By Jasmine Niu “I really wanna stop / But I just got the taste for it / I feel like I could fly with the boy on the moon.” Liking someone is just like Carly Rae Jepsen’s single, “I Really Like You.” Your heart beats fast and you blush every time you talk to them. Sometimes you ask yourself when all of this started and you realize that there is no reason. Or you’re not sure about your feelings. Is it love or friendship? Here’s a quiz to help answer this question. Friendship or more?Answer these ten questions:
Love or Crush?Maybe you wonder why I said it’s a crush instead of love. In fact, love and crushes are different. People have crushes on someone for small things like a good-looking face, a great sense of humor, or an attractive smile. Sometimes we know little about our crush. One day, perhaps, you get to know them more and find out that the crush disappears. However, when it comes to love, we need time and effort to prove that he/she is the right one. If you really fall in love, you’ll love almost everything about them and want to be with them even when they grow old and are not good-looking anymore. Signs of having a crush1. You become as sensitive as a secret agentYou are so curious about your crush that you want to know everything about them, so you try your best to gather all their information, just like you were a spy. You’ll ask people about their hobbies, keep checking their Facebook page and don’t want to miss any of their posts. What’s more, you’ll be just like radar: any mention of him or her will catch your attention immediately. 2. You act like a crazy fanYour crush becomes your idol and your thoughts will echo his/her name all the time. My friend Rosie, for example, has such a crush on her classmate that she even follows him from class to class. She tries hard to make chances to meet him. Sometimes she shows up where he is, and it doesn’t matter whether he notices her or not. Every glance can make her have a good dream at night. 3. You sound like a broken recordYou keep talking about him/her. Take Joan, for example. She mentions one of our friends hundreds of times, telling me how great he is and what their conversation was about. But she never admits that she has a crush on him. 4. You spend forever dressing upSome girls have different looks depending on whom they’re going to meet. When they go out with ordinary friends, they wear T-shirts and jeans. But if they’re going to hang out with people they are fond of, they pick dresses or skirts. Sometimes they wear contact lenses, makeup, and perfume so they can attract their mates. Also, high heels are popular for dates. My cousin Fiona is a college student. She went out with her crush with makeup and contact lenses, but one day when she met him in the library with glasses and no makeup, she felt so embarrassed that she did not want to be recognized. 5. You ride an emotional roller coasterYou pay a lot of attention to everything relating to your crush, but it also means that you easily exaggerate his/her every word. A small conversation makes your heart beat fast; their friendly smile makes you blush all the way home; a small compliment makes you dance around. You get plenty of joy from your crush; however, you are worried a lot, too. For instance, my friend Jerry spends a lot of time wondering whether his crush has the same feeling toward him. He gets jealous when he sees her having physical contact with other guys. Every other man becomes a potential threat. 6. You make eye contactWhen you’re looking at someone you are fond of, the affection from your eyes, just like sneezing, cannot be hidden. Some people are active, so they show a lot of passion in their eyes. Some of my friends told me they’ll stare at their crush passionately hoping that they will notice. But others will avoid eye because they feel embarrassed. Some shy girls even keep distances from their crush. Tips and advice to take actionIt is common that you want to meet your crush and get to know him/her more. Some people take action, but some are shy and don’t know what to do. So here are some tips. 1. Show up where he/she isIf your crush does not know you, you can ask someone who does to help you find them. For example, you can take the same courses as him/her or join the same club. Clubs hold a lot of activities, so there’s a good chance your crush will recognize you. 2. Hang out together with other friendsLetting your crush know you is just the first page. You can invite your crush and your friends together and go out with them. You’ll have more interaction and you can get to know each other more. 3. Treat your crush like an ordinary friendUsually you’ll be so happy when you’re with your crush that you can’t help showing your interest and even flirt with them. But sometimes it will scare them. When dating, you should try to treat him/her like anyone else. Just pretend you’re talking to your friends. But what if……You take action with high expectations. However, one day you find out that they are not interested in you or act in a distant way. Some people will feel heartbroken. You shouldn’t blame yourself. Your crush is like your first bad habit and it is hard to give up immediately. All you need is time to let it go. You can pay attention to something else, such as books, movies, or dates with friends. Soon you’ll find yourself feeling better.
Having a crush is enchanting but also bittersweet. But don’t be afraid. Taking action gives you chances to learn more about the person. You may find that your crush is the right one and become a couple, but you may also find that your crush disappears. But no matter what happens in the end, you have a chance to make a new friend. You can still enjoy his/her company. Just give it a try!
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by Grace Hsu It is a common experience for a Taipei citizen to walk to the street and hail a taxi for a ride. The yellow cars seem all over the place, in busy intersections or in quiet alleys. Even at midnight when buses and MRTs no longer work, these drivers are still out there at people’s service. Taxis seem to be an inseparable part of the traffic in Taipei. But is it possible that their existence might one day be threatened? Founded in 2009, Uber is changing the taxi industry throughout the world. It provides a platform to seamlessly connect drivers with riders. Its convenience for customers and flexibility for drivers has facilitated the expansion of the company. However, its existence has also sparked debate since it competes with conventional taxis and has also given rise to safety concerns and worries about customer privacy. Riders no longer need to stand in busy traffic waiting for a vacant taxi to drive by; they can wait indoors and watch its progress via the app and go outside just when the car shows up. Once the ride is over, the company will send the bill to the customer’s account with a record of the route taken. If the driver took a detour, the customer can inform the company and the fee will be altered. Moreover, since riders pay by credit card, they won’t be pressured to offer tips. If they want to thank their driver for the ride, they can simply mark a higher score when rating the driver, processed anonymously. Another feature is that customers can easily separate personal and business rides with a few clicks, saving a lot of time sorting bills and preventing charging the wrong credit card. It also makes it easier for companies to track business travels. For Uber drivers, flexibility is one big incentive. They can use their own cars, they don’t need to wear uniforms, and most of all, they can work whatever hours they please. Over half of the drivers have other full time or part time jobs and 50% of Uber drivers drive fewer than 10 hours per week. They don’t need to schedule hours in advance; they can simply decide when to work with a few taps of their smartphone. This flexibility enables parents to earn additional income while allowing them to spend time with their kids. Also, more women are becoming Uber drivers, since they can decide their own hours. However, Uber also led to controversy. For one thing, it unfairly competes with conventional taxis by not having to follow union regulations or fare schedules. And since drivers and customers communicate with an app, it is even more difficult for regular taxi drivers to find passengers. In addition, Uber drivers and cars are not licensed, and there aren’t any insurance requirements. In the event of a traffic accident, there are laws applicable to conventional taxis but not to the Uber system. Uber considers its drivers “independent contractors” rather than employees. In this way, the company attempts to deny fault for any injuries sustained in an accident. Uber defines itself as a technology provider, offering a platform for amateur drivers, instead of a transportation company or car service. Such claims allow the company to blame the driver when someone needs to be responsible.
Another problem is privacy. Concerns have been raised regarding the fact that Uber not only has customers’ credit card information but also tracks every route the individual takes. By using a tracking function, customers are allowing Uber to collect data on them constantly. Consumer protection agencies have called on Uber to further protect consumer privacy and to ensure that neither the company itself nor anyone else can ever know too much about an individual. That is, Uber should ensure that data is never combined with personally identifiable information and that the database is well protected from hackers. In the busy traffic of Taipei, people can’t help but wonder will the familiar yellow taxis be replaced someday? Uber brings much convenience and flexibility, and while a lot of controversy remains, it is certain that nowadays Uber is “moving” people’s lives. By Margaret Shen Once upon a time, there was a princess from a faraway land. One day, she met her Prince Charming. They fell in love with each other at first sight and lived happily ever after. What? This sounds so sudden. How did they get to know each other? How can you be with someone you just met? In the 21st century, people have begun to question these cliché fairy tales, where princesses fulfill their life goals only by marrying a man they just met. People now want to see more independent and clever girls in fairy tales. Take Disney princesses, for example. During Walt Disney’s lifetime, there were three main princess films: Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. These princesses were all lovely, sweet, and obedient. After Walt Disney passed away, the company experienced a period of chaos, and from the 1980s to the 2000s, they resolved to make their princesses keep up with the times. The company entered a Renaissance era, which included The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas. These princesses showed more opinions and went after what they wanted. They also had adventures by themselves. For example, Ariel from The Little Mermaid experienced a journey to the human world when pursuing her love, and Belle made a journey when she tried to save her father. In the beginning, the company was worried whether people would accept these new ideas. However, these films were successful and popular. Some of them even won Oscars. But with the rise of feminism, the Disney Company has also been criticized for its portrayal of women. They have tried to make their princess more feministic and behave more like normal people. They have strong wills and protect themselves from villains just like men. But have they succeeded? Let’s take Cinderella, Ariel (from The Little Mermaid), and Anna (from Frozen) as examples. Cinderella seems to spend her whole life time waiting for the prince. She is obedient and can’t control her own life but must wait for others’ help. In fact, in the original story Cinderella didn’t know that she was dancing with the prince and falling in love with him. She didn’t express any desire to marry a prince at all. And in her time, it was impossible to live independently and fight against her stepmother and stepsisters. To live, she had to stay at home. She worked hard without blaming her fate and showed that she was strong and capable of enduring. In Disney’s Renaissance era, princesses became brighter and stronger. Disney didn’t put much effort in portraying Cinderella’s thoughts. But in The Little Mermaid, we see Ariel fighting hard for what she wants. She is banned from approaching the human world, but she didn’t give up chasing her love because of her father’s orders. She fought against the rules that seemed unreasonable to her. According to the Disney Company, they were afraid that people wouldn’t like such an avant-garde princess, but the film became enormously successful. However, if we look deeper into The Little Mermaid, we can see that Ariel was actually a good-for-nothing. She tried to get what she wanted, but she not only put her own life at risk, she also risked the lives of her father and the whole kingdom. One can see how selfish and naïve she is. Even though she tried to reach her goal by herself, she didn’t. She failed to complete her adventure. She was just waiting for help from her friends, her father, or a witch. Ariel may have shown more opinions, but is she even less independent than Cinderella? Though the Disney Company has tried to make its princesses keep up with times, it is not enough for the modern world. They are still not independent and smart enough. This pushed the Disney Company to enter its modern age. In Frozen, forexample, Anna is no longer always