PDF file - Community Services Center

Publication of the Community Services Center 

Centered 

on TAIPEI 

Summer 2011, Volume 11, Issue 9 

Taipei arTs FesTival 2011 

Yanshui (Tainan) 

Choosing our legaCY 

eaTing ouT wiTh Kids in Taiwan 

urban gardening 

soY sauCe, King oF sauCes

CONTENTS Summer 2011 volume 11 issue 9 

5 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 

6 National Concert Hall: june 2011 

Richard Recommends 

7 Cultural Corner 

Dragon Boat Festival 

8 Arts 

Taipei Arts Festival 2011 

11 travel 

Yanshui (Tainan) 

12 Outlook 

Home leave or home grief 

Community 

14 Taipei American School 

15 Taipei European School 

16 Book Review 

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother 

17 Charity 

Orphanage Club 

18 Profile 

Writer Richard Saunders: 

How he caught the Taiwan Travel Bug 

20 Entertainment 

Three is the Magic Number 

Calendar of Events at The Center 

June/July 2011 

21 Tastes of Taipei at Samyama in June 

22 Casual Dining 

Eating Out with Kids in Taiwan 

23 The Center Gallery 

Eco News 

24 Urban Gardening 

25 TES Roots and Shoots 

26 Chinese Kitchen 

Soy Sauce, King of Sauces 

Center Courses 

28 Generation Y 

My Perfect Wedding 

The beat of the clock 

30 Book Review 

Rainy Night Moon 

32 Word from the Director/ Worship Directory 

33 Community Groups 

8 

11 

17 

26 

13 

COVER IMAGE: Craig Ferguson 

Centered on Taipei is a publication of the Community Services Center, 

25, Lane 290, ZhongShan N. Rd., Sec. 6, Tianmu, Taipei, Taiwan 

Tel: 2836 8134, fax: 2835 2530, e-mail: coteditor@communitycenter.org.tw 

Correspondence may be sent to the editor at coteditor@communitycenter.org. 

tw. Freelance writers, photographers and illustrators are welcome to contact 

the editor to discuss editorial and graphic assignments. Your talent will find a 

home with us! 

Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Material in this publication may not be 

reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner. 

www.communitycenter.org.tw Summer 2011 

3

Summer dates: 

27th June ~ 19th August 2011 

Fall & Summer Session registering now! 

Fall semester: 29th August 2011 

4 Summer 2011 www.communitycenter.org.tw

Letter From The Editor 

Publisher: Community Services Center, Taipei 

Managing Editor: Steven Parker 

Editor: Roma Mehta 

Co-editor: Richard Saunders 

Graphic Design: Katia Chen 

Advertising Manager: Paula Lee 

Tel: 0926 956 844 

Fax: 2835 2530 

email: paulalee@communitycenter.org.tw 

Writing and Photography 

Contributors: Leat Ahrony 

Nathan Burriston 

Ivy Chen 

Orphanage Club 

Steven Crook 

Craig Ferguson 

Dylan Graves 

Trista di Genova 

Samantha Hall 

Serina Huang 

Community Services 

Center Editorial Panel: 

Printed by: 

Siew Kang, Fred Voigtmann 

Farn Mei Printing Co., Ltd. 

1F, No. 102, Hou Kang Street, Shilin District, Taipei 

Tel: 02 2882 6748 Fax: 02 2882 6749 

E-mail: farn.mei@msa.hinet.net 

Community Services Center 

www.communitycenter.org.tw 

Director: Steven Parker 

Office Manager: Grace Ting 

Counselors: 

Newcomer Orientation Program: Amy Liu 

Accountant: Monica Cheng 

Communications: Kath Liu 

Programs Coordinator: Rosemary Susa 

Programs Assistant: Lauren Mack 

Events Coordinator: Robin Looney 

Events Assistant : Aimee Wong 

Chinese Teacher: Gloria Gwo 

Volunteers: 

Premier Sponsors: 

Charlotte Lee 

Amy Liu 

Kath Liu 

Robin Looney 

Owain McKimm 

Steven Parker 

Richard Saunders 

Sunita Sue Leng 

Rosemary Susa 

Suzan Babcock, Kris Carlson, Fawn Chang, Wendy 

Evans, Cerita Hsu, Perry Malcolm, Tina Oelke, Ming-I 

Sun, Cindy Teeters 

Alison Bai, Wakako Couch, Neev Exley, Kath Liu, John 

McQuade, Claudia Ostrouski, Bunny Pacheco, Gloria 

Peng, Sara Ramage, Jenni Rosen, Sandra Schnelle, 

Desta Selassie, Abby Taylor, Emily Whewell, Heike 

Wood, Lillian Yiin 

3M Taiwan 

Bai Win Antiques 

BP Taiwan Ltd. 

Breitling 

China American Petrochemical 

Concordia Consulting 

Costco Wholesale Taiwan 

Crown Worldwide Movers Ltd 

Four Star Int’l 

Grand Hyatt Hotel, Taipei 

HSBC 

ICRT 

Metacity Development Corp 

Nokia Siemens Networks 

ProQC 

San Fu Gas Co. Ltd. 

Smerwick Ltd 

Songfu Li 

Standard Chartered Bank 

The Community Services Center (CSC) is a non-profit foundation. CSC provides 

outreach and early intervention through counseling, cross-cultural education and life 

skills programs to meet the needs of the international community in Taipei. CSC offers 

the opportunity to learn, volunteer, teach and meet others. Check out our website www. 

communitycenter.org.tw and drop by The Center to chat with us about our programs. 

You can also email us at www.communitycenter.org.tw. 

“Age considers; youth ventures.” 

— Rabindranath Tagore 

Dear Readers, 

As we move into the more relaxing days of summer, and 

enjoy our jongzi (the traditional food eaten during Dragon 

Boat Festival) while balancing eggs, the pace hopefully 

slows down and in the words of Sam Keen, “laziness finds 

respectability.” 

This month, Serina Huang has some great suggestions 

for restaurants that are kid-friendly in our Casual Dining 

article. For those who love to read, we have two book 

reviews this month and if you would like to try your hand 

at gardening, Dylan Graves shares some great tips on 

creating an awesome urban garden. 

This summer the Taipei Arts Festival 2011 brings a 

fascinating mix of productions both local and international. 

If you are here for the summer months it would be well 

worth your time to check on some of these events. 

Our profile this month is of our very own Richard 

Saunders. Many of you know him in one or more of his 

many roles; avid hiker, traveler, accomplished pianist, 

writer, teacher, and of course, co-editor of Centered on 

Taipei. In this issue Trista di Genova talks to Richard, 

the person. 

We count on your support and contributions to make 

this magazine one that you would enjoy reading. Please 

feel free to share your stories on the environment, health, 

discovering Taiwan and related topics with our readers. 

The Center is a great place to drop by for a cup of 

coffee, browse the Gallery, meet people or get involved in 

community efforts. 

If you would like to contribute to the magazine, whether 

with your creative writing or photography, please write to 

me at coteditor@communitycenter.org.tw. As always, we 

welcome your news and views. 

See you in the fall! 

Roma 

Roma Mehta 

Editor 

Richard Saunders 

Co-editor 

Paula Lee 

Advertising Manager 

Katia Chen 

Designer 

Centered on Taipei is printed on 50% post consumer waste content stock. We have also 

replaced the glossy laminated cover with a softer aqueous based resin coating which makes 

it easier to recycle. By committing to post consumer paper stock we support the market for 

recycled fibers and reduce environmental impact. 

Recycling paper uses 60% less energy than manufacturing paper from virgin fiber. 

"Every ton of recycled paper saves enough electricity to power a 3 bedroom house for an entire 

year." (http://www.greenseal.org/index.cfm) 


5

CSC NEWS 

RICHARD 

ReCommenDs 

RichaRd SaundeRS 

High summer is here once again in all its sultry, 

humid glory, and whether by chance or design, 

there’s plenty of steamy passion among the 

musical offerings at the CKS Cultural Center in 

June. Onto that in a minute, but first there is a little cool 

relief, courtesy of I musici (playing that perennial favorite, 

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on June 10th), the delicate sounds 

of two solo harps (June 11th), and the royal Ballet (June 

30th and July 1st) supplying exquisitely controlled poise 

in a program of short ballets by contemporary and master 

choreographers. 

OK, now back to the passionate stuff. An almost 

overwhelming musical depiction of the returning spring, 

mahler’s Third Symphony might have been a more logical 

programming choice for march or April, but if the National 

Symphony Orchestra’s latest ambitious project is successful, 

it’ll be one of musical highlights of the summer. This, 

mahler’s longest symphony (and that’s saying something: all 

but two of his ten symphonies last at least eighty minutes!) 

is scored for huge orchestral forces, featuring an ethereal 

alto voice solo in the fourth movement, a chorus of children 

(who imitate tolling bells!), and a magnificent slow finale. 

It’s a huge, ungainly Leviathan of a piece, the astonishing 

first movement (itself a full half-hour long!) opening with the 

sounds of awakening life, progressing into a rustic, heavyfooted 

dance and ending in an extraordinary orchestral freefor-all 

as spring marches in with an almost primeval force 

capped only by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The concert’s 

title, ‘relief in Summer’ is something of a misnomer (listening 

to the symphony is quite an exhausting experience!), yet 

this performance (on June 19th) is one of my more eagerly 

awaited music events of the season. 

The keys of the concert hall grand will be smoking hot 

after Korean virtuoso Kun Woo Paik’s performance of 

rachmaninov’s gorgeous Third Piano Concerto on June 

12th. Don’t be fooled by the gentle strains of the concerto’s 

opening moments. Once the pianist has dispatched that 

famous, meltingly beautiful melody in the opening moments 

of the concerto, there’s hardly a moment of rest for him 

during the remaining 35 minutes of this, one of the most 

exciting and melodically rich concertos in the repertoire. 

This unusually rich and tempting concert is filled-out with 

two further (very different) Twentieth-Century classics. The 

cool, limpid opening measures of Sibelius’s magnificent 

tone poem The Oceanides once again lull the audience into 

a false sense of calm. This piece is often regarded as one 

of the greatest evocations of the sea in classical music, and 

the character of the ocean is magnificently captured in all 

its moods within the brief, ten-minute span of the piece. 

The concert ends with a masterpiece from a later decade 

– contemporary Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski’s first 

great masterpiece, the Concerto for Orchestra, which gives 

the orchestral players a chance to display their virtuosity 

in a thrilling work that manages to feel quite modern, yet 

remain (thanks to its roots in Polish folk music) thoroughly 

accessible. 

national Theater & concert hall 

JuNe 2011 

NatioNal theater 

the royal Ballet – Mixed 

Programmes 

June 30 – July 1 

NatioNal CoNCert hall 

les Petites Chanteurs de Saint- 

Marc 

Film music, folk songs and sacred 

music 

June 1 

o. Schnyder Piano recital 

Music by Schumann, Schubert and 

Liszt 

June 3 

Music Baby Do re Mi 

Children’s favorites, played by the 

National Symphony Orchestra 

June 4 

Fierce romanticism 

Shostakovich’s Twelfth Symphony 

and First Piano Concerto 

June 5 

i Musici 

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons 

June 10 rr 

the angelic Sound of harp 

Works for harp duo by Debussy, 

Faure, Saint Saens, Bach and 

others 

June 11 

the Piano Virtuoso: Kun Woo 

Paik 

Works by Rachmaninov, 

Lutoslawski and Sibelius 

June 12 rr 

ryu Goto Violin recital 

Works for violin and piano by 

Prokofiev, Paganini and Ravel 

June 18 

relief in Summer 

Mahler’s great Third Symphony 

June 19 rr 

Classic Wind Music 

Works for wind band 

June 22 

eSo Classical Concert 

Orchestral works by Shostakovich, 

Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky 

June 25 

rr: richard recommends 

For full details, please log on to the Culture express website at 

http://express.culture.gov.tw or take a copy of the monthly program from CKS 

Cultural Center, available from mrT stations, bookshops and ticketing offices. 

Publication of the National Theater and Concert Hall schedule in 

Centered on Taipei is sponsored by Cathay Life Insurance. 

TICKETING OFFICES: • NTCH: (02) 2343 1647 

• ERA: (02) 2709 3788 

6 

Summer 2011 www.communitycenter.org.tw

Amy's 

ultural 

Corner 

台 

灣 

Dragon Boat Festival 

Lively dragon boat races and jongzi 

Dragon Boat Festival ( 端午節 , duanwu jie), also 

known as the ‘Poet’s Festival’ ( 詩人節 ), is one 

of the three most important festivals celebrated 

in Taiwan (the other two are the Moon Festival, 

celebrated in autumn and Lunar New Year, in winter). 

