My Take

An even more turbulent world

April 22, 2024

It almost seems like I keep saying this, but it seems that the world has become more turbulent recently in the Middle East, even amid the ongoing fighting and atrocities committed in Gaza. for a brief moment, some people really did think that World War III wasn’t that far off. I am of course referring to the strikes on Israel by Iran in response to the former destroying an Iranian consulate in Syria, and the retaliation by Israel this past week. For now, the strikes have not escalated but who knows what the two countries will take next. The war in Ukraine is still going on, and things are going badly for the Ukrainians as Russia seems to keep advancing. Even though the US House just passed a bill mandating funding for Ukraine, it might be too late at this point.

In East Asia, Taiwan still remains a flashpoint though there have also been some face-offs and heightened tensions in the South China Sea involving China and the Philippines. With Taiwan’s next president set to be inaugurated next month, being from the same party as the current president who has overseen bad relations with China, there’s a strong chance that cross-strait ties will get even rockier. While I don’t think war will break out right away here, I’m not very optimistic of tensions reducing. One of Taiwan’s former presidents, from the current opposition party, just visited China and met with China’s president at the start of April. However, this was widely criticized by ruling party officials and supporters, who seem to be doing their best to discredit this meeting.

Not that I’m trying to be dramatic, but I think we are living through very ominous times now and the worst may not have occurred yet.

Conversations with Friends- book review

March 13, 2024

Having heard so much about her books, I was really eager to read something by Irish author Sally Rooney. In Conversations with Friends, the first of Rooney’s two much lauded novels, a university student in Dublin and her best friend befriend a photographer and her actor husband. Inevitably, the narrator, Frances, gets involved with the actor which then leads to a furtive relationship and an awkward and tense situation for the quartet.

As Frances and the actor deepen their relationship, including sleeping with each other during a holiday in southern France at a villa where all four are staying, things get complicated and messy for Frances. Illness, tense family interactions, and a breakup between Frances and her best friend ensue. I don’t want to give away too much in case people haven’t read it, but I can say there is no simple conclusion.

As a narrator, Frances is cool and observant, nothing the many little details and perplexing moments that make up a lot of interactions in modern life. However, I couldn’t help but feel that Frances might be a bit too cool as I didn’t feel much sympathy for her.

The prose is concise and direct, and there is a lot of “conversation” in the book. However, there are no quotation marks throughout the book for any of the dialogue which was a little annoying.

I have to admit that I didn’t think the book was that great, mainly because I couldn’t relate with the main character or care much about her affair with the actor, who seemed rather bland. At the same time the book doesn’t focus on Melissa, the photographer who is being cheated on, and it is hard to sympathize with her either.

Road to Little Dribbling- book review

March 8, 2024

After attaining British citizenship, Bill Bryson decides to go on another trip around the nation to replicate a previous one made 20 years ago in the 1990s. Starting in the south, he ventures northwards to London, Wales, northern England, and Scotland. The result – The Road to Little Dribbling – Adventures of an American in Britain – is an amusing, interesting, and at times cantankerous account of a trip around a nation that Bryson is clearly affectionate about.

As a nation full of history, bustling cities, and beautiful scenery, the UK seems an ideal place to travel and explore. It is not tiny nor too big, and there are interesting places in seemingly every part of the island – 20,000 scheduled ancient monuments, 26 world Heritage Sites and 600,000 archaeological sites as Bryson notes. The author covers every type of these places, from outlying areas around London, bucolic villages, seaside communities, national parks, and ancient monuments. To be clear, the book is about Britain, so Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK but on the same island as the Republic of Ireland, is not included.

Traveling by train and by car, Bryson visits these places in separate trips, many of which he visited before 20 years ago. He often laments how much change has taken place while also becoming extremely annoyed on certain occasions at rude or indifferent staff – he is right at times, but sometimes he’s not, which is the only quibble I have with the book. He also criticizes modern behavior and attitudes such as a neglect of public amenities.

Among the places Bryson visits are the coastal counties of Devon and Cornwall in the southwest, East Anglia to the east, Yorkshire and Durham in the northeast, and Lancashire in the northwest. He also ventures to Wales and Scotland, though he doesn’t seem to explore too much of it.

