國父紀念堂 (SUN YAT-SEN MEMORIAL HALL)

Though he is both less controversial and more beloved, Sun Yat-Sen's Memorial Hall is rather less impressive than that of brother-in-law Chiang Kai-Shek. The one exception is this giant statue of the man referred to as the 'Father of the Nation'. A pair of stock-still guards in shiny metal hats watch over the statue and perform a formal changing of the guards ceremony every hour on the hour. Now I must admit that initially I was not terribly excited by the prospect of sentries marching in formation, but that was before I knew they were going to be twirling their bayonets -- they're practically a Sun Yat-Sen cheer squad!


The ceremony was very solemn and properly evocative of Taiwan's precarious national position but it also had quite the air of pageantry. War is such a dirty affair, with accessories more practical than stylistic, but these mere boys wore crisp white gloves and shiny lace-up boots (and you know somebody has to polish those hats every morning). At those times when the guards going in faced those going out, a fifth guard kept watch over Dr. Sun's statue.


Some of the choreography is so blunt in its imagery as to be almost ridiculous: the stomping of feet and of the butts of guns, the weird heil-salute (see video below) - but it also demonstrates so clearly how much work goes into the maintenance of the national idea. Aside from their very nice prancing, these dudes do entirely conceptual labor, serving to remind of what is sacred and what must be protected. And honestly, it works. Even I felt proud of Taiwan - the little island that could.

Here is a little video I took to give you a better idea.



and then they massacred the audience - just kidding! you know I love you KMT

I went to the Memorial Hall with my friend Fiona and she gave me the grand tour. We were introduced by Fileve, a colleague of mine from grad school who was Fiona's language partner in New York, and accurate to Fileve's description, Fiona is indeed 'the bomb'. We've been hanging out a lot lately and she is helping to get my Chinese into fighting shape. Here we are at a tea shop in my neighborhood.


and here is Fiona/Hsin Hui (馨慧) with her equally cool boyfriend Yi Cheng (逸城), known as "E train" on the mean streets of NYC.


Fiona lives in a neighborhood not too far from the Memorial Hall, so after our visit, we lumbered through the thick heat to a popular 'ice' shop she knew of. Now I am well aware that very few of you will find the menu for this kind of shop particularly appealing, but I swear that this 'ice' thing was absolutely delicious. So what was it? Well, imagine a sno-cone with beans and you are halfway there. What happens is that you get a bowl with a big scoop of ice and then you fill it with a variety of ingredients cooked in a thick broth. Fiona helped me choose based on what she knew of the flavors that I like so I ended up with red beans, sweet potato, tapioca pearls, and a barley-like grain. I know, it probably sounds absolutely disgusting, but it was a very tasty dish and the way everything mixed and melted made for chewy bites that were both comforting like soup, and refreshing like, well, ice. The best picture I could find of something similar is here.

After our snack we strolled through a downtown underground pedestrian mall and talked about family and travels. At one point, poor Fiona had to listen patiently as I tried out every possible tone combination for "jinu" until I got the one that meant 'prostitute'. Because neither of us are fluent in both Chinese and English, we sometimes get stuck on a word that we can't translate. And when we are without a dictionary we find ourselves in situations like this one, walking through a densely populated area (which would be everywhere in Taipei), with me talking loudly to try to make up for my crap tones, saying something like "Thailand isn't my favorite place to travel because it tends to attract tourists who are looking for.... 'sacrifices?' (blank look). 'infuriate?' (blank look), 'hard work?' (blank look) 'prostitutes' (flash of recognition) [and I'm not even kidding -- if you screw up the tones and if it is out of context, 'jinu' could mean any of these things]. It is such a relief when we finally figure out the elusive word. Inevitably we're both scratching our heads frustratedly and then one of us is like "I remember! genocide! yeah, that's it! high five!".

I'm having dinner with Fiona and E-train tomorrow night at a restaurant that serves foods made with tea then on Saturday I'm FINALLY going to visit a tea farm. I'm practically rubbing tea leaves all over myself in anticipation.