China maps of of "TAIWAN ISLAND" accepted in USA by editors of New York Times and Washington Post as propaganda from Beijing

MAP for reference and CLICK TO ENLARGE MAP to see small print
http://nuclearrisk.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/imgp3749s.jpg





A small insert map said it all. When the "tussle" -- as one Western

news agency put it -- between

China, Japan and Taiwan over ownership of islands in the East China

Sea spilled over into the prime display advertising real estate of the

New York Times and the Washington Post on September 28 when the Chinese

Communist Party (CCP) took out expensive double-page ads in both

papers, there was an important detail that almost

every news outlet in Taiwan, Japan and the U.S. missed.



On the small inset map accompanying both ads, the CCP cartographers

put China and Taiwan in the same color code, implying that Taiwan was

part of the People's Republic of China -- and worse, the CCP map

accepted as legitimate by the New York Times advertising department had

the words "Taiwan Island" printed over the sovereign nation of Taiwan.

And in small print below the map, an attentive reader could see the

following text which was credited as being sourced from the PRC's

State Oceanic Administration: "[The] Diaoyu Islands [釣魚台] ... are

located to the northeast of China's Taiwan Island ...and are

affiliated to the Taiwan Island."



Say that again? China administers an island called "Taiwan Island?

,And these Diaoyu islands are "affiliated" to the "Taiwan Island"? And

both the Times and the Post accepted this map text as a paid ad in

their pages? The directors of the advertising departments of both

papers should be ashamed of themselves for allowing a bully ad like

that to appear in their pages without any fact checking or editing.



In fact, the map and its caption was accepted by both the New York

Times and the Washington Post without as much as a peep from either of

the papers' reporters or editors. While the centerfold display ad in

theTimes -- ''among the most expensive real estate in all of

journalism," as one reporter put it was reported to have been

'''purchased by the China Daily newspaper." in fact, since the China

Daily is a state-run arm of the CCP, the funds for the media buys in

the U.S. came directly from the Chinese government.



Hiroshi Ito, a Japanese reporter for the Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo, put

it this way: "China Daily, a China-based English-language newspaper,

sponsored the ads, which both show a photo and a map of the Senkaku

Islands to bolster China's position on the territorial dispute. The

ads argue that the name Diaoyu Island, the largest of the group --

called Uotsurishima in Japanese -- is found in a book published in

1403, which shows that China had discovered and named it by the 14th

and 15th centuries."



Ito noted that after the ads appeared in the Times and the Post, the

Japanese Embassy in Washington and the Japanese Consulate General in

New York filed protests with both newspapers, citing factual errors.

But did the ROC file any protest with the papers, citing factual

errors in the insert map's caption that referred to the ROC as "Taiwan

Island"?



Ito further reported that both New York Times and Washington Post

editors denied that their newspapers supported the content of the CCP

advertisements, saying they would also take notice of the fact that the

Japanese government had filed a protest, But did anyone in the ROC

government think to file a protest over the name for Taiwan that China used in

the ads that appeared in the New York Times?



The insert map is so small t hardly matters. But in a world where

China matters so much,

Taiwan matters even more. Because Taiwan practices democracy and

trumpets freedom, and China does not.

Sure, China has every right to take out full page ads in Western

newspapers saying whatever it wants to say, but should those ads be

allowed to present falsehoods to readers?



Despite the small size of the insert map in the ad, the mislabeling of Taiwan

is a big thing. Because every time China gets away with a lie, it

paves the way for more CCP lies in the future.

Germany practiced this kind of deception in the 1930s and 1940s, and

look what happened. The former Soviet Union

practiced those kinds of deceptions on a daily basis, too. When will

the world wake up to China's devious deceptions as well,

even when they appear in very fine print in very small maps printed in

the New York Times?



==========


This guest blogger is a freelance writer in Taiwan.

US$1 million 'reward' offered here for spell checker app that can correct 'atomic typos'

by Leinad Moolb
Webposted October 15, 2012

Back in 2010, TechEye ran a piece headlined "Un-spell-check-able 'atomic typos' in digital age hard to find," and what was true then is still true today. And recently, an inadvertent headline in an English-language expat newspaper in Taiwan asked the $64,000 question: Is there a spell checker application that can spot and correct "atomic typos" and if so, where is this digital tool?



Actually, the headline in the China Post the other day read: "Spell checkers developing 'atomic typo' capabilities". But this was an inadvertently inaccurate headline. In fact, spell checkers still cannot spot or autocorrect atomic typos. Someone must be working on this idea, but as far as this reporter can tell, this kind of spell check app is still far away from being put into place in newsrooms -- both print and digital -- around the world.



Spell checker applications cannot "see" atomic typos, because, of course, the words that are "atomic typos" are actually spelled correctly. It's just that they are out of context for what the writer meant to type into his or her computer screen.



The problem in the digital age is that we rely too much on spell checkers to flag words that may not be spelled correctly. As you know, spell checkers may be stand-alone capable of operating on a block of text, or as part of a larger application, such as a word processor.



While the first spell checkers were widely available on mainframe computers in the late 1970s, the first spell checkers for personal computers did not appear until 1980.



Spell checkers have one major flaw: they cannot "see" words that are spelled correctly but are wrong for the intended context. Call them atomic typos -- "c*nt" for "count" is another one that has slipped through the cracks in the machine, according to one mischievous punter in Scotland.



Even in our high-tech digital world, most context-challenged spell-check systems are unable to detect an atomic typo because, well, it just can't. And why are they specifically called “atomic” typos? Apparently because the mistakes are so small or minute, like an atomic particle.



The term “atomic typo” is a new term and has been in use in computerized newsrooms for just over 10 years or so, although its use as a printing term in common conversation and news articles is very rare. In fact, you might be hearing it for the first time here.



In plain English, an atomic typo is a very small, one-letter typographic mistake that ends up making a big difference in the meaning of a specific sentence. It could even impact an entire news article, too. Machines cannot detect the error. Only the human eye, in connection with the human brain, can do it. So much for spell check.



More examples of atomic typos that appear in English-language newspapers worldwide every day: county for country, peace for piece, game for name, sox for box, and so on. Spell check just cannot see these mistakes, and with fewer and fewer copy editors and proofreaders working in newsrooms these days, atomic typos are just par for the coarse now. Oops: I meant to type “course,” of course. See?



Given all of the above, we would like to make a modest offer: the first person to come up with a workable spell check app that can spot and correct "atomic typos" will receive a reward of US$1 million, although I will not be the person handing out the cash. It will come, if the app passes all its tests with flying colors, in the form of a big fat royalty check from the venture capitalist who purchases the app from you.

Interested? Let the race begin.











Read more: http://news.techeye.net/internet/un-spell-check-able-atomic-typos-in-digital-age-hard-to-find#ixzz286wAnHQR

Taipei's Islamic ''Grand Mosque'' rejects ROC government and CIA claims of local Taiwanese ''terrorism'' recruitment

WEB

POSTED OCTOBER 1

Taipei's Grand Mosque (台北清真寺) yesterday voiced its complete and utter

surprise over the ROC National Security Bureau's (NSB, 國家安全局)

''claim'' that it was investigating ''incidents'' of a radical Muslim

organization recruiting members in Taiwan. In Taiwan? Could it be? No

way.



The NSB claimed yesterday that a radical Muslim organization had sent

people recruited in Taiwan to a ''Middle Eastern country'' for

training in terrorist attacks, adding that the organization had also

promised the recruits that they would be financially and richly

reimbursed upon their return to Taiwan.



According to a Chinese-language United Evening News newspaper report,

the NSB received information from international channels, most likely

the FBI or CIA, no? The report went on to say that the bureau has a

very complete and detailed record of the Taiwanese recruits' travels;

BUT so far, the Taiwanese recruits have not committed any acts of

terrorism or killed any ''imperialist Zionists''.



Given that Taiwan is likely to join the U.S.' visa-waiver program by

October, these reports come at a very sensitive time. People are

worried. Home-grown terrorists in Taiwan? Quiet, peaceful,

Buddhist/Taoist Taiwan?



Taipei Grand Mosque Executive Secretary Ismail Wang (王夢龍) -- a

Taiwanese national -- of course ''denied'' the ''claims'' of a local

terrorist recruitment drive and said that the NSB was just worrying

too much. ''Don't worry so much,'' NSB, he said. "You guys worry too

much."



Wang went on to say that radical groups could try to recruit Taiwanese

poor people who usually live in the rural parts of the country. He

added that in a society as stable as Taiwan, people are not likely to

be recruited by radicals. Then again, what does Wang know? And is he

telling everything he knows?



According to Wang, there have only been two or three Muslims in Taiwan

who received money from Libya and Kuwait, but the money was given by

public sector groups and not religious ones. Those who received funds

from the Middle Eastern countries are always just scholars and

businesspeople who help promote Islam, Wang said, adding that such

funding has been commonplace for years.



This report followed by about a week another news story in Taiwan

about a "Flag-stomping rally staged near grounds of Taipei mosque" in

which

Muslims in Taiwan from several nations, including Taiwan nationals and

people from Iran and Indonesia, gathered to decry a recent film which

satirizes Mohammed. Some protesters brought a home-made US flag and a

French flag for demonstrators to step on.



Following more than a week of Islamic global protests, dozens of

Muslims in Taiwan rallied outside the Taipei Grand Mosque yesterday,

protesting the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims as well as

publications of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in the French

satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.



Holding up signs saying “Freedom of speech is not the freedom to

insult” and “We love Mohammed” — among others — Muslims from dozens of

countries including Taiwan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and Iran

gathered outside Taipei Grand Mosque following the Jumah prayer

session yesterday.



They chanted slogans praising Allah and the Prophet Mohammed while

urging a cease to the insults poured on the religious prophet.



The film Innocence of Muslims, produced by California-based Sam

Bencile, depicts Mohammed as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child

abuser and described a donkey in the film as “the first Muslim.”



It was later reported that the real name of the film’s writer and

producer is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an Egyptian-American Coptic

Christian.



“We are here to voice our opposition to the insults of Islam by anyone

or any country, especially when such insults are made based on false

information,” a Taiwanese Muslim, Shen Tai-fu (沈台福), said.



“Any educated person should know to look at the facts before saying

anything,” he added.



“Any Muslim would feel humiliated by the film and the cartoons,” said

Nadeen Ahmed, an Indian Muslim. “How can they do this?”



A Pakistani Muslim, Shuiab Ahmed Qureshi, said that all human beings

and all religions deserve respect.



“Everyone should enjoy freedom of speech, but that doesn’t mean they

have the freedom to insult,” Qureshi said. “We Muslims respect Jesus

as a prophet — Christians should show the same respect too.”



Some protesters brought a home-made US flag and a French flag for

demonstrators to step on.



Meanwhile, the Chinese Muslim Association issued a statement of

protest and urged the US government to stop the film’s producer,

Bacile, from continuing to carry out an act that upsets world peace

while requesting that YouTube remove the film from its Web site.



“How could a country that promotes democracy and freedom gain the

trust of the international community if its laws allow injuries to be

made to the core values of a religion and the values of fairness and

justice upon which the country is founded?” the statement said.



The statement called on Muslims to refrain from conducting any acts of

revenge or harm to the innocent which could otherwise become an excuse

for others to smear the image of Islam.

THE HIDDEN CHAMBER, a thriller of a novel about Taiwan by Chang Hua

[reviewed by Leinad Moolb, international book reviewer] Writing under the pen name of Hua Chang, aka Chang Hua, has written a fascinating book titled THE HIDDEN CHAMBER, available now on Amazon -- KINDLE EDITION. http://www.amazon.com/The-Hidden-Chamber-ebook/dp/B009E9ZWME/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1348485747&sr=8-4&keywords=chang+hua The story takes place in Taiwan, where a Taiwanese woman is going nuts day by day, living alone and hardly ever going outside to interact with others, even shopkeepers. She has a secret and it haunts her. One day the phone rings and suddenly she is brought face to face with a past she had not really wanted to remember. The location is Taipei, in the 1990s, and readers see a Taiwan still coming out of the grip of the Martial Law Era, where secrets, both military and personal, had to be guarded carefully. The island nation just off the coast of communist China is beginning to bloom and blosson economically, and for young people, the world looks promising. But the girl in this story marries the wrong guy, after her traditional mother sets her up with a matchmaking service, and it's downhill from there for the poor hapless newly-married girl. The book is a page-turner and anyone interested in Taiwanese culture will find Hua Chang's novel is very interesting helping of stinky dofu mixed in with some sweet mooncake delicasies as well.

Hang Hang Liao Liao -- HAKKA TV news segment

http://www.ch5.tv/VOD/content.php?media_id=133210"

HANG HANG LIAO LIAO -- news segment from Hakka TV

http://ap.ch5.tv/phpplay/publish.php?PHPSESSID=204549623650603166e3c23&url_id=189393&embedskin= Dan Bloom interviewed by Reporter Lee at 9:36 into the news hour. Listen and look!

Taiwanese-American novelist pens 'Taiwan' novel -- THE THIRD SON

FAMILY DRAMA: Set in Taiwan during the White Terror period and focusing on oppression, and sibling rivalry and the healing power of love, 'The Third Son' will be published in America in April 2013

PHOTO OF AUTHOR: http://www.annemini.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/croppedawayportrait.jpg


FEATURE NEWS: New U.S. novel offers glimpse into Taiwan’s dark past

by Dan E. Bloom

TAIPEI -- From Amy Tan's successful Asian-American novel "The Joy Luck Club" to Maxine Hong Kingston's "China Men," both published more than 20 years ago and opening the gate of opportunity for other Asian American writers, novels about Taiwan, China and Japan have become a staple of the U.S. publishing scene.

Now comes Harvard-educated Boston native Julie Wu, like fellow Harvard alum Jeremy Lin child the of Taiwanese immigrants to America, with a new entry in the genre that for the first time in American fiction includes the events of 228 and the White Terror period and told as part of a family drama about love and sibling rivalry.

Wu, 46, was born in Massachusetts to parents who met and married in Taoyuan. She went to Harvard, studied opera, obtained a medical degree and became a doctor, married and had children, and now her first novel, titled "The Third Son," is already attracting plaudits and awards even before publication.

In a recent email interview from her home in Boston, Wu explained how the book, which recently won a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, came to be and who she hopes its audience will be.

When asked how the title of the book came to her, Wu explained: "'The Third Son' is the title I came up with back in 2001 when I started the novel, more than ten years ago, and it has somehow lasted through all my revisions. The hero of the story, Saburo, is indeed the third son in his family, and his character was inspired by my father, who was also the third son. I think everyone has experiences with and expectations of how birth order affects status within the family, so just stating that someone was born third already suggests the kinds of struggles that are at play." "In the novel, Saburo is beaten daily, and his parents clearly treat his siblings better," Wu added. "While certain aspects of Saburo’s experience were inspired by my father’s life, some were not. As a novelist, of course, I am writing fiction." Wu's parents hail from Taoyuan and met as adults there, she said. The backstory of their romance and marriage is not in her book, but she recounted the events for this reporter. "My uncle was set up to be formally introduced to my mother as a marriage prospect back then, but because of a last-minute change, my father was sent in my uncle’s place," Wu said. "My mother’s family was upset at this change in plans, so they left without being introduced. But my parents had caught sight of each other, and my father pursued my mother on his own. It was a quick and happy courtship." "But happy, lucky, and conflict-free love stories are boring in fiction, so the love story I created in my novel is quite different," Wu said. "In the opening scene, Saburo saves a girl during an American air raid over Taiwan during World War II when Taiwan was part of the Japanese Empire, and he spends the rest of his childhood looking for her. When he finally finds her, she’s already being pursued by others, including his brother. Even after they marry, he has to fight for her all the way to the end." Wu was born in America but travelled to Taiwan in her 20s to do some research for a different book that she had in mind at the time, she took a lot of notes that she still refers to sometimes, she said. "I also went to Taiwan with my family when I was ten years old and four," she added, noting: "Since my book is a historical novel, I did a lot of research online and in books, and magazines about Taiwan life in the 1940s and 1950s. Of course, I also interviewed my parents and continually asked them questions about that period. I would have liked to travel to Taiwan again, but I have two young children and traveling is much more difficult than it used to be." Wu said she keeps up with current news events in Taiwan from her home in Boston, mostly online through sites like the Taipei Times, The Boston Globe and Facebook and Twitter as well. "Taiwanese culture and politics seem very intertwined to me," she said. "They both interest me." Wu grew up in the Boston area and went to Harvard as an undergraduate, majoring in literature but as a reader not as a writer. "I started writing a couple years after I graduated from Harvard when I was doing graduate studies in opera at Indiana University in 1989. I never finished my opera degree, but I did start a novel and take an excellent writing workshop in Indiana, and that was really my first step along the writing path." Wu has a medical degree and worked for a few years in primary care, she said, but after she had her two children, she decided to stay home and focus on writing. Her husband is also a doctor and works as a pulmonologist, she said. "A couple of years after I left Indiana I went to Columbia University’s School of Physicians & Surgeons to become a physician," she explained. "I did my internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Now I'm a novelist, and I should say, one of the beautiful things about being American is feeling that you can change your career at any time." The genesis of "The Third Son" was long and convoluted, and took a lot of time, She initially started writing a novel when she was in Indiana in 1989, thinking that it would be partially set in Taiwan. But when she had started asking her parents questions about Taiwan, they told her things that they had never revealed before, and she realized that the first novel she was trying to write was boring compared to her parents’ own background. "In 2001, I finally had the time to sit down and interview both my parents properly, and their stories stunned me," Wu said. "So you could say that 'The Third Son' began as a kind of biographical novel about my parents, but over the years, as I learned more about writing and received some feedback, I realized that if I wanted to write for readers beyond my own family I would have to be willing to change the facts to make the story more dramatic, moving, and thematically cohesive." She did and the result is a powerful story about Taiwan that is set for publication by Algonquin Books early next year. "In the end, the historical details and events are as accurate as I could make them, but the characters and their actions are figments of my imagination," Wu said, adding that she hopes her novel will appeal to anyone, anywhere, any country, regardless of nationality or gender. "The issues I focus on in the book -- oppression, sibling rivalry, and the healing power of love -- are universal." One of the issues Wu's novel speaks up about is 228. When asked if she thinks American readers know that term or know much about that time in Taiwan history, she replied: "In my experience, Americans are universally ignorant of the February 28th Massacres and the White Terror, except for scholars of the region, although I recall that even a classmate of mine who majored in East Asian Studies at Harvard, graduating in the late 1980s, still knew nothing about 228 or the White Terror period. I would say that censorship by the Taiwanese government at the time was very successful in this regard, as with many atrocities in corners of the world." She added: "I do find it disturbing that so few Americans know even the basics of Taiwanese history or politics. I hoped that setting my story during this period would help people understand on a personal, emotional level, the origin of current conflicts in Taiwan and across the Strait." Since her novel takes place partly during the Japan Colonial period in Taiwan when Japan ruled the island as a colony, Wu said that there are some Japanese characters in her novel, too. "In particular, I created a Japanese schoolteacher who has a lot of influence on Saburo." Wu added, noting: "And, as readers will see, some of the Taiwanese characters in the novel go by their Japanese names." When asked if her parents had read the book, either in drafts or in the final copy, Wu said they had, noting: "They both read it, bless their hearts, many drafts of the book. I am extremely lucky to have had them as resources and also grateful that they gave me license to truly make the book the best work of fiction it could be." Wu said that she sees herself as both a Taiwanese-American novelist and an American novelist. "I see myself as both," she explained. "I’m totally Americanized in how I think and lead my life, so my point of view is American. At the same time, I am fascinated by my heritage and Taiwanese history."

