Rebirth

Rebirth/ Cheer Chen

Kites soared Leaves fall
A fist's world is infinite

Strings tangled Trees grew
The palms kept the wind
But couldn't hold on to one piece of sand

In my left hand is a cat My right hand holds the power to comfort
You had me put my hands together softly Summoning the past
Close my eyes
Rolling up the ocean wave
Racing towards the paper moon
Running after a wolf in the rain

Butterflies soared Tides fall
Open your hands
Don't be afraid of
Incomplete

Seperate X Together Written Response

This is a image that grew out of the gesture model. The image is partly inspired by my experiences on the MRT transit. MRT, as I mentioned previously, played a important role while I was researching on Taipei. And I also think that MRT is now one of the most important public structure in Taipei City.

MRT was a transmitting device transferring different people and their stories from one place to another. It was built solely for people's traveling conveniences, making a fast paced city to move even faster. So fast that people stop having time to think about their actions, to look for interesting things along their way, and they stop listening to other people's stories.
--This is my impression of MRT and the people who are riding it most of the time while working on this project.

However, just before I am completing this project, I began to look at MRT in another angle, realizing that as much as people forgot about it, MRT is still one of those strongest links that connects everyone in Taipei. People are gathered and forced to connect.
On MRT, people are basically thrown together in one place, unlike in the olden days, people get to drive their own car, now strangers has to share transportation.
And it strikes me as a very interesting reaction when people try to resent that connection they are forced to have. Asians tends to be more closed-off and shy, and I do know for a fact that people tend to hate talking to strangers in the transit.
So we see a lot of people go out of their way to avoid connections to strangers on MRT.

However, whether people like it or not, we are all connected in this city.
In the drawing, it seems like there are two separate entities, looking towards each other but not touching. The point is to see that vague connection that holds these two entities together.
And then people can realize that they are actually not strangers, they are connected since birth, however subtle the connection may be. Once people realize that we will always be connected, then it gives the city a lot more possibilities to grow.

The point is to realize that vague link among all of us, like understanding that one drop of water links us to the whole world.

Seperate X Together

Gesture Model

MRT

"The center of Taipei Metro’s CIS logo is a “man-bird” symbol. These two interlocking hexagonal figures represent the people that Taipei Metro serves, who need to be transported rapidly from place to place. At the same time, these abstract symbols also have the appearance of birds that fly to the four points of the compas"

I found this on Taipei Metro Rapid Transit website, which I find a little bit ironic.
The article explained the design concept for the MRT logo, and also talks about what they expect the MRT will bring to us in our society.

The mere existence of MRT seems like a oxymoron to me. On the practical side, it makes people's life a lot easier, a lot faster. Rapid Transit, of course. And it also offers a platform for people to get in contact with each other. Hundred thousands of people going through the MRT stations every single day. But I never seen anyone talk to someone or showing interest to any strangers on the MRT.
Most people would agree that we're moving too fast in this city, but no one seeme to be slowing down their footsteps.

Taipei is a very crowded city, Taipei people are very much reminded of that fact everyday, there are people everywhere. We know we coexsist in this city.
MRT gatehred us together, creating another city within a city. The underground streets, shops, returants...etc.
We layered our city up so it is capable of holding us, which therefore offering more chance for us to meet and contact.
But meeting and contacting does not mean communicating.
We still don't know each other
We still don't care for each other
We still don't know where we are going.

Some Old Writings...

These are some stuff I wrote but haven't posted yet



Sep. 23 '08
The typhoon came
Bringing like and destruction all at once
It reminded me of the fishes

We bathe in the think layer of life


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rain coming down on us hard
Giant drops of water leaking through the clouds
Holding an up-side-down world within

We're accompany by it so often
We hate the rain here

We always think of growth as something that comes from the bottom going upward

Little we know that the world actually falls from the sky

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The MRT collects everyone's loneliness together before it distribute it to different places
Like water dams and pipes sending out water to every household

They say we need to wait at least three thousand years
Before we get a chance to see the same drop of water again

I am among these people too
Walking through the city
Passing everyone else's story

They say 十年修得同船渡
It means "people need to practice moral rules for ten years before they can share a same boat in their next life"
We were collected on the same train because the older versions of us wanted us to

Yet we never remembered that
Yet we never recognized our loneliness
So we end up being alone, together
Unknowingly


[MRT= Metro Rapid Transportation=subways in Taipei]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That mutation form of understanding--The closeness in our imagination
Is on the TV again tonight
People gathered protested
In front of the monument which was recently named for the sake of glorifying freedom
"The Liberty Square" as they called it

What is understanding?
Fishes only have 7 seconds of memory
What is Freedom?
Fishes seaking outlets within a confined cup

Update-03

New Posts:
- Some new pictures of an old town that is next to the ocean in Taipei-- Jiu Fen [九份]
- Writings on the second drawing Isolation and Unity




The entry "Some Thoughts On Water" is meant to be in Chinese because it is a side note to myself and it has vague connection to the project. And also it is REALLY hard to translate that into English due to the writer's writing style. I tried.
Some brief description is added to the entry, and hopefully I will figure out a way to properly translate it.

Isolation In Unity Explained

We Asians are known for being "the same", we like unity and we are afraid of being different.
In Taipei, people tend to do things in a group, whether intentionally or not.
A wave of people riding the transit together, groups of people in the same style of outfit walking on the streets, a gang of friends singing in a tiny room we call karaoke, thousands of people rush to the department stores when there is a sale, thousands upon thousands of angry students are collected to protest to the government.
We do everything in groups but none of us are together.

People don't talk to each other on the transit, we dress in the same way but we hate other people's clothes, friend sing together but never listen to other people's music, we fight each other for cheap stuff in the store, we stand side by side to protest but never understood why we were there, and we never pay enough attention to other people's life.

Taipei was suppose to be our water, but instead of nurturing us, it's now drowning Taipei people.

So we shelter ourselves in a dry cup. Turning our backs towards each other, we try to keep ourselves safe and away from communications. Away from the city.

Like a fish in a fish bawl, we are trapped within the diameter of a cup.
Searching for exits that don't exist.




On Juliet's comment:
I think this is an echo to what you said, about us fearing ourselves more than anything. It's funny because I had this drawing planned in my head already, you just happened to said what I wanted to say.
However, the drawing is not a solution but more of a observation-- that our communication is distant and we only have blurry visual connection of each other.
Hopefully this will give me some hint and lead me to some kind of solution.

Although I must also wonder if there is any solution out there, or we as humans are natural to have no true communication among ourselves.
And if so, what will be the best thing we can do to adapt?

Some Thoughts On Water

Just some reference from "Cheer Looks DVD" [ (R)cheerego.com 2007]

Filming concept for the music video "Decompose"
A brief English outline for the writing:

Everything begins with an ocean
such as love
such as rosemallow flowers
such as baptism
such as the sun the stove the firecrackers

After the beginning then comes the unknown decomposition that are buried under the soil
such as our wounds
such as beauty
such as sex
such as love


腐朽

一切的一切，
都是從海洋開始的...........

愛情也是

以緩慢到察覺不出來的速度，
演化到整個森林...........

木槿也是

以高尚到無法背離的態度，
尋找自私的出口...........

受洗也是

緊接著眩目地燃燒了，
消耗了...........

太陽瓦斯爐仙女棒都是

之後是葬在土裡不為人知的腐朽...........

傷口也是
美麗也是
性也是

愛情也是

Isolation In Unity

Description coming up tomorrow
Also there will be replies to some of the comments coming up soon

Revision On The First Image

More on this first image.

Water is the source of life. "Rain", "Raining" should be consider as "life falling down from the sky".
"Fish" is the product of water, humans were developed from fishes.
Fishes themselves are mutations from life, and so are the humans.

Taipei as a highly technology-oriented city, now look up to the mutations instead of life itself.

People in Taipei are attached to the coldness of technology, and stop feeling the nature that falls upon us.
We are showered by the Unnatural. And we worshiped it, not understanding what it is, and we are losing touch with truths.

The more we worship the Unnatural, the more we became closer to it.

The Rain Of Men

New images coming up soon...

First

Mutation Looking, Looking Mutation

The Rain Of Fish

There were reporting of "fish rain" in all sorts of places.
No one really knows how or why it happened.
Some say it was the punishment of God.
Cynics try to find scientific comfort.
All scientists ever found was that some of the fishes were blind.
They came out blind.
Flawed since the beginning...




Water/ Life

Ocean= The source of life
Fish= The product of ocean

Rain= The source of life
Fish Rain= mutation of life

Update-02

New pictures posted on the slide show

More weather information on water, rain and typhoon up next

Arts In Taipei

Xue Xue Institue
MOCA Taipei
SPOT-Taipei Film House
The Wall Live House [English site under construction]
CAMPO Cinema Live Party
Jumin Museum
Eslite Gallery [Operated by Eslite Bookstore]
Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum
National Palace Museum
National Taiwan Museum [See Exhibition "A Thousand Faces of Formosa" Under "Online Exhibition"]
Taipei Artist Village
Shi-Yang Culture Restaurant
Yangmingshan National Park

More Coming Up

Research 2/ Taipei

The City of Taipei is located in the Taipei Basin in the northern tip of Taiwan. It is bordered by the Xindian River on the south, and the Danshui (Tamsui) River on the west.



