“Why Will Young People Dominate at the Midterm Elections?”: Du Yihuan’s Take on the Rise of Young Voters’ Involvement in Politics in Taiwan

On November 29, 2014, Ko Wen-Je, a physician with Asperger’s syndrome, won the Taipei mayoral election. While it was a triumph for a candidate who did not have any kind of political background, there was a larger force at play besides his own abilities. For the first time in history, the younger generations in Taiwan, fed up with the inaction and incompetence of incumbent politicians, decided to take matters into their own hands by publicly voicing their frustrations and directions of change, and actively transforming the ways political campaigns are conducted. As a result, Taiwanese young voters aged 20 to 35 turned out to be the dominating factor in this election and perhaps all elections in the coming years, said the Commonwealth Magazine’s Du Yihuan in “Why Will Young People Dominate at the Midterm Elections?”, a reflection of the impacts of young Taiwanese on 2014’s Taipei Mayoral election.

The story of this “Young Political Activists” movement began 15 months prior, when the death of a mistreated conscripted soldier, Hung Chung-Chiu, led to widespread protests. Hung was forced to do strenuous physical drills as a punishment for carrying a camera phone with him into a military base, even though this offense should only have warranted administrative punishments. As a result, he suffered from heat stroke and fell into a coma before dying of organ failure at a military hospital, a mere two days before he would have been relieved of conscription duty. The incident sparked roaring outcries, particularly among younger generations, and impelled a record 100,000 people demonstrating outside a Ministry of Defense building. This series of protests was a major reason for the drastic changes in legislation that followed, including the abolition of court-martial during peacetime, and the treatment of military prisoners as civilian prisoners..

The Hung Chung-chiu incident struck a nerve in the hearts of young Taiwanese. Paired with discontent of the government’s attitude towards low salaries (“22K” is an oft-quoted statistic, referring to the monthly salary in New Taiwan Dollars afforded to minimum-wage workers, an amount that barely makes ends meet) and growing economic inequality, various scandals, such as the food safety incidents that surfaced in late 2013, only served to build up the smolder and long-lasting grudge in the hearts of activists waiting for the culmination, the tipping point, the needle on the haystack. And it did come, albeit after months of no action.

On March 18, 2014, a group of university students stormed into the National Assembly house, and, with the aid of the oppositional party, occupied it for the next two weeks. This incident, later known as Occupy Parliament or the Sunflower Student Movement, was triggered by the passage of a cross-strait service trading agreement. Students and other young people that later would join them were angered by the potential service job loss caused by this agreement, as well as the hasty process in which it was passed. To peacefully end the occupation, the government eventually accommodated the movement’s main adjuration, “demand transparency in pacts negotiated with China,” according to Du, by extirpating the agreement altogether and restarting.

A couple of months later, when election season was fully upon Taiwan, a tectonic shift in attitude was evident when contrasted with previous elections. In the past, young people either didn’t vote or only voted according to their parents’ suggestions or stances, much less actually participate in the election process. This year, however, the number of young people who signed up as candidates for local political positions had grown by more than tenfold. This also showed the remarkable change in young people taking initiative and taking responsibility for their own government. In addition, instead of following their parents’ political stances, they are thinking for themselves, coming up with their own, informed conclusions, and even make strong cases for their ideal candidates to their family members.

All over the world, young people invariably fall to the bottom of the economic ladder, and are forced to politically engage themselves in order to enact socioeconomic changes that were otherwise considered impossible boundaries to cross. Some organized peaceful strikes and protests to earnestly voice their appeals, like the Occupy Wall Street movement; others went to the extremes of instigating a civil uprising that started with riotic demonstrations and eventually led to a revolution, for example the Syrian Revolution. But Du’s article shows how young Taiwanese take a different route. They recognize and even embrace the existing political system, are able to leverage modern technologies and social media, and eventually beat career politicians at their own game. The young generation in Taiwan is not only pushing the once unshakable boundaries rooted in political stalemate, but is also showing the world a new and effective path of bettering their homeland.

A Tale of Two 'Ma's

Ma Ying-Jeou, who would later become one of the KMT party's most influential leaders, catapulted into Taiwan’s political scene in 1981, as the personal English translator for then-President Chiang Ching-kuo after receiving his S.J.D. from Harvard. He defeated the seemingly unbeatable incumbent Chen Shui-bian at 1998’s Taipei City mayoral election, and set a record for the highest number of votes at 2008’s presidential elections. Today, with 14 months still left in his second term, his approval rating has already plummeted down to under 10%, making him almost a premature "lame duck". This is a story of two “Ma”s.

After President Chiang’s death, Ma started to garner public attention due to his status as a strong advocate for exercise and an ardent blood donor. His image became that of a persevering runner steadily jogging on the streets. In 1997, he’d resigned from the position of Minister without Portfolio because he felt ashamed that he was a part of a government that had let down the citizens for failing to save the victim of a high-profile kidnapping case. This furthered his reputation, as it was such an  unprecedented move among career politicians.

The 228 Massacre, which began on February 28, 1947, was an incident in which the KMT murdered or imprisoned many Taiwanese, including many of the elite, while occupying Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. This, of course, caused a huge chasm between the two ethnic groups: the refugees and government powers from China, and those who had already settled in Taiwan. However, every year there was always a commemoration, which Ma attended annually, showing his sincerity even before he had become an important politician. This was an action that no KMT members had previously taken, due to their reluctance to admit such an event had even taken place. Truly, this was taken as a great step towards mending the gap that had plagued Taiwan's politics for years.

As Mayor of Taipei City, Ma brought about many changes, most notably one of the world’s foremost Pay-as-You-Throw waste management systems. In this pioneering program, residents of Taipei City are only allowed to dispose of trash contained in special bags purchased from the government, while recycling can be disposed of free of charge. This scheme has reduced Taipei’s trash by more than 35% to date since 1999, and has increased the recycle output by approximately 260%.

As President, Ma worked tirelessly to make peace between Taiwan and China, successfully repairing connections and instituting a diplomatic truce between Beijing and Taipei. This allowed Taiwan to maintain diplomatic relations with 22 countries, no small feat when most countries would prefer to seek China’s recognition in exchange for Taiwan’s. A notable breakthrough in regards to cross-strait relations with China was the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, abbreviated as ECFA, which sought to reduce commercial taxes between the two sides and promote economical interaction. This had great consequences, drastically increasing the trade between Taiwan and China.

In addition, under Ma’s leadership, Taiwan became the 37th country to gain admittance to the United States’ Visa Waiver program, allowing Taiwanese citizens to enter the U.S. without a visa. Meanwhile, 86 more countries started to accept Taiwanese travelers with digital visas, visas on arrival, or without visas at all, bringing the total count from 54 to 140. On another note regarding international travel, Ma opened Taiwan's doors to Chinese tourists, giving the tourist trade a huge boost.

He did things that no other politician would dream of doing because it would influence their approval rating. For example, he drafted a law to start implementing more taxes for civil servants, teachers, and soldiers, an idea that infuriated the general public, yet was necessary for a nearly bankrupt government to keep operating. Was the country’s general wellbeing worth losing a large share of his supporters? It was a complicated decision. In the end, Ma chose the righteous and less “politically correct” way.

Unfortunately, he seemed to become less and less popular with the people. In truth, Ma himself did not seem to change much, but his weaknesses and limitations become more evident in his second term as President. In general, Ma was indecisive and unable to stick to his convictions when subject to the opposition's pressures, and tended to change positions abruptly and to not provide strong and continued backing for government policies advocated by his own cabinet. For example, he vetoed the construction and operation of the fourth nuclear plant in Taiwan, but only when pressured to do so. As a result, the general public had the impression that he terminated the plant without a genuine belief in the vision of “nuclear-free homeland” and without a concrete plan to address the economic development issues brought about by the termination.

During Ma's second term as President, food safety controversies began to be revealed at a far too alarming rate. The general public was tired of being kept in the dark as to which foods were actually safe to eat. The major food-safety incident occurred right before midterm elections. The Ting Hsin International Group was discovered to have been mixing imported animal feed oil with regular lard and selling it to a huge lard corporation, affecting millions of consumers. Though a national -- and global, too, as the oil was also exported -- concern, Ma refused to make any decisions on this matter, preferring instead that the Judicial System be in charge, like it should. However, this led to the Taiwanese people's distrust of him and his government, due to the frustrating opaqueness and  hardly comforting resolutions of major issues. According to the BBC, this distrust, combined with low salaries and increasing economic inequality, caused the KMT to fail miserably at the 2014 midterm elections.

The public was also upset at some high-profile scandals, such as the death of a mistreated conscripted soldier. The soldier was forced to do strenuous physical drills as a punishment for having a camera phone with him; this offense should only have warranted administrative punishments. As a result, he suffered from heatstroke and fell into a coma before dying of organ failure at a military hospital, a mere two days before he would have been relieved of conscription duty. The incident caused widespread protests, particularly the "White Shirt Army" protests, and Ma personally apologized. The Minister of National Defense also publicly resigned. Although this episode occurred in mid-2013, it culminated with various other mishandlings on the government's behalf, lowering Ma's approval rate radically.

Various parts of the private sector also grew to resent Ma due to his "Teflon pan" status: that is, he never made exceptions to any laws or allowed anyone to slip through the cracks. Ma even sued a member of his own party, Wang Jin-ping, who was bribed. While this is "Teflon pan"-ness is an admirable aspect, as so many politicians fall prey to bribery and embezzlement, many people started to doubt his loyalty to his own party, and supporters of Wang Jin-ping. But this was no fault on Ma's part; he had done his job; he had made a righteous decision.

As Taipei Mayor and subsequently as Taiwan's President, Ma is a classic case of a President who had started out strong and then lost people’s trust and support. Because he wasn't able to balance the interests of the government with that of the citizens, his presidency ultimately went downhill. Now, with only 9.2% of the public backing him, it is evident that the same sense of righteousness that had won him the public's overwhelming support has eventually worked against his favor.

Double Crochet Zippered Pouch pattern

<scroll waaaaaayyyyyy down for the pattern>

Well. It's been a while, hasn't it? :P

I've been a bit more active yarn-wise recently. I can't explain it. I think it's because of the crafting kick I've been on since Halloween, when I made a mask and a wire hairband for my school's charity crafting club, the Star Jar Club (link). And after midterms, I felt that I literally had nothing better to do! Plus, the weather's getting cold now, (even landing me with a cold), so I thought it would be nice to pick up those needles/that hook again. While I realized I had forgotten how to cast on for knitting (silly me) I still knew how to double- and single-crochet, so I made this pattern for a double crochet zippered pouch. It is fully lined with coordinating fabric. Hope you guys enjoy! I was thinking about making more stuff for Star Jar, and I realized that since Nerd Girl Yarns is hosting the Winter is Coming NGY Giveaway Game right now, I couldn't not participate! Hope you guys come and check me out on my Ravelry, as well!

Ravelry pattern notes:
~~ 

Hello! This is a pattern for making a zippered pouch. It is my first ever pattern so please bear with me!

You can customize the size of your pouch to your liking. I made a small-ish one, 12 dc across by 6 rows. I would not suggest going above 6 rows, as it is a pretty good depth already. I believe that you could, in theory, stretch it to 7 rows, though. However, you may decide to make more stitches across than 12.

Basically start with any yarn that will work with your size hook and that you feel comfortable with; I just used Red Heart Super Saver. You will also need two pieces of liner fabric to go on the inside that are a bit longer and wider than you want your pouch to be, in order to account for seam allowance. Also, you will need a zipper in the desired size, or, if you cannot find one small enough, there are tutorials all over the internet that will tell you how to tack, or shorten, a zipper.

This is a perfect scrapbusting project as it uses very little yarn to crochet up 2 rectangles. It is also very beginner-friendly and is suitable for a first crocheting project, although sewing the liner may prove a bit more tricky and requires the use of a sewing machine if one does not wish to undergo the laborious process of hand-sewing.

A note before you begin, though: You will crochet two rectangles. Please note that the finished pouch WILL be smaller than the rectangle, due to "seam allowance" when flipping it in and out. Please allow more room. To be safe, if you wish, chain 13 instead of 12 if you want the finished product to be 12 stitches across.

~~~~

Double Crochet Zippered Pouch

Author: Dana Chiueh

Materials

• Yarn 1: Worsted or DK weight yarn, around 30 yards
• I recommend Red Heart Super Saver or Caron Simply Soft for inexpensiveness, but you can definitely use any yarn you wish that is in the DK-Worsted weight category!
• Yarn 2: Worsted or DK weight yarn, around 5 yards 
• in the same, coordinating, or contrasting colour. 
• You will need this to sew the pouch outer together.
• H/8 (5mm) hook
• Yarn needle
• 2 pieces of coordinating fabric in a bit longer and wider than you want your finished pouch
• A zipper*
• Fusible interfacing or felt (optional)

*best if you could find a zipper that is the exact size, but you could still tack it if you cannot find a correctly sized one.

Gauge

I did not feel that this was necessary, due to the fact that it's merely an accessory, and that it uses so little yarn, but to provide for comparison purposes:
6 dc stitches by 2.5 rows was 2 inches square for me.

Procedure:

Crocheted Outer

1. Using Yarn 1, chain 12, + 2 for the first dc
• note: if you want there to be visual interest with "holes" on the edges to create a lacing-like effect, chain 12, + 3 for the first dc.
• also, you don't necessarily have to chain 12. If you want a pencil-pouch length, you would chain maybe 30 or possibly even more. 12 is a rough guideline for a coin/money purse size.
2. Turn and dc into the third/fourth chain stitch (chain #12, right before the extra chain stitches); continue to dc.
3. Turn and chain 2 (or 3) and repeat.
4. Stop when you want. I stopped after 6 rows. Bind off, and weave in the ends with a yarn needle.
5. Make another identical rectangle. Set both aside.

Lining

1. If you wish to have a sturdy pouch, now is the time to attach the fusible interfacing or to sew on the felt. 
• Beware though, that if you are making a small pouch it may become quite bulky with the addition of the crocheted outer.
• Note that the wrong side of your fabric or (if using) the unattached side of the fusible interfacing/felt coordinates with the crochet yarn, because you will probably be able to see through the small gaps in the yarn. Meaning, don't pick an atrocious felt colour like grape to go with your orange crocheted rectangles, unless that is by design.
2. Place your two pieces of fabric right sides together and sew on three sides, leaving the top free.
3. Clip corners and cut off all excess fabric. Set aside.

Construction

1. Put the two crocheted pieces right sides together (if you have a preference for which side looks better). Using a yarn needle and the same yarn, stitch them together with overlock stitch, leaving the top free.
• Use the same yarn unless you want to create visual interest.
2. Turn out.
3. Put the lining inside of the crocheted pouch, being careful to put the wrong sides together.
4. Using a sewing machine, stitch the lining opening and the crocheted pouch opening together.
5. Tack the zipper, if necessary.
6. Turn the whole pouch inside out, and attach the zipper.
7. Open the zipper and turn the pouch back to the correct side. Smooth. If using cotton yarn, you may iron. Ironing acrylic yarn is not recommended.
8. You're done!!!

~~~~

That's it for today, everyone! Hope you like the finished product! <3

This summer....

Today was such an incredible day. But first, I’ll brief you on everything that’s happened since I last posted. However I’ll talk more about what has happened since I’ve come to Setauket.

Recently my days have been filled with coding mornings and lazy noons; then math math math nonstop for hours. I hate math. But I’m terrible at it, so I need to WORK a lot. I am taking the PSAT in mid-October so I need to be ready. Surprisingly my “Writing Skills” are sort of terrible. I’m not sure why. The multiple-choice answers are somewhat ambiguous and I also have poor vocabulary. Least you would expect from me eh? I have sub-par, I guess. I can spell all the words I don’t know the meanings of (HUGE hyperbole okay because we all love our literary devices).

