Seven Books on the English Language

I know the title sounds ambitious. As I practice to write in good English, the English language inevitably draws me to itself per se. I wonder about its history; I am curious to know its lexicon; and I desire to acquire  or develop a good style. So, I gorged on the following seven books about English on my shelf, and here are some of the things I learned.

Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. Haper Perennial: 2001.

First published in 1990, my copy was a reissue by HaperCollins ten years afterwards. A sign of the book's longevity.

Bryson is very prolific; The Mother Tongue is only one of his three books on the English language. Consulting  at least 112 pieces of publication, he dabs by chapter on the history, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, style, lexicography, variety, status and future of the English language. Every chapter  can be (and has been) blown into a big volume by different authors, which renders Bryson's quite fit for a beginner on the subject matter. I picked up this copy at the airport and read it on the plane.

As Bryson explains, the English language is "order out of chaos", whose felicities include fusion (like trusteeship consists of  a Nordic stem trust, a French affix ee and an Old English root ship), democracy (common usage is preferred to authoritative dictate) and global presence empowered by entertainment, business, tourism and so on. Guess what language does the Belgium National Football Team use in the dressing room? English.

Gateway: Eleven Paiwan Villages in Mudan & Manju, Pingtung

On Saturday 30th of June I took a road trip to visit the indigenous villages in my hometown Sinevaudjan Township and the neighboring Manju Township, Pingtung County. 

The purpose of my trip is to initiate a personal project 'Gateway', in which I hope to visit the 746 indigenous villages of Taiwan in person, and take a photo of the gateway to each village as my witness. 

This region, better known as Lonckjouw in the early modern period, is home to indigenous peoples such as Paiwan, Amis, Makatao and Sqaro (the so-called Paiwanized Pinuyumayan). Nowadays, visitors can easily reach every village by following the loop sign put up by Kenting National Park. 

Sapiens (2015) and Homo Deus (2017)

(IBM's Watson)

Originally published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011 and 2013, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (HaperCollins, 2015) and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (HaperCollins, 2017) by Oxford-trained historian Yuval Noah Harari (b. 1976) have since publication received global attention and praises. 

Continuing a personal quest after the birth of universe and living beings, I too picked these tomes up and journeyed through the evolution of humankind, which historian Harari explains case by case in a familiar and accessible style. 

The Greatest Show on Earth: Two Books on History of Science

Honestly, my math is poor; lab quotient almost nil; stargazing restricted only to appreciation of nature's wonder. Except for getting good grades at school geology and biology examinations,  there was nothing really scientifically smart in me. Nevertheless, I enjoyed these two books so much that I regretted why I had voluntarily stopped myself at science's door.

They are Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (Black Swan, 2003) and William Bynum's A Little History of Science (Yale, 2013).

Taiwan National Highway No. 61

On Friday May 25th 2018, Eleng and I took Taiwan National Highway No. 61, also known as West Coast Highway or Poor People's Highway (meaning 'toll-free'), southbound, all the way from the head to the tail of this island.

Officially in statistics, the length of Taiwan National Highway No. 61 reaches 351.4 km (195.98 mi). It begins at Bali District New Taipei City and ends at Qigu District Tainan City.

With speed limits ranging between 90 km/hr and 30 km/hr, this Highway offers itself as the third north-south corridor in the west in addition to National Highway No. 1 (Sun Yat-sen Freeway, completed in 1978) and National Highway No. 3 (Formosa Freeway, completed in 2004).

Our trip, however, took 525 km in 7 hours in total.

Life on High Waters: Two History Books

My stepfather spent some of his teen years working on a fishing boat. Destined for inshore waters such as East China Sea and Taiwan Strait, their boat would leave Keelung Harbor once in three to six months, so its young crew could hunt white pomfrets day and night until the fridge was full and the captain called home.

Before returning to the harbor, my stepfather knew his parents would come to collect most of his salary, leaving him with only a few thousands. Yet for the value of currency then in early 1960s, that amount was more than enough for a young man to enjoy beyond his imagination on the coast among alcohol, women and films. When every dollar was gone, he would also be ready for another journey. But for an unfortunate event of attack on their boat, I guess he might not have wanted to end this life that soon. 

How weird is this feeling of deja vu between a piece of life I heard in the 21st century and history books on life lived at least four hundred years ago in the 16th and 17th centuries! The utterly adventurous but reckless lifestyle on both sea and shore; the unpredictable and intransigent turn of fate on board; the insanely lucrative but very short career span. Whether it is a fishing boat, a pirate vessel or a slave ship, similar fates lead these lives on high waters.

Loaded Words: A Few Comments on the Publication of Dictionaries of Indigenous Languages

Published in Publication and Reading in Taiwan《臺灣出版與閱讀》（前為《全國新書資訊月刊》）Taipei: National Central Library (March 2018): 154-157. 

For Indigenous People and In Indigenous Language: IPCF in Taiwan

Published in IPCF Bimonthly Vol 19 (December, 2017): 30-32.

What is IPCF?

Fourth editorial for IPCF Bimonthly （原視界雙月刊）Vol. 19 (December, 2017): 3.

Culture, Language, Media: The Case of IPCF in Taiwan

Presentation at 2017 International Austronesian Conference (National Central Library, Taipei) on Nov. 13, 2017: