vision quest

my beautiful and adventurous mother is at an interesting point in her life. she is really probably most likely about to retire, she may possibly be ready to sell the family house, she has just reached the ripe and respectable age of 65 (what what senior dis-counts!), and her only daughter is midway through a roots quest of her own (in search of cantonese heritage by way of taiwan). mom janet, as she prefers to be called, was looking for answers to her life's big questions. so she came to taiwan for a 5 week vision quest.

vision #1: people are medicine for people. life's big questions don't seem so troubling when you have 3 generations of liangs ushering you into their chinese new year family portrait, and gaoshu elementary school's staff and student body cheering uproariously whenever you pass by.












vision #2: make new friends and keep the old. whether they were squatting and chatting inside a screened-in jujube farm, oiling their chests and doing hunky rukai stretches in between performances, or chilling out buddhist monk-style on an old red wagon-wheeled bench, mom found ways to reach the masses. she squatted right down, squeezed right in, and zenned right out. and the whole time, her heart was singing with love for new friends like shushu, gugu, & mr. soo, and old friends like mary harrison, liv, & riley.

vision #3: when in taiwan... that's right-- grab a fork (or chopstick, or oversized toothpick, or spoon) and dig in. pork stuffed glutinous rice dumplings on the left, pork filled potstickers on the right. when everyone around you is consuming delectable mass quantities of pork, seize the pig.












vision #4: make art everywhere, with everyone, all the time. it would not be a vision quest without a glorious cross-cultural art exchange. mom brought glue sticks, wish sticks, and a great big rainbow peace flag across the pacific so that she could bless gaoshu guoxiao with a message of peace and love, all the way from milwaukee, wisconsin. little alice paid mom the ultimate compliment when she said, "you look like all of our mothers."












vision #5: go with the flow. if you're surrounded by hakka and aboriginal taiwanese cultures, then learn/eat everything you can about them (from fatty pork to pork fat to seed-bead embroidery). if life gives you jujube trees, then pick with all your heart (and go for the faintly yellowish ones). and if an all-school assembly is convened on your behalf, then grab a pen, write a song in chinese, and own that mic with your nearest and dearest family members:

to the tune of "row, row, row your boat:"
gaoshu guoxiao, gaoshu guoxiao,
xie xie ni, xie xie ni, gaoshu guoxiao!
eileen: wo shi ke ai-lin, ingwen laoshi,
ting bu dong, kan bu dong, xie xie ni!
jp: wo xihuan hao chi, wo xihuan hao chi,
niu rou mian, niu rou mian, xie xie ni!
mom: i don't speak chinese, i don't speak chinese,
ni men hen hao, ni men hen hao, xie xie ni!

vision #6: don't sweat the small stuff. this large chunk of cement may just have fallen on jonathan's foot during a 6.4 earthquake, but he is really crying over the departure of his adoptive chinese-american grandmother. jonathan and all of taiwan's children will miss mom janet.

photos: jlc & et celebrate kaohsiung's lantern festival + meinong's hakka pride during chinese new year; the liang family celebrating chinese new year; gaoshu elementary school & the carrs; jujube picking; strapping "abs" (aboriginal dudes); taking a senior breather; liouhe night market's tasty delights; art therapy in the english room (that's a PEACE PRIDE flag by the way); jujube/hakka/ lantern-loving mom janet; jonathan's lamentation