Will readers in Taiwan have a chance to read 'The Third Son' in Chinese? Wu said she hopes to see a translation of her novel someday for Taiwanese readers as well.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/09/08/2003542259/3

‘Last Supper’-inspired fresco in non-Christian Taiwan shows signs of aging

The Liberty Times newspaper in Taipei has a very interesting story today. RE:

PHOTO CAPTION: An interpretation of the Last Supper of ancient Christian legend is seen on the wall of a modern Catholic church in Yanshuei in southern Taiwan. The fresco is in poor condition due to leaking water and camera flashes from tourists.


An Asian version of the Last Supper fresco by Leonardo da Vinci at a Catholic church in Tainan’s Yenshui village has started to fade and peel as a result of frequent downpours, water leaks and the effect of visitors’ powerful camera flashes and is now in need of financial aid so repair and restoration work can be undertaken, the church said.

Constructed in 1986 and featuring traditional Chinese palace-style architecture, the Yenshui Holy Spirit Church is home to a unique Asian version of the Leonardo masterpiece in Italy.

Unlike the world-renowned mural painting, the Taiwanese version depicted the biblical scene in a traditional Chinese painting style and the 13 figures — originally including the legendary Jesus Christ and the myth of his 12 disciples — were all replaced by Chinese martyr saints.



Instead of bread and wine and the Western-style dining utensils that appear in the original, there are steamed buns and chopsticks.

Other murals within the church are centered around historical Chinese sages, including an image of Chinese philosophers Laozi (老子) and Confucius (孔子) encouraging young children to work hard, as part of the church’s effort to draw Taiwanese closer to Biblical legends.

The rare decoration has received widespread media coverage and has attracted a constant stream of tourists from Hong Kong and Communist China in recent years, with popular Taiwanese TV and film director Wu Nien-jen also choosing the church as a film location.
“However, the ‘Last Supper’ and several other frescos in the church are in a poor state of preservation. The low-lying terrain on which the church is located makes the establishment susceptible to flooding, while its roof has started leaking after the property fell into disrepair,” said Wu Fu-sheng, the church’s Christian priest.
In addition to the water damage, camera flashes have begun to bleach the paintings, which are beginning to flake away, Wu said, calling for financial and professional assistance from all sectors of society to help repair the creations.

HAKKA SONG FOR CHILDREN IN TAIWAN: ''Hang Hang Liao Liao!''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfsBmr508BE&feature=colike

Hang Hang Liao Liao An su say ----Hang Hang Liao Liao Semon vay .----Hang Hang Liao Liao An su say ----Hang Hang Liao Liao------Semon vay Hang Hang Liao Liao Kerjya Hua -----Hang Hang Liao Liao Momma! Pa! ------Hang Hang Liao Liao Taiwan -- GOOD------Hang Hang Liao Liao Taiwan -- YOU! -----Hang Hang Liao Liao An su say ------Hang Hang Liao Liao Semon vay ----Hang Hang Liao Liao Kerjya Hua --- Hang Hang Liao Liao Momma!Paaaaaa!

Jay Chou's English-speaking lines in THE GREEN HORNET were all dubbed ...

TEEAETER says at another website:

''Jay Chou's English-speaking lines in THE GREEN HORNET were all dubbed by another native-English speaking actor. Jay never spoke a word of his own English in that movie. How do I know? First of all, watch the movie and listen. Those ENGLISH lines spoken by Jay Chou are not "Taiwanese English" the way a Taiwanese person would speak English! Period. Everyone non-English nation speaks English with an accent, from France to Japan, and from China to Taiwan, and Jay Chou when he speaks real English to his friends in Taiwan, speaks with a specific Taiwanese accent, which all foreigners who live in Taiwan can recognize. The English spoken by the character that Jay plays in the movie is not Taiwanese-accented English and it is all a dubbing job. Shame on the media for not telling Taiwanes movie fans the truth.''

''And shame on Jay for not owning up to the deceit.''



''I know this ain't going to go over well with most of the Chou fans on reading this blog, but here goes. There is only one reasn why Jay Chou was in this film. That reason is to market the film to Asia. He really has no business being in this film. Jay Chou as an actor still has not proven to me that he can be a real star even while acting in his own native lauguage.

He is a singer and a dancer and cool, yes. But he aint an actor. Face it. Mick Jagger aint an actor either. Bob Dylan aint an actor either. Most pop singers

are not real good actors. They are too real. How the heck did the producers even think he was going to be able to act in English? His English is just not there yet. I've heard true rumours that his lines were all dubbed and that he pre-recorded most of the lines in studio and they just dubbed it over the film. I still couldn't dully understand some of the lines he was saying. At times, there seemed to be no emotion tied to the lines he was saying. It was like he had no idea what they lines he was saying actually meant and he was just reading them off the script. It was painful at times. Some guy said it best at the theater I was watching the movie in. "this guy's English is so bad it makes Jackie Chan look like an English professor!"



Why? Because all those speaking lines in English were dubbed by a native English speaker voice over actor in Hollywood. That was NOT Jay Chou speaking.



I don't blame Jay for this really. He had no chance in making this role work from the beginning. Who wouldn't want to play the role Bruce Lee made famous? I blame the marketers and producers who gave him this role that he should of never got in the first place. If you wanted to market this to Asia and still make the role work, either choose an Asian ''actor'' for Kato who can speak english well enough, or be proficient in martial arts to cover up the poor english. Jay Chou at this point in time, is neither of those.. There were just so many better choices for this role in my opinion.



The whole movie is just a mismash of fighting, Rogen looking like a moron, and Chou trying to speak English, with all his lines dubbed and dubbed without a Taiwanese English accent at that, so it was all so fake. The movie is just all over the place. It just never really comes together at any point. Chou and Rogen have absolutely no chemistry together and it shows up obviously in many scenes they have together. The actions scenes were all well done with the help of those special effects. ''

Liam Neeson ''attached'' to take a ''walk'' among the ''Tombstones"

[First webposted in 1976 by Biko Lang......]


Lawrence Block, master storyteller with a worldwide following on the

printed and the pixelated page, recently

took to his home office blog in New York, high up on the 12th floor of

an building on West 12th Street, to tell

his fans a bit of happy news.



"'A Walk Among the Tombstones', the tenth book in my Matthew Scudder

series, is scheduled to begin filming in February next year," Block,

still going strong at 74, said. "Scott Frank, who

wrote the screen adaptation, will direct; the extraordinary Liam

Neeson will star as Matthew Scudder. I couldn’t be happier. Neeson as

Scudder struck me as a wonderful idea back when I saw him portray

Michael Collins in the eponymous film. I can’t think of anyone I’d

rather see in the role.''



Straight from the horse's mouth. Larry Block is in Seventh Heaven!



He added: Plans call for filming to commence in February in — get this — New York City. Readers often ask who’d be my ideal Matt Scudder (or Bernie Rhodenbarr, or Keller) and I usually change the subject. But now it’s safe to tell you that, ever since I saw him in 'Michael Collins', Neeson has been up at the top of my personal Scudder wish list. I couldn’t be happier about either the star or the writer/director, both of them genuine artists and brilliant professionals. My book’s in good hands.''



"A Walk Among the Tombstones" was first of all a great detective yarn

by master storyteller

Block, the tenth book in his ''Matthew Scudder'' series, and now

Neeson is attached to play Scudder

in Frank's screen adaptation of the chock-a-Block thriller. with

initial filming set to begin in Manhattan in

February 2013 -- if all goes as planned,

and of course, as film fans and The Wrap readers know these

announcements don't always pan out or proceed as

hoped for.



But Neeson is ''attached'' and the Scudder movie hopes to be part

of a three-year deal between Exclusive Media and Cross Creek Pictures.



"The hope is that 'Tombstones' will shoot in February, presumably once

Neeson has completed work on 'Non-Stop'," says a source.



Who's Mathew Scudder?



By the tenth book in the popular Scudder series, which began in 1976

and resulted in "A Walk

Among the Tombstones" being published in 1992,

he's become ex-cop, an unlicensed private detective and a recovering

drunk. He gets hired to try to find a woman

who has been kidnapped, and the more he learns the more he realizes this

is a very big story with an even bigger backstory.



Scudder made it to Hollywood once before when Jeff Bridges played him

"8 Million Ways To Die," according to Block. He also told me it's not

the first time that ''A Walk Among The Tombstones'' got greenlighted.

Harrison Ford was scheduled to play Scudder in the earlier deal but it

never worked out.



If "A Walk Among The Tombstones" makes it to the silver screen, Block

will be one of the happiest men on Earth, he said in a recent email.



On Block's blog, fans were quick to congratulate the veteran -- and

prolific! -- writer.



"That is just so cool about Liam Neeson playing Scudder. He’ll be

perfect for the role," said one man. Replied Block "This one’s been a

long time coming. The original book was still in the book stores

when Scott Frank first went to work on the screenplay.''



"As much as I like Jeff Bridges," opined another fan on Block's blog,

"I think Mr. Neeson will be the

definitive screen Scudder. I can’t wait to hear who plays Mick Ballou."



Mick Ballou? He's another of the writer's many characters, and Block

notes: "I’ve a feeling Ballou’s not in the screenplay. This

is the book where he goes to Ireland to dodge a RICO subpoena, and his

participation is thus limited to a couple of phone calls. But if the

film works, they’d love to do more. So perhaps we’ll see.''



About the Hollywood treatment of "8 Millions Way to Die," another

Block blog fan wrote: "I thought Jeff Bridges was an excellent choice,

but was disappointed with the setting change to California."



Block's frank response: ''I thought Jeff was very good — he pretty

much always is, whatever the

role — and Andy Garcia, too, but the film had a lot wrong with it.''



''This film’s been a long time coming, but I think it just might turn

out to have been worth the wait, Block told another fan on his blog.

"It’s a long awaited return of Scudder to the screen, and like you I

think Liam Neeson will do a good job."





One fan said that while she had never thought of Neeson for the

role if a movie was ever made, "now that someone has [fingered him],

it fits nicely," adding: "Fingers crossed that

the script doesn’t get 'Starship Troopered.'"



Block immediately replied on his blog, saying: "We don’t have to worry

about conflict between the writer and the

director, since the estimable Scott Frank is wearing both of those

hats [for this movie]. ''





Chimed on another fan: "Fortunately, I think very highly of the source

material, so I think

the movie will survive the normal [Hollywood] tinkering. I hope you

don’t lose the

extremely well-done side story of the brother, even to the sad end."



Said another fan: "Larry, I’m curious about updated phone technologies

[in the planned movie], if the adaptation is in

the present time."



Block replied: "I suspect there’ll be a lot changed in that respect,

although it’s hard to know. The last I heard, the movie’s going to take place

around the time the book came out, in the 1990s. But that could

change."



By the way, according to sources, Block's Scudder character was first

introduced in his 1976 novel titled ''The Sins of the Fathers.'' It

was suggested by some critics that Scudder's struggle with alcoholism

may have been parly autobiographical. While Block has repeatedly

refused to discuss the subject, citing AA's own tradition of

anonymity, in a column he wrote for Writer's Digest magazine, he did

write that when he created Scudder, "I let him hang out in the same

saloon where I spent a great deal of my own time. I was drinking

pretty heavily around that time, and I made him a pretty heavy

drinker, too. I drank whiskey, sometimes mixing it with coffee. So did

Scudder."



''A Walk Among the Tombstones" appeared in print in 1992. so it's been

a long 20-year wait for a film version. Fingers crossed.

http://www.movieinsider.com/m771/walk-among-the-tombstones-a-/

GEORG ANTON -- Austrian actor making mark in China and Hollywood

Ever wonder how a European or American man goes to China looking for work as a businessman or business consultant or English teacher, what have you, and ends up becoming an actor in Chinese movies and TV show with a nice resume to boot?

Meet Georg Anton, 29 years old, a native of Austria, who is now hitting his marks -- and making his mark -- in Beijing!

PHOTOS:
http://www.georganton.com/gallery/

"Did I come to China for acting? No. Not at all. I would have never thought that there could be

a life as an actor in China. When I came to China, I had already put all my creative endeavors

aside and I was all business: looking for business opportunities, work experience, and, well,

adventure,"  he said.

His early background: "I had been creating, directing and acting in my own little films

since I was 12 years old, shooting on my brother’s video camera. I pursued filmmaking throughout

my teen years, shooting shorts, volunteering on indie sets, jobbing at an ad production

agency, and taking courses. I was thinking of maybe becoming a director. But then, when it came

to decide about university studies, I just didn’t have the guts, dropped it completely because

I thought there couldn’t be a decent future in creative work. So I studied business. It was

only years later, far away in China, in a nightclub which we were allowed to use at a studio during day hours, at

the Beijing Actors Workshop, that I discovered the true essence of all my past interest in

filmmaking, in public speaking and in marketing team-building workshops: Acting! In it’s

pure form. And I also discovered my great love for it," Anton told us.



So to make a long story short, how did Georg Anton get to Beijing and the acting life?



"It was late in 2006, the last few months of my studies at the Vienna University of Economics and

Business Administration. Everybody seemed to be gearing up to scramble for bank jobs and

accounting firm internships, and I just didn’t want to be a part of that. So, let’s go somewhere

far away, Asia sounds good, China sounds even better. Every other day there were some news

on China and nobody seemed to have a real clue, so let’s go and see for myself. I looked for

internships (my mind was still set on business after all) and got one offer in Hunan Province

and one offer in the city of Tianjin. An Austrian-Chinese friend in Vienna said Tianjin was a good bet, and that’s what I took. Just a quick one-month crash course in Mandarin at a

community college in Vienna, collected my business degree (missed the ceremony), and two

days later I arrived in Tianjin at a small Chinese import-export company. That was in February

2007," Anton shared.



What followed were those crazy, funny, lovable, hate-able, terrible and amazing experiences

that feel so unique to each person yet are so common among all foreigners who arrive in

China on their own – culture shock, standard procedure. Anton added.



"So, after that crazy internship and my decision to stay in China and move to Beijing my “day

jobs” developed as follows: Chinese PR company, freelance English teaching, freelance

business report writing, small European business consulting company," he noted.



But let’s talk about his acting career and where he stands now!



"Once I got to Beijing I heard of the Beijing Actors Workshop (BAW) and joined right away

-- mostly out of curiosity, in search of a creative outlet and to meet people. That was fall of 2007. A

the same time and for those same reasons I also started going to Beijing Improv’s open

workshops, which were (and still are!) for free and bilingual (Chinese/English) and an

amazing place to meet great people and make friends. Both the BAW and Beijing Improv

had just been founded about a year before my arrival in very informal ways by a great bunch

of pioneering creative-minded expats. Those two groups were to become the

nucleus, home and incubator for so many of Beijing’s new performing arts projects of these

years. The Founder of BAW, Canadian filmmaker Patrick Pearce, and his successor American

theater director/producer Anna Grace Carter gathered the creative-minded – foreigners and

curious Chinese alike – organized workshops, courses and put on show after show after show."





