Opinions, dreams & videos

Good afternoon everyone,

It's the time for the Wednesday experience sharing session once again. When this time comes around, everyone surreptitiously breathes a sigh of relief that the week is already half-over do they not? Thanks to everyone for staying this late to hear a younger colleague share with you how to calculate accurately the C/T value of your life. I see a lot of people have come, a lot of whom are older colleagues with substantial experience under their belt, you're not only higher up in the company than me, but you've also been here a lot longer, you've worn out a lot more swiveling chairs than me too, so you're probably curious about two things, the first is as to why it's me standing here today, the second is as to...

Read more: When did we all turn into a bunch of numbers?

Opinions, dreams & videos

I should be the last person to want to write about money. Growing up in China during the waning years of Mao's reign, I thought happiness, or lack of misery, was when we did not need to think about it. To this day I still believe that wisdom consists of spending just enough time taking care of money matters so that we can free our mind from it the rest of the time. It is also wise to avoid the topic unless you are endowed with Benjamin Franklin's ease and wit. But then no matter where you hide yourself (such as in academia), how hard you try to turn a blind eye, at some point a thought creeps into your mind: money has permeated all aspects of human relationships. Workers, no matter how hard-working how talented, have become costs to be...

Read more: Stories about Money and People

Opinions, dreams & videos

In recent times Taiwan and Hong Kong have both gotten caught up in text book controversies, although these have root in different political contexts, they are both closely tied to the "rise" of China and its expansionist policies.

Read more: China’s shadow cast upon the textbooks of Taiwan and Hong Kong

Opinions, dreams & videos

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has come for most commentators as a big surprise. How can someone in a position of power voluntarily relinquish it? Power and honors exert so strong an attraction on us that we often see political, economic or clerical leaders cling to them till the end of their lives. Therefore, the departure of the Pope comes as a testimony of personal humility: Benedict XVI has recognized publicly the fact that he no longer had the physical strength necessary to carry on. The fact that he made this announcement on the day marked on the Catholic liturgical calendar for praying specially for the sick makes such recognition even more moving. The gesture made by Benedict reminds me of the words addressed by Jesus to...

Read more: A Pope between Winter and Spring

Opinions, dreams & videos

The Fukushima nuclear tragedy in March 2011 sparked a global discussion on nuclear energy in the 21st century. This question was discussed with particular vigour in Japan's neighbor Taiwan, a seismically unstable island with a voracious appetite for energy. 

Opposition to nuclear power in Taiwan is not new. Former movie star and spiritual author Terry Hu's involvement with campaigns in the early 1990s is but one high profile example and eRenlai has probed the issue here. The Fukushima incident, Taiwan's ageing reactors and the ongoing construction of a fourth nuclear plant have coalesced a range of social responses in recent years. In this context, the underground electronic artists behind I Love Nuclear!? have come taken nuclear...

Read more: A Sonic Meltdown: A Review on "I Love Nuclear!?"

Opinions, dreams & videos

Tom Rook was born in in Exmouth (England) in 1988. After he graduated from the geography department of the University of Nottingham, he moved to Taipei where he makes a living as an English teacher. He shares with us his passion for maps by introducing us the map of Taipei he meticulously drew for more than 100 hours.

Read more: A Hand-Drawn Map of Taipei

Opinions, dreams & videos

The first mistake I made was choosing Jetstar. After a nine hour delay in Singapore I arrived at Hanoi Airport, at 1am, completely alone and very reassured by signs everywhere warning "Beware of taxi scams!" The second mistake I made was having an address but no phone number for my hotel. After being the parcel in a game of pass the taxi passenger, my third, seemingly mute driver took me towards Hanoi. There is a certain amount of paranoia I always carry with me when first arriving in a new country alone. So when my driver pulled off the highway I thought "Curses! I don't even know how to say Hello in Vietnamese, let alone, please don't rape me!" In fact he was just picking up another driver from under a darkened bridge (an obvious...

