An Invaluable Teaching Experience in Taiwan

Echoes of laughter, yelling, and heavy footsteps grow louder and louder as I approach the classroom. Taking a deep breath, I glance quickly at my lesson plans one last time and push open the door. As I step slowly into the room, I can feel the sudden stares of thirteen pairs of young eyes. Though many students are still out of their seats, with their arms playfully wrapped around each other and toys in their hands, the once raucous classroom immediately begins to quiet down. In the midst of all this, I ponder what to do next.

As another July passes by, I look back to the summer after my first year of college when I taught English to underprivileged elementary school children in rural southern Taiwan. Every day for two weeks, my teaching partner and I created a new lesson plan in which we incorporated activities we found most effective for teaching children. The experience was challenging at first because of the all-new environment and our language barrier. Our students’ knowledge of English was very limited, and my Mandarin speaking skills weren’t at a confident level.

Before arriving in Taiwan, I thought teaching English would be very simple because it is my native language. After a few hours into the first day of class, however, I discovered that was not the case at all. Since I taught fourth to sixth grade students, their levels of English were all scattered. Some of them were not yet familiar with the alphabet while a lot of the older students already knew quite a few vocabulary words. Even so, my teaching partner and I tried our best to create a rewarding learning atmosphere. Whenever we saw our students getting bored with a certain activity, we would quickly try to come up with a new learning strategy. Whenever we noticed someone struggling to learn, we would take the initiative to get to know the student and find out the best way for him or her to grasp knowledge. We would experiment with different teaching methods, including games, songs, and dances, to help each individual learn while having fun. Prizes were a very effective way of getting students to participate in discussions and behave during class, as they were always excited to see what we had brought from America.

Something interesting I noticed at the school was how students there have such close relationships with their teachers. When I was teaching at the elementary school, I would stay after school every day and spend time with my students and a local teacher. This teacher would play basketball with the students for hours after English classes, listen to everything they had to say and take care of them as if they were his children. To his students, he was a friend, father, and teacher all in one.

That experience in Taiwan was definitely one of my best summer memories, and it sparked an interest in teaching. If there’s something I definitely would like to do in the future, it would be to visit my students again.

Interpreting the World Bank’s Latest “East Asia and Pacific Economic Update”

The economic development in the East Asia Pacific region will continue to make other regions jealous this upcoming year. The region, however, still needs to be wary of changes in the global economic climate.

The World Bank announced April 7 that it projects continued stable economic growth for the East Asia Pacific region in 2014. The region is expected to remain the fastest growing in the world.

The diverse countries and economies in the East Asia and Pacific region

Growth in the region, however, will be at a slightly lower rate. China’s growth rate will decrease from 7.7 percent in 2013 to 7.6 percent this year. The rest of the region will grow by 5.0 percent, down from 5.2 percent last year.

The World Bank also points out that economic climates are not equal throughout the region. Southeast Asian economies are more at risk, facing tougher global financial conditions and higher levels of household debt. Smaller economies are expected to grow steadily, but face overheating risks.

A garbage collector walks past residential and office buildings in construction, in Hefei, Anhui province

(Reuters)

Even the all-mighty China is not free from trouble. A slower-than-expected recovery of advanced economies, rise in global interest rates and increased volatility in commodity prices on account of the Crimean crisis are factors that could potentially hurt all of East Asia, according to Bert Hofman, Chief Economist of the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific Region.

He recommends that East Asia redouble efforts to pursue structural reforms to increase their underlying growth potential and enhance market confidence. Such reforms are already taking place in China and are helping boost demand and growth. If done right, rebalancing could give boost to regional trade partners, but if the rebalancing is disorderly, the opposite could happen.

Possibly the most surprising feature of the report was its conclusions of 4 countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Their exports have grown 19 percent annually, exceeding even China. These countries’ low wages, favorable demography and advantageous geography have been attractive enough to draw significant investments. While these are mostly in the textile industries, in the case of Vietnam, this has increasingly included electronics and telecommunications.

Vietnam’s exports have shifted from clothing and textiles to electronics

(AP/Richard Vogel)

Despite its warnings of the instability of economic trends, the report was generally positive about the state of the economy of the East Asia Pacific region. It continues to be a region to watch because for its sustained growth.

The report did provide some explanation for the region’s success, but it was not nearly comprehensive enough. At a time when other regions struggle to keep up, it is important to monitor why and how this region has been able to have such sustained, successful growth.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for– Bubble Tea?

Also known as milk tea, boba, 珍珠奶茶 (zhen zhu nǎi chá), and pearl milk tea, “bubble tea” is an increasingly popular sweet drink in the U.S.

