Thoughts in English #3

When a woman says no, she really means it, no matter she is 3 years old, 6 years old, 30 years old or 60 years old. There is no gray area whatsoever.

Megan's Law, that's what we need right now...

梅根法案中文說明

Thoughts in English #2

There is a very thin line between shyness and rudeness.

So, don't be shy, just be yourself.

Thoughts in English #1

Some people want to be famous so badly, they don't know who they are and what they are capable of anymore.

台北的冬天Winter in Taipei

冬天在台北可以一夜之間掉個八度，
可以昨天穿短袖吃冰淇淋今天戴耳罩穿連帽外套…

The temperature could drop 8 degrees overnight during the winter in Taipei,
you could wear T-shirt while eating ice cream yesterday and wear hoodies and earflap today...

★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(10)Pure luck or what

The biggest problem of we Taiwanese is we always think we are fluke. We always feel that we won't be so damn lucky to take the fall anyway. Therefore, there are tons of harmless bad and evil all over Taiwan.


Of course one of the reason is that the police like to start with harmless stuff in Taiwan. In the graphic, Tai-di was not only riding a motorcycle without a helmet, but also made a right turn when it was red light ( it's illegal in Taiwan) overspeeded and rode like a snake-walking. But police won't see all that when it was right in front of him, nevertheless he wrote a ticket to Grandma Tai, is that right? Tai-di got lucky this time, again. However, can Tai-di be this lucky all the time? Everyone would say I won't be out of luck this time, next time, the time after next time, until the end of the world, when it came to the light.

People who are littering and peeing on the streets have the same principal, they think they won't get caught forever. Who would have seen it and who would have caught it anyway? Once there are more and more people think this way in this society, there is no order at all.

Overall, Taiwanese are friendly, kind, hard-working after all. There are only few evil member of the herd. Hopefully those people will awaken or die soon, so we will have a better tomorrow.

★: Articles that Rerun in English

The End

Afterword: Taiwan police have some ugly summer uniforms. Taiwanese never take uniforms seriously, I think it's about to change since a lot of people have to wear uniform everyday, why don't they make wearing-uniform-to-work more pleasure?

★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(09) More is Better

Once I went to see the doctor because I twisted my ankle. After doctor had treated it, he kind of felt sorry of not giving me any pill, so he asked me if i needed any sleeping pill to help me go through the pain at night...

I know he meant well but do we have to be so drug-abused so mush?


Taiwanese have been number one of kidney dialysis in the world for 7 years. Taiwanese just love to eat pills, and we always think pills can cure our illness, or make us stronger if we are perfectly healthy.

During this period of time, appropriate amount is the best we can do to save our environment. "Don't take it when we don't need it" will be the best lifestyle we should all keep it in minds.

★: Articles that Rerun in English

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★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(08) Never fall behind

Miao-wen: Even Er-ren fought over for a bus seat, policy of saving energy really works.

Taiwanese is not only hardworking but also never has enough time for everything. Actually, fighting over for buses does make sense because you won't be able to get a seat when you are slow. There are too many people in a small island like Taiwan, so we must fight for everything... well, after all, it's what we called "Persecutory Delusions".

Nevertheless, we Taiwanese is maybe good at fighting, but we can never compete with Chinese. All in all, Chinese had won the most Olympic game gold medals in the world, they are really good at sport.

★: Articles that Rerun in English

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★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(07) Having a fling

Abandoning pets starts with vanity.

Taiwan is famous by how many stray animals on the streets. Not only there are a lot of animal lovers, but also there are many who like to show off how rich and stylish by the breed of their pets in Taiwan as well. It is quite nice to walk certain breed on the streets, but some of Taiwanese are not ready for pets. After a while, we get tired of serving a pet in the house, we don't love it and don't want it anymore, nor know how to do with it. So we drive a long way to abandon it, then go home happily ever after living out our life without a pet.

Since then those pets become stray animals.

Does no respect for life consider a bad habit?

★: Articles that Rerun in English

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★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(06) No turning back

The bad habit I am talking about here it's just a bad habit. It may cause no harm at all, but it seems very rude somehow.


Maybe it's because all we care about is how good your grade can be in education system in Taiwan, we forget about how important art and morality are. Anything that can't be tested can't be useful. After a while, we don't care about others, we don't have empathy for others. The most obvious result on the street is we don't hold the door for people from behind.


People have seen the movie "Bedazzled" should remember how Brendan Fraser held the door first, then everyone behinds him just forgets about him as a human being and so on... I guess holding the door for others is a basic etiquette, it's a way to show how you care about others. When people walk behind you maybe didn't notice the ajar door, maybe they have stuff on both of their hands, maybe they forgot to wear glasses, maybe something wrong with their hands...

Go all the way to open a door fast is all right, but no turning back and look out for others is rude.

Turn around and look out every time when we open a door, or just hold the door for a second. Just this sudden kindness, we got a halo on top of our heads already.

...
...
...

On the other hand, People in Taipei have this bad habit as well, we are so used to outdoing one another, once we meet a person is so naive to stop for others, we have to take advantage of this person no matter what. Then you will see the scene from Brendan Fraser's Bedazzled: the person who helod the door could never be able to leave the door. Not still, if every one starts from itself, we will have a better living environment, won't we?

★: Articles that Rerun in English

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★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(05) Love to eating out loud

Taiwan is famous by its lovely food. Taiwanese love to eat, sometimes it makes people wonder... I always thought only Japanese men can be eating out loud since Japan is a male-dominated society, I can't believe there are more and more Taiwanese male are following Japaneses' footsteps and start eating out loud in public, what a discouraged world.


Eating out loud is nothing compares to cleaning the teeth after meal, cleaning the teeth and making a huge noise, that's scarier.

★: Articles that Rerun in English

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★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(04) Love to stare at others

I mentioned it before, Taiwanese are curious and love to join in the fun.


If Miao-wen and Ji-guan-tou start to Chi-Sau on the street, there will be people join them within few minutes. If Miao-wen looks at them, they will stare back to her. Taiwanese don't think it's rude to stare at people, " This is my right, I love to stare as long as I can", Taiwan really is a free country so to speak, sometimes we just tolerant too much.

General speaking, it's rude when we get on others ways. This kind of staring should be stopped unless nobody cares.

Meanwhile when a person did something wrong and got stared at. Normally this person should feel ashamed and lower his or her head and left the scene as fast as he or she could. But not in Taipei, usually this kind of person would stare back with an attitude. Such as those people who spitting and littering on the streets, not only they won't be ashamed of themselves, but also they would stare back at you. Taiwanese feel that we can't show our weakness first, even though we made a mistake.

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SKY is back

After a long long summer vacation, SKY is back to our blog and keeps helping Japanese to understand Taiwan more.


Welcome back, SKY!

★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(03) Love to bump into others

Mia-wen: Thank God I have been practiced Wingtsung, otherwise who can bear this?

Remember, turn your waist, make your body and his body became an X shape, and parallel your feet...
How to unload force from others

Taiwan is small but there are a lot of Taiwanese living on it, normally people don't know what "personal space" mean. The younger generation can't lock their doors at home. It means you are doing something unspeakable if you locked the door and stayed in the room alone...

Therefore, when Taiwanese pedestrian walking on the streets, we get very close to each other. Since we are so used to "getting close together", even though the streets are so wide, it's easy to bump into others, much less most of the stores owners thought the streets are theirs, they would see the sidewalks as their personal storage space. How can we not bump into each others under this kind of environment?

Except store owners, our postmen love to ride on sidewalks. Whatever happens postmen and policemen are big happy family, who cares?
Feels good to own the sidewalk, wahaha...

★: Articles that Rerun in English

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★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(02) Love to point

It's rude to point at others noses. However Taiwanese thought pointing is a great way to express oneself. I guess it's all right to point when you try to tell others directions. After awhile, Taiwanese get used to point while they are talking, walking, and eating, then it starts to get annoying.

Even though the public people in Taiwan will point fingers to others. Sometimes I wonder, if it's that we Taiwanese don't care about pointing and be pointed at all?

There is a Chinese old saying: make people want to point with their hair, which means when a guy had done a lot of bad things, only use fingers to point at him it's not enough, we have to use our hair to point. Aren't we love to point or what?

★: Articles that Rerun in English

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★ Taiwaneses' bad habits－(01) Love to ask

Taiwanese are different than Chinese in many ways Since we share the same culture, sometimes we do have the same bad habits.

Please don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that Taiwanese are impolite, we are extremely friendly. I do think since we are going to host the international expo in Taipei in 2010, there are few international etiquette we should know about.

First at all, we Taiwanese love to ask about everything, no matter it's personal or not.


For example, when a male is going to shake a female's hand, he should not grab her with one hand, and use another hand to slap the back of her hand loudly... It may be an elder person showing his love to a younger person in Taiwan, but it would look bad when a Taiwanese treat a foreigner like this.

When Miao-wen meets a guy like Tai-di, all she needs to do is steady her horse stance, then Tan Sau towards to Tai-di, then she can get away from him easily.


When Miao-wen really wants to teach Tai-di some international etiquette, she should change her Tan Sau to Lap Sau, and steps forward half of step at the same time, then put Tai-di's two hands together and pull downwards.

Then change Lap Sau to Jum Sau, and turn her waist at the same time, and use her left palm strike upwards. Usually with this distance and this height, she can get to Tai-di's glass chin.

Please remember, not just Tai-di but everyone got a glass chin.

★: Articles that Rerun in English

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Good bye wax apple. Hello lychee!

One of my favorite fruit and the greatest treasure in Taiwan, wax apple, is out of season now...

The one on the left is called "bluish-green jade", and the one on the right is called "black pearl".


My favorite fruit of all time: Lychee!!! The season of lychee used to be in 2 weeks only. Once you miss it, you have to wait for a whole year to get some fresh lychee... But not anymore, the season of lychee is getting longer and longer every year. I don't know how they did that, but I am very thankful.

Taiwan style shampoo(2)

Here is the layout of a typical Taiwanese hair salon, upper-left-hand-side is the front door, lower-right-hand-side is the restroom, counter, chairs, and other stuff. One cup of tea on the lower-left-hand-stand, one cup of coffee on the right.

When Wingtsung girl Miao-wen went to a hair salon, she went to number one chair first, then an assistant came to her, asked her if she would like to have tea or coffee first( some home style salon won't have this kind of service).

















①: Then the assistant squirted out the shampoo on Miao-wen's head. Usually, a scalp massage and shampoo all in one.


②: 10 minutes later, they went over to the sink to rinse off.


③: Then, returning to the chair, the back massage begun. Then the assistant started to blow dry Miao-wen's hair.


④: Miao-wen paid it out front happily.

In Taiwan, people can go to hair salon just for shampooing, cutting, dyeing etc.. People can do it all together or separate. I guess this is a very special, very Taiwanese experience tourists must have.

We say:
shampoo 洗頭 xi-tou
haircut 剪髮 jian-fa

I want to shampoo my hair.
我 要 洗 頭。
wo-yao-xi-tou

I want to get a haircut.
我 要 剪 髮。
wo-yao-jian-fa





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Taiwan style shampoo (1)

I didn't realized how special Taiwan style shampoo is until Sky told me so.

Instead bringing customers to the sink and getting their hair wet, Taiwanese has its own unique way to do it. Usually the stylist will start with some head and shoulders' massage, the start to squirt out the shampoo on customer's hair while they sit on a chair. Some pricy beauty salon would offer tea or coffee to the customers, and may have a flat TV right in front them.


Here are some pictures I took on the streets. This one is just a home style hair salon. Less decoration and much cheaper price.


This salon is a little bit fancier, with nice lightning and colder interior decoration.

Well, since I am very shy and this is SO COMMON in Taiwan, I didn't dare to ask for permission of taking pictures inside... I was just standing outside of the salon and took some blurry pictures... you get the idea...

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五月五慶端午 Dragon Boat Festival

最愛液化石油氣粽!

Love liquified petroleum gas rice dumplings wrapped in leaves the most!

ps: The bucket on the left is a liquified petroleum gas bucket, and it looks like the signboard of the store.

液化石油チマキだって!

追伸：液化石油のタンクが左側に見えるでしょ、なんかこれが看板に見えた、、、

世界無菸日 World No Tobacco Day

當王菲也戒不掉的時候，就真的是個害人不淺的東西了。


王菲－將愛－煙

曲: 張亞東 詞: 林夕 編: 張亞東

有一種蠢蠢欲動的味道　讓我忍不住把你燃燒
把周圍的人都趕跑　對我也不好
我知道　我知道　我戒不掉

戒不掉　花非花的情調　心癮叫我無處可逃
戒不掉　霧非霧的線條　夢想顛倒
夢幻還是聞到　泡影還是看到

滿足指縫一時的無聊　變成脈膊跳動的倚靠
吻著你就忘了煩惱　你變成煩惱
想不到　想不到　我戒不掉

戒不掉　吻你沒有必要　可又有什麼更重要
戒不掉　枉我自栩驕傲　不拿著你就會煩躁
戒不掉　滅了味覺就好　可我的心沒那麼高
放下你　假裝拈花微笑　問題在於

如何平伏心跳　平伏我的心跳
如何平伏心跳　平伏我的心跳


When Faye Wong can't quit smoking, tobacco really means something (bad).

A song named "smoke", which it's in Faye's album "Ready to love", talks about her love to hate feeling towards tobacco. The lyric has some multiple meanings in Chinese. The "smoke" here also can be referring to as "vanish like smoke in thin air" that kind of smoke, which related to her unhealthy love affair, either for tobacco or for a man.

王菲がタバコを辞められない時タバコはとても悪いもののように見えました。

“煙”という歌は彼女のタバコに対しての想いが綴られています。歌詞にはたくさんの意味があります。”煙”は”薄い空気の中に消えていく”煙も意味します。タバコに対してまたは男性に対しての不健康な愛情と関係しているのかもしれません｡

吻著你就忘了煩惱　你變成煩惱
kissing you let me forget all my troubles
after awhile you are becoming trouble
あなたにキスをすると全てのトラブルが忘れられる
だけど少し経つとあなたがトラブルだってわかる

戒不掉　吻你沒有必要　可又有什麼更重要
it's hard to quit
kissing you doesn't mean anything but nothing is more important anymore
辞めるのはとっても難しい
あなたにキスするのはもう何も意味がない、でも何も大切ではなくなってしまった

如何平伏心跳　平伏我的心跳
how to calm my heartbeat calm my heartbeat
私の胸を静かにさせる方法は鼓動を静かにさせること