All Taiwanese make their best effort to return home for 

these three big occasions. 

This festival, which falls on the fifth day of the 

fifth month in the lunar calendar (June 6th in 2011), 

commemorates the death of a poet by the name of Chu 

Yuan ( 屈原 , 343~290 B.C.), a loyal counselor for the 

government of Chu ( 楚 ) of the Warring States Period ( 戰 

國時期 , 5th~3rd Centuries B.C., a very turbulent period 

in China). According to legend, he was banished by the 

King of Chu after his good advice was rejected. During 

his time in exile, he started composing patriotic poems 

expressing his deep concern for the future of his state, and 

upon hearing the news that it had been defeated by its 

rival, Chin ( 秦國 ), he jumped into a river out of despair 

and drowned himself. 

Upon hearing the news of the suicide, local fishermen 

and villagers who loved Chu Yuan for his patriotism 

rushed out in their boats to try to rescue him, and upon 

realizing they were too late, frantically beat drums to 

scare the fish away and threw jongzi ( 粽子 ; glutinous rice 

wrapped in bamboo leaves) into the water in the hope 

that the hungry fish would not eat Chu Yuan’s body. 

The ritual of boat racing was held every year after on the 

anniversary of Chu Yuan’s death to symbolize the effort 

to rescue him, while jongzi are also eaten, in memory of 

the fishermen’s efforts to preserve their hero’s body. 

Many Dragon Boat Festival traditions continue to be 

observed today in Taiwan. Taiwanese eat jongzi, stand 

eggs on their pointed ends at twelve noon, hang fragrant 

herbs on the door, and (the highlight of the day) organize 

lively dragon boat races. 

Dragon Boat Festival falls around the time when the 

warm days of spring are turning into the hot and humid 

weather of summer. In the old days it was believed this 

time is when pests and diseases are most likely to spread, 

and other negative forces tend to strike. Thus this was 

the time of year to drive away pestilence in order to stay 

healthy and safe. 

In the old days, around this time parents made a pouch 

out of cloth or silk with fragrant herbs inside called a 

xiang bao ( 香包 ) for children to wear around their necks 

as proctection against evil spirits, while adults drunk 

xiung huang wine ( 雄黃酒 ), also made from special herbs. 

Sprigs of herbs were hung outside the front door and wine 

was sprinkled in all four corners of the house to protect 

against insects and to repel evil. 

Xiang bao can be still found at traditional markets 

during the Dragon Boat Festival season. They are 

generally made with colored silk materials in the shape 

of animals or cartoon characters and are filled not only 

with the traditional herbs but with aromatic flowers like 

lavender or rose petals. 

Jongzi ( 粽子 ) is the most popular traditional food eaten 

during Dragon Boat Festival. Traditionally, families make 

their own jongzi at this time to share with relatives and 

friends to eat during the festival. Gradually they became 

readily available in restaurants and from street vendors, 

and can now be eaten any time of the year. 

Jongzi is in fact a very rich and nutritious snack with 

a high level of cholesterol. It is traditionally made 

with glutinous (very sticky) rice with fillings that can 

include pork, egg yolk, peanuts, mushrooms, and other 

ingredients, the whole thing wrapped in dried bamboo 

leaves and usually steamed. 

The most exciting part of Dragon Boat Festival is no 

doubt the dragon boat race ( 龍舟賽 ) itself. Races attract 

crowds of spectators. Dragon boats are typically canoes 

ranging from 40-100 feet in length; the heads are in the 

shape of open-mouthed dragons, the body of the boat is 

painted to look like a dragon’s scales, and the dragon’s 

tail is decoratively designed at the stern. Dragon boats 

are generally brightly painted, and a formal, sacred ‘eyedotting’ 

ceremony must be performed to bring life to the 

boat by dabbing red paint in the pupils of the dragon’s 

eyes before the race. 

The competing teams have rowers, a drummer and 

a flag-catcher at the front of the boat. The team row 

forward in time with the pounding drums, and the winner 

is the first team to grab the flag at the end of the course. 

Dragon boat races are held in major cities and counties 

around the island. Taipei City has an international 

competition called the Taipei International Dragon Boat 

Race Championships ( 台北國際龍舟錦標賽 ) which 

attracts teams of paddlers from all over the world to join 

together to learn the cultural traditions of the festival. 

The international races have been held on the Dajia 

section ( 大佳段 ) of the Keelung River near Dazhi Bridge 

( 大直橋 ) since 1996. 

On the day of the race, spectators (both local nationals 

and international members of the community) come to 

enjoy the fun of the festival and the races, and there are 

many festival-related performances and activities, all 

staged at the Dajia Riverside Park ( 大佳河濱公園 ). The 

vibrant Dragon Boat Festival in Taipei is a perfect day out 

for families, and especially children. 


7

arts 

Taipei Arts Festival 2011: 

Partying with Philosophers 

The centennial year of the ROC sees a feast for the senses and the mind at the 

annual festival for performing and visual arts 

text: Sunita Sue Long 

imageS: CourteSy of the tina Keng gaLLery (tKg) in neihu, taipei 

Can an arts festival be cerebral and fun at the 

same time? Do philosophy and partying go 

hand in hand? Well, that’s exactly what the 

annual Taipei Arts Festival aims to achieve this 

year, which is the 100th year of the Republic of China. 

In a salute to the centennial, the festival organizers have 

assembled performances to stimulate critical thought 

while feeding the senses, such as a multimedia exhibition 

by American choreographer William Forsythe, also 

known as the “philosopher of dance.” 

There are also more free events this year, such as the 

pyrotechnic street performances by the colorful Xarxa 

Teatre of Spain on the closing nights. The festival, now 

in its 12th year, runs from July 28 through to September 

4. Compared to previous years, the line-up this year is 

smaller, and performances will be at more compact venues 

so as to create a more intimate and interesting urban 

theatrical experience for Taipei residents, says Victoria 

Wang, executive director of the Festival. “It’s very rare 

in Taipei to have performances with about three hundred 

seats and to be close to the stage and performers,” she 

says. Most of this year’s festival events will take place at 

specially retrofitted warehouses at the Song-Yan Cultural 

Park in the Songshan district. 

The festival opens with a play called “Ritter, Dene, 

Voss”, a dark comedy penned by Austrian playwright 

Thomas Bernhard. This non-mainstream stage 

performance has won critical acclaim for its unusual and 

provocative style of dialogue. The story centers on the 

fraught relationship between two sisters and their genius 

brother, whose character is based loosely on the Austrian 

philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. 

Directing the stage actors from the Narodowy Stary 

Teatr (or National Old Theatre) of Poland, one of the 

country’s oldest professional theater companies, is 

Krystian Lupa. The Polish director studied physics 

at university but turned to theater and since his debut 

in 1976, has gained a reputation for productions that 

stand out for their psychological complexity, stylistic 

innovation, and humanity. 

The Dreamy Fallacy 

The musical The Dreamy Fallacy celebrates the 

songs of Taiwanese musician Tai-Hsiang Lee 

Photo: Taipei Arts Festival 


Xarxa 

Xarxa Teatre’s El Foc del Mar is based on 

the Valencian parade of Las Fallas 

Photo: Xarxa Teatre 

Synchronous Objects 

Synchronous Objects takes a scientific, multi-media approach 

towards explaining what goes on in a choreographer’s mind 

Photo: Synchronous Objects Project 

The centerpiece of the Festival, meanwhile, is a series 

of choreographic objects and films by William Forsythe 

and the Forsythe Company. Festival director Wang, 

who met Forsythe in Frankfurt, describes the avantgarde 

dance choreographer as “very intellectual and 

very charming” and someone who “likes to express his 

thoughts in his works”. 

Forsythe is bringing his well-received exhibition 

Synchronous Objects to the Taipei Arts Festival. 

Originally produced together with The Ohio State 

University's Advanced Computing Center for the Arts 

and Design, Synchronous Objects takes a multimedia, 

almost scientific approach towards translating what’s 

inside the choreographer’s mind. Besides the films and 

choreographic objects, there will be an installation 

called the City of Abstract where audiences can become 

choreographers by interacting with cameras and 

projectors. Wang expects this to be especially popular 

with visitors. 

This year’s festival should also resonate with many 

locals as the life and works of two Taiwanese artistes 

will be celebrated. Wang and her team have chosen 

Hung Tung, a self-taught painter, and Tai-Hsiang Lee, a 

m u s i c i a n w h o h a s 

been dubbed the king 

of Taiwan’s music 

business during the 

1970s a n d 1980s. 

Hung Tung was an 

illiterate laborer in 

Tainan who, at the 

William Forsythe is widely known as the 

“philosopher of dance” 

Photo: Dominik Mentzos 

age of 50, began to paint. His unique style – noted for its 

bright colors, repetitive patterns and powerful originality 

– caught on in the 1980s, bringing him fame and respect 

both in Taiwan and outside these shores. 

However, with his passing twenty years ago, Hung Tung 

is today no longer a name Taiwan’s younger generation is 

familiar with, says Wang. She hopes that “Who’s Hung 

Tung?” - a performance using puppets by the Puppet and 

its Double, a modern theater company founded in 1999 - 

will reignite interest in his remarkable body of work. 

The second event honoring a local artiste is “Dreamy 

Wrongness.” This musical turns the spotlight onto the 

songs and poems of Tai-Hsiang Lee, a classically trained 

musician and one-time orchestra conductor. Now seventy 

years old, Lee has won legions of fans in Taiwan for his 


9

Foc del Mar 

Xarxa Teatre from Spain will bring its own brand of fiery street theater to Taipei’s streets 

Photo: Henry Krul 

spirited love songs. “Dreamy Wrongness” will feature 

popular singer Yu Qi and will be performed by Quanta 

Theater, which was formed in 2010 by the Quanta Arts 

Foundation, a part of Quanta Computer Inc of Taiwan. 

A third production out of Taiwan is “Eastern Tale,” 

which creatively fuses modern dance and music with 

traditional Chinese music. Instruments such as the erhu, 

guqin and pipa merge with contemporary electronic 

m u s i c a s d a n c e r s r e e n a c t 

the story of Xiang Yu, one 

of China’s greatest military 

commanders, and Yu Ji, his 

beloved concubine and one of 

China’s most beautiful women. 

B a c k t o p h i l o s o p h y, 

m o r e t h o u g h t-p r o v o k i n g 

performances are on offer 

with “ A n A n t h o l o g y o f 

Optimism.” C r e a t e d b y 

Canadian writer and maker of 

eccentric performances, Jacob 

Wren, and Belgian writer and 

philosopher Pieter De Buysser, 

this is a performance with a 

difference. There are no fancy 

sets, says Wang, just clever 

and humorous scripts. An 

optimist and a pessimist collide 

on stage to search for critical 

optimism. Critical optimism, 

as the playwrights see it, is 

an optimism that looks at the 

world with open eyes. It asks, 

how do we find sources for 

genuine optimism in our world, 

with its many horrors and 

constant cruelty? 

To cap this year’s Festival, 

there is sheer fun and sensory 

stimulation from Spain. Xarxa 

Teatre from Valencia has 

taken its hometown’s famous 

Taipei Arts Festival Ticketing 

• Early Bird Special, from June 10th to 

July 11th, 25% off of all tickets, except 

for the lowest price tickets of each 

performance. Performances of single 

price tickets are eligible for the 25% off 

discount. 

• Special Package entitles you to an 

early bird discount with an additional 

coupon to win an HTC smartphone or a 

limited TAF designer poster! 

From June 10th to July 11th, any 

purchase of 3 different TAF programs 

qualifies as a Special Package. 

The purchase will receive 25% off 

of all tickets and a coupon valid for 

weekly drawings of a chance to win an 

HTC smartphone or TAF poster. The 

discount does not apply to the lowest 

price tickets. Weekly winners will be 

announced on the TAF website. 

For details of all the ticketing service, 

please refer to www.taipeifestival.org 

To purchase tickets, please go to NTCH 

Ticketing at www.artsticket.com.tw. 

For information, please call Festival Office 

at (02)2528-9580#196 

parades and turned them into spectacular street theater 

by throwing in music, fireworks and themes revolving 

around social and political issues. There will be two 

ninety-minute performances, one on September 3 and the 

other on the closing night of September 4. Both will be at 

the Civic Square in front of Taipei City Hall. 

El Foc del Mar (Fire of the Sea) recreates the popular 

Valencian celebration, Las Fallas, which is a grand 

parade of giant paper- mâché 

sculptures in praise of Saint 

Joseph. Pyrotechnics accompany 

traditional Mediterranean music 

with visual references to the 

works of artists Joan Mirò and 

Alexander Calder. Nit Màgica, 

meanwhile, is a floating, 

animated show in which fire 

moves through the street where 

it is staged, encouraging active 

audience participation. 

This year’s array of creative 

spectacles from Wang and her 

team connect both mind and 

heart and should prove that 

philosophy and partying can 

go hand in hand. Or, at the 

very least, with the help of 

some Spanish flair and magic, 

it should mean that this year’s 

Taipei Arts Festival ends with 

plenty of bang. 

Sunita is originally from 

Malaysia and moved to Taipei 

in 2008. She has worked as 

a journalist with The Edge 

Singapore, and now freelances 

with a business weekly. She 

loves good food and wine, 

hiking and dogs. 


travel 

YANSHUI (TAINAN) 

TexT & images: sTeven crook 

Yanshui – best known for the Beehive Fireworks Festival held here 

early each spring – is a charming old town. Also, it's ideal for exploring 

on foot, the side streets being full of quaint houses, small shrines and 

old-fashioned shops. You wouldn’t think it from the town’s current 

size (population: 27,000) and relaxing somnolence, but as recently 

as the mid-19th century it was one of Taiwan’s four most important 

settlements. Its ranking was reflected in a local saying: ‘First, Tainan; 

second, Lugang; third, mangka [the old name for Taipei’s Wanhua 

district]; fourth, Yuejin [the name of Yanshui’s port]’. Yuejin harbor 

suffered from silting and closed for good in 1900. 

GettinG there and away 

Frequent buses link Yanshui with Xinying, 

the nearest train station. Drivers should take 

Freeway 1 to the Xinying Exit. Parking near 

the downtown usually isn’t difficult. 

tourist information 

Yanshui's visitor center (21 Zhongshan 

Road) is opposite the post office. It stocks 

maps, books and postcards, but don't expect 

much English. 

where and what to eat 

Yanshui's trademark comestible yì miàn, an 

unpretentious but satisfying and tasty noodle 

dish. It's served at several places, including 

Qiaonan Restaurant & Coffeeshop (14 

Qiaonan Street). 

what to see and do 

Martial Temple (87 Wumiao Road; open: 5 am to 8:30 daily). This 

320-year-old shrine is dedicated to Guan Gong, and there's a huge 

statue of him on the right as you approach the front of the temple. 

Part of the small museum next to the temple is devoted to the Beehive 

Fireworks Festival, although the text is in Chinese only. 

The Octagon (1 Lane 4 Zhongshan Road; admission free; open: 

9 am to 4:30 pm daily). The town’s most distinctive structure is all 

that remains of a sprawling mansion built in 1847 for Ye Kai-hong, 

a leading merchant. Ye made his fortune exporting sugar to the 

Chinese mainland, and many of the materials used in the construction 

of this two-floor, eight-sided wood-and-stone residence – including 

the fir columns, roof tiles and limestone slabs – came to Taiwan from 

the mainland as ballast on his ships. The first floor is open to the 

public; inside you'll see the original partitions and a portrait of Ye. 

Surprisingly, the building has not caught fire once during the Beehive 

Fireworks Festival. 

Qiaonan Old Street. The name of Yanshui's oldest intact 

thoroughfare means 'south of the bridge,' and the bridge in question 

spans a small body of water that once formed part of Yuejin harbor. 

Several of the houses are two centuries old, and at number 8 a sixthgeneration 

blacksmith still plies his trade. These days he turns out 

more decorative items for tourists than tools for farmers. 

Life and Culture Museum (25 Qiaonan Sreet; admission free; open: 

9:30 am to 4:30 pm daily). There's no English sign out front and 

none of the traditional utensils displayed inside are labeled in English, 

but this single-storey wooden-framed building, said to be two hundred 

years old, is rather atmospheric. 

Adapted from Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide (1st edition, 2010) 

by Steven Crook. 


11

outlook 

Home Leave or 

Home Grief? 

Is the prospect of going home this summer 

thrilling you or filling you with dread? Marilyn 

Duncan-Webb explores the joys and strains of 

balancing friends, family and expectations in 

the hazy days of summer 

TExT: MARILYn DunCAn-WEBB 

The holiday from Hades or the best few weeks of 

the year, opinions on home leave often seem to be 

polarized. Most of us count the days and hours 

until we get on the plane, yet after we arrive, juggling 

our own excitement to be back home on familiar turf, 

the needs of our families and friends, whining, jet-lagged 

kids (and adults) and fitting in a few days' holiday can all 

add up to a nightmare rather than the dream vacation we 

anticipated. I asked several expats from different parts of 

the world about their home leave experiences: 

"My family is from the US and my husband is from 

Germany," explained one young woman. "This means a 

round-the-world ticket and trying to fit in one-on-one time 

with people in different continents. 

homeless at home 

If you have a property in your home country and it's 

available for you at home leave time, all and good. You 

and your children and visitors too, can settle back in, 

but what if you are "homeless at home"? The preferred 

alternatives are to rent somewhere or stay with relatives, 

or combine the two. The former seems a little heartless 

when everyone's inviting you to stay, but it can be an 

equitable solution and provide you with a little "me-time" 

in a hectic schedule of visits and parties and cause less 

jealousy. Who hasn’t heard the plaintive, “you spent a 

whole week with them and only a long weekend with us!” 

Faced with this conundrum myself, we rent a truck and 

trailer, which means that we literally have a mobile home 

that we can trail round and park at a site near where 

groups of friends and family live. This heads off some 

of the exhausting dashing between friends’ and relatives’ 

spare bedrooms in houses across the nation. Renting 

the rig also provides the excuse (and the means) to get 

away to some wonderful wilderness retreats when the 

atmosphere becomes too intense. Others rent furnished 

holiday homes and set up camp, inviting everyone 

to congregate there on what could be called “neutral 

ground” where there are fewer power plays. 

QualitY time With relatives? 

Staying with relatives is another option that can work 

both ways. Another mother I interviewed stayed in her 

parents’ house for four weeks last summer and describes 

it as the worst holiday ever. "We had all been looking 

forward to it, so we had high expectations, but it all 

seemed to go wrong. The kids were out of routine, so 

they were upset, my father couldn't cope with their noise 

and energy and it became a disaster. I spent half the 

holiday resentfully walking round the park. I've sworn 

never to go again and just have a holiday in Asia instead." 

A drastic reaction perhaps, but one that isn't particularly 

uncommon. However, there is an upside to this. A 

mother of two young children who has many siblings 

back in the US says, "my children have a wonderful 

relationship with their grandparents because when we 

visit, we're there 24-7 and it's quality time. When their 

other grandchildren, who live within an hour’s drive, visit 

for, say, Mother's Day lunch, there will be fifteen other 

people there at the same time, so I think my children have 

an advantage." 

singles anD aDult ChilDren 

Young singles and couples whose children are grown up 

experience quite different responsibilities. As a student 

or teacher in Taipei, your budget and your time may be 

limited, so although there's pressure to go home, you're 

keen to explore other parts of Asia while you have the 

opportunity. Those of us who have adult children, 

may be faced with the difficult logistics of our sons and 

daughters having moved away from our countries of 

origin, or at least away from the place where we lived as 

a family, so home leave becomes something else entirely, 

away leave, perhaps. A comment I heard was, “One 

lives in the US and the other is in Australia, so I’m not 

sure when I’ll ever get home to Britain.” Grandchildren 

further complicate the logistics. However, as one 

mother who has four children pursuing international 

careers commented, "Even if your children lived in the 

same country as you, you might not see them any more 

frequently". The upside of this is that having your 

offspring settled around the world provides opportunities 

for further travel to destinations you might not otherwise 

visit at “home leave time”. 


what's your objective? 

Families with both parents employed in Taipei have 

to factor in limited leave time, which means that there 

is no possibility of extended home leave for either. The 

hope is that the kids/sisters/aunts/cousins will visit here. 

Unfortunately, Taipei may be a fine place to call home, 

albeit temporarily, but it's not at the top of many people's 

lists of tourist destinations. Nevertheless, if the people 

who are important to you take time out to visit you 

here, it adds a very special level to your relationships and 

creates in them a wonderful understanding of the nature of 

your everyday life. 

"Try to work out what your real objective is; is it to 

have a vacation, or to catch up with family and friends? 

Can you do it all, how can you achieve some balance?" 

points out Charlene Aspinwall, former Counselor at 

the Community Services Center. "You also have to 

consider family issues that recur. For example, if your 

mother is very controlling, do you realistically expect to 

change things during one vacation, or can you simply 

let it slide in the name of harmony? Often when we go 

home, we revert back to our childhood roles and we 

have to question how comfortable we are with that.” 

As Aspinwall states, it is hard to dive into deeper issues 

when you’ve been apart from your family for months and 

months for a whole variety of reasons, distance and time 

being only two of them. This is something that has to 

wait until the relationship has been re-established, and it 

is unlikely to be resolved in a short time-span. 

Feeling irrelevant 

Cross-cultural experts agree that when you return to 

visit your home country, sometimes you feel irrelevant. 

Your perspective changes and what is important to you 

is immaterial in a different context. Cleveland, Mangone 

and Adams in The Overseas Americans call this the Uncle 

Charlie Syndrome, quoting one of their interviewees: “I 

remember when we got home from Moscow people asked 

me how it was there, but before I could open my mouth, 

they would begin telling me how Uncle Charlie had 

broken his arm. They profess interest in things abroad, 

but they really aren’t interested.” Most of us will have 

fielded the question, “So, what’s Taiwan like?” and after 

the first sentence of your answer found that the topic 

has changed. We quickly learn to keep quiet about the 

specifics, unless the questioner is genuinely interested in 

our lifestyle. Equally the minutiae of life at home may 

seem trivial to you and you soon become bored with 

endless conversations about office politics, school runs 

and committees that no longer involve you. It helps to 

maintain year-round regular contact through letters, 

phone calls or email and by reading the local or national 

newspapers on the Internet, so that when you return, you 

can more easily pick up the threads of what’s going on. 

experiences change you 

Even close friendships change. Experiences of living 

overseas, not shared by people at home, will certainly 

have affected you, so you won’t necessarily be able to 

jump right back into the relationship, however close 

it might have been in the past. Remember too, your 

children and their home friends and cousins will have 

matured since you last saw them, but the positive side 

of this is that rediscovering these young people “newly 

grown up” can be a fascinating experience for you and 

your children. 

There may also be resentment of what is perceived as 

an enviable lifestyle – the expat life has a luxurious image, 

with amahs, drivers, allowances, entertaining budgets, 

free travel and so on. Whether this is an accurate 

description of your life or not, it is certainly one that 

prevails and, unless your pals at home have had some 

experience of overseas living, they will not understand the 

unique strains that making your home in another culture, 

communicating in a different language and without a 

stable support circle delivers. 

Aspinwall examines this issue from the reverse 

viewpoint as well: “You have to remember that although 

you are on holiday, the people you are visiting may not 

be. They still have schedules, children’s after school 

activities, work commitments. You can’t expect them 

simply to drop everything because you are visiting.” 

home again to taipei 

And what about when you return? Do you, like me, 

hit the ground running, engaging in a desperate round of 

work and social commitments to get through that little 

grieving period after every parting? Or do you heave a 

huge sigh of relief to be back in your routine? After all, 

even though it may not be our permanent home, Taipei 

is still our place, for the time being at least. Aspinwall 

notes, “You need to readjust; you can’t always leap 

right in. You may need time to process what’s happened 

because this is yet another transition.” 

no perFect paradigm 

Everyone I talked with seems to agree: whatever works 

for you is fine. There is no paradigm for perfection. 

Holiday disaster tales abound, primarily the result 

of over-ambitious plans, or enhanced expectations. 

Fortunately, most of us seem to crystallize a plan that 

results in the most gain and the least pain. Aspinwall 

sums up these workable solutions, characterizing them 

as creating blocks of good quality time, managing 

expectations, giving thought to the objectives of the 

trip and acknowledging that you, your friends and your 

family will have changed since you last saw them. And 

to end on a positive note, almost everyone I spoke with 

said that, after they had smoothed out the kinks in their 

holiday plans, often learning from their mistakes, they 

had memorably joyful home leaves, and were able to 

maintain strong bonds with their families. Some said 

they had discovered new ways of interacting with their 

friends, looking at them from a fresh viewpoint, not 

simply through tear-filled eyes across the security barrier 

at the airport. 

