He’d start by asking if any of us knew what a business plan was and if we’ve ever written one. When no one would speak up he would say, “OK so we don’t have to cover that,” and then he’d move on. When someone would speak up and the teacher found himself having to go into some depth on a topic he would sit at his computer at the front of the room and search the keywords on Google. He would then proceed to read the description aloud word for word for the whole class without looking up from the screen once – this made it very easy for us to occupy our time with other things.
By the second class about 95% of us had zoned out during lectures. I started making use of my time by either a) writing my blog or b) planning trips around the island - It’s bad I know but so was that class. It’s quite a shame actually because the course had so much potential. Did I mention my course on Confucianism is incredible?
Sunday was our first day of class (9am-6pm). The teacher is a very interesting man and a very engaging speaker and he comes very well prepared for lectures. He challenges us to think beyond the readings and really encourages us to speak up and share our opinions in class. He seems quite passionate and very knowledgeable about Confucianism and how it relates to modern day leadership and he’s really managed to get all of us excited for the next five sessions. I have to write a one page reflection paper about an idea or two that struck me from the last class and I am having a bit of trouble because there is so much I want to talk about – not a bad problem to have really. I’ll get it done. So that’s that with courses.
Yesterday I woke up early and went to the Taipei Hospital to get my health check done. The school asks that we all do it but none of us are exactly sure why. Michael had to do it also so we went together. It was a pretty funny experience actually. When we walked into the hospital the front foyer looked like complete chaos - there were people everywhere, bumping into each other, and waiting in lines for cashiers. It was only after we started to go through the process a bit that we realized it was not chaos at all, it was actually complete organization.
When we walked in it must have been quite obvious that we had no clue where to start (it’s a big building) because one of the nurses approached us and led us into a room where we would begin the check. First we had to fill out a short questionnaire. Some of the questions were pretty funny: “Do you chew beetlenuts?” After we finished the questionnaire it was only two minutes or so before they had both of us on the scale, then at the eye examination station, then attached to the blood pressure machine. We were then directed to the upstairs of an entire other building to get our x-rays. We found the place alright and then we were instructed to change into gowns and wait in the lounge. No more than 3 minutes after we had changed our names were called and we were in and out of the x-ray in 20 seconds. We changed back into our clothes and head back to the second floor of the first building to get urine and blood checks. It was a little more difficult to find this station. First we were directed into a room that had the heading, “Surgery” on the door... “Hope that’s not right”...When we finally got to the station we both kind of looked at each other – they were taking blood samples right out in the open. No one was lying down like usual and everyone was being very nonchalant about it. That may be fine for some people but Michael and I are a little bit more squeamish when it comes to this sort of thing. So we did the urine test first. The blood test wasn’t that bad either when we finally did it.
So that was it – health check done. We never waited in line, no nurse was ever rude or pushy, and they were going to take care of all the paperwork with our school. It was actually quite a pleasant experience for a hospital trip.
After we left there I met up with Tatjana, Claudia, Leslie and Felix for an afternoon at the Museum of contemporary arts (MOCA).
Claudia standing in front of two big Buddha statues that stood at the front of the building. You can't see it from here but they are made of dried ash and there are all sorts of weird trinkets sticking out of them - incense sticks, baby doll heads and metal pieces.
This is the front lobby of the museum. They were featuring a solo exhibition by contemporary artist Zhang Huan who Claudia had read about and thought was really good. His art was different, that’s for sure. The exhibition was comprised mostly of projection movies of Zhang Huan performing different “art shows” in front of crowds around the world.
In one show he layered himself in a suit of raw meat and walked around New York handing out white doves to people on the street.
In another film he stripped naked and lay stomach down on a massive block of ice – this was supposed to represent the feelings of social alienation he experience when he immigrated to the U.S. several years ago.
In yet another film he stripped down naked (Leslie concluded that he wasn’t so much of an artist as he was someone who liked to get naked), covered himself in honey and oil and sat in a fly infested bathroom for an hour. After the hour was up he proceeded to cleanse himself in sewage water.
I am someone who can appreciate art and I did appreciate this for what it was. I took the time to sit and listen to the audio and watch the full film unfold, but this exhibition was not something I understood fully or felt deeply about at all. It was not art to me.
It actually reminded me of a quote that was brought up in one of the Confucian readings: Confucius said, “[regrettably] I have yet to meet someone who values virtue more than beauty.” Clearly, Zhang Huan’s art is based more on virtue than it is on beauty and maybe this is something that is well respected here. But for me, I would still much rather look at a beautiful mural or sculpture than watch a small naked man subject himself to frostbitten genitals.
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