the truth about taiwan

chinese new year is a selfish holiday

2012-01-25T05:18:00.000-08:00

is chinese culture all about money? seems so. look at how we say happy new year (gong shi fa tchai). the word "happy" isn't even in there, but "prosperity" (fa tchai) is. maybe because to the chinese, the only happiness is money.
look at the new year's trips to the temples to pray to the money god (and look at how they drive getting there.. yes they'd sooner kill YOU than be a minute late). look at how chinese people spend the holiday (playing majong with relatives- for money, against their own kin)!
look at the requirements to give money, from their own relatives!
this year i made a decision: i REFUSE to say "gong shi fa tchai" TO ANYONE. instead i say "shin nian yu kwai" or just "happy new year" in english. because happiness- true,deep down happiness- is one thing the chinese people really lack.
happy new year to you. may you be rich in wonderful experiences,in new friends, and in love shared.

the truth (as i see it) about forumosa, tealit, etc

2012-01-05T00:19:00.000-08:00

are taiwan chat sites honeypots?
it would seem so. i have reports of tealit.com being stalked by female police looking to entrap foriegners. but forumosa.com is the strangest of all. it seems that site's main purpose is to STIFLE any criticism of taiwan. this is very strange for a site supposedly existing to HELP foriegners,and maybe give them a healthy vent for the frustrations they face living here day to day. forumosa also seems to be a cliche. i was so much as told this by one of the main people in charge of the site, ie " now that we know you,we give you a little leeway in what you say"... something to that effect.
forumosa and a few others have a BIG issue with any criticism pointed at taiwan. they will vehemently attack any poster who goes beyond the usual "taiwan is so great" etc standard line.
i theorize that forumosa is actually part of what i call "the AIT/taiwan cultural bureau complex", its purpose being to keep foriegn criticism in line. but that's just my theory.
another theory i have is that taiwan attracts very liberal westerners. these people think taiwan is paradise because at least it's not conservative, christian US,or wherever.
it's been years since i've posted on forumosa.com and i don't plan to again. i have better things to do with my time, this blog for one.

planning meet up in taipei

2011-12-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

do i dare show my face in taipei? you bet! i owe this to all of you who have been so faithful in reading The Truth About Taiwan for all this time. i would like to meet as many of you as i can, get know you, and share some coffee, tea, whatever at one of the larger coffee shops in taipei.
give me a couple of months to get things together. i just got back from the US, and am looking for a new job.
let's make this happen. looking forward to meeting all of you.

the value of boys in taiwan culture

2011-11-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

everytime i go shopping, i see a family of four, with an older sister and a younger brother. it's almost always the girl who is older. then i feel sad for the girl, cause i know she was "just practice". in other words, they were shooting for a boy the first time around and didn't get it, so they tried again til they got what they really wanted: junior.
of course, these families "love" their daughters, but they prefer their sons. the main reason for this insanity is because only a son can carry the ashes at the parents' funeral. so here we see again chinese culture rearing its ugly true face, that of utter selfishness.
taiwan men also value machismo over all else. if you've ever tried to reason with a truck driver who almost ran you over , ie " what did you say foriegner,&%**#&%", you know what i mean. this machismo permeates their religion in the form of militant Daoism and male preference.
a lot of taiwan men think the most important thing is to be born with a pack of incense in one hand and a dick in the other.
and the girls? oh, they're here to look at and dance naked for the dieties. or they're here to bear a son. and if they don't bear one, well.. try and try again. custom demands it.
culture is a bullshit excuse for being pig headed, isn't it?

happy birthday taiwan! now stop making excuses!

2011-10-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

a sincere happy birthday to the ROC and taiwan! now that you're 100 years old and about 60 years old respectively, time to get your shit together.
that's right! no more excuses about "well, we're a young country. we still haven't had time to develop", etc.
guess what? there are countries younger than you who are getting their act together. they are doing better at public safety and environmental issues than you have the will power or even desire to do.
guess what, taiwan? japan as we know it today is also 60 years old, and though they have problems, they have their act far more together than you.
what's holding taiwan back? it's excuses. excuses for why things have always been the way they are, and excuses for why we can't change them.
stand up taiwan! be the country that you can be! i cheer for you when you do it!

taiwan blogger goes to jail for saying noodles are too salty

2011-09-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

first, a foriegner goes to jail for shooting the finger at an old lady who was (according to the account) being a mean old bitch. then this blogger, a girl, is sentenced to 1 month in jail, plus fine, plus apology to a noodle shop owner for saying that his noodles were too salty.
welcome to taiwan's "face laws", designed to make sure that nothing any person does is ever criticized.these laws are desgined to protect misbehavior, and to make sure that no one has a voice against such misbehavior.
there is no doubt these laws were invented to protect politicians from criticism, ie enter the speech police. and the taiwan people's uproar over this? nada. zilch. nothing.
yes, it seems taiwanese people care more about face than democracy, another reason why i say that chinese culture is the antithesis to democracy. it will tear it down everytime.
personally, i'd like to call that noodle boss a typical, dirty ass motherfucker shop owner, but i can't. i'd like to say his noodles taste like shit, but i can't.i'd like to say "fuck you, you hater of democracy asshole dick sucker" but i can't. i can't because these things are illegal, so i won't say them.
amnesty international, are you listening? are you watching what is happening on this island?

why can't chinese people see themselves?

2011-09-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

(disclaimer: this article has nothing to do with progressive thinking chinese people, or those raised in a western education/culture. it has everything to do with status quo modern chinese culture, the masquerade being forced on the world by hardline chinese culturalists).

if one guy says i'm selfish, it might just be his opinion. but if 10 people say the same thing, maybe it's time to take self inventory and examine my faults. every country on this planet comes away from the chinese/taiwanese/singapore/hong kong experience with one or two major points:

1. chinese people are fucking selfish- the comment i hear most often is " i've never seen any people as selfish as they are". if so many different people from different cultures say this, isn't it time for a little introspection?

2. chinese people can't think for themselves- ie, all chinese people think the same.

Writer Bo Yang felt troubled because he wanted to say that chinese people are not the same everywhere you go, but after traveling and seeing the chinese disporia, he concluded sadly " chinese people are the same everywhere you go!"

writer ken nakamura said that the culture of "face" is the most dispicable part of chinese culture. I have observed this culture firsthand and i walk away shocked at how taiwanese people think they almost have a right to do evil. ie "how dare you say i'm wrong? how dare you impinge on my right to do as i want even if it hurts you?"
i have seen taiwan bosses cheat foriegners out of their salary, even going so far as to use hoodlum tactics to make sure they backed down. after 25 years in chinese culture, i have NEVER seen any group of people as evil as the AVERAGE taiwanese. i hate to say it. i really do.

yet, there's hope. i find one thing to be true: the LESS a taiwanese person beleives/follows chinese culture, the more honest, forthright, and intelligent they are. and the more they beleive and follow chinese tradition, particulary if they beleive Daoism, the more suspicious, untruthful, and backwards they act.

race is never the problem. its what we beleive that either causes us problems or makes us successful. chinese culture, as it exists today, is bankrupt in it's ability to produce quality human beings, and that's why we should take whatever value still exists in it and leave the rest of it behind.

what taiwan's militaristic streets sign really say

2011-09-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

yes, any city you're in in taiwan, the street signs are all the same: zhong zhen road, chong ching road, dzong shiao road, ai gouh road, etc.
these names all come from either places in mainland china (which the KMT at the time missed and had aspirations to return to as conquerors), or nationalistic slogans.
it's like the KMT can't think any farther than zong zhen this and zong zhen that- "we're building a new park, let's call it..... zong zhen. hey, a new street.let's call it zhong zhen!"
then the DPP can't do any better- "we're building a new park, let's call it 228!"
do these names keep the taiwanese from having to actually think up a good name for something? or are they for a deeper purpose, ie, to keep the military mindset embedded on this island?
personally, i'd like to see some nice names like " lan mei jieh" (blueberry street), "song su jieh" (pine street), "fong su lu" (maple road), etc. anything but goddamn motherfucking zhong zhen!
i'm sick of living in a police state!

taiwan's middle class sickness

2011-08-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

last week i went to visit my taiwan relatives. the mother in this family, like many taiwan middle class parents, is on a health kick. her cooking is totally tasteless,thanks to the absence of fats and salt, and other things that normally go into cooking, all in the name of making her kids healthy. needless to say, her kids have zero appetite, and suffer colds all the time.
this time, i said " let's order pizza tonight". the boy in this family suddenly hugged me like he had been starving for some real food. this set off an alarm for me.
when the pizza got there, i saw he had been crying before coming downstairs. seems mom had been telling him " remember your cold, pizza will make it worse" etc. i gave him two pieces and told him to eat up. he got the same nagging in the background, "remember your cold" and "remember your stomach, don't eat too much" even before he had taken a bite. i told him " eat up dude, you'll grow strong!" he laughed and went to work on the pizza like a kid from Somalia.
what is taiwan's middle class sickness? it's their total stupidity when it comes to knowing what's best for their children. they take whatever health advice/"evidence" is on TV as the gospel, instead of reference,and force it on their families.
like fats. everybody is trying to cut fats. but children need fats for their brains to grow.the brain is composed almost entirely of CHOLESTEROL! if you don't eat eggs, your brain will fucking shrink!! look it up!
then taiwanese spout utterly shit stupid things like "eat ice cream in the winter, it will warm you up". take a good look at KURLIEAN PHOTOGRAPHY of someone eating ice cream! his body core turns BLUE , because it's almost ZERO DEGREES CELSIUS, dumb fuck! people have died in blizzards because they ate snow to hydrate and it dropped their core body temp to zero!
and anyway, colds are caused by a virus. pizza, whatever, doesn't make a jack shit of difference, dumbass yuppies!
the real reason for this societal sickness is because chinese culture in general only teaches suffering. a culture that only values the ability to suffer will in the end only transfer suffering onto others.
i hope this little guy rebels and becomes hooked on meat, cheese, eggs, bacon. i'd rather him reach adulthood than nirvana or some other stupid shit like that. anal parents are doing more harm than good, if they do any good at all.

8 myths about chinese culture that need to GO!

2011-08-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

the following is a list of things many chinese/taiwanese hold sacred and assume to be true, and therefore fall under the wrath of my righteous keyboard:

1. the chinese are one people- let's see, the miao, hui, manchu,tujia, yi,mongol,buyei, dong,yao, oh yeah and han, the largest (claimed) ethnic group.there are probably over 100 different groups.how many chinese people are actually Han is up for debate.

2. the name "zhong guoh" means "middle kingdom" - wrong! it means a conglomeration of all the peoples living in that land. it was not meant to denote that the ancient chinese thought of themselves as being the center of the earth (a favorite myth of chinese nationalist/ sino-centrists to further instill feelings of racial superiority in chinese people).

3. chinese culture is one, unbroken, enlightened culture- chinese culture is fragmented by many dynasties, two of which were foriegn (mongols and manchu). some of the dynasties would be considered very englightened, while others were backwards and cruel. and that line is not drawn between foriegn and "han" dynasties. there were a large number of extremely stupid "han" rulers.

4. chinese writing is one continuous line of evolution to what it is now- false. there were other lineages of writing systems,but they died out, and we have (fortunately) the one we do now.

5. the chinese were more enlightened than the westerners- until 500 years ago. then they fell behind. and that falling behind has EVERYTHING to do with their own backwardness. time to put the blame where it belongs.and many things still practiced in chinese culture are cruel by modern standards. if these cruel practices are any hint, it is doubtful that the chinese were ever all that enlightened.

6. to be Chinese means to be Tao or Buddhist- buddhism came to china about 2000 years ago. tao was invented about 2500 years ago. if you want to claim chinese culture as being 5000 years old, stop condemning 3000 years of people before Tao and Buddha to being "not chinese", by your definition.
there are (since the 600AD for Christianity), chinese christians,chinese muslisms, and chinese jews with a long history/lineage. there are also "crypto" groups who hid their religion under the guise of buddhism/taoism. it is believed a large part of gwan ying/pusa iconology is really the Virgin Mary.

7.chinese culture developed on its own- another nationalistic wet dream. Bu Dai Xi,the famous taiwan puppets,actually orignated in Turkey. the oldest mummies in china were in fact Causcasian, and had in their possession accupuncture needles, long before the birth of Hua Tou , the supposed inventor of chinese medicine. the romans and greeks knew where china was. the silk road ran (and still does) to the West for thousands of years.

8.the chinese invented gunpowder and paper and that proves that they are a superior race- any group of people as large as the chinese is bound to have some geniuses. that doesn't mean the whole race is smart, just as some white guys sending a man to the moon doesn't make Caucasians superior. their culture,maybe. but not race.

so where does this leave you, if you are a chinese/taiwanese? be proud of your culture, but forget the rants of the chinese nationalists on both sides of the taiwan strait and amongst the chinese disporia who want to lead you astray. keep the useful things from chinese culture, and discard the rest. live a western life. you'll be happier.

the taiwanese facade

2011-08-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

yes, you've probably seen it. local tries to run you off the road. you yell at him "hey, dude!". he stops his car/motorcycle, starts screaming, you stand there terrifed or you take off (don't blame you for either action).
but wait. why is he yelling? isn't he mr. tough, all powerful to do you damage? why does he scream and warn you? is he doing you a favor? showing you mercy?
the truth is, mr. loudmouth can't do shit. that is, he can't do shit if you don't flinch. the whole yelling routine is a facade. it is a form of "interview" to see how far he can take it with you. by flinching at his noise (and that's all it is) you have given him license to do what he wants. and his yelling is really a way for him to psyche himself up ,cause guess what? he's scared too.
i have engaged these guys in their game, and NOT ONE OF THEM was ever able to come across with the goods- either they did nothing or they tried a wussy ass move like pushing (terrible move in a fight). the one guy who tried this literally WILTED when i pushed him back.
these guys are TERRIBLE fighters. really terrible. and chinese kung fu won't help them.
i don't recommend that you engage them if you don't have to, but next time, don't run. take a good look at what you're seeing- a stupid spoiled hick that THINKS he get his way with everyone. look him in the eye.
these guys are really a joke,and once you see the facade exposed before your very eyes, it's liberating.

beating "miss english" at her own game

2011-07-29T00:27:00.000-07:00

if you're a guy foriegner in taiwan, you will meet many girls. though a few years back, you might have been "flavor of the month", nowdays, she is most likely only interested in english, english, ENGLISH! yes, english is the new mantra, the life changing entity that can get her a better job, help her move to another country, or whatever.
which is, if you need language exchange, all good. you teach her, she teaches you. fair exchange is no crime. or if she wants to pay you monetarily, well, all for capitalism, my friend.
but what if she just wants an english practice partner, under the guise of "friendship"? this friendship includes always being on FB or MSN, except of course on weekends, when she's out with her real friends. she never asked you, now did she? it includes allowing you to inuendo as much as you want (to keep you on the hook) as long as it's not too straight forward, in which case she will just drop you, having at least practiced and improved her english some. and you got.... zero.
so how do you avoid being used by miss english? first of all, be professional. print out cards for private teaching. make sure miss english gets one when you first meet. let her know you teach for a living.
two, set your fees high. what? and ruin my chances of getting business, not to mention hooking up with her? listen: you won't lose anything by asking for what you're worth. cutting her a deal, etc, only makes you poor. and if your goal is to have miss english in the sack, selling your teaching cheap will not move her in that direction, cause she already got what she wanted- english cheap!
set your price high enough so that sucking your dick will seem like a bargain in comparison. do NOT inuendo that there is a cheaper way, and thereby condemn yourself. let HER come to the conclusion after paying 1000NT per hour (that's what i recommend) for a few months that it's cheaper just to become your "girlfriend", til she goes on to her beautiful canada, australia, or wherever that dream that doesn't include you will take her.
make sure you get YOUR end of it, monetarily or otherwise.

chinese human sacrifice

2011-07-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

contrary to what the hard sell chinese culturalists try to feed us (ok that's a gross pun considering the title of this article), the chinese people were no better or worse than any other group when it came to the most grotesque practice of mankind- human sacrifice.
yes, it seems that many groups in china practiced it. one must define for himself the meanging of chinese people, however. is to be chinese to mean only the Han people? the Hans themselves inter-married with the other groups. i doubt very seriously that there is such a thing as "pure Han". also, the name "Zhong Gouh" literally means a conglomeration of all the peoples living in that area (zhong he gouh), not the "center of the earth/ middle kingdom" as many writers would have us beleive.
so many of the tribes in china practiced it. but how late? and did the han practice it also?
Confucious knew of the practice and wrote/taught about it, forbidding it. his primary audience was the Han people (unless you han-ites want to disclaim Kong Dz as "yours"). so at least as late as confucious's time, it was still being practiced, presumably by the Han people themselves.
there are accounts of it being done as late as 1395 (the so called glorious MING dynasty). the Ching also practiced it until it was banned by Kangxi in 1673.
1673! for crying out loud! the Baroque period! 200 years after the west rose as a world power. that's pretty late in the game to be playing pagan.
no wonder western culture won.

taiwanese and useless morning exercises

2011-06-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

i love going to the park in the morning. one reason is of course to keep up my walking. another would be to watch the "morning mommies" exercise class (those girls can move)! and they do some very good cardio/stretching/ strength training.
however, i also notice that a lot of taiwanese have a penchant for totally USELESS exercises/health practices. here's a list of some of them:

1. clapping while walking- totally useless exercise. it does NOT, contrary to popular belief " da chi" ( stimulate the internal energy)- try more like DEADEN the nerves in your hand! the sound is also irritating, so it's at the top of my list.

2. clapping behind your back- also useless, unless you count the stretching of the shoulders. you are also likely to RIP your shoulder muscles doing ballistic movements like this. better to clasp your hands behind your back and stretch to the count of 10.

3. walking backward- get the fuck out of the way! yes, it uses slightly different muscles than walking forward, but you don't get that much benefit from it.

4. yelling "hah hah hah"- maybe some work for the abdomen, but i know western exercises that work a hell of a lot better. and quieter.

5. slamming your back against a concrete wall- can you say " fractured spinus process?" that's what you'll do to the protuding part of your vertebrae. or how about collapsed lung? fractured rib? give me a break. this is good way to mess yourself up!

6. walking barefoot on the dirt- the excuse i heard for this is " the earth element will leak into my body and make me strong". also tetanus will leak into any cut or abrasion in your foot! really stupid!

7.yoga- fuck yoga. so you can lick your own balls? i'll stick with sports medicine approved basic stretches, thank you!

8. tai chi- fuck tai chi. yeah, i'm being controversal here, cause tai chi has some health benefits: it lowers blood pressure, steadies the heart rate, induces relaxation. all around good things. so why am i dissing it? cause so many people think it is the ultimate, and it's not. there is no ultimate.

basically, a lot of people in taiwan just follow others and take what they say about exercise to be truth, instead of using their brains (something they're very lazy about doing) and getting the exercise FACTS that can really improve their health.

taiwan record industry and news bureau money

2011-06-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

God is real. I know this because I prayed for this expose' to happen for a looooong time! never really thought i'd see this day, oh me of little faith!
by now, the news and discussion of the taiwan record companies squandering government money is everywhere. but what didn't get discussed is why the news bureau was funding the record industry.
it was all about control. when the government gives out money, it wants something in return. it has standards and points that it wants to meet.
the real reason the record industry was getting money was because the news bureau was running the show, or more correctly, they told the record companies what kind of music to produce- safe, kiddie, immature music.
that the record companies squandered the money was a non issue to the news bureau. they got the product they wanted- music that was in line with their goals of thought control.
don't beleive me? then ask yourself these questions:
1.why is there even a news bureau? what do they do? they control the media to make sure nobody tries to go against the ROC.

2. why is there a police bureau radio station? to broadcast the the ideas that the ROC wants broadcast.

and now there is talk of the news bureau and cultural bureaus becoming one. that will complete their monopoly on keeping creativity against "status quo taiwanese-ism" at bay.

sex for english? yeah, why not!

2011-05-02T00:02:00.000-07:00

i like to quote boxing coach freddie roach when he talks about people fighting over petty things in the gym -
"nobody's getting paid, why do it?".
i think the same about english teaching. i get paid from class beginning til class end. i can hang around a few minutes after class to help anybody who needs it.
but then there are those who have no problem whatsoever with trying to get you to be their "turn to" english vocab machine/ chat practice buddy. is anybody getting paid for this?
and if you're not getting paid, then maybe you should be getting laid. let me explain:
i used to help people for free. i did corrections on their english compositions in college. basically i was the reason a LOT of chinese students passed english. i know this because their writing was really bad. everyone who went to me got an A or B.
what did i get from this? well, Mandarin for one. fair exchange is no crime. friendship. some great home cooked chinese food.
but i have also seen people give me zero reciprocity. when MY hour of need came up, these people didn't give a damn. they already got their degree. they got into a better master's degree school than I'll ever be able to afford, got a better job, basically moved into american life.
i also see really beautiful women in taiwan who just want a first time foriegn friend. they want the foriegner "atmosphere". they want to chat english. they want help with their college app. they want help with their job app. then they go there, get a great job, move abroad, marry up.
and what did you get from this compared to what THEY got? did they ever consider you in their plans? oh, you're just an english teacher. an unpaid english teacher!
so don't be a rug: no fuck, no friend. no pussy, no pal.
nobody's gettin' paid, right?
and a fair exchange is no crime.

taiwan women as spreaders of misery

2011-04-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

i joined the taiwan foriegn spouse club many years ago. no, it's not a real club, just a figure of speech. but i hear a lot of the same thing coming from these guys, ie how taiwan women are one the one hand wonderful, and on the other, a source of unhappiness.
this i beleive, stems from the fact that taiwan women are themselves perpetually unhappy. anybody who puts her standards in the stratosphere is bound to be dissapointed, especially when you expect others to make you happy.
taiwan women have been taught, thru their moms, girlfriends, assorted magazines, and ditzy talk show guests that it is a man's responsiblity to provide happiness for them. men are also supposed to be "ti tieh" (thoughtful is one translation), caring, and at the same time strong, good providers, etc. basically the same demands as women in the west put on men.
the difference is, taiwan women really think they're going to get all this.most western women eventually grow up and accept the guy for who he is. taiwan women never do. they drill their fucked up, sleep over party chat/what a guy should be standard into the fucking ground. they never give up,relentlessly making sure that they get their guy to where they can brag on him. basically, chinese culture in a nutshell: face, face, face!!!
then, when their guy can't meet this impossible task (pulling her out of her pit of self imposed misery), these women bury themselves in cheap novels in which the "ideal" man treats the woman in an "ideal" way.
of course, these women are setting themselves up for the ultimate scam, which is the subject of another article.
i was always taught that happiness is between you and God. nobody can "make" you happy. you have to make yourself happy. you have to find the happiness in whatever situation you are in, and be thankful for what and whom you have in your life, dispite their faults and shortcomings.
why are taiwan women so perpetually unhappy? it's because they don't have faith. they can only see 3 feet in front of them, and that's to bury whatever special, unique qualities their man had in the graveyard of some arbitrary "standard".
God help us.

the taiwan adjustment bureau

2011-04-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

matt damon rocks. best movie i've seen in a while. especially since it's real.
that's right, it exists, in taiwan at least. if you've ever thought someone was pulling strings to make sure your shit doesn't get off the ground, you might have good reason for such suspicions.
a LOT of what goes on in Taiwan is manipulated. from pop stars who sing the same, government approved crap, to rigged singing contests, to backbiting foriegners (a prime source of doing in), to territorial-ism by locals, the deck is stacked.
one run in i had with the adjustment bureau went like this:
i got a call from a bushiban (they had obtained my number from my workplace somehow), saying that i had gone into their school and broken a vase on purpose. they said the guy who did it had shown up a few days before saying he was me! the students who saw him wreck the vase recognized him and i was called. i asked them why weren't the cops calling me then? they said the police had already investigated but the video tape wasn't clear, etc.
i have been canceled out of a lot of opportunities to play music thanks to territorialism by locals.or there's always some hitch where you can't do it because you're a foriegner. every time you think you can get a little ahead, they move the "stop go no further" sign to right in front of you!
i recently made friends with a foriegner. after not having seen her for a few months, i happened to run into her near my house. when i said "hi" she looked like she had seen the devil and wanted nothing to do with me. every time i see her now she acts this way. we parted the first meeting in a friendly way. i hadn't seen her between the two times i mentioned.what happened between those two times?
backstabbing foriegners would be my guess.but what would their purpose be in doing that? i treat everyone i meet with respect, nor have i tried to take anything from anyone. as far as i know, i haven't wronged anyone beyond expressing unpopular opinions on the net (which is my right. you don't like it, suck my dick).
is there an agenda bureau in taiwan that tries to keep the status quo? maybe,maybe not. but definitely something's up. maybe just greed and conflict of interests.
maybe just some small people who will do anything to hang onto whatever piece of this island they percieve to be theirs.

are taiwan women spoiled bitches?

2011-04-01T02:04:00.000-07:00

the title was a question. no need to be offended by my question. you can be offended by my answer.

yes, they are.

as an adult english teacher, i listen to a lot of answers to topic questions in my class. when the book gets around to love and relationships you always hear them saying the same shit:

" i want a guy who is tall, understands me, is responsible, etc"

the problem with this is they never really define what responsible is. from my experience, what they mean by responsible is "safe". they want some castrated man who never takes chances, never moves in a direction that might make them feel unsafe, never walks the path less chosen. they want a guy who is bent to their wishes for "the dream" ie, the house, the car, the baby, the whole nine yards.
nothing wrong with those things, except that they have become the "price for admission" so to speak, rather than the result of two people's love for one another.
then taiwan women always talk about how they want someone who understands them. by this, i take it to mean they want an extention of their spoiling family who will put up with their temper tantrums and stupidity. these women are basically in the market for either daddy or their older brother, someone who is used to their bullshit.
expecting someone to understand you is the height of immaturity. we should seek more to understand others than to be understood. the world owes us nothing, but we live in it,and should learn to adapt to it, not the other way around.
i find taiwan women to be utterly selfish and self centered. lately i look at them with a mild disgust, despite their physical beauty.
ain't no pussy worth their crap.

gangsters are douchebags

2011-03-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

mafia of any extraction are the biggest fucking losers and hypocrites on the planet. their whole " rob the rich protect the weak" line is just an excuse. how is forcing an aborigine girl to take 30 prostitution customers "protecting the weak"?
then they call themselves "patriots". what a lot of chinese people don't know is THE CHINESE MAFIA participated in the raping and murdering of other chinese during WWII (look up the black flags). also many of the top ranking people in the chinese mafia are actually JAPANESE! i challenge any mafia buff to prove me wrong on this. do your research.
if the mafia is the "protector of the people" that they claim, what were they doing during the 228 massacre? what were they doing during the "white terror" campaign?
yes, gangsters sometimes might help you pick up your motorcycle, but they also will run their car into your bike too, depending on the day. they only do right when it does right by them!
the taiwan people need to wake up to what these assholes really are, a stink on society (pun intended). any president worth his salt should hunt them down and purge this country of them once and for all.

taiwan women's merciless standard

2011-02-24T17:03:00.000-08:00

with modernizaton comes modern expectations. taiwan women have a right to want more than these traditional, pig-headed men of the past. but the standard can swing too far the other way, too.
last night i had a smaller class than usual, so we had more chat time, less formal (not that my classes are ever like that). we got around to talking about what girls like in guys. of my 7 students, 5 ladies and 2 guys, ALL the girls said they expected their future mate to be tall.
while i am well aware of tall being a handsome trait, i pressed the question further- why?
the response i got was pretty shocking. it was, to me, as cold, pragmatic,and calculating as any i've ever heard come from a woman's mouth.
the answer: " so my children can be tall"!!
these women want good genes! they're picking a guy based on his genetic material/potential.
of course, evolution/sex theory has always said we do this, subconsciously. but here was the first time i'd ever heard anybody consciously on the cruise for good DNA.
i find that taiwan women tend to think of men as "fitting a slot"., ie " i need a husband", this person can fit this slot, rather than " i really like this guy. i want to be with him".
people become pegs that can fit into their little holes (fruedian slip intended). pegs that fit into their preconcieved ideas and goals.
the kind of cold hearted answer i heard last night makes me almost want to, in the words of a friend of mine, "find as many women as i can and [revenge] fuck them without mercy!"
it makes me want to put lifts in my shoes, say i'm not married, and go around catching every one of these bitches i can at their own game. find 'em, fool 'em , use 'em, forget 'em.
i can understand if women find tall to be attractive. but sighting a guy out for his genetic potential, just so you can have tall kids to brag about? fuck you bitch!
for all their talk about career, blah, blah, blah, these women are still breeders.
i heard that all women really want is love. do these kind of women really deserve that?

surviving taiwan winters

2011-01-17T22:21:00.000-08:00

good luck. you're in for a dreadful time. taiwan winters are dreary- cold and wet. the temp will rarely get below 5 celsius, but the relative humidity and wind (especially around areas like shin dzu) will make you wish for spring.
the main problem is taiwan houses- basically concrete ice boxes. people always ask me "isn't it colder in the US?". my answer is "yes but we have some escape from it because our houses actually have an energy efficiency rating"!
taiwan houses are built to withstand earthquakes, but nobody thought or cared to install insulation. you get MEGA cold transference via osmosis thanks to a single concrete wall to the outside and a single glass window! some houses have wooden floors installed, but nobody cared to put insulation under them either.
taiwan people say, "oh well we don't need it" which is typical because a lot of them are cheap skates who just wear more clothes and get high all day on 5000NT a bag oolong tea. it escapes them that insulation also cuts down on outside/ floor to floor noise, as well as keeping out heat in the summer.
what can be done? if you live in a small "tao fang" suite, you can put those artificial puzzle tatamis on your floor as well as hang a decorative quilt from the walls around your bed. get a small space heater and make sure you have curtains on your windows. also have a rug near your bed, and sleep with a ski cap and socks on. make sure you have a good japanese style blanket.
open the windows at least 30 minutes a day to air out the house. you can leave them cracked while you're gone to work.
drink lots of hot tea/coffee, and buy some gortex underwear/base layer.
that's what gets me by.

the end of those singing contests

2010-12-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

i heard that Tao Jing Ying's singing contest will be off the air soon. i'm glad. the whole thing was a waste of young people's time and energy, and indeed their dreams.
anybody with the brains of a brick knows that the record companies controlled the whole thing. they put their "artist" in (picked of course because of who his/her uncle's cousin's friend is) then use the other competitors to show how "great" their guy/girl is. then they pretend they signed him because he won.
the other reason for these contests is the number of independent artists who have said "screw the companies" and are selling their work via Tunecore, i tunes, etc. the record companies are scrambling to find a way to remain as the voice telling people what to listen to. so they make these contests and sit there as judges,pretending that "they know".
the emporer has no clothes! these guys sit there judging minute details about the competitors' singing, when it doesn't matter,because whomever they pick is going to have his voice processed thru auto tune anyway. they do it EVERYTIME!
good ridance to Tao Dz's "show" (circus).
And kids, let this be a lesson to you: just because some old witch says there's a lollipop at the end of the rainbow, it doesn't mean she's going to actually give it to you.

wikileaks and taiwan

2010-12-14T17:18:00.000-08:00

wikileaks just confirmed what i have always said on this site: CIA is a big presence on this island. but that involvement went much deeper than a civilian like me could ever guess.
do i care? sort of. i feel taiwan should have the right to control their own destiny, if they can.The US using taiwan as their prime listening base (well they technically still own taiwan, having not officially released the island from WWII)is sort of a violation of all our rights. you want to live on an island to get the hell AWAY from big brother, and shit, he's here too!
and now AIT is talking about putting Marines at their new location when they move. is this a sign of a US military build up on the island?
hope not. taiwan took a lot of shit from US GIs during the vietnam era.not that "tai ke" probably didn't dish out an equal amount.it's just that the US military has a DESERVEDLY bad reputation, wherever they go. i hate to see that start up here.
personally, as long as CIA/FBI/NSA/whatever keeps low key,sticks to keeping China at bay, and doesn't INTERFERE WITH MY GOALS IN LIFE, then i'm ok with them.
just stay out of people's lives unless you wanna do some good.

taiwan foriegners: trust them.... not really

2010-11-23T02:04:00.000-08:00

some taiwan people have asked me if i hang out with foriegners. the answer is, "not really".
i take people on a case by case basis. i have taiwan friends whom i love dearly, as well as japanese, african american, white guys, ABCs, south pacific islanders,India, pakistan, etc. all depends on if they're a good person and have a good personality.
so the idea of hanging out with "lao wai" is foriegn to me (pun intended). hell, i didn't hang out with whitey in college even. i was the egg (white guy into asian culture) at the "asian table" in the cafeteria.
and anyway, some foriegners are here because they're losers in their own country. i don't trust them. simple as that.
as much as i rant about taiwan, i would rather hang out with locals, because whatever faults they might have, i know what they are. asian cultures produce a fairly predictable personality, but even so there is a lot of variation in that. foriegners are a mixed bag.there are some really excellent ones,and some shity ones too who couldn't make it back home with half the level of woman they're banging here.
it's that lack of up/down in the personality style in asians that first attracted me to their friendship many years ago.
americans could be really nice or an axe murdering pedophile. there's just too much variation in the personality types. taiwanese, i know, and can choose my friends accordingly.

why taiwan can't do western music

2010-11-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

classical musicians aside ( i think taiwan has some excellent ones, but they are rare too), taiwan just doesn't get western music.
take for example, if eric clapton were singing. granted, clap doesn't sing great, but then again, he's clapton for crying out loud. He is who he is. that's his voice.never thought about it til some taiwanese pointed it out.
in taiwan, they will say, "oh he doesn't sing that great" or "there's a taiwan player who is more 'li hai' than him. why, marty young can play 300 notes a measure" (which is lie, i can prove it...another article).
not that clapton is my favorite. just illustrating point.
taiwan people are always comparing one person to another. these singing contests have fostered this type of thinking. the average person thinks he/she can be a singing contest judge because he/she also sings karaoke.
also i've found taiwan students to be extremely lazy about music learning. they want quick results, even if it sacrifices really knowing what they're doing. they run to those TAB books, practice them, then try to convince others that they can play. then again, parents think music is a waste of time anyway, unless it can be used to compare with others or make their child "better" than others.
i never regretted being a musician til i came here. its really an ugly market. everyone from the idols to the guy who sells guitars thinks he's the SHIT! there is so much dishonesty and back stabbing. that's why i stopped teaching except for one or two really stellar students. you teach them something they didn't know, then they say "that teacher is nothing" and go on their way with their new info in their pocket.
then if you're a forigner, it doesn't matter how well you play. they'll just say, "of course you can do that, you're a foriegner. all foriegners can play guitar.you're here so you should be nothing compared to the ones in the states", so they think they don't have to pay any attention to you. then again, you still have to be careful, because local musicians hate being shown up. even if you're not trying to show them up, they'll think you're trying to show them up. ad infinitum.
why can't taiwan do western music? it's simple. because they lack a western mentality. i didn't say IQ. i said mentality. and going abroad to study at berkeley, julliard, MI, whatever, won't change a thing.
until taiwan changes their way of thinking, they will always be stuck in this ugliness. and the music will still suck.

why halloween and ghost month aren't the same thing

2010-10-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

last night at my apartment complex, we had a halloween party for all the kids. it was fun- 12 kids aged 1 to 5. we had stories, candy, went on a candy treasure hunt. all good!
a parent asked me before the party if halloween was like ghost month. i told her that it was originally, but since christianity took over europe, that part of it (ancestor worship) was abandoned. now it's just a holiday for kids.
halloween isn't like ghost month. for one thing, we don't really beleive that ghosts, gobblins, and most surely not that vampires and werewolves come out on that day. even though halloween shows death and other gruesome scary things, it's all making fun of it! that's right. we made death into a temporary joke. rather than fear it, we make a joke and a holiday of it to say" yeah we're gonna die, but til then we're gonna have fun"
contrast this to ghost month- death is serious business. ghosts are real. and they'll cause serious havoc if you don't do according to the tradition.
can't swim, can't do this and that, cause ghosts rule! they will kill you.
yet, i have lived 44 years without following the traditions of ghost month, and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED TO ME. that's right, not a ghostly thing!
now why is that? i also don't follow feng shui beyond basic air flow for my room.and i don't read the chinese farmer's almanac. i'm doing just fine.
and i have tons of dead relatives that i don't pray to/for and never will. life goes on for me. i have a rich, wonderful life in taiwan.
what gives? if all these taiwan traditions are true, how come they don't affect me? and how come they don't affect the millions of people living in the West?
maybe because i have an armor that protects me that's stronger than those silly idols sitting in your temples.
and maybe just maybe, your religion is a lie- a lie created to keep the chinese people in spiritual bondage. think about it.

tai ji mun- cult of the KMT?

2010-10-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

tai ji men is not just a martial arts group. they are, in my opinion, a front for a chinese nationalist cult, promoting all things chinese (which would be sort of ok if they were upfront about it) even using deception and myths.
take for instance the origins of tai ji chuan as they claim it. according to most tai ji-ist, it was invented by a taoist monk named zhang shan fung. they claim tai ji is of taoist origin and proves the teaching of tao.
actually tai ji was invented by a chinese general named chen about 300 years ago. and the original name was NOT tai ji chuan but Hao Chuan. it was not a taoist creation, but one of a chinese general who was very knowledgeable in the human body and the art of combat.in china there is a village called chen where the original art is still taught.
so the taoist connections are a lie. they are historically untrue.
personally, i can't stand a lot of tai ji-ists. a lot of them are all up in their own mystical-ness and percieved chinese superiority. i would love to see their anachronistic asses walk into a cage match and get taught a thing or two about humanity and equality.
tai ji mun is all up in themselves with their chi kung, dance, etc. they are the perfect vehicle for cult nationalism.

taiwan's government approved foreign artists, part 2

2010-10-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

the following are the approved foriegn artists which recieve the full blessing of the taiwan government:

Air Supply
Avril Lavne
Richard Clayderman
matthew lien

these artists have been "darling-ed" by the taiwan government as either safe, not harmful, or even useful to their purposes. the only choice i can agree with in that are air supply, but that's just my taste.
look at a richard clayderman video he made back in the 90s. it was the sappiest, most "don't worry foriegners won't hurt you/try to fuck you" video i've ever seen. plus he plays the sappiest music on the planet.his pieces are at most etudes for children, and at worst the sound track for some artsy-fartsy french semi-porn flick.
as for matthew lien, i suspect he's just a cultural plant brought here to promote tourism as well as boost the ego of taiwan by singing about the trees, birds, and local scenery.
avril what's her name can't spell it don't care too, was courted by the government for awhile, hoping her fucked up mascara would encourge further mental lostness among taiwan's youth.
air supply is the one choice i don't get, because they actually create good music and are expert song writers. but the fact that they are only popular in asia AND the taiwan government loves them means they're circling the musical drain, i hate to say.

taiwan's government approved foreign artists

2010-10-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

basically, if you're an overseas (aka real foriegner) you can perform at any venue your mananger books for you, provided that the booking takes place overseas. in fact, the cultural bureaus are happy to have you. but if you're a taiwan foriegner, they will do everything in their power to make sure that you stay off most cultural venues, unless of course you are part of a group sponsored by other taiwanese.
why this paradox? because taiwan is still living in the chaing kai shek days. they want to keep an eye on what foriegners are or might be saying.
i have been paying taxes to the ROC for 13 years. but i still cannot apply for use of any public facility, and neither can any other foriegner, without a local taiwan organization supporting them.
but getting that support is very hard, because of the way they think. take for instance my band. there are 3 people: guitar, bass and drums. my drummer is an excellent taiwanese guy who plays stellar jazz. my bassist is a young guy, but he is learning how to use interesting notes to fill things in.
the way we play, we don't need a 4th person. but all these organizations think " if there aren't at least 4 people, then it won't be exciting enough". this is one of those areas where taiwan people like to talk beyond their knowledge of things, and thereby make things harder for people trying to do something new. and also, when they see my fucking white face, treat us as if we were going to sing some debaucherous western song, though i tell them we are a jazz trio.
of course, if it were 3 taiwanese highschool punks trashing a song, they'd let them,no matter how bad they sing, and no matter who bad the lyrics, because we have to give our young people a venue to perform.
the thing is, i paid the freight on that venue too. all tax payers should have equal access to the facilities in our city. simple as that.
of course, if you don't speak any chinese and act rudely, they'll just give you whatever you want. but if you're polite. speak good chinese, they treat you like shit.

Why I Do What I Do

2010-10-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

in a nutshell, i'm tired of the hard sell of chinese culture being made by various nationalistic cultural entities on both sides of the taiwan strait and by the chinese disporia, trying to tell us how superior they are, when 90% of their present life is from western culture.
yes chinese culture is wonderful. it is an important part of my life. but i cannot make a wholesale embrace of it.i enjoy most aspects of traditional culture and some of the modern. but i cannot say the modern music produced in asia is worth much, and i cannot fawn over movies like "crouching tiger" and "yip man". and i cannot say the way chinese people tend to think is a blueprint for societal improvement. i think writers such as Bo Yang support my view.
i also cannot be silent about the use of cultural propaganda by the chinese speaking entities in our world today, some of which are outright lies that fly in the face of generally accepted biological theory , ie, we all came from africa, the chinese DID NOT develop on their own as some of them would like to beleive! nor did their culture. this (the cultural aspect )is verifiably proveable.
chinese, korean, japanese, german, any form of nationalism is dangerous, because it seeks to use myths to grandize their view of racial superiority.
the taiwan and chinese governments are both using control of the arts for their own purposes. and i take offense to that, because we artists should never be under anybody's thumb.
chinese people, and all of us, depend on western culture for our lifestyle. we CAN'T go back. we should take what is useful from chinese culture and leave the rest behind, and stop living in nationalistic myths and neo facist wet dreams about a revival of "the glories of the past".
that past wasn't all that, people. think about it.

exposing chinese ancestor worship

2010-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

http://exposingchineseancestorworship.blogspot.com/2009/03/traditional-lion-dance.html

most parts of chinese culture are wonderful. some parts have a dark history and meaning.
this site gives a LOT of info about the things in chinese culture that are evil. it encourges chinese people to avoid those bad things but still keep their chinese identity.
this is what i have been saying as well. we must take the good and leave the bad, but first we need to recognize what the bad is and why it's bad.
this site shows things i didn't know before and maybe you didn't either. read it and see for yourself.

