Lin Chong-Pin (林中斌) describes his hobby of photography as heaven.
The cross-strait affairs analyst, a professor at National Sun Yat-sen University and an adviser to the National Security Council, is well-known for his calm demeanor and his ability to predict China's internal changes and developments in cross-strait relations. His in-depth study of the People's Liberation Army also earned him recognition.
But such serious pursuits are not necessarily incompatible with soft and tender hobbies.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
He turned one of his photographs into a New Year's greeting card for friends. The card reads, "The 500-year-old Zen-inspired rock garden at the Daitokuji Temple in Kyoto offered us a precious moment of peace in an otherwise unsettling world and time ? which would have been spoiled by the faces of us mortals in the photo."
Lin said his friends appreciate the picture, which he believes shows his "inner self."
Lin's work photography began in the 1960s when, as a geology student, he had to take pictures of geological formations.
The work required being able to show the precise texture of rocks and minerals and using a hammer in the picture to demonstrate scale. Such a rigid system seems at odds with Lin's artistic side.
Lin furthered his photographic abilities by joining his company's camera club when he was a geologist in the US in the 1970s.
This Old Man!, an iconic picture Lin took in 1970, was a "lucky shot [taken] without thinking twice," Lin said. The photo, taken in a park in Tainan, earned him first prize in the human category of a competition held by the National Industrial Recreation Association in the US in 1977.
The picture demonstrated his potential to his colleagues and friends. Since then, photography has been an inseparable part of Lin's life.
"I never intended for this picture to become anything. ?But the way he sat there showed me his sadness and loneliness ? he lives in another world. ? I took the picture without thinking twice," Lin said.
His success didn't end with that one photo. Daybreak, taken in 1976 in Glacier National Park in Montana, won him first prize in a competition held by the Colorado Council of Camera Clubs.
The long time Lin spent waiting in the cold that windy morning became an unforgettable part of that picture, he said.
"The scene disappeared in an instant," he said.
Lin added that he went back to the site, as he promised he would do, 19 years later with his new bride hoping to catch the same scene. But the couple weren't able to experience the same spectacular sunrise.
According to Lin, instinct is a photographer's most valuable asset, adding that the pictures he is most satisfied with stemmed from his original thoughts.
Inspired by his favorite photographer, Ansel Adams, Lin took the Lone Pine in Yosemite National Park in 1985 while he was a student in the US.
"I was lost in time," describing his feeling while shooting the picture.
"I prefer the surreal, dream-like atmosphere of a picture," he said.
Lin, a classical music fan, found a deeper reason for his love of Adams' pictures when he learned that Adams once played the piano.
"Because there's music in those pictures," Lin said.
Lin's photographs often mimicked his personal life.
Festive fruits, taken in his brother's home in San Jose, California, in 1991, told of good things to come. Lin saw it as a sign as his wife, Alice Chang (
After he returned to Taiwan to serve in government, he photographed plants near his home that can be easily seen in mountain areas.
"That shows a rather unique family life," Lin said.
Lin said that photography fills his heart with peace, quiet and joy in the face of his busy and politicized work.
"Political issues are important, but they are temporary. Things that are politically correct now aren't necessarily politically correct 10 years from now," he said.
But photography can last forever, Lin said.
"Photography is a search inside. I find internal peace through it."
Lin doesn't bring his camera on business trips, however, "because they are not compatible.
"Taking pictures requires an attitude which can be considered anti-social. Otherwise you can't take good pictures. You have to temporarily leave this world," Lin said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift