[Misadventures in Taiwan]: hired mourners and more

10/21/2005

hired mourners and more

today's topics:
1. Somewhere in Time French Restaurant (那個時代法式餐廳)-- Tainan City
address: 27-11 Yunong Road, Tainan City Tel: 06-2082936
I'm not getting a commission for mentioning them here, all right? =)

應該是整個台南市最好吃的餐廳吧. Probably the best restaurant in all of Tainan City.

the following pictures look yellowish because i didn't want to use my camera's flash even if it was pitch black inside and nighttime outside. i set the ISO to 400 and the exposure compensation to the highest possible and the only light source came from the candles on our table.

The exterior kind of looks like a haunted house.

2. want to know what a jew's ear looks like?

3. hired mourners (click photo)

4. leaning tower of Smart Cars

--------

Sept. 17, 2007 update:

my free podcast host Rizzn.net has ceased to exist since 2005, and I lost the

original files, so the audio podcast file in this post is forever gone, i guess.

Labels: audio, podcast

posted by g @ 10/21/2005 02:18:00 PM permanent link (永久連結)

Comments (留言€):

Hi Gem!

That is a really good picture of you and the exposure looks like daytime, so good job with the camera.

My wife is from Vietnam and she said some families hire mourners there too. She doesn't like it.

Cultural traditions in every country can look pretty strange when your outside looking in.

It's just a shame that many times, if your poor, suffering of any kind is always compounded because your can't 'afford' to do the what is expected of you by society.

In this case, not only would you be in mourning of the death of a loved one, but you may also have to suffer 'shame' on top of that.

It would also make it hard for someone who is dying to die 'with peace and dignity' because they know that their family is either going to go into debt, or be put to shame.

It's not just Taiwan, but every country that puts unnecessary burdens on their citizens with these types of 'traditions'.

In the U.S., families are pressured by funeral directors to buy the most expensive coffins. They usually give a very limited choice of coffins, especially on the low end of the scale, and all the 'affordable' coffins look ridiculously cheap and tacky.

It is shameful...

- J.T.

# posted by

John Trout (J.T.) : 21/10/05 22:07

Gem,

Good luck on the project or finals....

Joe

# posted by

Anonymous : 21/10/05 23:20

Hi Gem,

Good luck in your projects!!!

# posted by

cleomy : 22/10/05 23:41

If I was gonna pay someone to mourn at my funeral, I'd want it to be John Stamos (joke courtesy of Nick Swardson http://paing.com/index.php?section=reviews&page=comedians&file=nick_swardson).

Also, that's a really odd tower. o_o

# posted by

Een : 26/10/05 03:52

What's that Jew's Ear made out of anyway? It doesn't look anything like mine.

--Andy
(my unfortunate incarceration has now ended)

# posted by

Andy : 26/10/05 04:47

andy.. what? you were incarcerated?
i think the jew's ear is made out of some kind of mushroom.

een.. yeah, i suppose the idea of the tower is to show how tiny Smart cars are. =)

# posted by

g : 26/10/05 05:04