Anton continues his story: "I joined many English-language theater productions inside and outside BAW (drama, comedy,

Shakespeare and new original works alike) and was able to grow with the community. The

whole community theater scene was propelled and taken to the next level when Beijing’s first

privately-run theater “Penghao Theatre” opened in mid 2008. Suddenly there was a proper

venue! Again, BAW and Beijing Improv were at the forefront of these new developments and

were among the first to breath life into the new Penghao Theatre, which has now become an

invaluable pillar of Beijing’s independent performing arts scene.



''I had auditioned and had been accepted into Beijing Improv’s English performance troupe in

early 2008. That was at a time when it was fairly easy to get in, but fairly “hard” to perform

– i.e. in bars, without stage, without much audience. Well, boy did that change! Co-founded

and lead through all these years by New Zealander Lottie Dowling and American Jonathan

Palley (who both have non-acting full-time jobs), Beijing Improv can truly pride itself to

have brought a new art form to the city. Beijing Improv today comprises an English language

performance group, a bilingual Chinese-English performance group and two open and free

weekly workshop groups and hosts the pan-Asian Beijing Interactive Improvised Arts


Festival. Apart

from that, multiple spin-off groups in various languages have formed around Beijing Improv

and created a true improv community. I am honored to be part of the English performance

group, which has now had several years of monthly sold-out shows with 200+ audience

and is regularly featured in the media as Beijing’s number one comedy performance. We

are constantly building on our own very international and multicultural improv style and

have toured to Hong Kong and Seoul. Importantly, Beijing Improv has always been and

still is completely not-for-profit and donates to local charity. Performers and organizers are

all unpaid, all have “real” jobs, and as far as I know, no member except for me is actually

pursuing an acting career in Chinese film and TV.''



So, let’s talk about film and TV.



''In 2008, I had my first just-for-fun one-line appearance in a Chinese TV series called “Lost

in LA” (迷失洛杉矶) in which I (very stiffly) played an American doctor. But really, from

2008 to 2010, acting was still just a hobby, albeit one that took up all of my free time, with

late-night theater rehearsals and weekend gigs. During that period, I acted in twelve theater

plays, in monthly improv shows and in three short films, and participated in six commercials

and corporate films. By 2010, my full-time office job had gotten more and more intense and

stressful up to a point where I realized that I just couldn’t be happy working at a desk and

forever fearing Mondays. At the same time I already knew that there were opportunities for

white-faced foreigners in Chinese films and television. Then, a very successful and much-

lauded theater performance in which I played multiple characters (including Seinfeld’s

George Costanza) ignited my wish to act professionally, while troubles at the office “helped”

me to make my decision to let the office life be and try acting full-time. There were Chinese

agents who had wanted to arrange bigger acting jobs for me for some time already, and so I

could finally tell them the good news that I was now available. Summer 2010.''



''So, I was taken to an audition and got the part of American WWII officer in a 32-episode

Sino-Japanese war TV serial. The series is called “The Locked-Up American Envoy” (锁定

美军特使) and, guess what, I’m the American envoy. It’s a “Saving Private Ryan” kind of

story, where my character is the center of the story, while the real lead roles and heroes are

the Chinese who save me and my secret documents from the hands of the Japanese. There is a

little love story too…it was a good role. And I heard it was originally intended for a Chinese

to play it as a Chinese-American, but then they went with me for the white-guy idea. That was

September 2010.''



''Well, from then onwards it was just acting, acting, acting. Guest-star gigs, principal roles,

regular and lead roles, TV and films. Everything. I can count six TV series, three feature films

for television, and four movies for the big screen. My most recent part was in a US indie

feature film production called “Train Station” by CollabFeature. It was shot in 40 different

countries in a collaborative way and I had the honor of being picked as their lead actor in the

China segment.''



''In late 2011, I also went to Los Angeles. for my first time to check out the city and scene and take

acting classes. During that short time I was cast in three short films and was offered two more

parts. One offer was even for a small part in a feature film, but by that time I had already

departed for China again."



''Most of my Chinese projects are still in post-production, but “The Locked-Up American

Envoy” was already out on national television earlier this year and another TV serial with

me in a principal/regular role, called “Final Hit” (绝杀) is being broadcast regionally in

many parts of China at the moment. I really liked the “Final Hit” production, because I had

a good role from beginning to end (playing an American secret agent in 1940s Shanghai),

because I could largely act in English, and because I was acting opposite Luoyong Wang, a

Chinese-American actor once called “the first Chinese on Broadway.” A modern-day movie

(“New Red River” 新红河谷) in which I play the romantic interest of Hong Kong-Canadian

lead actress Theresa Lee is also about to be released, and I’m very excited about that. While

TV series are great for gaining public exposure, I am happy to be developing towards film,

because film is demanding more from me and pushes me to work on my craft as an actor.''



''I am currently in discussions with a Chinese movie, a foreign independent production and a

new theater project…let’s see what happens.''



The future?



''It’s going great here for me in China, but of course I also look towards Hollywood. And in a funny way, Hollywood

is now looking towards China. But rather than “Hollywood” I should say “the international

film scene”. My future as a Chinese-speaking western actor on the international stage will

depend largely on the new Chinawood-Hollywood relationship, international co-productions

and new local productions on an international level. The global film business is now targeting

global audiences, creating more opportunities for Asians, Europeans, and internationally-

skilled folks like me. I have already achieved moving from television towards movies and

towards working with both Chinese and western directors. My desire is to strive for top-notch

acting and to work and learn in top-quality productions on an international level. In the years

to come, this can happen in China as well as it can happen anywhere else.''


QUOTE: "I didn’t come to China for acting. Acting happened to me. And I realized that I love it."



A few facts and figures:

Georg Anton's Chinese name is (乔治·安东).
Hometown: Vienna, Austria
Speaks 5 languages.

Break a leg, Georg, the future awaits you!

Meet Miranda Chen, author of a travel book titled ''[19歲的世界-- 旅行]''

Meet Miranda Chen, ''twentysomething'' author of a travel book titled ''[19歲的世界-- 旅行]'' that was published in Taiwan in Chinese in 2011 and it is still for sale in bookstores across the colorful and tasty island nation. In a recent interview, we sat down with Miranda -- well, that is to say, we "sat down" with her during an email interview in late April 2012 and she answered
our written questions! -- and learned more about how the book came to
be, how she wrote it and what's next in her life. Thank you, Miranda, for your
time and energy! Bravo!

The book appears only in Chinese Mandarin for now, although some day there might


be a translation in English or German, too. In Chinese, the title translates as soemthing like


"The travel diary of a 19 year old from Taiwan who travelled overseas and had a wonderful time."


Kidding. There is no English translation of the title yet, but we asked Miranda


would she would title it in English if she was giving the book a


completely new


English title, just for English readers. We also asked her how she would


translate the Chinese


title to English so that English readers can understand the Chinese meaning.



Miranda said by email:



"I would make the title short in English to create the impression of one-of-a-kind travel book.

But giving titles to books is an art and because of the linguistic and cultural differences between

English and Chinese, giving my book an English title is not an easy task. Let me think about it.

Also, compated to some other travel books by Western writers, which I have also read, I am not sure

how my book stacks up to them, so I am not sure if my book will ever appear in an English translation.

I read

travel books written by a woman who lived in a cave in Jordon, and another one by a man escaped from a

prison in a foreign country and went to live in the slums of that country and then acted in Bollywood movies. So

my little book cannot compare. Still, maybe someday some people would want to read my book English.

Time will tell. For now, it's only available in Chinese.''



Many readers want to know how Miranda's book came to be: how she found a publisher, an editor, a distributor. She tells us:



"It had never occurred to me about writing a book about my travels at first. This all came about in a roundabout way, by

luck and chance. The idea for a book came to

me one day when I was having lunch with a Taiwanese calligrapher in Taiwan. He

is quite famous,

and I got to know him because my father’s friend introduced us to him. After

learning that I had travelled around the world a bit, out of the blue he he asked me if I’d like to write a book about my travels, with photographs, too.  I

did not give it a second thought! I said ''YES!'' immediately because I

knew I should seize this

golden chance!

This man has a lot of experience in the publishing and media worlds since he has already published three books, and they were hits. So, to make a long story short, he contacted a friend of his who is a publisher in Taipei. All I had

to do was go to his place each week and share my stories with him. He had made

the whole process very simple -- instead of pressuring me to finish ASAP! So I enjoyed the process.

