CHAPTER 1: TAIPAI, HONG KONG, TOKYO, AND THE PHILIPPINES
TAIPAI, TAIWAN Nov. 1978
Before we met in Hong Kong Gabe had flown from San Francisco to Tokyo. His comments on Japan were terse: rich, clean, and prosperous; but not so re TAIWAN. Taiwan looks like it is just emerging from a war. There are tiny huts everywhere, jammed together, made of almost anything. They are in the motorcycle and scooter stage, which reminds me of Italy in 1959. However there are no beggars and food is abundant. There are thousands - maybe more! - of little food stalls, where you can order complete Chinese dinners. Four out of six shops along the streets are food counters.
The children are the same everywhere, cheerful, friendly, and having fun. The sidewalks are made of nine-inch square red tiles, decorated with indented circles and something like a four-petaled flower. The kids figure out a marble game, flipping the marbles around in the tracks of the tile! They also play "scissors, paper and rock" with their hands. I saw some older ones playing some kind of craps behind the Buddhist temple! The children wear khaki uniforms to school and they all seem to have to study English. I had fun looking at their English books and talking with them.
It is a revelation to wander through the open air and covered outdoor markets. They sell just about everything. I know only very few of the vegetables, but I do recognize the snakes! Apparently they are considered a delicacy. Women hang their washing on long bamboo poles out the window on a rack, putting the bamboo through the arm and leg holes.
Industry and building methods are still primitive. I saw a small machine shop. They had lathes and other machines. They seemed to be making patterns or molds for brass lamp stands. Most of the work was being done by hand with file and chisel. Construction looks dangerous. I read that they lost 450 men out of 10,000 working on the cross country freeway! I can see why. I saw four men climb up a scaffold made of bamboo poles tied together on the face of a 14-story building. They were installing a sign and carried all the tools as they climbed. One was wearing thongs! I also saw a donkey engine on skids and a system of pulleys and cables working a pile driver; but four men, leaning off a 30-foot boom, made the derrick hard to guide the pile drive by hand!
I have been told that conditions get worse as you travel south. I guess it is the contrast that gets me most, men without proper tools and clothes, working very hard, compared with my visit to a store last night, where I priced a coffee table and four carved chairs at $15,000 U.S.
My first night I stayed in a Chinese hotel to see what it was like. All was ok, except I didn't notice that they had plywood instead of springs on the bed! Only $1.50 per night! Last night I stayed in a new western style hotel with TV, radio, bath, frig stocked with beer ($1.50 per quart) and only $20. Traveling is fun so far.
HONG KONG
Gabe arrived here before me. He commented that the whole city is high rise and everything looks wealthy. One afternoon he played golf with Bro. Leo Kiley on a course near the Chinese border. Later he went for a suit fitting: two suits, one with two pairs of pants, plus three shirts, all tailor made of the best materials, $200 total! He was staying at St. Joseph's College with 12 Brothers from Ireland and one from California. The Irishmen "tested" his Irish ancestry that night with boilermakers; and the next day he dared not take a glass of water.
Nov. 22: Gabe and I took the local train to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a new campus at which three smaller universities have pooled their resources. It sits on the top of a hill overlooking one of the many magnificent bays of the Colony. From friends at the University of San Francisco I had an introduction to Father John Deeney, S.J. He invited us to his apartment. It is rather large for one person, but has a superb view of the bay. He teaches Chinese literature. After I explained my mission, he telephoned Dr. Hugh Murray, a professor of marketing, and Dr. John Espy, the acting director of the MBA program. F. Deeney had to leave for class, but he allowed me to use his apartment to meet the above two. Our conversation was very interesting, but the main message was the same one I heard in Jakarta and Singapore "We go by the book!" 2 In between our talks F. Deeney rushed back and fixed a light lunch, before he had to rush off to teach again. Marvelous hospitality!
Back in town we bought tickets for Macao on Friday. I went to a small shop to have some business cards printed. It was almost an impossible task to get over to the Chinese printer, who spoke no English, what I wanted. I wonder what he will do to my name and address. It was now 5:30 and the traffic rush. There are mobs without number, simply incredible. We rushed back to the college to change for dinner with Annie Wu. She graduated from Armstrong Business College in Berkeley and a few of her teachers are good friends of mine. At 7:30 PM she drove up in her Jaguar and took us to Repulse Bay. There on the 8th floor of one of the many huge apartment complexes we met a Rhodesian couple (English) and some of her Chinese friends for a typical English meal (steak and potatoes). The apartment rents for about $2,000 a month, but fortunately the company pays the bills (a common practice here). Annie's family runs the Maxim Catering Co., which controls a whole slew of fast food and middle class restaurants, as well as part ownership in the Hong Kong Land Co., which is the largest and wealthiest here. She also founded the World Trade Club a few years ago and was recently awarded the honor of being one of the 10 most promising women in business. The conversation was most stimulating.
Nov. 23 Thursday and I forgot completely that it was Thanksgiving! I remembered it was a US holiday, as I started to go to The American Embassy. I switched tactics and went to the American Chamber of Commerce to discuss SMC projects. The Director was a San Franciscan. He promised help and will print a blurb in his bulletin. Then by taxi to the Hong Kong Art Center: I jumped in and did not notice the taxi had no meter, so I got taken on that fare. I felt like a dumb tourist. However I did meet the Assistant to the Director of the Institute of International Studies, which is a sort of clearing house of all students who intend to study overseas. It was very profitable and I learned much about government educational policies in Hong Kong; and again "We go by the book!"
At 3 PM Gabe, Leo, and I, left for Stanley, the south end of the island, where the American Maryknoll Fathers invited all the brothers and priests in Hong Kong to a Thanksgiving Feast. About 40 religious from various congregations were there for an excellent dinner. The ride over and back is quite spectacular, marvelous views of the city, bays, islands, etc.
Nov. 24: Gabe and I took the 9:30 AM jetfoil over to Macao. The jetfoil is built by Boeing and looks like a 747 inside. There are two decks and it holds about 250 people comfortably. The ride was smooth and fast and took about one hour, whereas the ferry takes two and a half hours. Since Macao belongs to Portugal, we had to go through immigration again. Their service is quite primitive, long lines, a slow process of stamping, as each passport must pass the scrutiny of three separate men. The charge is $5. We took a local bus through the town to the other side in order to see the local fishing industry.3 We went out on one of the piers and watched fish of many kinds being unloaded from a junk, then sorted and weighed. There were beautiful shrimp of all sizes, sea snails, flounders, skates, etc. - a most interesting sight.
Another bus took us to the A Ma Temple, which is like a lovely park built up the side of a hill with intricate water-carved rock formations. The legend is that a young girl wanted transportation to China. She was refused by the rich fishermen, but was taken by one of the poorest. There was a storm. All the rich were drowned, but she made it in the junk of the poor fisherman. On a rock is a carving of the junk. Scattered here and there through the grounds are small shrines glowing with much incense, burning joss sticks, etc. In one was a woman fortune teller. For a young man she was shaking the crescent shaped sticks in a box until one fell out. All the while the man was listening intently to what she was foretelling.
We took another bus back through the town to the main street where we stopped in a small restaurant and had fish and pork chow mien. The menu was Chinese and Portuguese, and from the later we were able to figure out what we were ordering. We walked up the hill where the old fort was and got a fine view of the city. Down below is the Cathedral of St. Paul, built by Italian Jesuits in the 1600s. Later in the1700s a new facade was built of marble. When the Jesuits were expelled in the late 1760s, Portuguese soldiers used the church as a barracks and by misfortune set fire to it. Only the extraordinary baroque facade is now standing after the...
