Goodbye Taiwan and Until Next Time

            As my last blog for my anthropology of Taiwan class I decided that instead of incorporating this week’s readings into my blog I would give my overall take not only on what I have learned about Taiwan within the confined of the classroom but also what I’ve learned by exploring outside of the class. When I registered for the course I needed simply a 4^th year anthropology class, I had no idea where Taiwan was nor anything about Taiwan. I knew Taiwanese people spoke Taiwanese and that was all, little did I know that in the span of 13 weeks I would be amazed by the people of Taiwan along with their culture.

            After the first class I knew where to find Taiwan on a world map, and that in fact it was not recognized as a country, much to my disbelief. Liminal I think is a good way of explaining Taiwan, because it bounced around a little between Japan and PRC (People’s Republic of China), however, now it belongs to ROC (Republic of China). As a result of all the juggling that occurred not only is it hard for Taiwan to rightfully find it’s place within the world but for Taiwanese people there’s an added difficulty to assert an identity when the country you have been born and raised in, is in such a liminal position.

            In the past 13 weeks I have been educated not only on Taiwan but on its people and their resilience to fight for what they believe in as well as to go after what they believe in their heart is there’s. Their national identity as a country is amazing; the people come together and stand in unison. The heart of Taiwan is the people within the country, they are the reason why there is such a strong presence felt within.

            Overall, I think what has been the most striking is how this new social movement currently happening in Taiwan called the Sunflower Student Movement, where students voiced their distain over a free trade agreement in the works with China. They have managed to show not only their civility and gracefulness during their protest but have managed to pull in resources from people around the country who stand behind them and support what they are doing. In a country where access to education is for the smartest and most dedicated, for them to put their education on hold and fight for what they believe in is truly remarkable. This trade agreement would mean Taiwanese people would most likely lose jobs to Chinese companies and this generation has decided this is unacceptable and to do something about it. Who knows how it will continue to play out, however, no matter what happens they should be proud of the manner in which they have conducted themselves since the start of the movement.

            I hope one day in the not so distant future Taiwan becomes a recognized country ruled by a Taiwanese president who has the best interest of the country people in mind. I not only learned about Taiwan in this course, I learned about a people whose nation identity is remarkable.

Policing in Taiwan and Quebec

    This weeks readings looked at Jeffrey Martin’s article “A Reasonable Balance of law and Sentiment: Social Order in Democratic Taiwan from the Policeman’s Point of view”. The article examines social order by using a new and interesting point of view, that of policeman. Based on this article I decided to look at police conduct within Quebec and more specifically in the city of Montreal based on a native’s perspective, compared to police conduct as stated in Martin’s article.
Within the province of Quebec the main police force is La Sûreté du Québec, which is the main unit responsible for almost eveything within the province, although many municipalities may have their own police force and the except of Montreal which has the SPVM (Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal). Montreal is known for many different reasons, Expo 67, Biodome, Marché Bonsecours, Old Forum, Montreal Canadians, F1, Charbonneau Commision and more recently police brutality within the context of protests (CTV Montreal, 2014).

    When walking around Montreal you are certain to see a police officer, whether it be by car, bike, foot or horse, they are everywhere in Montreal. The most recent clash between demonstrators and police took place during the Police Anti-Brutality Protest, which took place on March 15th, where people gatheres to “publicly voice their opposition to excessive use of police force-or to call for the disbanding of armed police forces altogether” (The Link, 2014). This is an annual event in its 18th year, however, unlike most year this years protest was declared illegal mere minutes after it started due to municipal bylaws put into effect during the Maple Spring or the Montreal 2012 Student Protest (The Link, 2014). It seems that it has become expected that the SPVM kettle protestors, pepper spray them and conduct themselves in a way unacceptable of people with authority over others, compared to Taiwanesse officers there is a stark difference. In Taiwan, specifically in Taipei county the policemen have their own beat in which it consits of a couple of city blocks, containing about 200-400 households, and a sole officer is responsible for this (Martin, 2007). There seems to be very little conflict between Taiwainesse policemen and their citizens, even though each policemen is responsible for their beat, they know the people and regularly interact with them. This system of course isn’t feasible for all places and cities, however, it seems to be effective in Taiwan and other cities could learn a lot from Taipei County’s police system.

    From a native’s perspective, I think the SPVM have a tough job and they tend to get a lot of critism for doing their job. An example, is during the Maple Spring most police offficers worked double shifts and did plenty of overtime due to the ongoing protest. No job is ever easy and I think being a police officer in a large city has its challenges, we live in a society where free speech is rampant leading to everyone being able to freely express their opinion. People will always have their opinions, however, perhaps taking a look at the SPVM and making changes would be benificial not only for the police officers but also for the citizens of Montreal.

   

Image Source:
Panda Costume: http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2013/03/07/the-story-so-far-lachine-hospital-stays-with-muhc-and-protests-are-killing-downtown/

Taipei Police: http://english.tcpd.taipei.gov.tw/GIPDSD/xslGip/xslExport/108002/%E8%AD%A6%E5%AF%9F%E5%B1%80%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E7%89%88%E5%9E%8B1/images/%5B1%5Dlogo_tcpd.png

References:
CTV Montreal. (2014, March 15). Montreal police hand out 288 fines, arrest five during anti-police  brutality protest. Retrieved from http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-police-hand-out-288-fines-arrest-five-during-anti-police-brutality-protest-1.1730803

The Link. (2014, March 18). Editorial: The spvm’s bylaw squad. Retrieved from http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/5713

Martin, Jeffrey. 2007. “A Reasonable Balance of Law and Sentiment: Social Order in     Democratic Taiwan from the Policeman’s Point of View.” Law & Society Review     41 (3): 665-697.

The Cult of Wang Yulan and Nationalism

            In article by Chang-hui Chi “The Death of a Virgin: the Cult of Wang Yulan and Nationalism in Jinmen, Taiwan”, the author talks about the death of a woman named Wang Yulan who a symbolic complex was built around her to prevent the spread of communism. They used her as a means to promote nationalism within the village to ensure that order was respected.

            As a Quebecer I find it quite interesting that Wang Yulan was used as a symbol to promote nationalism since I feel that currently with the Quebec elections Pauline Marois is being used as a symbol to also promote nationalism. Although the nationalism both are being used as symbols for are quite different, and only one of the women actually has a say in what they’re promoting since Wang Yulan was only being used as a symbolic complex after her body washed ashore in Jinmen.

  

Politicians will use anything they can get their hands on in order to promote their own agendas, in both cases nationalism was their goal. Currently in Quebec the Parti Quebecois’s main goal is to be elected as a majority in order to have absolute power within the National Assembly in order to further promote their own agenda and their ultimate goal is to pass a referendum to sepearate from Canada. Their strategy is to gain support from the “True French Canadians” in order for the Parti Quebecois to be elected as a majority and have ultimate power within the National Assembly. However, in Taiwan in order to promote their nationalist agenda they used Wang Yulan and promoted her worship where her body was round and made her the symbol of resistance to communism and the exemplar of traditional Chinese values in general (2009; 671). Their main strategy became to use traditional values in order to gain support and encourage people to join them in the resistance against any sort of change, as a means to promote and ensure that the countries core values don’t waiver.

 

                            

Both Quebec and Taiwan are fighting for the right to become their own countries and not have other people made decisions on their behave and allow others to dictate what their laws and value system should be. Although, to an outsider to seems that Taiwan is it’s own country, I’m sure within Taiwan its people do not feel the same way, however from a Quebecer’s perspective unlike Taiwan we own a Canadian passport and are part of a country, whereas Taiwan keeps getting shifted back and forth from Japan’s hands to China’s without their input. Taiwanese nationalism as well as Quebec nationalism is a sense of pride of where one comes from, it shows your origins and allows people to identify with a specific set of customs.

             

Image Source:

Protest sign - http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1i68475Dl1qhuzeso1_500.jpg

Quebec Nationalism - http://thepoliticalbouillon.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Flag_Map_of_Canada_with_Independent_Quebec.png

Taiwan Nationalism - http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2953/taiwanisnotchinawn1.jpg

References:

Chi, Chang-hui. 2009. “The Death of a Virgin: the Cult of Wang Yulan and Nationalism             in Jinmen, Taiwan.” Anthropological Quarterly 82 (3): 669-690.

