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.
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