by Wei-fan Yang
Perhaps this is a common experience in your childhood: Your parents brought you to a circus, where you enjoyed the delightful performances of the animals. Ferocious lions, for example, jumped the ring of fire; fur seals headed different colored balls and even lighted torches; baby chimps impressed you most of all because of their adorable (or laughing) appearance and their comic performances – riding a monocycle, imitating human behavior, and doing ridiculous acrobatics beyond your imagination. However, these pleasing chimps you see are always very young. You may never see an adult chimp performing on the stage. So where are the adult chimps? In fact, most adult chimps die by committing suicide. After baby chimps grow up, it becomes more difficult for trainers to control them and to make them obey orders. According to his observation and analysis, Lev R. Ivanov, a psychologist in Ukraine who has devoted himself to animal welfare protection for almost ten years, has discovered that most adult chimps in circuses, after receiving intensive training since childhood, have become either aggressive or wimpish. This is because when chimps are small, trainers forced them to learn fast and to defer to human discipline, making them feel stress all the time. Even though they can win rewards, say, food or a day-long holiday, more often these chimps are punished because of an unsatisfactory performance. Feeling stressed and frustrated, adult chimps by degree refuse to work, tending to escape from the circus by torturing themselves, so as to smooth over the accumulated pressure in their minds. However, their “anti-work” attitude evokes only punishment. In this way, adult chimps become “mad” – some of them begin to attack their trainers; others of the “wimpish” type might go on a hunger strike or produce other abnormal behavior such as depression. Both types of chimp eventually cannot control their behavior and kill themselves in the end. “Adults chimps kill themselves even in the animal shelter,” says Ivanov. Even though out-of-control adult chimps live in an animal shelter where professionals can take care of them, their illness worsens day by day. Ivanov argues that these chimps fail to get along with their companions, for circus chimps have different habits from the chimps in nature. Adult chimps from the circus “are always excluded from the group,” he said. According to Ivanov’s observation, many will do nothing but focus on a tiny object; they may play a game in which one plays a role of the trainer and the other act as a performer, and scream. One most famous example is Fayina. “She was fine before being sent to the shelter, but she had great difficulty communicating with the other chimps living there for a long period of time.” She felt depressed until one day all the bitterness disappeared – her dead body was found in a deep pool two months after she was sent to the shelter. Then how does a chimp commit suicide? Take Fayina as an example. She was captured by a video camera drowning herself. As for other cases, some chimps choose to starve to death, others decide to knock themselves against a wall, and some even hang themselves if they can get a rope. In fact, experts have limited knowledge about chimps’ suicides, for most of the incidents are covered up in haste. But experts agree that chimp-suicide is difficult to predict in advance. Most chimps who commit suicide are discovered too late and it is hard for veterinarians to rescue them, and Ivanov concludes that it is because they have already “determined to die.” “Committing suicide is a planned project,” he adds. No doubt chimps in the circus bring audiences a wonderful time. They devote themselves (or they are forced to devote themselves) to performance to win two thumbs-up and to earn a nod, enriching trainers’ as well as circus managers’ pockets. However, most people who pay money for an animal show do not realize that their encouragement, support, and contribution is actually an evil force pushing innocent animals on a one-way street toward death. And committing suicide is their way out.
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by Sophia Jy Chen Lin Among about 2700 qualified NTU faculty members, only 27 received the Distinguished Teaching Award last year. Professor Hsu Jia-Ling is one of them. Upon sitting down for the interview, Prof. Hsu’s first words gave me a glimpse of how she wins over students’ hearts: “My students? They are my sweethearts,” she smiled. Bespectacled, dressed in a beige sweater and faded jeans, Hsu looked just like another ordinary mother who eagerly wishes to give everything she has to her children. But Hsu is not just a mother of one or two; she is a mother of all the students she has taught over the past 13 years. “My job is to enlighten, and to teach them lessons about life, like what a mother would do. That’s why I always like to preach,” she said, “Since they are the best student in Taiwan, I have to give them the best.” This is why Hsu always assigns a heavy workload, for she would rather have her students to complain of having too much to learn than not enough. Convinced that students learn the most effectively when they are focused, Hsu tries to counsel her students with issues such as love problems, career decisions, or family disputes. “It seems that I have a bumper sticker plastered on my face that says: you are welcome to bother me,” she teased herself. Busy as she is, she never hesitates to offer her love and time—the most precious resources to a NTU professor. The present NTU evaluation system compels each faculty member to publish academic papers. Suddenly, being a conscientious teacher who spends a huge amount of time with students seems like nothing compared with a teacher who has many publications. “This sacrificed our students. We spend less time on students to save our job,” Hsu said with a deep concern. “But this isn’t right. This is a university. Our most mission here is to teach, and we should always keep in mind that it is because of the students that we have our positions here. How can we push for our publications at the expense of our teaching quality?” Hsu inverts the way I think about teachers. She not only appreciates being given the opportunity to teach, but also enjoys teaching and she says that students are her elixir. “Teaching Freshman English every year keeps me young, because my students are always 18. I have to keep up with them.” A broadcaster at BCC As enthusiastic a teacher as she is, Hsu wasn’t engaged in teaching in the beginning of her career development. After her graduation from our department (DFLL, NTU) she tried out several jobs, including a sales assistant in a trading company for a week, a privately recruited English secretary at NTU hospital for ten days, and a part-time English teacher in an adult education school for three years. She even took the test for a certified tour guide license. While she almost succeeded in obtaining the license, she was recruited as a news interpreter and editor in the News Division of the Broadcasting Corporation of China. However, as an interpreter, she was also requested to broadcast sports programs. Her very first time on the air was to broadcast a live basketball game. Knowing nothing about basketball, her debut performance turned out to be disastrous. Numerous audience phoned in their complaints to the office of the News Division while the broadcast was undertaking. Yet she was not defeated. Later she was assigned to conduct in-depth interviews with celebrities. With her folksy charm and a special humane approach deriving from her four years of literature training, Hsu successfully interviewed some guests who would not have otherwise appeared. During her three years at BCC, Hsu interviewed more than 200 celebrities, including Wu Ta-You, the then president of the Academia Sinica. This job also opened her eyes from the simplicity of college life to the reality of a much bigger world where people try to knock each other down and walk over each other for a higher position. “That ugly reality made me consider giving up,” she admitted, “but another voice also rang in my head: why should I give up because of the mistakes made by others?” With a belief in the power of perseverance and conscience, Hsu dealt with the problem with a perennial smile and steely resolve. The outcome proved her right. The show became widely successful and developed a faithful following. A prestigious senior colleague of hers commented, “Judging from the quality and success of the program, I thought you must have majored in journalism. What I didn’t expect is that as a graduate of English, your professional performance is much than that of those journalism graduates.” Nevertheless, although it launched her to some stardom, the interviews of big names also made her understand the evanescence of fame. After three years at BCC, Hsu realized that being a reporter, no matter how famous she would be, was about repeating what others had said. She wanted something of her own, something that would truly last through time. Therefore she quit her job and embarked on a ten-year journey to America to study Teaching English as a Second Language and sociolinguistics, a field that corresponds to her passion for human beings. DFLL trains attitude rather than job skills I took the chance to ask her what advice she would give to students like me who worry that the training in the department is not “practical” enough to find a good job after graduation. She told me to believe in myself. “The training in DFLL offers not a key to your future, but an attitude,” she said, “a humanitarian attitude will help you to understand—others and yourself.” It is the lack of such humanitarianism that results in the present exorbitantly demanding NTU evaluation system. Hsu said she always tells her students that they should not worry about what they can become, but about who they are now. “There’s no easy way out! No Mickey mouse courses,” she raised her voice. “They might feed you with a good grade, but never a fine knowledge.” She told me what we should do in our halcyon days of college is to prepare ourselves for the future, so we have to learn, and learn hard—the only way to be competitive enough to face the world. In addition, despite the current bandwagon of applying for graduate school right after graduation, Hsu suggested that students find a job first if they are not sure of what they want to do. According to her own experience at BCC, working helped her to come to an understanding of her own potentials, capabilities, and interests in her career development. “Working experiences help you know better. After working for a while, you’ll understand the books you’ve studied might really help. Working provides you a chance to put what you’ve learned into practice.” “Also, it broadens your vision as to what the world really is like.” She told me that even though we will get hurt in this brutal world, we have to push it through. Eventually, the wound will make us mature and strong. “Such is life!” – No regrets During the interview, I was beguiled by her infectious, childlike joy at the gift of life – as she kept telling me how grateful she was for her students, her job, her family, and for all of life’s good and bad. Asked if there is anything she would want to alter if given the chance, “No, I have no regrets,” she said to me firmly. Looking back on what she has gone through, Hsu admits there has been many difficulties, and a lot of time reality did slap her in the face, and barriers have been piling high. Yet, as her college professor said when commenting on the life of every protagonist in great literary works who had gone through life’s hardships, “such is life!” “Every step you take is a part of life. With perseverance and a conscientious heart, life is very beautiful,” she beamed in delight. by Ligo Su
Transitional lenses framed by tortoiseshell. Softened Aegean blaze. Crimson Victorinox multi-tool. Travel mate since boyhood. Squared ochre umbrella named Kafka. A touch of metamorphosis. Numerous pens and various ID cards. My tears, my losses, and my memories. This is not Marcel Proust on his death bed conjuring. Nor some cheesy poetry. This is the list of items I lost on the campus of National Taiwan University with my mental entries interwoven. And I doubt there is an end to this list. Perhaps you would like to accuse me of something you are not: carelessness, forgetfulness, absentmindedness. Come on, save some syllables for yourself. We all leave things behind. We never get to mourn for the end of our eraser. We run out of paper clips pretty quickly. Umbrellas? Don’t tell me you only buy new ones at the kiosk for unexpected showers. Old umbrellas piled on the stand when the skies are sunny explain the universal truth you don’t want to admit: in life we all lose things. Only that some people lose bigger things too often and they sigh when reminiscing. Like me. However, we always want to retrieve what belongs to us. As a “superannuated” student with five years’ experience, I am more than able to tell you how challenging it is to find your lost things at NTU. You leave your MP3 at the computer center, for example. The next student at your PC might be benevolent enough to hand it in to the counter. In a less lucky case, it could be flung into the box at the end of the corridor for “open” retrieval. You may just be the finder, who knows. However, chances might be you end up questioning the staff for a record of what had happened around your PC after you left. After filing your case at the police station you might be told that the video tapes were “lost” or the picture resolution is “too unsatisfactory” for identifying the “taker.” In the following months your eyes bulge out every time you see someone holding a similar MP3 on campus. To make life easier, you convince yourself that it’s lost and no one is listening to the newest singles you downloaded from iTunes. Then you grudge having to pay for a new one, hoping it won’t remind you of the old. That’s exactly what happened to my sunglasses. Things look even gloomier if your story happens in a classroom building. According to our cleaning staff, emptied wallets are often found at the back of classrooms. Electronic dictionaries, cell-phones, and even laptops might disappear right after you forget their desirability and leave for the toilet, a cigarette, or your next class without them. As the line between stealing and finding blurs, it seems that on campus we have too many “finders” who see themselves as keepers and leave us to be weepers. They are the real losers, I assure you. But can we blame them for our misery? What do we do when we see an exquisite pen left in the drawer or when we spot a valuable watch under a chair? Could you imagine that the loose leaves to be recycled by the janitor could weigh more than your Norton Anthology to someone else? What are we supposed to do around campus as “finders”? At a university which claims to be one of the world’s best, we are embarrassed to admit that we lack a centralized system for lost and found. The only related unit is supervised by Mr. Chang Yifang at the office of student affairs. Mr. Chang has a desk of regular size but he has to keep all the items found across campus: keys, textbooks, ID cards, even sneakers. People come in to leave contact information and item descriptions if they lose something. Ideally Mr. Chang will match the found items with the report entry every day. However, not all finders know his unit and the lost list is three times longer than the found one. Mr. Chang said last year he suggested that the university establish another unit for lost and found since most lost items don’t belong to students or even NTU members. However, the office of general affairs dodged this quest. They quoted a law professor who asserted we had “no legal right to keep such items.” They claimed that only police offices can legally manage them. So Mr. Chang and his unit continue to operate underground. So goes the sad story of our lost things. We never know whether they will be found. When I glanced through Mr. Chang’s “losers’ book,” I saw two of my entries. A pair of miu miu sunglasses, tortoiseshell, with transitional lenses of army green from Zeiss, lost in the computer center, PC 28 room 107; a crimson Victorinox multi-tool with its toothpick refitted as a pen, lost in the Gongtong Building Room 401. Those two items remind me of all the days and places I traveled with them and how I lost so many other meaningful things on campus. No tears now, I told myself. Enough time has already been lost with “old woes” and “new wail” as our Bard chanted. I readjusted the nearly identical pair of glasses on my nose, thanking Mr. Chang for his time, both the time he spent on my whining interview and on our lost belongings. Now I could only wish we who “summon up the remembrance of things past” after reading this sad story will always find “all losses are restored” and “sorrows end.” At least you can never lose Shakespeare’s sonnets on campus or anywhere else. And that is real poetry. by Jen-ching Kao
In January the Italian company Allison S.P.A. informed me that every eyeglass frame exported must have “Made in Italy” printed on it before it arrives in a foreign country. But I was fooled by a prestigious optical shop in downtown Taipei, since my cherished NT$6000 Vivienne Westwood frames, whose crystals were falling off too often for a designer product, turned out to be fake. The manager never explained to me where the frames came from or whether they were counterfeit; however, confronted with an integrity crisis, the optical shop finally offered me a new pair that included a certificate of authenticity as a reparation. When shopping in Hong Kong or in China, it is not difficult to find people holding catalogues of brand name bags or watches, asking you to follow them to a dark, hidden apartment where you can find thousands of knockoff items. These appear to be identical to the real thing except for a few hardly visible differences and, of course, they are sold at much lower prices. However, in my case I was ripped off by the optical shop since I had to pay full price and they tried to give me a fake certificate of authenticity when I first questioned their credibility. Counterfeit products are difficult to distinguish unless they are examined with high-tech