228 Memorial Park

As an addendum to my last post, I’m including some pictures I took for the 228 memorial park in Chiayi. I have pictures of the one in Taipei as well, but I know there are plenty of those out there! =)

I liked the park, even though it felt pretty run-down.  First thing was the museum:

With it’s nifty sign (it’s directly across from the entrance shown in the first photo).

228 Massacre

February 28, 1947 was the catalyst for uprisings against the corrupt Chinese government in Taiwan.  Uprisings which were later suppressed brutally and which began decades of martial law and the period known as the “White Terror”.

For more on the history, please visit this site.

In the interest of completeness, I looked up a few articles on the events this year:

1. report from India – only “foreign” report I could find, added for perspective’s sake.

2. sit-in rally – group of people made the words “do not forget 228″ in Liberty Square.

Sesame Oil Chicken Update

While I was googling Sesame Oil Chicken, I found out that it’s normally eaten with mi^h sua^h (麵線), so that’s what I did next.. :p Below are the pictures of what I ended up with.

I cooked some of those Japanese style thin noodles in a combination of water and chicken broth, cut some pieces of chicken and poured both broths (chicken & sesame) over the noodles.

With, of course, the obligatory close-up picture.

Sesame Oil Chicken (麻油雞)

When I wandered into the kitchen to find food to eat, I remembered I had defrosted chicken thighs, so I took it out to prep it.  That’s when I realized it wasn’t boneless… oops.  I originally planned to cut it up, marinate, and stir fry but I wasn’t about to go through all the work of cutting around bone!

Long story short, I cooked them whole and the sesame oil sitting on my counter called out to me so I added it in.. the oil smelled so good, I ended up making some variation of sesame oil chicken. :p

I googled a couple recipes while it was cooking and ended up adding both rice wine and green onions.

The rest of the ingredients were fairly intuitive so I had added them already (ginger, soy sauce, water, sesame oil), along with my own creative additions (salt rubbed on chicken before frying, pepper, and a dash of sugar to bring out the sweetness of the chicken).

Here are a couple pictures of “professional” ones in Taiwan as a reference.

Yes, my pieces of chicken were clearly way bigger and they pulled the ginger out on the sides of the bowls as decoration.

They also don’t have any green onion…I thought there weren’t either but I figured it couldn’t hurt to combine recipes.  They are actually a nice touch, taste-wise.

I should get one of those fancy bowls too so I can make it look all cool and traditional looking.

Note to self: less oil, bigger pieces of ginger, and smaller pieces of chicken for next time.

UPDATE: I know the link to the second picture disappeared.. appparently that website was revamped… and is still a work-in-progress.. I don’t want to remove the picture until I find a replacement picture because it will ruin the whole format, so bear with me. =)

Opening Ceremony Controversy

I think this news has been out for a while now… but I figured I’d write it up anyway.

According to this article, the footage of footprint fireworks was faked — aka, digitally created on a computer… a feat that took almost a year to accomplish.  In addition to that, the little girl singing Ode to the Motherland was switched at the last minute because she wasn’t pretty enough.

Here’s a better article on the switch.

Thoughts on the Fireworks

I have mixed feelings about the fireworks — on one hand, it’s neat that they were able to digitally create it and make it look realistic… but this is the olympics, not hollywood.  At least when I go watch a movie, I KNOW that it’s probably fake.

Olympics

The opening ceremony was as impressive as expected, but I think I’d  be more impressed if I had watched it on a bigger screen and with better sound (my tv is smaller than 17″ and I watched at an angle from across the room).

The choreography is by far the most impressive aspect.. I was intrigued by the huge LCD screen/scroll, but since that’s just a display of money spent, it didn’t impress me that much. :p

The amount of practice the performers must have gone through to be totally in sync — now that I can appreciate.  That and the artistic vision of the choreographer, of course.

Some slightly less censored thoughts:

Hand, foot and mouth disease

Just saw this article which reported an increase in reports of hand, foot and mouth disease, as well as discovery and punishment of corruption related to it.

Apparently, some doctors and officials were giving injections of a bogus “vaccine” to make money, and knowledge of the disease was not spread or properly handled.

I think the biggest complaint from the sars outbreak was the under-reporting/cover-up of cases, so it’s encouraging that the CCP changed its guidelines for reporting cases to more accurately gauge conditions/progress of the disease.

I hope the increased transparency continues and that this isn’t just a political tactic for the olympics or whatever reason.

By the way, the WHO says this will peak in June and July so hopefully with increased vigilance it won’t turn out to be such a huge disaster as sars. The disease seems to target children, which I feel makes it a bigger tragedy.

After all, that’s what made the pharaoh finally give in to Moses, wasn’t it?

Dalai denying religious freedom?

I learned about a protest against the Dalai Lama, and of course, I had to look into it. Even though this particular organization seems to have been at this for some time, I hadn’t heard of it before.

I was intrigued about their claims because it seems to me that Dalai Lama has few powers in “repressing” or causing others to face “inhuman situations”. This group is clearly very biased and emotional, so I sought a more neutral source.

I found a wikipedia page on Dorje Shugden, as well as another page with a series of essays and articles devoted to the controversy.

A summary of what I understand so far:

Tibet riots staged?

I had been meaning to cut down on the Tibet stuff but I read today that the PLA may have incited the riots using “agent provocateurs”. This conclusion was according to images from British satellites.

What caught my attention was this image (unfortunately, I don’t know where/when it’s from):

I guess you could say it’s photoshopped, but I can also say pictures of violence in Chinese media are too, and we won’t get anywhere on that line of argument.

Now, I don’t know if it’s true that these recent riots were staged, but I found another article which described the same tactic used in 1989. Here’s an exerpt:

Ma’s plans for the economy?

Even though Ma hasn’t officially taken office yet, there’s already been several changes (or talk of changes). So keeping in mind Ma’s platform of improving the economy, let’s take a look at what’s been reported so far (in chronological order):

Plans to change “Taiwan” on stamps back to “ROC”

This is hardly surprising, considering his vow to change it back, but it is ironic since he kept saying he was “Taiwanese” before the election. It also has nothing to do with the economy.

I guess when he said “immediately”, he meant “after I attempt to eradicate Taiwanese identity/nationalism”.

Raise gas prices

Previously, gas prices were frozen (an act the KMT promoted before the election). However, post-election, KMT officials claimed, “oil companies are losing money and will go bankrupt within a month”.

It’s been a month since this was reported and there’s no sign of bankruptcy.