Chopin Ballade No 4 Opus 52 Rubinstein

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Taiwan-na go on holiday: Fabulous food and scenery all made in Taiwan

Nick Webster enjoys the wonderful diversity of Taiwan’s sights and food.. just don’t ask what’s in the snacks sold in snake alley

20 Jul 2012 07:16ByNick Webster

Size really does matter in Taiwan, from the utterly immense (if not the biggest in the world any more) to the painstakingly intricate.

Any trip to the island once known as Formosa, just 99 miles off the south-east coast of China, should begin at the nation’s largest landmark.

When it was built in 2004, Taipei 101 was the world’s tallest building at 1,671ft. It retained the lofty title until 2010 when it was topped by Dubai’s Burj Khalifa – the monolith Tom Cruise scaled in Mission Impossible 4.

However, staring out from 101 storeys up at the capital Taipei below, it feels anything but second rate.

The other end of the size scale is on display just half an hour away at the National Palace Museum, a treasure trove of Chinese culture dating back 8,000 years.

Here you will find everything from ancient calligraphy, which looks more like works of art than forms of writing, to lacquerware. Among the most famous of the almost 700,000 artefacts is a carved Jadeite Chinese cabbage, complete with grasshopper.

But it was the sculpted ivory, in a section catchily named “Uncanny Ingenuity and Celestial Feats”, which was the most ­mind-blowing, particularly a carved ivory ball etched with dragons and clouds.

Hewn from a single piece of ivory, its maker had somehow – and obviously without modern technology – trimmed away so that 21 lacework balls nestle inside one another. How it was done, and how many years it took, is anyone’s guess.

The name of the genius whose life’s work we were admiring has been lost in the mists of time.

Over the years there’s one phrase associated with this destination – Made in Taiwan. But very few of the museum’s treasures were made here. They originated in Beijing’s Forbidden City and were shipped out in 1948 during a civil war which to this day has international repercussions, especially relating to the incredibly complex relationship between China and Taiwan.

While it wouldn’t be too unkind to call the museum building drab, the nearby Five Dime Restaurant, both inside and out, looks like it dropped in from another planet.

Designed by an artist, driftwood and clay is used to create two giant otherworldly female figures whose swirly skirts cover the building.

And the food isn’t bad either.

Starting with peanut-coated sticky rice, we were offered sweet herbal and wheat tea, before wonderful minced chilli pork and a succession of different dishes.

Taiwan is noted for its great food, particularly seafood, but the locals obviously have a sweet tooth as they also love fruit-flavoured shaved ice and “bubble tea” complete with small tapioca balls. And they eat food we usually only see during an I’m A Celebrity bushtucker trial.

Not far from the beautiful and busy Longshan temple – or should that be temples, as it houses both Buddhist and Taoist places of worship – lies Snake Alley.

Formally called Huaxi Street Night Market, it’s in Wanhua, one of Taipei’s oldest districts and spotty teenagers are still brought along for a plate of snake soup, supposedly a treatment for acne.

I resisted the shots of snake blood and snake meat snacks and I’ll let you decide what the huge jars of whisked up turtle eggs and snake testicles are supposedto cure.

After checking out of my hotel, the chic little boutique Hotel Quote – with the most hi-tech toilet I’ve ever encountered – I caught a train south down the Pacific coast and then a tour bus towards the stunning Taroko Gorge.

Sheer marble cliffs rear up hundreds of yards above a raging river – there’d been a lot of rain – and frothy white ribbon waterfalls festoon the mountains.

The gorge is named after the Truku people, one of the 12 officially recognised native tribes in Taiwan. They were my hosts at the Leader Village hotel – wooden cabins surrounded by towering green peaks.

Dinner was a mosaic of small dishes that began with millet wine, drunk through the nose of a porcelain mountain pig, followed by boar skin salad, wild vegetables with garlic, baked sweet potato, skinned green pepper with soy sauce, baked mushrooms, a bamboo tube full of sticky rice and a delicious not-so-local salt-baked peppered New York strip steak (from Australia!).