The Apply Daily newspaper and some other media contacted me right after the book was released, and again, thanks to the

calligrapher’s connections with the major media in Taiwan. He helped me enormously: not only to write the book and get into book form but also to publicize and promote it with the Taiwanese media. I owe him! Thank you, sir!"

The publisher is a company called 讀冊文化. Strictly speaking, there was no editor, Miranda told us, because she served as both writer, and editor.
"The calligrapher guided me on how to write a book,
including the techniques of narrating, word use and so on," she shared.



When about her philosophy of travel, what she sees when she travels overseas and what it means
to her as a Taiwanese woman in the 21st century, Miranda said:

"For me, I think it’s both. For me travel is both seeing the amazing outside world outside Taiwan, but
also using my travels to relect on my own nation and culture and history. So travel is important. The longer the journey was, the less the


sight was about


telling people “I have been there” with loads of Woo, Wow pictures. I think when


you go to a culture, you should shut your mouth, learn, smile and suck


it all up. Then


you take your own. You don’t just sit here and judge. There’s a humility


you need to


have. Also, I think it was the people who made it. They made the trip meaningful


even if bad things happened. That’s what’s beautiful about travelling.


I did not carry the burden/sense of history with me or have strong Taiwanese


ideology. In fact, I have to admit I did not know much about the


island’s past. It was


after the trip that I started to be interested in discovering and


learning what really


happened in Taiwan before I was born.''



Wilol she write a second book as a follow up to this first one?
"Why not? As long as there’s new material worthy of being written, there might


be another book," Miranda said. " So I think I need to change the air and try something


completely


different and new. We'll see.''



When asked about her own plans for the future, Miranda thought about the question and then
replied:
"I can’t really make plans, as things change all the time. But I am


preparing to become


a nutritionist who will continue writing, travelling and making/creating things by


hand. I am going


on a cultural exchange to Sweden, and hopefully one year in Scandinavia will add


something to my life."




Does travel in English-speaking countries help a Taiwanese woman learn English better?
"It definitely helps. If you use the language often, you know better how to speak


better. Travelling “forced” me to open up my little world and talk to


other people.


Mostly I talked to non-English-native speakers, that is to say, backpackers or


the locals. I learned to


recognize different accents, from Australian, Irish, German, French,


Spanish to Korean


and so on. I remember I often talked so much that I always went to bed after midnight


even if I had to get up before the sunrise!


When I talked to native-English speakers, I noticed the differences in


the words they


used from those I used. Then I would try to modify my speeech in order to be more authentic


and accurate. For example, I once told a British guy that his friend


“he’s calling


someone.” Then he repeated again by saying “he’s on the phone.” It was more


accurate. So


I changed the way I speak.''



[As an aside, we asked Miranda if she knows the Taiwanese word LO LAT and if
she ever uses it in her daily life in Taiwan. She said that she knows the word, noting:
"Yes, I know 'lo lat', but I barely use it because it sounds foreign to me, even if
Taiwanese is my mother tongue."]

LINK to LO LAT NEWS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKEpSisKryE

[We asked Miranda what her favorite saying or proverb was in English? She replied:
"I am not sure. I am not keen on didactic clichés even if I agree with
their meanings. I like Alain de
Botton’s book titled ''The Consolations of Philosophy'' and my attitude towards life is probably
close to Lord Tennyson’s “Tis better to have loved and lost, Than
never to have loved
at all.”]



The future, the future. We asked Miranda this question: When you are 39, double the age of 19 or so, what do you hope to be

doing and where? What is your dream?

Miranda said: "I hope to be involved with NGO work using my knowledge of nutrition and skills somewhere, and keep


travelling and paint a lot like I used to as a kid. I do not think I


will have made a lot of


money by then, but I hope I will be doing things that speak to my most


authentic self


and keep trying new things."



Climate change. Does Ms. Chen think about climate change and how it might impact
her own life and Taiwan, too, in the future. She has a ready answer:

"Absolutely, I am very concerned about the issue of climate change because I kind of


experienced it. When I was in Chile seeing and appreciating the glaciers there, there


was a German


tourist who told me that she’d been there before in earlier years and was rather surprised


that the glacier


had been retreating so much every year. So I thought I was lucky to be there.


I think we are all feeling and seeing -- and eating! -- the consequences of global warming. One of the most


obvious aspects is the issue of food production. Due to climate change, we are


not producing


enough food even if it seems we have abundant food to eat and to waste now in


Taiwan and in many highly developed/industrialized countries. So don’t


waste food!"



We asked as our final question if Miranda had anything to say about the meaning and importance of


travel for Taiwanese young people? In other words, what can travel teach people in Taiwan,
especially young people. She replied:

''Hopefully what I am going to say will not sound so like a cliché. But it's my real feeling.


Travelling is the best gift I’ve ever had in my life. It’s the best


kind of education.


Taiwan is too small for me to isolate myself. If you do not go see and


experience


other cultures, people and things, you and your life will seem to be so


limited. By travelling, one can learn


to be independent and more importantly, you get to realize how much you take


people who love you and things you own for granted. I took my family for granted


and it was awful. You learn to appreciate what you have. So you may


become happier."
 

NOTE:
On her blog, titled MS. TRAMP, Miranda, whose Chinese name in Taiwan is Chen Ching-chun, writes this as her tagline for the blog:

"If you've found meaning in your life, you dont want to go back. you want to go forward. you want to see more, to do more you cannot wait till your are 65."


=================================
Student pursues dream of discovery in Australia

April 16, 2012
By Jacqueline Dy Uy,
The China Post




She sat at the back of the class agitated, as she has always been, longing to hear the school bell after hours-long lectures of literary classics. She might not be stunned by the romantic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet,” or epic poems “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey,” but Miranda Chen has always carried a heart that craved discovery and learning, although she often sought such things in places outside the confines of the four-corner classroom. At the tender age of 22, her journey to self discovery was never a walk in the park, but it was a dream that she knew had to be fulfilled.


And so the day came that must have seemed like kismet for Miranda. Walking through the school's corridors two years ago, she picked up a copy of a magazine, sat still for an hour or so in a coffee shop, and after going over the pages, she knew exactly what she wanted to do. “I was not really into English Literature, but I knew I had to finish the four-year course in school and it frustrated me. I chanced upon a magazine's special edition for education and it featured stories on how young people around the world travel to know themselves, to learn and gain experience, and I said to myself 'This is it! I know what I want to do!'”






The excitement in Miranda's own eureka moment dwindled when she started to realize she was quite unsure how to pursue it. She recalled thinking, “I'm only a poor student, how will I manage to do it? And because I was so determined, I decided to talk to my parents, but they didn't listen. So I wrote them a letter and did research on Australia, about how their government was offering a work-holiday visa.”






Four months and seven pages of hand-written letter later, Miranda had the go signal from her parents but faced strong opposition from her grandfather, whom she referred to as the head of the family. “But I knew, if I could convince my father, I could convince him too,” added Miranda. With the help of an uncle living in Australia for 15 years, Miranda succeeded in persuading her grandfather.






The Outback Odyssey






With bags packed and “feeling nothing sentimental just pure excitement,” Miranda arrived in Australia and started going to an English school with a Taiwanese friend. During free time, they traveled around until her friend went back to Taiwan after two months of schooling. “I started to panic! It was the start of the real adventure!” she exclaimed.










She did all things touristy until she realized she was running out of money to fund her trips. “I started looking for a job in Sydney, but I was only 19-years-old then. I had no skills, no work experience, so I bought a ticket to the north, and ended up working in farms — washing pumpkins, picking and packing tomatoes, capsicums, and zucchinis.”






From a girl who was comfortable enough to live in a place she was familiar with, Miranda was transformed into an adventure seeker who found comfort in the utterly unfamiliar. The several months spent working in the farm may be somewhat akin to a survival of the fittest, but she left the experience with no regrets. “I was saving money, eating pasta with tomatoes almost every single day. I made a goal on how much I needed to earn; an amount enough to travel some more and then go back home.”






Lessons Learned






The idea of having to return home after a year abroad scared Miranda because she might not be allowed to go out of Taiwan again. “But I didn't think too much. I started to do all the work in the farm even if people yelled at me, threw tomatoes at me at some point, dealt with racists, but it taught me a lot. Australia taught me a lot. There I realized my dream really was to find out what I want to be, what I like to do. Life is so short so I want to do things that I like. Otherwise, it would be terrible.”






　Miranda took a leave of absence from school but definitely had qualms about thinking of the school work she left behind. “I was afraid of lagging behind, like my classmates are studying and I'm not achieving anything. I think it was natural to be worried because you're doing something different.






