April 5, 2007 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan - My grandparents' gravesite. It's not in a cemetery, this is their own plot of land because my grandfather was some kind of big shot. He was the founder and president of a bus company sometime after the war, and I fathom that is where, partly to my horror, sympathies towards the KMT in parts of my family originate.
The KMT government (which became a political party after democratization) was headed by the part-time butcher, part-time dictator Chiang Kai-Shek, and I imagine it was very difficult for native Taiwanese to mount such a large business enterprise without connections to the KMT.
I'm not sure if there were any reprisals by Taiwanese, I've never heard of any, as Kaohsiung and much of southern Taiwan was fiercely anti-KMT, but I get the sense that my grandfather was well-liked and well-respected. I've met him, and he seemed like the kind of person you can like and respect.
Rainbaby Gracie! One of my cousins's daughter. I was already referring to her as the Original Rainbaby, but not-so-funny I had just read that week that one early indicator of future autism is that when you call their name, they don't respond, they don't even look. And Gracie is totally like that. I mentioned it to her nanny (indistinguishable at the far right of this fisheye), and she tried it out and, right on cue, no response.
So Faye told Gracie that when she called her name, she had to respond, "Wei!", and they practiced a few times, but the last I heard, Gracie's gone back to not responding. It makes sense. Once a baby can recognize their name, if they hear it called, it's an almost automatic, conditioned response to turn and look. Two years old is too young to be copping attitude!
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Cities In Dust (extended) (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
2. Journey from Mariabronn (Kansas)
3. Sarafurimun (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)
4. Everything is Fair (A Tribe Called Quest)
5. Ellen West (Throwing Muses)
6. Los Tres Deliquentes (Delinquent Habits)
7. A Map Is Not The Territory (edit) (Echobelly)
8. Symphony No. 4, III. Allegro Vivace (Beethoven)
9. Another One Bits the Dust (Queen)
10. 1985 (Archers of Loaf)
3 comments:
wow, that is quite the gravesite! i'd still rather be cremated.
gracie is awfully cute.
Hmm. Could be a physiological reason - might be a good idea to have Gracie's hearing checked, just to be sure.
I think cremation is pretty standard here. I don't know what is here, but I'm pretty sure not bodies. Ew.
I'll mention the hearing, but it's probably not her hearing, because aside from not responding when called, her hearing seems fine.
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