I had the honour of coming back to Taiwan
and taking my grandma for a round island trip. With the presidential election
coming up shortly, I also did a marching prayer.
Day 1 December 28 Sun Moon Lake:
Sun Moon Lake, the heart (centre) of
Taiwan. A very globalised tour, with people from the US, Australia, NZ,
Germany, Norway, Austria, etc!
As we waited to board the boat at the dock,
the melodies of “Amazing Grace” floated in the air, played by some street
artist. The weather was great.
Got to the highest point in the Sun Moon
Lake region. It looks almost as if there is an island floating in the sky, like
Laputa!
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
Our hotel room number happened to be 921,
which reminds me of the 921 earthquake which shrunk the Lalu Island in the
centre of the lake! Today it is sinking to the point where people cannot board
the island!
Day 2 December 29 Ji-Ji, Buddhist Memorial
Centre, Kaoshiung:
Yesterday my hotel room number at the Sun
Moon Lake was 921! Today the tour guide suddenly had a new idea and added
something not in the itinerary: go to the very centre of the 921 earthquake
disaster region, Ji-Ji, to see a temple destroyed by the quake in 1999! They
built a new temple in front of the destroyed temple and coincidentally they
were celebrating some sort of temple ceremony and it was very noisy.
There is only one kingdom that cannot be
shaken (Hebrews 12:28)!
Then we drove along the Jianan plain (the
largest plain in Taiwan, the producers of rice) towards the Fo Guang Shan
Buddha Memorial Centre. This place is like a theme park: with Starbucks, 4D
movie, foodie map, etc!
We visited three temples today, and there
are no more temples on the itinerary: the rest of the trip will be national
parks and natural sceneries.
In the evening we arrived in Taiwan’s
second largest city, Kaoshiung!
Day 3 December 30 Kenting, Taitong:
Today, the tour guide began talking about
the tragic history of Taiwan (from the Aboriginal people to modern day). He
mentioned “Orphan of Asia”, a novel written by Zhuoliu Wu, which accurately
describes Taiwan’s multilayered identity crisis. There are many countries that
helped Taiwan in order to maintain stability in the Asia Pacific region, but
tragically, it seems Taiwan can never choose its own fate.
But is fate really in our hands? Can we
truly control it by our own power?
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and
naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of
the Lord be praised. (Job 1:21)
Day 4 December 31 Taitong, Hualien:
The tour guide told us that the East Coast
of Taiwan is pretty different from the West Coast, one of the most prominent
differences being all the crosses on the tombstones. In the past, the Han
Chinese did not dare to cross over the mountain ranges into the East Coast
because the Indigenous people do head hunting, and there are many high cliffs that
drop directly into the sea. So, who are the people that were not afraid of
being beheaded? The western missionaries! So most of the indigenous people are
Christians these days.
In life, sometimes it's as if the ghosts of
the past keep coming back to haunt us.
Sometimes it appears so real, that we feel
as though we are stuck in a vicious cycle endlessly.
This is the history of Taiwan. 400 years
ago, the last remnants of the Ming Dynasty escaped from China onto the island,
along with other Han Chinese that did not want to be assimilated by the
Manchurians. They drove the indigenous people up the mountains, kicked out the
Dutch, and ruled the island for approximately 40 years. Then the Ching Dynasty
took over Taiwan. Shortly after that, it was given to Japan in a fashion not
unlike cutting out an appendix. Having been under the control of various political
powers we did not choose, the population is in an acute multilayer identity
crisis. History keeps repeating itself, conflicts between the different tribes
on the land continues, it is as though the wounds of this land never closes.
In actual fact, all of this has passed. The
inhabitants of this land are moving into a new unique identity. May God heal
this land.
We cannot change the past. We can only
accept it and let it go. Look at today in the eye and move on forward.
How many times have we projected wounds
from the past onto future relationships?
Moving on, not just physically in time, but
emotionally and spiritually.
Happy 2016
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