thoughts

So, here's a brief discussion about why I chose to apply to a program in Taiwan rather than Mainland China. As many CHNS 115 students remarked to me, they didn't even know there were programs in Taiwan that intermediate-level students could take. For whatever reason, the advertisement of the Light Fellowship only pointed 115 students to Duke, HBA, and PiB, although ICLP (Taipei) and CLC (Taichung) both do intermediate-level as well.

As for my reasons for studying in Taiwan, I can honestly say that number one is picking up the Taiwanese accent and avoiding Beijing's. I remember the first time I went to Beijing many years ago and thinking that the appended "r" was the most vile-sounding thing I'd ever heard. My feelings have been tempered since then, but even so I still shudder a little inside when I hear egregious Beijingese. I find the Taiwanese (and Southern China) accent very pretty, with soft "sh" and "ch" sounds (using Pinyin, "chi" becomes "ci") and "nali" rather than "nar." So I'm looking forward to speaking with that way. Zhou laoshi was a little upset about kids going to Taiwan and coming back with what he called the "non standard" accent, which I can understand; but for all intents and purposes I'm going to be speaking Chinese with Taiwanese people in my family / acquiantances, in which case the accent help.

Another reason is my family's heritage in Taiwan, something I have never really explored but wouldn't mind doing. If you know me you know that I'm not a racial extrovert; I'd rather be known and identified by other things than my ethnicity. I'm not a member of any Asian cultural groups and my friends are mostly white, not because I'm trying to react against my heritage and the social patterns that come with it, but because I do activities I like and am friends with people that I like, and they just happen to not be majority Asian.

However, I have felt recently (upon taking 115) that I am, after all, half Taiwanese and that I ought to take some time to find out where I came from. I know as much as my dad has told me (Shaolin monk great-great grandfather fled here after accidentally killing a mayor's son, etc) but other than things like that I really don't know much about my family history. I think they mostly grew up in Tainan but again I'm not sure. I would like to see the town where my dad grew up, and where he went to college, and experience life as he did, eating mangoes by the bushel and scoping out babes on the beach.. I guess?

The reason I picked the Tunghai University program is that the dates worked out with my schedule. I went on tour to Brazil with the Yale Concert Band, and ICLP (Taipei) started a day before we got back. I could have conceivably left Brazil early, but that would imply missing two full days of Rio de Janiero's beaches and sights.. which was not something I really wanted to do, and I'm glad I didn't. So in a way, Tunghai was just my "last option." I wasn't even sure if I was allowed to apply to it, because if you go to the Light website you'll see that the program is covered in intimidating red text.

I really have no idea what to expect at CLC; I'm basically taking a big risk, because if the whole thing sucks I'll have wasted Mr. Light's money, my summer, my friends' time, etc. I'm confident that I'll have a good time, but still the quality of the program is completely up in the air. Regardless, I'm happy to be in Taiwan, which is a beautiful place, and being away from friends which means I might finally be able to do some things on my own (saxophone practice, muay thai workouts, music theory stuff) in my down time. I guess the greatest thing about this whole Light Fellowship deal is that no matter the quality of the program, you're still in a Chinese-speaking country. Bright idea, man.