my recent reads

Vignettes of Taiwan by Joshua Samuel Brown

This book was great for me because I could read 1-2 little short vignettes a day on topics such as Taiwanese history, betel nut girls, night markets with stinky tofu, dating, gambling, and the lantern festival. Yes, that's right! They even have a vingnette on my stinky tofu!

Until I read this book, I had no idea that the romanization of Chinese names is steeped in politics. The author states, "Prior to the late 1990s, Taiwan used the Wade-Giles system, allowing names of places to be read by people unfamiliar with Chinese characters. The Wade-Giles system was also likely politically acceptable, being different from the Janyu Pinyin used in China. In recent years, the Taiwanese government has attempted to switch to a third system, called Tongyong. However, not all cities and counties in Taiwan agree with this change, resulting in a confusing set of circumstances in which the romanized spellings of certain place names may be spelled differently on signs and maps around the island, depending on the political leanings of the sign painters or map makers at the time." This is a recent publication, with a copyright of 2006.

Peony in Love by Lisa See

I started reading this book on vacation after finishing Lisa See's bestseller Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I had to stop halfway through because it got kind of strange. I'm not giving away the book by telling you that most of the book is an after death experience. Bad things happen when your family doesn't burn enough ghost money money so you don't have resources in the afterlife... but I really don't want to read about a fictional afterlife. Sorry.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Excellent. I found it at my local library, but it's good enough to buy. I read the whole book over about two days while we were in Texas. I had heard of the ancient practice of foot binding before but really didn't know much about it until reading this novel. Perfect foot binding was a necessity to marry well and have good relationships with your husband's family. The novel stated that one in ten girls would die from foot binding infections, and it would take a couple of years to recover fully from the ordeal. The Chinese government ordered footbinding to stop in 1912, but it takes a long time for traditions so steeped in culture to end. There are some old women in Taiwan who have bound feet. I'm not posting pictures to this blog because they can be a little shocking the first time you see them. If you would like to know more about what foot binding looks like, go to this link. There is a foot binding culture museum in Taipei County, by the way.