Identities and Nationalism

       Benedict Anderson's article "Western Nationalism and Eastern Nationalism: Is There a Difference that Matters?” she takes a look at nationalism now and then as well as Western vs. Eastern. There’s this idea according to Anderson that an Asian form of nationalism is still very much so common and it has roots going back more than a century. This idea’s origins come from racist European imperialism, which felt that East is East and West is West, meaning that they were not only very different but they would also never meet or intertwine due to their differences (2001: 31). Some of the oldest nationalism in Asia are in fact older than many of those in Europe and Europe Overseas. In fact several countries in their origins were very similar to other countries in which they have very little in common with each other, such as the Philippines and Cuba, they are both in the Northern Hemisphere but are classified as East and West (2001: 32).

          One of the most predominant points mentioned in the article is how often the world changes and how over time the notion of East and West has varied substantially from how people viewed it a century ago to how they view it in modern times. Another important question that we need to ask ourselves is who decides where east and west begin and end, is there a science behind this decision making process or is it arbitrary since it changes so much over time (2001: 32). Can countries within the same time zone be the limitations of East and West, or must they be in the same Hemisphere for this decision to be made, an example of this is Lima and Los Angeles both in the same time zone could they both be regarded as the Far West. Centuries ago migration wasn’t look at as an issue however now there are massive amounts of population migrations taking place within the supposedly fixed boundaries of Europe and Asia allowing people to leave their home countries and settle in others, bringing their values and beliefs along with them (2001: 32).

        These migration flows will most likely continue and perhaps even accelerate over the years, since even though some countries have stricter laws and regulations in most countries immigrants make up its demographic profile and they’re essential to the countries development and prosperity. What comes out of these migrations, what new identities are being or will be produced, these questions are hugely complex and large unanswerable questions because these migrations are still so new, in past decades very few people would migrate outside of their own country less so continent (2001: 33). Anderson goes on to discuss the concept of Creole Nationalism, which is the earliest form of nationalism, arose out of the vast expansion of overseas empires, which were often very far away. She goes on to talk about linguistic nationalism, which has its philosophical origins in the theories of Herder and Rousseau, who’s “underlying belief was that each true nation was marked off by its own peculiar language and literary culture, which together expressed that people’s historical genius” (2001: 40). In the end there are multiple forms of nationalism each, which has roots within the others, there seems to be no distinct nationalism because they all have similarities even though they may be predominantly Western or Eastern.

Image Source:
Albert Einstein: http://thefabweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/t6gAx-900x506.png
Migration Flow: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/strikingwomen/skin/images/map_large.jpg

References:
Anderson, Benedict. 2001. “Western Nationalism and Eastern Nationalism.” New Left Review 9: 31-42.

Experiences of Being a 'Native'

            In Keelung Hong’s article “Experiences of Being a ‘Native’: Observing Anthropology” he talks about growing up in Taiwan when it was then a Japanese colony and then the experience of it becoming a Chinese colony. He makes reference to Native Americans and their experience during the time of residential schooling in Canada, looking at how classmates were turned into spies and would turn on them if they dare speak their native language and not acculturate to speaking Chinese (1994:6). They were striped of not only their language but also of their identity, cities and villages were renamed, punishments were enforced if someone dare spoke their native language even simply to pronounce a friends name or their own name. The Chinese people who took over Taiwan ensured that there would be no remnants of Taiwanese society when they were done, acculturation was in full force and it became important that people learned to obey by the new laws (1994:6).

 

For most Taiwanese people the only means of having a better life is to leave Taiwan in order to get away from the oppressive Chinese oligarchy, in the case of Keelung it meant immigrating to the United States once he had completed his mandatory military service. Once he began his study in the United States he was able to get a hold of ethnographies written about Taiwanese villages, much to his surprise the ethnographies although written about Taiwan were actually looking at ‘traditional Chinese culture’, most ethnographers did not actually look at Taiwanese culture but rather would go to Taiwan in order to study what they felt was Chinese culture (1994:7). Keelung explains that one of the reasons behind most ethnographers going to do fieldwork in Taiwan about Chinese culture was because China was closed to researchers, however, when research became available in China most of them flocked to China in order to have a large study population. One of the main points in his article is about Margery Wolf’s research, which he calls into question because he feels like a lot of her research was romantized and wasn’t accurately portrayed (1994:7).

Keelung Hong’s view of Taiwan is quite interesting because unlike ethnographies, which give an outsiders first hand experience of a culture, he is able to give outsiders a real look and feel for what Taiwan culture rather then Taiwan culture through the Chinese cultural scope. Hong’s outlook made me as an anthropology student reconsider all of the ethnographies I have read over the course of my schooling, it makes me think perhaps how skewed what I’ve read really is and how those cultures must feel when they read such things. The notion that perhaps not all ethnographies accurately portray the society properly brings up the issue of how as a reader we’re supposed to know if the information being presented to us is correct and actually factual regarding the society.

 

Image Sources:

Taiwan Retrocession 1947: http://65th.tpg.gov.tw/history-pic/glorious-moment/images/6-37.jpg

Book: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516KT681BHL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

References:

Hong, K. 1994. “Experiences of being a ‘native’: observing anthropology”. Anthropology today. 10 (3): 6-9.

Chinese Family Firm

            The article written by Susan Greenhalgh “De-Orientalizing the Chinese Family Firm”, she talks about family businesses and how family is involved in these businesses. She did her field research based on a historical study on 25 Taiwanese-run, manufacturing-based businesses; her primary focus was from the late 1970’s. The majority of the information Greenhalgh gathered came from a series of lengthy and intensive interviews conducted with the entrepreneurs and members of their families (1994: 752). The 25 businesses looked at were from a wide range of size classes; there were five sizes, microenterprises (1-19 workers), small in scale (20-99), medium sized (100-499), large (500-999), and finally very large (1,000 or more employees). Within these 25 businesses Greenhalgh looked at how families were involved and how many were involved depending on their different sizes (1994: 752). In the article table 1 shows how many family members worked within the different companies on average though it was found that each business employed 5.0 family members however it was found that the smaller the business the larger the family work force. The numbers diminished significantly between micro and small-scale businesses from 6.1 to 4.3 in very large businesses, most businesses was also predominantly male oriented, very few women worked in the businesses it went from 2.6 in micro and small-scale to 0.9 in very large businesses (1994: 753).

 

            Greenhalgh goes on in her article to describe how there were many gender differences were apparent in the conditions and rewards in the family business, virtually all male kin would work full-time whereas only one out of two female kin worked on a part-time basis. The majority of men received salaries whereas among the females in the businesses only unmarried daughters and married women working on the production line regularly received monetary compensation and even with this most of the men would work on a full-time basis whereas for married women their work was like an extension of their reproductive activities, part-time and uncompensated labor (1994:754).

After reading this I found it quite disturbing how female workers were treated and even more so since the majority of these working women had kinship ties to the businesses how they received little to no compensation for the work they put it. This article seems highly inaccurate in the portrayal of how female family workers are treated mainly I think because she only looked at 25 family run businesses which isn’t really enough to be able to do any kind of accurate research surrounding the topic. I hope that since this research and field work was conducted that things have changed for females working within the family business because there is no equality in their treatment regarding pay and work conditions.

Image Source:

Men: http://www.japanfocus.org/data/2_sino.jpg

Family: http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/data/13030/57/ft3q2nb257/figures/ft3q2nb257_00012.jpg

References:

Greenhalgh, S. (1994). De-orientalizing the chinese family firm. American ethnologist, 21(4), 746-775. doi: 10.1525/ae.1994.21.4.02a00050

Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors

 

 

 

            In Arthur Wolf’s book “Studies in Chinese Society”, there’s a section called “Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors”. It describes the worship rituals in the everyday lives of people living in the rural areas along the southwestern edge of the Taipei Basin. Wolf starts by describing how each morning conservative families will burn three sticks of incense twice a day, the first is placed in a nice outside of the house for the benefit of the wandering ghosts, the second is dedicated to the Stove God whose images resides above a large brick structure where all meals are prepared and finally, the third is placed in a burner before the tablets of the family’s immediate ancestors (1974: 131). His entire essay goes on to explain how these three different acts of worship have their own significance in the lives of the Taiwanese people, his arguments in the essay revolve around how each worshippers conception of the social world places a significant role in their lives (1974: 131).

 

 

            The first act of worship involves the Stove God, in most northern Taiwanese homes there is a large brick cooking stove on which most of the families’ meals are prepared and it stands as a substantial symbol of the family as a corporate body. This stove possession identifies the family as an independent entity, this is of great importance because the owning of your individual family stove shows that you are independent and independent families never share a stove (1974: 133). Wolf goes on to explain how when brothers divide the father`s household, the eldest inherits the stove and the younger brothers will take hot coals from that said to their own stoves as a welcoming act to the stove god into their home. If a stove is contaminated with insects then it must be demolished and the bricks thrown into a river in order to restore peace for the family, there is thus a very apparent association not only between Stove God and stove but also between god and family (1974: 133).

 

 

            As someone who grew up in a western society in a Catholic household, I think it`s really interesting how much emphasis is put on a god and worshipping your ancestors, I grew up with the notion of their only being one god. However, my world view has evolved a great deal and I no longer really view one religion as being higher than another. I think there is merit in every religious practice, it may be hard to understand a different person`s belief system but I find this particular God worship system to be particularly intriguing. I think it’s quite interesting how Gods who have failed at their duties are tried and condemned to a public beating, whereas in the Catholic faith if God doesn’t do something for his followers it’s because he had another life plan for us and we don`t question him. While in Taiwan culture a god was tried for neglecting his duties and condemned where he was left in the hot sun to see how he liked it and finally after enduring all sorts of insults as broken in pieces (1974: 144). I am aware no every sub-culture within Taiwan share the same belief system the one Wolf takes about from a Westerners standpoint is quite impressive how they will punish a God for being neglectful whereas we simply accept it and decide it must be part of a bigger life plan God has for us.

 

Image Source:

Tablets: http://lifeoftaiwan.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ancestor-worship-taiwan.jpg

Stove God : http://taiwanpedia.culture.tw/images/media/religion/R379.jpg

 

References:

Wolf, A. (1974). Studies in Chinese Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

 

Ethnology of the Southwestern Pacific

In Toichi Mabuchi’s article “Ethnology of the Southwestern Pacific”, he talks about the concept of life sphere’s as well as how the change in social shift became a large area of study for him (1974: 175). Although when he began his studies he had no concrete idea about what the social shift distribution was. Mabuchi feels that the Institute of Ethnography has become handicapped by three different factors: research staff, research funds and the deadline for publishing results (1974: 176). As a result, of this he felt it better to begin studying the oral history of the Formosa rather than the cultural history since oral history came before anything was written meaning it had been around for a longer period of time. While he began his research Mabuchi became more and more interested in the “folk knowledge” of the Formosa, which included the oral history, encompassing both synchronic and diachronic dimensions within the society (1974: 176). Rapid change has occurred for the Formosa aborigines in regards to their culture and society during and after WWII, this resulted in it being very hard for research to now work within the aboriginal state.

  

 

            Most cultural activities within the Formosa are performed on a spatial base and such a base is demarcated by cultural activities (1974: 177). This base will then have geographical extensions and this connection allows for the people to have knowledge specific to their area and culture. This bond is quite flexible and varies depending on the cultural activities, however, in societies where intercultural exchange is more brisk and the differentiation of profession and status is more conspicuous making it often hard to demarcate the geographical spheres (1974: 177). This gives the impression that it is easier to study primitive societies where things are static and there is less differentiation in human activities, since they have not been as exposed to moving culture compared to people who live in big cities or who have access to advanced technologies (1974:177). This is part is due to tribes trying to keep out undue influence and who would rather live the lives they’ve grown accustomed to then have their everyday lives changed regularly due to technology, they believe in tribal closedness in order to exclude external influences on their lives. As a result of tribal closedness it is not unheard of that unfamiliar people of distant localities be regarded as supernatural, based solely on the idea that they’re different from the local tribe (1974: 177).