Marilyn Duncan-Webb worked as co-editor for 

Centered on Taipei during her stay in Taipei. She now 

lives and works in Manila as a consultant for the Asian 

Development Bank. She has over 23 years of professional 

experience in the communications industry. 

www.communitycenter.org.tw Summer 2011 13

community 

TAS Middle School Students 

Make a Difference 

Text: Gary Pettigrew, Taipei American School MS 

Associate Principal 

Mahatma Gandhi said “The best way to find 

yourself is to lose yourself in the service of 

others.” 

Many middle school students are involved in 

service through clubs such as Kiva Club, Community Service 

Club, the Orphanage Club, and through a long-standing 

seventh grade Walkathon project that supports students’ 

education in Lesotho, Africa. 

In eighth grade all students are involved in a community 

service unit designed to teach about varied forms of 

service and our obligation to help others. Students meet 

in large groups to learn about the types of service, discuss 

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and explore where they fall 

on the hierarchy of needs. Connections are made between 

our students’ own fortunate situations and the reality that 

because they can help others, they should. 

In April each year the entire eighth grade participates in 

a park cleanup project. This occurs in small groups and is 

followed by students being asked to reflect on the experience 

and on the different ways they can make a difference. 

Students watch a movie called ‘Pay it Forward’ which 

focuses on helping other people and the obligation of helping 

someone else if someone helps you. As John F. Kennedy 

said, "To those whom much is given, much is expected." 

Students then undertake an independent service project. 

Examples of student service projects have included working 

with Animals Taiwan, volunteering at a local hospital, 

and baking goods to sell to raise money to donate to an 

existing charity. Many of our students’ families assist in 

seeking opportunities for service through service work they 

themselves are involved in. 

During an extended activity group meeting, students then 

share their independent service project. One grade eight 

student commented; “You actually feel better by helping 

the community. I will continue to look for more service 

opportunities. Another student explained, “Based on this 

experience I realize others are less fortunate. By helping them 

I can make a difference.” 

Throughout our middle school an awareness is growing 

about the positive impact individuals can have on their 

own community through their actions, and about the 

responsibility we all have to help those in need. 

14 


Taipei European School : Service to the Community 

text: Nathan Burriston (H1 Student) 

Ha r m o n y H o m e i s a 

r e g i s t e r e d, n o n-p r o f i t 

o r g a n i z a t i o n t h a t i s 

dedicated to helping those 

infected or otherwise affected by HIV/ 

AIDS in Taiwan and China. They 

provide shelter, medical assistance, 

counseling, hospice care and other 

forms of support to people living with 

HIV/AIDS and nurture the children 

of HIV positive women. Harmony 

Home has shelters in Taiwan and 

across the strait in Yunnan, Shanxi, 

Guangdong, Giangxi and Henan. 

The idea for Harmony Home initially 

started in 1986, when Nicole Yang 

(its founder) shared her home with 

her friend who had nowhere to live 

because he was HIV positive. Since 

then, Nicole has opened up her home 

to people living with HIV/AIDS in 

Taiwan, to provide them with a secure 

place to live, and campaigned for 

compassion towards affected people. 

As part of the H1 (14 -15 year olds) 

PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health 

and Citizenship Education) at the 

TES Secondary campus, the whole 

year group (seventy students) was 

challenged to take part in a six-week 

Service Project aimed at learning 

more about Harmony Home and 

raising awareness and funds to help 

the Association gain Foundation 

status. The H1 students were divided 

into five groups in which students 

applied for different responsibility 

roles. Each group was led by two 

co-chairs, with help from a vice 

chair, a secretary and other group 

members. The committees provided 

opportunities to gain new skills, 

including leadership. 

The ‘Awareness’ group mainly 

focused on educating the community 

about Harmony Home, while the 

‘Action’ committee was in charge of 

organizing events such as raffle draws 

and clothing sales which took place 

at local markets at weekends and 

during holidays. The ‘Treasury’ group 

took charge of tracking the funds 

and work done by the other groups, 

while the ‘Fundraising' committee 

were given the responsibility of 

approaching local businesses and 

corporations to donate money or 

goods towards the project. The 

‘Media’ group aimed to document 

the successes of the project by writing 

articles for various newspapers 

and magazines and organising an 

interview on ICRT radio. The creative 

talents of students were used through 

the design of publicity posters and 

video productions. 

To raise money, the entire year 

group held bake sales around the 

Taipei European School Secondary 

c a m p u s a n d a l s o c o n t a c t e d 

organizations asking for donations. 

The Awareness group designed a 

T-shirt and logo, and then asked 

the Action committee to contact 

an organization that offered to 

manufacture the shirts for free. 

Posters designed by the students 

c o n t a i n i n g i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t 

Harmony Home were also printed 

with the aim of raising awareness and 

informing people about our project 

and its aims. An envelope appeal 

was sent to the parents of students at 

TES, and their support was fantastic: 

NT$54,000 was raised. Meanwhile, 

teachers helped by supporting the 

committees and giving their time 

outside of school hours fundraising 

outside Carrefour and at clothing 

sales in local markets. 

As this article was submitted, the 

H1 students had raised NT$260,000 

for Harmony Home, but fundraising 

was only one aspect of the project. 

A s w e l l a s r a i s i n g m o n e y a n d 

awareness, all students visited the 

Harmony Home children’s shelter in 

which the children live and are cared 

for. The students brought snacks for 

the children and spent a few hours 

each Wednesday afternoon playing 

with and looking after the children. 

Film footage for a documentary was 

taken during the visits, showing the 

interaction between the students and 

children. 

Every Wednesday afternoon, the 

H1 students gathered together in 

the school atrium to update the 

rest of the year group on what was 

accomplished the previous week, the 

progress made and the tasks still to 

be completed. Each week the grand 

total was displayed near the entrance 

of the school. Soon after the service 

project commenced, students realized 

that working towards this cause was 

not an easy task. As people living 

with HIV/AIDS are often wrongly 

discriminated against, it has been 

challenging gaining the support of 

the public at times, which in fact 

increased motivation. The only way to 

overcome this was for the students of 

Taipei European School to co-operate 

and work as a team. Through helping 

H a r m o n y H o m e, t h e s t u d e n t s 

gained a sense of achievement and 

understanding, and by aiding others 

who face significant challenges, every 

single student developed a strong 

feeling of empathy. 

All the money raised through the 

H1 Service Project will be given to the 

Harmony Home organization in their 

quest to become a foundation and to 

support their work in the day-to-day 

running of the shelters. 

www.communitycenter.org.tw Summer 2011 15

ook review 

Battle Hymn of the 

Tiger Mother 

By Amy Chua 

Published by Bloomsbury 

Published in 2011 

ISBN: 978-1-4088-1316-4 

TexT: kaTh liu 

Dichotomies are a dangerous thing. Us versus 

Them, East vs West - it's not a story that ends 

well for anyone. Not to mention that it's 

patently untrue. No matter which two cultures 

you're comparing, you're just as likely to find similarities 

as you are differences. Which is not to eschew cultural 

difference and try and make everyone the same (which 

is an equally dangerous endeavor) but more a plea for 

middle ground - not a concept that I think Amy Chua is 

overly familiar with. 

Chua initially wrote this book as a comparison of 

Chinese and Western parenting. Although she says in the 

first few pages that you don't have to be Chinese to be a 

Chinese mother and many mothers of Chinese heritage 

aren't Chinese mothers at all, the label remains. You can 

couch it all you like but if you call a spade a spade, the 

name sticks. Personally, I would rather call this style of 

parenting ‘extreme,’and I feel it is far more a matter of 

personality than it is of culture, which is why this book is 

best read as a memoir, pure and simple. It's one mother's 

story of how she raised her kids and how it turned out 

brilliantly for one daughter but was a terrible idea for 

the other. She started writing this book the day after her 

thirteen-year-old daughter screamed abuse and smashed 

glasses in the middle of a restaurant in Russia, so really 

the point the book is driving at was 'boy did I learn a 

lesson' rather than 'my method is superior'. 

A lot has been made of the extremity of Amy Chua's 

mothering. Yes, it is extreme. Jaw-droppingly so at 

times. The oft-quoted examples of how she forced her 

younger daughter to practice the piano for hours without 

a toilet break; called her older daughter 'garbage' and 

rejected handmade birthday cards are all there, but when 

you read them in context, you understand a little better. 

This is a woman who is manically intense and admits 

it. She knew that writing about these incidences would 

get her some serious attention of the negative kind, but 

she still put it out there. While I really disagree with her 

methods I have to say I admire her courage, and actually 

there's quite a lot of good hidden amongst the extreme. 

For example, instilling in your kids that you think they 

can do more. Expecting the best. Pushing them to 

succeed. Teaching them the value of hard work. The 

point that Chua missed was when to step back and see 

that she's being more of a hinderance than a help, but just 

because it lacks this insight doesn't invalidate the initial 

points. 

A lot of things have been written about this book, but 

as is usually the way with media hype, a lot of it is just 

that: hype. Amy Chua is not a menace to society. She 

hasn't abused her children. Maybe she's made some 

questionable decisions, but overall, she did her best with 

what she knew. If you want to know the real deal, read 

the book. It's a very entertaining and pretty fast read 

of how one mother came to realise that her method of 

parenting needed to be adapted and changed before she 

lost her daughter altogether. 

Now we wait for the memoirs of Lulu. That'll be an 

interesting book. 

Kath Liu is an avid reader 

and a founding member of the 

CSC Book Club who believes 

happiness is a good book, good 

coffee and good friends. 

Like books? Check this out: 

http://kathmeista.blogspot.com/ 

16 


Charity 

The Largest student service 

Organization at Taipei American school: 

orphanage Club 

How much do we raise 

and where does it go? 

TExT: sARAH Lu CHAnG AnD MAx CHEnG, 

TAs ORPHAnAGE CLuB sECRETARIEs 

The Orphanage Club (OC) is a service-orientated 

student organization that includes both upper and 

middle school students. It has a wide range of 

activities, including teaching English to visually 

impaired students and raising money for hunger awareness. 

The money that is raised from the rummage book and 

clothing sales is all donated to non-profit organizations, 

including: 

• Oxfam America: US$2,500 is donated to this organization 

every year, which fights world hunger and poverty. 

• Holt International: We currently sponsor one orphan in 

Vietnam and another in China for US$350 per year for 

each child. 

• American Friends Service: US$2,500 is donated annually 

to this organization that works to overcome violence and 

injustice during humanitarian crises. 

• World Vision Taiwan: NT$60,000 is donated every year 

to this organization, which is dedicated to overcoming 

poverty by building strong communities. 

• St. Marcellin Children’s Village: US$15,000 is donated 

annually to this AIDS orphanage in Zimbabwe. 

• The Rendille: Kenya is sent US$10,000 every year to 

support one class of children in an AIDS orphanage. 

The Orphanage Club also donates to the Pearl S. Buck 

foundation by funding scholarships that pay for tuition for 

deserving students. The OC holds an annual Pearl S. Buck 

Christmas Party for its sponsored families in Taiwan. At 

this party, a feast is provided for the guests and children 

receive presents they requested as well as needed toiletries 

and school supplies. 

Proceeds from the Hallmark card sales support the Puli 

Christian Hospital, where NT$105,000 is donated annually 

to assist indigenous children. Money is also spent on 

monthly outings to two orphanages: Chung-Yi and Cathwel. 

The OC members take orphans out for special activities 

every month, including ferry rides, visits to farms, and 

trips to museums. The children also receive presents every 

Chinese New Year. 

To learn more about the OC, please visit www. 

orphanageclub.com for updates on our events and photos 

of our activities. 


17

profile 

Writer Richard 

Saunders: How He Caught The 

Taiwan Travel Bug 

TexT: TrisTa di Genova 

imaGes: riCHard saunders 

Trista: Can you tell us a little about your background? 

When and why did you come to Taiwan, and what made 

you stay? 

Richard: I originally came to Taiwan in 1993 to get a job 

for three months! I was made redundant in England, and 

rather than sign on for unemployment came out here to find 

work teaching English for a few months until I regained 

enough fighting spirit to start searching for a job. In the 

end I got a great job up in the mountains in the center of the 

island, and never left! 

Trista: How did you get involved with the Community 

Services Center in Tianmu? 