So. Coding mornings? Yes. I have been writing a bunch of things in C because my dad says so… It’s a summer project. It’s a thing. Yes. I’ve also been learning JavaScript (I’ve been learning for about a year or so on Khan Academy; I never knew it was JS until I realized last month). It’s pretty exciting. I’m actually motivated to do it because of the badges and things. AND Pamela and Vi are so nice and funny and it makes people feel like they are capable.

Side note: I’ve “coded” my own version of Flappy Bird. Except for 1) It’s Rainbow Dash, so it’s really Flappy Pony and 2) I didn’t really code it. I’ve been using TouchDevelop to code it and it’s one of the projects, which means that TD helps you do it every step of the way and tells you exactly what to code. It’s cheating, but I understand everything that goes into it so I’m “learning”, I guess. TouchDevelop is a Microsoft thing, by the way, and I first used it at a Microsoft YouthSpark CodeIT! session.

This summer is IT. This summer is THE SUMMER. I’ve been involved in A LOT of charity/volunteer work. Okay, so everything is “unsubstantial” but I don’t care. It’s fun to do the things I’m doing: papercrafting signs for the newly unhomeless, writing book reviews for the teens in our community, donating a lot lot lot lot. A lot of it comes from DoSomething.org, which has a bunch of challenges/scholarships they encourage teens to participate in. Anyway, I’m not an ad, but I totally endorse it. I’ve also donated to our local library’s food drive and I’m going to donate things to the Lupus charity. But the biggest charity thing of the season will be me and my friend’s Lemonade/Cookie Stand. AAH! Guess who’s making the cookies?!  Yup. And they’ll be madeleines!!

So why is today the best day? Because I totally found a huge stash of wrapping paper!! AAAAAAH! Now I can use that to make Wildlife Cards (for park rangers) and Birthday Cards (for homeless children). So yup. Today is wonderful.

Amber: A Girl Living in the Time of Slavery

#throwbacktime !!!!!

So here is a story I wrote when I was in second grade about slavery. At the time, everybody (meaning, teachers, parents...) really liked the slaves' working song I composed within it (only lyrics, duh, not including the actual melody, which it has none.) Now, I still can't understand what is so special about it........?

Here it is!

Note: I'm sorry that Amber's last name may be offensive to some (like, oh, her last name labels her, too). I was very young at the time of writing this... also, I do think that the word Black is in some surnames so it's not specifically targeted at Amber's race.

xxx

Amber: A Girl Living in the Time of Slavery


Once, in the time of slavery, there lived a girl named Amber Blacker. She was a slave living on a plantation in a little tiny shack in Georgia.

Amber was separated from her baby sister, Anne, and from her hard working, loving sister, Sofi. Amber could not imagine life without her parents. Everyday Amber walked long distances to get water from the well and bring it to her master.

Her best friend was Becah Magres. Becah had been brought from Africa recently. Her Granny was still in Africa. Becah missed her very much. “I hardly knew her,” she said. “My Momma used to say Granny was the one who helped us all.”

One day, Amber was picking cotton on the plantation, when Becah started singing. When slaves sang, their songs had secret messages:

When will the horses come, one by one? Let’s hope they will come soon. Here they come. Here they come. The carriages they pull. The Freedom Land, the freedom Land, is where they will go to.

She understood this message: the horses and carriage are like trains. The Freedom Land is Canada. All of the slaves Amber knew escaped to Canada.


One day on August 19th, Becah, Amber, and their families escaped on the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman. They were scared, but they did not talk. They would get caught if they did. "The first stop is Lulu’s house”, muttered Harriet under her breath. They hid in Lulu’s garden. Her garden was full of weeds so no one could see them.

During the night, they ran to Dunkin’s Barn. Dunkin had seven barrels-- perfect!! Each person hid in a barrel. Then Dunkin put the barrels in a wagon and drove them to their next stop. Day after day, night after night, they ran and hid. Finally, they reached Canada!!

They cheered for joy. ” I must go now,” said Harriet. “Be good and I’ll get your sisters,” she told Amber. Amber smiled. Harriet always kept her promise. Exactly a month later, Harriet brought Anne and Sofi to Canada and they all lived happily ever after.

xx

Oh yeah, and I got a new signature!~ <3

Writer!

Hi y’all! Today I’m using Writer to compose this post! That’s pretty exciting, but some (maybe most?) of you guys don’t know what Writer is.

Well, the official name is Windows Live Writer, and it comes with the Windows Live Essentials pack (free! yay!). I found out about it when I was downloading Windows Live Movie Maker, which is also part of the Essentials pack. Anyway, this program immediately caught my eye. It’s like offline composing, and it’ll publish to your blog for you, and it’s a nice, easy to use interface, and it doesn’t have orange (!!!!!!) and also it lets you edit with your blog template (except for Google fonts like mine; more on that later).

The one thing that I absolutely cannot stand about Writer is the font problem, which of course could probably (in theory) be solved by downloading your default blog font from dafont.com or some other font library to your computer. Because my blog font, “Coming Soon,” is a Google font, it isn’t available on my PC (as of now). Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, because usually when composing in the Blogger window it shows your words in Times New Roman, and you see the final product in the Preview screen, or else after you’ve published the post. But, in the preview screen of Writer, it also shows everything in TNR. I have a gently and slowly decreasing hate for TNR, but it’s nevertheless still there.

So, sorry for my rant about fonts (some people don’t care, but I do not belong to that category of people). And, if you would, you can check out Writer online. It’s had no problems (thus far, which is like the time it took me to write this post )

Oh, speaking of emoticons: Writer is great for this stuff! It provides you with emoticons while blogging. When I was trying to type ( d ) (without the spaces, duh) it turned into this: , and when I was trying to type ( f ) it turned into the lovely .

So I would definitely recommend Writer to those of you in the blogosphere reading this. Thanks for reading and please leave a comment~! <3 thank you, it would make my day

Note: I am not in any way affiliated with Windows or any of its partners. The opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.

RE: "what it takes" to be american by terry

So, +Theresa Kuei  over at The Peaceful Osmanthus wrote a very interesting blog post about a largely debatable topic, and here is my response. All the below stuff is my opinion, although I do reference one other site.

~~~

Firstly, why does everyone say 'the States' when they move abroad? >:( Personally, I think that 'U.S.' is SO much more ear-friendly (that's not a real thing). By the way, the correct capitalization is 'the States', not 'the states'. But whatever, that's not really the point.

Well, I saw this issue on a Grammar Girl article once. She referred to U.S. citizens as 'Americans,' and that sparked a HUGE debate. Click here for her "response article."

Butt, I will say that there's really no substitute for "a word to mean citizens of U.S.A." And note that I said "a word" so don't tell me "U.S. citizens". Honestly, I also assume that "Americans" (in its U.S. usage) could also refer to people who not necessarily are citizens, but who identify as "Americans"-- i.e., a person "from" or "of" the U.S.A.

Ex: illegal immigrants, especially their children (who are still alien, nonetheless). The children, who have probably never visited the country of their heritage, identify as "American" (U.S. usage). But, they may not be citizens. So, in that sense, "Americans" can mean MORE than "citizens of U.S.A." It may just mean "people of U.S.A.", for this particular usage (the so-called "U.S. usage").

In common usage, "Americans" refers to people "of" the United States of America, (and I use the term "of" loosely) but Latin Americans and Canadians, Mexicans, etc., probably DO identify as "Americans" (continental usage). I support the usage of "Americans" in dealing exclusively with U.S. people, but I also agree that it can be used otherwise, making it somewhat confusing. Butt what we have got to understand here is that the full name of USA is "United States of America," and that "America" is actually IN ITS NAME. So, that's why I support using it. There simply is no alternative, and also, it's technically an abbreviation, soo.... yup.

<3 sorry for very long article <3