 

  

Mabuchi starts to describe the life spheres of the Formosa aborigines, which are, geographical knowledge of the “life sphere”, geographical knowledge of the “observation and hearsay sphere” and geographical knowledge of the “legend sphere” (1974: 179). In the geographical knowledge of the “life sphere”, he talks about how farming huts are often build right next to the farms in order for them to be closer to their work, and although it started out being used mainly during the busy farming season most eventually will turn into permanent homes. This information is indispensable for aboriginal culture, and this makes it so that the farming life of the aborigines has no great relevance to the degrees of expansion on their geographical knowledge (1974: 179). Hunting is a much more important phase of their subsistence than farming, although there are no professional hunters among them except some of them have better hunting skills than others.  The geographical knowledge of the “observation and hearsay sphere”, relates to a sense of encirclement of the area in direct contact with daily life activities, although the knowledge is less deep and less detailed than the life sphere (1974: 180). The geographical knowledge of the “legend sphere”, looks at a much wider geographical knowledge area, though not rarely colored with supernatural taints, it is still preserved in the oral tradition for some reason or another, much beyond the regions of observation and hearsay sphere (1974: 182). Mabuchi, last point in his article is all about ethnic and regional diversity where he discusses the different recognized ethnic groups that make up Taiwan.

Image Source:

Formosa Aboriginal (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Aboriginal_with_formosan_dog.jpg)

Formosa Sculptures (http://www.travelingboy.com/guest/taiwan1.jpg)

References:

Mabuchi, T. (1974). Ethnology of the southwestern pacific. Orient Cultural Service.

Liminality

Liminality, what does it mean and how does it apply to our lives? Liminality can be referred to as “a spatial/temporal position of ‘geopolitical threshold’”, which is how the author, Stephane Corcuff, referred to it throughout the article (Corcuff 2012: 34). However, another definition of liminality is “an in-between, transitional period of time”, which is what I have decided to talk about.

As a university student I think we all have this feeling of being in-between, we spend 3-5 years of our lives in university a place where people come and go, most not really knowing where they’re going in life while others have master plans of how their lives are supposed to turn out. As fourth year students our time in-between is almost up, it’s now time to face the real world, start making real decisions and becoming a part of society. Yet, for most making the jump isn’t easy, how do you go from this in-between phase of your life to the real world, there are so many things that need to be figured out first, like once school is done what’s next? Grad school, second bachelors, college, job market, where should I live, what do I want from life or maybe even moving home to figure out what to do. This liminal stage has stretched on for the majority of our lives, we’ve spent so much time in school and in reality has it prepared us for the real world, are we really normal functional and well adjusted people.

A catchphrase that could very easily sum up this liminal stage is “Fake It Till You Make It” and once you’ve finished your degree; you’ve faked it and nodded your head when the professor asked a question, have you really made it? What does it really mean to make it, how can you tell if you’ve made it and you’re out of this perpetual liminal stage you’ve been in for the past 3-5 years of your life. Who defines if you’ve made it or not, can you arbitrarily decide you’ve made it and you’re out of the liminal stage?

Everyone has an opinion about what we should now be doing with our lives, would it be so wrong to take a year off and travel? If you aren’t sure what you want to do in life I say travel, sure it’ll cost you but in the end wouldn’t it be worth it, exploring the world at your own pace and not worrying about much around you. People have mid-life crisis, why can’t we have an after university crisis, use the knowledge we’ve gained over the past years and put it to good use. Visit the Galápagos Islands and Darwin’s finches to learn more about natural evolution, because who knows maybe at the end of our lives we’ll realize that between birth and death we’re in a perpetual liminal stage and hopefully we’ll have lived life to the fullest.

Image Source:

The Keep Calm-O-Matic (http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-fake-it-til-you-make-it-2.png)

Darwin Island (http://www.atlanticadventuredivers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Darwin1.jpg)

References:

Corcuff, S. (2012). The liminality of taiwan: A case-study in geopolotics. Taiwan in Comparative Perspective, 4, 34-64.