My Life as Adoga

A good friend of mine recently shared with me a painting he had made, a composite of several images that intrigued me and led me to thinking about the way Taiwanese have come to develop an identity of themselves, both individually and at the national communal level, that is based on International Trade.  Through these contemplations I achieved yet another degree of nuance in my understanding of the psychic ecology of Taiwan, this wonderful land that has welcomed me as a naturalized citizen. It was a delight to be so impacted by an artwork and to see that our artists are among the most important members of our community, for they have the ability to see and share with us those parts of the human experience that we might otherwise never have taken the time to think about. My contemplations divided into two directions, one of which headed directly into the realm of Speculative Fiction (available at the Hu Reads Horror blog). The other direction took me here, to a very personal dive...

Every global competition is a big deal for Taiwan, an island democracy forever facing existential crises. And so it was that Taiwan’s ability to put forward a national team for the 2026 World Baseball Classic meant more than just playing a game. The tournament was, for Taiwan, bigger than merely winning and losing. Each runner on Taiwan’s national team who made his way to homebase was playing against a global political order that would rather see the island democracy and its 23 million people vanish into irrelevance. Just being on the field is already a achievement, but making a good showing while up at bat is an astounding success. On such an uneven field it might seem easier to leave the game and let the ball fall where it will, accepting whatever the umpire of empire decides. But that’s not playing to win, and if the history of baseball says anything, Taiwan has always been in the game to win. Sure, some could scoff that this is “reading too much” into what is for all the nati...

The first and second rules of Fight Club ought to be applied to having knee replacement surgery: “You DO NOT talk about knee replacement surgery. With anybody .” Failure to follow the rules will result in confusion. Dangerous, tremendous confusion . That is especially true if you are an American expat living in Taiwan with contacts in both nations who have undergone the surgical procedure and are eager to talk about it. Add to that the ubiquity of YouTube videos from therapists and patients alike, and you have a child’s recipe for muddle pies. You see … The adventure that is a full knee replacement begins many years before the surgery itself. It starts with the grudging admission that a knee, or both knees, have completely lost their youthful vigor. I’m talking about that time when walking a mere 4,000 steps — what was once a friendly half-hour stroll — becomes a two-hour trudge through discomfort. The feet get blamed, and they step forward to point a finger — er, a toe — ...

A good book is a work of amazing depth. Perhaps that should be the qualification that defines "classic" literature? In 2016 the popular magazine Taiwan Panorama published an article about the Eslite Bookstore's "Reading Classics Together" project. The heart of that story was a survey of participating publishers' definitions of what a "classic" text was and the factors they considered when choosing books from their catalogues for the project. In a second article , the magazine intereviewed writers and scholars about their understanding of what characteristics define a "classic" work of literature. That report considers "the expert reader" and questions of what raises a text to the status of "classic" despite changes in the social environment of readers. Among those characteristics most valued by the scholars and writers of Taiwan who were interviewed for the "Classic Works: Reading Together, Thinking Together...