Tie Non: 台北の旅／Taipei Trip

先週の週末、私は台北にちょっと行って来た。知り合いが居るから、案内して貰ってめっちゃ楽しかった。

写真が多いから、二つ、（三つ？）のポストに分けて行こうと思う。

I went to Taipei last weekend. I have a bunch of photos, so I'm going to split this trip into a couple of posts.

This is the first place I went. It's a temple that dates back to 1738, which is pretty old for Taiwan, especially northern Taiwan. It's actually been rebuilt multiple times because of earthquakes, fires, and most recently WWII American bombs. (Remember, Taiwan was part of the Japanese empire at the time.) It's one of the major tourist sites in Taipei.

最初に訪ねたのはこの「龍山寺」だ。1738年に元々作られたが、何回も被害に遭って作り直された。第二次世界戦争の時はアメリカの爆弾にもやられた。
台北のメージャーな観光地だから、外国人が多い。居る間に、日本語が沢山聞こえた。台湾人より、もしかして日本人の方が多かったかも！

玄関の隣りにこの滝が有った。

The architecture style appears to be the Fujianese style that's common in Taiwan due to the fact that most Taiwanese people's ancestors came from Fujian.
このお寺も台湾でしょっちゅ見掛ける福建の建築様式だ。多くの台湾人のご先祖は福建から来られたのだ。

玄関の裏側
The main entrance viewed from the temple.

こういう複雑な飾り物を見ると、ああ、台湾のお寺は本当に日本のと違うなぁといつも思う。両国は仏教が有るし、中華文化圏と日本文化圏は昔から接しているから、通用点が多いけど、やっぱり全然違うところも結構有る。日本のお寺はわりと素朴で、飾りが少なくて、木材の色をそのまま使う事も普通だ。中国（特に福建だと思う）は飾りと鮮やかな色が好まれている。

シーサー！

I thought this was really interesting here. I'm not sure why, but the front wall is all gray stone with gold and green decoration, and then right around the corner this side wall is red brick with brightly colored tiles up top. It's quite the contrast.

なぜか、前面が灰色な石でありながら、横壁が赤煉瓦だ。その相違が面白い。

この鳥はずっとこの車で遊んでいた。可愛いけど、何の鳥か、全く知らない。

This bird was just hanging out on this van that was parked in front of the temple. I wonder if people feed it and it's learned to hang out here?

Next, I went to Liberty Square. It was originally called "Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Square" and was built during Taiwan's martial law period. It was later renamed "Liberty Square". This was controversial at the time because it was viewed as a snub towards Chiang Kai-Shek, especially since the President at the time, Chen, was from the other major party, the Democratic Progressive Party, which is in opposition to Chiang's Nationalist Party. However, the name has stuck. The building below is the National Theater. The gate below that is the main gate of the plaza. It reads "Freedom Plaza".

次に行ったところは「自由広場」だった。元々「蔣介石広場」だったけど、陣大統領によって代えられた。蔣の政党、国民党、は最初文句言ったけど、今はこの名前が密着している様だ。上の建物は国家劇院だ。

国家劇院の向こうに国家音楽庁が有る。（下の写真）

I took this picture from the National Theater. The building I'm looking at is the National Concert Hall.

"Freedom Plaza"

Chiang Kai-Shek's name has been erased from the gate, but his national flag is still all over the place.

The building we see here is the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall/National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. It's name was also changed under President Chen, just like the plaza, however, the original name was restored in 2007. Funny enough though, if you look at Google maps, the English name is still "National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall" but the Chinese name is "Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall".
Anything named after Chiang is controversial. He is one of the major figures of the Nationalist Party, one of two major political parties in Taiwan, so they tend to portray him in a positive light. He was also the person who brought the rule of the Republic of China to Taiwan, so he is seen as the liberator of Taiwan from the Japanese colonial rulers. However, he is also viewed as the most recent imperialist invader of Taiwan (rather than a liberator, which is a legitimate point of view to take if you don't think that Taiwan "naturally" belongs to China) and he is remembered by many people as the man who started 4 decades of martial law on Taiwan and who is responsible for the deaths of many Taiwanese people.
I guess he's kinda like the Taiwanese version of Spain's Franco, or Chile's Pinochet in how he's idolized by more conservative elements in society, and reviled as a dictator by Taiwan's more progressive elements.

これは何と言う建物かな。「中正記念堂」と言っていいかな？「民主主義記念堂」と言っていいかな？現在は正式名が前者に成っているけど、一時的に後者に成っていた。また、グーグル地図を見たら、中国語で前者が書いているけど、英語で後者が書いている。
蔣介石（「中正」は別名）は台湾でかなり論争の有る人物だ。陣元大統領の時は蔣介石の名前が色々なところから消された。陣は民主進歩党の一人で、民主党は蔣の国民党と対立しているのだ。
蒋介石と言えば、台湾を日本と言う帝国から解放した人物だと言う人も、台湾を中華民国と言う帝国の支配下に入れた人物だと言う人も居る。台湾で中国の文化を復帰させたと言う人も、40年間の戒厳令を強いて、沢山の台湾人を殺したと言う人も居る。

今上の方は工事中

めっちゃ嬉しそうなシーサー。どうしたかな？

The Republic of China flag, often called the Taiwanese flag nowadays. One interesting fact about the flag: It was created when the ROC only had one legal political party, the Nationalist Party (Chiang Kai-Shek's party). The blue field with the white sun was--and still is--the symbol of that political party. At the time, this was not odd since they were the only political party, but now, since there are multiple political parties in Taiwan, it's rather odd. Imagine if the Republicans in the US had a symbol for their party that was part of the US's national flag. It's like that.
中華民国の国旗が作られた時代には、国民党しか政党は法律上で無かった。青地に白い太陽の部分は国民党のシンボルだった、いや、国民党のシンボルだ。今も。もし日本の自由民主党のシンボルが日本国旗の一部に成っていたら、どう思う？ちょっと可笑しくない？自由民主党が好きであっても、嫌いであっても、彼等は日本の一つの政党に過ぎないよね。でも台湾の、いや、中華民国の国旗はそういう状態だ。