The Ugly Chinaman by Bo Yang

2010-10-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

The Ugly Chinaman /Crisis of Chinese Culture by Bo Yang

this book interests me greatly. it is about why the Chinese cannot change and improve despite being exposed to other cultures.
i find Bo Yang to be a facinating person. he takes a good hard look at chinese culture, and doesn't pull any punches. i like that. i've never pulled any punches with american culture or taiwan culture. Bo yang is in fact a well known taiwan author who spent 9 years in prison under chiang kai shek's regime.
anybody who thinks any criticism of chinese culture is racism has been sucking on the political correctness titty for too long. bo yang is worth reading, if you dare.

are taiwanese emotional wussies? (can't please taiwanese part 2)

2010-10-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

i recently got called aside by my bushiban boss for a sit down. it seems the students are very happy to stay with me. no complaints. but the boss feels that i should not correct students' english when they say something wrong, the reason being that taiwanese might feel called out and loss of face for being told they were wrong in front of others.
boss's suggestion was that i remember all the mistakes, then write them later on the board, not calling attention to who made the mistake.
i am really tired of taiwanese people's "emotional pussy-ism". it makes everything dealing with them that much harder.
first of all, we are in a class to learn. i have yet to have a student complain that i corrected them; in fact on the questionare, they said they were happy that "teacher always takes time to correct us". but the idea still exists among the establishment that correcting mistakes is bad.
in english teaching, you sometimes run into "entitlement students", ie those who some lazy foriegn teacher has let dominate the class forever and who think their english is so superb. if you call THAT person out, your job is at risk.
to be honest, i sometimes wish i didn't have to depend on this market for my income. pleasing them is a major pain. and i'm not one to walk on eggshells or avoid any toes.
another thing i hate is the "english only" rule, which is really stupid. i keep my class at a 90/10 ratio- 90% english immersion with some chinese explanation. the reason for this is that explaining it in english doesn't always work. i've heard many students from "english only" classes come to me with totally WRONG renderings of phrases. i really want my students to learn.
i care, but i'm not really paid to care, am i? just give them what they want, the way they want it, even if it's detrimental to them in the long run.
funny thing is, we are foreign teachers. the whole point is to be immersed in a foriegn teacher's class/culture. but what many taiwanese want is western culture the taiwanese way, ie a taiwanese version of western education. and that's the real oxymoron of this whole thing.
and anyway,why should we as foriegn teachers be required to do things the taiwanese way if the whole point is to immerse our students in a foriegn teacher environment? isn't that ill preparing them for if/when the do go overseas? isn't all this emotional pussy coddling doing them a disservice?
one cannot separate language from culture. if my role is as a foriegn teacher, then i refuse to teach the taiwanese way.
simple as that.

you really can't please taiwanese

2010-10-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

okay, damn it, for the disclaimer: not all taiwanese, but enough to talk about.

you really can't please (a lot of) taiwanese.and the reason for this is they have a very narrow scope for what they want. if this were specific and thought out, that would be a good thing. but many times, they don't know what they want and will keep changing their demands.and also they carry a lot of baggage.
i remember one case i did. the boss's wife had written the lyrics to an english learning song. the lines to the song were not in symmetry. for example:

"johnny is boy
sally is a girl
johnny likes to play baseball and soccer in the evening
sally likes to play with dolls and make pretend tea with her friends"

These lines are fucking UNUSABLE without major revision. the reason is that melody also has METER and meter is better done when the lyrics actually have meter as well.
i told the boss lady politely that the lyrics would have to be revised a bit because they lacked meter.i said i would do it, then start on the melody. i saw the look on her face, which immediately told me that SHE had written these stupid lyrics.
it ended up that they really wanted the lyrics the way they were because they had already printed the goddamn books that way! as a result, they were looking for someone to write and record the songs within that narrow scope. in other words, write a bad song to bad lyrics.
and herein lies the difficulty in "pleasing taiwanese"- they don't really want good, they just want what they want.
that for me is very difficult, because i was raised to always do my best. whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your heart. give them your best.
but your best is not required in taiwan. just give us what we want, no matter how messed up it is. and above all, don't REALLY try to help us. we can help ourselves.
but let's say you do give them what they want. from my experience, once`they've gotten that, they will feel they can get anything. they will ask you to change it again and again.
so i teach english. but even there, you find a big problem caused by the way taiwanese think.
you'd be shocked to know that one really doesn't have to be a good english teacher to be a "good english teacher" here. as long as students "feel" they are learning, then perception is everything. what students want is a chance to practice their english, but there also needs to be some structure to a class, objectives in the practice and so on,otherwise they'll never improve.
i also find that taiwanese people have no patience to learn things the right way. that's one reason i basically stopped teaching music- they want to skip many steps and the end result, if you give them that, will be that they are still dissatisfied, and most importantly I will be dissatisfied, because i have standards that i don't drop for anybody.
you walk in my studio, you are going to learn the right way (read music). it's just as simple as that. you will learn all your chords correctly. you will do worksheets. and sorry, i don't teach pop songs like in those popular "6 line" books. i teach ETUDES, which are time tested! i teach for real, not fucking around.
but real is a relative term, and the reason is because for taiwanese,what i feel is real.

that's it in a nutshell. my advice to foriegners in taiwan:
don't try too hard. don't take yourself too seriously. if you want to play the "use them at their own game" game, your decision. i don't blame anyone for playing along.
me,i just get by as best as i can, and try not to lower my standards.
poorer? yeah! struggling. but i only know how to do my best, not second best.

buddhism is an alien philosophy

2010-10-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

though i have great respect for tzu chi and all the good work they do, as well as for their founder, in addition having adopted some of the zen philosophy to my life, i have to say all in all, buddhism is alien, not only to chinese culture, but also to humanity and other life forms on this planet. just ponder the following:

1. vegetarianism- please! domestication of animals for food is one of the great accomplishments and steps forward of the human race, the Chinese being among the first cultures to do so.
and look in your own mouth! if we're not supposed to eat animals, why do we have incisors? only meat eating animals have those. check out a girrafe next time you're at the zoo. they have none, because they're herbivores. we're NOT!
and anyway, how many animals on this planet kill other animals for food? ever hear of a food chain?

2. releasing animals to be "free"- first of all, releasing fish into streams and lakes messes up the whole balance of the system, killing off previous species there. is that what they want?

3. celebacy- giving me a fucking break (pun intended)! how many converts would they have if everybody shaved their heads and suddenly stopped humping? ZERO! but not only that, it's a really bad policy considering human history. early in the 10th century, the plague swept from central asia into europe to the west and china to the east. it is estimated that half of the world's population died! luckily, people ignored buddhism (and roman catholics) and went right back to fucking,and now the world has a robust population;so in case that meteor hits like in the movies, we're covered.
and anyway, marriage and having babies is Chinese culture! what parent doesn't hope their child meets someone and starts a nice family?

4. leaving home to become a monk/nun- this is as un-Chinese as it gets! christianity also condemns people who don't care for their parents.

5. nirvana- no, not the band- the concept. if the ultimate goal is to cease to exist, then i'm running the opposite way. sorry, i really like existing. it's sort of fun.and if nirvana is some sort of "bliss", then perhaps ecstacy (see? even the label tells you what it's for) or even some weed might be an easier option for seeking it.

all in all, i think Zen has some useful stuff. but like a lot of things in this world, i think it's only 20% useful and the rest filler. i take what i find useful from it, but that's as far as it goes.
i'd much rather be surfing at kenting! that would be nirvana to me!

why cultures are not equal

2010-10-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

multiculturalism teaches that all cultures are equal, and that western culture has had an unfair advantage and that is the only reason why it has prospered. i wish to show you how that just ain't so:
for instance,the Roma (gypsy) culture has long taught their children how to steal. children were taught to pickpocket from onlookers as the flamenco dances were being performed. gypsies are also well known for dying young from alcohol and diseases via sexually permissive behavior,all of which were part of their culture.
the maya practiced human sacrifice. they cruelly took infants, women, men. how is this equal to western culture's emphasis on human rights? yes some western societies like germany in WWII adopted evil as their MO, but they were stopped, because western cultures abhor it.
what i am saying about taiwan is that it's culture is lacking. most of the things like charity were brought by western missionaries. if this is not so, why has DAOISM yet to build even ONE HOSPITAL?
and what do daoist say when disasters happen? the gods were angry. or the day was unlucky. the west has (except for a few zealots) long separated events from some moral connection. bad things do happen to good people.and vice versa. life isn't fair. but those of faith believe that they are not alone in their trials and suffering, and that things happen because that's the way the world is.
does taiwan culture teach people to be dishonest as the gypsy culture i just mentioned? not to that degree. but i have found dishonesty to be more common here than my experience elsewhere. i beleive it is a cultural phenonmenon.
culture has zero to do with race, and everything to do with choice. we choose what kind of person we are to become. if we choose to embrace mysticism and superstition, no progress can follow. if we choose to embrace Reason, then a whole universe opens up to us.

woman runs crossing, blames train

2010-09-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

yesterday, a woman in taiwan ran thru a railroad crossing while the guard arms were coming down. when she reached the other side, the arms were already down. then she tried to turn back, and was missed , according to the newspaper this morning, by only "two steps".
what she did was stupid (a big problem in taiwan is the urge to gamble with one's life, thinking "it won't happen to me, and if it does, oh well...fate). but what was worse was the newspaper bringing up the idea that the train "might have been going too fast"!
trains have a schedual to keep! whatever time they lose they have to make up somewhere else, otherwise every train behind them will be late, or worse there will be a rear-end collision! should 10,000 people be held up or worse, endangered, for one stupid bitch?
this is another example of the kind of SELFISH, STUPID, BACKWARDS THINKING that permeates taiwan.
mr. train engineer, next time do us all a favor: run over the bitch! consider it a form of passive eugenics- you're stupid, you get run over and don't get to reproduce.
anybody who thinks a train with 300 passengers should wait for her deserves no better.

why fortune telling is bogus

2010-09-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

i see fortune tellers, feng shui arrangers, and date setters all around taiwan. what is the obession with knowing the future, that makes people so lacking in faith that they fear tomorrow to the point that they just have to know?
and anyway, if these street fortune tellers know so much, why are they telling fortunes on the street? why aren't THEY rich?
i get worried sometimes too, anxious about the next day. but i have never beleived in fortune tellers, because i beleive your tomorrow is made by what you do today!
that's right. YOU create your tomorrow by the choices you made today. for example, i know that there will be food in my fridge tomorrow. why? because i went shopping today. there will be cheese, eggs, veggies, meat. so i created what tomorrow will be in that regard (food in my fridge) by going shopping today.
yes, it's possible that the power could cut out and ruin my food, but honestly, 7-11 is just down the street and they sell ice. also, the power probably wouln't be out that long anyway. this ain't a 3rd world country.
i also know that i will have money because i put all my 1 and 5 NTs in my little piggy bank on my desk. i can also survive for weeks at a time because i know survival skills.
finally, i have faith. i beleive God will work out everything for good, even if it's not exactly the way i want it sometimes.
thrift, efficiency, and faith. i don't need a fortune teller.
want to have a bright future? make good choices today and you most likely will. save your money. eat right. exercise. watch both ways before you cross the street. your tomorrow is in YOUR hands. and it's created by what you do today.

"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." matthew 6:31-34

the "rule" of four (4)

2010-09-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

last night on the news was a report about how some people in taiwan wanted their health card numbers changed because the number 4 was part of the code (4 being in chinese culture a homonym for the word "death").
this is another example of how stupid superstition should never be allowed to waste tax payer money and government employee time!especially on something that has no bearing on our lives.
to prove my point.....
just recently, i took a flight on which my seat number was 44. i am also 44 years old. i laughed to myself " oh shit i guess this is the day i die"!
turned out that because i was sitting in 44, i met a really nice dude sitting next to me, and we had the best conversation. in fact, we chatted almost the whole flight!
so 4444 (my age plus my seat number) wasn't unlucky at all! i made a new friend, i didn't die of a heart attack, and we didn't crash either!
anyway, what power do numbers have? or the pronunciation of them have? what if i say 4444 in english instead of chinese? wouldn't it be lucky, since " four four four four" would sound like "fouh fouh fouh fouh" which sounds like "buddha buddha buddha buddha"?
at what point does all this break down into the useless bullshit that it really is?
personally i have no qualms about living on the 4th floor, driving a 4 door car, having 4 fish in my aquarium, or any other useless nonsense.
numbers were all created by God. and everything He makes is good.

* PS: i have no problems with 666 either, because it is the number of a specific person in the Bible. it has no bearing on my daily life.

two excellent books

2010-09-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

i highly suggest these two books as they are important texts on the closing of both the eastern and western minds:

1."Can Asians Think?"

