Well today, apparently, a coupla’ kids are getting hitched at Westminister Abbey. That pales in comparison to last week’s events here in Taiwan. Last Sunday was a ‘three-fer’: Easter Sunday, for sure, but also my new BFF, Rev. Sidney Chang’s 69th birthday – AND he also decided to get married! Sidney’s first wife died many [...]
More random notes from my Taiwanese trip: “Wherefore art’ thou?”: some of the students spent their English class rehearsing Romeo and Juliet today in the courtyard opposite the old Women’s School (the latter was part of Rev. George Leslie Mackay’s innovative and somewhat daring missionary vision for Taiwan a century ago). I asked one of [...]
The day before my lecture at National Tsing Hua University my friend Professor Hsiao Yen Yen introduced me to Mr. Li over a cup of Oolong tea at the Socrates Café that he owns. It is a splendid place, filled with great food, well loved books and about six live-in cats. Mr Li is a [...]
Dozens of my grandparents’ photos and drawings feature Guanyinshan, the dormant volcano that, from the eastern shore of Tamsui, looks like a reclining Buddha. At the northern foot of the mountain sits the Happy Mount Colony. In 1935 Newfoundland-born Dr. George Gushue-Taylor built a home and clinic for men, women and children afflicted with Leprosy. [...]
A few years ago at the Joyce symposium in Hungary, I attended a lecture by Hsiao Yen Yen, a literature professor from Taiwan. Afterwards I introduced myself, using a phrase taught to me by my Taiwanese-born father: “Gwah shi Taiwan-GUINah” (I am a Taiwanese child). Yen Yen was surprised to hear a foreigner uttering such [...]
More random thoughts from Taiwan: Mosquito Houses: I visited Tainan in southern Taiwan last weekend. My host, George Keh, offered many cultural insights. He’s a retired professor of agricultural science, and the son of a Taiwanese Presbyterian minister. As he dropped me off at the Tainan High Speed Rail (HSR) station for my return trip [...]
It is dusk at the guesthouse of the Tam-kang School (TS), in Tamsui, the beautiful coastal city near the northwest tip of Taiwan. The guesthouse takes up the entire second floor of a “cottage” built some 50 years ago through the good graces of the Presbyterian Women’s Mission Society of Canada. [When I describe it [...]
Some things I’ve noticed in my travels around Taipei over the last two days: The youth paradox: Taiwan seems to brim with young people — college students, toddlers, school kids — and yet it has among the lowest birthrates in the world. During a walk with Gilbert Chin (who runs one of the Taipei branches [...]
Well, I shouldn’t have worried about NOT having a plan for my visit to Taiwan. My new best friend, Sidney Chang, has mapped out everything for me! Rev Chang is a retired Presbyterian minister (he used to preach at Tweedsmuir Church, across from my old house in Orangeville, and his kids went to my high [...]
People have asked me how I feel heading off to Taiwan to continue my research into the life and work of my missionary grandparents. Their question may signal shared excitement or perhaps it’s a polite way of wondering if I’m off my meds! In truth, both assertions are warranted. After some two months of trolling [...]