“... I learned to appreciate more things and not to take everything for granted, not to skip school. I have found deeper appreciation for my parents too,” explained Miranda.






Traveling for Taiwan






Miranda seized the opportunity to introduce her motherland to other backpackers she met in Australia. “Although they confuse Taiwan with Thailand, I was able to introduce them to Taiwan and all the traditional cuisines, including bubble milk tea.”






From her travels and experiences also sprung Miranda's enthusiasm in hoping for a better Taiwan, particularly an improved public health care system. She has joined volunteer projects that raise awareness on public health-related concerns, among them an AIDS prevention campaign held recently in Malaysia, India and Thailand.






“Other countries' social welfare and public health care systems can be quite inspiring and I am looking forward to gaining more understanding of them,” shared Miranda. She pointed out she will continue drawing inspiration from traveling to some day promote a better Taiwan public health care system.






For Miranda, traveling broadens one's horizons and changes one's perspective in life. Her dream of getting to know herself better might have been well-fulfilled, but it is the lessons learned, friendships formed, along with the challenges she overcame, that made the journey worth while.






Miranda's travels and stories are published in her book “19歲的世界，旅行.”














Copyright © 1999 – 2012 The China Post.

Meet Charlie Tseng -- The Taiwanese 'Tiger Dad' Behind the Queen of Golf, Miss Yani Tseng

LPGA superstar Yani Tseng reigns supreme in women's golf. Now her Taiwanese dad shares his secrets to raising a world champion in a rare interview in Taiwan. Some of what he says is chilling and might even verge on child abuse in some places. Then again, this is how to raise champions. Not a word from Dad about his daughter's much-discussed sexual orientation; that's a topic for another day, far away in the future. It's not important if she's gay. Gay schmay. Many top female atheletes are gay and so what? So what if one of her best friends in Ella Chen of the girl group S.H.E, who is also gay. Eeryone in Taiwan knows. They just don't talk about it. Or even think about it. Big deal!The inportant thing is that lesbian atheletes know how to win and win they do. Bravo.

[Article below was Very Well Translated from the Chinese Mardarin]

TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- By commercial standards, an investment that generates a four-fold return over a span of 17 years is not necessarily wise or lucrative. But if that investment creates world No. 1 status, manifold sources of non-operating income, and numerous historic records, then such a return on investment will make even highly successful stock market speculators green with envy.

Over the past 17 years, Charlie Tseng , [aka Tseng Mao-shin] has invested more than NT$50 million in the golfing career of his daughter Yani. By March of this year, Yani had won more than US$8 million in prize money at golf tournaments, not counting some US$5 million in additional income per year from endorsements.

The previous week, Yani Tseng had won again. Only two months into the LPGA season, the 23-year-old won three out of five tournaments, remaining the top-ranked woman golfer for the 59th week in a row.

In a quiet residential neighborhood in Taiwan, Charlie Tseng sits in his 15-square-meter ground-floor office, the walls of which are plastered with photos of a smiling Yani with her golf trophies, awards, and newspaper clippings. Tseng is a dyed-in-the-wool "tiger dad." However, he differs from the typical Taiwanse"tiger dad'' in that he did not demand that his daughter excel in school or do well in music and art, but encouraged athletic talent. [For more on the Tiger Mom syndrome, see Yale professor Amy Chua's controversuial
bestseller titled ''TIGER MOM''.]

Currently an oil company distributor, Mr Tseng used to run a golf driving range. When Yani was just 5 years old, he often took her with him to play alongside the adults.

In the beginning the golfing was just for fun. But when Tseng later on discovered that Yani "liked to show off and struck a chord with the audience," he decided to nurture her talent as best as he could. He hired a coach and also sent her to Australia to work on her golf swing technique there.

Why did he pick golf for his daughter and not another sport? [Ed. Note: And a question that must be asked someday, if not now, is he aware that his daughter is most likely a lesbian? And in mostly-closeted Taiwan, should anyone care, least of all his father or the Taiwanese media?]

Tseng did a simple calculation: the short term benefits of golf were that the family ran a driving range, so practice would not cost extra, and Yani was unlikely to meet the wrong people, because her parents would be watching over her. In the long term, since golf is not an extreme sport, Yani would not run a high risk of injury and would therefore be able to have a longer career. And should she fail to make it as a professional golfer, she could still earn a decent, above average, monthly income by working as a coach.

Tseng frankly admits, "I managed Yani like a business."

Corporate Management Produces Golf Queen

Yani took up golf at five, got a professional coach at eight, and went to the United States to further her golfing skills at 12. As a 13-year-old she won the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships, and she became a professional golfer at the age of 18. By her 22nd birthday she had become the world's top-ranked woman golfer. All this is owed to her father's "golf queen production process."

Charlie Tseng used to accompany Yani to the golf course almost every day, and he encouraged her to wager with her fellow golfers on who would win.

"The betting gave her the will to win," notes Tseng with a laugh. Tseng and his daughter look strikingly alike, except that the father's hair has already grown white.


He believes that betting steels Yani's courage and prevents her from getting cold feet when out on the green before a crowd. "When you gamble, you're stressed. Your hands get stiff, and you won't play well. That's for sure," Tseng points out. He told Yani that if she had a losing streak, she needed to muster the ambition to seize back victory.

Tseng recalls that because he used betting to build his daughter's courage, Yani was not afraid to play against more formidable rivals from childhood on.

Yani shot to fame when she beat Michelle Wie, the defending American star golfer, at the age of 15 in the final of the 2004 U.S. Women's Pub Links. "She always chooses to eat the spicy food," Tseng remarks metaphorically. The stronger her opponents, the better Yani plays.

In order to foster Yani's courage and calculated daring, Tseng buys golf books and watches videos to advance his own professional expertise and to impart his insights to his daughter. He once told her, "You can't be afraid when you stand at the tee. You have to be daring."

When Yani is in a tournament, Tseng watches her moves and her facial expressions. When she has a strange look on her face, she is uptight and will most likely not play well. When she is relaxed, a daring expression will naturally show on her face.

The greatest gift Yani got from her father is "goal-setting skills." Tseng has always demanded that Yani set goals for herself in whatever she does.

Tseng is very proud that he once won the Taipei Country Club championship, beating several thousand fellow club members. The first goal that Yani set for herself after taking up golf was to "knock her father out" by the age of eleven.

That year, she did indeed beat him. And when she was 12, Yani set a bigger goal for herself: to become the Number 1 in the world. Ten years later her dream had turned into reality.

Yani recalls that whenever she went to golf practice she would clearly visualize what she wanted to practice on that particular day and then resolutely pursue her goal. It was a lesson she had learned from her father: For an athlete there is no improvisation or randomness, only goals and discipline.

Endurance training also built up Yani's explosive force that allows her to stage stunning turnarounds.

One sports commentator describes Yani as the golf player with the most formidable ability to stage come-from-behind victories. When lagging behind several shots in her score, she often suddenly mobilizes her explosive power to clinch victory. Charlie Tseng believes that Yani has such staying power because she has set goals for herself.

As the father of the world golf queen, he has witnessed first-hand how tough the life of a professional golfer is, an experience that is indelibly etched into his memory.

He acknowledges that Yani missed out on childhood, going to school from Monday to Friday and then spending the weekend practicing at the golf course. "She didn't have any friends. Her friends were all opponents," remarks Tseng with resignation.

"I think she's amazing," Charlie says. "The courses they play are really difficult." As he sits on the sofa in his office, Yani is playing a tournament abroad. Not surprisingly, the flat screen TV in the office is permanently tuned into the ESPN sports channel.

He is well aware that the world's 30 top-ranked golfers all have the potential to become the No. 1 and that Yani will have to fight hard to maintain her lead, given that so many are vying for her crown.

Probably this is why sports are so fascinating. You can't always win, but if you want to win, you need to keep going all out.

COMMENT:...........................................


Says one savvy observer, a woman from the West: ''Actually I don't care whether Yani Tseng is gay or not, or whether she decides to come out. In Taiwan a lot of things are okay as long as you don't
spell them out explicitly. And then there is the face issue, causing parents
to lose face is still considered very disrespectful even among young people.
So Yani might keep a low profile for the sake of her parents. ''

''I think
Taiwan is generally speaking a generation behind Europe or the United States
in terms of adopting more liberal values (don't forget that Taiwan was still
autocratic in the 1980s). Our own parents' generation in Europe or the USA would not have dreamt of
being openly gay, it would have ended your professional career and your
social standing. Have you read Rita May Brown's memoirs "Rita Will: Memoir
of a Literary Rabble-Rouser"? That sums it up pretty well.''
 
