Scenes from a Chinese-Taiwanese-American Girlhood

I've been busier than usual lately (did you know that it's now 11 months too late for Ron and me to say that we still have an entire year until the wedding? OH NO!!!), so if you've sent me a question recently, please forgive me for the delay... I'll answer it as soon as I can, hopefully in the next week.

One of the best parts of wedding planning, aside from knowing that it's nearing an end, is going through all our old family photos to make the slide show that Ron and I will show to our guests. If you are one of our guests, don't panic. It will be short. But, seriously, I don't know how anybody could possibly not get a kick out off my awesome nineties fashions:



You see the look on my brother's face? I can't tell if he's jealous of me because his acid-wash cargo jeans aren't good enough for him, secretly laughing at me or overcome with puffy paint fumes.

Another cool thing are the photos of events that I call "Stuff That Only Happens to You When You Are of Chinese Descent." I give you Exhibit A:



I was rocking a hanfu for a Chinese dance recital. This was when I was 10 years old, and I remember thinking that my classmates and I all looked so glamorous, beautiful and Chinese-y. I didn't understand why everybody started laughing when the curtain went up. Now I do:



The next picture is from a Chinese class recital when I was around five or so. I think my classmates and I had to sing various songs in Mandarin.



This was the part where we all went, "Sorry, that's all the Chinese we know."

My Mom also gave me some scans of photos from my one-month celebration. In Chinese tradition, family and friends gather to celebrate on the 30th day after a baby's birth. Traditionally, eggs are dyed bright red and handed out to the guests. My family also observed other customs, including The Feeding of the Coors Light to the Baby by Her Paternal Grandmother:



I guess this explains why I refuse to drink beer unless it tastes like water. My NaiNai ruined my palate. I'm kidding. She obviously did not actually feed me any beer. The 7-Up can bong was another matter... I'm kidding again!

Another traditional Chinese custom my parents celebrated was Stuff On My Baby:



I love this photo because you can tell how much my parents really love me. I mean, look at all that stuff they put on me. Three stuffed animals, three silk roses, including one on my head, and a doll wearing a saucy hat.

And lastly but not leastly is this photo of me that my mom labeled "Chinese school award ceremony":



Huh? I won an award in Chinese school? What was the award for? "Most Improved in Breathing Through Nostrils"? "Can Write the Character for 'One'"? "At Least She Looks Like She Can Speak Chinese"? This just blows me away. On a totally unrelated note, look at the awesome red pumps the adults are wearing!

A note re: questions about the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship

Since opening my theflyingshu [small mouse] gmail [dot] com e-mail address, I've received a couple notes a week about the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (AKA the Mandarin Enrichment Scholarship). I'll write a post answering some of the questions to the best of my ability when I get a chance this week, but in the meantime anyone thinking of applying should check out Mandarin Scholarship Taiwan, which is an invaluable reference.

I've also noticed that many people find this blog via the keywords "how to write a letter in Chinese." While I do often have to send e-mails in Chinese, I haven't answered this question yet because I work in a relatively informal industry and I think the standards of professional etiquette that reporters and PR people in the fields I cover have to abide by are relatively relaxed compared to other sectors (I mean, seriously, have you ever eaten with a journalist? HAHA! Just kidding.). The e-mails I send out and receive probably would not pass muster if I worked in finance, for example. But I do intend to write a blog post about how to write a polite letter in Chinese, if for no other reason than to divert attention from this ridiculous letter I composed as part of my Chinese homework more than a year ago. I will do some research into the etiquette of Chinese letter writing -- and by research, I mean I will call my mommy.

A Very Special Anniversary

Today is a very special day for me, because it marks the third buyday of my first Blythe doll Farrell.

A little over three years ago, I was at work doing some research for an article about craft Web sites I was thinking of writing when I stumbled upon this entry on Craftlog, about some clothing the blogger was sewing for her first Blythe doll.

The feeling of falling in love with someone has been described as finding the answer to a question you hadn't even known you were asking. Well, that is how I felt at that moment. Ron was moving to Taiwan in a few weeks and I had been wondering how I would fill up all the time that I had been spending with him when he was away. The second I clicked on the Craftlog link, I knew. It would be spent... in Blytheland.

It just so happened that Toy Tokyo in the East Village had recently launched an exhibit of Blythe artwork, dolls and doll prototypes.



It was SO AWESOMELY AWESOME! I took this as a sign that the whole Blythe thing was kismet.

I hauled Ron along with me. Here he is contemplating his fate as the significant other of a future Blythe herder:



After the exhibit, we went across the street to Toy Tokyo, where I selected Farrell. I named her after Suzanne Farrell, the last great muse of George Balanchine:



Over the last three years, Blythe dolls have brought a great deal of joy into my life.





























And Zuleika, Merricat and I appeared in "Haute Doll"!



Oh, I'm sure my parents were so proud.

I'm sure all of you in the U.S. have noticed by now that Blythe is the covergirl for the Alexander McQueen for Target collection. Whee! I just told Ron that it is Farrell's third buyday, and he said "only three years!?!" I know, it feels like it's been forever. I don't remember what my life was like before Blythe... actually, I do. It sucked! Twenty four years of blandness with intermittent periods of misery. Ugh, thank goodness those days are over. Now it's all Blythe, all the time.

Boohoohooohooooohooooooohoooohohohohohohohohoooooo

My Macbook is in the shop. There's a problem with its hard drive, so I'm getting it replaced while the technicians see if they can retrieve any data. This is not a huge catastrophe, because I do most of my work on my desktop computer and I have backed up most of my media. If the data is lost, it's mostly a bunch of pictures I saved off the Internet of things like cats doing funny things and vintage dresses I couldn't fit into or afford), various PDFs and snapshots I didn't think were worth uploading onto Flickr.

Of course, the problem is now that all that stuff might actually be lost, I really regret not having bothered to back it up. But I can't justifiy the NT$10,000 to NT$20,000 it might cost to send the hard drive to a data retrieval service. So even though things could be a lot worse, I'm still pretty unhappy. I'm trying to look on the bright side of things. After all, I'd been meaning to go through the files on my computer and do a mass delete of stuff I don't need because the clutter was getting unmanageable. Well, now it looks like I might not have to do that! Wheeeee.

Anyway, if you want to know, the Apple re-seller I went to is at No. 15, Bade Rd Sec 1, near the corner of Xinsheng North Road. The Chinese address is: 台北市八德路一段15號. Their phone number is (02) 3322-3733. Their service center is on the third floor. Both Ron and I have been there with our various Apple-y tales of woe, and the people we've dealt with have always been pleasant and low key. I don't know if they have employees who are fluent in English, but I guess that's besides the point. They are fluent in Apple talk and as long as you are too, you should be able to communicate with them.

Seriously, though, if you feel like communication is a problem, I'd recommend bringing a Mandarin-speaking friend with you, not just for language help but for moral support. I know that every time I drop a computer off for repair, the first thing I want to do afterwards is to fall to the floor in a panic attack or sooth myself by buying a brand new iTouch, Bose headphones and some totally unnecessary but stylish accessories. And overeat.

:-(