Category Archives: Curiosities

Passive Aggressive Notes: The Politics of Trash 消極抵抗的紙條：垃圾政治

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Following on from my past post on the passive aggression that results from the limited parking spaces in Taipei, I thought I’d follow up with a similar post about rubbish, after seeing this sign, on a street in the Daan district of Taipei:

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If you live in Taipei you’ve probably seen a whole heap of signs similar to this, but the hysterical tone and the interesting use of punctuation of this particular one made it stand out for me. It reads:

Can’t you have the least shred of decency? Don’t pile rubbish up here!!?? Dogs come here to eat it every day and there is shit everywhere.

If you don’t live in Taiwan you may be unfamiliar with the system. Basically, you have to buy special bags at convenience stores to put rubbish in, then at a certain time  every day the rubbish trucks will come to the end of your street. Unlike in the UK, you

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Smearing political rivals in Taipei: Freddie Lim take-down! 林昶佐被林郁方「抺黑」了

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Have you been enjoying the flood of campaign leaflets flowing through your letterbox? I’m living near the boundary between the 5th and 8th electoral districts, so have been getting a range. One particular leaflet released by KMT candidate Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) caught my eye, as the entire thing was dedicated to smearing Lin’s rival for the 5th electoral district of Taipei, Freddy Lim (founding leader of the New Power Party (時代力量) and lead singer of heavy-metal band Chthonic):

whyyouburnflag The front side of the leaflet poses a question to Lim:

I want to ask Freddy Lim: “Why did you burn our national flag?”

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Plant-related idioms at Taipei Botanical Garden

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I was walking around the Taipei Botanical Garden when I came across this sign, which explained some plant idioms. Think this sign could have specified more of the Chinese idioms and provided a proper equivalent in English to explain the idioms properly, but definitely a cool idea:

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The  first idiom is expanded to one side as follows: Continue reading →

The “Joss” in the Joss Paper 金紙的英文名字

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I never realized that the term for the “ghost or God money” (variously called 金紙、陰司紙、紙錢 and 冥幣 in Chinese) that we use in English, “joss paper”, is a Chinese-English pidginization of the word God in Portuguese “Deus”.

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It’s odd because I’ve used it so often without thinking to look up its origin. I guess I’d always assumed it was from Cantonese like other terms more commonly used in English like “pak choi” for 白菜 bai2cai4. Incidentally the Taiwanese for joss paper is kim-chóa. The reason there are so many different names for it in Chinese is because different kinds of paper are burned for different kinds of spirits, whether they be ancestral ghosts, deities or the ghosts of the recently deceased.

Update: The Oxford dictionary states that the term came from Dejos, the Javanese corruption of the now obsolete Portuguese word for god Deos, which in turn came from the Latin Deus. It was first used in the early 18th Century. Not sure if was just the term “joss” to refer to god was coopted in reference to China by the Portuguese in Macau as one commenter (Keoni Everington) suggested or how it came to be used in the West. It says that it refers to Asian religions though. Would love it if anyone has any details on this.

Passive Aggressive Notes in Taipei 又來了消極抵抗的紙條！

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Given the population density of a place like Taipei, it’s no wonder that tensions very easily arise between neighbours. I’ve always been interested in the way people communicate their complaints in a city famed for its politeness. Parking is a particular problem and people get all sorts of aggressive if you steal their spot (my old flatmate got his car windows smashed in with a brick for parking in a space that someone else felt didn’t belong to him).

I don’t drive, so it doesn’t affect me in any way, but there has been some tension between my neighbours recently over a black car that someone keeps parking in a place where everyone normally parks their scooters. When we came out one morning we saw their car had been keyed all down one side – and they seems to be covert about the times they park (2 or 3 in the morning). Today we noticed this note under the windshield wiper of his car:

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It reads:  Continue reading →

Commemorative $NT10 pieces – the 50th anniversary of Taiwan being ceded to the ROC

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Geeking out again after discovering another commemorative coin. The front reads 「共同經營大台灣」 (Running Greater Taiwan together) and below that “搏聚休戚與共的生命共同體” (United together through thick and thin as a community of fate). It’s written in seal script, which explains why it’s quite hard to read. I thought 「共」 looked particularly unlike it’s seal script version:

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However, you can see the pattern when you compare it with 與, as the bottom of both characters is the same. You can download the seal script font for programs on your computer, including Word, here, although unfortunately you have to type in simplified for it to work (after unzipping drag the TTF file into your Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Fonts folder).