perfect and elegant. She wakes up looking bleary eyed, behaves clumsily, and fights like a man. She has her own adventure resulting from fighting with her sister. This is also the first time that Disney makes a princess break up with her love and not marry a prince. Frozen became the most popular Disney film of all. Though critics still want Disney to make its princesses even more modern, they also admit that Frozen is a distinct improvement. It is no longer such a cliché fairy tale. From Cinderella to Anna, we can see progress. Disney wants to make its princesses more feminist and fit better in the modern world. However, if you look deeper, you’ll find that the princesses express their independence in the same way, by fighting with their families. This might seem reasonable if they were right. However, at the end of story, they were wrong. Ariel fought against her father and then almost ruined the kingdom and killed herself. Anna fought with her sister because she wanted to marry a prince and then found that he was actually a villain. In other words, we might say that these stories begin with a princess’s irrational thoughts and irresponsible actions. It is hard to say that they are independent, smart, or models of feminism since we see so many flaws. One thing is certain, if the Disney Company is trying to create princesses that can satisfy everyone, they still have a long way to go. by Marbella Perez What should I do with my life?… a question that echoes in the minds of most 20 somethings after graduating from college. There we are, diploma in hand, a big smile on our faces that hides the insecurities lurking within. 4 years back, on a teenage whim, or at the suggestion of our domineering yet well-intended parents (or, if you’re Taiwanese, on the basis of how well you did on an exam), we chose a major. We hoped that studying it would make us skillful, valuable to society, and would be the basis for a life-long career of fulfillment. 4 years later, we’re disappointed to find that this is not the case. We feel lost, not particularly good at anything, and have no idea what kind of job we would find fulfilling. This my friends is the “quarter-life crisis.” If this resonates with you, read on. For those of us who are in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, the advice that is available to us is abundant but not necessarily helpful. As I navigated the sea of career advice in articles, books, talks, and blogs, I realized how contradictory and misleading it can be. In an attempt to make sense of the jungle of advice, I created the following compilation of the pieces I found most interesting and valuable. Our career compass Most of us would agree that the ideal job lays at the intersection of three things: what we like, what we are good at, and what we are paid to do. In fact, these are the three recurring themes in contemporary career advice. The three main pieces of career advice are:
I find this diagram useful because it explores the interactions between the aforementioned themes and sheds light on the many possible scenarios that could play out in real life. For instance, sometimes we know what we like to do and we get really good at it, but there is no demand in the working world for our skills, so we end up doing something else to pay the bills. Or sometimes we’re really good at something and get paid to do it, but we dislike it very much. The question is how do we get to that sweet spot where all things overlap? Or how can we be creative with this? Let us use this diagram as the compass that will guide us through this messy business.
Turning our gaze inward “Know thyself,” said Socrates. This is what the red and green circles of the diagram urge us to do as well: find what we like to do and find what we are good at. According to entrepreneur and writer Scott Dinsmore, we become self-experts by identifying our unique strengths, determining our values (those that guide our decisions), and exploiting our experiences (actively analyzing them and learning from them). You may be thinking this sounds too abstract to be applicable. How do you actually identify your strengths, determine your values, and exploit your experiences? Well, in my opinion, this kind of introspection and personal development is not easy. However, I do believe it is necessary, and the earlier we do it the better, as it is a lifelong practice. I believe it all comes down to living with our eyes open, aware of the people who inspire us, the activities we enjoy doing more than others, the things we consider important and meaningful, etc. It involves asking ourselves a lot of questions such as: what does success mean to me? Am I really the author of my own ambitions? What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind? This topic of self-exploration is a big one, and I cannot tackle it in a single paragraph. However, it is an important piece of the puzzle which I encourage you to explore. Turning our gaze outward The red and green circles encourage us to look inward, but if this is all we did we would become incredibly self-centered. The blue circle brings some much needed balance into the mix by encouraging us to turn our gaze outward and look for things people would actually pay us to do. In his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport puts forth the idea that the willingness to pay for a product or service is an indicator of how much said product or service is needed in the world. Therefore, we turn our gaze outward to find a target for our unique interests and skills. In the article “To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion,” published in the Harvard Business Review, Oliver Segovia encourages us to find big world problems we can contribute to. He advises us to develop awareness and sensitivity for what is going on in the world and to look into problems that affect us personally as they are great motivators for action. So, what should you do with your life? Perhaps you were expecting a clear formula that would tell you exactly how to proceed. Unfortunately, there is no one piece of career advice that fits all. Career advice columnists and experts will give you all kinds of advice, but in the end, the path you choose to take is very personal. I do believe that no matter what path you decide to follow, it will require due amounts of introspection, skill development, global awareness, and just a speck of serendipity. Godspeed! Works cited Dinsmore, S. (October 1, 2012). “How to Find Work You Love.” https://www.ted.com/talks/scott_dinsmore_how_to_find_work_you_love Newport, C. (2012). So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love. New York: Business Plus. Segovia, O. (January 13, 2012). “To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion.” https://hbr.org/2012/01/to-find-happiness-forget-about by Sherry Lu Life’s too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are. — Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle In Walls’s impressive memoir, The Glass Castle, her parents are talented and artistic but refuse to have steady jobs. Even when the children become employed, the parents refuse to live with them and choose to be homeless, digging through trash on the streets of New York City. A few years later, I encountered a similar story on the streets of Taipei, a homeless man in his eighties called Zhao Yanqing (趙衍慶), who spent his life savings to run for Taipei mayor but lines up for a free lunch every day and sleeps on the ground in a small park. In 2009, Mr. Zhao paid 200,000 NT$ to run for legislator in the Da-an District in Taipei. Without any previous political experience and not even a college degree, he got only 46 votes. But in 2014, the 78-year-old Zhao also ran for Taipei mayor by paying a deposit of 2 million NT$. He received more than 15,000 votes, but it was still less than 10% of the vote, which is the minimum to have his deposit returned. Soon, the news spread that a crazy street man had wasted 2 million to run for Taipei mayor. His politics is simple: to raise attention for the homeless and to improve the education of young people. With only a high school education, Mr. Zhao decided he would resign as soon as his projects had been accomplished. He wanted to encourage all citizens to work as volunteers to assist in the construction of homeless shelters. He also wanted young people to study more science, hoping to build more laboratories for them to do research. (Zhao’s handwritten statement of his political views)
With a predestined fate of losing the election, why did he still want to run? And if he had so much money, why would he decide to live on the street? His crazy but somehow heroic actions raised my interest, and I found a webpage that gave his address, which turned out to be a basement he rented for storing the things he scavenged from the streets. He usually sleeps in the park nearby. So I decided to find him in the park, but the neighbors told me that sometimes Mr. Zhao would go ballroom dancing or read in the local library. “He is a free spirit, it’s not easy to find him,” said one of them. I was lucky to spot him when he was just coming back from his free dinner at a church, an old man almost horizontal as he pushed a rusty and broken bike slowly but stably. The front basket was filled with old clothes and plastic bottles, and he was wearing a ragged plaid shirt and an old fashioned beret. He waved and smiled to the other street people in the park as if they were his roommates. He welcomed my interview and asked me to sit on a bench with him next to his “bed” in the park. Mr. Zhao was born into a rich landowning family in 1936 in the Shandong province in China. His grandfathers were both alumni of the prestigious Peking University. He even had a private tutor come every day to teach him how to read and write before the age of five. However, when the Communist Party took over the country, Mr. Zhao’s family was severely persecuted. His mom died soon after, and at the age of five Mr. Zhao was taken hostage and forced to join the army. When the Civil War broke out, he fought in various battles and was used, like other children, to attract the enemy’s attention by beating drums in front of the army. “Luckily, I never got bombed; some of my friends were bombed into pieces right in front of me.” Mr. Zhao speaks of his childhood with great distress, as if these experiences were still haunting him. When he finally escaped from the army, he had nowhere to go because he had lost all his family during the war. He entered a refugee school run by the Kuomintang, but as the situation became worse for the KMT, he had to roam from city to city with other refugees and finally made it to Taiwan. He joined the KMT army with the ambition of taking back his homeland and taking revenge for his family. After years of training, he became a platoon leader. But as the KMT became more and more corrupt, Mr. Zhao lost his faith in the military and resigned. He took various jobs including working for an American mechanical company and in chemical factories. He became a taxi driver at age 55, but ended up eating charity meals and living on the streets of Taipei. After decades of struggling, Mr. Zhao doesn’t care about material wealth any longer. He likes to live in the park in the open air, which he believes is good for his health. Left with no family to worry about, he simply wants to make a contribution to society. “If I can make one person think about the homeless, and the youth of our country, then I’m satisfied,” he said in his heavy mainland accent. Maybe just like the glass castle that Jeannette Walls’s father always promised to build but never did, Mr. Zhao will never be elected. But he is one of those people who bravely choose the way they want to live. While we are lamenting the cracks in our democratic society, laughing at his waste of money and hilarious presentation on TV, complaining about how government waste our money instead of actively taking responsibility. Mr. Zhao is perhaps wandering on the streets on his bike and singing his favorite yimen chanson, which reminds him of the landscape back in Shandong province. By spending 2 million to tell a life story, Mr. Zhao made the marginalized minority expose in the public again and put a large question mark on our social hierarchy system. So he petals on, and dreams of bringing change, while working hard, hopping that his earnings and ambition can utilized the best of democracy could offer him. Is that not what democracy is? by William Lu To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question. Being living creatures, we must sleep in order to live, or live in order to sleep. Sleeping, just like eating and drinking, is a part of our lives and we cannot live without it. However, many people feel too busy to sleep, thinking that sleeping is a waste of time, hindering them from doing more work. In this article, I urge you to put away your burdens and have a nice sleep. Sleep is needed for our body to function well. During sleep, muscles relax, organs are repaired, and brain cells remove the waste accumulated while we are working. The brain also rearranges information, putting some into memory while discarding others. The body needs sleep to heal wounds. Good sleep is essential to maintain the immune system. The body grows during sleep. Severe deficiency of sleep can damage the brain or even cause death. When we are tired, we cannot focus or think clearly. We can see that there is no animal which does not need sleep. Even God rested on the seventh day. And we, whether we evolved from animals or were created by God, are destined to sleep. For those who think work is more important than sleep, please think about this: what are you working for? If you are hoping that after you finish you can rest, why not rest right now? You expect that one day you will complete all the work; however, that day may not exist, because every day we have new work. If you enjoy working and think sleep deprives you of working time, you should know the marginal effects: when you work too much, your happiness diminishes. Furthermore, sleep gives you energy and refreshes you to enjoy more in your work. What profit has man if he gets everything but loses his life? What are good sleeping habits? How do we sleep well? Our bodies are adapted to nature, so the main idea is to follow nature, that is, to work in the day and sleep at night. It is recommended to sleep before 11:00 p.m. Turn off the lights, the darker the room is the better your sleeping quality is. Avoid using phones, computers, or watching TV one hour before sleeping, because the light stimulates you from falling asleep. Exercise makes you sleep better, but avoid doing intensive sports like basketball or football just before sleeping. Stuffy air in a closed room prevents you from revitalizing, so open the window or turn on the air conditioner to make the air fresh. It is ok to take a nap during the day, about 15 minutes is called a power nap, or about 1.5 hours of full sleep can give you a boost, but a nap that is too long or too short can make you even more tired. Our sleep needs are recommended in the following table: One of my friends complains that it is impossible to go to sleep early because he has to do homework and study for exams. He cannot sleep before he finishes, and if he goes to sleep earlier, the next day he can’t get up early to study. However, based on my observation, because he is used to staying up and getting up late, he does not believe that he can get up early. He sleeps at least one hour longer than usual after staying up late. Sleep at night is better than sleep in the day. If you stay up late working at night and sleep in the morning, you need to sleep more to pay the debt.
