2010海外傑出青年台灣文化研習營: 07/19/10

2010-07-19

艺的旅行之【繁华与衰颓的美丽】

遗忘是全世界的自我美丽境界。
可是，在过程中却暴露了人文的衰颓遗迹。

今天开始，长达14天，19国地区的29个迥然不同的青年，用各自的视角，走进了充满哀愁和美丽的台湾原生态文化艺术，探寻一段艺的旅行......

（"双双" 的引领，李立森和张吉安的眸录...）

今天是七月十九號，「2010 海外傑出青年台灣文化研習營」的第一天，在一陣忙碌與趕場當中就快要過去了，來至十九個國家二十九位的朋友，利用此次的機會回國認識台灣和了解台灣，發現從小生長的台灣是如此的美麗和可愛，充滿了熱情與活力。

台灣，一個美麗的小島，有著豐富文化與漂亮風景，它保有著自己特有的傳統精華，同時也吸收各個外來的文化與藝術，呈現出現今不同風貌的台灣，在多元化的社會當中，逐漸伸向世界的舞台讓其他的人也認識台灣的傳統和文化。有人的地方就有文化，台灣的傳統文化與藝術也必需有人去維護和傳承，以及大力的推廣和保持，因為這才是真正屬於我們，代表我們的文化，當然也期許在此次的活動當中，可以進行一場精采的文化藝術交流。

Day 1: Taipei

After an early breakfast, we boarded a nicely air-conditioned bus to the OCAC headquarters for an introduction to the program by Wu Ying-yih, the minister of the OCAC. His recurrent message was his hope that we come to understand Taiwan through our own experiences during this trip.

The subsequent tour of Taiwan Storyland resurrected the atmosphere (plus air-conditioning) of Taipei during the 1960's, when children played with stilts, street vendors sold peng tang (fluffy, crunchy caramelized sugar), and neighbors watched the television through open windows.

The reconstructed town's narrow streets and simple lifestyle struck me asquaint, yet bustling. I wonder what it would be like to have grown up in that environment and witnessed lifestyles grow ever more complicated and fast-paced with improved technology and computing power, the way our parents probably have. Lunchtime brought a line-up of Taiwanese specialties: sour plum juice, Tainan noodle soup, ou-ah-zen/oyster pancakes (How do you Romanize Taiwanese? And is that what they're called in English?), and dou hua for dessert.

For our afternoon adventure, our group trekked to Yang Ming University where we met up with members of the traditional Chinese orchestra. We learned about the four main types of instruments (chui, la, tan, da), and then we got to (carefully) mess around with them. The di zi was not as difficult to play as I had imagined. I thought I wouldn't squeeze out any sound, but I managed to produce enough noise such that I could play through hsiao/xiao mi feng before fainting from hyperventilation. I learned that the er hu's bow's horsehair is actually manipulated by the bowing hand when the inner string is played; this of course made it harder to coordinate bowing up and down and switching strings. Vibrato involves squeezing/unsqueezing the strings, rather than wiggling one’s fingers back and forth as in Western stringed instruments. I also encountered an previously unfamiliar (for me) instrument, the chung juan/zhong ruan, which was kind of like a Chinese guitar, as it sported frets and was played with a pick similar (but not identical) to that of a guitar. It has a different body shape and tuning than the guitar and is held almost vertically. Lastly, there was the yang ch'ing/qing, the Chinese dulcimer, which was tricky to play since all the bridges looked the same to me and I kept getting disoriented. I enjoyed watching the actual musicians play it; it seemed miraculous that they could play so fast and still strike all the strings precisely. I had always dreamed of playing the er hu and di zi, and all the other instruments too, since I’ve never had the chance before, and I don’t know when I will next encounter them. At least I've now played each of them once.

For dinner, we paid a visit to the Shilin night market, where we enjoyed some sort of crunchy roll (what was it called?), fried chicken, and shaved ice. Then we roamed around the night market to soak in the jostling crowds, frantic salespersons, garish and glittering racks of clothes and trinkets, and sweet aroma of food.

Sadly, during our night market foray, Luke's beloved banana was snatched from his backpack by a crafty pickpocket. However, the banana miraculously teleported itself back into its side pocket right before we stepped off the bus we rode to the hotel. Luke could not have been more pleased with this sudden turn of events:

Taiwan is the bomb diggity.

Long day today, but that was expected. And I suppose to be expected from every day on this trip. Day started earlier than I would've liked, but that seems to always be the case. Day started out at the OCAC meeting a few important people, listening to a few speeches, watching a video, listening to Brandenburg play in the background, getting a little cashmonay as the officials made it rain, and feeling glad I skipped out on heels as other more fancypants girls suffered their journeys through storyland. ^_^

After splitting into groups, Hedy's group started out going to long san si temple. There, among temples, gods, prayers, info, a tour, and market food, I saw a sort of Korean boy group, which in itself is cute, but cuteness level went up 2397023 points upon realizing the boy circled looks like Russell from the Disney Pixar animation Up. So we basically saw a movie star today. Picture enhanced to accentuate resemblance.

Asides from being incredibly cute and adorbs, seeing the Korean group in Taiwan showed Taiwan's openness to foreigners and their welcoming attitude. Not only seeing a foreign group but also seeing the group in a location so essential to Taiwan, both culturally and religiously, I feel is a testament to the cross-cultural acceptance and learning that the OCAC president so thoroughly emphasized in his speech today.

Later, Kevin & I had the pleasure of winning the lotto to get the massages in our group. Hooo boy. I should've known it'd be painful from the start. The start being soaking my feet in what felt like boiling water. Following the soak, I'm pretty sure the masseuses had a good time squishing, poking, prodding, and pounding the feeling out of my feet, being egged on by none other than our counselors. Going into the massage, my greatest fear was that it would tickle. Pain didn't really cross my mind. Once the other kids left to look around the night market, whether out of pain from seeing our pain or boredom from not having a massage of their own, the masseuses let up and the massage was definitely much less painful. Here is Kevin pretending it doesn't hurt, what the masseuse is doing to his head/neck.

Regardless, the massage was a fun new experience for me, much unlike the more spa-like massages I've had in the past.

Anyway, I'll either be very sore tomorrow morning or mad relaxed.

Fritz's Group Day 1

My most notable experience today was our visit to the famous Taiwan Storyland. In a nod to the Taiwan of old, Taiwan Storyland seeks to give its younger visitors the same Taiwan their parents and previous generations experienced. Set up much like an interactive museum, Taiwan Storyland has multiple rooms and props showing what street shops, school classrooms, and public facilities looked like long before the terms iPhone or e-mail ever made it into our vocabulary. As we made our way down the steps of the entrance and into the “streets” of old Taiwan, we were greeted with myriad sights. There was the water pump where residents probably obtained their drinking water from, a living room set up, and various other shops in what must have been a typical street in the Taiwan of the 1960s. It was fun to watch Kevin attempt to balance on wooden walking stilts, Janice and Christine make candy on the street, and share some (imaginary) shaved ice with Sue. But perhaps what really struck me today was the thought that this was probably what my parents experienced growing up. To think that they may have played with those same wooden walking stilts or eaten at the same shaved ice parlors simply left me with a feeling of awe. Even more amazing was the fact that my parent’s childhood took place in a different country than the one I grew up in but had always heard so much about.

Daniel Chu

Journey begins + 2 truths and 1 lie

大家好！19 countries but one thing in common, cute Asian V sign for our official picture. That's how we kick-off this 14day Taiwanese culture immersion.

From our "core values" shared by 大哥, I especially like number 4, 交朋友。 I'm really looking forward in getting to know you guys, participants and staff. Relationships is what makes us (at least me) smile in the end of the day.

It would be cool to make this blog interactive. How about sharing some facts about you every time you blog something, so we can all get to know each other better. I'll start this game called 2 truths and 1 lie. You share 2 true facts about you and a lie, and the group will try to guess which one is a lie. Here it goes for Kevin Wei, the proud Brazilian:

1. My dad survived 1 airplane crash.
2. I survived 2 car crashes.
3. My brother survived 3 bus crashes.

Hugs!
(Btw, I like hugs. So you're welcome to get free hugs from me anytime.)

;)

Day 1 (7/19) - Fritz's Group

8:00 - David was too excited last night to fall asleep! Catching on some sleep in the lobby...

8:20 - All suited up and ready to visit the OCAC Headquarter

8:32 - Taipei outside the bus

8:33 - Taipei outside the bus... Quite a contrast to the previous photo.

9:03 - The OCAC Headquarter! Quite an inconspicuous building for such an important department =P

9:12 - Waiting for an AWESOME OCAC presentation to begin, most are getting restless!

9:43 - 吉安 said an heartfelt speech after 吳委員長英育委員長’s welcome. Good that we chose 吉安 as our Leader. Go 吉安!

10:34 - Taiwan Storyland- Entrance to the time machine leading us back to the Taiwan in the 1960s.

12:40 - Kevin and stilts and paparazzi

(Will upload the video tomorrow)

13:13 - Lunch in the Taiwan Storyland. Tasting the past.

15:45 - Visited an ancient tea house.

16:30 - Visited the fabric market - nothing interesting

16:45 - Had some interestingly tasting tea, one of the three was very bitter.

Simon before drinking the bitter tea

Simon after downing an entire cup of bitter tea - (one shot!)

16:35 - 月下老人 Temple

16:50 - Tasted and saw some Chinese traditional medicine

17:12 - Dinner at 圓環, Pork Stomach, Pork Intestine... Yeah why not?
　　　

19:00 - After a short MRT and bus ride, we started heading back for the hotel. However, Fritz lost his sense of direction and lead us in the wrong direction. After consulting with a shopkeeper, who wears an Ed Hardy top and works at a clothing shop, we eventually got back unscathed and sound.

19:30 - Blogging...

12:00 - Went to Family Mart to get food (Hungry again)

What I really like about this tour is that everyone is SUPA friendly. I found out that David happens to be practising the same piano piece as me and that not all Australians have that annoying accent. There's still a lot more for me to discover in the next 12 days. Looking forward to tomorrow.