Potpourri: A Terrible Law, Taiwanese Comics and Children's Books, and a Parade in Dadaocheng
Plus: Book club details on Andrea Lee's Red Island House.
Hello dear friends, dear readers,
Once again, we’re sorry for being out of touch. (We’ve paused payments for four months, as we feel guilty taking money from paid subscribers, but we’ll continue to be in touch every other week.) We’ve been really overwhelmed. Almost immediately after no-longer-a-baby P. recovered from the enterovirus, a series of typhoon days were preemptively called by the Taipei city government due to Typhoon Krathon, which was categorized as a “super typhoon,” whipping up winds of up to 245 kph. The typhoon made landfall in the south of the island on a Wednesday, but it had a mind of its own and slowed to a crawl. The cities in the south all called days off, leaving mayors in northern cities in something of a pickle: should they call a typhoon day or not? The northern mayors decided to call a typhoon day early, even though the storm’s eye was still far off. Across the island, parents with school-age children collectively groaned, as we lost another week of childcare.
Typhoon days are an odd political football. They are obviously popular in a population that is overworked and receives very few holidays each year. Rumors quickly spread that George Hsieh, the mayor of Keelung, a port city north of Taipei, was the main figure in pushing northern cities to call days off. At the time, Hsieh was facing a recall vote—he just survived it—and media reports saw the decision as a way to save his political skin.
In general, it’s been a weird time for Taiwanese politics. It feels like we are in a lull before the US elections—everybody is waiting to see how that shakes out. (Check out Michelle’s short piece in The Dial.) In September, the story that dominated public discussion was the detention of former Taipei city mayor and chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party Ko Wen-je on corruption charges. We’ve written about our strong dislike for Ko in the past, but we found the constant media obsession with the event, as well as the glee on social media after Ko was detained, distasteful.
As people who are generally suspicious of prosecutors, we also oppose the specific crime that Ko is charged with: 圖利罪, translated into English as “Abuse of Public Power for Private Profit.” Some of Ko's supporters have claimed that no equivalent exists in other advanced democracies; this is not true. But the problem in Taiwan is that “abuse of public power” is defined so vaguely that it’s become a favorite tool for prosecutorial overreach. It has basically become a catch-all to harass or punish any public servant. We’ve had friends who were detained—and Taiwanese detention centers are notoriously horrible places—on completely bogus charges.
Here’s the most ridiculous example of someone charged with “abuse of public power for private profit.” An elderly woman from China brings in 1.5 kilograms of cured meat without declaring it to customs. Customs officials discover the meat and send the woman to be questioned by an officer named Ji. After talking to the elderly woman, Officer Ji realizes that she was illiterate and unaware of the regulations. He confiscated and destroyed the meat, deciding not to impose the 15,000 NTD fine.
So what did the prosecutors do? The Taoyuan District Prosecutor's Office charged Ji with “abuse of public power,” claiming he sought to “benefit the woman.” Most absurdly, the Taoyuan District Court convicted him, sentencing him to 10 months in prison, suspended for 4 years, and requiring him to perform 150 hours of community service and attend legal education classes. Thankfully, Ji appealed, and the Taiwan High Court acquitted him. But prosecutors—ever so petty—decided to appeal that decision. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's ruling, confirming that Ji had no intent to profit from his actions and had exercised administrative discretion within his duties.
All of this is to say that we take no joy in seeing Ko being detained on these charges. Let’s hope the whole situation doesn’t lead to further polarization and mistrust of public institutions, but from the initial report, it seems that l’affaire-Ko is only going to deepen fractures in public trust.
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But our big news: Michelle has a new job! Since June, Michelle has been leading a project for the Ministry of Culture that was awarded to Locus Publishing to promote and translate Taiwanese children’s and comic books. For years, Taiwanese writers and artists have been internationally recognized at the best festivals, among them the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and the Angoulême Comics Festival. She’s happy (we think?) with the work, even though Taiwanese work culture is intense and the project is huge. The best part of the job: our house has been filled with beautiful children’s books and awesome manga. On a completely impressionistic note—Taiwanese children’s books are totally wild! They are much more surreal, unflinching in depicting reality, and sometimes downright weird when compared to the stuff we find in U.S. bookstores. Today we want to introduce a few books that we’ve really loved.
Taiwanese Children’s and Comic Books
Michelle here. Ha, Albert is so positive about my new job, but I feel way too old to be pulling all-nighters. Still, I just love being surrounded by books and learning about these two genres. I’ll continue to teach a class at NCCU, but it’s been great to branch out. For now here are a few cool books!
Democracy on Fire: Breaking the Chains of Martial Law in 1977
In 1977, A-Wen found himself on the other side of history, recruited as a spy. His mission was to infiltrate the campaign headquarters of independent candidate Hsu Hsin-liang. But to his surprise, he became inspired by the idealistic people he encountered there.
This book portrays a pivotal moment in Taiwan’s democracy movement, the Zhongli Incident. During the election, an election staffer destroyed the ballots of an elderly couple. Instead of arresting the staffer, the police arrested the couple. Outraged, people took to the streets, and the police responded violently, killing two young men, Chiang Wen-kuo (江文國) and Chang Chi-ping (張治平).
I loved this book, especially because it’s framed by the Sunflower Movement. When A-Wen’s granddaughter heads out to join the protest, her parents tell her to stay home and study. As she leaves, A-Wen reflects on 1977. By the end of the book, he’s watching his granddaughter on television and remembering the friend he lost.
Mr. Wang on the Street
A child encounters Mr. Wang, a man who waters the plants, tends to the kumquat trees, and pushes a cart that carries all his belongings. Every night, he searches for a safe place to sleep, knowing that once he closes his eyes, he can't protect himself. This is a rare picture book about homelessness, offering a gentle way to talk to children about people without homes.
The Old Man with a Dog Face Bookstore
Every day after school, a boy visits a bookstore on the first floor of his building, run by a dog who reads to him. One day, the boy learns he has to move and tells the dog.
Spoiler alert: the dog turns out to be his father, who passed away and returned in the form of a dog. Yes, it’s a bit strange, but I absolutely loved it and found myself teary-eyed. Alas, this book is not part of the catalog that I’m supposed to promote, because the selection committee probably thought it was too odd for its rights to be purchased by other countries. But I mention it here because it is awesome.
My Friend Lives in a Neighboring Village
From shrimp ponds to cabbage fields, wild wax apples to the greetings of elderly neighbors, this book offers a colorful tour of Taiwan’s countryside. Written in Taiwanese, it includes an audio recording in the language, which was once suppressed under martial law. A QR code allows young readers to follow along, with phrases like, “Take home a cabbage!”
Finally, the annual parade for the Dadaocheng International Festival of Arts was today. Due to the influence of our good friend Kevin, who has been a regular at the parade for a decade or so, we’ve been going almost every year. People were decked out in their finest dress from the 1920s. Here are a few photos from the parade.
And performers lined the streets of Dadaocheng. There were musicians, dancers, face-painters, jugglers, among others. Here are a couple of pictures that will give you a sense of the scene:
The festival continues until October 31. There’s music, theater, and events featuring up-and-coming artists. Here’s the website for the festival and click here for tickets.
Book Club: Andrea Lee’s Red Island House
For October, we’re reading Andrea Lee’s Red Island House and are meeting Friday, Oct. 25th at 7:00 PM EST / Saturday, Oct. 26th at 7:00 AM Taiwan time. For November, we’re reading Ae-ran Kim’s My Brilliant Life (translated by Chi-Young Kim) and meeting on Friday, December 6th at 7:00 PM EST / Saturday, December 7th at 7:00 AM Taiwan time. Reply here for the zoom link. Thank you!