equipment; they are meant to be sold at the authentic prices and to deceive consumers. In 1994, the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was initiated at the end of a series of negotiations lasting eight years that led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Under TRIPS, copyright and trade secrets are automatically granted even without registration. It has been a global trend that governments use intellectual property rights as incentives to encourage original ideas in society because with these rights, creators of designs, inventions, books, paintings, etc. can be protected from plagiarism. In recent years intellectual property rights have gained increasing attention in international trade and related organizations. It is estimated by the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce that approximately 9% of global trade is in counterfeit goods, and the market is worth US$600 billion today. Furthermore, large-scale counterfeiting is usually associated with terrorism or organized crime. It is reported that counterfeiting has been used as a method to raise funds and to launder money for terrorist groups. For example, in September 2002 more than one thousand crates of fake shampoos, perfume, cologne, etc. were shipped from Dubai to Copenhagen and ultimately bound for the United Kingdom; later the sender was proven to be an Al-Qaeda member. More recently, counterfeit CDs, DVDs, cigarettes, and medicine have been smuggled to the southern Philippines and it has also been suspected to be a financial resource for Al-Qaeda-related militants in that region. It is obvious that industrialized counterfeiting is conducted by large organized crime groups as the labor is highly diversified and counterfeit goods are detailed and indistinguishable from authentic ones. Sometimes organized counterfeiting operations are powerful enough to harm commercial relations between countries. For instance, in November 2001 the largest seizure of counterfeit software in U.S. history was made in Los Angeles. Around 31,000 fake copies of the Microsoft operating system — along with fake manuals, holographs, registration codes, certificates of authenticity, and packages — were shipped from Taiwan. After this episode, Taiwan feared there might be economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. The quandary that confronts developing countries is the vicious cycle that can come to an end only if their governments become mature and capable: counterfeiting operations are mainly located in third world countries because of their weak law enforcement and cheap labor. However, the fact that counterfeiting is both a huge and illegal industry is also responsible for hindering the economic and governmental growth in developing countries, because this industry contributes nothing to the government’s tax income, and without enough tax income, the government cannot enhance infrastructure and people’s living conditions. Therefore, the counterfeiting industry will continue to exist as long as a large amount of people continue to live on the edge of survival. On the other hand, consumer demand has helped expand the counterfeiting business during the past decade. Buyers of knockoff items have the desire to “pretend” to belong to a higher social class; sellers of counterfeit goods intend to profit from the low cost of producing counterfeit goods and high retail prices. If consumer demand for counterfeiting can be prohibited, the counterfeiting industry will vanish. Purchasing knockoff and counterfeit items indirectly supports organized crime, child labor, unprotected workers, and insecure working environments; it also endangers social welfare, which consumers might have never thought about. The capital of fakes circulates in both domestic and global trade, and consumption becomes an entirely meaningless activity in terms of its real relationship to the economy. by Yu-Lin Liao “A son, a brother, a friend, a student, a teammate, a roommate, a citizen…one day in the future a sleeper forever.” Cookie T described himself in this way on his blog profile. But his future came much sooner than he expected. John, “Cookie” Tsai, an alumnus of NTU, freshly graduated with both electrical engineering and physics degrees, left this world without any warning or reason one night in January, 2006. But he didn’t exactly leave. His corneas were donated for transplant and then his whole body was donated to the NTU Hospital for the purpose of medical research. He had a colorful personality and was passionate about life. How well loved he was is shown in his blog. Even today, two years after his death, people are still visiting and leaving messages there. Thus he has continued to breathe in this world without a physical presence. Cookie T didn’t have a chance to sign the organ donation card when he was alive, but after his death his parents generously donated their son because he was such a caring and loving person and had vowed to help strangers in need. His donation helped light up a soul and furthered the advancement of medicine. There are about 9000 people waiting for a person like Cookie T right now in Taiwan. They are waiting desperately for a heart, a kidney, a lung, a pancreas, and most of all, a miracle. One day you and I could just as easily be in the same position. But people who are willing to donate their organ tissues after their deaths are still very few. The concept of organ donation is still unfamiliar in Taiwan and most people have some hesitation about it. But it is actually not complicated or scary. What is organ donation? There are two types of organ donation, living and dead. Living donations can only happen between close families in Taiwan and there are many restrictions. Donation after death is conducted in two ways, organ donation for transplant or whole body donation for medical research. What can be donated? Organs like the heart, lungs, and kidneys, and tissues like skin, corneas … almost every part of our bodies can be donated. The transplant team will evaluate the donor’s health and then decide which organs and tissues can be grafted. A donor’s organs can