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Ang Lee

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:42:34 GMT

Taiwanese director Ang Lee was on the radio today promoting his new film "Lust, Caution". It was a good interview, at least, it sounds like it went a lot better than one he had with Stewart Lee, soon after "The Hulk" came out...

Tags: Taiwan, Ang Lee, video

Buying Wii in Taiwan

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:51:49 GMT

The Nintendo Wii is only just coming out in the land of my birth, Taiwan, and they're going crazy over them judging by what I've been hearing. Over on this side of the world they're still pretty hard to get hold of, but Amazon UK did have them for a relatively long time this evening. If you missed out, sign ups are still available for my UK and US in-stock notification services...

Tags: Wii, Taiwan

Double Tenth Day

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 02:55:32 GMT

Chinese communities around the world are celebrating Double Tenth day today, which (for those interested in a bit of Chinese history) marks the start of the Wuchang Uprising of October 10, 1911, that led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty.

Tags: Double Tenth Day, Taiwan

Entry 238

Thu, 19 Aug 2004 23:49:43 GMT

Another archery medal was stolen off ~~Chinese Taipei~~ Taiwan by a Brit today... the cheek!

Tags: Taiwan

Entry 212

Mon, 15 Mar 2004 18:36:20 GMT

An election is about to happen in Taiwan this week. Anyone interested in Taiwanese bollotics can understand more from here.

Tags: Taiwan, election

Mahjongg

Sat, 13 Mar 2004 15:23:05 GMT

Mahjongg's a new game I learnt whilst in Taiwan. When I say Mahjongg I mean the 4-player version which is also a kind of Chinese rite of passage, not the solitaire kind. I'd hinted to my mum in the past that I wanted to learn how to play but had assumed that this had fallen on deaf ears. I was wrong. A trip last month to my aunt's place was, unbeknownst to me, all about an opportunity to teach David this essential life skill.

It was a pretty surreal experience. As soon as I'd got in my aunt's door, out came the mahjongg table and the chairs, the tiles were whipped out and I found myself sat down with granny on my left, my mum opposite and my aunt to my right, all three of them fully absorbed in counting their money ~~and no doubt psyching themselves up~~.

After a while I overcame the intensely combative atmosphere and with a healthy dollop of beginner's luck actually won a few rounds. I kept winning money off granny which was the best if not most wicked part. Money talks especially when you don't share a common language. It should be noted that unfortunately the money was fake. Anyway, it's a good game and was a lot of fun to play. Here's a site where you can play online, along with classic games like Stratego.

Tags: Mahjongg, Taiwan

Why did SClub7 split up?

Mon, 08 Mar 2004 19:10:57 GMT

While I was on my jolly to Taiwan nimisis crashed. And since then I've noticed that a "david butler" search on google no longer yields nimisis in, well, probably the first million hits. I'm quite disappointed by this result. Before I used to get a fair few cyber questers seeking "David Butler" or "download hives" or "stag night na*ed photos". I'd like to stress the latter two for no logical reason that I'm aware of. The only thing that seems to get a reasonable number of hits is my webcam page, even though that's not on most of the time... (clearly this does wonders for my ego). Looking at my logs, it says here that one bright spark found nimisis by querying "Why did SClub7 split up"? Well, in case both disillusioned SClub7 fans end up coming here searching for answers, I do have one. They probably split up because their talent loan from the singing bank went very very bad and when their busking expenses plunged them deep into a red that was redder than the stained mouth of a betel nut chewing Taiwanese dellboy they had to call it a day... but that's only a theory.

Tags: Taiwan

Entry 207

Sun, 29 Feb 2004 14:23:05 GMT

Have pretty much recovered from jetlag now. Got back home after 3 weeks in Taiwan early on Thurs. Was all ready for two full days of work before an epic sleep, but was not quite prepared for the cold front...! I was working on my tan when I left Taiwan! But it's good to be back. I seem to have spent most of this year away from home so far...

Taipei is my hood after all, and naturally, since I was chillin' with me homies, I tried some new things (and wimped out of others).

New things I tried:

Pearl Tea (see pics)
The Lantern Festival
Shabu Shabu (like Chinese Hotpot)
ShihLin nightmarket
Taipei 101 (tallest building in the world, see pics)
Mahjongg (money, money, money)
Taking the Taipei MRT (tube) wearing a paddy field hat.
Kirin beer.

Things I passed on:

Coagulated pig's blood... bloody!
Pig's ears... yucky!
Pig's trotters... muddy!
Fish heads... fishy!
Chicken feet... smelly!
Betel nuts... chewy!
Hot springs in WuLai... just plain dirty!

Anyone tried these?

Tags: Taiwan, jetlag, pearl tea

Entry 204

Thu, 29 Jan 2004 17:03:44 GMT

I've got to go see this exploded whale when I'm in Taiwan next week...

Tags: Taiwan, whale

Entry 184

Sun, 17 Aug 2003 08:09:18 GMT

Two and a half months since my last post... but I'm back. I've been very busy - have been to Paris, Taiwan, Woking and Oldham (clearly the last two were the highlights), moved house to Surbiton and had a birthday. The new place is quite nice! If you're interested in a virtual tour, you can watch a little one minute video I've taken of it. It's a big file though - 9.2MB so please right click here and "Save Target As..." (whatever you want).

Tags: Taiwan