Read more: Getting Hanoi-yed on the Beaten Track

Opinions, dreams & videos

The success of the Art Taipei 2012 confirmed Taiwan’s growing influence as a contemporary art hub. It also highlighted Taiwan’s background as the cultural cross-road of Asia, connecting as different realities as China, the South-Pacific area, and the Middle  East.

The Gateway to Asia

When considering Taiwanese culture and society, one cannot fail to notice how Taiwan’s place on the World’s map has determined  its fate in history.

A Crossroad, a Gateway, a Meeting Place: all definitions that apply to this “Kingdom of High Mountains”, emerging from the clash between gigantic  continental plaques to stand as bridge connecting the powerful northern empires of  China, Japan, Korea, and the...

Read more: At the Crossroad of Future: Taiwan and the rise of Asian Contemporary Art

Opinions, dreams & videos

In 2012, we celebrated the centenary of the birth of Father Yves Raguin, founder of the Taipei Ricci Institute. Born in November 1912, Father Raguin died in December 1998 at Tien Educational Center in Taipei. After having studied theology in Paris and Sinology at Harvard, Yves Raguin lived in China, Vietnam, The Philippines and, for most of his career, Taiwan. He was a prolific author, mainly but not solely on comparative spirituality, and also a lexicographer who for many years directed the Ricci Dictionary project – the largest Chinese –foreign language dictionary in the world – and a beloved spiritual director.


The connection between his centenary anniversary and Pacific studies may seem an odd one, but there are several...

Read more: The Width and Depth of the Ocean within Me: In Memory of Yves Raguin

Opinions, dreams & videos

This is the first vlog in a series in which Daniel Pagan Murphy talks about his quest for Mandopop fame, in which he documents his experience singing on TV shows in Taiwan, as well as going over the highs and lows and offering some tips to people who aspire to break into the entertainment industry.

You can follow Daniel's progress on his facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/DanielLiLiDaNian

On youtube: http://www.youtube.com/dannypamu

Or on twitter: https://twitter.com/dannypamu

Photo: Daniel (right) with fellow wannabe Mandopop star Justin (left) 

Read more: Knocking on the door of Taiwan's entertainment industry

Opinions, dreams & videos

There is a growing realization among psychologists and within the corporate world that the nature and organization of work have a lasting impact on employees' mental health. Boredom, tiredness and anxiety are the three overwhelming symptoms of mental stress that affect workers.

Read more: Suffering at work: a new pandemic

Opinions, dreams & videos

Bust of Becquer. Photo by Ana Rey

 

¿Qué es poesía? -dices mientras clavas
en mi pupila tu pupila azul.
¿Qué es poesía? ¿Y tú me lo preguntas?
Poesía... eres tú.

These four simple lines are considered by many people to be some of the most famous and beautiful in the history of Spanish literature. Written by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, a Romantic poet of 19th century Spain, they roughly translate as:

Read more: My journey of composition

Opinions, dreams & videos

 

The Waiting Hall. Scenes of Modernity is a discursive event taking place on the opening night of the Taipei Biennial 2012 in the vast entrance lobby of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, where subsequently it will remain as an installation and archive. About seventeen people—artists, theorists, activists—are invited to engage in dialogues, which take place in secluded, small office-boxes installed in the lobby. Five dialogues take place in parallel, and audience members listen to their dialogue of choice on headphones, but they can also register themselves to become a partner in one of the dialogues. The installation is conceived as a backstage area and a waiting hall in the image of a Kafkaesque narration of bureauc­racy...

Read more: The Waiting Hall ─ Scenes of Modernity

Opinions, dreams & videos

Wang Xiong was born in July, 1985 in Taipei, Taiwan, where he still lives with his two cats. He graduated from the Department of Chinese Literature and dropped out of the Master's Program of the Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, he is currently working in journalism. He has previously been awarded National Taiwan University Prize for Modern Verse.This poem won the Modern Poetry Judge's Award of the 34th United Daily News Literature Prize.

Read more: Poetry: Learn New Words with Song