Richard: While I was looking for a publisher for my first 

book in 1998, a friend who was working for The Center 

suggested I approach them. Over the next months I got to 

know the staff there very well, as they worked on the book, 

inputting it all into the computer from my manuscript (that 

first book, the original edition of Taipei Day Trips 1, was 

written on a typewriter…!). The book and a few articles 

written over the next few years helped me land the job of 

Co-Editor of Centered on Taipei, which I’ve been enjoying 

for almost a decade now. 

possible. It never helped anyone worrying over a nasty 

illness or financial problems; on the contrary, it just saps 

some of the joy out of life. 

Trista: How do you stay so prolific? What is your 

driving motivation, and what is it you're really trying to 

accomplish? 

Richard: Enjoy life, and enjoy every day. My best friend 

died of cancer at the age of 40, and I don’t want to have any 

regrets when it’s my time to go. 

Trista: Your background with travel, and hiking? 

Richard: I’ve always loved the idea of exploring above 

almost everything except music, and as a young child 

spent hours every week poring over British travel books at 

home in England, wondering at all the fascinating places 

crammed into that small country. We saw a few of them 

on our summer holidays, but it was only after I started 

earning money myself that I really started exploring, in 

my clapped-out old Datsun Violet. The hiking and, later 

the world travelling, all grew from those early dreams of 

exploring. 

Trista (Roma’s question): How do you stay such a grounded 

person? 

Richard: I’ve no idea! I just go round enjoying life, 

making sure I don’t waste a day of it, trying not to step 

on too many toes, and following my instincts. I’m lucky 

in having (I think) a good sense of humor. It’s often said 

these days that it’s important not to take life too seriously, 

and I think this is one of the most important secrets to 

making the most of it. Plenty of bad things happen, from 

small inconveniences to major headaches plus the odd lifechanging 

crisis. The priority for me when I’ve been slapped 

around a bit is to work through the problem and get back 

to a sense of stability and positive thinking as quickly as 


Trista: You’ve established a hiking group now; how is that 

faring? 

Richard: The present hiking group (Taipei Hikers) was 

established about 2002, when I was working on Taipei Day 

Trips 2. The group has since grown (now there are about 

130 members) and we’ve branched out into hiking to places 

not in the books, weekend trips around the mountains in the 

center of Taiwan by hired scooter, and even camping trips. 

Trista: How do you choose new hiking trails? 

Richard: It’s easy as pie nowadays, as there’s so much 

info (albeit still largely in Chinese) available, plus passable 

hiking maps which provide a good overview of the 

Taiwanese countryside and the countless trails crossing it. 

While writing my first two books however there was none 

of that, and apart from well-established walking trails such 

as the Caoling Trail or the Mount Bijia Ridgewalk, it was a 

case of reading local guidebooks, asking lots of questions, 

and lots and lots of trial-and-error hiking. 

Trista: What are your favorite spots, and why? 

Richard: I’ve a very, very soft spot for waterfalls (I 

even wrote a book - never published - documenting nearly 

three hundred waterfalls in England while a teenager!), 

and Taiwan’s combination of steep mountains and lots 

of rain means there are hundreds and hundreds of them 

here. There’s no absolute favorite, but a new discovery, 

Yuemeikang Waterfall in Yilan County springs to mind. It 

would be a beautiful sight even if it was a popular tourist 

attraction, but it’s actually almost unknown, and getting 

there is a mini adventure, involving several ropes and a short 

wade upstream, which is especially appealing. It’s such an 

evocative place, I think, that I even chose a photo of it for the 

cover of one of my new Taipei Escapes books! 

Trista: The most beautiful places you’ve seen in Taiwan? 

Richard: There are so many astonishing places in 

Taiwan it would be impossible to choose just one, but 

the vertiginous Jhulu Cliff Trail above Taroko Gorge, the 

stunning but difficult-to-reach Taiji Canyon in Nantou, and 

the area around Fengshan village in Chiayi County would 

certainly be in my Top 10. 

Trista: How does Taiwan compare with other countries 

you’ve hiked in? 

Richard: It’s quite different. I’ve had the enormous 

luck to be able to do countless day hikes in many countries 

all over the world, climbed a number of high mountains, 

and done multi-day hikes in Uganda, Peru and Chile, and 

nothing in Taiwan can compare with the sheer grandeur of 

Torres Del Paine National Park in Patagonia, or be as otherworldly 

as the Mountains of the Moon in east Africa. On 

the other hand, while there are marvelous highlights in many 

countries I’ve visited, nowhere I’ve been (except England!) 

is anywhere near as rich in wonderful details as Taiwan, 

and with such a staggering network of trails much of it is 

accessible to the casual hiker. I’m still finding (thanks to 

local hiking blogs) fascinating new places such as waterfalls, 

caves, rock formations or abandoned villages just an hour or 

two from Taipei. 

Trista: How did Taipei Escapes evolve? 

Richard: Taipei Escapes started out as a simple revision 

of the two Taipei Day Trips books. As soon as I started 

updating them, however, I realized there was the opportunity 

to do far more than simply update them. So I took out 

all the Yangmingshan walks (which are now covered in 

Yangmingshan: the Guide), replaced other walks with 

newer, more interesting discoveries, and completely rewrote 

and redesigned the remainder with a lot more information. 

The result is basically a pair of new books, and, I think, the 

best I’ve done to date. 

Trista: What are the titles of your books and how can 

people order them? Are they sold mainly through The 

Center and/or other outlets? 

Richard: Yangmingshan: the Guide is available through 

The Center, at branches of Caves and Eslite Bookstore, 

at Page One and at a few other outlets in Taipei. Taipei 

Escapes 1 and 2 will be published in June and will be 

available from the same outlets. 

Check out Richard Saunders’ Off The Beaten Track blog 

at: http://taiwandiscovery.wordpress.com/ 

Trista di Genova is a freelance writer, author/poet, and 

editor-in-chief of the award-winning online collective, The 

Wild East Magazine online at: www.thewildeast.net 

resourCes 

taipei hikers hiking club http://groups.google.com/group/ 

taipei-hikers2 

523 hiking club http://www.facebook.com/group. 

php?gid=62310365281&ref=search 

hiking and riding in taipei (gPS info for hikes around Taipei) 

http://hikingandridingintaipei.wordpress.com/ 

hiking taiwan (Stu Dawson's excellent Blog) http:// 

hikingtaiwan.wordpress.com/ 

tony huang's hiking Blog (in Chinese) http://hikingtaiwan. 

wordpress.com/ 


19

ENtErtaiNmENt 

three is the magic 

TExT: CHARLIE sTORRAR 

number 

Three, a s M o n t y P y t h o n 

famously said, shall be the 

number of the counting and 

the number of the counting 

shall be three. Good things come 

in threes. The original Star Wars 

trilogy. The Bronte sisters. Small 

packets of Ferrero Rocher. Men in 

a tub. Furthermore there are three 

original pieces making up The Royal 

Threesome at The Crown, the latest 

production from the Taipei Players. 

Three then was to be the key to 

the new project from the Taipei 

Players – the city’s only Englishlanguage 

theater company. Late last 

year the company threw down the 

gauntlet to their legions of fans to 

write and contribute their own short 

scripts. Write they did and from the 

numerous submissions the Players 

whittled 

the original works down to Outed 

by Holly Harrington, Package Piece 

by Mauro Sacchi and Matthew 

Lippart’s Creative Control for the 

upcoming production. 

Established in 2008 by Mandy 

Roveda and Sarah Zittrer, both 

from Toronto, the company’s 

professionally-trained directors have 

viewed comedy and the universal 

gift of laughter as the best way to 

establish themselves on the Taipei 

scene and draw cooperation from 

local-based writing, performing and 

production talent. The exclusive use 

of original material in the company’s 

latest production is a measure of how 

far they have come in that time. 

A major feature of the upcoming 

performance is that for the first time 

a Taipei Players production will be 

accompanied by projected subtitles 

in Chinese, marking a new step in 

the company’s efforts to reach out to 

local audiences. 

The Royal Threesome at The 

Crown will be performed at The 

Crown Theater on June 25th and 

26th, at 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm. 

Tickets are available for NT$400 (in 

advance) from Toasteria or 

NT$500 (at the door). The 

first fifty pre-sale tickets 

bought will receive a special 

invitation to the Taipei 

Players VIP party sponsored 

by the delectable Awfully 

Chocolate. More information 

about the show is available on 

the company’s website, www. 

taipeiplayers.com. 

For tickets, Toasteria is located at: 

Zhongxiao Branch 

2 Lane 248, Zhongxiao east road, Section 4 

( 台北市忠孝東路 4 段 248 巷 2 號 ) 

Tel: 2731-8004 

shida Branch 

1, alley 72, yun-He Street 

( 台北市雲和街 72 巷 1 號 ) 

Tel: 2365 3051 

the Crown theater 

B1, 50, alley 120, Dunhua North road, Taipei 

( 台北市敦化北路 120 巷 50 號 B1) 

Calendar of Events at The Center for June/July 2011 

thursday, June 9, 10:30 am – noon 

special topic Coffee morning 

Topic: English Summer Garden Party 

To celebrate the English summer 

‘season’ of Royal Ascot, Wimbledon, 

Chelsea Flower Show, Henley Regatta 

and all the other ‘to-be-seen-at’ Royal 

events, join the English ladies for 

morning tea & cakes. 

Coffee Mornings are a great time to 

make new friends and reconnect with 

old friends. 

20 Summer 2011 www.communitycenter.org.tw 

tuesday, June 21, 2011, 7:15 pm 

tastes of taipei at samyama 

3F-2, 342, Fuxing South Road, Section 1, 

Taipei Tel: 0935-457-594 

Our monthly dinner in June promises to 

be a night that’s good for the body, senses 

and soul. John Ang of Samyama, a private 

all-vegetarian kitchen and gallery, has 

designed a smorgasbord of Middle Eastern 

and Mediterranean vegetarian dishes 

based on the principles of vastu shastra, a 

traditional Hindu system of design. The 

cost is NT$1,500 net per person, and part 

of that goes back to The Center. Space 

constraints, however, mean dinner is 

limited to twelve persons, so book early ! 

tuesday, June 14, 10 am – noon 

CsC Book Club 

Our Summer read for June is 

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle 

Moran who is well known for her 

historical fiction, focusing on the 

lesser-known stories of famous female 

figures in history. If you'd like to join 

us for a lively discussion and a slice 

of something yummy, please contact 

Kath at tl@communitycenter.org.tw.

TexT: SuniTa Sue Leng 

John Ang has a 

mission: to show people 

that there is a different 

way of eating. That is 

how Samyama came 

about in July 2010. 

At this private, fully 

vegetarian kitchen, 

John creates elegant 

dishes that use only the 

finest and healthiest 

of ingredients. The 

nutritional power, 

flavors and colors of each dish are carefully balanced 

with the principles of ayurveda, a holistic healing 

practice from India, and vastu shastra, a traditional 

Hindu system of design. “Color is very important for 

digestion,” says John, who used to own a yoga studio. 

Samyama has spread by word of mouth to become 

an oasis for soulful, wholesome, creative vegetarian 

food. It also doubles up a showcase for John’s 

extensive collection of exquisite textiles, crystals 

and rare shells. Born in Chicago, John grew up in 

Singapore and has lived in Taiwan for the last 25 

years, during which he has part-owned the antique 

shop Art Asia on Renai Road. 

For friends of the Community Services Center, 

John has a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean treat in 

store for our monthly 

Tastes of Taipei dinner 

in June. The night will 

begin with a medley 

of mezzes such as 

Greek dolmas, baba 

ghanoush, and hummus 

with pita bread. The 

smorgasbord continues 

with a salad of 

couscous/barley with 

artichoke, cranberry, 

mint and walnut; 

Yemenite vegetable soup spiced with coriander seeds; 

Yemenite baked guava with spices, onions, olives 

and mushrooms; and Tunisian vegetarian pasta. 

Rounding off this unique menu is a dessert of kataifi, 

baklava and a date/pomegranate cake. 

The dinner on June 21st will be limited to twelve 

persons and is priced at NT$1,500 net per person, 

a portion of which John will kindly donate back to 

The Center. Diners will also have a chance to chat 

with John about the philosophy behind his food and 

the works of art in his gallery. Samyama is a fiveminute 

walk south of the Howard Plaza Hotel, above 

the corner watch shop on Fuxing South Road and 

Tongfong Street. Please call John directly to make 

your reservations. 