On my way by bus further south, I stopped at Ruisui, where the Hoya Spa Hotel has its own hot springs, which can be found throughout the island.

Soon I was officially in the tropics, after crossing the Tropic of Cancer, and stopped at the small town of Guanshan. Here a 7.5-mile cycle path, Taiwan’s first, encircles the town, passing betel nut palms, paddy fields, grazing water buffalo and a stall selling delicious custard apples, so named because, yes, they taste like custard.

It’s an easy and fun ride, particularly the sweeping slope back down from the higher part of the trail.

My southernmost stop was Taitung, home to a great night market and the 36 Uncut Jade Heart Garden homestay. Among the local delicacies such as braised duck head and oyster omelette, watch out for the chocolate-covered strawberries. My last “strawberry” was a tomato.

Flying back to Taipei, I just had time to spend an evening at the famous Shilin Night Market, where everything from food to footwear is for sale.

Resisting the great smells (the food not footwear) I was heading for a restaurant I’d heard only good things about.

There are branches of the Din-Tai Fung chain all over the city, in fact all over the world. And they all make amazing, reasonably priced little dumplings.

I started with pork and moved on to the more exotic loofah (before they’re dried and used in the bathroom) and prawn, and spicy sesame noodles. It all tasted fantas tic.

Did I say all over the world? Sadly not in Britain… yet.

Get there

EVA Air flies daily from ­Heathrow to Taipei, from £643pp inc taxes.

Hotel Quote in Taipei from £189pn based on two sharing.

Leader Village Taroko from £66pn based on two sharing.

Hoya SPA Hotel, Ruisui, from £47pn based on two sharing inc entry to hot springs. 36 Uncut Jade Heart Garden homestay in Taitung from £38pn based on two sharing 00 886 8932 6536.

Source and copied from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/tawian-fabulous-food-and-amazing-scenery-1151970

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I’m so glad seeing such article from a British news website introducing my beautiful country, Taiwan.

If you haven’t visited my country, you definitely have to come!!! And If you have been to my country, you definitely have to come again!!! 😀

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An American at the Bolshoi — Joy Womack

I had tears in my eyes when she talked about her injury that almost stopped her from dancing ballet.

A very beautiful dancer, Joy Womack

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Different Ballet Point of View

Firstly, I could never be a professional dancer.

I danced ballet for more than 5 years (and currently stopped because of my oversea study). I started ballet lessons in the same year when I went to a college, but I began having the huge passion for ballet since I was in the second year in high school. Ballet is only my hobby, and I go to ballet lessons for fun and enjoyment. People who don’t dance ballet never understand that I can never perform ballet on the stage (well, at least, I don’t think I’m professional enough to be on the stage), but they always ask me, “Why don’t you hold a performance?” or “When can I see your performance?” They really mean what they say no matter how hard I try to explain my age and how late I started ballet, blah blah blah . . . They still say “WHY NOT?” The classic one was the question that “Why don’t you get a performance”, and this was asked by “him” before we had a “secret” relationship. (We were walking towards the school) When he asked, I laughed and said, “Who would come and see then?”  He said, “I don’t know. Maybe kids.” I laughed and smily said, “No.” “Why not?” he said. “Because I’m not a professional”, I replied. “But you can still do it, right?”, he insisted. I didn’t explain more, and felt very funny (in a polite way) to this kind of question. I’m not saying I cannot do a performance, in fact, I always dream about going on a stage, but just I don’t think I’m “professional” enough to be on the stage.

Secondly, different ballet points of view.

When I go to a theatre to see a ballet or simply watch it on Youtube, I know if a dancer has good techniques or if he/she has make a mistake in performance (well, in fact, I don’t even call it “mistake”, it should be called “accident”. I don’t think dancers would make any mistakes on the stage because they spend days and days, hours and hours rehearsing one play. It’s hardly to say they make “mistakes”, but “accidents” are quite common on the stage). I dance, and I know the footwork. People who are not interested in ballet only “WOW” at dancers’ jumps (grand jete) or turns (pirouette or fouette) or their flexibility. People who like ballet, appreciate ballet, but not as much as I passionate for it still focus on those, I call, “obvious” amazements (I don’t mean it in a bad way). I realise I’m in a different level when watching ballet. Ballet has become my knowledge, and yes, now I can say I’m “professional” at understanding ballet and the footwork. When I watch dancers dance, I see how high they jump (the bounce), how steady they land, how neat their footwork is, how much strength they hold, how much emotion they put in their role, how “amazing” their techniques are, how fluid (the flow) each movement connects together , etc. Flexibility is a different thing, and yes, I still wow if they have good flexibility. But people who don’t do ballet don’t understand that “flexibility” doesn’t equal “strength”. Take me as an example, I have nice flexibility, but my muscle is not strong enough to hold my leg high. I can use my hand to lift my leg very high, but when I drop my hand, I can’t keep my leg with the same hight. My muscle is not very strong (although it can be trained). I examine the details of ballet footwork. I know what is “amazing”, what is “normal” and what is “awful”.

Different ballet point of view:

Example 1

My landlady and her big daughter like ballet, and they have seen ballet performances once or twice. When I showed them videos that, to me, the dancers were “amazing”, they didn’t wow at the points that I (as well as the audiences in the videos) viewed as “amazing”. I came to realise the huge gap of the ballet understanding between them and me. Even though I tried to explain the hard work and the techniques, they still didn’t show how much they understood it. They were happy and glad I showed them the beautiful dance, and so was I. But . . . I couldn’t say it is a disappointment, but . . . there’s just something missing. The same excitement as I see the amazements perhaps.

Example 2

He likes ballet, and he has watched ballet in theater back in his country a couple of times. He told me he knew the mistakes dancers did in performances. I was really curious how he examined the mistakes. He told me when dancers are doing group work (mostly corps de ballet), they should jump at the same hight and at the “exact” same time. And when I showed him this video,

He told me Sveltana Zakharova made some mistakes from 1:20 to 1:24 (grand battement). He said she should do every single “grand battement” as the one at 1:25.

I “taught” him that dancers do not necessarily jump at the same hight and the exact same time in group dances. Yes, if dancers can do what he says, then it is perfect, beautiful and “neat”. For choreographers, they do want dancers to try hard to keep their steps altogether, because that makes the dance neat and beautiful. But if they do not, it cannot be called “mistakes”. It is very difficult to keep every dancer in the same move because they have slightly different rhythms to the music. Ballet does “Allongé“ a lot. Ballet dancers keep their body stretching out and make the body line longer and beautiful, unlike other pop dances. A period of rhythms in music gives dancers certain time to “Allongé” as much as they can, so they sometimes don’t keep on track at the “exact” same time with others. And about jumping at the same hight, if you do really dance ballet, you may realise not everyone has the same strength, the same muscle condition and good feet to jump the exact same hight. And in fact, you don’t have to do ballet, just do a basic jump, and you would realise you don’t have the same bouncing level as others. And there’s another point that makes the jump level look different. A taller person illusionally jumps higher than a shorter one, but it is not always the case. As I say, it mainly depends on the feet, the strength and the muscle conditions.

And for that video, Svetlana didn’t make any mistakes between 1:20 and 1:24. She didn’t have to keep her legs exactly the same level as in 1:25. Why? Firstly, that’s, I say, how amazingly she controlled her legs’ strength and muscles. Secondly, if she did every single kicks the same, that’s actually very boring in the dance (I believe my ballet teachers would agree with me). Dance is like music. They have fluctuations. Music is sometimes loud or quiet to express the emotions of music, and ballet is the same. The changes in music or dance makes the audience feel new and fresh.

What is an accident (most people call it “mistake” so to speak)?

Focus on 1:02 – 03, Svetlana Zakharova’s left leg (we call it “supporting leg) was supposed to be “en pointe” (standing on the toes), but she fell a bit. However, this should not be called “a mistake” because it happens quite often to dancers. Dancers are suddenly unable to make their one leg standing to keep their whole body steady, so they have to land with whole foot to avoid falling on the stage. If you are not a ballet dancer, but still, try to imagine the feeling of standing on your toes, you may realise it’s quite hard to keep your whole body stable. Now try to stand on one foot on the toes. It’s even harder. When you stand on your toes with bare foot, it may be slightly easier because you stretch out your toes to make a stable support. However, when you wear ballerina’s pointe shoes, you would notice your toes squeeze together, you couldn’t stretch your toes, you may it hard to steady your one leg standing.

What is Allongé? Here’s a great example,

Focus on 1:20 – 21, and listen to how the teacher elongated her voice (although she spoke Russian, I believe she called the girl to stretch out longer).

 

Sorry, Mr, I noticed when I corrected you on ballet, you didn’t seem to agree on what I “taught” you. Perhaps you felt embarrassed, perhaps you believed your knowledge, I don’t know, really. But you stepped on my professional field, you should accept that I had (have) better knowledge than you did. Just like when you talked about football, and taught and corrected me the knowledge of football, I always accepted my mistakes and learned the knowledge from you. I like football and have watched games a few times. But I knew I would never have better knowledge than you because I didn’t have the passion as much as you did for football.

 

 

“Styles of ballet”, to be continued . . .

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Chopin Documentary – The Women Behind The Music

I LOVE Chopin’s music SO MUCH!!! His music speaks full of emotions.

Asides from his life with opera singers, once I heard some people say Chopin’s music was not suitable for ballet because the flaw of the music could not make dancers do much dancing work. I strongly disagree with it.

Chopin and Ballet:

1. Les Sylphides

1. Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1
2. Nocturne in F major, Op. 15, No. 1
3. Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op. 50, No. 3
4. Waltz in C sharp minor, Op. 64, No.2
5. Tarantella in A flat major, Op. 43

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Sylphides)

2. La Dame aux Camélias

The whole ballet is with Chopin’s music although I haven’t got a chance to full scene ballet of La Dame aux Camélias. The video above is La Dame aux Camélias pas de deux with “Chopin’s Ballade No. 1, Op. 23 in G minor” which is the same music used in he great scene from The Pianist:

3. In the Night (choreographed by Jerome Robbins)

(1) ???

(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfgMQqA9Yzc

(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JYN6lZZ8CM

(4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gh7N35rD6I

(4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJsm2RmKh30

Sorry for the missing first PDD, but listen to the full scene ballet music with Chopin:

Nocturne Op.27 No.1 in C sharp minor

Nocturne Op.55 No.1 in F minor

Nocturne Op.55 No.2 in E Flat

Nocturne Op.9 No.2 in E flat major

4. Contemporary – Ludmila pagliero, Concour Opera National de Paris

Waltz Op. 64, No. 3

Although this an incomplete video, I do wish to see full scene of this ballet!!! So beautiful!!!

Anymore ballets with Chopin’s music? Is Chopin’s music not suited for ballet?

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A Conversation With My 12 Year Old Self: 20th Anniversary Edition

Hahaha, I like it 😀

Know more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2169692/Jeremiah-McDonald-talks-12-year-old-self-using-video-TWENTY-years-ago.html

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Tragic story of German worker’s epic attempts to save his Jewish fiancee from the Nazis becomes European best-seller

By ALLAN HALL

PUBLISHED: 15:37, 6 July 2012 | UPDATED: 16:12, 6 July 2012

The extraordinary love story of a young man who faced off against the power of the Nazi state to try to save his Jewish fiancee from the gas chambers has become a best seller in German-speaking Europe.

‘Love in the Time of Racial Madness’ is an epic account of the doomed relationship between Heinrich Heinen and his sweetheart Edith Sara Meyer.

He was a gentile, she a ‘full Jew’ under the perverse Nuremberg Racial Laws. It meant not only was it illegal for them to marry, but as the war progressed, she was marked for deportation and extermination.

WARNING: Spoiler alert in this story

Best-seller: Edith Sara Meyer (left) is the subject of a new book (right)

What made their story so remarkable was the lengths Heinen went to in order to free her from the grip of her tormentors.

He broke her out of the Jewish ghetto in Riga, Latvia, after she was shipped there in 1941. Using his wiles and cunning, munitions worker Heinen slipped past the S.S. and smuggled her out of the disease ridden ghetto and back to Germany on false papers.

They then attempted to flee into Switzerland from Austria but were captured by Nazi border guards and imprisoned.

Heinen managed to escape from his cell at Feldkirch prison two months later and made it into another part of the jail where female prisoners were held.

Extraordinary: The love story of a young man who faced off against the power of the Nazi state to try to save his Jewish fiancee from the gas chambers of Auschwitz has become a best seller

He searched frantically for her but in vain; another female prisoner told him she had been shipped to Auschwitz just three hours earlier.

He made it to the outside and tried to find shelter in the village of Hohenems. He was denounced by a Nazi resident and shot by the S.S. and the lover he was never to see again was murdered at Auschwitz within hours of arrival.

Sweethearts since 1938, their story is now told by a retired judge, Alfons Duer from Feldkirch, who sat during his career in the same courthouse where the duo appeared after their failed escape to Switzerland.

Herr Duer has researched the book for several years.

He said: ‘Some of these events played out in my court and I sat in his cell, number 52 in the jail next to the court, and I thought what a tragic, human and ultimately inspiring love story this was.

‘They died because the state said their love was illegal.’

They were not the only ones in her family to die. While on the run to Austria the pair stayed at the home of her pregnant cousin Helen Krebs.

Denounced by Nazi neighbours, she was shipped off to Auschwitz and gassed despite the pleas of her protestant husband to spare her.

The book will be translated into English at the end of the year after stellar reviews, and media reports said it is being optioned in Hollywood with a view to making a film.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2169740/Tragic-story-German-workers-epic-attempts-save-Jewish-fiancee-Nazis-European-best-seller.html#ixzz1zrxeyj6I

 

This kind of story reminds me of the film I have watched many years ago — The Pianist. I love it very much. (And we can’t forget “Schindler’s List” as well)

They’re different type of stories (which are real stories as well) from a “love” one, but they indeed share some similarities, German save Jews. I don’t agree the saying that all German were Nazis and they’re killers during that period of time. There were many hidden touching stories like this, but they were never revealed. We can’t judge and deny all the people just because one of them has done something terribly.

I love The Pianist very much. At first, I watched this film because I loved Chopin’s music, and then I learned Nazi history accidentally. The film shows the cruelness of Nazi, but in the end it also shows not everyone of them has no kindness to the Jews. However, The Pianist contains “strong violence” (which every time I watched it, I couldn’t bear myself seeing the killing parts, not even listening to the screams, the crying and the gunshots. I always had to close my eyes. It was just too painful to watch.), so if anyone is interested in this film, please be prepared!

Know more about the real story of The Pianist, please visit: http://www.szpilman.net/

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Make a shit or make a poo?

Do you say “make a shit” or “make a poo” when you need to go to a toilet?

Just had an funny discussion with a friend of mine about this. I know it’s very boring! XD

I usually say “poo-poo” when I’m with someone but need to go to a toilet, especially with my family, I mean even in Chinese language. Why am I using this children’s word? I’m not trying to act cutely, nor trying to act like a child. It’s just that “making a shit” brings me the image of a real shit, the shape, the colour, and somehow I think I can smell it  . . . ugh . . .

So I’d rather say it in a cute way, poo-poo or just poo, so that the only image comes in my head is that cartoon-like one.

 

Hahaha, boring talk 😀

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The most beautiful actresses . . .

My favourite are Audrey Hepburn and Vivien Leigh. Two have completely different looks. Vivien Leigh is a sexy, attractive, glamorous and graceful beauty, and she has a pair of seductive eyes. On the contrary, I don’t refer the word sexy to describe Audrey Hepburn, but she looks sweet, elegant, graceful, classy and charming. She’s simply beautiful! Even I’m a woman, I can’t help myself being astonished and attracted by their beauty.

I have their videos back in Taiwan, and I have watched their movies since I was only a high school student. Love them:)

Oh! Btw, they both danced ballet 😀

Audrey Hepburn

Even this sleepy face in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, she still looks so beautiful!

Vivien Leigh

Oh god, I can’t get enough pictures of them 😀

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True friends . . .

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