Rooted in Taiwan, Connected with the World

I have loosely read articles about animal ethics, animal rights, and even environmental ethics in general, but I did not have a structured understanding of the basics of the related theories and practices, which began gaining popularity in the late 20th century. Incidentally, a seminar on animal ethics had been scheduled to be held at a venue I frequently visit, so I went to attend my first lesson on animal ethics—a desirable learning opportunity, partly due to the prevailing pet phenomenon, even though I don't keep any pets myself. On the other hand, as people are becoming more aware of and reflecting on our relationships with animals and the environment in general, I was interested in what the seminar had to offer. The seminar took place last Saturday morning, with a keynote speech titled Watch Animals, Love Animals, Eat Animals—How Distant Animal Ethics Are from Us .  The speaker was Dr. Huang, an animal lover, and more interestingly, a professor of the Department of Foreign Lan...

This week, I shared some memorable moments with my fellow Toastmasters. Having completed my three-day backpacking trip in Pingtung County, I took the train back to New Taipei City before noon on Thursday and joined a meeting of my fellow Toastmasters that same evening. This meeting was special because my fellow Toastmaster Jo was moderating a thirty-minute panel discussion titled Moment of Truth in Toastmasters, and I was honored to be invited as one of the panelists. There was, as usual, an interesting meeting theme under which everyone shared their memorable first-time experiences, both within and outside of Toastmasters, in an open, friendly, and uplifting atmosphere. My most memorable first at Toastmasters was its culture of helping and serving one another, as well as the Table Topic session for practicing impromptu speech in English, both  experienced during a meeting I joined as a guest nearly two years ago. This experience assured me that this was the community I should joi...

I'm ending my backpacking, my fourth time in Pingtung County this year, with this blog post. Though I had visited Pingtung three times in May and June, with each trip lasting 5 days, I still missed many places of interest in this southernmost county of Taiwan. In particular, the Hengchun Peninsula, the lower part of its land, previously known as Lonkiauw, which until the 1870s had still been considered lands beyond the jurisdiction of the then-ruling Qing Empire, with the Rover Incident and other fascinating events and peoples, just like wbat vividly narrated and reconstructed in the PTS series Seqalu Formosa 1867. The other thing I wanted to learn more about is the unique Hakka culture called Liudui that has been well preserved for 300 years and is part of the identity of Pingtung County. However, out of Pingtung, few people really know Liudui culture well, and that's why I wanted to pay another visit to familiarize myself with it. Thus, in line with my usual  backpacking sche...

I just had some unforgettable moments, shared with my fellow Toastmasters during our biweekly meeting today. As usual, I left my home in Chungho before eight o'clock, riding a Ubike to our meeting venue in Sanchong (bordering Luchou, about 12 kilometers from my home). All of a sudden, it started raining, so I had to return the Ubike midway and switch to the MRT to reach the meeting venue. We had an interesting meeting theme today about the arts, and I was assigned the task of hosting the Table Topic session where participants can practice delivering impromptu speeches. I was excited about it, but it rained so hard that I wondered how many people would show up on this rainy, early Saturday morning. You know what? As it turned out, we had a full room of participants joining the event, the most as I can remember recently, including both the guests and our fellow Toastmasters.  It's my instinctive belief that "those who regularly get up early on Saturday morning are extraordin...