Rooted in Taiwan, Connected with the World

I first opened this book in mid November last year. Then I read it every day, some more than others, and now, two and a half months later, I finally finished reading my long-shelved literature classic: Anna Karenina . As the novel was originally written in Russian, the copy I read was an English version. There are seven popular English translations and the one I read was translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, with 817 pages for the text alone. The novel is a masterpiece of what is called literary realism, written by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy and published in 1878. Tolstoy called it his first true novel, though he had previously published other brilliant works, most notably War and Peace , which was widely acclaimed. The story of the novel centers on an extramarital affair between Anna, the wife of a senior statesman (Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin), and cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg and for...

I just completed studying The Comedy of Errors, my ninth Shakespeare play. It is the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays, with only 1870 lines, compared to Hamlet , the longest with 4030 lines. It's among Shakespeare’s early works, reportedly premiered in 1592, but the play was not published until it appeared in the First Folio in 1623. Set in the Greek city of Ephesus, The Comedy of Errors tells the story of two pairs of identical twins who, only a month after birth, are separated during a shipwreck. 33 years later, in search of their twin brothers Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities lead to wrongful beatings, a near-seduction, the arrest of Antipholus of Ephesus, and false accusations of infidelity, theft...

Having watched a documentary about the six wives of Henry VIII and the children he had with them, I was deeply intrigued by the dynastic history of medieval England. Recently I watched further videos on YouTube about Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and found their stories, and those of their parents and children, equally fascinating, if not more so, than that of Henry VIII of England, his six wives and their children. There are too many interesting details, rumored or historical, available on the internet, and I'll cover only a few of them in this blog. It all started with the The White Ship disaster, a devastating accident in which a vessel transporting many nobles, including William Adelin, the heir to the English throne, sank in the English Channel during a trip from France to England on 25 November 1120. Only one (a butcher from Rouen) of approximately 300 people aboard survived. Then, the reigning King of England Henry I sought to be succeeded, instead, ...

I just completed my fourth trip under "A Day in Town", my multi-year backpacking plan of spending a day in approximately 350 townships in my country. My destination this time was New Taipei, the largest among the six municipalities of Taiwan with a population of over four million. The New Taipei City government administers 29 districts, including Zhonghe, where I have lived for 60 years now. On this trip, I visited four districts: Pinglin, Shiding, Shenkeng, and Xizhi. Pinglin District is in the southeastern corner, surrounded by other districts of New Taipei including Wulai, Shiding, Pingxi, and Shuanxi, and bordering Ilan County to the east. Pinglin is best known for its tea manufacturing. And, in spite of its mountainous terrain Pinglin was once a boom town because of its location as the gateway between Taipei and Ilan. With the completion of National Freeway 5, the expressway linking Taipei and Ilan, in 2006, Pinglin lost its gateway status and its population has contract...

I just completed studying As You Like It , my eighth Shakespeare play. The play is categorized as a pastoral comedy, a genre of art depicting an idealized form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture.  This is the first time I have experienced the genre in any form of art. The play reportedly premiered in 1599 to mixed receptions, with Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw famously criticizing that it lacked the high artistry of which Shakespeare was capable, and that Shakespeare wrote the play as a mere crowdpleaser. On the other hand, arguably the most quoted phrase, "All the world's a stage," is embedded in the play, which alone should make this play immortal. The play follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden, the major scene wh...