the Taiwanese people it is spun in explicitly partisan terms to take shots at the KMT," he said. This ambivalence, Mulvenon argues, is based on the assumption that Taiwan has a "blank U.S. check" for military assistance in the event of an attack.

This is basically a desperately pro-KMT analysis of the DPP's attempts to get the budget passed. Sad. Mulvenon belongs to CIRA.

[Taiwan]

Your organ merely an organelle? Try Penis Qi-Gong

This blog comments on the weird stuff pouring out of Asia:

We know that this sounds like a gag, but as far as we can tell, it is completely on the up and up. Tu Jin-Sheng is a noted master of Qigong and Chinese medicine who graduated from the prestigious Teachers Physical College of Taiwan with a degree in martial arts and also earned his master's in Traditional Chinese Medicine. From an article in Kungfu Magazine:

As Tu sees it, people train every other part of their body except their sexual organs. He considers his method as the only way to correct this oversight. While most people think the only exercise a penis gets is ejaculation, Tu's method treats the penis like an arm, a leg or any other part of the body. Tu comments "People compete will all their four limbs, why not this?"

As one might imagine, this is a very delicate practice, so it is of utmost importance that a student follow the direction of a qualified master. Penis qigong uses a variety of special exercises, including massage, slapping, pulling and hitting it with a tool.

Frankly, my dangling participle already has enough power over my life: do I really want to make it even more powerful? No, I think I'll have to take a pass on anything that involves banging on my very own shiva-lingam with a tool harder than it is.

[Taiwan]

Inside Taiwan's Virtual Mall

A close friend of mine whom I deeply admire does research on home shopping and TV and internet retailing in Taiwan. One thing he emphasizes is how different the marketing style is here. Another thing he has remarked on in his work is Taiwan's superior infrastructure for internet and TV shopping. The great number of delivery services, their ease of use, and the low delivery fees, make this a paradise for those of us who like to sit on their butts in front of the cornucopia that is Yahoo online shopping and drool over the possibilities for hours on end (that's you, my darling wife).

Enterprise Networks Asia has an interesting article on the use of technology in call centers for Eastern Home Shopping Network, which serves some 2.5 million members (out of 23 million people in Taiwan!).

While there are businesses that still view their call/contact center as a way to save rather than earn revenue, that's not the case with Taiwan's Eastern Home Shopping Network (EHSN). In fact quite the opposite.

When you're the country's largest virtual retail outlet, the contact center becomes the heart of the business and an area that finance is not hesitant to spend money on, as senior vice president Tina Wu explained.

"We are the spirit of this company," Wu said of her contact center staff. "Most call centers are a cost center but we are the profit center, so I have a lot of budget and can recruit more staff and don't have to wait to upgrade."

EHSN was founded in 1999 and uses television, catalogs and the Internet as channels to sell everything from cosmetics and jewelry to electrical goods and furniture-basically anything you would find in a major department store. Except instead of customers coming through the door, they're coming through the company's contact center.

Their order taking system is very cool:

One of the strategies EHSN is using to cope with peak loads is an IVR order taking system, basically a self-service system that can divert some customers away from the call agents. They even have strategies to encourage customers to use the IVR option, which has special phone numbers, such as offering a refund of $4 for those that order this way and by promoting it on the TV channels. "We look at the $4 as a training cost to train the customer," Wu points out.

IVR is just one of the self-service channels that EHSN is trying to promote to ease the workload for agents. They are also aiming to do more via the Internet, which today only represents 5 percent of the business.

Another capability of the system is that it can provide priority to those customers that EHSN classifies as VIP. These calls can be directly routed to people with more experience or who are good at resolving problems. It's just one example of the segmentation and service possible through the system.

For example the system can match tasks based on the previous customer contact history and agent's profile. Corresponding information will then be brought up to the agent's desktop on a screen-pop to help the agent understand the customer profile. Customers are segmented by the system based on purchase habits and then the system directs calls on to the appropriate group or sales.

[Taiwan]

Lungwang: Day 1

Well, the typhoon is here....if you look at the satellite weather pics it looks as though Lungwang is blowing us all to Mongolia, but here in central Taiwan, protected by 3,000m mountain ramparts, this super-typhoon means intermittent rain and excellent picture-taking conditions.

So far we haven't gotten much in the way of wind and the rain has been gentle and enjoyable. Things are damp rather than soaking, and the dogs are dry. This is nothing compared to Talim so far here in central Taiwan, although I pity the people on the east and northeast coast, who will get slammed by Lungwang....


With Lungwang keeping the kids inside, my daughter brushes up on her calligraphy.

Typhoons mean clear skies -- northern Taichung from the street by my house.