It originated from Taiwan in the 1980s, although exactly in which city and by whom it was invented is disputed – either at a tea stand in Taichung or at a Tainan teahouse. Historically, the oldest known bubble tea was a delightful concoction of hot Taiwanese black tea, small tapioca pearls, condensed milk, and syrup or honey.

An “original” pearl milk tea, you can’t go wrong – black tea with milk and tapioca pearls, or “boba”

To enlighten anyone who hasn’t experienced this kind of Asian foodie culture, “bubble tea” is basically tea with milk, some type of sugar or sweetener, and tapioca pearls. “Bubble” refers to the tapioca pearls, which are usually black and are small and round, resembling bubbles; they sit at the bottom of the drink and have a soft and chewy texture.

Be adventurous and don’t just look at the pearls’ pretty colors – try other types of boba!

Typically sweet and cold, these drinks come in a massive array of variations. Sometimes, in addition or instead of pearls, you can request other types of add-ons, such as pudding or jelly. The tea itself can vary from black or green tea. Additionally, there are fruit versions, like mango milk tea, and even fruit-tea fusions, such as peach green tea.

Following the popularity of bubble tea, countless tea shops have popped up all over the world, even in Western countries: Fantasia, Boba Loca, Tapioca Express, Quickly, Half and Half (my personal favorite) – just to name a few.

How about this one to hit the spot, whether it’s your sweet tooth or your cavity: boba and pudding snow milk ice tea, drizzled with molasses

At most milk tea joints, the options for personalized drinks are flexible. Any tea drinker who knows exactly what they want can request less (or more) ice, a certain level of sweetness, omission of pearls, milk substitution. It’s like the Asian version of Starbucks – but better!

Yummy and refreshing, kiwi fruit tea!

As with any other food trend, with popularity comes controversy and scandal. For bubble tea, the trouble comes in the form of health concerns. With all its sugars and empty calories, bubble tea is by all means not what one would consider a healthy drink. To drag down its nutritional value further, tapioca pearls, milk powder, and juice syrups, all of which are commonly used ingredients in commercialized bubble tea due to their relatively low costs, have been found to contain banned chemical additives, linked to carcinogens and hormone imbalances. Fortunately, a quick Google search yields many results for healthy DIY bubble tea recipes.

Whew, at least bubble tea wasn’t on the line-up for New York City’s sugary drinks ban

Nonetheless, despite its controversial health properties, bubble tea is pretty darn delicious and reasonably priced. It’s no surprise that it continues to reign as a stylish and dessert-esque drink option, especially in large cities with diverse cultures. Sometimes I wish I could drink bubble tea everyday but, alas, it remains a wonderful and occasional treat.

Beyond Aung San Suu Kyi: Five Asian Female Leaders You May Not Know

For a long time, gender equality has been something the world has strived for. In the U.S., the fight for gender equality erupted during the Women’s Rights Movement more than a century and a half ago.

With that in mind, as well as the bad rap Asian countries often receive for female oppression (foot binding and geishas, anyone?), it may be a surprise to some that Asian countries seemed to have made more progress in terms of female leadership than Western countries. In fact, nine Asian countries (South Korea, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, the Philippines, and Mongolia) are currently or were led by a female, democratically elected head of government.

Needless to say, the U.S. has yet to have a female president.

While the reasons for this political difference give rise to a whole ‘nother article, in this one, I’d like to highlight a few of these – inspirational? controversial? certainly always interesting – Asian female leaders.

Pratibha Patil – 12th President of India (2007-2012)

Born in 1934, Patil had a long political career prior to becoming president, holding roles such as parliament member and governor. After winning the presidency with nearly 2/3 of the votes, her time in office saw a few controversies. For instance, she commuted the death sentences of 35 people, and embarked on more foreign trips than any other president.

Corazon Aquino – 11th President of the Philippines (1986-1992)

Born in 1933, Aquino was the first female president not only of the Philippines, but in all of Asia. Without holding any past political experience, she was the most prominent figure in the 1986 People Power Revolution and oversaw the promulgation of the 1987 Constitution. As president, she emphasized human rights and peaceful negotiations. Additionally, she focused on molding a market-oriented and healthy economy in the Philippines.

Yingluck Shinawatra – 28th Prime Minister of Thailand

Born in 1967, Shinawatra is a businesswoman, politician, and the first (and current) Prime Minister of Thailand. After election to office in 2011, she invoked the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act in response to the 2011 Thailand floods; reshuffled her cabinet in 2012, and dissolved the Parliament, calling for early elections due to the 2013 anti-government protests. She is currently facing corruption investigations.

Chandrika Kumaratunga – 5th President of Sri Lanka

Born in 1945, Kumaratunga was elected Prime Minister of the People’s Alliance and was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party until 2006. She spent much of her presidency trying to negotiate and make peace with opposing national political parties. She is also a member of the Council of Women World Leaders.

Megawati Sukarnoputri – 5th President of Indonesia

Born in 1947, Sukarnoputri was the country’s only female president and is also leader of the Indonesian opposition party. While her presidency was characterized by slow progress, reforms, and resolutions, it also brought about the stabilization of democracy and more solid relationships amongst the legislative, executive, and military branches of government.

Beautiful, Inside and Out: But How Much Do Appearances Matter?

It started from the moment I saw a comment on Weibo with tons of “likes”: “Beauty is the real justice, ugly ones have no human rights.” When did our generation began to worship appearances so much to make these extreme statements?

As a part of human nature, we pursue beauty – and that may include good-looking people. With modern celebrity culture and how these celebrities’ – particularly women’s – careers rise, peak, and wane according to their looks, how true is “it’s what inside that counts“?

A typical example is Angela Cheung, a top model from China, most known for her nickname “Angelababy”. Angelababy has a face too perfect to be true, even out of Photoshopped pages. Although she has yet to confirm any plastic surgery rumors, pictures are all over the Internet showing subtle differences from “before” and “after” she became famous. Whether she did receive plastic surgery or not, Angelababy’s appearance no doubt was a part of her success – she’s not only a model, but has starred in films and has recorded her own CD.

The indeed angel-like Angelababy

Another country known for its worship of beauty is Korea and its K-Pop machine. For example, in every K-Pop group, here is a “visual” – this person’s task is to be the face that draws the fans, i.e., to be beautiful. It’s interesting that the “visual” will gain a lot of fans easily without doing much, whereas the “vocals” and the “dancers” will work harder to achieve the same level of attention or popularity.

Do skills matter? A fun reply to this question could be found on the proliferation of comments on music videos and performances on YouTube, some of which accuse the performers of lip-syncing. Many fans will defend their idols by the response: “Lip syncing, so what? We still love them. Plus it’s difficult to sing and dance at the same time, and they could nevertheless sing really well if they want to!”

Seems understandable. Unless you have someone like Beyoncé, who rocked it out in live vocals and in super high heels during the Superbowl’s half-time show.

So, should a singer be called a “singer” because he or she can actually “sing”?

Queen B got moves!

Even among the ordinary people, the acceptance for a little work done, here and there, is growing. There’s a saying that “beauty is the best recommendation letter”. Who doesn’t want to present the best face at the first look?

In response, there’s an enormous amount of “beautifying” products on the market, not only in oils and creams but through other venues. Personally, I have a couple of photo editing apps on my iPhone, so I could always enhance my pictures with various filters. This is the most basic and the least that one can do, now; there’s the line of cameras from CASIO TR, with features built into the camera to “beautify” one’s photographs. (It’s advertised as particularly good for selfies, by the way.)

So here we are, with all these products that tell and sell us the idea of how much people value appearances.

The hottest “selfie” camera from the Casio TR series

Why this focus on appearances? Is it today’s media, which pushes beautiful people in our faces all the time at a rate never seen before, in a loop of cause-and-effect? (Or monkey see, monkey do.) Is it the eternal pursuit for the fountain of youth, now seen in the range of advanced make-up products available?

It’s not wrong to appreciate beauty; however, no matter how much appearance matters, it’s the one thing that we can’t change in life (without surgery, ahem). Yet, we could always enhance ourselves by focusing on our personalities and that invisible charisma built by our wit, kindness, intelligence, and good works. There’s also another saying: “At the age of twenty, we don’t care what the world thinks of us; at thirty, we worry about what it is thinking of us; at forty, we discover that it wasn’t thinking of us at all.”

Do Asians Eat Dogs?

Illustration by motobus

“You’re Asian, can I ask you something?”

“Asian-American, yes, go ahead.”

“Have you ever eaten dog?”

I blinked in surprise and stumbled through several uhs and ums before I could respond to my (white) colleague. The question was genuinely curious, but not without a gleam of hostility. The answer was: No, I haven’t. But how is one supposed to answer this barbed and accusatory question?

What else do we eat, which we should question?

By the facts, yes: Asians eat dog meat – stewed, steamed, boiled, and barbequed. Some Chinese eat dog for its medicinal qualities, believing it to be good for metabolism and warmth. In Korea, poshintang, “tonic soup,” is a common dog stew known for its stamina and virility-increasing potency. Dog meat has been a part of Southeast and East Asian cuisine for thousands of years.

What then, is the controversy over dog meat? The answer is a visceral, disgusted churning in the Western appetite. In America, dogs are known as “man’s best friend.” They’re companions and members of the family – definitely not dinner. To see a dozen dogs cramped up against one another in a single cage, awaiting their grisly fate at a slaughterhouse, very reasonably inspires animal-welfare activism.

What makes dogs more special, than say, pigs? Pigs are far more intelligent, but our relationship with dogs is rooted in a symbiotic evolution. In exchange for food and security, friendly wolves served as hunting aids, warning systems, garbage disposals, as well as defenders and guardians of children. According to a DNA study, humans’ sense of smell was reduced because our alliance with dogs rendered it unnecessary. In a significant sense, dogs made us human, our affinity towards them. However, in hunter-gatherer times, thousands of years before refrigeration and crop storage, “when times were tough, dogs could have served as an emergency food supply.”

Hence, biology does not fully explain our taste buds. Western outrage toward dog-eating remains primarily a feature of a high-minded, well-fed culture, whose convictions betray a certain industrial privilege. Western cultural superiority does not necessarily understand how Chinese and Korean people have suffered from famine brought on by authorities. In the context of Chinese rural culture, where dogs compete with humans for resources, “eating dogs appears to be a compensatory adaption to material deprivation and the lack of reliable sources of other meats,” writes Frank H. Wu, Dean of University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Meat vendors in Asia today generally make a distinction between the dogs raised at home – pets, and the kind raised for eating – food. There’s no doubt, however, that the cultural superiority of the United States has influence. Under international scrutiny, when the Olympic Games were held in Seoul, Korea in 1988 and in Beijing, China in 2008, both countries vigorously banned and regulated dog meat. In the absence of a moral argument for giving up dog-eating, these countries wish to maintain their image in the face of worldwide opinion.

In the United States, narratives of Asians and dog-eating reduce the people of Asia to a minor aspect of their diverse ways of life. This allows stereotypes to abound, and form the basis for a belief that Asian people are inferior. As Wu says, “dog eating becomes an excuse to make Asians the butt of jokes and ultimately to disrespect complete culture as primitive.”

“Do Asians eat dogs?” The gaze of the question, curious and blaming, weighs upon me.

I feel vulnerable, but there is a dignified response that illuminates prejudice: “Why do you ask?”

Who’s Got the Best School Uniforms in Asia?

What’s in a school uniform? (And, if you clicked on this story because the main image showed EXO-K[orea]‘s six members – all well out of high school – still dressed in school uniforms for a photo shoot, you kinda understand the appeal of the school uniform in popular Asian, and non-Asian, imaginations.)

Japan

Visiting, you’ll see groups of students wearing school uniforms. Some may have graduated, actually; there was once an on-street interview asking those who’d left school why they still wore their uniforms, with the popular answer, “Because the uniform is still our favorite piece of clothing.” It’s a bit of a fashion symbol.

The reality:

Some super cool boys who go to the same hairstylist

Some super cool girls – the “sailor” look is typical of Japanese school uniforms

The not-so-reality:

Mutton dressed up as lambs – I mean, “street style”

South Korea

The Korean uniform is another one that’s steeped in pop culture: the girls usually wear white shirts and plaid, pleated skirts, while boys wear white shirts and trousers. Indeed, the uniforms show energy and some fashion.

The reality:

Some Korean students

The not-so-reality:

SNSD/Girls’ Generation in a world of their own

The cast of To the Beautiful You, a K-drama set in high school

Thailand

Schools in Thailand have strict dress codes: all students from primary schools to universities are required to wear uniforms every day. While primary schools’ uniforms are usually in bright colors, older students follow the white top (blouse, shirt) and black bottom (skirt, trousers) look. In 2013, Thai university uniforms were voted the “sexiest” among Asian uniforms by a poll conducted by Japanese media.

The reality:

A middle school in Thailand

The not-so-reality?:

A form of university-regulated uniforms

Malaysia

Malaysia is a Muslim country, so the students have very strict dress code. The girls’ skirts must be below the knee, and the sleeves long enough to cover elbows.

The reality:

Modesty in pinafores

Vietnam

The ao dai is a traditional Vietnamese costume with hundreds’ of years of history. A search online has many visitors talking about this beautiful scene: girls in white ao dai, riding a bicycle or walking and talking to friends. Clean, fresh, and all-purpose. Besides, selecting traditional wear as school uniforms is a brilliant idea: it provides a way for the younger generation to learn and be proud of their ethnic identity and culture.

The reality:

Two students ride a bike to school

The not-so-reality?:

Couldn’t tell if this was a photo shoot; the ao dai are missing the school’s emblem over the chest

China

School uniforms in China are basically sportswear, designed for activities, with a clear lack of fashion. Most Chinese uniforms that aren’t exercise outfits follow the Japanese/Korea styles, with blazer, shirt, and skirt/trousers.

The reality:

Exercise those young minds!

A step above the “sporty” look