Rooted in Taiwan, Connected with the World

I just finished reading my first German classic, The Sorrows of Young Werther,  an epistolary novel that I first heard of when I was a child. I felt a sense of fulfillment that, nearly 60 years later, I finally read an English translation of this book, a masterpiece by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. There are many English translations of this book; the one I read was translated by R. D. Boylan. First published in 1774 with a revised version following in 1787, The Sorrows of Young Werther was finished in five and a half weeks of intensive writing by Goethe, then only 24 years old. The book instantly placed Goethe among the foremost international literary celebrities, and he would continue to build his reputation as a polymath and the most influential writer in the German language. The novel is based on biographical and autobiographical facts involvingtwo triangular relationships and one individual: Goethe, Christian Kestner, and Charlotte Buff (who married Kestner); Goethe, Peter Anto...

I just completed my tenth trip under "A Day in Town," my multi-year backpacking plan of spending a day in each of the approximately 350 townships in my country. My destination this time was Changhua County, which borders Taichung City to the north, Nantou County to the east, Yunlin County to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the west. Changhua County has a population of over 1.2 million, making it the seventh most populous administrative division of Taiwan after the six special municipalities. There are 26 townships in Changhua County, including two that are designated as "cities" due to their significant populations (county-administered city: Changhua City and Yuanlin City). On this trip I visited four townships: Xianxi, Shengang, Hemei, and Changhua (City), the adjoining areas that form the northeastern part of the county. I spent my first day in Xianxi, a coastal township facing the Taiwan Strait to the west, and bordering Shengang Township to the north, Hemei ...

I just completed reading another timeless classic, Moby-Dick , arguably the most cited candidate for the GAN─the Great American Novel. I first heard of it when I was in junior high school due to its fame, though I had never read it until two months ago. Published in 1851,  Moby-Dick  is an epic novel, centered on the sailor Ishmael’s narration of Captain Ahab’s monomaniacal quest on ship Pequod , for vengeance against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on the ship's previous voyage.  The novel was authored by Herman Melville, a teacher-turned-sailor and sailor-turned novelist and poet. Born in New York in 1819, Melville completed Typee , his first book, in the summer of 1845. The book was published in London in February, 1846 and became an overnight bestseller in England. In the next four years, Melville wrote a few more books that gave him renown as a writer and adventurer. However, Moby-Dick , now considered his masterpiece, was publis...

I just completed my ninth trip under "A Day in Town," my multi-year backpacking plan of spending a day in each of the approximately 350 townships in my country. My destination this time was Taichung City, one of the six special municipalities, which, along with three provincial cities and 13 counties, make up the subnational divisions of Taiwan. Bordering Miaoli County and Hsinchu County to the north, Ilan County to the northeast, Hualien County to the east, Changhua County and Nantou County to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the west, Taichung City has a population of over 2.8 million, making it the second most populous administrative division of Taiwan after New Taipei City. There are 29 districts in Taichung City, including Heping District, which occupies the eastern half of the city and forms part of the Central Mountain Range and the Xueshan Range. On this trip I visited four districts: Daan, Waipu, Houli, and Dajia, which collectively formed the northwestern corner ...