`Hoping for Hoping' might seem a hopeless name for an organization until you learn that the second "hoping" (和平) is actually the Romanization of "peace" in Chinese and that the group is one of the founding members of Taiwan's nascent peace movement.
Their hope is that tomorrow, all peaceable-minded people will turn out for a gathering in Taichung complete with food, drinks and music from 15 local bands. Admission is NT$300 and all proceeds go to local charities.
PHOTO COURTESY OF HOPING FOR HOPING
Jindowin, .22, Dakanow, Milk, Dahai, Anglers, Mandala, Schlumpy, The Deported, Chicken Rice, Boosie Chillin, Rocket Girl!, Robin Dale, Wise Maneouvers, and Blacksummerdaycamp will all take the stage of the Night Sky Outdoor BBQ starting at 2pm with an after party featuring DJs from Chi Funk and the rhymes of Elementality.
"Peace," says organizer Dave Nichols. Hoping for Hoping was founded last year by a group consisting mostly of foreign residents of Taiwan opposed to the US' invasion of Iraq. They met with several like-minded locals and drew some 300 people to a protest rally on the steps of the American Institute in Taiwan last February.
Hsia Chu-joe (夏鑄九), a professor at National Taiwan University and long-time political activist, was among them. He offered a history lesson on Taiwan's peace movement.
"After the lifting of martial law, besides the movement for democracy, there were others, such as the labor movement, the farmers' movement, student movement, womens' movement, gay and lesbian movement and the environmental movement, including people opposed to nuclear power," Hsia said. "We were called the pian di kai hua (
Following that rally, Hoping for Hoping held their first peace rally in Taoyuan County, with many of the same musical acts that will be performing at this year's event.
Night Sky BBQ is located at 199, Chung Gang Road, Taichung (
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated