Pharmaceutical Advertising

Social media companies: Facebook, Amazon, Google and such, gather up so much of the free information that we give them about ourselves as we use their services that they can sort us into target groups and “sell us” to companies that want to focus ads in our direction. This data was used to sway an American presidential election in 2016, and a mayoral election in Taiwan’s 3rd largest city in 2018 that led to the winner there becoming a major party’s presidential candidate for 2020. 

Television advertising is similarly aimed at the audiences that specific programs draw. During the years that re-runs of CSI (the original and the Miami and New York spin-offs) ran on cable TV in Taiwan, they were very popular. It mystified me how many “Bra ads” ran during the commercial breaks until I learned that CSI was very popular with young single women.   In America, programs that draw large audiences of senior citizens carry ads for diabetes and incontinence products. This makes sense.

Apart from watching election returns on January 11th, I didn’t watch much TV at all during the 15 days I spent there. I’d estimate that election night programs found a lot of people watching. All four “terrestrial networks” broadcast nothing else. But they did not broadcast for free. Ads punctuated the reports of the returns, and many were for medicines. Not the American kind of ads, which often advise people to “Ask your doctor about Whamazam. It may be right for you.”  Taiwan medicine ads are for tonics and things people buy over the counter to give them greater vitality or aid their digestion. 

 

On election eve, the networks carried the closing rallies held by each of the 3 candidates running for president. The last one scheduled was by the incumbent president. I found it mildly disconcerting when the station I was watching, one that is ideologically tilted in her party’s direction, cut off the end of her speech to go to an ad for Scotch Whisky followed by one for a stomach remedy.

 

Yes, somebody has to pay for the fine programming that we receive on the commercial airwaves and through the cables. I’m thankful that I haven’t yet needed “whamazam” or any of the patent medicines seen on TV. Not yet, at least. 

 

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan.

Now That You’ve Retired, Where do you Work?

A certain part of common social interaction begins with questions. In English, these may be “How are You?” or  “How’s it going?” In Taiwan the common greeting is “Have you eaten?” or, if meeting someone on the street, “Where are you going?”   On a visit to Taiwan earlier in the month, I heard a new one. It comes in the context of my having retired, 18 months ago, from ecclesiastical employment. The man who asked me is the chairman of the board of the theological college from which I retired.  He asked, “Now that you’ve retired, where are you serving as a church pastor?”

I don’t imagine for a minute that all who, like myself, have reached a mandatory retirement age from one job need not find some other way to earn a bit of money to keep the wolf from the door. Many whose careers have been in the church have been underpaid, or as impecunious as people in any and all other occupations. In this aspect, I’ve been blessed. I have enough.  Nor do I discount the fact that many who have retired for whatever reason continue working at something to keep boredom at bay. One of the guys at the place where I have my car repaired is a retired police officer. He enjoys the interaction he has with people running the front desk there. Again, in this aspect, I’ve been blessed. Without descending into binge watching Fox TV, I’ve found enough to keep the mental wheels turning and body parts moving.

I think the board chairman’s question came from somewhere else, somewhere more deeply rooted in Taiwanese culture. It comes from the idea that people are always supposed to be “busy” about something, and that should last until the body itself is no longer capable of “busyness.” 

For 8 years I was chaplain and advisor to international students. Among my final tasks during my last year in that position, I escorted a student from Zambia to the airport for his flight out. On the way I asked him what impressions of Taiwan he would take home with him. He responded it was the ability of Taiwanese people to turn from one thing to another and just keep going. They didn’t pause between tasks to relax and refresh, as he and his Zambian compatriots did. 

When the chairman asked me, given my retired status, I was currently serving in a pastoral role, I responded, “retired is retired.”   For that, I’m thankful.

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years of ecclesiastical employment in Taiwan.

Being Included Back In

Coming home to Taiwan, where we have no place of our own to stay, has meant coming as guests. We even have a room in the guest house of Tainan Theological College to use while here. Being here as guests means something more, and something less, than being here as part of the community.  We get invited to more meals, but we’ve no way to invite people “over” for anything but the simplest of snacks. A few days ago when 3 people showed up, we didn’t even have enough cups for everyone to have tea!

But, we’ve been “included” in many things.  The first morning after our arrival we were present at college staff prayers and breakfast.  That evening I was included in the student and faculty meal that usually follows college worship. The next day I was handed a black robe and asked to stand with the faculty and June’s graduating class for their group photo. On the next Tuesday I sat with the faculty at an “out of season” graduation ceremony.  A few days later I was invited to lunch with members of the staff of the college president’s office for their “pre lunar new year’s meal.”

Of course, a lot of this comes at a cost.  I’m eating too much.

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan.

Effortless Steps

I used to run up and down staircases, skipping steps sometimes. Now 68 years old, I’m past that era. Some years ago I began carrying a pedometer in my pocket and trying to “get” 10,000 steps a day. Moving to Holland, MI, where it’s not easy to get that many steps in the winter, coincided with learning that the number 10,000 was just a convenient number selected for how it sounds in Japanese. I no longer strive for all of them, but consider a day with less than 5,000 to have been spent in idleness. 

It’s winter in Holland, MI, where I now reside. But I’m in Taiwan for a couple weeks, where, though it’s also winter, it feels like spring in Michigan. My pedometer has registered near to, slightly over, or wildly in excess of 10,000 steps per day every day since we arrived. It’s so EASY to rack up a good total just doing the things we do here, and it’s so pleasant to be outside doing so. 

We have to remember, though, that were we to have visited during mango season, we’d be huddling indoors near to an air-conditioner rather than out getting the steps. If only we could bring the spring weather and the mango season more closely together. Then this would be heaven on earth, and pedometers would become unnecessary. 

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan.

Group Photo

I have rarely been moved to be grateful for the plague of smartphones that infects so much of Taiwan’s society, but I’m kind of happy with it now. We’ve been here for 10 days, and millions of pixels have been used to capture my image in all manners of settings.  But I recall decades past when people used film, and were “oh – so – careful” not to waste any on a poor shot. Especially when a group photo was being taken. Line everybody up, set the camera (either a 35 mm SLR or, if really formal, a box camera on a tripod, complete with black cloth), set the f-stop, the exposure time, the film speed and on and on. All the time people were squinting into the sun or trying to avoid their hair blowing into their eyes. 

The groups I’ve joined, and been photographed with, over the past week or so have included the college staff, the graduating seniors, the participants in college worship, people in two church services I attended last Sunday, people gathered to say goodbye to a departing professor, and today someone’s relatives visiting from North America.  

Because there are so many smartphones around, and because it costs nothing to take one or even several photos, there’s no need to worry about getting the shot, “just right”, because you can take 6 or 7 and discard those that don’t look exactly how you want them to. I’ve learned, though, to stand still with a frozen smile on my face. 

I really should enjoy it, though. In 4 days I’ll board the plane headed back to the USA, where NOBODY takes my picture. 

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan.

Saying Goodbye to Neighbors

Sometime last autumn at the end of a note about something else, a staff member at Tainan Theological College dropped in a sentence that our neighbors, Chris and Johanna Dippenaar, would be leaving on January 16th. Since for various reasons over the years they had regularly gone to either South Africa (his homeland) or to Switzerland (hers) for  2 to 4 weeks at least once a year, we merely thought that it was one of these trips, and were happy that we’d see them during our visit here.  

But it was not to be so simple. They weren’t just “going out”, but “going away”.  Seeing them in the middle of their packing up rush for the past several days has been “saying goodbye.” 

Chris and Johanna arrived in Taiwan in 1988 similarly to how we did in 1976, as single people intent on doing missionary work. They married a couple years later and went to work in college campus ministries.  Chris moved into theological education. They worked at Taiwan Theological College in Taipei. Their children were born then. Eventually they took an extended break during which Chris taught in a theological school in Germany for a couple years followed by a longer stint inSingapore, where Chris taught New Testament studies using Chinese, and local Singaporean professors taught similar courses using English.  Chris’s language preparation in Taiwan plus his theological education experience done completely in Chinese made him better equipped than the Singaporean faculty to deal with students from China who didn’t have enough English!

They returned to Taiwan early in the 21st Century and went back to Taiwan Theological College in Taipei, then transferred to Tainan in 2014.  They were our next-door neighbors until we retired in 2018. We loved having them near.

Now they have left, and that half of the duplex is empty.  We were happy to be part of the “goodbyes” on their front lawn on the 16th. We don’t know if or when we’ll ever get to Switzerland, but hope to see them again this side of heaven. 

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan.

Saying Hello to Grace

We’ve known Grace Wu since the late 1980s. She finished her studies at Tainan theological college in 1986 and was assigned to a little church not far from our house. Grace did good work there, but she had bigger ideas than a local parish that required overseas advanced study. I helped her with a little bit of tutoring.

When she got back from those studies, she married an artist. She also became the director of a family counseling center and an in-demand speaker on relationships. Her elder son was born soon after our son, so she and my wife, Char, shared pregnancy and child-raising stories.

Grace did a lot of things, too many, in fact. Once when she needed help with the English in some project, and stopped by our house to get the help, Char sent her to rest in our darkened bedroom for an hour, which was probably not what she thought she needed, but was just the ticket.

Eventually Grace was hired by Chang  Jung Christian University to run their counseling center, and got faculty status in the divinity school. 

When she discovered that we were in town, she invited us for coffee. Unfortunately, we were obligated to some other things at about the same time, so our time was pretty short.  We learned that her sons have done well her husband is a respected ceramicist, and Grace is ready to retire in a year. We wish her the best, and we cherish the friendship she has given us. 

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan.

Invitations Rollin’ In

 

I learned years ago that people in Taiwan can be rather “possessive” of information. When we were on vacation in 1998 and my wife was discovered to need surgery, delaying our return for several weeks, I communicated this to the administrative clerk of the organization for which I worked. He told the chief officer, and all was “well”. But when we got back, colleagues were curious as to why we’d been gone so long. 

We’re nearing the end of a two-weeks sojourn in Tainan. I communicated our dates and a request for use of the college guest house to some staff members of the college, who anticipated our arrival and made arrangements for all things. Yet when meeting some former colleagues on the faculty, there was surprise at our arrival. Anyone whom I had not informed directly didn’t know we were coming. People outside of the organization would meet us by chance and ask why we were here. (Our response was that we came to vote in the presidential election). 

Now that we’re in our final few days, invitations are coming. A meal with these, coffee with those, an afternoon here, a morning there.  We’re popular!

 

Next time, I’ll write to EVERYONE, using Chinese, so that nobody will be uninformed. Maybe I’ll invite them, myself. 

 

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan.

No View To Savor

Before we moved to Tainan in 2008, we had spent 25 years in Kaohsiung. Being back in Taiwan for a brief two weeks, and staying in Tainan while we do so, we set aside some time to see the city.  Throughout the years we spent in Taiwan, a great way to see the city was from the train. No more.

In the mere 18 months we’ve been gone, the passenger trains through the city have moved underground. It both WAS and WASN’t a surprise. After all, digging began on the city’s new subway system in the 90s, and traffic was disrupted for YEARS!  The automobile tunnel under the train station, which had been opened in the mid 80s, was replaced with a temporary bridge in about 2002. Digging parallel and perpendicular to the original rails began soon after. But apart from the subway, all travel was on the surface, until sometime after we retired.

Heading for Pingtung on the 10th we noticed the train angling downward somewhere in the northern exurbs. Then all got dark. It stopped at a station we didn’t recognize (underground), then started again and emerged somewhere east of town.  We saw NOTHING of Kaohsiung. A few days later we went back to wander around our old neighborhood. A ride on the city’s light rail trolley took us along the harbor, which we recall from the old days as having been almost completely walled off. 

Having the main railroad tracks underground makes it easier to get around on the surface without all the bottlenecks for bridges and tunnels that were common previously. It also frees up lots of green space. But… we missed the views. 

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan. 

Immigration Clearance

Some things in life get harder. Getting up out of a low chair, which used to be effortless, now requires a bit of planning, and sometimes more than one try.  Getting things repaired around the house, which used to require calling the manager of whatever employer provided housing in which we resided, now requires budgeting and bill paying (or sometimes deciding that we can live with whatever’s broken).

When we began our lives in Taiwan, we always dreaded coming into the country, not because we didn’t love Taiwan, but because we had to line up with “foreign passport holders” at the airport immigration desk. Eventually the lines for holders of local passports were opened to holders of Alien Registration Certificates (Taiwan Green Cards), making things a bit easier.  

This time we sailed through on our Taiwan passports. We didn’t even need to fill out or provide landing cards. A smiling Immigration Officer merely scanned our passports into the system, stamped a page, and waved us on. 

We can only hope for such treatment next week when, using our American passports, we try to go home.

David Alexander now resides in Holland, MI after 39 years, and taking citizenship in, Taiwan.