help save up to six lives and other tissues can benefit even more people. What will happen when I die if I am a donor? Detailed and careful medical evaluation will be conducted by doctors and medical examiners to define brain death or cardio death. After the declaration of death, the transplant team will start the organ recovery procedure. Because most of the vital organs can survive 4-6 hours after leaving the body, these organs will be allocated to the nearest matching recipients. Other tissues such as corneas and bones can be preserved in tissue banks for later use. After the organs and tissues are grafted, the medical team will stitch up every incision and restore the appearance of the body. Then the body will be returned to the family. Will my decision to donate my organs affect the quality of my medical care? When your life is in danger, the medical team will put your life first and try their best to save you. Only when they have exhausted every possible means to save you will they start to consider the possibility of organ donation. There will be a series of careful evaluations conducted by doctors, physicians, and medical examiners before the declaration of brain death or cardio death. The quality of your medical care will never be compromised because you are an organ donor. Who will get my organs? Donors and recipients go through meticulous matching processes before a transplant can be conducted. The Organ Procurement Association and the government have a set of laws and protocols to make sure the donated organs go to the right places. The information about recipients and donors is confidential in order to protect the people involved from any unwanted trouble or attention. Will my family get money if I donate my organs? According to law, the family of a donor cannot charge money for the donation and selling organs is absolutely forbidden. But they will get a funeral subsidy of NT 50,000 if the family is a cornea donor, NT 100,000 if a multiple-organ donor. The key obstacle to organ donation, however, is an old Chinese saying: “We dare not damage our body for it is given to us by our parents.” We want to preserve our bodies out of respect for our parents. But just imagine if your parents were in desperate need of an organ transplant and nobody would give them a hand. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Our body no longer belongs to us after we take our last breath. Give it to someone in need to help complete the circle of life; this is very respectful not only to our parents but also to our other ancestors. Some religions believe that we should preserve our body for another life, but whatever reason is preventing you from becoming an organ donor, just consider this, you can save and change lives without even moving a finger! We can never know for sure about another life or the situation after death, but we can still make a miracle happen! We can do it by just a few clicks of the mouse, a change of mind, and a willing heart. You can sign up online to become an organ donor at http://www.organ.org.tw/ and find out more about organ donation. Spread the word and let your heart keep beating long after you are gone! by John Yuan
Even though many men would like to deny it, they do not know much about sex. Men are convinced that they are amazing performers and have stopped yearning for more knowledge about lovemaking. Unfortunately, a large part of their knowledge has come from gossip or adult films, leading to a great deal of inaccurate information. To shed some light on this issue there is a new book called Be A Multi-Orgasmic Man, which manages to subvert many men’s myths and misconceptions. The book aims to teach men how to achieve multiple orgasm, which many men think is impossible, using a theory deriving from Taoism that concerns the balance of energy and is friendly toward nature. By means of this book we are able to delve into the mysteries of the male body and the untold mechanism of multiple orgasm. Many people would probably wonder exactly what a multiple orgasm for a man is. The true experience of a multiple orgasm varies with each person, but basically you feel merged with the universe and there seems to be no boundary of space and time - for one split second you feel your soul being emancipated from your mortal body. A critical difference between conventional sex and multi-orgasmic sex is that the latter does not necessarily entail ejaculation, which most men think is the climax of intercourse. However, multi-orgasmic sex enables you to achieve orgasm multiple times without ejaculation. The theory is that when you ejaculate you also lose much of your energy and you no longer feel the sex drive. If you are capable of retaining your sex energy, however, you may enjoy sex all night long. A true orgasm is not ejaculation. In fact, ejaculation and orgasm are two separate things. However, the two often occur close together in time, which is why many men confuse the two. A wholesome sexual experience should start with fondling or “foreplay” and then naturally move to intercourse. The purpose of sex is to take time and to enjoy the process rather than just to experience pleasure as soon as possible. Multi-orgasmic sex centers on the flow of sexual energy. The mechanism is similar to what women have – whole body orgasm. When sexually excited the male body stores sex energy and produces an erection. But what you should do is breathe deeply with your abdomen and help the energy circulate around other parts of the body. Abdominal breathing acts as a pump that lifts the stream of flowing energy to your upper body. At the same time you have to contract the same muscles that you use to stop urinating and feel the flow. Men have to exert some strength to contract this muscle. You also have to focus on every subtle change in the body and clear your mind from annoyances. Most importantly, you have to do this with your partner. Perfect sex is built on the foundation of mental connection with your partner. Otherwise, it would be nothing more than exercise, which is definitely not the purpose of multi-orgasmic lovemaking. The author of the book argues that by practicing multi-orgasmic sex men can avoid the loss of energy caused by ejaculation. Taoists claim that holding semen acts as a way to store energy. Excessive ejaculation may debilitate and gradually drain the male body. But multi-orgasmic sex does not entail ejaculation and also provides more sexual pleasure. Another plus is that multi-orgasmic sex is suitable for middle-aged or elderly men. As the author puts it, after multi-orgasmic sex you will feel refreshed and uplifted. You can even spare the complaints from your partner when you fall into a deep unconscious sleep right after a night of passion. As a breakthrough in your relationship, now you have plenty of time to caress and please your beloved. Those who have succeeded in this practice share their testimonials in the book. For people interested in the techniques of multi-orgasmic sex, the book also includes detailed step-by-step directions along with illustrations. We don’t want to admit it, perhaps, but sex is something we cannot live without. by Allen Cheng
Situation: another dateless Saturday night. You’re tired of endless partying and have already tried to hook up with anything that’s breathing. Your friends are just as bored but all they can come up with is another night of singing in some KTV, which is what you guys have been doing for the past trillion weekends. Why not open up a box and take out a board game instead? Board games are, of course, games which include a board. But more than this, players drain their intellect to compete with other players, fend off adverse alliances, and, in many cases, resist attacks made by the game itself. Usually, when people talk of board games they think of Monopoly. But board games vary in miraculous ways, and each one imitates a different aspect of life. Board games have been around for a long time and have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history. The earliest recorded board game, Senet, dates back to 3500.B.C. and was played by the ancient Egyptians. Board games became widely popular among the general population early in the 20th century, when the rise of the middle class, with their disposable income and leisure time, made a receptive audience. The popularity of board games expanded after World War II, a period from which many classic board games date. German board games in particular are famous for their delicate game pieces, fancy tokens, and precise rules. German-style games require more thought, as opposed to those such as Pictionary. Here are some of the most popular: Carcassone, named after the medieval fortified town of the same name in southern France, is famed for its city walls. This is a tile-based game for two to five players and it received the Spiel des Jahres award in 2001. The game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses. On each turn a player draws a new terrain tile and places it adjacent to tiles that are already facing up. Each player, by placing a delicately made person token, can claim ownership of one feature on that tile: Road: the token becomes a thief, and when the road is fully built, Aladdin. One point for each road segment. Castle: the cute little guy becomes a knight, and when the castle is finished, a paladin. Two points for each castle tile. Church: now he’s a priest, and, when eight adjacent tiles appear, Jesus. Giving birth to Jesus brings in nine points. Field: Farmer. Unfortunately, when you’re a farmer, you’re always a farmer. Three points for every castle on your field. The game ends when the last tile has been placed. The goal is to have the most points at the end, which can be tricky to control considering your choice for each turn isn’t the tile itself, but rather the placement of the tile that you drew. Carcassonne is an excellent “gateway game,” that is, a great choice for board game newbies since the rules are simple, no one is eliminated, and the play is fast. There is a substantial luck component to the game. However, good tactics greatly improve one’s chances of winning. Settlers of Catan, a multiplayer board game, was the first German-style board game to achieve popularity outside Europe. In this game, players collect raw materials to build up their civilizations to gain enough victory points to win the game. The players represent settlers who establish a colony on the previously uninhabited island of Catan. The island itself is laid out randomly at the beginning of each game. Starting with two settlements and adjoining road sections, players build roads, settlements, and eventually cities as they settle the island. Positioning of roads and settlements allows a player to deny other players access to essential resources, and good building is one route to victory. Each roll of the dice determines which place produces resources. The resources can be spent to build more roads or settlements, upgrade settlements to cities, and to obtain development cards for later use; or they can be stored for trade. Players are allowed to trade among each other the resources they have produced, and to trade “off the island” for a hefty price. If a player is winning, other players may refuse to trade; this allows them to catch up with the leader. Swan Panasia, the dominant board game company in Taiwan, was founded by German board game player, Johannes Goeth (a.k.a., Yo-Yo). As a Chinese major, he came to Taiwan during his youth and decided to settle down and dedicate his life to the promotion of board games. In a way, the Taiwan board game market might not even exist if it were not for his popularization. Swan Panasia’s calendar revolves mainly around two events: the Taipei International Book Exhibition in February and the Children’s Game Camp in summer. The former spreads the word about board games, and at the same time sells discount board games, which was a great success in 2008; the latter promotes board games to young people and at the same time nourishes their mental development. During the rest of the year you can also find board games elsewhere. The popular restaurants Witch’s house (next to NTU) and Style (nearby NTNU) both feature delicious cuisine along with after meal entertainment – free board game sampling. Swan Panasia’s employees, who are always there on standby, show a surprising willingness to teach you all they know about these games. For those who are just eager to find someone to beat and are too full to eat, on Wednesday nights the Intellectual Games Club of NTU meets in the New Math building’s discussion room on campus. The club is always welcoming and willing to pass on their knowledge. According to scientific research, board games increase mental development and ward off senility. When you feel life is just repetitive and out of spice, don’t forget that board games are always there for the bored you. by Tanya Huang
Have you ever felt envy when others spoke of their plans to go abroad? Have you ever restrained yourself from the dream of traveling to a foreign country because you are just a poor student? Now a trend called “work and travel” can help you fulfill your dream without financial burdens. This is a project that provides you with a job in a specific place like Yellowstone National Park, Sea World, or Glacier National Park in Montana. You will have the chance to earn money as well as plan trips to nearby cities by yourself. There are several different places that offer jobs. If you want to embrace the beauty of nature, national parks will be a good destination. Yellowstone National Park is the most popular but Glacier National Park also has picturesque scenery. In these places, the most common jobs are cooking in a cafeteria and housekeeping in a hotel. On the other hand, if you choose an amusement park like Sea World or Six Flags, you are likely to have a job like being a clerk in a gift shop. Although Taiwanese seldom get jobs as waiters due to poor speech skills, you can still request it, but your employers have the right to decline. Those who went to Yellowstone enjoyed life there very much. They fell in love with the fresh air in the woods and were moved by the sound of the creeks. They also met a variety of people from different places who broadened their horizons. Some might view their labor as nothing at first, but they are always greatly rewarded in the end. One person said that he felt a sense of achievement after he finished cleaning the corner of a room. People who chose to go Glacier had unforgettable memories, too. They were startled by the magnificent scenes, and the tranquility sharpened their minds as they realized the greatness of nature. They said it seemed like they were living in a painting. To begin your own work–and-travel trip, you start with an idea: where should I go? What kind of job sounds really interesting to me? This is important since it affects which institute you should contact. For example, if you want to go to Yellowstone, CIEE would be the best choice for you. But if you prefer Sea World, Geolinks would be your only choice. These institutes begin accepting applications every September. They require an English oral test so that you understand which level you are at, and you can decide later which job to apply for based on your test results. Basically, there are two ways to apply for a job. One of them is called the ”road show,” which means that employers come to interview you. Many people worry about this part the most. A little tip for the interview: just speak up. The other method is the direct one, which means you find a job and contact the employer by yourself. The former is more convenient and safer but you can learn a lot more money from the latter. Some jobs like working on a farm will be found if you take the direct approach. Joining this project sounds like a lot of fun. However, it takes up at lest ten weeks of your summer vacation. In addition, you have to book your plane ticket on your own. Moreover, this is not really a way to make a lot of money. What you earn will simply offset the cost of your plane ticket and the fee charged by the institute. If you want to visit nearby places you will have to make hotel reservations and figure out the local transportation before you go. It takes a lot of preparation beforehand, and once you arrive there will still be difficulties. So be prepared, but have fun! For Further information: CIEE http://www.councilexchanges.org.tw/ Geolinks http://www.geo-links.com.tw/ There is a great amount of information on the Workantravel board on ptt. by Kuan Chung Lu
If you happen to be in any crowded place on campus, look around and see what people are wearing. Jeans! 3 out of 5 people who have pants on are wearing jeans. You might not be surprised because you probably have them on, too. Aesthetic, durable, and comfortable, denim is certainly a fatal attraction. You may already have perfect taste and know exactly how good jeans look on you (if not you can browse the “Jeans” board on the BBS). But have you ever wondered when and where the trend in jeans began? How did it become such a fashion industry? And how powerful is the magic of jeans? American icon with an exotic birth Happy Birthday, Blue Jeans! May 20, 1873 is the official birthday of blue jeans, the date when patent no. 139,121 was granted. Born in San Francisco, blue jeans are often considered an American icon. However, in fact their origin is very multicultural. First of all the denim fabric was milled in Italy and then imported from Europe to the U.S. It replaced the canvas cloth that once was the material for miners’ pants. The most famous brand name, Levi’s, came from Levi Strauss, the inventor of American blue jeans, who was a German immigrant. He came to San Francisco in 1853 at the age of 24. What inspired him to create new pants was the fact that mine workers complained about the durability of their pants and how often they had to be repaired. He asked his tailor friend, Jacob Davis, who had immigrated from Riga, Latvia, to design a pair of overalls. In 1871, Mr. Davis, the first designer of jeans, placed copper rivets to secure the pockets, and these became one of the most important features of jeans design. Even the name “jeans” is borrowed from another language: from “Genoese,” an Italian sailor from Genoa who liked to dress in this thick blue fabric. Blue jeans may be an American icon because of their deep roots in American history, but actually they are a mixture of many exotic elements. Symbol of rebellion, symbol of youth, expression of democratic values At first, jeans were designed for California coal miners, but they soon became popular among other heavy workers. In the west, cowboys began to wear them, and women soon joined the trend, too. However, it was not until the 1960s that blue jeans became a mass market item. In the 1950s, rebellious high school students began to wear jeans to distinguish themselves from the older generation. At that time jeans were considered casual and were not allowed in schools. This trend grew further with the baby boomer generation, who were eager to show themselves as being against the establishment. Jeans can also express profoundly democratic values. As Charles A. Reich writes in The Greening of America, “there are no distinctions of wealth or status, no elitism; people confront one another shorn of these distinctions.” Sociologists also study jeans as an object of material culture, and they have found that denim is a garment accessible to everyone. It crosses boundaries of class, gender, age, ideology, and even religion. Workers, students, even the President of the United States wear jeans: at work, in school, on TV. Jeans have become identified with liberal thinking. Fashion week—you are in or out, but jeans are always in The phenomenon of designer jeans began in the 1970s. In 1980, a famous Calvin Klein ad showed Brooke Shields, then only 15, tossing her hair, looking into the camera, and saying: “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.” This slogan was heard around the world and sold millions of pairs of jeans. The image of jeans became wild and sexy. Celebrities began to be photographed not in gowns but in ready-to-wear jeans. In 1988 the editor of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour, made her cover in a pair of stonewash jeans teamed up with a bejeweled top. Jeans were now a regular feature of the cat walks, too, and jeans fever has seemed unstoppable ever since. Jeans are not just good looking and easy to wear, there are a lot of stories hidden within them! Some exotic linguistic origins: Denim: serge de Nîmes Jeans: Genoa, Italy (Gênes), Levi’s: Levi Strauss by Ting-Ru Chen
Turkey is a mysterious nation for me, for example its location and religion. Undoubtedly, students who come from there make me more curious about their thinking, family, culture, and everything I don’t know. That’s why Grace and I met Hakki on a Monday night. Hakki Caner Kirmizi (柯賀祁), who wears glasses and has short curly black hair, is a National Taiwan University freshman. He majors in Computer Science and Information Engineering with a really special reason. “I love history, politics, and philosophy, but why did I choose to major in computer science? Computers will change the world, and I want to see it. It may take 20 years, I think, or 50 years, but it will change.” We also found that Hakki is interested in social issues. When we talked about the “strength” of several countries, we thought that Turkey was “stronger” than Taiwan. But then he asked, “How do you define whether a country is strong or not?” In our opinion, a strong nation should have a good army, a developed economy, and other countries in the world would follow its words most of the time. However, Hakki had another explanation: “If the political status is steady and the people are strong, then the country would become strong.“ He said that a country will never become strong only because of its government; it should be lifted by its people, and only if the people are strong the country might develop. In addition, he said that there are lots of brand names that come from Taiwan and are well known all over the world. Taiwan has become famous with the help of these companies. “Everyone knows ASUS!” he said. “How about China?” we asked. According to Hakki, although there are lots of workers in China and their government is strict, the country is also full of copyright problems, which represent a stumbling rock on the road to industrial development. After such a serious subject we wanted Hakki to talk about his family. He lives in Istanbul, where his father works as a policeman and his mother is a housewife. He has a younger sister, who is in her second year of high school. Before he came to Taiwan, although his father couldn’t always be home at the same time every day, his family usually had dinner together. Thus he was surprised when he saw students in Taiwan eating out so often. “People even eat in front of the computer screen. Is this necessary?” Families in Turkey emphasize “family connection” a lot, and their relationships with their neighbors are also closer than in Taiwan. “Once I told my Taiwanese friend that we usually give a set of house keys to a neighbor in case of emergency. If my mom isn’t home after school, I can go to the neighbor and borrow the key to enter.” But Hakki was surprised how cold the relationship is between neighbors in Taiwan. How come the people of the island, who usually convey hospitality to travelers, are so cold to each other? Watching the motorcycles on the street Hakki mentioned that he was really surprised at the number of them in Taiwan. There are motorcycles everywhere and there are even spaces for motorcyclists to park their vehicles. He said that people usually drive cars in Turkey, because Turkey is bigger than Taiwan. For them, driving an hour to work or school is normal, but students in Taiwan see such a journey as too long and too far. This topic reminded Hakki of something, “My bicycle was stolen today.” We explained to him, somewhat helplessly, how such things often happen on campus. Hakki is really an interesting student. He knows a lot, and he shared lots of his thoughts with us. It seems that studying abroad is an uneasy way to learn, but we believe that our Turkish friend will have great experiences in his colorful university life in Taiwan! |
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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