He visits several national parks, which he highlights are all free and some have actual communities in them, such as the Peak District, which is the only one I’ve visited too.

Bryson also highlights British characteristics such as being good at inventing things, but not so much at commercializing them such as computers, and being good at putting up with unpleasant circumstances such as hiking during rainy weather.

To be clear, when it comes to international affairs and history, Britain has a lot to answer for regarding what it did to other countries and peoples, but this is not the book for that. Sticking to travel and judging it as a nation with lots of history, achievements, sights, and quirks, Britain is indeed one of the world’s most fascinating ones.

Family Trust, and Days of Distraction- book reviews

February 3, 2024

Here are two novels I read last year, both written by Chinese-Americans and set in the US.

Diagnosed with cancer, Chinese-American Stanley Huang is faced with having to disclose and divide his supposed hefty wealth among his second wife, his two adult children, and his ex-wife. Indecisive and vacillating, Huang drags this out into an uncomfortable drama that pits his current and former wives and children against each other while there is a lingering suspicion that his wealth may not be as substantial as thought in Family Trust by Kathy Wang.

Complicating this is that Huang’s family all have their own issues, especially his son and daughter, the former an investment banker struggling to move up in a middling firm while the latter manages a job and child while supporting her husband who has left his job to build a start-up.

The suspense over Huang’s true wealth becomes a little overdrawn and the ending is somewhat anti-climatic. However, the novel does provide some insight into Asian-American family dynamics, especially in California, as well as the finance and tech industries.

After her boyfriend decides to pursue graduate studies across the country, the ensuing relocation forces a Californian Chinese-American writer to deal with challenges ranging from career to family and racial tensions in Days of Distraction, by Alexandra Chang.

There is a lot of contemplation and relationship drama, while the writer also researches the history of Chinese immigration in the US which is fraught with discrimination and racial barriers. I found events to be a bit slow, with the most interesting part near the end when she decides to visit her father in China.

Looking back at 2023

December 26, 2023

As 2023 comes to a close, I have to say it was a mixed year that was great in some ways but not so great in others. I took my first trips outside of Taiwan since the pandemic began in 2020, which provided some semblance of near-normality given all the events in the past three years such as lockdowns, mask and quarantine requirements, and sickness and death caused by Covid. Also, in the first half of this year, I left my job at a state news media outlet as I had to take an extended trip to Canada and Trinidad to take care of family matters and also for other issues related to work and weird ongoing events involving persistent verbal and psychological harassment from some people in Taipei.

I also went on a few other trips, visiting a lot of good cities as well as friends abroad, and took some time to think about these past few years, which have been rough for me, and what I would like to accomplish in the near future. My first trip was to Hong Kong, which was also the last place I went to before the pandemic hit as I was working there, then I went to Canada and Trinidad, where I saw relatives and visited my father’s grave. I also visited Singapore, Thailand, Laos, and then Europe and Turkey in the latter half of the year, where I finally managed to visit Istanbul and explored a bunch of other good cities. I even did two moderate but decent hikes including one in the UK’s Peak District, which the top photo is from.

I also wrote several freelance articles, mostly on Taiwan such as on politics, elections, racism, and cross-strait tensions with China. After my Trinidad trip, I wrote my first-ever article about Trinidad where I described the tragic crime situation and mentioned my father’s death.

I’m not too optimistic about the state of the world, which I wrote about in one of my recent posts, and as I reside in Taiwan, there’s a chance things could get more unsteady next year, especially after the presidential election on Jan. 13. I have to say that I did hope that after emerging from Covid pandemic (which actually has not gone away but is nowhere as scary as before) and with life mostly returning to normal (in Taiwan, mandatory quarantine and entry restrictions were only fully lifted in late 2022), the world would have boomed this year. That actually didn’t happened as the economy was rough in many places including Taiwan, which experienced a recession earlier this year, and the war in Ukraine continued to rage on while Israel invaded and is laying waste to Gaza after being attacked by Hamas in October.

Meanwhile, my weird harassment from people like certain neighbors and even strangers in public still continued and escalated (I don’t want to go into too much details here but if we have interacted before and you want to know more, you can contact me).

I think it’s good to be a little more careful in matters like personal finances, health, and career, while also not forgetting to have a bit of fun like traveling. Let’s hope that I’m wrong and things turn out to better than I expect.