2."The Closing of the American Mind"

i ask my readers to please investigate these books before you hurl racist and hateful insults at me and my family. at least consider what these authors are saying. i am against groupthink, both in eastern and western culture. groupthink caused both the nazi and japanese atrocities. i sense the same danger in the new chinese nationalism and american blind patriotism.
please read at least "can asians think". it will enlighten you.

taiwan student nazi group

2010-09-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

yes, believe it or not, some taiwanese students worship hitler! and they're calling for "racial purity", expulsion of foriegners, etc.
this group is the logical result of "tai ke-ism"/ green nationalism/ hok-lo chauvenism.and that's why i speak out so strongly against taike. i have heard jewish people say about nazi germany: " they started by calling us big nose, then it gradually got worse from there til they threw us in the gas chambers".
taike's insistence on using the term "high nose" for foriegners, as well as their general propensity for violence against them, isn't that far from what the nazis youth thugs started out doing.
the thing is, besides being racist (these are students so i overlook their misguided zealousness) MOST taiwanese are NOT pure min nan! about 80% of taiwanese, if my numbers are correct, have at least ONE FORMOSAN ABORIGINAL ANCESTOR!
i pray these students eyes will be opened to the propaganda that is blinding them.

clarifications (for those who can read)

2010-09-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

1. my wife is taiwanese, my 2 children are mixed. anybody who thinks i'm a racist can go screw themselves.

2. i speak mandarin fluently, japanese less so. my total time immersed in both cultures equals 30 years. i have loved chinese and japanese culture since i was 7. however, i DO NOT love the weak points and recent tendencies in them,particulary nationalism via control of music and entertainment.

3. i have spent considerable time and energy in the US helping chinese people. i was in fact, made fun of for always being around asians. i have gone to bat for chinese students more times than i can count.

4.though i hate japan for what they did to china, i love the new japan, minus some of it's irrational behavior. my dissapoinment with taiwan is that both japan and taiwan were given the same amount of time after WWII, yet taiwan continues to be stuck in backwards thinking, messiness, and disregard for others.

5. when i complain about taiwan, it's because any fool can see that japan is where they are because they WORK HARDER. simple as that. tired of taiwan's excuses.

6. as a serious schooled musician, i find traditional chinese music theory and japanese music to be of value, and i have spent serious study time in both. however, i find nothing worth spending any study time on in " tai yu ge" or mando-pop. that is not to say that taiyu song is of no value. it has cultural value. but as a form of music, it is lacking in material that would warrant my spending study time on it.

7. despite going abroad for study and having government funding for music, 90% of the music in taiwan still sucks, and that is because both the investors and producers of music at the record companies have no idea about how to create a good album.

8. my beef has been, and always will be, with the ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY, and with uncouth, violent people in taiwan ( for brevity i call them tai ke, though not all tai ke are like that) not with the taiwanese people as a whole.

9. the net is free. if you are really worried about racism on the net, go attack the taiwan nazi youth site that is calling for taiwan racial purity, etc.

10. 90% of what i say comes from the mouths of OTHER TAIWANESE speaking about what they don't like about their own people. also my article on chinese culture and satanism comes directly from chinese pastors who seeing my love for chinese culture warned me that some parts of the culture were not to be touched because they were anti christian and in fact satanic in origin.

11. i am as critical of american culture as i am of taiwan culture. i just don't have a site for that.... yet.

12. if ANYONE ever approaches me or my family in an aggressive manner because of this site, i will defend myself and them BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY including deadly force. this means you! NK, forumosa.com, or whoever you are.

chinese culture is satanic

2010-08-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

"....yeah, satan... he started his own religion"
attributed to singer don henley (origin unknown)

yes, some things can be accounted as cultural differences, but the fact that SO MANY things in chinese culture are the EXACT OPPOSITE of christianity is pretty startling. i am pretty convinced that chinese culture is the devil's own thing:

christianity- dragon is a symbol of satan
chinese culture- dragon is good

christianity- 666 is the number of the devil
chinese culture- 666 is a lucky number

*the 5 elements in chinese cosmology are in the shape of a pentagram. they are also the same 5 elements in western witchcraft.

*feng shui teaches the arrangement of objects to invoke good energy. in witchcraft, objects must be arranged in a set pattern to invoke a spirit

christianity- God has a will, we must accept the final answer
chinese culture- we can do things to change the future (fortune telling, spirit mediums, feng shui, "yang shiao gwei" and other forms of witchcraft)

christianity- the love of money is the root of evil.do not love money.
chinese culture- love money. pray to gods with the primary purpose of getting money

christianity- there is only one God. we are to serve Him
chinese culture- i am a god. the temple deities serve me and my whims.

christianity- honor your father and mother but do not worship them
chinese culture- worship your father and mother as gods when they die

christianity- my body was given to me by God. it is His temple
chinese culture- my body comes from my parents.i should use it for them, even prostitute myself by marrying for a greencard.

christianity- think for yourself, make your own decision
chinese culture- follow others blindly

christianity- love your neighbor as yourself
chinese culture- love the self.

christianity- be honest in all your dealings
chinese culture- it's ok to cheat in business. all is fair

christianity- forgive your enemies,pray for those that despitefully use you
chinese culture- retribution. face is everything

christianity- consider your own sins, think about what you do to others
chinese culture- i can wrong you, but don't dare wrong me and my face

christianity- ritual is not important. the heart is
chinese culture- the heart is not important , just do the ritual

christianity- it is more blessed to give than to recieve
chinese culture- take all you can

christianity- people are handicapped thru no fault of their own
chinese culture- it's their karma.they did something in thier past life

christianity- God created the earth in 7 days and said each one was good
chinese culture- some days are evil. some days are lucky.

christianity- walk by faith. trust God for what we don't know
chinese culture- try to find out the future. eveything depends on me and luck

christianity- God loves us
chinese culture- the gods are angry. they need constant feeding or bad things will happen

what people don't get about ah mei/ah miit

2010-07-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

on the surface,the ah mei/ah miit phenomenon looks like just another record company ploy thanks to their lack of talent via nepotism.
but if that were the case, why ah mei? she IS talented. she has a great voice and stage presence. why would SHE need a gimmick such as this?
there may be another reason, though i imagine few people want to walk that far into the dark side.
that is, ah mei may be being handled by certain government bureaus. ah mei's alter personality screams PROGRAMMED MULTIPLE!
even if this is not case, she has a serious problem. the idea that one has more than one person living inside her, and that this personality can be expressed by changing one's hair color, etc has many implications, especially for young people struggling to find their own identity. it's just plain SCARY!
another issue is the record companies' "need" to turn people out- turn them into stage whores who all do the same song and dance with the same bling bling stage setup.
WHY? what is the purpose, if not to CONTROL THE CONTENT OF MUSIC??
ah me/ah mitt is just the tip of the dark side. something is going on.
i hope she can break free.

the reason for taiwan brain drain

2010-06-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

today i had a conversation with my friend, a taiwanese who had been living in the US for about 5 years.
upon his return to taiwan he found a job with a company.
the boss of this company had been having a problem with a service supplier from the US for 3 months and asked him to fix this problem.
my friend called the US office, and voila- the problem was solved! it seems the manager on the taiwan end had been writing emails and nobody understood exactly what he was talking about. my friend, having graduated in the US, spoke excellent english and fixed the problem smoothly.
and what did he get for his good work? put on the boss's shit list! because in taiwan, watch how you shine- you might overshadow somebody else, namely the boss!
this part of taiwan culture is the reason why so many taiwanese only realize their potential overseas, because taiwan culture WONT LET THEM BE GREAT!
my friend also solved a big problem with the assembly line of the company. his fix for the problem was so swift, so simple, it's a wonder how nobody ever thought of it.
after that, my friend found himself out of the loop on so many things, it became impossible to do his job. he eventually had to quit.
anybody who thinks all cultures are equal needs to take a hard look at this example, because it repeats itself time and again in taiwan and elswhere in asia.
there's a REASON why the West is STILL ahead- because they don't waste time on crap like who was in the sandbox first. you're either the best or you're not. you are paid to SOLVE PROBLEMS, not be status quo. if you don't shine, somebody else will.
and that's the way it should be.

the golden melody awards: taiwan's "big club"

2010-06-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

the taiwan golden melody award reeks of the cronyism and insider privledges that the whole "music" industry here as whole does. it's basically a club where " i win this year, you win next year".
what is equally ridiculous are the "categories" of music: taiwanese songs, mandarin songs, hakkanese songs.
i've got news for you- those are LANGUAGES NOT MUSICAL STYLES! but since taiwan has YET to establish a true musical style of it's own, the only distinctions they can make are linguistics.
the fact is, taiwan threw away its musical heritage a long time ago, back in the 90s, in favor of more western sounding music, in an attempt to show they were on an equal footing with the west.
now taiwan music sounds no different than any other western music, except the language used. there is no definitive style to taiwan music (save tai yu song, which is a hair's difference from japanese enka).
this year they are sure to have a foriegn artist as a guest. thing is, if that foriegn artist lived in taiwan, they'd be doing EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO KEEP HIM FROM EVER MAKING A RECORD! because taiwan artists aren't ready to have competition on their own soil.
simple as that.
will i watch the GMAs this year? maybe. or maybe not. i doubt very seriously if it will be anything but the same shit, different year.
i'm sure jay chou and tchai yi ling will win most of the awards, with a few concessions to the little guys to keep people hoping. and i'll bet little fat (ass) gets "best new artist" of the year.
no, i probably have better things to do that night. like writing some songs that'll never be heard anyway because i'm too white to be marketable here, or maybe just a little too taiwanese for the record industry's comfort.

will the real wing chun please stand up?

2010-06-10T01:17:00.001-07:00

since the movie Yip Man and it's sequel, it's been very easy to find a wing chun practice group/school. thing is, where were they before this?
having lived here for 13 years,the only teachers that i knew of were Lu Wen Jing and maybe one or two others. my own teacher is the only disciple of one particular line of wing chun in taiwan, that i know of at least. this handful are the only teachers that i'm not questioning.
i think there are a LOT of the so called wing chun teachers here that are actually from other styles, and happened to learn enough WC to fool beginners. otherwise, why were they not teaching before this? secrecy? if so, why let the cat out now?
these guys are simply capitalizing on the recent craze.
and i for one hope the craze will all be over soon.

taiwan! stop killing precious animals for your little dick!

2010-05-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

i'm not a vegetarian. and i think every animal on this planet has a secondary function of being food for another. that is just the way life here works.
but NO ANIMAL should be killed for a stupid reason!
i called out the fire department once to take a snake away- a highly venomous, but utterly beautiful Taiwan Umbrella Krait. i watched them catch the snake,naively thinking they would relocate it. imagine my shock when i heard them talking about putting it into wine (pao jiou) to make a sex tonic.
despite the fact that they broke the law (taiwan snakes are protected species) the reason for doing it is the epitomy of stupidity.
first of all, is having a big stick the only part of pleasing a woman? a good climax is 90% emotional and good foreplay. but that information is lost on these assholes, who are too lazy and too stupid to open a book and find out what a clitoris is.
"just shove it" is their motto! i feel really sorry for taiwan women.
secondly, these "remedies" have NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE behind them. NONE! we know that Viagra works for most people (actually not drinking and taking a walk now and then works even better) but bear bile, snake bile, etc??
the thing is these remedies, like a LOT of things in chinese culture, WASTE TIME!
why go to all the trouble of having to hunt down an animal, kill it, stick it in wine for 6 months, when a pill can be made by modern machinery, in a clean environment in a few minutes? and that pill can be gotten from your doctor with a simple prescription!
and now people are buying "seal liver oil" Goddamn it! there are better ways to get DHA- borage oil for one. cod liver is another. lots better than clubbing a mammal to death!
and what about shark fin? our ocean ecology would be totally screwed without sharks. sharks eat up some of the fish that compete with other fishes we eat. they balance the food chain. and why are these sharks dying? because taiwan people think shark fin has some lucky meaning. precious animals have to DIE for somebody's tradition??!!
i've had it with all this traditon this and that! let's start using our brains and our hearts to take care of this planet.
that's what WE were put here for.

first come first impression- how early arrival foriegners messed it up for all of us

2010-05-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

one only has to look at some of the english textbooks written by foriegners in taiwan to know that somebody was pulling the wool over somebody's eyes. there was a time when any foriegner who got off the boat could make outlandish claims and get away with it. these guys managed to win the confidence of whatever bushiban they were working for and wrote generally crappy books that make my life, for one, very difficult.
in fact, one of the worst mistakes bushibans make is writing their own books. really excellent courses like "Side by Side" get thrown away and replaced by these shitty books written by somebody's favorite "lao wai".
a lot of these foriegners were/are escapees from whatever crap life they had in their own country. i call them "white trash drug addicts with language skills". they learn just enough chinese to get by and get noticed.
these foriegners also sealed into stone the idea that "all foriegners can play guitar, all foriegners are happy, etc". they plied their sappy, half-ass written songs in mandarin, convincing somebody that they ought to make a record, which of course DIDN'T sell, thereby ruining the chances of later foriegners from EVER making it in music here.
then they wrote their crappy books which flooded the market. you can't write a book now because these assholes already beat you to it. and these methods are part of the engrained learning method here. that is slowly changing thankfully.
was taiwan originally a haven for losers? it appears. luckily those days are coming to an end. you can't be just any hippie off the boat anymore. people are slowly coming around to seeing thru the "foriegn-ness" and into the fucked-up-ness. hopefully every foriegner with something to offer will be now given the chance to do so.

AIT and its never ending parade of foriegn "experts"

2010-05-15T00:08:00.000-07:00

i don't have an economics degree, and just barely understand how stocks work. if i were to invest, it wouldn't go much deeper than a mutual fund (fuck sitting around watching a stock screen all day- i leave that to professionals).
but i wonder why all these foriegn authors come to taiwan and say the same shit all the time:" taiwan is so unique, taiwan is so great, taiwan is so creative". it all sounds so condescending.
yes taiwan has made a niche for itself in electronics and OEM. they do that super well (having done work in that field, i'm in AWE of the taiwan electronics industry) but i personally think these assholes (the experts) are just here to plug their books.
maybe what they are talking about is above my head, but to me, saying TAIWAN and CREATIVITY in the same sentence is sort of an oxymoron. people, and especially companies, don't go out of their way to be different.
look at scooters. has there been any REAL, EARTHSHAKING re-design recently? all the scooters look a hair on an ant's leg different from each other! absolutely the same.
look at music. taiwan steals parts of western songs (not sample, STEAL) and try to hide the fact that these riffs came from another source. i have SEEN producers do this. where's the creativity? creative dishonesty? creative at following a narrowly defined idea of how a product should be?
then these "experts" step out of their field and start to comment on how taiwan should "embrace china without fear". the only persons whose opinions matter in that area are people with a military /strategic/state dept background. those are the only people who really know what China is capable of, not some Harvard MBA/bullshit bookseller.
but AIT is the prime bullshit artist of them all. just listen to their " the US relationship with Taiwan is getting better" rhetoric.
the US HAS OWNED TAIWAN SINCE 1945! there is no fucking "relationship", other than that taiwan is the unclaimed US child of WWII. a child whom they won't admit to having otherwise they'd have to issue US passports and deal with a massive influx of taiwanese immigrants. simple as that!
hopefully, they never will admit to it. cause i'd hate to move back to the US and have to live next to tai ke! nice, educated taiwanese, welcome, of course^^.
personally, i think taiwan should tell these foriegn experts to fuck off unless they can say something other than the same old, condescending dribble. these seminars are a waste of time.

why i like lin chi ling (and why she disappoints me)

2010-05-06T18:33:00.001-07:00

truly, in another time, she would be a queen. i like lin chi ling a lot, mostly for the way she conducts herself amidst a sea of shallow, immature television "personalities". she's smart -not just book smart- but really smart. and she's unique. i think you could cross the oceans ten times and not find another person like her, beauty aside. i'm sure if i met her at a party, she'd be the most interesting person to talk to.

i admire how almost everything that comes out of her mouth is worth hearing, at least as far as young girls are concerned. she shares her make-up and beauty/life tips, and conducts herself with class.
compare that with the mass amount of USELESS CUNTS on taiwan TV, talking about how they need a man to do this and that for them, their newest LV bag, etc, and ranting on and on about their bra size, brand of napkin, etc.
i really want to slap these bitches into reality. maybe there are lots of geek/wimps with money who would shell out everything for these women, but i would pass them up for a normal girl working at 7-11 in a second.
lin chi ling never dips down into useless bitch territory, and for that i thank her.
now for why she disappoints me:
i feel she's slowly being eroded by the people around her. and i've heard her say things that made me feel she's slipping a little. i'm not putting her down. the entertainment "industry" here is either "play ball or get left behind". but i hope she can keep up the high standards she has shown so far.
personally, i think she's lonely as hell. if there ever was a "poor little rich girl", she's it. she worked hard, reached the top of her game, only to be surrounded by airheads. everybody around her wants something.
Chi ling, keep up the good work. you're my hero, girl!

Yip Man for the simple minded/ geek-fu

2010-05-03T07:49:00.000-07:00

i refuse to ever tell ANY taiwanese person that i have studied martial arts. the reason being is, they will brand me a "typical foriegner/likes kung fu". so that makes taiwanese learns to play tennis what then? a freak?
then i get the statement, "you like kung fu", same as they say about my doing music "you like music".
actually if you only do something because you like it, you're on a very childish level of living. there comes a point where you do something long enough, and "like" is not part of the equation. love it or hate it you DO IT, because it has become a part of your life.
that's why i hate the wave of yip man/wing chun geeks. not to make myself mr. know it all, but i KNEW WHO YIP MAN WAS 30 YEARS AGO! wing chun wasn't the source of a blockbuster movie back then. i had to research Blackbelt Magazine to find out about it. then i sent off for a book. then i searched out people here and there to show me something of it. i waited this long before i found a good teacher.
now this fucking movie comes along and it's sequel,and wing chun is the thing to do. and people think i'm one of these geeks who saw Yip man( the movie) and got all hot and excited and wanted to learn.
taiwan is full of geeks. guitar geeks, who learn from TAB, can play "better" than somebody who went to music school. and nobody knows the difference.
lets all learn!! thereby making somethng that WAS a serious study become nothing- an activity for the masses.
i'm not saying only musicians should learn to play guitar. i think everybody should learn an instrument. but these TAB books are teachig PRO LEVEL playing without PRO LEVEL KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING, OR REGARD FOR TALENT. professional skills SHOULD NOT be learned by everyone. but there are even magic schools teaching what should be a secret to ANYBODY! and who will want to watch tricks now that they already know the secret?
but back to kung fu. i was asked yesterday "you like kung fu, that's why you're doing it". i could see from his face that he felt i was a typical foriegner.
so i let loose with this one" unfortunately wing chun doesn't work that well in real combat. a lot of chinese kung fu is actually worthless in a real situation." i could see his face change. first he thinks i'm silly for wanting to learn kung fu, then he's angry because i diss kung fu. i went on, "look at K1, UFC, MMA, nobody who has ever tried chinese kung fu has lasted more than 10 seconds", to which someone piped up, "well kung fu is for health".i answered "but they say it's for fighting. then when they lose they say it's for health".
maybe i was being an asshole. but i wasn't going to let somebody belittle my years of investigation and serious study as a passing fancy,following the latest fad, or worse, as the interests of a "typical stupid foriegner".
i'd rather say FUCK KUNG FU than let anybody peg me into a convenient little hole.

can't win either way.
so when people ask me, i just tell them that kung fu sucks. it's inferior to western boxing and wrestling.
which isn't exactly true ,but this way, i keep the sincere love i have for chinese martial arts a secret, and nobody can belittle my love.

chris: kick ass or kiss ass?

2010-04-28T03:16:00.000-07:00

i've met TV personality Chris before(where the fuck did people's last names go)? nice enough guy, though our encounter was very brief.
some in taiwan have debated whether Chris is our Dave Spector, a famous foriegn TV personality in japan, known for his outspoken criticism of general stupidity there.
as far as i've seen, chris plays status quo, get along and get some airtime foriegner. i've never heard him say anything with balls. in fact, about the only foriegner who does that is me!
cause frankly, if it comes down to saying what people want to hear in order to get ahead, then people be damned. i'm going to give them an earful of the truth as i see it.
i have serious doubts about chris ever becoming a dave spector. he's married into the entertainment profession. he's a good little foreigner, doing what he would (maybe) never have a chance to do back home.
not totally dissing the guy. he's likeable. i like him more than curly hair, prime time ass kisser Jeff whatever.
tell you what Chris: stand up for us. tell those assholes your wife works with to stop calling us high nose/lao wai on TV. you couldn't call Asian people "slant eyes" on broadcast TV in the US. why should they have the right to SLANDER us here?
respect. everybody should be respected.
use your position for the good of other foriegners. do something.
i'm giving you a challenge, Chris.

"little fat" singer illustrates taiwan music industry's stupidity and hypocrisy

2010-04-24T00:34:00.001-07:00

first, the music companies demanded that their singers be beautiful models (since that's where most of their income comes from, the songs are just a vehicle to make them famous). now it seems the worse they look the better.
not to put down anybody's looks. i'm not the dashing handsome man myself. but why now is ugly the fashion? and why these stupid singing contests every night?
because the taiwan record companies can think of nothing better to do. they are fucking out of ideas. they are groping in the dark for a new money making idea, and they can't find one. and the reason they are groping is because they've rejected the one idea that DOES work : long term investment and support of quality artists.but that takes time. too much time for the quickie investors (fucking neo taiwan yuppies) who claim to "love music that's why i'm investing in it". what they love is the idea of investing in music. but what they really want is a quick turnover.
these investors are the primary problem. but there's more......
these singing contests are merely a way for taiwan companies to showcase a singer (let's not call them artists shall we) that they were already considering ,ie some investor's daughter or son, or a friend of a friend of a friend. in other words the same old neputism that has plagued the industry from the beginning.
also, these contests are a way of homogenizing music in taiwan. since a large percentage of income comes from KTV royalties, they want nearly ALL of taiwan's music to be KTV singable. but most importantly, they want people to only love songs that they themselves could imagin singing in a KTV to impress their friends , ie appealing to taiwan's narcisstic impulses. also, the companies hope to keep out any different forms of music that might compete with this monopoly on the mental image people here have of what constitutes "music".
now for the hypocrisy: taiwan music companies are falling all over themselves because this porker got on US TV. but they have spent every dollar and effort they could to block foriegners living in taiwan from entering THIS market, myself at the top of that list.
and what is little fat" famous for besides being fat? for singing somewhat like whitney houston. here tawian record companies really show their stupidity in typical fashion: "look at me! i can copy someone else!"

taiwan has chosen "the easy way", instead of fostering creative persons who would make long term contributions to musical culture and respectable profits. they need to go back to making music, not a debauchery.

The Need for Reason in Taiwan/ foriegn influence

2010-03-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

just so you'll know, Ran is NOT a Taiwan hater. there's lots to love about this place, but lots that needs to change too.
a lot of things here are "just that way", never questioned, but it doesn't mean they can't be looked at another way.
For instance, the presence of foriegners in taiwan. do we take jobs from taiwanese? in the english teaching field, probably. taiwan bushibans use foriegners as their selling point, though there are many taiwanese teachers who may not speak perfect english, but speak it well enough, and have gone thru the probelms of learnign english so the know how to help natives learn.
also taiwanese teachers are routinely paid HALF of what foreign teachers get, which i think is a shame and a travesty. two people doing the same job should get the same pay. simple as that.
but are we taking jobs in other fields? not at 7-11. not at Carrefour. in fact, all of those are examples of FORIEGN INVESTMENT creating jobs for local taiwanese.
and also MOST foriengers here are brought here by FORIEGN COMPANIES. you never see them because they're AT WORK! taiwanese people only see english teachers on the street because they generally have TIME to be out and about. this needs to be known by locals, but the media is only interested in making them beleive that all foriegners are job stealing, pot smoking english teachers (and most english teachers don't even smok pot either).
let's look at taiwan under foriegn influence: the taiwanese young people growing up are the HEALTHIEST, and PRETTIEST of ANY GENERATION on taiwanese before them. why?
because they eat a more varied diet thanks to westernization. look at pictures of taiwanese people about 50 years ago, or better yet compare the height and appearance of someone 50 years old raised in the countryside to the young people today. shocking difference, thanks to a western diet.
how about equal pay/rights for women? some bunch of tai ke gangsters at the Ma dzu temple didn't think that up! it's a WESTERN idea, that taiwan accepted. same for anti sex harrassment laws, maturnity leave, etc. all WESTERN IDEAS.
how about electric power, hospitals, clothing manufacturing, food processing, refrigerators, and a host of other things that are 99% of the taiwan people's daily life? these things were invented in the WEST while the taiwanese were busy burning incense in temples and trying to figure out which day is a lucky one.
taiwan people need to own up to the contibutions of the West. without the west, they would be stuck in the ching dynasty.
foriegner go home? why not "taiwan friend, join us? throw off your chains of darkness and join us in the light of reason and truth." we welcome you.

public anger over movie theaters: further proof that taiwanese just can't think

2010-02-18T20:04:00.000-08:00

recently the movie theaters in taiwan have insisted that no food be brought in from outside.and the TW public is angry over what in western countries (at least in the US) is a given.
movie theaters make MOST of their money from concessions. ticket prices by and large pay for the right to show the movie (the lease on the film roll). so it's natural that movie theaters would want you to buy their concessions.
but something bigger is happnening in taiwan, that is, the clash when class meets culture, or in this case when class meets the lack of it.
taiwanese always want things their way, be it letting their child piss on the road because they didn't want to walk 20 more steps to the restroom,or blocking traffic by running a tent party on a public street. and it's all ok, because it's the "taiwanese way". but what's worse is when taiwanese think they've gotten western culture down pat.
being a musician , i have run into the taiwanese "we know so don't tell us how" complex. the taiwanese capacity for "standard knowledge" without specific application is mind boggling. most of the people running sound systems don't know what they're doing, and are operating by second hand "everybody does it this way" information.
and if you try to point this out to them, they will brand you a "prima donna" or know it all, when actually THEY are the ones being obtuse.
i have come to the conclusion that in music at least, there are two ways to do things, the right way and the taiwanese way, and the latter is almost ALWAYS wrong.
taiwanese are like the spoiled children of a western culture. they think they know what class is but it eludes them.
i hope the movie theaters dont back down. I for one don't want to smell "stinky tofu" next to me while i'm watching Madagascar 4 or whatever.
this is one time when "power to people" has to take a back seat, because unfortunately, "the people" need to be taught what class is.

how taiwan can ruin your health

2010-02-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

1. air quality- i remember the first day i walked around in taipei: the whole city smelled like a gas station! there are just too many vehicles for such a crowded, damp place.

2. sweet drinks- not only the 500cc shops, but the sugary drinks at most restaurants. taiwan has a recently aquired love affair with sugar. sure it's not going to make THEM fat, but it will my half-irish, diabetes gene carrying ass.

3. cheap carboydrate bread- yes taiwan bread is yummy, but definitely NOT good for you. cheap white starch, loaded with sugar. in fact even whole wheat here is not whole. it's whole wheat ADDED to white flour.

4. too much rice- white, polished rice is loaded into "bien dang" s ( lunch boxes) because rice is cheap and filling, but the carbo ratio is totally wrong, especially for Westerners.
add to that too much salt and everything being fried in oil,and it gets yucky after awhile.

5. motherfucking stress- as a foriegner here you will have more than your share. from the occassional racist slur on the street, to bosses who want the impossible, to the threat of being beaten or run over by some idiot on the street, the pressure is always there and needs to be escaped from occassionally.
zombie students and psychotic girlfriends also add to the stress load.

6. uneven sidewalks, parked motorcycles, and sharp objects sticking out of walls- i jammed my neck back and had to see a chiroparctor because the goddam sidewalk suddenly dropped a foot!! i have also torn pants and cut myself on sharp objects sticking out of nowhere. same for parked motorcycles sandwiched together. a real NO NO when you're wearing shorts. burned my calf more than one time.

7. getting hit by a truck- a high possibility. and i guarantee you the guy who hits you will be a blue truck driving, betel nut chewing asshole (switch that to jerkwad taxi driver for taipei).

luckily taiwan has EXCELLENT health care and massage parlors offer full service.
what more can you ask for?

why i'll never go back to traditional kung fu

2010-02-11T19:20:00.001-08:00

in a nutshell, it was what bruce lee called "organized dispair". or rather it would be that if they had any organization, either in teaching method or in a governing body for it.
i spent 2 years in traditional wing chun, and 4 years in another style. though i learned SOMETHING in each, i never in that time was given THE SOMETHING, the keys to really understand how to use it.
that time frame was ridiculous. i can see someone spending one year learning the components of an art. the mechanics do take a while. but if after one year one cannot not even use it AT ALL.....?
of course, some taiwanese people will probably say that perhaps my teacher didn't feel i was ready, or worse, that he felt i wasn't a good enough person.
if by not good enough, they mean "not chinese enough", well i'm sorry. since when did the chinese way become the right way? are there no good people other than those who think and follow the chinese way?
and if you don't think i'm good enough, why waste my time? oh, i forgot. the fee.
then i started watching youtube for traditional kung fu vs MMA. needless to say, for all their training, chi kung, whatever, the traditionalists faired BADLY ( less than 8 seconds of badly)!! so if THAT's the result, perhaps i wasn't missing out on much after all.
also traditional kung fu is a pot of hypocrites. they talk about honor, but they really mean honor as it does right by them. a number of the people practicing kung fu in taiwan (via the temples) are pretty much hoodlums.
i have pretty much come to the conclusion that kung fu is actually a function of the temple/chinese masonic/mafia complex, and more and more come under the conviction that perhaps it is not something a person of the Christian faith should be involved in.
also during the time i was studying TCKF, my body was WILTNG AWAY!!! i was practing internal this and that, but i had NO MUSCULARITY WHATSOEVER. and i was getting fat.
the past year i have been studying with a chinese/american in wing chun. he is very modern, beleives in cross training, and actually has a CURRICULUM. there is no involvement with Daoism, temples, mafia, etc. i have been doing pushups, situps, deepknee bends, along with running, boxing class, and actually hand to hand drills in my wing chun class.
as you can guess, i'm a LOT HAPPIER. and i'm looking better. our class is enjoyable. no mysticism, just a lot of LOVE in our group.
and that's enough for me.

matthew lien : cultural plant by TW government

2010-01-28T18:37:00.000-08:00

notice how matthew lien has the full blessing of the taiwan government in everything he does? his shows are all sponsored by the ministry of cultural affairs.
why? because he is what the TW government considers to be a "safe" forigner. he is in fact, a tool of their agenda, to create a numbed down, tree hugging, do what i say society.
matthew lien's music is for a niche market, which is fine- environmental sounds and songs of conscience are a good thing to relax to. but why does matthew lien have priviledges? why is he the darling of the ministry of cultural affairs?
my guess is that he is a culural trade from the Canadian government office in Taiwan. he promotes eco- tourism to canada, while building up the self esteem of taiwanese by living here and singing about the trees, the flowers, and the rabbit shit up on the mountain.
any foriegner trying to release a record in taiwan will meet up will stonewalling and excuses. it is almost impossible for one to get cultural venues to perform in taiwan, save the occassional underground pub.
so how did matthew lien do it? think about it.

the real reason for evil in taiwan

2009-10-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

it is because they worship a female deity. either in the form of the Taoist gwan ying or ma dzu OR the buddhist version of pu sah. in either way, the worship of female dieties is a root problem in taiwan, just as it is in Sicily and their worship of Mary.both of these countries find the roots of their "machismo" or "mafioso" in the worship of the female.
in ancient times, female deities have been for fertility and birthing rites. but the essential traits of females make them strange gods to serve: wishy washy, going by feeling rather than facts. one could argue that the male deity YVWH is a violent God,but it is interesting to note that ALL of the peoples mentioned in the Bible as evile were in fact worshippers of female dieties.
it is this essential fact that makes taiwanese people so wishy washy. it is also the reason they care little about facts. taiwan people live by feelings. if something feels a certain way then it "IS" that way.
there is a REASON why the west progressed so fast after throwing off catholicism. once the reformation came, so did REASON, science , and progress. why are italy and tawan both under the thumb of mafia?because of a female diety who demands their allegiance. why have taiwan women become so slutty and high minded? because this society worships them. literally worships them.
i'm as attracted to the female form as much as the next guy, but the literal WORSHIP of the female form is, in my religion,expressly FORBIDDEN.

spine-less foriegners(part 2): the weak and the rotten

2009-10-25T01:05:00.000-07:00

in this installment on spineless foriegners, i wish to hit the two types: the weak- ass ones, and the evil ones.
a few months ago i was watching one of those singing contests on TV, and noticed that one of the contestants was an Anglo, a foriegner.
the guy was asked the usual dumb questions, but it sounded to me like he was explaining why he had entered their precious contest.
being courteous is one thing, but being a pussy is another!!
you DO NOT have to thank locals for letting you breathe their air. you have a visa in your pocket that says you can stay here. you have a love for their culture and hopefully for the people as well. that gives you the RIGHT to be here.
and if a contest is open to everyone (though taiwanese really fear foriegn competition at times, hence foriegner only singing contests), you have a RIGHT to enter and either lose gracefully or beat the competition into the MUD!!
you also don't have to take any shit from anyone. i don't. don't let people take your place in line. someone cuts in front of me, i cut back. i let them know if they want to go any further, the consequences will be THEIRS not mine.
i'm not trying to be a jerk. it's just that i REFUSE to live by the "it's their country so i should let them crap on me" mentality.
the other side of spineless-ness is the " i'm a real american, he's a loser" technique. this is where you are struggling at a bushiban, just trying to teach as best you can, when one guy spreads around that you are a loser but that he himself is a more standard example of a "healthy foriegner". and since a LOT of taiwanese can't think for themselves, he manages to get some response from these accusations.
he may be trying to do you in because you're a better teacher than him, or he feels threatened that his percieved "pussy harem" is not all for him anymore.
in any case, you have to just roll with this one. the people who believe him aren't worth your time, even if it's your supervisor.
there's a verse in proverbs " but against jealousy, who can stand?".
jealous foriegners will do you in unless the people around them are smart enough to see thru it.
be on time every day and prepare your lessons. that gives this kind of creep a much smaller target.

the trash mentality of "tai ke"

2009-10-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

there are many wonderful taiwanese people that i have been blessed to know, of many social strata. that's why i hesitate to write about taiwan's ming nan speaking blue collar people, some of whom call themselves "tai ke".
first of all, i admire the fact that they are a freedom loving people. they also take no crap from anybody, even the government. they are fun loving, and free spirited, perhaps because of their rejection of the mainland imported confuciansim of the school system.
but my admiration is tempered by the fact that i deal with their negative side everyday.
i have seen more stupidity in rural taiwan, more violence, more disrespect of others, more pollution (both noise and material) and more rudeness, and more dishonesty than any place i have ever been on this planet.
this blame i put firmly on TAOISM! it is an evil religion.there i said it!
folk taoism has made the rural taiwanese stupid beyond compare. i regularly see them doing stupid things that defy discription. that would be ok if i saw such maybe once or twice a year. in fact in the States, i almost never see people doing like them. but in taiwan i see stupidity 20,maybe 30 times a day!
also while driving in the US, i might meet a road jerk maybe once a year, but in rural taiwan, maybe 10 times a day.
why are so many (not all but TOO MANY) rural taiwanese so selfish and ignorant?
i beleive it's because their brain is full of garbage from taoism. they are so busy with the requirements of taoism that they cannot use their minds in a reasonable manner.
take for instance the idea of burning incense. the meaning of using 3 sticks of incense is "respect heaven, respect earth, respect man".
yet, how is burning tons of paper into the air respecting the earth? how is leaving your firecracker wrappings respecting the earth?
respect for man? how is spitting your betel nuts on the road respect for man? how is playing your stupid karaoke at top volume respect for man? how are your endless loud parades respect for others? and your loud talking, your agressive, selfish driving, your littering of every highway with your betel nut cups? is that respect for earth or man?
respect for heaven? the only thing folk taoism teaches is respect for the dead. the dead are more important than the living. in fact, if one were to follow the farmer's almanac to the letter, his/her time would be CONSUMED with dealing with the dead, as well as not being able to make decisions for themelves. but even such respect for the dead is for the reason that "i must help them so they'll help me". again a selfish reason.
and finally taoism teaches a sell your soul to satan form of mentality, ie " just pray to me, and i will give you fortune. you don't have to be good, you can even be a criminal. no requirement here other than you burn incense to me".
selfish evil religions make selfish evil people. just like radical islam, fanatical taoism is just as dangerous.

spine-less foriegners

2009-10-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

one doesn;t have to live in taiwan long as a foriegner to know that there are a LOT of worthless foriegners here, as well as really great people from all countries. weeding out the chaf from the wheat is pretty much the same as it would be anywhere else: trial and error.
but taiwan has a couple of other factors working against you.
first of all, this country rewards the first kind- the assholes. foriegners who tow the line of these bushibans that just want to make money off these children are looked at as gold. those who will rat out other foriegners are even more valuable. i knew one guy who was a TERRIBLE teacher who hit on female students in the most errie of ways, but was kept on because he reported on other foriegners.
teachers who also cannot speak any chinese at all and don't CARE SHIT about taiwan culture are routinely paid MORE than those who make the effort.
also TV rewards stupid foriegners.the more stupid the better. "insult my race? fine. just let me get on TV and be stupid because in my own country i'm nothing and could never get that opportunity."
pubs even reward stupid foriegners. the worse your chinese, the better your chances of getting laid. it's a fact.
and where do these spine-less foriegners congregate? usually forumosa.com or some other taiwan sympathizer site.
yes i said it. those sites do everything they can to build up taiwan as a paradise and crack down on any dissent or truth telling about how taiwan really is.
try it and see. it's a clique. and those in the IN GROUP don't even have to obey rules like sending THREATENING LETTERS! that was done to me more than ONCE. no punishment to these people.
that's the other factor you have to watch out for: there are relatively FEW foriegners here in the english teacher crowd- most foriegners are in fact technical workers. but that small crowd has a number of people who will do ANYTHING to hold on to their little island paradise.
watch yourself.

why i don't really believe in chinese kung fu

2009-07-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

i have been fortunate to have met some really amazing people in my life. and i've tried to learn all i could from them. martial arts has always been a part of my life, though i lack talent and skill in that area. i try to make up for that by being a hard working student.

but enough is enough. what my eyes (and bones) tell me is dishearting, but here it goes:

explain to me why, if kung fu is so good, NO ONE, NOT ONE competitor in the MMA uses it or has been able to use it successfully? yes, many have tried and many have died (figuratively of course). why is it that no one, no matter what system/systems they have studied fair any better in these matches than someone who has not studied them?

why is it that even arts like wing chun, though they look cool when two exponents doing the same thing are practicing together,are UNABLE to be used as they are practiced? these people too end up relying on some form of boxing and/or grappling.

i know very a good kung fu teacher who has answered this question well:
".....because when you practice, you practice in form, but when you fight, you must have no form"

excellent analysis. as a jazz musician i know this well. we practice etudes to learn how to swing, but when you're up on the bandstand you have to forget those etudes and just play.

but then, if the form is going to be forgotten anyway..... hope you see what i'm getting at.

also the concept of chi kung is very vague. i believe it has more to do with moving your body in a coordinated manner which includes the breath. but even weight lifters know this, so why go all mystical?

many would say that the reason these arts can't be used effectively is because the secrets of the arts have been lost to all but a few, and those few never choose to compete, so we never see the arts in their true glory.
again, those guys are like a UFO- heard of them, but not sure i've seen one.

also in taiwan, a lot of kung fu is connected to the temples, which are connected to the mafia or quasi-mafia type organizations. this i want no part of , not only because of the criminal element, but because this kind of stuff is retro-taiwan. modern, educated people don't run with gangs or go around establishing "turf". we spend our time at Starbucks reading and call the cops when shit goes down. or use pepper spray.

then again, a lot of teachers don't really want you to know anything, especially if you're a foriegner, no matter what they say to you. they will lead you on, teaching you just enough to keep you on the hook but never enough to really understand ,and they feel they haven't wasted your time because at least they taught you something.
and the foriegner gets dissed for learning it anyway, being called a kung fu freak. but when taiwanese learn it, it's ok.

also, i think a LOT of the forms in CKF are really anti-grappling moves or weapons related, and herein lies their real value, but there are tons of teachers still trying to get you to beleive that these moves can block a punch against a moving opponent. put a weapon in the hands of a person practicing these forms and they start to make sense. apply them to grab defenses and they make sense. but try to use the moves to block and you'll be blocking his punch with your FACE!!

personally speaking, i think most people would do better to learn how to box. or learning something modern like gracie jujitsu, or reality based things.

i am presently learning wing chun with a great teacher, but i have no desire to learn it all the way thru. i like the sticky hands and trapping and the concepts in it, but in the end, i will try to take from it what I, at my low talent end of it, can use.

that's my take on chinese martial arts.

the golden melody awards: the "big club"

2009-07-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

the taiwan golden melody award reeks of the croynism and insider privledges that the whole "music" industry as whole here does. it's basically a club where " i win this year, you win next year".
what is equally ridiculous are the "categories" of music: taiwanese songs, mandarin songs, hakkanese songs.
i've got news for you- those are LANGUAGES NOT MUSICAL STYLES! but since taiwan has YET to establish a true musical style of it's own, the only distinctions they can make are linguistics.
the fact is, taiwan threw away its musical heritage a long time ago, back in the 90s, in favor of more western sounding music, in an attempt to show they were on an equal footing with the west.
now taiwan music sounds no different than any other western music, save the language used. there is no definitive style to taiwan music (save tai yu song, which is a hair's difference from japanese enka).
this year they are sure to have a foriegn artist as a guest. thing is, if that foriegn artist lived in taiwan, they'd be doing EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO KEEP HIM FROM EVER MAKING A RECORD! because taiwan artists aren't ready to have competition on their on soil.
simple as that.
will i watch the GMAs this year? maybe. or maybe not. i doubt very seriously if it will be anything but the same shit, different year.
i'm sure jay chou and tchai yi ling will win most of the awards, with a few concessions to the little guys to keep people hoping. and i'll bet little fat ass gets best "best artist" of the year. fuck him too.
no, i probably have better things to do that night. like writing some songs that'll never be heard anyway because i'm too white to be marketable here, or maybe just too taiwanese for their comfort.

the erie side of ah mei/a- mi

2009-07-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

though it may be just another example of the taiwan music industry's total lack of creativity thanks to ultra-localization and cronyism, the "a-me/a-mi" phenomenon is just downright creepy!

first of all, the idea that one can become another person, another identity whenever one changes his/her hair color then change back smacks of mutiple personality disorder, if not programmed multiple.

is a-mei being handled? and to what end? to confuse the masses of young people already struggling with their own identity?

maybe it's just another record company ploy. but the weird factor is in there enough to get it mention on this site.

this week's psycho-bitch award goes to a-mei/a-mi or whatever she calls herself.