This coin was issued in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Taiwan being ceded to the Republic of China by Japan after World War II. This is commonly referred to as 「光復」(guang1fu4) in Chinese, which literally means “to restore the light”.

This term has sparked a certain amount of controversy given its implication that those living in Taiwan under Japanese rule were living in “darkness” until Chiang Kai-shek came to bring them to the light. The government of Taiwan launched a series of campaigns to attempt to “re-sinicize” and the populace of Taiwan, which the Republic of China government felt had been brain-washed or “enslaved” (奴化) by the Japanese in during the 50 years of colonial rule. The local population had been introduced to modernity under Japanese rule, but many artists and writers faced persecution or marginalization under the new Kuomintang government, as they were seen as collaborators by the new regime or never properly got to grips with writing in Chinese. Those who had been formally educated in the Japanese language had to learn Mandarin and this led to much of their work being overlooked until more recently, when it was translated from Japanese.

There is an excellent book on this period by historian Huang Ying-che (黃英哲) called Uprooting Japan; Implanting China: Cultural Reconstruction in Post-War Taiwan 1945-1947 (《「去日本化」「再中國化」戰後台灣文化重建（1945-1947）》): Continue reading →

Thailand – the writing is on the roof

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On a brief holiday to Thailand and noticed certain taxis (not all) have what look like Buddhist blessings on the inside roof of their cabs. This reminded me of the holy water that irish people always put into their new car and the Buddhist symbols I’ve seen on Taipei buses which I commented on in a previous post. Anyone got an explanation of this practice. Ps. Sorry to the driver, as I think I may have scared the shit out of him by not turning off my flash. 😦

Wang Gong wuz here ’15 尪公進天公繞境

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Saw this torn poster around the Wanhua district while out to lunch. It’s a path marker left by a parade to welcome the Gods of Loyalty (尪公) into the Palace of Heaven. The gods of loyalty were two Tang dynasty generals Zhang Xun (張巡) and Xu Yuan (許遠) who were honored by Emperor Suzong (唐肅宗) posthumously for their loyalty in dying defending the Tang dynasty during the Battle of Suiyang against Yan troops. Interestingly, this was quite controversial as they are said to have encouraged cannibalism during the battle.

「尪公」 or Gods of Loyalty is a common way to refer to the 「保義大夫」 or “senior officials upholding justice,” which you can see written at the center of the torn poster.

I found a helpful description of the events (and other events) in Taiwanese folk religion at this site. Here’s the description of the 迎尪公 (Welcoming the Gods of Loyalty) parade:

十二日為保義大夫祭典。尪公，即保義大夫俗稱。據傳，保義大夫為驅除田園害蟲之神，俗信其神輿過處，附近害蟲將盡死滅，因此，迎神輿須通過田中畦道。保義大夫之神輿極小，僅以兩人抬扛。祭典當日，住戶例均供祭牲禮，並供五味碗，犒賞其部下神兵，遊行隊伍，均甚壯大。

The tweflth day [of the fifth lunar month] is the ceremony of the senior officials upholding justice. Wang Gong is the colloquial name for the “senior officials upholding justice.” Apparently the “senior officials upholding justice” can help to get rid of pests in farmland and people believe that wherever the palanquin of the gods passes will lead to the death and destruction of pests and insects in neighboring land, so the palanquin has to pass through the paths around fields. The palanquin of the senior officials upholding justice is quite small and is carried by only two people. On the day of the ceremony, offerings are made by local residents, offering a variety of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty dishes to reward the celestial troops and give strength to those taking part in the parade.

Not sure why it is torn – if this is tradition or someone concerned that the extremely dirty reflector on the traffic light pole was being blocked from sight

Taipei’s North Gate – 承恩門

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Heard an interesting thing on the radio today. The North Gate of Taipei (北門) or Beimen – that little arch surrounded by roads near the central post office – was formerly used for officials to pass through, while ordinary people entered the city through the south gate – this is why the gate is called “承恩門” as 承恩 translates to “to receive the benevolence or favor [of the monarch or emperor].” Another interesting point he mentioned is that normally city gates face in one of the four points of the compass  – but the front of the north gate of Taipei, instead faces towards the highest point in Taipei – Qixing (七星) mountain in Yangmingshan (陽明山).

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The guy who provided the information hosts historical running tours of the city. Sounds like a blast!