Talim left this road litter with broken branches. So far, so good.

The river is low.

Businesses are open as usual in Tanzi, the small town near our house.

Clean air: mountains ordinarily invisible are a sumptuous purple-green.

No downed branches, and no cleaning crews.

It's great to be able to see the mountains for once, and understand why they called this island "Formosa" -- The Beautiful Island.

UPDATE: The Taipei Times reports.

[Taiwan] [Lungwang] [typhoons]

Missing your favorite street dog? Maybe it got shipped to the US!

I've been playing with Google's new blog search feature, and stumbled across this site about dogs rescued in Taiwan being shipped overseas to San Francisco, USA. No, I am not making this up:

We have had the pleasure of opening up our program to some wonderful deserving dogs rescused by the tireless rescuers in Taiwan. We have had a lot of support from potential adopters and adopters with our rescued dogs from Taiwan. The dogs from Taiwan are often times smaller in size then your average mixed breed dog and they make excellent city dogs.

There is always people who ask why rescue dogs from another country? Many people wonder why dogs from Taiwan are shipped over to other areas to find homes. The truth is that these dogs have little or no chance at being adopted in their own country. WDR believes in raising awareness for animal welfare on a global basis, not in just in our county or country. Another important aspect of taking dogs from Taiwan is the hope it leaves the rescuers there. The dogs they send here get top notch homes and it is a small way we can help them.

I think what we have here is a misapplication of resources....all that $$ and all they can do is ship street dogs from one country to another? Surely there are more urgent problems....

[Taiwan]

Depression among College Students

I was reminded of my earlier post on depression among college students in response to one of Rev. Bauer's column in the China Post by an article in the Taipei Times on student depression (10/1):

A survey released by a non-profit organization that provides information about depression among young people yesterday suggested that depression among college students is an increasing concern.

According to the John Tung Foundation's survey of 5,950 respondents aged 18 to 22, 33.4 percent said the major sources of external pressure came from anxiety over plans for the future, while 24.1 percent said academic performance was the source of their stress and 18.5 percent cited relationships with the opposite sex as the origin of their stress.

Meanwhile, 15.9 percent of respondents said their stress came from financial problems.

The survey, conducted during April and May, also found that depression was most common amongst students who studied Arts and Humanities, with incidences of depression constituting 15.2 percent of the sample.

It's fascinating that Arts & Humanities students are more depressed than others. But student depression and attendent self-destructive behaviors is a serious problem.

[Taiwan]

KMT Says Flood Bill Going to DPP-Controlled Areas

E-Taiwan News reports that water policy favors the DPP, according to the KMT:

The proposed NT$80 billion, eight-year, flood-control bill favors DPP-controlled areas and will lead to an unfair distribution of resources without a comprehensive plan, while failing to strengthen flood control functions, opposition party lawmakers claimed yesterday.

Kuomintang lawmaker Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said the ruling Democratic Progressive Progress government plans to allocate at least NT$58 billion - 74 percent of the total budget - to DPP-controlled counties, while counties under the control of the pan-blue alliance are to be allocated around NT$20.5 billion - 26 percent of the budget.

Water policy is probably the most heavily politicized of government policies around the world, used as a way to distribute cash to local governments. In this light the PFP criticism was quite interesting:

Meanwhile, People First Party lawmaker Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) criticized what he called a crude and loose plan and claimed the government was only focusing on the construction of flood controls, without establishing a mechanism for monitoring the construction work and the apportioning of funds for the work.

True of so many government programs in Taiwan....and so many that made PFP candidates rich.

UPDATE: Testimony on Pinglin Today (10/4) in print version of Taipei Times.

[Taiwan]

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TT Commentary on US Attitude Toward Arms Purchase

Philip Yang, a poli sci prof, published a commentary on the Arms Purchase in the Taipei Times yesterday:

The threats now coming from the US regarding Taiwan's inability to pass the arms procurement bill will not only not help reconcile the different perspectives of the two political camps, but will make future relations between Taiwan and the US even more complex.

Yep. The full dimensions of the KMT strategy should be clear. Not only are the Blues weakening and dividing the island, but they are also getting the DPP in trouble with their American allies, since they can't "deliver" the arms package. And embarrassing the island internationally, the same way they did with the staged demonstrations after the Chen assassination attempt.

[Taiwan]

Insider Trading Suspect Banned from Leaving Country

The Taipei Times reports:

Prosecutor General Wu Ying-chao (吳英昭) said yesterday that Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) counselor Lee Chin-cheng (李進誠), who has been under investigation for alleged involvement in an insider-trading scandal, has been banned from leaving the country before the case is closed.

I'm starting a pool: how many weeks before we hear that the suspect has.....fled the country.

[Taiwan]