Travelers' Diaries

Pilgrimage

2007-07-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

I am taking a class about The Canterbury’s Tales in Brooklyn College now. We talk about different pilgrims. One day during a class, there was a question coming into my mind: how do pilgrims look like in Taiwan? All of a sudden, I had all these images concerning pilgrimage which has a very deep connection to cultural aspects.

We have two different kinds of pilgrimages. The first one is like The Canterbury’s Tales. Pilgrims go to temples or a holy place to pay their tribute to Gods. Because Taiwan is a small island, pilgrims usually go to different temples in different places within two or three days. Pilgrimage is more like an excuse for travel. The second kind of pilgrimage is that Gods embody in dolls and walk around in towns, in cities. This is a holy event. Usually pious followers would block the whole streets and believe that by seeing Gods, they are able to get good luck and avoid vicious things.

I upload a video found on YouTube about the second kind of pilgrimage in Taiwan. It seems that this kind of belief is still primitive. However, this type of pilgrimage is one of the biggest religious activities in Taiwan.

God Blesses America

2007-07-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

I like to go to Yankee stadium in Saturday or Sunday afternoon to watch a game. I love the French fries with cheese sold inside the stadium. And I found that Bud light goes with fries perfectly.

Summer, beer and baseball game. Summer in NY is quite enjoyable. Another reason making me love the game is to see Americans singing “God Blesses America”. American people really enjoy singing this song. I can feel their enthusiasm. Usually they put their right hands on their left chests. My friend and I had a small discussion about this gesture. Our conclusion is that putting one’s right hand on the left chest means sincerity, feeling one’s heart.

I feel America is a pretty masculine country. During a sport game (a competitive and masculine activity), they have to stress the spirit of nationalism and arouse a patriotic mood. Guys usually love the combination of these elements. After drinking two or three bottles of beer, they definitely believe that in this world no one can love American better than he at the moment singing God Blesses America.

Also, family members are often bound together by their favorite team and games. A few times, I saw a grandpa taking his son and grandsons to watch a game. This situation is rarely seen in Taiwan. There are few things we are able to share with our parents and grandparents emotionally.

The last reason I love the baseball game is that I am able to pretend I am a real American. I pretend I know the history of Yankee baseball team and pretend that I have a strong emotional bond with this city. Even though it sounds silly, I really enjoy the moment singing the song with every one.

The Meaning of Travel

2007-07-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

There is a Taiwanese singer who singed a song, named “The Meaning of Travel”. I think it is interesting to upload the music video here. The lyrics are about a guy breaking up with his girlfriend. The girl asks him what the meaning of travel is. She doesn’t understand why after every journey, their hearts drift apart little by little. I think that the music video was shot both in Japan and Taiwan.

However, this music video has nothing to do with the topic. I am just inspired by the lyrics and asking myself the same question. A few days ago, I was reading a Taiwanese online magazine which talked about the generation of Web.2.0. The magazine explains the generation of Web. 2.0 by giving exampsle of the two latest media: the first one is Wikipedia, and the second one is YouTube.

The spirit of Wikipedia and YouTube lies in the same principles: to transmit, to share and to circulate globally. These three principles are in stark contrast to the classic principles of economics. In the angle of classic economics, one has to be selfish, to beat other people up in order to succeed.

YouTube is not yet completely successful. According to a business article, YouTube “is losing more than $500,000 a month.” Fortunately, YouTube has a rich dad, Google, to rely on. But from the generation of Web 2.0, we are able to perceive a new value: the power of individual which encourages everyone to share, to succeed by the collective intelligence. I love this idea and think that it is the meaning of travel. Nowadays, we are able to travel easily, either by modern transportation or by the technology. We can actually see far beyond our own town, our home land. Experiencing different cultures and values enlarge our perspectives. With new perspectives, we may find new solutions to old problems and many opportunities waiting ahead.

To travel is to see how big the world is and how small we are, at the same time, collecting individual’s wisdom and power. Have you realized what your geographic boundary is?

Me, English, and America

2007-07-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

I am going to talk a bit about myself and reasons to create this blog.

I came to America last August 2006. I always had a dream to come to NY. There are a few reasons. The most important one is that I have been learning English for a very long time.

I learned English since I was little. Almost all the Asian people have a persistent craze for learning English. My mom and dad were no exception. They sent me to a kind of cram school for kids. I think my first English teacher was an American sailor. And the sailor stationed in Taiwan for a few months. The cram school didn’t care whether its teachers were sailors, soldiers, or criminals. As long as they were white, parents were happy to pay the money and send their kids there. When I grew older, I hear from other people that many women wanted to have sex with these white guys.

For a long time, I could not figure out why some women were so crazy about the white. Even though I was young, I could sense that there was something significant beyond a mere sex adventure. I gradually realized that it is a sense of superiority these women look for by either having sex or having relationship with the white. This phenomenon used to bother me.

When I was 15, I went to a private Catholic school to continue my English education. In the school during the class time, we could only speak English. Speaking like a real American is what this private school focuses on. But I had difficulty understanding what a real American was. Teachers told us that we had to have American accent in order to speak like an American. So, we listened again and again some conversation tapes in order to catch the so-called “American accent”. Imitation is vital at the beginning of learning a language. However, during this process, it is not only the langue we acquire, but also some values we assimilate. If we were called by teachers to recite a passage, we tried our best to read the passage in a kind of American atmosphere. All of a sudden, we became bold in expressing ourselves and passionate about words and sounds. We raised our voices to exaggerate and to emphasize. Speaking in English is very different from speaking in Chinese. Usually Chinese people speak in a flat tone and we rarely encourage individualism. Being modest and humble is virtuous.

By speaking a different language, we felt becoming a different person. It was a magical feeling, but real. Very real. I grew up in this kind of environment. I used to have ambivalent feelings toward these two cultures and languages. In the school, teachers encouraged us to embrace everything American. This reminded me of those women crazy about white guys. This phenomenon points out a relationship between superiority and inferiority. If we had to embrace American values, did it mean that something in our values insufficient?

Then I went to College majoring in English. I read from mythology, Yeats, to The Death of a Salesman. I could say that though I was raised up in the Chinese culture, my mentality is cultivated by Western literature. I have only been staying in the US for a year; nevertheless, I always feel that there is an inward journey longer than ten years before I came to this land.

Hence, by journey I mean something more than just physical distance. In this blog, I want to share my life in American with other people, and bring some of my culture. Sometimes, we may go through a journey by reading other people’s travel journals. Most important of all, by confronting two different sets of values and cultures, one can see himself more clearly. As I grew up in the environment which embodies conflicting values, I learn to appreciate the beauty and advantages of each side. I truly believe that people have a persistent desire to see and experience other people’s lives. We need to travel, to go through a journey and eventually to see ourselves.