`Nineteen Eighty-Four' nails it
Dear Johnny,
I am in the unfortunate position of having an office opposite Taipei Railway Station, so I'm forced to endure the endless chanting of the Red Guards camped out in front. Every time I hear them histrionically screaming "A-bian xiatai," I can't help but think of the Two Minutes Hate from Nineteen Eighty-Four.
And after seeing the breathtaking change of the KMT from sworn eternal enemy of the Chinese Communist Party to best friends, I'm reminded again of Nineteen Eighty-Four, where Oceania would vilify their enemy, then suddenly switch allegiances and claim they'd been friends all along.
When I read Orwell's work so many years ago, it was clear that it was a cautionary tale against totalitarianism. But have the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) misinterpreted it as a manual for governance?
Teacher Brian
PS: I think I saw you at Hong Kong airport last year. Were you the guy chewing betel nut at the check-in? I know the stuff is addictive, but couldn't you at least have waited until you set foot on Taiwanese soil?
Johnny replies: Last time I was at Chek Lap Kok I was too busy having my nail clippers confiscated to chew betel nut. I said to the security guard: "Look at my toenails. See how long and sharp they are? [I was wearing flip-flops] Come on, tough guy, why don't you confiscate my feet?" Of course, as a Hongkie he wasn't too happy about a grizzled Taiwanese giving him cheek, but my gal Cathy Pacific calmed him down with some passable Cantonese and one of her soothing smiles. I don't know how she does it. A damn shame, that: I never got the clippers back, and they were an heirloom, too.
Look, Brian, the chances of Orwell serving as an inadvertent inspiration for ongoing KMT/PFP thuggery are pretty slim. Why? Because most of the blue camp are simply not interested in quality literature -- unless it's Han Fei Tzu's (
Run to the hills
Dear Johnny,
Considering the scarlet mob might overthrow Chen Shui-bian (
If President Lu starts a war with China, how will foreigners be evacuated from Taiwan? Will it be like the fall of Saigon? Should I try to catch a helicopter from the roof of the American Insitute in Taiwan (AIT)? And when I end up as a refugee in Okinawa, will my Taiwanese credit cards still work?
Also, I noticed that sometimes Lu wears the exact same cat glasses as Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) wife Jiang Qing (江青). Is there a chain of optometrists that caters to female ideologues?
Digging a Bomb Shelter
Johnny replies: So many questions, so little space. Well, Digging, if you're such a coward that you would leave Taiwan in its hour of need, I hope that the Okinawan ATMs spit out your George and Mary credit card and laugh in your yellow face. But if you insist on being a refugee, find yourself some Aboriginal friends before it's too late. When those missiles start hitting the cities, it's the mountains where you'll wanna be and it's Aboriginal people you'll wanna be with -- they're the ones who'll be able to find food when the 7-Elevens run out of paomian.
Forget AIT. You think tens of thousands of foreigners are going to skip Taiwan via a compound fortified to withstand the most tenacious visa applicant?
And yes, there is a small chain of stores that sells horn-rimmed spectacles and other monstrous face wear for budding Dowager Empresses -- but by appointment only. I understand that People First Party Legislator Shen Chih-hui (
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and