"You know, just from reading the Chinese original in CommonWealth magazine, since I can read Mandarin a bit, sure, and I did not get any hint that either Yani's father or mom or the reporter for CommonWealth might think that Yani is gay. Actually the question
did not cross my mind at all, either.''
 
"On the other hand, if Yani is good friends with Ella Chen of S.H.E, and many Taiwanese think they look alike, and they do, and Yani uses Ella as her stylist sometimes, it is most likely that Yani is a lesbian. But does she have a real girlfriend? Does she sleep with other women? This nobody knows. And who cares? Gay, schmay. We are all God's children, Buddhist and all."

American actor with Chinese chops looking East

Meet Jeff Locker: the American actor has already made a name for himself in Taiwan and China, and now
he's in Hollywood using his Mandarin skills to further the East-West conversation.

Since the China-Hollywood production line is heating up, Locker, who hails from the Midwest and
spent a good ten years overseas in Taiwan and China in the 1990s and early 2000s, is slowly
getting Hollywood to pay attention to his stellar Mandarin skills for TV show, movies, commercials and
voice-over parts. This is one American who can speak Chinese like a, well, like a global mandarin!

In his recent work with Second City, Locker was able to bring in references and actors from China, Hong Kong, and
Taiwan in order to give Americans some exposure to some of his favorite
Asian and Asian-American actors, singers, movies, and TV shows.

"I still feel very connected to Taiwan," Locker said in a recent email interview, "and I'm working hard to bring more
Taiwanese and Chinese culture into the projects I'm working on here in Los Angeles. I'm filming a web-series now that I helped create and which is in both English and Mandarin, and I plan to have some Taiwanese actors and
singers do cameos. It's very exciting times here, and I'm hoping for some breakthroughs. Hollywood's a tough town,
but with current interest in all things Chinese, things are happening."

Locker also finds time to teach Mandarin at a couple of private schools i the Los Angeles area, and some of his
students are celebrities and their children, he said.

"I've just filmed a comedy video with Second City, which is a huge
honor for me, since so many of their videos go viral," Locker notes. "But what I'm most
excited about is that it's their first video in Mandarin in their over 50-year
history!"

"Second City, of course, asked me to help write and perform in
it, and there is actually an English-language version I'm in as well," the well-tavelled thespian said.
"We had been discussing a project for weeks and wanted to do something to
respond to the allegations of abuse fo some workers in
the Apple FoxConn computer factories in China. And since it's Second City, it has to be done in a satirical way to shed some light on the problem."

Irony is hard to convey in Chinese, as anyone who has lived in China or Taiwan knows, but Locker
thinks the Second City videos worked fine. He would know, if anyone would. From overseas jobs at
a radio DJ in Taipei to acting in movies and TV variety shows in China and Taiwan, Locker has been around
the block a few times.

"Of course, the Fox Conn factories topic is newsworthy," he notes, "due to the problems in
China, and with the recent iPad launch there. And the fact that Second City, with
all their famous alumni, wanted to do something in Mandarin is huge."

The Second City videos do a nice job of going after the ''untouchable'' Apple in a touchable way. and the cast
and crew who worked on them is hoping their work will go wide and viral, domestically and overseas as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q40htpFU5ag


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUk8u1vnfTM

Wandy Wang Druss: The Abundant Life of a Jewish-American Woman in Florida

CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — This is the second part of a Jewish story with a
Taiwanese twist. The first appeared here and reported
some preliminary news about Mrs. Wandy Wang Druss who at 51 is
president of the Orloff Central Agency for Jewish Education in
Florida.

A ”letter to the editor” published recently in the
English-language ”Taipei Times” in Taiwan, penned by Lewis Druss, Mrs.
Wang Druss’s Jewish-American husband and a Florida attorney, explained
some of the backstory.


In a subsequent email exchange between this reporter in Taiwan and Mrs Wang Druss in America,,
more of the story unfolded, and here are some excerpts from our online chat:

"I was born and raised in Taiwan until I was 11 years
old and I know so little of its history and even less the Jews of Taiwan.

''I picked up quite a bit of Yiddish when my
in-laws were still around. They passed away a few years ago...my favorite
word is 'schlepp'.

''My favorite Taiwanese Hoklo word for Lewis is ''Ge-Po'' ( chicken
mama).. it means
someone who is overtly helpful and considerate... as in this case, I had no
idea Lewis had submitted the letter to the Taipei Times, and I am
quite shy it...
......but it is endearing that he is so proud of what I do, still a Ge-Po
regardless.

''When I was growing up in Taiwan, I had no idea what Jewish meant. I don't
think I ever met anyone Jewish until I went to University of Florida. On the
bus, a very cute Jewish boy name Steve from AEPI asked me to go on a date
with him. I didn't say yes because I was dating a Taiwanese boy then.

''I was translating for my parents when Lewis and I first met. He was a lawyer
fresh out of law school and my parents had some legal questions that needed
his counsel. Lewis said he liked me then but I was too young, so he waited 6
years until he asked me to go on a date. My parents had gotten to know him
and trusted him by then so it was not a big problem. I was the first in the
Wang clan to marry a foreigner though. Even my grandparents on both sides
had to give their blessings.

''We often go to shul. Lewis is more observant than me, and I am very involved
in the Jewish community. We have shabbat dinner every Friday and
consider ourselves Conservative Jews.

''We expect quite a bit from our
children. To participate in academics, religious, Asian/Chinese, and musical
pursuits. They complain but still go along with what we hope they would do.
We don't really force them to do anything, maybe the Jewish guilt (oy
vey)..

''Our two daughters attended synagogue schools, went to Poland and Israel with The
March of Living and graduated Judaica High School. (These programs were run
by ORLOFF CAJE, that is how I became involved).They also attended United
Synagogue Youth Camps every summer since they were 9 years old. Meredith, my
eldest, was the Hillel President at Dartmouth College. Samantha, my
youngest, was a senior officer of the Jewish sorority D-PHI-E, and involved
in Jewish Family Services while at Brandeis.

''While at camp, they were often mistaken to be Hawaiians... in
the beginning the kids at camp were quite perplexed.. why, do they have Jews
in Hawaii? Why would Hawaiian Jews want to attend camp in Palmer, Mass?

''One
time, I visited the girls at camp Ramah in New England. I asked the camp to
pick me up from Bradley airport. I waited at the airport a long time because
they couldn't find Mrs. Druss at the terminal. I was there all along, they
were looking for a Caucasian mom instead of one that is Asian. They always
knew who I was after that incident.

"There is a saying in Chinese, "Marry a chicken, follow the chicken. Marry a
dog, follow the dog". To me, it means to be loyal and devoted to whomever
one marries. My family taught me to follow this as well. No matter whom you
marry, you must give 100 percent commitment. As in the American wedding vow goes, 'in sickness and in health, until death do us apart.'

''I had the
blessing of my parents and even my grandparents when I married Lewis. They
knew he had a kind and gentle soul and they trusted him. I was the first in
my family to marry a foreigner. (It's kind of old fashioned thinking, I
guess.) Nevertheless, it was quite unusual almost 27 years ago for my
husband to marry an Asian and I to marry a Caucasian Jewish guy. My parents
knew there were certain "rules" to be Jewish but as Buddhists, they felt it
was a destiny that we married.

"I found it comforting to be with my Jewish
family. The holidays remind me of so many of the Chinese holidays. For example, the
High Holidays often coincide with the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in Taiwan, and Passover and L'Bohmer coincides with the Tomb-Sweeping Festival and
the Dragon Boat Festival, too.

''When Taiwanese people and Jewish people are together, everyone talks all
at once, and there is always so much food!


"Particularly, I am touched by how we as Jews honor our parents by saying kaddish for
them and light a yarzheit candle to remember them. It is very much like the
Taiwanese tradition of visiting our ancestors and lighting incense to remember
them. I feel very comfortable living in both cultures, the Jewish American culture and the Taiwanese culture, peaceful and happy
among my family and friends.

''I remember the bat mitzvah I had for my daughters when they were 12 and 13.
My parents and my sibling all went on the bima to read an
English prayer. My dad and my brother wear yarmulkes when they come to my
home for dinner, and we use chopsticks to eat kasha and gefilte fish. By the way, I make
a mean matzo ball soup! My own father said it is the best Jewish fish ball
soup.

''My family understands quite a bit about the Jewish holidays, except for the
fasting part. Every year on Yom Kippur, my mom will always call and say: 'Are you
fasting ? Don't be so strict, you can drink just a little soup can't you?
Why, you will faint and get sick!'

'I would say to my mother: 'Mom, I'm repenting and asking
G-d for forgiveness, one has to fast for 24 hours'. And my parents would say, '24
hours! How can you not eat for 24 hours?' (This happens every year!)