It is inefficient and ineffective to work when you are tired. You spend a lot of time seeming to work but in reality progress little. I came to understand this after some painful experiences. Since I had homework to submit the next day, one night I sat in front of my computer searching answers to my homework. Feeling tired but also compelled to finish, I struggled between sleeping or working until I saw that it was 1:00 a.m. I was astonished at how little I had accomplished. Regretting wasting my time, I decided to go to sleep. Then it occurred to me that I sacrificed energy to concentrate in class the next day. The next day, I asked my friends for help and finished the homework in less than 20 minutes. I discovered that sleep is always the better solution. It is better to plan ahead and ask for help than to stay up late. Quiet and rest is our salvation, although it seems difficult for some to change their sleep habits. But it is worth trying. We may understand the importance of going to bed early, but it becomes useful when we put it into practice. Let’s make a point of having a good sleep! Reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep by Vivian Tsai She transferred to our school on the first day of spring. Some said that it was her arrival that brought the sunshine back into our classrooms, and caused the flowers in the yard to blossom once more. Others insisted that she had a special kind of aura—the kind that attracted fairies to adorn her curls with the most brilliant of flowers. There were even those who claimed that she was a fairy in disguise herself.
Her name was Marella Suzanne. Marella Celeste Hanako Silverbelle Suzanne. But everyone just called her Marella Suzanne. And from the very first day, I hated her. ‘Your story is looking good, Dolores,’ Marella Suzanne smiled kindly. ‘But your main character might need a little more work.’ I scrunched up my nose as Marella Suzanne’s sugary voice pulled me back to reality. Mrs. Jones just had to pair us together for our creative writing peer review. And apparently I was supposed to feel lucky, since every single person wanted to be Marella Suzanne’s partner. ‘Why? What’s wrong with her?’ I challenged. ‘Well… I don’t mean any offence or anything,’ she offered, polite as ever, ‘but she’s very obviously a Mary Sue.’ She blinked a few times, looking like the very personification of a dainty porcelain doll, or even an angel. Marella Suzanne’s eyes were of a soft shade of violet that gleamed under the sunshine, and when the cold winds blew on winter days, the violet would twinkle with specks of silver, like the glint of a lustrous diamond. Long, curled eyelashes swept against her perfectly arched eyebrows each time she blinked, and her skin was as pale and smooth as freshly fallen snow. ‘A what?’ ‘A Mary Sue.’ ‘And what, may I ask, is that?’ No one was allowed to pick on or criticise the heroine of my story. No one, especially not Marella Suzanne. ‘Oh, you don’t know?’ She actually had the nerve to look pleasantly surprised. That arrogant know-it-all. ‘Well, to put it simply, it’s one of those characters who are so perfect that they come off as unrealistic and annoying to the reader.’ ‘I don’t see how my character is so perfect that she comes off as “unrealistic and annoying to the reader”,’ I retorted, crossing my arms. ‘Dolores, your protagonist has long, silky hair the colour of…’ she paused to squint at my paper, ‘the colour of freshly picked peaches. And her eyes sparkle like glowing sapphires under the moon. You’ve also described her skin as being smooth and flawless enough to rival Snow White’s. Her appearance doesn’t sound very realistic.’ ‘Well, she’s a beautiful character. All I did was describe her the way she’s supposed to be,’ I refuted. ‘Have you got a problem with that?’ Marella Suzanne tucked a perfect curl behind her ear as she flipped a page of my story draft. She had the most luscious-looking curls the colour of mint cotton candy and all the hues of the blue summer sky, and they cascaded to her waist like ocean waves. ‘I don’t mean it that way,’ she said gently. ‘Of course you’re allowed to write characters that are beautiful in appearance. But they need to be beautiful in a realistic way. No one has naturally peach-coloured hair, and no one’s eyes are able to sparkle like glowing sapphires.’ She blinked her violet eyes innocently, and even under the dull radiance of our classroom light, they managed to glisten like amethysts. I rolled my own brown ones. ‘Well, my character turns out to be the lost princess of a secret, magical land. She’s also a descendant of Merlin. So I think it’s reasonable for her to look enchanted and ethereal,’ I justified bitterly. ‘Yeah… that’s another part that’s unrealistic…’ There was a tinge of apprehension in Marella Suzanne’s melodic voice. ‘Her tragic background story of being abused and orphaned is needlessly exaggerated and cliché, and her bloodline is kind of… ridiculous. Please forgive me for my word choice,’ she added courteously. ‘And also, princesses and royalty don’t work the way you’ve done them in your story.’ ‘And what would you know about this kind of stuff?’ ‘Oh, my grandfather was a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth II,’ she clarified. ‘I only discovered my true identity after my parents were killed in a tragic car crash when I was five…’ ‘Wait. Are you saying that you’re actually a princess, then?’ I guess it made sense now why she had the ability to make our dull school uniform look like a splendid gown, and that each small movement of hers resonated with delicacy and grace. ‘Princess Marella Suzanne or something?’ I raised my eyebrows. ‘Princess Marella Celeste Hanako Silverbelle Suzanne,’ she corrected me lightheartedly. ‘But not many people know about this, since it’s kind of a secret.’ She let out a soft giggle, and her violet eyes creased into crescent moons. I had to swallow to stop myself from throwing up. ‘Anyway, it’s also unrealistic how literally every single character in your story likes the protagonist. All the girls either want to be her friend or aspire to be like her, and all the boys worship her like she’s a goddess. Wouldn’t that kind of person in real life annoy you?’ ‘No,’ I replied curtly. ‘She’s gorgeous and sweet and kind—why wouldn’t everyone like her? The only person who dislikes her is just jealous, and everyone hates that character, anyway.’ ‘Exactly. It’s common for Mary Sue characters to have everyone in love with them for their unrealistically flawless looks and personalities, and the only ones who don’t are painted as villainous or generally unpleasant people.’ ‘Marella Suzanne, you’ve been picking on my protagonist ever since we began this discussion. I’m starting to think you’re being picky just for the sake of ticking me off.’ ‘Oh, I would never do that! I wouldn’t ever want to upset anyone.’ As she spoke, she put a slender hand to her mouth. Probably showing off her perfectly manicured fingernails. ‘What is your problem?’ Martin Stuart had approached us. How romantic, the Prince Charming of our class standing up for Marella Suzanne. He was equally irritating with his mesmerising eyes and charismatic manners. Apparently his family also had some distant relationship with some royal family, making him a noble by birth. ‘Nothing. I just find her annoying.’ I managed to sound calmer than I actually felt. On the inside, I was fighting the urge to give someone a good punch. Anyone would do, but Marella Suzanne and Martin Stuart seemed like the best candidates. ‘Why? Because you’re not perfect like her? Are you jealous because you can never be as beautiful and smart and popular as Marella Suzanne?’ ‘So apparently disliking Marella Suzanne makes me a terrible person, then?’ I argued. ‘You do realise that you’re the only person who has a problem with her? Maybe the problem is you. I mean, how can there ever be anything wrong with Marella Suzanne?’ Martin Stuart placed a hand defensively on her shoulder. By now, the class had already begun to buzz with the commotion unfolding before their eyes. I looked around and saw people whispering while casting me scornful looks from all directions. Who knew what would have happened next if Mrs. Jones had not stepped in to distill the tension. She bashfully sent Martin Stuart back to his desk, apologized profusely to Marella Suzanne, and simply told me to watch my attitude. ‘Anyway,’ continued Marella Suzanne pleasantly, seemingly unfazed by the confrontation a few moments ago, ‘her name is extremely unrealistic, too.’ I sighed. ‘What’s wrong with her name?’ ‘Well… Her name is Abigail Luna Hikari Soleil Anderson. That’s not a reasonable name because it’s way too long and uses words from multiple languages, namely French and Japanese, which are most common with Mary Sue names.’ I took a long swig from my water bottle. ‘So you’re basically saying that my character is this so-called “Mary Sue” because she’s perfect in every single way?’ ‘Well… yes,’ admitted Marella Suzanne, looking as apologetic as ever as she twirled a shiny curl with her finger. ‘Her appearance is too beautiful to be realistic, her personality has absolutely no flaws, and literally every single character in your story is in love with her. She also has a clichéd tragic backstory and an impossible bloodline, plus she then goes on to have a generic love story with the prince, who is also very much a Marty Stu—’ ‘A what?’ I asked, incredulously. She had a problem with my male lead, too? ‘A Marty Stu. It’s the term for the male equivalent of a Mary Sue, so basically a male character who is unrealistically perfect so as to become annoying to the reader. These kinds of characters are typically fantasies or idealised versions of the writer, sort of like a self-insert or a form of wish fulfillment.’ That was it. I stood up briskly and snatched the pages of my sacred story out of Marella Suzanne’s hands. ‘Thank you very much for your precious feedback, Marella Suzanne. But my character is fine the way she is, so I won’t be making any changes. And it would also be nice if you stopped acting like you’re so much better than everyone else just because you’re good-looking and smart and obnoxiously ideal in every single way. Have a good day.’ Ignoring the shocked and slightly wounded look on Marella Suzanne’s angelic face, I gathered my belongings and made for the door. ‘Where do you think you’re going, Dolores?’ ‘I… umm, I just need to use the bathroom,’ I lied. Mrs. Jones shook her head disapprovingly. ‘No, you may not go to the bathroom now. Sit back down, I’m about to read Marella Suzanne’s and Martin Stuart’s stories to the class. They’re so eloquently and cleverly written that I think it would do you all some good to learn from them. Especially in your case, Dolores,’ she frowned at me. ‘Your writing skills need a lot more polishing, and I think Marella Suzanne’s example would be especially helpful for you.’ Defeated and humiliated, I dragged myself back to my seat. But before I could close my eyes and tune out Mrs. Jones’ monotonous voice, a gust of wind wafted through the open window and rearranged everyone’s hair into a chaotic mess. Except for Marella Suzanne’s. Her sky blue hair tumbled about in the breeze like aquamarine ribbons, and the room was suddenly filled with the sweet scent of her perfume. I sniffed and immediately cringed. Strawberry with a touch of vanilla. What a sickly sweet smell. By Sean Lin I wish I’d known
How to cry, Cry like newborns yearning for the fresh air in the morning light, Cry for hope, Cry for help, Cry for justice that was gone and would never be done, When I waded across the crimson rivers that flowed on the battlefield, Singing soundless dirges for my nameless countrymen. I wish I’d known How to fight, Fight like the mountains standing still in the winter wind every day and night, Fight against their swords, Fight against their rifles, Fight against my own cowardice that shackled my limbs and lips, When from the burning meadows and furrows I fled in useless tears, Watching in silence the land of my fathers torn to pieces. I wish I’d known How to fly, Fly like eagles soaring above the thunderstorm in the moonless night, Fly above the clouds, Fly among the stars, Fly to a distant land no men had ever named and no kings had ever claimed, When I trudged across the ridges and valleys of strange lands, Walking a thousand miles just to feel the sunshine again. I wish I’d known How to lie, Lie like dreamers making up the fairy tale of Snow White, Lie about sorrow, Lie about tomorrow, Lie about the hostile eyes that greeted us with endless whys, When children prayed to the shooting stars that blazed across the foreign sky, Asking me if we were going to have a better life. I wish I’d known How to write, Write like bards lamenting the fleeting passing of their times, Write an elegy, Write a eulogy, Write an epic story that spoke for the suffering in my lost country, When victors wiped out every page of this bloodstained history, Denying every line of our heartfelt poetry. I wish I’d known How to die, Die like leaves turning colors in the autumn rain as time went by, Die as though I slept, Die as no one wept, Die without imagining my unlived years and unseized moments, When I heard millions of kindred spirits whisper in my ears Telling me that living with regrets would be their worst fears. So I wish I knew How not to wish, Wish like madmen shouting at the empty sky and slamming their fist, Wish like fools grabbing for the shadows that appear in a drifting mist, Wish like idiots babbling about the tales of phantoms that they believe exist. Yet I know My attempt will never succeed, Nor will this exodus ever end. So long as mankind remained selfish And my heart naïve and foolish, There will live this everlasting anguish, Until the day my memories at long last perish. By Jesse McGonigle ‘Imagine that you are on life support’, our lăoshī (teacher) at National Taiwan University (NTU) begins, a petit and fiery bespectacled woman in her early thirties, who immediately grabs the class’s attention. ‘And your heart stops. The ”beeeep“ sound of the heart monitor is very similar to the long, high-pitched first tone in Mandarin. Repeat after me… ’ My crash course in the musical nature of Chinese is at first lighthearted and jovial; the noises I make in the classroom are usually reserved for my terrible singing in the shower. Our lăoshī continues, ’Think of the second tone figuratively, as rising confusion, like ”huuuh?“ The class responds by repeating her ‘huuuh?’, I believe out of literal confusion than anything else. ‘The third tone is perhaps the most difficult to learn, as the sound moves down and up, similar to a gut wrenching stomach pain followed by throwing up, as displayed in the diagram.’ Death and confusion and being physically sick, this has certainly taken a morbid turn. ‘Finally!’, she exclaims, ‘we get to the fourth tone, the strongest of them all. Think of Novak Djokovic winning a championship and pumping his fists whilst shouting “COME ON!”’ A comical, yet confusing, introduction to Chinese tones’ Welcome to the world of Chinese (Mandarin), a language spoken by approximately 800 million people around the world. It is a tonal language with five tones, the four aforementioned, and a fifth ‘neutral’ sound, meaning the pitch or intonation of the way a sound is spoken affects its meaning. Simply put, these tones can be represented by ā (1) á (2) ǎ (3) à (4) å (neutral) in pinyin, which is the romanised form of Chinese, the official phonetic system for transcribing Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet, a system often used to teach Standard Chinese to those familiar with the Latin alphabet, and also a way of converting Chinese names to said alphabet. If you have Chinese or Taiwanese friends on facebook, you may already be familiar with this practice. This tonal aspect is by far the hardest part of the spoken form of Chinese, with newcomers to the language often mixing up tones, and confusing their Shuìjiào (sleep) with their Shuǐ jiǎo (water dumplings), a very real problem I came across when trying to understand the conversation of a family at the dinner table. ‘Oh, your daughter wants to eat more dumplings? What an appetite!’, I deduced somewhat confidently, feeling proud that I had finally managed to decipher what the hell was going whilst contributing to the conversation. ‘Oh, no’, said her mother, chuckling, ’she just feels sleepy and wants a nap.’ There are many, many more examples of these potential pitfalls; to my British ears, ‘mā’ (mother) sounds dangerously similar to ‘mǎ’ (horse), and ‘mǎi’ (buy) sounds indistinguishable from ‘mài’ (sell), meaning I could easily walk into a shop offering to part with the goods I want to purchase, instead of vice-versa. The word for alcohol (jiǔ) sounds exactly the same as the number nine (jiǔ), as they are spoken using the third tone, with only context - and in written form, the Chinese characters (酒 and 九 respectively) - allowing for differentiation. The truth is, however, that context and body language make it easy to overcome these obstacles, with most of the trouble only arising during telephone conversations. The hardest (and perhaps most rewarding) part of learning Chinese, and the one I have had the most difficulty in overcoming, is reading and writing Chinese characters. Altogether there are over 50,000 characters, though a comprehensive modern dictionary will rarely list over 20,000 in use. An educated Chinese person will know about 8,000 characters, but you will only need to know about 3,000 to be able to read a newspaper. The problem for most of us who have never studied Chinese is trying to remember the strokes and characters, as there is no obvious linguistic logic to the characters, as it is a historical and continuous language (dating back over 3,500 years), meaning that these complex characters represent morphemes and thought processes from thousands of years ago. ‘My personal notebook. Practice makes perfect’ I have struggled immensely with this aspect of Chinese, forgetting characters and words merely days after thinking I had learned them. It is bang-your-head-against-the-wall frustrating, and something which I believe can only be overcome through practice. There is no winging it, there are no short cuts (which as an innately lazy person I find terribly upsetting); you just have to dedicate a lot of time towards practice. The way Chinese is taught at NTU is alien to the way I have been educated in Britain, as it is intensive, unforgiving and heavily exam-orientated (a mode of assessment I consider outdated, and one which I personal detest given my forgetful nature), something which came as an almighty shock as I genuinely thought my ‘elementary’ class would be just that. We have tests every other lesson, and major exams every fortnight. There is time-consuming homework after every class. There is no room for error, as the system here appears to concentrate on what is not known rather than what is known. So you got 90% on your last exam? You could and should do better, lăoshī informs me, ‘why not 100%? This is merely elementary level.’ This strive for perfection is perhaps a microcosm of Taiwanese education as a whole, the belief that one should endeavour towards perfection made tangible through its evaluative modus operandi. ‘I think I went overboard with the post-it notes.’
The way Chinese is taught is something I both admire and despise, and to a certain degree enjoy masochistically. I came to the realisation after speaking with many Taiwanese, that I enjoy learning Chinese, but just hate the rigid and overwhelming assessment process. However for all my complaints and at times despair (when I considered giving up entirely), I now realise that without the (relatively short) process I have undertaken I wouldn’t be sitting here with the knowledge I have acquired. I can order meals in restaurants, alcohol in bars, ask for directions, buy things online, do math, make jokes, understand the gist of conversations, converse with four year olds about why it’s important for Winnie the Pooh to have a nap, et al. My life is richer in Taiwan and more rewarding for it. Top three tips for Chinese beginners
By Tim Cheang America is a land of immigrants, whether first generation or tenth generation, whether they came recently or their ancestors were pilgrims on the Mayflower. America has been made great from wave after wave of immigrants, and the Chinese population is part of that history and part of that journey. In the following essay, I would like to talk about the lives of early Chinese laborers and how they entered into the United States to pursue their American dreams. Large numbers of Chinese came principally from the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong province in the mid-nineteenth century, first for the California Gold Rush and then for the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. They came not only as miners or prospectors or railroad builders, they also worked as laborers on plantations, mines, railroads, farms, fisheries, and factories throughout the country. Through working, they were able to send money back to their families in China. From 1852 until 1882, over 300,000 Chinese entered the United States. However, American attitudes towards Chinese began to sour when America’s economic situation worsened, and native-born Americans attributed their unemployment and declining wages to Chinese workers. This gave rise to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, after which Chinese laborers were not allowed to enter the country. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the economic, social, and political environment was still unstable in the Pearl River Delta, and for many, living in the United States was nothing less than a means of survival. In order to enter the country, many Chinese purchased fraudulent documentation identifying them as the relatives of American citizens, a phenomenon which became known as “paper son” certificates. While trying to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act, U.S. immigration officials documented the identities of existing Chinese in America. Much of the documentation was based on oral evidence given during court challenges, and these documents became paper son certificates sold to people in China. Another event was the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, which resulted in a fire that destroyed all birth records. Many Chinese were thus able to claim citizenship, as no written evidence could deny them. Many Chinese in America found it difficult to find brides, because Chinese women were not allowed to immigrate to the US in significant numbers after 1872. But now that they were considered native born citizens, Chinese could return to China and come back to the U.S., claiming that he or she had children while in China, thus creating another source of paper son certificates, which could then be sold. Sometimes, the father would report the birth of a son when in reality there was no such event. This created a slot that could be sold to boys who had no family relationships in the United States in order to enable them to enter the country. Merchant brokers often acted as middlemen to handle these sales. Paper sons wanted to search for a better life, and a similar system developed in Canada as well, after it had enacted a similar exclusion law. Immigration officials question a new Chinese arrival at Angel Island to determine his eligibility to enter the United States.
The following is a story by Steve Kwok about his father, who entered as a paper son. On February 6, 1929, at the age of 17 (on the ship’s manifest, he was listed as being 15 years old, his “paper son” age), Jim Fong arrived in San Francisco. While crossing the Pacific Ocean, he spent his time studying the 200-page document his paper father had purchased. He memorized the layout of his paper village, the design of his paper home, even how many steps there were in front of his house. He memorized details and pictures of his fake brothers and parents. He went through three weeks of intensive interrogations on Angel Island by US Immigration Officials to determine if he was the true son of a citizen. On February 27, 1929, he was permitted to enter the United States, and the transcript of his interrogations is stored at the Regional National Archives in San Bruno, California. The paper son system remained in existence through the early 1950’s. But when the United States entered World War II, sentiment towards Chinese in America became more favorable. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in December 1943 in an attempt to improve relations with the Chinese government in the war against Japan. Even with the repeal, paper sons constantly feared discovery and deportation, especially during the McCarthy era of the 1950’s. After the Chinese Revolution in 1949, many Chinese Americans were investigated for being communists or communist sympathizers. Daily reports of deportations in Chinese newspapers exacerbated this fear. The fear was finally alleviated when Immigration Amnesty was granted in the 1960s. Steve’s father took this opportunity to change his surname back to the original family surname, Quock, in exchange for status as a Permanent Resident. He petitioned for naturalization in 1969 and became a citizen on January 20, 1970. Steve and his brothers decided to change their names as well. Steve’s brothers and sisters have always wondered whether they could have done what their father did at 17 years old. He came to a new country and did not have anyone to turn to for help. He was lonely and scared. He adopted a new persona to seek a new life without being able to speak the language and with very little education. He recently visited his ancestral home with his sister in Guangdong. When they saw the primitive living conditions, they were both grateful that their dad, a paper son, had the courage, fortitude, and endurance to seek a better life. Before the enactment of amnesty program, about 150,000 Chinese entered the US as paper sons and daughters. I would also like to mention Gary Locke, who was the first Chinese American to serve as a state governor, then the US Secretary of Commerce, and US ambassador to China. Locke’s ancestral city is Taishan, which produced hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the United States. In the late 1890s, Gary’s grandfather left China on a steamboat bound for America, and worked as a servant for a family in exchange of English lessons in Olympia, Washington. Like many early Chinese, his grandfather made many trips back to China, got married and had a family, then brought them to the United States, while still sending money back to his village. One hundred years later, Gary was sworn in as the Governor of Washington, often joking that it took his family one hundred years to move one mile, from the house where his grandfather swept floors to the governor’s mansion. America needs this constant importation of people from all different cultures, not only Chinese. They come in wave after wave and bring new ideas, new values and new cultures. In order to keep the American Dream alive, all American citizens should promote respect and unity to oppose discrimination. Reference: http://www.aiisf.org/stories-by-author/737-my-father-was-a-paper-son |
Authors
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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