Taipei is divided into 12 districts:

中正區 Chung-cheng
大同區 Ta-t'ung
中山區 Chung-shan
松山區 Sung-shan
大安區 Ta-an
萬華區 Wan-hua
信義區 Hsin-yi
士林區 Shih-lin
北投區 Pei-t'ou
內湖區 Nei-hu
南港區 Nan-kang
文山區 Wen-shan

The size of Taipei:

City: 271.7997 km² (104.9 sq mi)
Water: 2.7 km² (1.0 sq mi) 1.0%
Urban: 2,457 km² (948.7 sq mi)


The population of Taipei as of June, 2008
City: 2,630,191
Density: 9,678.14　/km² (25,031/sq mi)
Urban Area: 6,752,826
Metro Area: 10,072,918
Population Ranked 2nd of 25 cities in Taiwan

Public Transportation Includes:
Bus, the Metro, Taiwan Rail, and Taiwan High Speed Rail

Climate:
See chart at BBC Weather

7 Seconds Of Memory

在陳綺貞的online journal上讀到這個 讓我開始想魚跟台北人的相同性:

"聽說 魚的記憶只有7秒

聽到這個說法時
還頗有種恍然大悟的感覺

難怪
那麼小的魚缸裡
魚也不會像關在籠子裡的老鼠
可憐不斷焦躁的兜圈

還是緩慢
看似悠哉的游著
很快就忘記剛剛游過身邊
打過幾百次招呼的同伴
或是很快就忘記一些很殘忍的事情...

可是我也喜歡魚
那種你永遠無法理解
陌然又和平的相處
擦身過後永遠的互相忘懷
神祕又令人敬畏

前一陣子逛水族館
我就深深愛上那個

只有未來
沒有過去的緩慢之地"




So I read this on one of my favorite singer's online journal. And I start thinking about Taipei people:

"I heard that fish's memory only last for 7 seconds.
When I first heard that I felt like I finally got some of the questions I had answered.

No wonder fishes don't get cranky like hamsters in a tiny cage. Even if the fish bawl is really small.
Fishes still swim unhurriedly. Seemingly unworried of anything.
Instantly forgetting other fishes that just swam by, saying hello to each other for the hundredth time.
Or quickly forget all the cruelty in the world...

I like fishes.
I like the type of communication between them, that is distant yet peaceful.
Something we never fully understood
Going pass each other and yet forever missing each other
The concept is mysterious and admirable at the same time

Went to an aquarium a while ago
I fell in love with that place--
A sedated space with only future but no past."




Fish swim through water with no concept of time [past]
People swim through humidity with no concept of time [future]



Fishes swim in a group, in a group
People travel in a cluster, in a cluster
They consume in a wave, in a wave

The non-existed past allow time to extent further -----extent further----------
The short-lived future were pushed back, pushed back
The examiner's eyes leaks and percolate .......leaks and percolate

魚 一群一群的游
台北人 一團一團的走
他們 一陣一陣的消耗
沒有的過去 讓時間向前一直延伸----- 一直延伸-----------
短暫的未來 向後推 向後推
觀察者的眼睛 漫漫的滲透 漫漫的滲透

Research 1/ Breif History On Taiwan

TAIWAN

History of Taiwan
Click to See The Timeline:


In the Pre historic times
Taiwan was mainly occupied by Taiwanese aborigines; the Taiwanese aborigines are related to Malay and Polynesians.

European Settlements
1544, the Portuguese discovered the main island of Taiwan and name the island "Ilha Formosa", which means "Beautiful Island."

In 1624, the Dutch colonized Taiwan, and established a commercial base on Taiwan to import workers from China. The Dutch government made the city of Tainan as the capital of Taiwan.

Koxinga and Imperial Chinese rule
Koxinga, a general from China defeated the Dutch in 1662, and established a government in Taiwan. Follow by the fall of Ming Dynasty in China; the Ching Dynasty eventually took over Taiwan in 1683. Many Chinese people from Fujian province immigrate to Taiwan.

Japanese Rule
In 1895, the Ching government lost the First Sino-Japanese War, and ceded Taiwan to Japan.
The Japanese government will colonize for 51 years. During the colonization, the Japanese government built many public structures in Taiwan, and many of them are still in use today.

The Nationalist Martial Law Rule
In 1949, after wining the Second World War, the Nationalist Party lost the civil war against the Communist Party. President Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, bringing a large population of Chinese Immigrant with him.
Chiang Kai-shek made Taipei the capital of Taiwan and enabled the martial law: “Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion” Taiwan will continue to be ruled by one party until 1984.

The Modern Democratic Era
After Chiang Kai-shek’s death, his son Chiang Ching-kuo began to liberalize Taiwan’s political system. In 1986, the second most popular party Democratic Progressive Party was formed legally, and in 1990 Taiwan has its first president elected by Taiwanese citizen.

Update-01

New pictures posted on the slide show.
First post on research coming up this weekend