Today was a very tiring day. We visited museums, which I found it rather interesting to see the ancient artifacts from Taiwan, or even from China!
First, we woke up very early in the morning. With sleepy eyes and sleepy brains, we got ready and had our breakfast.
Feedback: The breakfast was acceptable. However, I feel that there can be a wider range of food for us to choose, as some of us didn't know what to eat for breakfast.
After breakfast, we took the coach to the National Palace Museum. At first, this is one place where I am excited to visit throughout the whole OELP. However, I was dampened when I figured that taking photographs in the museum is forbidden. Aw...I was planning to take some photos for souvenirs! It was a long wait before we can enter the museum. While we wait, my group facilitator explained that all the artifacts here are the most valuable in China.
What shines in this museum is the Jadeite Cabbage and the Jadeite Meat. Frankly, the meat looks decent, however it isn't as real as i thought. The Jadeite Cabbage was the one that left me awestruck. It looked so real I thought I heard my stomach grumbled. It was professionally carved into a shape of a cabbage, with appropriate colours added onto it. On top of the cabbage were two neatly carved insects. They were a grasshopper plus a praying mantis.
These ornaments, the Jadeite Cabbage and meat shaped stone, was Taiwan's treasure because it was originally from China. Chiang Kai Shek, having escaped to Taiwan after Kuomintange lost to Chinese Communist Party in The Chinese Civil War, brought along these two treasures from China to Taiwan. So, it's so precious the Chinese were angry at Taiwan for taking the two treasures! (Hahaha)
There are also several ornaments such as ancient plates, ancient wine bottles, and even an ancient container to store tobacco leaves! ( for smelling, sort of like smoking or smelling opium ). These items are mostly made up of porcelain, a material common in chinese goods and copper. So, copper rusts. How do we prevent the rusts to contaminate what's inside the bottles and plates? People from the past use a special substance to remove the rusts on them.
To add on, there are also a variety of calligraphy and traditional artworks. We are introduced to 甲骨文, a traditional and ancient chinese characters. The artworks are specifically made to specify every detail on the artpiece, and every detail has a hidden meaning, e.g. Rowing a boat refers to a relaxing day.
These things are very precious as they store traditional values. Upon seeing these ancient ornaments, we would be reminded of the traditional Taiwan, since people nowadays seem to forget about the tradition and follow the modern world. They should be stored for as long as possible to instill some traditional mindset upon some of the people.
After the museum visit, we went to another museum again! It's called the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines. There, we learnt the lifestyle and culture of the different tribal groups in Taiwan. We learnt what use for crockery, what they use as weapons, their costumes and etc..All of their appliances are made from man-made material such as clay, where they mold the shape of a certain object by hand. Also, we enjoyed a short clip that taught us the evolution of a tribal citizen to a modernized citizen.
Just when we taught that the day couldn't be any more tired and exciting, we went to Shih-fen Old Street. Shih-fen is located in the mountainous regions, outside of Taipei. The temperature there is usually 2 degrees celsius below the temperature on land. There, we did two fun things--Releasing of Sky lantern and shopping! By the time we reached Shih-fen, the weather is pretty bad. It started raining badly...However, the weather changed for the better.
I was filled with excitement, because I've never release a sky lantern before. We were given brushes, where we wrote our wishes on the four sides of the lantern. I wrote, "增肥“ plus "身体健康”. I hope that my family could live a healthy lifestyle. With that, we went onto the train track and released our lantern! It rose up into the sky...may my wishes come true!
After lantern releasing, we went shopping around Shih-fen and roamed the area. I bought two small keychains as souvenir. Later, me and my friends also went to buy peanut icecream, which was a unique snack in Taiwan. It was finger-licking AWESOME! The sun is setting quick. By 5pm, we went back into the bus...
We went for dinner at evening. The food they served were almost the same as the other dishes served the previous day. It was delicious! ^^
It was a tiring day, but we put in additional effort to prepare for our performance to our trip tomorrow to JianGuo High School. I'm excited to see the educational culture here in Taiwan. Taipei day 3, here i come!
Today, I learnt a valuable lesson: 饮水思源. It is important that we treasure the tradition too. Traditions teach us cultures from the past-How people live their lives, what they eat, what they do, what are the trends in the past? We must thank the traditions, because without traditions, there will not be today.
Without traditions, there will be no meaning in life. What we will be doing is just following the modern trend, having no idea about the past. Traditions make our lives interesting, and we should never part away from traditions. Who knows, one day Iphone will be a traditional device? Who knows, maybe 100 years later, computers don't exist anymore. Traditions are often forgotten. We forgot how to cherish those traditions because we want to follow the trend. Who here still celebrate chinese wedding traditionally? Probably nobody anymore. Hence, we shall always remember and cherish the traditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment