In September some relative’s friend’s daughter Joyce showed up on my doorstep and announced that the next day, she would be taking Beth and I to Lukang for the weekend. While there, we were to visit Long-Shan (Dragon Mountain) Temple (龍山寺) for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Surprisingly enough, not a lot happened during said festival, some people ran down the streets and lit fireworks, and we ate mooncakes (delicious!). Legend has it that Chang’er swallowed an immortality elixir stolen from her husband, and she flew to the moon and became the goddess of the moon, who has lived in the palace on the moon ever since. During the festival, one looks to the moon in hopes of seeing her dancing. In the 17th century, Dutch occupiers used Lukang as a major harbor for exports; in 1784 it was designated as the Taiwan seaport for shipping links with the Hanchiang harbor at Chuanchou on the coast of mainland China, thereby becoming the gateway to central Taiwan. At that time the town was crowded with stores that covered their facing streets with awnings, creating the famous ‘no sky’ market areas. Early in the 1900’s the conservative residents refused to allow the passage of major railways and highways, and the harbor silted up as well, reducing Lukang from the second largest city in Taiwan to a small backwater town. It is the same conservatism that has allowed the preservation of the traditional face of Lukang.

So the next day, Beth, Joyce, Joyce’s friend ‘Sweetie’, and I hopped aboard a train for the long ride to Lukang. Our first stop was Long-Shan Temple. Built in the Ming Dynasty (around 1653), the Long-Shan Temple is the first Buddhist temple ever built in Taiwan. As Lukang was reaching the peak of its economical prosperity, along with plentiful donations from the local well-to-do citizens, the temple was relocated and rebuilt twice. Fanciful building blocks were purchased from afar, including colossal stones from France, and wood and bricks from Fu-Jou. In addition, distinguished artists and architects were hired from the Chinese mainland to help create what amounted to “Taiwan’s Forbidden City.” The style of construction is identical to that of the imperial palaces built in the Northern Sung Dynasty. There used to be altogether 99 doors and gates in and out of the temple, and each contained significant meaning (according to tradition) while they link all parts of the temple into one entity. As one of the three oldest temples in Taiwan, the Long-Shan Temple was once a subsidiary branch of the Kai-Yuan Temple of Chuan-Jou during the Ching Dynasty. The deities worshipped in the central sanctuary are Guan-Yin, the Lord of Land, the Goddess of Childbirth, and the Eighteen Saints. In the rear sanctuary are the Dragon God and God of Winds. During the time of Japanese occupation, the Gods in the central sanctuary were removed to the two wings, replaced by the Japanese-verion Buddha. In 1921, a fire blasted the rear sanctuary, destroying all the antique Buddhist statues except a bronze statue of Guan-Yin and one of the tiger-taming saints. In 1928, some master sculptors were employed from the mainland to restore the destroyed statues. The rear sanctuary was not fully restored until 1936. After the restoration of Taiwan in 1955, the Gods originally located in the central sanctuary were moved back to their proper location, the Japanese Buddha removed and placed in the rear sanctuary. The statue of Guan-Yin in place today (in addition to the Eighteen Saints) were made in 1962. At 300 years old, the Long-Shan Temple reflects the rise and fall of Lukang’s history. Now it is known worldwide for its architectural achievement, chronicling past glory in addition to the town’s cultural spirit.

While we were at the temple, we were able to make prints from their ancient temple plates. I made a print of a Chi’lin or Chinese Unicorn, which was originally used as a ladies’ underwear pattern. Talk about your fancy panties! I’d scan the print itself but I have no idea where the hell it is. I think it was one of the things that was missing of of the numerous boxes I shipped home (Every single box I shipped home was absolutely torn apart, things were taken, and I’m still mad about a few of them. Damn customs! Leave my painting books alone!) After we were done checking out the temple and finished shopping in the no-sky market, it was getting late, and it was time for dinner. Joyce took us to some sort of Taiwanese chicken chain. At that point, I was still quite unused to seeing the heads still on cooked animals, and had to take this picture. (Look at the very center of the menu if you’re confused.)

Actually, scratch that. I’m still not used to it. They were giving away DINOSAUR toys with their kids meal. And they had a giant rooster outside. If I were to say that didn’t scream ‘photo op’, you’d obviously be talking to an imposter Melissa.

After dinner, we went back to the home of our hosts, who promptly offered us some milk that had been sitting in the van all day. Beth had the all-too-pleasant experience of accidentally opening the bathroom door on the host father, who was standing there looking bewildered in his underwear. I was pretty sure I was going to die laughing when she came back upstairs with this horrified look on her face. The next day we went to the Lukang Folk Arts Museum. The European-style structure that houses this museum appears somewhat out of place amid the traditional buildings of Lukang. Originally the residence of a wealthy local landholder named Ku Hsienjung, it was later donated as a place to exhibit a large collection of artifacts, many of them articles of daily use in ancient times. I was fascinated to see the tiny shoes women wore when foot-binding was in fashion. The process of foot-binding itself is rather disgusting; if you’re interesting in reading about it and seeing how it actually shapes the foot, I suggest you look here. (Not for the weak of stomach!) We pretty much had the run of the place as no one else was visiting, and Joyce got bored so we went off to take more stupid pictures of ourselves. “Here’s a building. We must take pictures by it!” …ok!

I was glad to have visited Lukang when I did. Before we came through there again on the Taiwan tour in April, a huge earthquake had devastated the temple and it had to be held up by metal structures built around it. Though I’m sure Beth was appreciative of the lack of cheesecloth underwear the second time around.

Shortly after all of the exchange students arrived, we were all placed in a cram school for two months to hopefully cram some Mandarin into our heads. There are a lot of different languages spoken in Taiwan: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, plus a variety of aboriginal languages, but it was felt that Mandarin would be the most useful for us.

It’s funny, though, after we all picked up enough Chinese to know when the Rotarians or our host families were talking about us in right in front of us, they’d switch over to Taiwanese. I imagine that if we started learning Taiwanese, they’d start in on ANOTHER language, just to keep a step ahead of us. Furthermore, it didn’t matter how much Chinese we learned, it seemed as if the Taiwanese had special flaps over their ears so they could only hear English coming from foreigners. We’d approach a vendor, ask for what we wanted in Chinese, and they’d turn around and say “We….uh…no English.” Yes…but…ok, but I was speaking to you in CHINESE.

I digress. They placed all ~30 of us in this cram school (all exchange students went to Taipei that year…in future years, possibly because of US, students would be sent all over the country) to learn the language and also to bond with each other. After a couple of weeks, they tested us and placed us in three different classes based on one’s aptitude with the language. The best students went into Class A. bethy824 was assigned to Class B. *I* went into Class C. Apparently my retardation showed up sort of early. It was interesting, though: The way they divided us up became very indicative as to whom we would spend the majority of our time with over the rest of the year. A lot of the Class A students disappeared on us after the first two months were up, whereas Class B and C bonded and formed our own group of super awesomeosity. Actually, I take that back. It was mostly the Germans who disappeared on us. Lisa locked herself in her room and studied Chinese all day long, Max thought everything we did was ‘a little bit stupid’, I saw Jerry maybe twice after cram school ended, and Hannah was perhaps the only one of us to fit right in with her Taiwanese classmates. Eva and Lukas apparently enjoyed slumming as they still hung around with us. My class consisted of Natacha, Claire, Audrey, Marie (all French), Eva and Lisa (Germany), Maria (Russia) and Jerome (Belgium). As another side note, I furthermore find it interesting that in a culture that reveres males so highly, so many female exchange students were chosen by the Taiwanese Rotary. After our two months were up, each class had to put on a play for the Rotary clubs. Class A did a play about what life was like for an exchange student in Taiwan. Class B did a series of skits. Class C did a re-interpretation of Snow White. Re-interpretation meaning “what we could do with our limited Chinese, plus Snow White and the Handsome Prince meet in a disco instead of in the forest, and some creative changes so Natacha did not have to kiss Jerome, because that was an aspect she was totally not thrilled about.” Marie played a dwarf and the assassin. I like the idea of a dwarf assassin very much.

I think the rice paddy hats were a nice touch.

My narcissistic ass got to play the wicked witch. After the dwarves knocked me down, Snow White STABBED ME. After the plays were all over, they handed out awards for ‘best chinese speakers’ and whatnot. Somehow, even as a Class C student, I managed to walk away with first place. I think there were some politics going on there, because I certainly was NOT the most fluent at that point. My host mother and CP Su Mei both mentioned that the Taiwanese especially like the way that Americans speak Chinese, as they consider us to have less of an ‘accent’ when we speak.

bethy824 also received an award for being superawesomeOMGWOW. All of our accomplishments as exchange students were important to our host families, because it gave them ‘face’. Face is an essential component of the Chinese national psyche. Having face means having a high status in the eyes of one’s peers, and is a mark of personal dignity. The Chinese are acutely sensitive to gaining and maintaining face in all aspects of social and business life. Face is a prized commodity which can be given, lost, taken away or earned. My being #1 most awesome speaker did have an amazing prize to go with it, though: All of the exchange students were to go to meet the President of Taiwan, Chen Shui-Bian, who also happened to be a Rotarian. I got to meet with him personally and give a speech. My host mother was my speechwriter, because, yeah, even as #1mostawesomeChinesespeaker, my Chinese…not that hot. The speech went something like this: Honorable President, how are you? Honorable men, how are you? I am a Rotary exchange student; my name is Pure Plum Blossom. We all are very thankful to the Rotary for giving us this chance to live here in Taiwan, and also to meet your Honorable President. We hope to learn a lot, and make a lot of new friends here in Taiwan. We are thankful to our host families for opening their homes and hearts to us. Thank you all. I love you all. Very evidently I was not the speechwriter for that. I’d make a voice post with it in Chinese, but over these last 5 years my Chinese has deteriorated to the point that I would be embarrased to do so; I’ve got all of the vocab in the speech written down so I haven’t lost THAT at least, but my pronunciation is shit now. It was an interesting time to meet with Taiwan’s president, because it was the first time that the Democratic Progressive Party had won the election over the Kuomintang. The DPP is strongly for Taiwanese Independence. However, the symbol on the Taiwanese flag is actually that of the Kuomintang. Chang Kai-Shek is revered there, and is the founder of the Kuomintang in Taiwan, and there are many monuments built for him throughout the country. Additionally, his face appears on all of their money. In order to win office, the DPP actually had to promise that they would not change any of their national symbols to reflect their party; so even as the head of government, they are surrounded by symbols of the other political party.

All of us in the Presidential building. No, we aren’t all leaning to one side, the picture was too damn big to scan properly.

The business card of Chen Shui-Bian on the gift he gave me. The gift itself is a crystal with an image of Taiwan carved out inside with lasers, and the base says ‘From the Office of the President’. I’ve got it sitting out on my coffee table; it’s right up there as one of the coolest things I own.

Apparently it was a slow news day.