Tastes of Taipei for June 

Date: Tuesday, June 21st 

Time: 7:15 pm 

Venue: Samyama 

Address: 

3F-2, 342, Fuxing South road, Section 1, Taipei 

台北市復興南路一段 342 號 3 樓之 2 

Tel: 0935-457-594 (John Ang) 

Glittering night at the Galerie in April 

There was plenty of glitter and smiles at The Center's monthly Tastes of Taipei dinner on Tuesday April 26th at the 

Galerie Bistro. It was warm enough to sit out on the beautiful garden terrace of the restaurant, which is housed in 

an atmospheric 1930s building off Nanjing West road. For the main course, many opted for the pan-fried sea bass 

which got nods of approval. my filet mignon certainly deserved two 

thumbs. Bistro owner ely also came by to chat with some of the 29 

folks who turned up for this special dinner, from which a portion of 

the proceeds will be donated back to The Center. A big thank you to 

Desta Selassie for organizing yet another great evening. 

Sunita is originally from Malaysia and moved to Taipei in 2008. She has 

worked as a journalist with The Edge Singapore, and now freelances with a 

business weekly. She loves good food and wine, hiking and dogs. 


21

CaSual diNiNg 

Eating out 

with Kids in Taiwan 

TExT AnD IMAGEs: sERInA HuAnG 

Parents with young children 

know what it feels like 

to walk into an all-too 

quiet restaurant, where 

the clinically Zen interior and linen 

tablecloths scream too posh for kids. 

This is the kind of place where other 

patrons send disapproving stares if 

your little ones dare to make any 

noise, blow bubbles in their drinks, 

or worse, accidentally drop food on 

the floor. 

Thankfully, I have never had 

this experience in Taiwan. Most 

restaurants – even the high-end ones 

– generally go out of their way to 

welcome children. This is because 

despite having one of the lowest 

birth rates in the world, Taiwan’s 

society still revolves around the 

family unit. So it is natural to find 

the whole family – at times three or 

even four generations – eating out 

together. Yet some restaurants do 

a better job at welcoming younger 

patrons than others. 

I asked Katrina Brown, author 

of popular family blog Kidzone-tw, 

about what makes a restaurant 

suitable for children. She said at 

a minimum the restaurant should 

provide a high-chair, sturdy tables, 

chairs with backs and children’s 

crockery and cutlery. Optimally, it 

should also have a baby-changing 

area, somewhere for a parent to 

stand with a baby safely, and space 

for older kids to amuse themselves. 

Brown notes a trend toward 

making family restaurants so childcentered 

that some dining areas 

resemble playgrounds. “Personally, 

I prefer to give my children the 

learning experience of being in a 

real restaurant with grownups, with 

a few tools to help parents and 

children enjoy their dining experience 

smoothly without interrupting 

others,” she said. 

I can relate to this. As a mother of 

a toddler, I look for these things and 

more when we eat out as a family. 

An important criteria is whether 

we can fit our hummer-like pram 

through the door. Many Taiwanese 

restaurants are less than ideal for 

the mobility impaired (or those with 

prams) and negotiating narrow 

entrances with steps can be tricky. 

Once inside, we look for somewhere 

wide enough to park the pram, airconditioning 

(especially in summer) 

and - importantly - cleanliness. We 

also avoid potentially dangerous 

places such as hot pot restaurants 

(burning coals and active babies 

are not a good combination). But 

above-all we seek a family-friendly 

vibe: a good indication is if there 

are already other children in the 

restaurant. 

We find that although most 

restaurants will provide high-chairs, 

they are not necessarily safe (most do 

not have straps), nor clean. And the 

plastic bowls and spoons provided by 


most restaurants are often too big for 

the average infant (although my son 

loves to bang on them as if they were 

a toy). We usually come equipped a 

favorite baby spoon and some snacks 

just in case there is nothing suitable 

on the menu. 

We have discovered several great 

places to eat out as a family in and 

around Taipei. These are three of 

our favorites, which I hope you will 

enjoy, too: 

1. Ming Jih ( 銘記越南美食 ) is a 

Vietnamese restaurant at 536-1, 

Kangning St, Xizhi ( 汐止市康寧 

街 536-1, Tel: (02) 2692-7015). 

What I liked: Lots of room for 

children to run around, and 

interesting knick-knacks and 

displays for them to look at. The 

chicken congee was ideal for 

young children. The restaurant 

complex has ample parking. 

Not so good: The wooden high 

chair was not very clean. It is 

quite a trek from downtown 

Taipei. 

2. Chinese Cookbook ( 京宴小館 ) is 

a Chinese-style restaurant within 

walking distance from Taipei 101 

at 194 Songren Road, Xinyi ( 信 

義區松仁路 194 號 , Tel: (02) 8789- 

2008). 

What I liked: There were three 

families with young children the 

first time we visited, and it was 

packed solid the second time 

due to Mother’s Day. Yet the 

restaurant always had enough 

highchairs, and no matter how 

busy the staff were, they were 

always friendly. The restaurant 

is impeccably clean, and the food 

reliably good. 

Not so good: No dedicated 

parking, nor much space to park 

prams. 

3. White House Café i s a 

European-style pasta restaurant 

on 536 Yonggong Road on 

Yangmingshan ( 台北市士林區永 

公路 536 號 , Tel: (02) 2861-9128). 

What I liked: Talk about kid 

central! When we visited one 

Sunday, every table either had 

several children, child-substitute 

pets or both. This is clearly the 

place to eat when on a family 

day-trip to Yangmingshan. It 

was a hot day, and the waitress 

immediately rushed out to offer 

our little boy a cool drink. 

There are gardens outside where 

children (and animals) can run 

around, plus adequate parking. 

Not so good: The menu is only 

in Chinese, and there are no 

children’s options. 

T a i w a n x i f u 

( T a i w a n 

daughteri 

n - l a w ) i s t h e b l o g g i n g 

alter-ego of Serina Huang, 

w h o e n j o y s s a m p l i n g 

Taiwan’s culinary creations, 

exploring new places and 

discovering cultural insights. 

Her blog is at http:// 

taiwanxifu.wordpress.com. 

The Center gallerY 

June 2011 

Cherry hill antiques 

Accent yourself 

and your home 

with the jewelry, 

oriental pieces and 

birdcages displayed 

by Cherry hill 

antiques. The 

bags, placemats and coasters are new arrivals, 

handmade by south China Hill Tribes. 

July 2011 

Di’s Jewelry and Bags 

On the sideboard display this 

month, Dianne Halliday offers 

a variety of fashionable jewelry 

pieces made from semi precious stones and metals, and 

vibrantly colored bags which will go with any outfit. 

tien tung art gallery 

This month The Center wall 

features beautiful Chinese 

brush paintings from Tien 

Tung Art Gallery. Priced 

between nT$800 and 

nT$2,200, these scrolls and 

fans with gift boxes make a great gift or a lovely addition to 

your home décor. Tien Tung also accepts custom orders. 

meili Kou of gide 

This month in the Gallery, Meili Kou of Gide offers a 

selection of handmade cotton bags. Decorated with 

cute animal designs like dancing cats and smiling 

rabbits, the items include pouches for jewelry, 

purses and backpacks. 

A percentage of all proceeds of items sold at the Gallery go 

to The Center, so please remember that by displaying and 

shopping here you are helping us to provide much needed 

services to the international community. 

Ceramics from 

masterpieces 

merchandise 

A selection of beautiful 

ceramic items, such as 

business card stands, candy 

jars, vases and decorative plates from Masterpieces 

Merchandise in Yingge. Also included in this display are 

bracelets made from various types of stone beads. 


23

ECo NEWS 

urban Gardening 

TExT & IMAGEs: DYLAn GRAVEs 

Co m i n g t o Ta i w a n i n 

August 2009 to work and 

live in my second Asian 

country meant apartment 

hunting again, something I detest. 

Usually I take the first place I see just 

to get the process over. This was not 

to be the case in Taipei but on the 

third day a huge balcony sold me 

on a place in a newish twelve story 

apartment in Section 2 of Zhongshan 

North Road. 

Slowly I stocked the balcony 

planters, buying little plants from 

local florists, but mainly rescuing 

abandoned ones on my walks around 

the neighbourhood. A friend told me 

that used coffee grounds make good 

plant fertiliser so I started collecting 

them from the machine at work - 

about 2 kilograms a week. They can 

be put on top of the soil or (even 

better) mixed into it. The grounds 

do go mouldy and often harden, so I 

use a chopstick to loosen them now 

and again, but from the research I 

did and experience since then the 

plants love me for it. 

I have grown some plants in half 

coffee grounds, half potting mix or 

soil without any problems. Using 

used coffee (and tea leaves) in this 

way reduces a waste product and 

negates the need to buy fertiliser. I 

learnt later on to get them from Café 

85 (they package them regularly - 

help yourself) and 7 Eleven ( I learnt 

to say for them: something like 

"ching gei wo kaa-fay Tzai" and 

after some smiling and pointing, I 

get a big bag). The balcony plants 

continue to flourish and l love to see 

the butterflies, birds and even a little 

head-bobbing lizard making regular 

appearances. 

One evening, during my second 

year at the same apartment, I was 

watching Costa's Garden Odyssey - 

a gardening show from Australian 

TV. His enthusiasm and a show on 

rooftop gardens made me think to try 

and get my apartment roof greened. 

The roof was designed and built with 

planter boxes, but they were never 

filled with soil and used (after about 

five or six years). 

I took some photos of the empty 

boxes, Photoshopped in some plants 

and made a Youtube video (http:// 

youtu.be/H3Hw-h2IZnY) using 

some of the TV program together 

with the photos showing where and 

how they could be planted. I created 

a poster with the photos and the 

video hyperlink and displayed it in 

the building's foyer before going to 

the building management committee 

meeting to make a request. They 

were supportive, but quickly 

expressed concern for leaking and 

cited ongoing problems with the 

building already leaking as their 

priority (in other words saying a 

polite "nice idea, but no"). I found 

this frustrating because this excuse 

is too often used despite many other 

buildings having plants and trees on 

their rooftops. Days later I pondered 

the fact that potted plants in the 

planter boxes couldn’t possibly 

cause a leaky roof. I wanted to 

mention this at the next meeting a 

month later, but during this time a 

new, exciting gardening opportunity 

presented itself.... 

...to be continued. 

Growing up in 

mild Natal, South 

Africa on a twoa 

c r e p r o p e r t y 

with parents 

who loved landscaping and 

gardening taught Dylan many 

things and kindled his love of 

nature. 


Tes 

roots and 

shoots 

TexT: saManTha hall (h4) 

In 1991, a new youth environmental group 

called the Roots and Shoots was founded by 

Dr Jane Goodall and twelve local teenagers 

in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Over the following 

two decades, Roots and Shoots groups have 

appeared in schools all over the world in 

over 120 countries. In the 2010 school year, 

Taipei European School joined this league of 

environmental pioneers with our very own 

Roots and Shoots club. 2011 is the twentieth 

anniversary of the organisation. 

Many people think that helping the 

environment is difficult; but Roots and 

Shoots strives to be green and fun at the same 

time! Members take part in various engaging 

activities that contribute to the greening of our 

environment, and the result of our hard work 

can be found across campus. Hand-made 

recycled paper signs posted above the light 

switches remind people to turn off lights when 

leaving. Used paper is sorted for reuse each 

week (both sides of the paper should always 

be used). Sometimes, sessions are spent ‘in 

the dirt’ – seeds of oranges and pumpkins are 

grown in small pots and flower patches around 

the school. 

22 ApRiL - EARTH DAy 2011 

TexT: Mr Graves (Teacher in charGe) 

Roots and Shoots decided to raise awareness of Earth Day 

through the morning bulletin and with a video or presentation 

each day of the week starting 18th April, as well as selling homebaked 

cookies and cupcakes on Tuesday through Thursday to 

raise money for our environmental work. We finished the week 

on Thursday by planting a tree after school. 

EMbASSy OF bELizE TREE pLAnTing 

Five students and two teachers were kindly invited to 

attend this event organised and hosted by Mr Novelo, Chargé 

d'Affaires of the Embassy of Belize at Tianshou Park in Tianmu 

to celebrate Earth Day 2011. 

Members of Diplomatic Corps and Taiwanese government 

officials attended. The tree planting was followed by Belizean 

food, music and a volleyball tournament with teams representing 

embassy countries or local universities. The day showed the 

improving awareness of environmental issues and the Taiwanese 

government's commitment to addressing these issues as well as 

how important a concern for the environment is to the Belizean 

people (40% of their landmass is protected in some way and they 

have the second largest barrier reef in the world). 