ICRT or I [CIA] RT?

2009-07-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

ICRT was originally chartered as military radio for american servicemen stationed in taiwan. after the removal of US troops from Taiwan soil, ICRT found itself in limbo. so some forward thinking investors restructored it to be an englsih radio station, serving the foriegn community, etc, and so on.

the official story.

actually ICRT's story reads CIA ops thru and thru. after the US "gave up" taiwan in favor of mainland china, it needed a way to keep american cultural influence in taiwan. but that cultural influence had to be in line with the KMT's desires for this westernization to be controlled.

that ICRT was refunded by private interests is not unusual. many CIA operations don't go on the budget.

ICRT is the most taiwan condcending station i have ever heard. they are basically in the business of making the taiwan entertainment industry look good. and you dare not run afoul of them.

a friend of mine is a comedian in taipei who made some jokes about ICRT as part of his set. he got a lot of cold shoulder treatment as far as securing perfromances after that, though he is still working, thankfully.

ICRT has also deliberately played B version records ( almost exact, but flawed nontehless)imposter-sung copies of western pop records. why would they do this?
as a music producer, guitarist, recording tech person, i know all of these original recordings down to the fizz in the mics they used back then. but it doesn't take a musician to spot that the singer on these B records is not karen carpenter, yet ICRT played these records and SAID it was karen carpenter! the reason is i believe because ICRT is in cahoots with the record industry here to make the great western artists of the past look not so great and therefore not make taiwan musicians look so lame.
in this, ICRT is IMPLICIT in helping the taiwan government do everything it can to boost the self esteem of the taiwanese people, even if it means tarnishing the truly great music of western artists.

listen to ICRT DJs drabble on about taiwan music like it's the beatles,elvis,jackson brown, stevie wonder, micheal jackson, using words like "seminal, groundbreaking, etc".
there is NO COMPARISON between the sappy, copycat dribble presently put out by EMI, BMG, SONY, in taiwan and the truly groundbreaking seminal music of the founding western music artists. to say otherwise is pure cantor.
if tawian music is so earth shaking, why are they copying instead of creating? why have they yet to produce something like a reggae, ska, or even ONE UNIQUE, WORLD CHANGING FORM OF MUSIC as even little 3rd world island nations have?
just saying taiwan music is great will not make it so. this double standard special- ed class for the funk afflicted needs to stop.
taiwan needs to go back to the music they were doing in the 80s, which was TRULY taiwanese and which touched my heart from across the ocean and made me want to come here.

my experience in the taiwan music industry

2009-07-13T20:47:00.001-07:00

the folllowing all happened to me.i will testify in court that all i have said is true.

1989- went to live in houston chinatown. opened english school. was inspired to go to asia from watching HK movies at the chinese movie theater. became famous at karaoke club for singing.

1990- while working at a chinese owned ice cream shop, one morning while i was washing the windows a man in a suit came and sat down at the table behind me outside. he was an asian man, dressed in a suit that was very conservative. he looked like an IRS person. he said from behind me "you like working with chinese people don't you?" i said yes. he said good, took his newspaper and walked away without looking back.
in chinatown there were rumors that i worked for the FBI. i was asked this seriously by more than one person.

1993- after sending demos to japan, i was getting mail one day, when a man called out my name. he said" are you (my name)" i turned around, and saw an asian man, shorter than the one before. he just ran off when i turned around. he didn't even wait for me to say "yes i am".

1997- i issued all the papers to get a performance visa in taiwan. taiwan government only gave me a travel visa. they said i could get one when i got there. afterwards i found that was not true.

1997- in the immgration office renewing my stay, a cop saw me pull a record company person's name card from my wallet. he took the card without asking me and called the guy on the card saying "listen here you CANNOT hire this foreigner on any record do you hear me? it's against the law!!" (actually it is not wth the proper paperwork).

1997- was introduced to EMI executive. after hearing my demo he said "if i give you a contract, are you willing to leave taiwan?" i said " maybe hong kong?". he said "no leave asia. go to europe. you cannot stay in taiwan". {EXACT WORDS]

BMG said they had a rule not to hire any really strong foriegners because the foriegners would raise the bar and cause the companies to actually have to compete. he said the companies had a rule not to compete to strongly against each other. they said the companies even trade songs with each other.

1997- while sitting outside Mc donalds on min chaun east road (i was sitting on a concrete thing outside) there was a lady, taiwanese, sitting inside McD who looked at me, kind of flirting. i nodded back at her and turned my head down to bite my hamburger. i looked out of the left corner of my eye and there was a white man, blondish, sitting at a table outside, signalling to her, something like "tone it down". i looked up and saw her doing something like "ok ok," then she saw me watching her do that and she totally stopped moving and smiled at me. i grabbed my bag and ran, leaving McD. my heart was pounding very fast.

one of my guitar solos from my demos was lifted directly and placed in a pop song during this time. i had listen to my solo a hundred times so i know what i played. it was my solo.

** also the practice of B version CDs was revealed to me. this is where a person sings a song and copies it so directly that it is ALMOST indistiguishable from the original. then it is packaged AS the original singer and sold. i have even heard these versions on ICRT. (i beleive the reason is to make the really great performers from the west appear not so great so that taiwan performers do not appear so lame). the taiwanese small companies recruited many foriegners to do this too. i refused.

1998-200ish- appeared on many foriegner talk shows and dissed the record companies' practices.

2003-ish i did a contest at ***** pub. the boss said she liked my music and asked when could i come do a show( i also won 2nd palce in that contest). i went back a few weeks later and she said, oh i need your demo" i said "you already said you wanted me to perform for you. i just came to get back with you on that" she said "i have to hear the demo. i didn't hear your music so clearly that night so i can't make a decison." then after i sent the demo she said she was all booked up. i asked again maybe a year later and she said she had never liked my music.
i will always feel someone told her to not let me play.

was schedualed to appear on a radio show, to play my song and also discuss the industry. the radio guy immediately called up a guy to appear with us. the guy began to defend the industry vehemently, starting off the interview by calling me a racist name.

2003-4 ish- i played substitute for a band in a pub, the boss asked me to play solo. after i did he said "listen don't play too well" i said don't worry i can't play too well. he said "no i'm serious.in taiwan you can't play too well"

last company i sent to was Warner. bascially all the companies have said that they wil not risk money on a foriegner or cannot because they have a rule.all companies have offered to buy out my songs, but i refused because i protest this system.

all thru this experience- if i have am booked on a show, they put me near the end. always.or i get bumped.

basically my experience. i hearby affirm that all i have said is true.

the truth about the taiwan music industry

2009-07-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

They didn’t want me to be in the white guys’ way… I felt I was pushed into a rhythm and blues corner to keep out of rocker’s way, because that’s where the money is. When ‘Tutti Frutti’ came out… They needed a rock star to block me out of white homes because I was a hero to white kids. The white kids would have Pat Boone upon the dresser and me in the drawer ‘cause they liked my version better, but the families didn’t want me because of the image that I was projecting."[16]

Little Richard, on why he got sidelined by white singer Pat Boone

the taiwan "music" industry is one big propaganda machine. but propaganda to what end? to answer this one must understand a little about the concept of taiwan status.

after taiwan was kicked out of the UN in the 70s in favor of diplomatic relations with mainland china, it has been in a sort of limbo- a country that is not a country. an entity that has to beg and scrounge for recognition and allies. many of it's diplomatic allies consist of 3rd world island nations and despot countries who have been bought off with the abundant reserves of the ROC, thanks to their semi-socialist control of industries such as tobacco, steel, rail (all of which they pillaged from the Japanese after WWII).

everytime taiwan tries to assert itself either in opinon or joining organizations suc as the WHO etc, they get threatend by china. then the US also tells Taiwan when and where to open it's mouth.

this kind of manhandling frustrates the taiwanese people and their politicians and has been a source of inferiority complex for them. so they try everything they can to assert a feeling of "superiority", hence and emphasis on localization in the music industry, whether the music sucks or not.

also westernization of taiwan (in the surface sense not the philosophical) has been quite rapid. as taiwan is closest to the US both in military need and as a trading partner, this was natural.

however, chiang kai shek was not a fool. the ROC observed that music was a threat. elvis, the beatles, the hippie movement, were things he couldn't allow in his fascist island paradise. music was tightly controlled. yes elvis got in, but not the threating elvis that we know.

taiwan basicaly went thru the 50s and 60s in a vaccum. few people in taiwan are on the same page as the rest of the world in discussing modern music. it's as if they had been asleep for 50 years and have to have everything explained to them. even japan is not like this. taiwan people do not feel they are with the world. it's an us/them mentality. they never look at themselves as being a part of the world culture.

whats worse, the music industry in taiwan wants it that way, because foriegn artists outsell local records in actual sales. people know that local pop stars are manufactured, and thus don't buy their records. that's a good sign. the bad is, what taiwan people know about foriegn music is as FORIEGN MUSIC, again the us/them mentality.

the taiwan record industry exists as a form of control, mostly to child down the population, but also as a morale building agent, to show taiwanese what taiwanese can do. that is admirable. but this form of localzation has created a "special ed class" for the musically untalented, and a highly subjective double standard for musical performance (ie, taiwanese don't have to play that well) as well as cronyism and an elitist only participation in entertainment.

Can Taiwanese People Think?

2009-07-11T17:45:00.001-07:00

borrowing from the book titled "Can Asians Think?" by Kishore Mahbubani here.

I have serious doubts, in fact i have proof of experience that the majority of taiwanese people, though having a good IQ, are quite incapable of serious thought and critical analysis.

the most common phrase you'll hear when making an observation that taiwanese people just don't get (or just don't want to look at) is "you think too much".
true many westerners think too much and read too much into some cultural aspects in taiwan, but "you think too much" and it's derivative "DON'T think too much" have become the "default mind setting" of most Taiwanese people. and it is that default mind setting that i want to expose.

taiwan is basically a "group think society". people travel in groups because they are basically insecure, go out in groups becuase it's more fun. some women even bring friends on their date so they can check the person out and help her decide (actually decide for her).

taiwan is also an "easy please" society. if i were to make a list of adjectives to decribe this country, taiwan would be "fun,convenient, yummy". which is fine in it's own right. i enjoy those parts of taiwan too. but too many things in taiwan are being used to dumb down, or more accurately "child down" the society so they are easliy managed.

consider taiwan music: it has a sing songy, childish melodic style, with childish "artists" fronting the show. the lyrics are also childish, talking about anything safe such as young romance,etc. one would argue that teens make up most of the record buying public so this makes economic sense, but this teeny-bopper mentality permeates almost all aspects of taiwan popular culture, well into adulthood. think about it; what kind of culture has people over 30 living at home, playing online games, and reading comics? what kind of culture needs every product or new idea introduced to them like it's on "Bill Nye the Science Guy"? that's exactly how taiwan news feels. the reporters talk loudly and pitch their voices like they are introducing something to a child.

side note: watching a taiwan concert is basically like watching Barney the dinosaur in concert. the shows are always intersped with announcements from glitzy, dipy stars who introduce this and that. it's not really a concert, but a show, designed to sell celebrities and more importantly CELEBRITY as a guiding force.

taiwan is indeed a paradise for teenagers. i admire that, because young people need distractions and fun to keep them in line. but this culture is just that: a distraction... to keep people in line.

Ma going hardline?

2009-07-09T21:01:00.001-07:00

there are many worries that president Ma may already be going hardline. last year, when native taiwan protesters against a visiting delgate from mainland china played the taiwan anthem, the police shut them down. also taiwan independence flags were torn down.
the rights of free speech, which the taiwanese fought so hard to achieve are being taken away, in the name of impressing china. is Ma trying to show china that he would be a governor capable of controlling dissent on the island if and when Taiwan is handed back to the mainland?

The Fascist Roots of the ROC

2009-07-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Taiwan ( the island) has been occupied for 60 years by a government that, though it's individual representatives are voted in by the populace, the GOVERNMENT itself was not.
The ROC is a fascist entity. though it's founder dr., sun yat sen was a great, open minded man with a wonderful vision for the chinese people, many bad influeneces crept in beyond his control such as advisors from various entities, including communist russia and nazi germany.
dr. sun yat sen never intended for the chinese people to turn to fascist ideology, but that is what has happened.
listen to television shows in taiwan and you will hear white foriegners called the taiwanese word "ah do gah" (high nose). white people are called foriegners(lao wai). but japanese, vietnamese, other asians are NOT called foriegners even though technically they are.
this is because taiwan seeks to use race/racial outsider-sim as a binding force in it's society. but this outsider-ism has also been used against ethnic chinese from the mainland.
there basically two types of fascism in taiwan: original ROC fascist ideology established by chiang kai shek during his regime of terror (in which score of native taiwanese protesters were murdered over the years) and reverse fascism, invented by native taiwanese against everybody who is not them (fukien dialect speaking, 4th generation on the island). this form of localization crippled the last administration under Chen sui bien, who excluded people of mainland decent who were more capable of carrying out his policies than the locals he chose.
this localization/outsiderism in taiwan is what is holding taiwan back as a people. out of love, i say "taiwan open your eyes".