大家好!
I have been back from Taiwan a month now and I, like Zarah/蘇若才, still think frequently about our experiences there. There are several reasons why I enjoyed the trip (besides the obvious fact that the members of the group were all wonderful people!). Here is Myra/林安 showing her enthusiasm about going to Taiwan while we were waiting for our plane in Minneapolis.
First, I felt that 吳老師/Wu Laoshi’s scheduling provided a great combination of listening and observing plus hands-on activities. As Quincy/倪倩 mentioned in her post, the classes we attended were an excellent opportunity to try out various skills. Clearly Wu Laoshi knows how important it is to get everyone participating and using their hands every now and then (especially when fighting jetlag!) and how that physical involvement is essential to absorbing the information being imparted. The classes on tachi, Chinese medicine, and Chinese rice dough figure-making as well as pottery making in Yingge, opera mask-painting, and tea-picking, roasting and brewing all afforded us the chance to learn about and practice various traditional art forms and techniques.
Second, I really appreciated the trip’s focus on how tradition is manifested in modern Taiwan society. One experience that left a deep impression was our visit on our first full day in Taipei to the Longshan Temple/龍山寺. We were there at approximately 5:00 p.m., and worshippers of all ages and walks of life were thronging to the temple to burn incense, pay respects to the gods, and to join in the late-afternoon round of twice-daily mass chanting. The scene was truly熱鬧. Here was a centuries-old ritual, taking place in ultra-modern Taipei; it was very moving.
I liked how our visits to places in Taipei progressed from the traditional to the modern: we started with the Longshan Temple and the Lin Family Mansion and Garden/林家花園 and ended with shopping and eating in the district of the skyscraper Taipei 101. Also, I thought the choice of having us stay at National Taiwan Normal University was a good one: the area surrounding 師大 had a good mixture of old and new. Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, supermarkets and fancy stores could be found right next to shops selling traditional-themed wares, famous old restaurants, and new eateries serving homestyle Taiwan dishes and other provincial cuisines.
Which brings me to a third reason that the trip was so enjoyable—and I am sure most of the group would agree with me here—the food. I think I liked every meal I had over the course of two weeks, but several that we had as a group stand out in particular: 春水堂 (at the Chiang Kai- Shek Memorial Hall/中正紀念堂, for its bubble tea—first served here, as Candy/李家寶 pointed out in her post—snacks, and noodle dishes ), 豐盛食堂 (for its traditional Taiwan fare), 春天素食 (for its sumptuous vegetarian buffet), and 一佳村(五行餐)in Yilan/宜蘭 (for its local homestyle cuisine). Our dining at all of these restaurants was in keeping with the traditional-within-modern theme of the trip.
Many thanks to Wu Laoshi for all her efforts to make this visit to Taiwan a great success. Best wishes to everyone!
非常感謝吳老師細心的安排與熱心的指導!
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