Please see our website for further information and regular 

updates - http://sites.google.com/site/tesrootsandshoots/ 

SAVE THE DATE! 

The Community Services Center 

16th Annual Charity Auction Dinner 

Friday, October 21, 2011 6:30 pm 

For reservations, please contact The Center: 

Phone: (02) 2836-8134 or email us at 

events2@communitycenter.org.tw. 

Community Calendar 

Live at Alleycats, TianMu 

June 17th, 8 pm-10 pm 

Flâneur daguerre -- jazz 

June 24th, 8 pm-10 pm 

LEO37 --- Jazz Hip-Hop 

# 31, Lane 35, Zhongshan N. Rd., Taipei (02) 2835-6491 

中山北路六段 35 巷 31 號 

Stage Time & Wine @ The Red Room 

June 18th, 2011 

6:30 pm - 10:30 pm 

2F., No. 117, Sec. 1, Da'an Rd., Taipei City 106, Taiwan 

北市大安路一段 117 號 2F 

www.communitycenter.org.tw SummeR 2011 

25

soy sauce 醬油 

[jiangyou] 

As king of Chinese condiments, soy sauce plays a significant 

role in local cooking. It smells of full-bodied soy beans with a 

slightly fermented alcoholic hint and tastes salty at the tip of 

the tongue and ‘sweet’ deep in the throat. It can’t be replaced 

by any other condiment. Produced for three thousand years, 

soy sauce is now fermented with soy bean. The technique of 

brewing soy sauce was exported to Japan in the sixth century 

and to Taiwan during the 1600s. 

King of sauces 

text: Ivy Chen Images: Ivy Chen, xIang tIng and Isabella 

Types of soy sauce: 

1. Black soy bean soy sauce is very 

popular among the people of 

central and southern Taiwan. 

All black soy bean soy sauces 

are naturally brewed, so it has a 

reputation for being healthier. 

The key ingredients to make good 

soy sauce are pure water, suitable 

climate, black soy beans and 

traditional handmade methods. 

Soy sauce brewed from black soy 

beans is darker and sweeter than 

sauce made from other ingredients. 

2. Soy bean and wheat soy sauce: 

This type is the most common and 

is mainly brewed commercially. 

Soy bean and wheat soy sauces 

are brewed using two different 

methods, which are explained 

below. 

3. Soy bean soy sauce: This type 

takes the smallest market share, 

yet has a good reputation among 

consumers. 

Brewing soy sauce: 

There are two methods. The best 

quality soy sauce is brewed through 

natural fermentation, while cheaper 

kinds are produced by an artificial 

process called hydrolyzation. 

1. Natural fermentation: Cook soy 

beans and/or wheat. Cool them 

down and make a “Koji” culture, 

taking about seven days under 

controlled temperatures. 

Wash koji. Mix beans and/or 

wheat with salt in clay vats or 

commercial FRP tanks, cover 

them and ferment for three to six 


months. 

Press and strain beans and/or 

wheat to get extra virgin soy 

sauce (the best essence although 

not necessarily the most pleasant 

flavor). 

D i l u t e , a d j u s t f l a v o r a n d 

pasteurize to create different 

grades of soy sauce. 

2. Chemical-hydrolyzation method: 

Soy sauce can also be made by 

boiling the beans in hydrochloric 

acid in a method which was 

invented by the Japanese during 

World War II. The whole process 

takes only a couple of days. After 

the proteins in the beans have 

been broken down, the mix is 

fermented with wheat and salt. 

uses: 

There are two main kinds of soy 

sauce: thin soy sauce and thick soy 

sauce paste (made from thin soy 

sauce and ground glutinous rice, 

which tastes sweeter than thin soy 

sauce). Thin soy sauce is mainly 

used for cooking and as a marinade, 

while soy sauce paste is normally 

used as a condiment. 

purChasing: 

It’s important to recognize the 

Chinese character that indicates 

naturally brewed soy sauce: “ 純釀造 

(chun niangzao)” or the logo shown 

in photo (top right). 

Shake the bottle. The bubbles on 

the surface are a guide to the quality 

of the sauce: the finer and the longer 

lasting the bubbles, the better the 

quality of the sauce. Of course, price 

is another guide to quality. 

storage: 

Store soy sauce in the refrigerator 

once opened, especially if you buy 

the naturally brewed variety. 

Center Courses 

June 2011 

aCtivitY First meeting Date time 

Summer Survival Chinese 1 June 13 9:00 am 

Summer Survival Chinese 2 June 13 10:30 am 

To sign up, please call The Center at 2836-8134 or 2838-4947 


27

gENEratioN y 

My Perfect Wedding 

TExT: LEAT AHROnY 

In movies, they always tell 

you that every little girl's 

dream is to find her 

Prince Charming one 

day, and have a pictureperfect 

white wedding. Even 

Fiona found her prince 

charming, Shrek, only in a 

more ‘ogrely’ way. Is this 

really true in reality though? 

Is there really a perfect 

woman or man out there who 

is destined to be with you? Is it 

really necessary to spend an insane 

amount of money on a dress you will 

probably never wear again? 

And does every woman desire a 

big white wedding? As human as I 

am, and as realistic as I can be, I for 

one have never ever thought about, 

or even pre-planned my wedding. 

However, my curiosity never stopped 

me from asking my parents, “Mom, 

dad, how did you guys meet?” 

My mother’s life had always been 

centered around her job. Working 

day and night, she was glued to her 

office chair like a magnet; she was, 

and still is, an independent business 

woman. One day, an American man 

followed her on the empty streets of 

Tianmu during Chinese New Year. 

No, it was not my father; it was his 

boss. This was how my parents were 

introduced to each other. New to 

Taiwan, my father struggled for the 

first couple of months. Keep in mind 

that this was thirty years ago, and 

my young father didn’t speak a word 

of Mandarin. My mother was his 

superwoman to the rescue! As time 

progressed, my mother and father 

became best friends. 

The first time my mother stayed 

o v e r a t h i s h o t e l r o o m w a s a 

complete nightmare, because she 

could not stand another second of his 

snoring. That night she asked herself, 

who would ever marry this man? 

Five years later, my parents were 

getting married. Who knew? 

My parents officially got married 

at court soon after, but they didn’t 

have their wedding party until a 

year later. In the end, the wedding 

turned out to be very simple, and 

relatively small in size; only close 

family and friends were invited. My 

parents didn’t see the need to make a 

wedding a huge deal. 

I understand why any human being 

would want their special day to be 

the best, and most memorable day. 

But I often find myself asking, is it 

really the only day where you get to 

feel special? There will be other days 

where every pair of eyes are on you. 

I think the truly special days come 

after the wedding date. 

The day you move into a new 

apartment or house is special. The 

New Year and family holidays that 

you spend together as a couple are 

special. The day when you announce 

you’re having a baby, and the day 

you feel it kicking is special. So 

many more days to come, and so 

many new events. A wedding is 

a celebration, but the importance 

of it is not in the expensive dress 

or flower decorations; it is the 

relationship between the couple that 

is noteworthy. 

We often have a modern-day 

scenario where two love birds-who 

have only known each other for a 

few months claim themselves to be 

Romeo and Juliet. Well indeed, they 

are! Young and in love. Somewhere 

down the road though, they may 

realize that things just aren’t 

working out. 

Yo u s u d d e n l y h a v e s o m a n y 

young individuals who think six 

months of dating will satisfy 

and guarantee a happily-everafter 

marriage. To tell you 

the truth, I don’t even think 

I can know a friend well 

enough in the duration of 

six months. Relationships 

r e q u i r e t i m e a n d l i k e a 

wedding dress, each thread 

needs to be sewn with gentle 

care and patience. Arguments 

and hardships are inevitable, 

but just as important, because they 

force both individuals to reach a 

compromise. Couples should try 

living together before rushing into 

a marriage. This is vital, because if 

one side can’t stand the other’s poor 

hygiene, tidiness, or weird habits 

for example, then problems need to 

be solved before moving any step 

further. 

Before you even think about 

having a wedding, there comes 

the question of WHO am I going 

to marry? Deep down, every single 

one of us desires some qualities or 

looks. A woman might desire a 

rich and powerful, but also sweet, 

loving, sensitive, and handsome 

man. A man might desire a sweet, 

saving, caring, beautiful, and graceful 

woman. But will these desires come 

true? Maybe, or maybe not. I have 

learned from the past that things 

don’t always go according to plan in 

life. 

My mother who thought she 

would never marry, got married. 

My father who thought his destined 

wife would be Jewish proved himself 

wrong when he stood before my 

Taiwanese mother with a ring, and a 

token of love and trust in his hands. 

Weddings, relationships, divorces, 

future years with the special 

someone, are all events in life that 

many people sail through. There are 

many different ways to tie the knot. 

You don’t have to spend 3.2 million 

dollars like Chelsea Clinton did in 

order to make it special. I’ve never 

planned my wedding before, but I 

have an idea of what I will need: 


• A guest list of close family and friends, 

• An elegant, but not too fancy hotel by the beach, 

• A simple rented dress, 

• Little decorations, 

• A dance floor, 

• Cultural food, 

• Music. 

I believe marriage is more than just a legal declaration 

or a party. It is about sharing each and every moment 

together. It is about respecting, caring and loving each 

other, and most importantly, 

supporting each other through 

the difficult times. Like the 

ocean, a marriage will have its 

high and low tides. Wherever 

you may go, whoever you may 

meet, the dream wedding is only 

a tiny piece of the cake. 

The Beat of the Clock 

TExT: CHARLOTTE LEE, TAs GRADE 3 

Tick tock 

Goes the clock 

Don’t go too fast 

The clock won’t last 

Look 

The moving hands 

Seconds passing 

Slow down 

What are you missing? 

Have you ever seen the full moon 

on a starry night? 

Or bother to reply 

when someone says hi? 

Tick tock goes the clock 

Don’t go too fast 


Have you ever stopped to listen? 

Stopped to take the time 

to smile and wave to someone you know? 

Slow down 

Seconds will pass 

The beat of the clock 

Time doesn’t wait 



29

ook review 

Rainy Night Moon 

by Tsai Wen-Fu 

Translated by: Claire Wang-Lee 

Published in 1999 

Published by James Publishing Company 

ISBN: 1-893584-01-1 

TexT: Owain MckiMM 

The Author: Tsai Wen-Fu is chairman of Chiu Ko Publishing 

Company and has written over ten works of fiction since 

1963. His publishing company has also published a 

collection of modern Taiwanese Literature, presented in 27 

volumes. In 2004 he set up a grant program to help support 

new Taiwanese novelists. He has received the National 

Medal for Outstanding Service to Journalistic Publishing and 

the Publishing of Literary Works in Taiwan. 

Rainy Night Moon is the story of Yu Yun Lei, a 

pedicap driver working for his adopted family - 

the Ge’s - who, on his last night of employment 

before breaking the ties of obligation undergoes 

a single stormy night of intense revelation and discovery. 

The book is all about family, about debt and about the 

ability to forgive. Taking place as it does over the course 

of a single evening, it manages to be surprisingly agile in 

its movement between poor houses, society parties, and 

the dank lonely street gutters where the rain is a constant 

metaphor for the discomfort, turbulence and unrelenting 

desire of the characters to come to some, or indeed any 

kind of a conclusion. Though this may be considered 

an unoriginal literary trope, and it is used plentifully in 

this book, the relief felt in the closing lines when the rain 

finally abates is undeniably, if obviously, powerful. Yu 

Yun Lei spends his last night working for the Ge’s battling 

several competing strands of personal conflict. The 

first is his palpable love for Ge’s daughter Joanie, while 

simultaneously struggling with a vigorous hatred of her 

father. The second is Joanie’s intentionally unfathomable 

attempts to sabotage his intent to marry ‘Beanpole 

Huang,’ a pretty yet traditional girl who Yu intends to 

start a new life with. The last is his inherent desire to 

discover his father, whose story is told in alternating 

sections during the narrative. The chapters dealing with 

the prodigal father, Liu Pei Bin are perhaps the most 

interesting ones in the novel. For all of Yu’s dignity and 

moral fire, it is the strange attraction of the degraded Liu, 

attempting in his last days to somehow reconnect with his 

(many) families, and failing at each turn, that really lends 

a grand sense of tragedy to the book. Like the finest of 

Greek plays the dramatic irony in which the abandoned 

son and repentant father somehow constantly encounter 

each other but never realize the truth of their relationship 

is quite brilliant. Both ultimately fail in their respective 

quests, but Tsai Wen-Fu treats this failure with an 

inimitable skill, and manages to turn it into an unexpected 

success story for the staunch Yu, and in some small way 

finds redemption for the haggard Liu. It is unsurprising 

to learn that Tsai Wen-Fu is primarily a writer of short 

stories. The structure and scope of this novel is one that, 

from the very beginning, craves a resolution. Using the 

rainy night as a framework and a reference point for 

major events in the plot, each of which remain unsettled 

with the ominous news that the rain is still falling, 

Tsai exhibits a novel of purpose and focus that hits its 

targets with precision. There is no space to waste in the 

art of short story writing, and that is a skill that Tsai 

translates expertly to the novel, with each event poised 

ready to launch a new perspective on the events of this 

long evening. Though the translation is at some points 

faltering, not running as smoothly as the overlap of events 

themselves, there is little lost in terms of the unrelenting 

gloom and grime captured on the streets of this torrential 

city, of which the characters themselves are slaves to the 

discomfort and sorrow it brings. 

