Sean: 五常

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Posted by Sean:
五常
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1201143578.shtml


   If you know Japanese, Taipei can be a really frustrating city. Reading
   literature, all the way up to the beginning of the Showa Period,
   generally requires you to know the traditional forms of kanji--at
   least at first. But modern pocket additions, while not otherwise
   abridged or bowlderized, frequently use the official Japanese
   simplified forms, so you get used to not having to recognize the older
   characters. It took me several days to remember that é» is, in fact,
   ç¹. (Well, I didn't remember so much as realize that a crawl inside a
   subway car that said çµé» wasn't likely to mean anything else.)
   Amritas used to tell me that you didn't really know an Asian language
   with a Chinese-derived script until you'd started with the traditional
   stroke-choked characters. He was right, I suppose, at least in terms
   of transferrable skills.
   Something you notice right away traveling around Taipei: it's a very
   pious city. I'm not referring to the people (though they may be as
   devout as they come for all I know). I mean the place names. Streets
   in Japan don't usually have names--don't get me started on the
   resulting headaches involved in trying to get somewhere for the first
   time--and blocks, train stations, and intersections are often named
   for a nearby landmark. Otherwise, they tend to be named for things in
   nature: Greenleaf, Middle River, Wisteria Mountain, and the like.
   In Taipei, many of the major east-west arteries are named for
   Confucian virtues. My office is on å¿ åè·¯ ("Loyalty and Filial Piety
   Avenue"). On the way, we pass ä»æè·¯ ("Humaneness and Love Avenue").
   There's a place between my friend's apartment and our office called
   æå¾³ ("limpid moral probity," though as in Japan I guess it may refer
   to an era or exalted personage or something). I'm not sure I can
   handle quite that much uplift so early in the day, even after my
   second cup of coffee.
   And I'm pretty certain that having a Catholic mother disqualifies me
   from working on a street called "Filial Piety."
   Taipei is also significantly slower-paced than Tokyo. I was listening
   to [1]Roisin Murphy the other day on a run. Perfect soundtrack to
   Tokyo but all wrong here. Taipei isn't brittle and frantic and
   electronic. It's not a mountain hamlet, either, but even the center of
   the city doesn't press in on you. I'm not sure how well that suits me;
   I like my cities to be cities. On the other hand, my friend's
   apartment (where I'm staying) is in the north of the city on a
   mountain road, so hiking and hot springs and things are right out the
   door. That part's not bad at all, and it's helpful given all the bulky
   Western food I've been hoovering up since I got here. (American food
   is much better in Taipei than in Tokyo.)
   Ack. Time to hie myself to the Straight Path of Loyalty and Filial
   Piety for the day.

References

   1. http://www.amazon.com/Overpowered-R%C3%B3is%C3%ADn-Murphy/dp/B000UN1CWM