I think it's been exactly one week since I was here last, and it's been a pretty busy time. Let me fill you in.
First, and most awesomely, my apartment now only has three housemates. The two college kids (for more information, see this post) moved out on July 1st, and its been nothing but piece and quiet since. Fittingly, they did little to clean up after themselves, as their living space was unswept, and the wall stained with dirt from their feet. We'll be repainting soon. Punks.
Additionally, I had a pretty enjoyable Sunday, mostly because I met up with and British guy I know, and spoke nothing but English the whole day. Lovely. We decided to head north to Taipei's most famous museum, the National Palace Museum (故宮博物院), which houses the thousands and thousands of artifacts the Guomindang took from the Mainland when they retreated to Taiwan starting in 1948. This fact apparently irritates the Chinese to no end, since Taiwan played little to no role in ancient China's cultural development, and there's not the slightest chance Taiwan will give up the museum's wares.
Once inside, there are three levels to the main building, and the first exhibit rooms feature picks, trowels, daggers, etc. dating back almost 8,000 years. Museum officials are quite proud of this longevity, and they let their feelings be known publicly. In the first room, there's a large sign proclaiming the glories of Chinese culture, the world's "longest, most vital, and most important." Take that, Smithsonian.
The exhibition halls progress chronologically, and begin, as mentioned, with the pre-dynastic times, transition into the Zhou Era (周時代), the Spring and Autumn Period (This is when the classics of Daoism emerge), the Warring States Period (Confucius, Mencius, and Lao-tse), and finally into the 2,000-year Imperial Era. It's pretty cool.
The museum‘s most famous piece is a piece called, roughly, "The White Cabbage Jade:"
The picture's not mine (note the watermark at bottom right), but you still get an idea of how cool this thing is.
After the museum and after some food, the Limey and I decided to hit up "Kung Fu Panda," or 功夫熊貓, at the main movie theater in Taipei's XiMenDing area, the city's rough equivalent of Times Square. It's hilarious, and highly recommended to all and sundry. Fat noodle-selling pandas trained by rodent kung fu master to defeat world's greatest tiger warrior makes for some seriously good viewing, trust me. I'm not going to say anything more.
I'm about to wrap this up, but I'm feeling the itch to write about some of the still-visible remnants of the Guomindang's "One China" pretensions, as well as about some of the funny English one sees around town. I'll be taking some pictures to help make my point.
