This is the first week we feel a sense of summer and it reminds me this brilliant #Taiwanese Pop song by "Five hundred", there is nothing quite like this. It applied very elegant #Hokkien literacy to describe a sense of wandering manhood in youth https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EQI8oKA6X4o
Note: the included lyrics are trying it's best to transcribe Hokkien
The worst type of #tourist in #Japan are the westerners who complain about #Chinese tourists (quite often, actually #Taiwanese, #Korean or #SEAsian but they don't know or care to tell the difference) and don't realize that it's actually them who are the most annoying.
I see way more bad or stupid behavior, especially in #Kyoto, from western tourists than Asian tourists.
I’ve been listening to #Taiwanese language (Taigi) podcasts while running to help me stay in touch with the part of my brain that innately understands southern Min languages as a first language. I feel like I’m losing touch with it. Anyway, interesting content not available in English: heard a story investigating how the Taiwanese railway bento isn’t an ‘ancient’ food tradition like it’s perceived but rather one that came from Japanese colonialism AND food safety concerns. #Food
“The #SunflowerMovement was a trigger to me,” said #Taiwanese activist Johnny Wu. “It’s like a seed planted in my mind.” Johnny ended up traveling to #Ukraine and is one of the few people on earth to immerse himself, in some way, in both revolutions.
AMID #CHINA THREAT, #TAIWAN COMMISSIONS NEW #NAVY SHIPS: The #Taiwanese Navy launched two new corvettes this week – relatively small ships that carry about 41 personnel. The #vessels are meant to be quick and highly maneuverable.
"BIG," which is directed by Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) and is about children living in a Taiwanese #pediatric#oncology ward who move into Room 816, or "BIG" as they call it, began its North American tour on March 7 as part of the 6th #NorthAmerica#TaiwaneseFilm Tour Festival.
Taiwanese vegetarian breakfast spot in San Jose with great homemade soy milk as well (Chinese style homemade soy milk is different from store bought Western soy milk, it's way better!)
That’s due to a recent policy change implemented by the #Taiwanese government amid rising tensions with #China and the shock of the #Russian invasion of #ukraine
But Pei-Hao hasn’t always followed the news of the Ukraine War. He can only focus on what could happen to him.
Pei-Hao tried to laugh, but his eyes were not smiling.
“I guess I can’t blame the government for changing the policy,” he sighed. (Tim’s note: Sarcastic griping is a time-honored tradition among soldiers He’ll fit right in!)
So that all sons have contact with their parents without breaking the no-cell-phone rules, Chief Lee, head of #Taiwanese#conscription service, distributes a pay phone card to each teen, who is now officially a member of the army
“I hope it doesn’t happen during the time I’m serving,” said Lin, an 18-year-old who didn’t give out his full name. “I’m worried about my girlfriend. She may not be able to pay the rent without me,” Lin said.
The move for longer #conscription reverses a historical trend. In 2013, the #Taiwanese government had shortened conscription from one year to just four months. The ultimate goal was to phase out conscription altogether, until #Russia invaded #Ukraine in 2022...
#Taiwan President-Elect Marks 228 Anniversary: William Lai attended a 228 memorial marking a bloody conflict in his island’s history. “It was the biggest mistake of the country and its government in Taiwan’s history,” he said.
What happened: On Feb 28, 1947, the ruling party, KMT, opened fire on protesters and announced martial law for the next 40 years. According to an incident report from 1992, the death toll for local #Taiwanese and #Chinese immigrants is over 18,000.
Every week I do my #Taiwanese language homework, panic about how ‘I don’t know these words’, then realize that all the words I don’t know are the Taigi words that originated from Japanese
Also, I have to zoom in to see how to write some traditional characters, coz I’m getting old (and I actually only know how to write simplified)
🐉 There are lots of Mandarin/English puns circulating for the Year of the Dragon playing on the Mandarin word for dragon: 龍 (lóng).
Another form of pun uses lóng 龍 in Mandarin vs lóng 攏 in Taiwanese which means all/everything.
The characters 龍賀 (lóng-hè) mean "congratulations for the dragon year" in Mandarin. In Taiwanese this sounds similar to "everything is good" (lóng hó 攏好)
Dropped a new excerpt from my free webnovel, Below the Heavens - JiangXi!
I decided to do a mood board just for fun!
Below the Heavens is a high fantasy web novel series featuring a quick witted protagonist and a world and magic system crafted from scratch, incorporating east Asian culture and influences.
This indie novel is available for free on Royal Road via the web browser (link in my bio) or their app! Also available on Scribblehub, and I have a Patreon as well where you can read ahead on a sizeable portion of content!
Below the Heavens is a high fantasy web novel featuring a quick witted protagonist and a world and magic system crafted from scratch, incorporating east Asian culture and influences.
"In the world I grew up in, the word a person used for 'bicycle' told you a lot about them...'Thih-bé' (iron horse) meant he was a native speaker of #Taiwanese..Such a beautiful expression..What a pity 'thih-bé' is now in decline. That's just life: something may be inherently superior but end up getting replaced anyway..replaced by 'chiao-t'a-ch'e' (foot-pedalled vehicle). It's foolish, if you ask me. A kind of cultural devolution."
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Only 3% of people in Taiwan think of themselves as primarily Chinese. Nearly three-in-ten (28%) think of themselves as both Taiwanese and Chinese, but the largest share by far (67%) see themselves as primarily Taiwanese.
Most people in Taiwan consider China’s power and influence a threat. This includes 66% who label it as a major threat – more than say the same about the power and influence of the United States or Russia (45% and 25%, respectively).
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I just had my second Taiwanese lesson. We spent 45 minutes describing the different types of congee and rice soups and different types of noodles in Hokkien. My blind spot is I use lots of words that are Hokkien-fied Malay words, and of course in Taiwan they use a lot of Japanese loan words. So where I might say ‘lo-ti’ (coz of roti!) for ‘bread’, he says ‘phang’ (pan in Japanese
Learning I have ‘character amnesia’ as I start to do my Taiwanese Hokkien written homework. Also, I’ve not written traditional characters (I went to school for simplified), so it’s extra work too
60 to 70 percent of #taiwan 's residents believe in Mazu.
This makes Mazu temples a key part of #Taiwanese political campaigns.
Many political candidates make trips to Mazu temples in order to show their piety and devotion, especially now ahead of the #TaiwanElection on Jan 13th.