This man was at the Jhubei Mazu Temple parade last November, which I posted lots of photos from after the event. I’ve decided to go ahead and post a few more, as I have neglected quite a few decent shots from that day.
If you ever end up following one of these groups, it’s best to make sure you have water, a mask, and earplugs. Trust me.
Filed under taiwan
These images are leftover from the Taipei nuclear protest. I actually shot a ton of images that day, and only posted 12 or so on the original post.
Since the political season in Taiwan is heating up, I’ll have to make a point of learning about Taiwanese politics. This will be a heavily emotional/environmental issue after Fukushima, especially with Taiwan being so small and sources of energy being hard to come by while still remaining earthquake-prone.
Filed under taipei101
Still digging through the archives. I hope this weekend’s weather is decent, so I can take more photos – unlike last Sunday.
Regardless, here are some random shots from the past year that I haven’t posted yet. Happy Thursday to all!
Cosplayers in Hsinchu, December 2010.
Jhubei Dragon Dance, December-ish, 2010.
Left: Anthell, Spring Scream 2011; Right: Anti-nuclear banners at a protest in Taipei.
Guardian Lions, Changhua.
Filed under taiwan2010
Last Sunday, I attended a protest against nuclear power that took place in Taipei near Chiang Kai-shek Memorial after finding out about it through photographer Craig Ferguson. The website gave me the basics on location, though it did not prepare me for the massive amount of people who took part in the march.
My basic objective was to get an idea of what politics are like in Taiwan. Since this blog often sees posts on religion, I figured I’d cover another offensive topic, anyway!
Disclaimer and General Notes
I do want to send out a general disclaimer that I didn’t necessarily agree (or disagree) with the message, though the protest itself was fascinating. As an American who used to teach US government to high school students, I find foreign points of view on concepts like human rights and political protest to be pretty interesting. This was the system working as it should, if anything, and people really felt like their voice mattered. It was a great feeling, especially in the midst of the protests going on in the Middle East and the reactions of several governments to those incidents.
Police were present, but only needed to protect the protest, if anything. People were peaceful and the police stayed out of their way. It couldn’t have gone any better.
The Energy Issue
Taiwan’s response to this topic is timely. In addition to the incident at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, the Taiwanese have been debating on what sources of energy will propel their island-nation. There has been talk of another power plant being built, and with the small size of the island, it is sure to be a heated and tough debate. I hope that if/when the power plants are built, that the incident in Japan at least intensifies the need for safety and efficiency.
Photos
As seen with the banner above, the theme was “I love Taiwan – no nuclear disaster” or 我愛台灣、不要核災. Political and religious leaders – including the priest above – were put in front of the march which easily included thousands of people.
I was pretty impressed by the general diversity of this crowd. I noticed quite a few older people in the group as well as younger children who were encouraged through the public notice to take part. The question “what about the children?” was often asked by demonstrators.
You’ll notice the armbands/headbands these people are wearing. Since my Chinese is “bu hao” (不好), I only knew that it said something about nuclear disaster and Taiwan. I was given one of these in the beginning and pocketed it, wanting to remain neutral. Soon enough, another person gave me ANOTHER, and I decided to put it on. With this, I at least got more photo ops and, maybe more importantly, people stopped giving me more yellow armbands! I guess that would raise ethical questions for professional journalists, so perhaps that’s a benefit of “just” hosting a tiny blog.
This woman, stuck in traffic, is watching the parade’s “green shirts” about midway through the march.
These signs were distributed widely – basically saying “we love Taiwan – (say) no to nuclear disaster.”
These young people were listening to a speech at the beginning of the march.
At the beginning of the march, this man was posting placards on the main truck that took the leaders of the protest through Taipei.
I noticed that processing this set was relatively easy. I did make some judgments on whether or not to give a black and white filter to the shot – and decided against this most of the time. I thought this worked extremely well here, with the contrast of the sign sticking out in spite of the large amount of activity in the background here.
This is the Chiang Kai-shek memorial gate behind some protesters at the beginning of the march. This site makes sense for political protest – it represents Taiwan’s national history and is a large piece of land adjacent to some main roadways. I was hoping for a wider angle than my 35mm prime lens, but changing lenses was impossible in this crowd and moving back would not have worked.
Again, this protest was a fascinating and enlightening event. It’ll be interesting to see what impact it has politically and where Taiwan’s energy policies go in the future.
Filed under taiwan2010
While I have already made a post about the ShiDa Night Market, I was recently excited to visit a market here in Jhubei which is obviously easier to get to, still very large, and occurs weekly. As I said before, night markets are pretty common here in Taiwan, and you can expect some very good food to go along with your visit.
Above, we have some common scenes: crowds and food. Both of these are huge things to contend with… and when I mean “content with” food, I mean that you have to choose. One of the choices, below, is known as Chou Dofu, or “Stinky” Tofu (臭豆腐). 臭豆腐 is a form of tofu which is first fermented – so you can imagine it lives up to its name of being “stinky.” I had the chance to try this in Houston and hated it as mine smelled and TASTED like feet, and was quite apprehensive to try it again here in Taiwan. I certainly smelled it… Yuling wasn’t fooling me extremely well when she tried to feed it to me as I finished off my barbeque corn. I told myself, though, that I’d give it another go, grabbed it with my chopsticks… and…
…it wasn’t too bad, actually! I even like it more than the Taiwanese “kimchi” or cabbage, which goes pretty well with it… if you ever eat it, though, do yourself a favor and DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT read the Wikipedia article on how it’s made before you do. I thought about this while eating it, and it almost ended very, very poorly. I can at least add this to the pig intestine, duck blood, chicken feet, chicken gizzard, and beef tongue that I’ve had so far… and with the exception of that tofu, I apologize to any vegetarians out there. Just make sure you hang around the Buddhist monasteries for food if you come to Taiwan… everyone else is a definite carnivore here.
Anyway, on to some more photos…
Again, a reminder: sometimes photos are heavily cropped to make them more interesting – to see this photo, just click on it and you’ll see a larger size in Flickr.
So the above photo is representative of some of the carnival-style games they had. In the front of the rows, you’ll see some basic items… snacks, soda, whatever. If you can throw a ring around it, you’ve got it. Further back? Beer bottles. With beer. A little bit more? A full bottle of whiskey. Hmmm.
…gotta love the flavored corn. I tried my BBQ corn at a different stall, but will be visiting this one in the future.
…and another stall cooking stinky tofu on skewers with cabbage…
…sashimi, anyone?
Filed under jhubei, nightmarkets, photos, taiwan2010
