I’m finally in Taiwan! I arrived on July 2. In no particular order of priority, I’m here to do research, visit my grandma and to eat a lot of food.
My research will focus on Hakka cultural preservation and Hakka youth. To give you a quick rundown, the Hakka are a Chinese ethnic minority in Taiwan, and their culture and language have been declining in use in Taiwan as the generations pass. In recent years, the Hakka Affairs Council in the Taiwanese government has been established to make efforts to preserve the language and culture, such as through education and media. I plan on interviewing Hakka studies professors and other experts and most importantly, Hakka youth ages 18-25 about their background and perspectives on Hakka cultural preservation and their Hakka identity. I became interested in this project because my grandma is Hakka, and I realized how little my mom and I knew about the Hakka language and culture.
I’m also in Taiwan with my younger sister Isabel, who is in Taiwan for a monthlong volunteer program called AID Taiwan. I also did this program three years ago. Volunteers teach English to young students in Taiwan, and the Taiwanese government basically pays for everything, including a weeklong tour of Taiwan.
I will be officially starting my research on Tuesday , July 7, and meeting with interview subjects, but in the meantime, I’ve been hanging out with family and friends and setting up interviews. So warning, none of the rest of this blog post is about the actual research, but stay posted for my next blog post for research updates and information from my interviews!
July 2 – Isabel and I flew to Taiwan. The wait to check in at Manila was long, but everything else (including the flight) was fortunately short and uneventful. When we landed at the Taoyuan airport, my grandma’s friend picked us up and drove us to her house. When we got to her house, she ran out and hugged us. It’s been years since we’ve seen her, and I will be staying with her this summer.
Grandma cooked dinner for us, and let me tell you, she is the best cook ever (also, she cooks Hakka-style cuisine). I especially loved her bamboo shoot soup and fish. You can’t find many bamboo shoots in the U.S. After dinner, we went for a walk near her house and passed by some stores. She lives by a river, a park, a mall, a Buddhist temple and more.
July 3 – For lunch, Grandma took me, Isabel and two of her friends to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Afterwards, we drove to Yang Ming Mountain, which is where my grandfather and uncle are buried. My grandma, Isabel and I walked up the stony hills to pay respects to my grandfather. It was very beautiful up there, with a view of the mountain and Taipei. My grandfather’s grave has beautiful pine trees growing by it. We burned incense and my grandma told him about us. Afterwards, we went to my uncle’s grave, and his was a bit more difficult to get to. My grandma was very exhausted by the time we got there. We also burned incense, and my grandma told him about us.
I’ve never meet my grandfather or uncle because they both passed away while my mom was still young. Still, I wonder about them, what they were like.
Anyway, afterwards, we went to a park with a beautiful view of the green mountains. Cows were grazing there, and also, three couples were getting their wedding pictures taken there. The breeze there was also nice, compared to the heat that is prevalent throughout Taiwan.
Finally, we drove home.
July 4 – So I forgot it was independence day yesterday. Anyway, today Isabel and I went to Taipei to meet with my mom’s friend and her two daughters. We met them at the Taipei Main Station and then went out to lunch at a soup dumpling restaurant. Soup dumplings are famous in Taiwan. In Chinese, they are called xiao long bao. They are basically these small dumplings with meat and soup inside, so when you eat them, you have to take a small bite and suck out the soup (or drain it into your spoon to drink), and then you eat the dumpling.
Afterwards, we walked around Taipei and checked out some cute little shops. It was really hot outside, so then we got shaved ice. Shaved ice is another famous food in Taiwan, which is shaved ice with fruits and ice cream on top. I got mango ice, which was refreshing in the heat.
Finally, we went to the mall because there’s air conditioning there, and plus we were tired of walking. We sat down at a cafe and got some refreshments while chatting. Isabel and I took the train back to Zhongli to have dinner with my grandma. After dinner, Grandma and I took a walk.
July 5 – Today Grandma and I took Isabel to Taipei to drop her off at Chientan for AID.
After we dropped her off, Grandma and I went to a cafe in Ximen to eat almond tofu, which was cool, refreshing, sweet and light, especially since it was so hot outside. Then we browsed the shops outside, and she bought me a dress. Finally, we went to another food shop where we bought hu jiao bing, which means something along the lines of pepper cake. It is a baked flat bun stuffed with pepper-seasoned pork and scallions.
We took the bus home and ate it on the way. By then, my legs were about to fall off.
Tomorrow we’re going to take it easy and I’m going to prepare for my research, and on Tuesday I’m going to start! My plan tomorrow is to buy a new voice recorder, confirm interviews, learn directions to different places and make other general preparations. My research will take me around Zhongli (where I’m living), Taoyuan, Taipei, Hsinchu and more. In the meantime, I’ve been setting up many interviews, so I’ll be busy.