一個很奇怪的現象。
閩南人在臺灣兩三百年，而閩南語全然不受臺灣語(南島語系的語言，非漢人的藏漢語系方言)影響，十分奇怪，因為通常人到一個新環境，極容易吸收土語詞彙。Columbus到美洲第一天，日記裡已使用印地安詞canoe(拼木舟)。這是正常現象。但在臺灣，除了地名，漢人完全不接納臺灣語的影響，可能在世界上是孤例。是不是閩南人極端保守的個性使然，不知。臺灣閩南人用語中，法文的詞彙反而比臺灣語多，真奇怪。
反正，臺灣向來就是不按牌理出牌。
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Maybe you can, after all.
During the Ching dynasty, the sorcerer in charge of烏魯木齊八蠟祠a government-sponsored temple in Urumqi was in his 80s. one night, he laid seven thousand coins under his bed, lay on top of it, and died peacefully in his sleep. When this was discovered, there was some discussion as to whether the sorcerer had left the money for his tomb. That night, the sorcerer appeared in dreams, saying, "I was in charge of a government temple, so my tomb should be supplied by the government. I scrimped and saved for years to collect that money. I want it put in my coffin. I will come back in my next life and pick it up myself.”
So maybe you can take it with you, after all.
During the Ching dynasty, the sorcerer in charge of烏魯木齊八蠟祠a government-sponsored temple in Urumqi was in his 80s. one night, he laid seven thousand coins under his bed, lay on top of it, and died peacefully in his sleep. When this was discovered, there was some discussion as to whether the sorcerer had left the money for his tomb. That night, the sorcerer appeared in dreams, saying, "I was in charge of a government temple, so my tomb should be supplied by the government. I scrimped and saved for years to collect that money. I want it put in my coffin. I will come back in my next life and pick it up myself.”
So maybe you can take it with you, after all.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
The Viet Nam vet has quickly become an overworked stereotype in American literature. If any character was in Viet Nam, you know immediately that he is stressed out, messed up, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
But this is at odds with the bulk of literature, in which battle joy is extolled. Beowulf and many Icelandic sagas are built on blood lust. In Quiet Flows the Don, two admiring characters listen enthusiastically to an old soldier tell once again of his exploits in battle.
Could there be something in the American psyche that is averse to violence? I managed to write that whole sentence without laughing. Stokley Carmichael hit the nail on the head: "Violence is as American as apple pie." Compare our cliché of the battered battle vet to The Red Badge of Courage, in which the protagonist is eager to prove himself in battle.
What happened? Americans still love violence, but mope after wars.
Part of the reason may be that the business of killing now is so remote and detached. A warfighter may die from a landmine he never saw placed as easily as from a missile fired from many miles away. In the days of knives and swords, savage hand-to-hand fighting necessarily put a face to the enemy, somebody you had to connect with (sorry about the pun). Even archers were not so far removed from their targets that they could not see them. Maybe the mind is satisfied by the physical exertion of hacking and grappling at close quarters in a way that pulling a trigger cannot replicate. We can deal with an enemy we can fight at close quarters; how do you cope with death raining from a bomber so far overhead you can't even see it?
Then there is the factor that those who returned from wars past were not the severely wounded. Earlier soldiers, if wounded, were killed off by infections and doctors. Now soldiers survive wounds that would have invariably fatal. Just as modern medicine can allow a cancer patient to suffer pain that would finish off an unattended person, crippled soldiers are more apt to survive now. Before, the soldiers who managed to return were, in a sense, all victors, and experienced the exhilaration of surviving near death.
Maybe we have advanced war technology so much that fighting has become psychologically intolerable. Hope so.
But this is at odds with the bulk of literature, in which battle joy is extolled. Beowulf and many Icelandic sagas are built on blood lust. In Quiet Flows the Don, two admiring characters listen enthusiastically to an old soldier tell once again of his exploits in battle.
Could there be something in the American psyche that is averse to violence? I managed to write that whole sentence without laughing. Stokley Carmichael hit the nail on the head: "Violence is as American as apple pie." Compare our cliché of the battered battle vet to The Red Badge of Courage, in which the protagonist is eager to prove himself in battle.
What happened? Americans still love violence, but mope after wars.
Part of the reason may be that the business of killing now is so remote and detached. A warfighter may die from a landmine he never saw placed as easily as from a missile fired from many miles away. In the days of knives and swords, savage hand-to-hand fighting necessarily put a face to the enemy, somebody you had to connect with (sorry about the pun). Even archers were not so far removed from their targets that they could not see them. Maybe the mind is satisfied by the physical exertion of hacking and grappling at close quarters in a way that pulling a trigger cannot replicate. We can deal with an enemy we can fight at close quarters; how do you cope with death raining from a bomber so far overhead you can't even see it?
Then there is the factor that those who returned from wars past were not the severely wounded. Earlier soldiers, if wounded, were killed off by infections and doctors. Now soldiers survive wounds that would have invariably fatal. Just as modern medicine can allow a cancer patient to suffer pain that would finish off an unattended person, crippled soldiers are more apt to survive now. Before, the soldiers who managed to return were, in a sense, all victors, and experienced the exhilaration of surviving near death.
Maybe we have advanced war technology so much that fighting has become psychologically intolerable. Hope so.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Some years ago, Jane Goodall startled everybody with her reports of chimpanzees hunting. Nobody had ever imagined such a thing before, but although skeptics demanded further proof, by and large this was eagerly seized on as justification for the conventional meat diet. Better to change our ancestry than our habits.
In Why We Run (2002), Bernd Heinrich says, "Studying hunting parties of male chimps at Gombe in 1995, Craig Stanford found them depleting one-firth of their prey population of colobus monkeys each year…. In just half a day of observing olive baboons in Kenya’s Amboseli Park, I once saw a troupe of about fifty individuals catch a hare, tear it apart, and eat it with great gusto."
If hunting has always been a trait of primate behavior, how could it have escaped observation for centuries?
The environment African primates live in has been disrupted by human activity for millions of years, desperately so for centuries. Perhaps hunting is a new behavior chimpanzees developed to cope with their restricted resources, and it has escalated greatly over the last decades.
In Why We Run (2002), Bernd Heinrich says, "Studying hunting parties of male chimps at Gombe in 1995, Craig Stanford found them depleting one-firth of their prey population of colobus monkeys each year…. In just half a day of observing olive baboons in Kenya’s Amboseli Park, I once saw a troupe of about fifty individuals catch a hare, tear it apart, and eat it with great gusto."
If hunting has always been a trait of primate behavior, how could it have escaped observation for centuries?
The environment African primates live in has been disrupted by human activity for millions of years, desperately so for centuries. Perhaps hunting is a new behavior chimpanzees developed to cope with their restricted resources, and it has escalated greatly over the last decades.
Monday, July 18, 2005
颱風天，適合在家裏溫暖閒暇，泡一盉好茶，聽外面風雨聲，想一些無聊問題…
想颱風…颱灣…想台灣對中華文化的靜默貢獻…想一想台灣寶島為大陸海岸折了多少颱風的銳氣。幾萬年來，數不盡的颱風由太平洋來襲，撞到台灣矗屹的山脈，失散威力，送豐沛雨水到對岸。有這屏障，長江下游才能穩定發展、河姆渡才能種稻、沿海才能繁榮。
臺灣的山陡峭參天，一般偌小的地，無偌高的山；臺灣的山沒這樣高，保護大陸效果差了，更何況倘使沒有臺灣，很難想像中國東南如何發展。
颱風…無聊…想臺灣…憂患。二十年前是臺灣最好時機。二十年前，大陸需要臺灣，但臺灣卻不需要大陸。現在大陸不需要臺灣，而臺灣不能沒有大陸。醒一醒吧。
颱風天，適合在家裏溫暖閒暇，泡一盉好茶，聽外面風雨聲，想一些無聊問題…
想颱風…颱灣…想台灣對中華文化的靜默貢獻…想一想台灣寶島為大陸海岸折了多少颱風的銳氣。幾萬年來，數不盡的颱風由太平洋來襲，撞到台灣矗屹的山脈，失散威力，送豐沛雨水到對岸。有這屏障，長江下游才能穩定發展、河姆渡才能種稻、沿海才能繁榮。
臺灣的山陡峭參天，一般偌小的地，無偌高的山；臺灣的山沒這樣高，保護大陸效果差了，更何況倘使沒有臺灣，很難想像中國東南如何發展。
颱風…無聊…想臺灣…憂患。二十年前是臺灣最好時機。二十年前，大陸需要臺灣，但臺灣卻不需要大陸。現在大陸不需要臺灣，而臺灣不能沒有大陸。醒一醒吧。
颱風天，適合在家裏溫暖閒暇，泡一盉好茶，聽外面風雨聲，想一些無聊問題…
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Monday, July 11, 2005
It's too bad that Americans have to waste so much time and energy in battles over evolution and creationism. The Christians want to have it both ways: they want to believe what they choose to believe, and ignore what they choose not to believe.
Science is interlocking; the same principles that hold true for mechanics and physics also hold true for biology and thermodynamics. If your car runs when you put gas in the engine, the same basic principles govern that we descended from earlier organisms: early mammals, primitive primates, homo erectus, and so forth. You can't say that sparks fly upward and then claim some hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo for the origin of fossils. That's just doublethink.
If the Christians are going to demand the teaching of creationism, why don't they demand that all the school maps be redrawn to accord with the bible? Somewhere the bible says that six parts of this earth is dry land, and only one part is water. I forget where it says that and I'm not going to waste time looking it up, but that's why Columbus sailed west to go east; he reasoned that if the globe is only one seventh water, the ocean certainly can't be very wide. So to be consistent, the Christians should either demand that school maps be redone to show very small oceans, or they should deny the existence of Columbus and the experience of anyone who has ever flown or sailed across the Pacific.
Of course facing facts and consistency are not something Christians are noted for. If they demanded strict acceptance of the literal meaning of the bible, a lot of laws would have to be rewritten. The Old Testament decrees that any farmer who plants two crops in the same field is to be stoned to death (my memory is a bit shaky on this one, but that's the gist of it). Get the legislators to work on this.
And the controversy about the ten commandments? More laws need rewriting, if we are to live faithfully according to the dictates of scripture. I don't read Hebrew, but Jewish scholars point out that the original commandment against adultery specified that you could not fornicate with another man's wife, but it was fine for a married man to fornicate with prostitutes. So if the Christians demand obedience to the literal scriptures, prostitution has to be legalized ASAP.
Naturally, Christians don't like to think about what the bible really says. Christians don't really like to think. Their attitude is simple: if you agree with my beliefs, you understand the word of god, but if you disagree with anything I say, you have been tricked by Satan. What a load of hogwash.
Science is interlocking; the same principles that hold true for mechanics and physics also hold true for biology and thermodynamics. If your car runs when you put gas in the engine, the same basic principles govern that we descended from earlier organisms: early mammals, primitive primates, homo erectus, and so forth. You can't say that sparks fly upward and then claim some hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo for the origin of fossils. That's just doublethink.
If the Christians are going to demand the teaching of creationism, why don't they demand that all the school maps be redrawn to accord with the bible? Somewhere the bible says that six parts of this earth is dry land, and only one part is water. I forget where it says that and I'm not going to waste time looking it up, but that's why Columbus sailed west to go east; he reasoned that if the globe is only one seventh water, the ocean certainly can't be very wide. So to be consistent, the Christians should either demand that school maps be redone to show very small oceans, or they should deny the existence of Columbus and the experience of anyone who has ever flown or sailed across the Pacific.
Of course facing facts and consistency are not something Christians are noted for. If they demanded strict acceptance of the literal meaning of the bible, a lot of laws would have to be rewritten. The Old Testament decrees that any farmer who plants two crops in the same field is to be stoned to death (my memory is a bit shaky on this one, but that's the gist of it). Get the legislators to work on this.
And the controversy about the ten commandments? More laws need rewriting, if we are to live faithfully according to the dictates of scripture. I don't read Hebrew, but Jewish scholars point out that the original commandment against adultery specified that you could not fornicate with another man's wife, but it was fine for a married man to fornicate with prostitutes. So if the Christians demand obedience to the literal scriptures, prostitution has to be legalized ASAP.
Naturally, Christians don't like to think about what the bible really says. Christians don't really like to think. Their attitude is simple: if you agree with my beliefs, you understand the word of god, but if you disagree with anything I say, you have been tricked by Satan. What a load of hogwash.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
My old neighbor Jenny brings her 12 year old daughter Kaway to Wulai about once a month, to get out of the city, get some fresh air, make sure I’m eating, and fret over me.
Yesterday after lunch I was drowsing off as I chatted with Kaway. Discussing Hangzhou black fans, I explained to her that a folding fan you carry with you all the time wears out quicker than one you leave at home. To drive my point home, I told her, "When you carry your fan with you, it wears out when you stuff it in your mouth…" I meant pocket. We decided it was time for a nap. We each found a cool spot on the floor and were soon asleep.
I was closest to the front door. Yumin disturbed my nap with his barking. I tried to hush him without disturbing Jenny or Kaway. He hushed for a moment, then started barking again. I hushed him again, and again. I couldn't let him keep barking while Jenny and Kaway were still asleep, so I surged out the door ~~ funny, he seemed to be barking at the door. Then I noticed the qosun next to the front door steps. A qosun is a python with such beautiful patterns that its Chinese name is 錦蛇 jin she, the embroidered snake. This one was well over two meters long, and eager to get away from barking Yumin. I asked it to stay a moment longer while I got my camera. It quickly moved over to the embankment ~~ I held Yumin back. There it took up a strong defensive position amongst the ferns, draped across the slope, head up, mouth open. Yumin had his mouth open too, arf! Arf! Arf arf and arrrf! Tlahuy stayed close by my side, silent, ears up, eyes burning, alert, ready to protect me or support Yumin the moment he was needed.
When Yumin had barked enough, I carefully moved forward and scooped him into my arms. I apologized to the snake for bothering it, and for good measure told a couple mantras. The snake slowly, elegantly withdrew its head, and in a moment disappeared into the ferns.
Yesterday after lunch I was drowsing off as I chatted with Kaway. Discussing Hangzhou black fans, I explained to her that a folding fan you carry with you all the time wears out quicker than one you leave at home. To drive my point home, I told her, "When you carry your fan with you, it wears out when you stuff it in your mouth…" I meant pocket. We decided it was time for a nap. We each found a cool spot on the floor and were soon asleep.
I was closest to the front door. Yumin disturbed my nap with his barking. I tried to hush him without disturbing Jenny or Kaway. He hushed for a moment, then started barking again. I hushed him again, and again. I couldn't let him keep barking while Jenny and Kaway were still asleep, so I surged out the door ~~ funny, he seemed to be barking at the door. Then I noticed the qosun next to the front door steps. A qosun is a python with such beautiful patterns that its Chinese name is 錦蛇 jin she, the embroidered snake. This one was well over two meters long, and eager to get away from barking Yumin. I asked it to stay a moment longer while I got my camera. It quickly moved over to the embankment ~~ I held Yumin back. There it took up a strong defensive position amongst the ferns, draped across the slope, head up, mouth open. Yumin had his mouth open too, arf! Arf! Arf arf and arrrf! Tlahuy stayed close by my side, silent, ears up, eyes burning, alert, ready to protect me or support Yumin the moment he was needed.
When Yumin had barked enough, I carefully moved forward and scooped him into my arms. I apologized to the snake for bothering it, and for good measure told a couple mantras. The snake slowly, elegantly withdrew its head, and in a moment disappeared into the ferns.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Frightened fawns freeze ~ no, I'm not writing tongue twisters, I'm thinking over a problem, but while we're at it, let's hear you say that lickety-split five times: frightened fawns freeze. Many animals, especially the young, freeze and allow their stillness and coloring to protect them. Humans run. This indicates that the human being is predisposed to running, that 'in nature' enough of our human ancestors have been fleet enough of foot to leave behind their genes.
A modern human toddler, frightened by a dog, may cower and shrink, or seek refuge in adult arms. Those a bit larger may try to run away. Consider the circumstances which initiated these primordial reactions.
Fightened frawns fees. Frightened frawns fees. Aww, nuts.
A modern human toddler, frightened by a dog, may cower and shrink, or seek refuge in adult arms. Those a bit larger may try to run away. Consider the circumstances which initiated these primordial reactions.
Fightened frawns fees. Frightened frawns fees. Aww, nuts.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Tali Lalun, rangi na Bulang Yugan, qimholan Barung, ptsal rgyas.
A young Tayal from 復興鄉 named Tali Lalun has his face tattooed in traditional style, the first new Tayal facial tattoo since the Japanese abolished the custom before World War II. This is a tradition worth reviving (perhaps without the prerequisites), one of the few tattoos that means anything.
A young Tayal from 復興鄉 named Tali Lalun has his face tattooed in traditional style, the first new Tayal facial tattoo since the Japanese abolished the custom before World War II. This is a tradition worth reviving (perhaps without the prerequisites), one of the few tattoos that means anything.
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