Yinghe Ceramic Museum

Today my cousin, Michael and his wife, May took us to a town nearby called Yinghe (pron. Ing-a) where we learned about the development and importance of ceramics in Taiwan.


The museum was nicely laid out, with well-formed English text, and I had another peek at my father's past. One exhibit reminded Ba of his old home in northern China. It was a replica of a kitchen with a brick oven and huge wok; he remembered his mother and helper cooking up meals in such a kitchen for the farmworkers and family.





Another ceramic object he remembered was a grade one project where the children each made a small heater pot that would then be filled with a piece of hot coal, and wrapped in a cloth sleeve which the child would hug on his walk to school.






We also visited The Garden of Generalissimos at Cihu which is populated with lots and lots of statues of the former president. Another president while in power, had ordered these statues removed/dismantled from various parks and public sites throughout Taiwan, and the county of Cihu asked to have all of them.




Then, we wandered over to where Chiang Kai-shek's body is embalmed and resting in a casket, apparently waiting for the day when he can be interred back in his homeland.
There were two motionless soldiers on guard at the entrance to his mausoleum, and we, along with hundreds of Chinese tourists, watched the soldiers do their end-of-duty exercises and march away.



Then my cousin took us to a vegetarian restaurant, where one of the staff is an old white guy who spoke Chinese fluently. May told us that he was born and grew up in Taiwan. They didn't think he spoke any English and my dad and I were too shy to ask him. But we couldn't stop staring at him. Even though I'm a Chinese person who speaks English fluently and can hardly speak Chinese, it is still the strangest thing for my dad and me to see a white guy who speaks Chinese fluently and doesn't speak much English.

Another little bit of irony is that at this restaurant and at so many others, our dinnerware was not ceramic, but paper or plastic. Ceramic today has more advanced applications in science and technology, such as aerospace materials, automotive, electronics, medical (bone and dental implants), military, computers (super-conductors) and semi-conductors. Ceramics - you've come a long way, baby.