I would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a great 2024. Or at least one that won’t be worse than 2023.

Blue Mosque in Istanbul, which was massive and magnificent. The city was as fascinating as I’d expected.

Port of Spain, capital of Trinidad, with the island’s southwest coast in the distance in the top left. It’s a beautiful island but the crime is really terrible and the government is not the most competent.

*Plaza* de España in Sevilla, one of the most attractive public spaces I’ve been in

This was my second visit to London, and it was just as good as the first time

A lakeside view of downtown Toronto and its distinctive CN Tower, the slender tower with the observatory decks in the middle

Even though things may be a little more subdued than a few years ago, Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor and its skyline are still one of the best urban sights in the world.

Night market next to a temple in Luang Prabang, Laos

The Timbuktu School for Nomads – book review

December 23, 2023

The Sahara and its surroundings might be one of the most forbidding and challenging regions in the world, but it is home to fascinating peoples and cultures. In The Timbuktu School for Nomads – Lessons from the People of the Desert, Nicholas Jubber explores this region’s cities, mountains, desert, river, and of course, nomads.

Among these are the famous city of Timbuktu and peoples like the Berbers and Tuareg. Timbuktu, which was the capital of the Mali Empire and has one of Islam’s most distinctive and historic mosques, harks back to a time when the Sahara was a crossroads of trade and exchanges, as well as warfare, as caravans loaded with goods and books criss-crossed the desert.
The hardy Berbers, nomadic Sahara people, fought fiercely against European and Arab encroachment, and in the 21^st century still fight for more autonomy in Morocco. Mali, named after the wealthy African empire and where Timbuktu is located, is a country with a rich historical heritage but struggles with armed insurrection.

It is from the northern Sahara where hardened Tuareg warriors marched out and crossed the sea to Spain, creating dynasties such as the Almoravids and the Almohads in the 11th and 12th centuries respectively.

Jubber also explores lesser-known places, even in the Sahara, which hardly receive coverage in mainstream media or pop culture. One of these places is Western Sahara, a disputed territory claimed by Morocco but where a local resistance movement fights for independence. Morocco itself used to struggle against invasion and rule by Spain and France, but here, it is the oppressor.

Meanwhile, the chapter on the Western African nation of Mauritania provides an unsettling look at slavery, which is still practiced. While it differs from conventional 18^th and 19^th slavery, it is still a shocking reminder of how slavery can still be a regular part of society.

Morocco features heavily as Jubber spends time in well-known cities like Fez, and the Middle Atlas mountain highlands.

The book demonstrates that despite the notion that much of the world might have been explored and visited, there are still regions and countries that are not very well-known but very fascinating.

The Timbuktu School for Nomads is a vivid exploration of a supposedly forbidding region packed with culture, history, turmoil, and mankind’s earliest lifestyle which has largely disappeared across most of the world.

Year published: 2016

A turbulent world

December 4, 2023

Having entered the final month of 2023, the world finds itself with not one, but two wars as the Ukraine-Russia continued into its second year and Israel’s invasion of Gaza, not even a month old, has taken over 15,000 lives. Not to mention the various civil wars and conflicts around the world, as well as natural disasters, more extreme weather, and the ongoing US-China geopolitical struggle, along with sluggish economic growth in countries around the world. There’s no question we live in a very turbulent world that might actually become even more so.

I’m no expert, but I think that even if the Ukraine war might be winding down, that doesn’t mean the problems there have been resolved and the repercussions might have significant effects elsewhere. The current fighting in Gaza, in which Israel initially invaded the northern part before moving down south and has pushed out many thousands of Palestinians, might also have wider repercussions. While I don’t want to push strong views on this blog, I do think that the current international “rules-based order” has actually not produced much order for many parts of the world, which those of us living in the more prosperous and developed areas might not be fully aware of. As an example, why the support for Ukraine in its fight with Russia differs greatly between the West and rest of the world.

So is there any room for optimism or room for hope? Of course there is, but for the near future, it doesn’t hurt to be very cautious and prepare for rockier times ahead. Check up on your friends and family, shore up your savings and keep an eye on your finances, boost your health, don’t forget to have fun though (I went on a few trips this year myself), but also, don’t be surprised if there is a new pandemic.