At Taipei

Our flight from Sydney arrived an hour early, pushed by varying tailwinds, much of the journey at 42000ft well away from turbulence at ground speed 950kmh in comfort and refinement of the A350 with its high ceilings, not crowded.

I had not been to Taipei since February 1972 when we still had an embassy here, accredited to the government of the Republic of China, the government of the KMT which had fled the mainland in the loss against the Communist Party's forces in the revolutionary war.  

Taiwan had been a colony of Japan for forty years as had Korea at the beginning of Japan's long Pacific war in 1905. Handed back to China in the surrender processes of 1945.  

In 1972 the ROC government here was under the dictatorship of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek still, he who had been commandant of the National Military Academy in Guangzhou in the early 1920s when the political commissar of the short lived academy was Zhou Enlai who in 1972 was Premier over in Beijing, a beloved figure who saved lives and succeeded by a hairsbreadth in saving the whole state apparatus from the depths of the Cultural Revolution in 1969, assisted in that restoration by the shocks of war skirmishes with the USSR on their border in the spring and autumn of that year. In 1972 Taipei was a pleasant sleepy backwater where, because the government had not become party to the international copyright convention, I was able to catch up on my musical education, disrupted by being in Italy and somehow otherwise disconnected from popular music, with the Baez, the Credence, the BST and Chicago on LPs at about AUD0.20 each.

Taiwan ceased to be a backwater long ago, by the 1980s as one of the Tiger economies of Asia possessed of better foreign exchange reserves and more gold than anyone else on the basis of genius in IT. Not emerged from dictatorship for more years to come, complicated when for example in 1980 with no longer an embassy in Taipei an Australian academic with links to the political opposition was locked in his hotel room by security police. The academic thought it has helped with his release that I, a stranger but head of the North Asia branch in Canberra, had telephoned and we had had a longish conversation about his situation.

In more recent times a struggle in mind and heart with being on a very different and more liberal path from the People's Republic just across the Taiwan Strait, some in Taiwan wanting unification still but increasingly leaders wanting some independent status. Which is a problem too complicated for Australian minds though they would get worked up if Tasmania or even Norfolk Island wanted independence.

Helen struck by the clear elegant English language writing in the Taipei Times newspaper, actual reporting as distinct from the hunting for blood or angles that these days plagues Australian media. And the issues!  From the front page, news of agreement by the curriculum review committee of the education ministry, on social science teaching "to teach students to approach content with a critical mind to consider whose history is being taught and who wrote the account". At the top of the page reporting on ruckus arising from an Al Jazeera report last week on contestation over unification or independence. On page three the text of a message from the foreign minister to staff accepting blame for the suicide of the head of the Osaka office criticised for failures in consular support "heartbroken... I blame myself for the breakup of his family due to work and the pressure he faced from within, and the outside...". On the same page the KMT, still a presence, proposes regulations for digital currencies before amendments to the Money Laundering Act given the rapid rise of cryptocurrencies. I'm not sure with the focus in Australia on political bullying that this has much attention. It should.

On the editorial page an article notes that since the Gender Equity Education Act of 2004 young people now "have a basic understanding of the diverse and complex nature of gender". But, the article indicates, LGBT people are under renewed attack by conservatives. "This might be the twenty first century but some people still think that men and women should be treated differently "... How elegantly expressed.

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Sleep and wellbeing poisoned literally last night by continuing to exude anaesthetic from procedure at hospital three days before, fifth anaesthetic since March as I enter my fourth quarter century with additional bionic adjustments. As precaution I had registered for wheelchair assistance and had we not had that at 5am we would probably still be hunting now at 3pm the Plaza Premium lounge. All my research had indicated that our flight would arrive in Terminal 2 where this lounge is located but we disembarked at Terminal 1 and at that hour the journey here from plane was complicated. Elevator not working at one point and I was of course able to leap from wheelchair onto escalator discouraging kind young assistant from his desire to put my still on wheelchair ahead of him on escalator. Too tired to make an Eisenstein movie of what might have happened. 

We crashed in comfy private room from whence able to go forth to graze buffet and peek at inner world of airport. We will be back in cooler November. Outside now still monsoonal and affected by recent tropical storms and the edge of typhoon just gone through Luzon and on into Guangdong, worst of the year. This is a comfy way to Europe, breaking the long ride with comfortable beds and light and fresh foods.

I have laboured mightily with fat finger on phone to bring you photos taken here today. But there wretched system can't find them... so my words must have the last words.