July 14 – I went to Hsinchu to interview two professors at National Chiao Tung University.
First I interviewed the dean, Professor Wei-An Chang. Professor Chang helped me a lot while I was writing my research proposal, and he gave me a lot of information about Hakka cultural preservation today, the trend of the declining language and culture, where to find statistics on this, and about the College of Hakka Studies at NCTU and how he hopes to promote more education about Hakkas. Then I had lunch with him, a researcher and the other professor I was going to interview, Professor Ya-Chung Chuang, who specializes in anthropology, urban studies and sociology. It was great opportunity to be able to talk to them about their research. After lunch, I interviewed Professor Chuang, who focused on social movements.
Afterwards, I met up with Len-Hou, the son of a friend of my mom’s. He is a master’s student at NCTU, so he showed me around the main campus (the College of Hakka Studies is not on the main campus). Finally, I took the bus and train home.
July 15 – I didn’t have to leave Zhongli this day. In the morning, I interviewed a Hakka student who I met at National Central University last week. He is a graduate student at NCU’s College of Hakka Studies. He is currently doing comparative research in Hakka and Christian cultural preservation, and he is very interested in the Hakka culture and actively involved in various Hakka activities and events. We also talked about his research and why he was interested.
In the afternoon, I interviewed another student, the same one who I interviewed on Monday who is actively involved in Hakka Facebook groups. Both the interviews I did that day were pretty long, as they were with students who were especially interested in Hakka cultural preservation.
July 16 – I took the train to Taipei to interview two students. First I met up with a student at a coffee shop near National Taiwan University. I had a lot of time until my following interview, so I walked around the National Taiwan University campus. It’s a large campus and very beautiful, with a long wide road with arching palm trees on each side. In the late afternoon, I interviewed another student. I met up with him at the Taipei Main Station, and then after the interview, we had dinner together.
July 17 – So I actually didn’t have anything planned for the day, so I met up with Yang-Yang, my grandma’s friend’s son. We went to Houtou and Jiufen together. Houtou is now known as a cat village. It used to be a mining village, but now it’s pretty much full of cats, and because of this, it’s a tourist destination. There are signs everywhere of cute cartoon cats, and everywhere there are cats lying around.
Afterwards, we went to Jiufen Old Streets, which was in the mountains and has narrow streets and stair steps. There were outdoor vendors and lanterns hanging everywhere. We tried many foods like dou-hua (kind of like a cold sweet tofu soup), baked mushrooms, sausages and a peanut and ice cream crepe. Also, apparently, “Spirited Away” was based off of this place.
We also went to a Taoist temple.
July 18 – This morning, I went grocery shopping with my grandma. We went to an outdoor market, where people sold fresh fruits and vegetables from stands. In addition to vegetables and bamboo shoots, we bought some fish. The fish were still alive and flopping on the display stands, and if you want to buy a fish, the vendor will kill it for you. It’s weird watching the fish flop around and jump up and down, but it is true that it tastes better when it’s fresh (we ate fish later that day).
In the afternoon, I went to Taipei to interview two girls. Both were students who took classes at National Taiwan University hospital, so we met up there (at different times for separate interviews). So fortunately I didn’t need to travel anywhere in between the interviews.
Now I’m caught up! Tomorrow I’m meeting up with my cousins, and I have some more interviews and transcribing and research next week!