Owain Mckimm has lived in 

Taiwan for over two years. He is 

a freelance writer in Taipei, and 

teaches English part time. 


CSC BuSINeSS CLaSSIFIeD 

eDuCation 

BeautY 

sport 

hair Dresser 

Contact: 

Jenny Wang 

Robert Liu 

Danny Shih 

Tel: 02-2836-1000 Fax: 02-2831-9942 

E-mail: info@alliedpickfords.com.tw 

A DIVISION OF 

INTERNATIONAL 


31

Word from the 

Director 

One of our incredibly dedicated volunteers (who shall remain nameless – her choice) is one of those 

happy people who has a song for everything. Basically no matter what you are doing at any given 

time she can think of a song title to match the event. She is much more gifted than I in this but 

around this time every year as summer approaches (it is coming right?) I always get the old John Denver song 

stuck in my head. You know the one, it starts “well my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…”. The reason I 

always think about this one is that for many of the people I know summer is a time of leaving, going home 

to recharge, or just taking a break while the kids are on school holidays. But you know, not everyone leaves 

Taiwan in the summer. Last year after the summer “break” I asked a lot of people about where they had gone 

for the summer and many of them replied that they had not gone anywhere. And neither had I…and yet we 

had not contacted each other for the whole break thinking that neither one would be around! 

Is there a moral to my fable? Not really. Will we learn some valuable lessons from what I am saying? 

Maybe, maybe not. But if there is one thing that I can take from my experiences of last year it may simply 

be “don't assume that nobody is around”. Make a call. Get some friends together. And, in case you didn't 

know we are going to be here for the summer too. We will be open shorter hours for the month of July but 

we will still be here. 

So see you soon. 

Steven Parker 

Director, Community Services Center 

Worship Directory 

(For full details of services please refer to Taipei Living or contact the church organization directly) 

Agape 

3F, 21 ChangChun road, Taipei, Taiwan 

Tel: 2598-1009 (office) 

csc@agapeicataipei.org 

www.agapeicataipei.org 

Anglican Episcopal Church 

Church of the Good Shepherd 

509 ZhongCheng rd., Shilin 

Tel: 2873-8104, 2882-2462 

www.goodshepherd.com.tw/english/ 

Calvary International Baptist Church 

21, YangDe Blvd., Sec. 2, Yangmingshan 

Tel: 2831-3458 Fax: 2838-5792 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 

5, Lane 183, JinHua Street 

Tel: 2321-9195, 0939-687-178 

City Revival Church 

B1, 210, ZhongXiao e. rd., Sec. 4 

Tel: 8921-8250 Fax: 8921-8272 

doris.henry@msa.hinet.net 

Friendship Presbyterian Church 

5, Lane 269, roosevelt rd., Sec. 3 

Tel: 2362-1395 

Grace Baptist Church 

90 XinSheng S. rd., Sec. 3 

Tel: 2362-5321 ext. 135 

Jewish Community 

For information call Ahrony Yoram on 0939- 

763-135 

Living Word Church 

B1, 304, ShiDong road, Shilin 

Tel: 2834-6549 

Mother of God Catholic Church 

171 ZhongShan N. rd., Sec. 7, Tianmu 

Tel: 2871-5168 Fax: 2871-7972 

www.geocities.com/mother_of_god_church 

vanaert@iplus.net.tw 

New Apostolic Church 

2F, No. 5, Lane 39, Keelung rd, sec. 2, Taipei 

www.nac-taiwan.org, info@nac-taiwan.org 

New Life International Seventh-day 

Adventist Church 

4th Fl. Health Center- Taipei Adventist Hospital 

424 Ba De rd. Sec. 2, Taipei 105 

Pr. robbie Berghan 0958-732-704 

www.nlisda.org 

email: rberghan@twcadventist.org.tw 

Oasis Bread of Life Christian Church 

10F, #55, ZhongCheng rd, Sec. 2 

(DaYeh Takashimaya, Tian mu) 

Tel: 28310299 Fax: 28317214 

http://www.oasis.org.tw email: oasis@oasiscf.org.tw 

English Ministry @Suang-Lien Presbyterian 

Church 

111 Zhong-Shan N road, Sec 2, Taipei 

Tel: 2541-5390 Fax: 2523-1361 

email: slpcenglish@gmail.com 

www.slpcenglish.org 

Taipei Holiness Church 

(Charismatic International Service) 

every Sunday morning at 10.45am with Pastor 

Sandra ee 

5F, 107 Nanking east road Section 4, Taipei 

Te: 27123242 

Taipei International Church 

meets at the Taipei American School 

800 ZhongShan N. rd., Sec. 6, Tianmu 

Tel: 2833-7444 Fax: 2835-2778 

www.taipeichurch.org/ gateway.htm 

TAIPEI JEWISH SERVICES 

Sheraton Taipei Hotel 

12, Zhongxiao east road, Section 1, Taipei 

Tel: 2592-2840, Fax: 2594-3892 

e-mail: einhorn912@xuite.net 

Transforming Faith Church 

(f.k.a. Bread of Life Christian Church) 

5F, 295 ZhongXiao e. rd., Sec. 4 

Tel: 8772-2207 Fax: 8772-2210 

fellowship@transformingfaith.org.tw 


COMMUNITY GROUPS 

Organization Telephone Website/Email Address 

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) 

www.aataiwan.org/english.html 

Alliance Française de Taiwan 2364-8833/ 2364-1919 info@alliancefrancaise.org.tw www.alliancefrancaise.org.tw 

American Chamber of Commerce 2718-8226 amcham@amcham.com.tw 

American Club in China 2885-8260 www.americanclub.org.tw 

American Institute in Taiwan 2162-2000 www.ait.org.tw 

Amnesty International 2709-4162 amnesty.taiwan@gmail.com, www.aitaiwan.org.tw 

Australia & New Zealand Chamber of Commerce (ANZCham) 7701 0818/ 0922 109 089 secretary@anzcham.org.tw www.anzcham.org.tw 

British Chamber of Commerce 2720 1919 www.bcctaipei.com 

Canadian Society 2757-6977 www.canadiansociety.org 

Christian Salvation Service 2729-0265 www.csstpe.org.tw 

Community Services Center 2836-8134 www.communitycenter.org.tw 

Democrats Abroad (Tammy Turner) 

democratsabroadtaiwan@gmail.com 

Dutch Speaking Association (VNT) 

www.vntonline.org 

European Chamber of Commerce 2740-0236 www.ecct.com.tw 

Gateway 2833-7444 gateway@taipeichurch.org 

German Institute 2501-6188 www.taipei.diplo.de 

German Trade Office 8758-5800 www.taiwan.ahk.de 

Goethe-Institut Taipei 2506-9028 www.goethe.de/taipei 

Indians' Association of Taipei 2542-8091 lalduru@seed.net.tw 

International Community Choir 2533-4272 internationalchoir@gmail.com 

La Leche League (Breastfeeding Support) 

www.lalecheleague.org 

lé the francophone 

thefrancopnone@hotmail.fr , http://thefrancophone.unblog.fr/ 

Lions Downtown Club Taipei, English speaking (Peter Wu) 2701-1811 www.tapeidowntowntw.lionwap.org 

Oasis Youth Group 2831-0299 

Overseas Trailing Talent in Taiwan 

TaipeiTalent@yahoo.com 

Paradyme Youth Group 2833-7444 www.paradymeyouth.org 

POW Camps Memorial Society (Michael Hurst) 8660-8438 www.powtaiwan.org 

Republicans Abroad Taiwan 

ross.feingold@republicans-abroad.org 

Shilin District Office 2882-6200 www.sld.gov.tw 

Spanish Chamber Of Commerce ( 

a commercial office and 

) 2518 4901~3 www.consuladoentaipei.maec.es 

a Spanish consulate 

Tagalog Hotline 2834-4127 paultic@ispeed.com 

Taipei International Women’s Club 2331-9403 www.tiwc.org 

TYPA (Taipei Youth Program Association) 2873-1815 www.typa.org.tw 

SCHOOLS 

Dominican International School 2533-8451 www.dishs.tp.edu.tw 

Grace Christian Academy 2785-7233 www.gca.tp.edu.tw 

Morrison Academy 2365-9691 www.mca.org.tw 

Taipei Adventist American School 2861-6400 www.taas-taiwan.com 

Taipei American School 2873-9900 www.tas.edu.tw 

Taipei European School 8145-9007 www.taipeieuropeanschool.com 

Taipei Japanese School 2872-3833 www.taipeijf.org 

SPORTS 

Biking Site in Taiwan 

http://www.cycletaiwan.com/ 

Hash House Harriers 0952-025-116 www.chinahash.com 

International Golf Society of Taipei 

www.taiwan-golf.com 

This is a non-profit group. Participants only pay for their gear and court fees. 

K3 Squash Club ( 

Free coaching is also provided for those who have never played before. 

) 0987 275 919 Facebook: K3 Squash Club Taipei 

Scottish Country Dancing (May Chen) 2706 3179 maychen321@pchome.com.tw 

Taipei Women’s International Golf Group (TWIGG) 2691 5912 twiggtaipei@hotmail.com 

Tai Tai’s Women’s Touch Rugby 0981-180-020 blandm@tas.edu.tw 

Taipei Baboons Rugby Club - Taiwan 0952 67 1995 bernierua@gmail.com 

Taipei Shebabs Women’s Touch Rugby 0913-602-071 johnnayoder@yahoo.com 

COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVES IN TAIWAN 

COUNTRY TELEPHONE COUNTRY TELEPHONE COUNTRY TELEPHONE 

Argentina 2757-6556 

Australia 8725-4100 

Austria 2712-8597 

Belgium 2715-1215 

Belize 2876-0894 

Bolivia 2723-8721 

Brazil 2835-7388 

Britain 8758-2088 

Brunei 2506-3767 

Burkina Faso 2873-3096 

Canada 8723-3000 

Chad 2874-2943 

Chile 2723-0329 

Costa Rica 2875-2964 

Czech Republic 2722-5100 

Denmark 2718-2101 

Dominican Republic 2875-1357 

El Salvador 2876-3509 

Fiji 2757-9596 

Finland 2722-0764 

France 3518-5151 

Gambia 2875-3911 

German Institute 2501-6188 

Guatemala 2875-6952 

Haiti 2876-6718 

Honduras 2875-5512 

Hungary 8501-1200 

India 2757-6112 

Indonesia 8752-6179 

Ireland 2725-1691 

Israel 2757-9692 

Italy 2725-1542 

Japan 2713-8000 

Jordan 2871-7712 

Korea 2725-2324 

Malaysia 2713-2626 

Mexico 2757-6566 

Netherlands 2713-5760 

New Zealand 2757-6725 

Nicaragua 2874-9034 

Nigeria 2757-6987 

Norway 2543-5484 

Oman 2722-0684 

Panama 2509-9189 

Paraguay 2873-6310 

Peru 2757-7017 

Philippines 2723-2527 

Poland 7718-3300 

Russia 8780-3011 

Saudi Arabia 2876-1444 

Senegal 2876-6519 

Singapore 2772-1940 

Slovak Republic 8780-3231 

South Africa 2715-3251 

Spain 2518-4901 

Swaziland 2872-5934 

Sweden 2757-6573 

Switzerland 2720-1001 

Thailand 2723-1800 

Turkey 2757-7318 

United States 2162-2000 

Vietnam 2516-6626 


33

PDF file - Community Services Center

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?