Rooted in Taiwan, Connected with the World

I just completed my sixth 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 Hsinchu City, the second smallest among the 20 subnational divisions of Taiwan after Chiayi City, densely populated with over 470,000 people. Despite its size, the historical, cultural, and economic influences of the city are by no means small. For one thing, it was home to the first city wall built in northern Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty (1733), under which the administration would rule the entire northern Taiwan (north of the Dajia River). It is also home to the Hsinchu Science Park, where TSMC, the semiconductor giant representing Taiwan's Silicon Shield, is headquartered. Moreover, it's home to research institutions of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and National Tsing Hua University, of which I was lucky enough to be an alumnus. On this trip, I visited all three districts of t...

As part of my extended study of Coriolanus , my tenth Shakespeare play, I explored the lives of people in ancient Roman and imperial Roman times, and gained new insights from the aspects of calendars, beliefs, and religions that arguably have existed since prehistoric times but had puzzled me until recently. Though it is all common knowledge or history, I'm so excited because I feel like all the dots have connected, and felt compelled to document what I learned in this blog for internalization. To start with, I had been confused about the various calendar systems but I had never taken a close look at it. Now I have learned that there are so many calendars, extant or not─approximately one hundred of them, according to Wikipedia. Calendars fall into four types: lunisolar, solar, lunar and seasonal. Most pre-modern calendars are lunisolar. The seasonal calendars rely on changes in the environment (e.g., "wet season", "dry season") rather than lunar or solar observa...

I just completed my fifth 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 Taoyuan City, arguably the fastest growing among the subnational divisions of Taiwan, including six special municipalities, 11 counties, and three cities. Taoyuan City is special to me because during the last ten years of my career, I worked there at least once a week (I worked at multiple ocations, including two in Taoyuan). Ironically, however, I was so focused on work that I knew very little about it. It was through backpacking, a hobby I picked up after my retirement three years ago, that I started getting to know more about it. On this trip, I visited four districts: Guishan, Luzhu, Dayuan, and Taoyuan, altogether forming the northernmost part of the city. Guishan is ideally situated, bordering five districts of New Taipei City, and has been an important hub for manufacturing and logistics. With ...

I just completed studying Coriolanus , my tenth Shakespeare play. It is one of the last two tragedies that Shakespeare completed between 1605 and 1608, the other being Antony and Cleopatra. I studied the latter last year; with over 3,800 lines, it was the longest Shakespeare play I had read at the time. Its scenes are set during the turbulent years when the Roman Republic was transitioning into the Roman Empire.  Interestingly, Coriolanus is even longer, containing over 4,000 lines. Furthermore, its scenes are set in ancient Rome, over two hundred years earlier than those of Antony and Cleopatra . The play begins just after the last Roman king, Tarquinius, is overthrown, marking the end of the Roman Kingdom and the beginning of the Roman Republic. By studying Coriolanus alongside Antony and Cleopatra , I have gained a clearer picture of the complex history surrounding the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. It also allowed me to appreciate the deep Roman...