Hardwired to anarchy?

I am still in progress of reading The Art of Not Being Governed. The fact that it focuses on Southeast Asia, the fact that many terms used are very close to my origin, it is strange at first but interesting, to rediscover the history of the place where I was born and grew up on.

The book does provide a different perspective than my history textbook of secondary school, mainly redefine the terms civilization and barbarians. However many of its ideas are surprisingly not that new to me. In fact, I might just find out the main reason why I was attracted to this book in the first place. In fact, I think I might have been hardwired to anarchy myself, and I just didn't realize. 

Exposing a fresh mind to a philosophy is a dangerous thing, because this philosophy will become the person's philosophy for as well as ever. Just like what it is said in the movie Inception, it will take root in your mind and define you for the rest of your life. I was brought up in heavy Chinese influence school, both primary and secondary, and of course I was first exposed to Confuciusm. But it was what my friends and I considered as too mainstream. It was almost peer pressure to embrace a school of thought other than Confuciusm. It was "cool" to act so. 

I can't tell how I found myself in this school, but I was and I am still heavily influenced by Taoism, especially ZhuangZi's Taoism. I had read many of his works, possess many of his works, ranging from original copy in classical Chinese to illustrated picture of his philosophy. Come to think about it, I acted more or less according to his philosophy during my whole secondary school, and I always dreamt of living as a hermit, out of reach of the society, out of reach of civilization.

All and all, it was long time ago already. Many things had happened ever since, many things had evolved and so is my philosophy of life. But ZhuangZi provided me my first way of looking at many things in life, and I feel like it has defined me ever since.

So why I am so interested in this book by James C. Scott? Perhaps it is because of one of the essential points of view of ZhuangZi is anarchy. ZuangZi is probably the world's first anarchist. 

2 Mo Zuo Inn review

Never felt being treated so warm by a stranger, so warm that it felt so strange and it was almost an instinct to step back a little bit. I am sorry for thinking bad of the people who treated me so,  thinking that they must have some kind of ulterior motive. I feel guilty for being rude in response to their enthusiasm. And that is how I feel about 2 Mo Zuo Inn. 

The greastest thing about 2 Mo Zuo Inn is its friendly butler. I found butler a bit anoying at first, knocked at our door a few times and kept asking about our plan, about the places we wanted to visit. But soon I understood, he was just so enthusiastic and so eager to make our stay better. 

On the last night of our stay, he asked us to join him and a taiwanese family who was staying in that inn too, together we went to a hidden but very famous restaurant for dinner. The restaurant is famous for its seafood, some I had never even seen before in my life. And apparently it is so famous that a few of the former presidents of Taiwan visited that restaurant. 

After dinner, with three scooters, each with three people on it, we made a tour around a large portion of the western part of the island. We also went to the seaside to enjoy the night view of mainland China across the strait. 

The owner of the inn is a really nice guy, not to mention a passionate farmer too. The proof is the fonctional garden/orchard behind the inn. Just before we left, he took us and the taiwanese family for visit at his garden. And then, he also fetched us to airport, without any extra charge. 

Their friendliness and kindness made my stay in Kinmen awesome. 

The restaurant that I talked about

Sumptuous dinner, nom-nom-nom...

Group photo after the stomachs were full.
(my low quanlity camera, the photo is a bit blur)

2 Mo Zuo Inn

The owner in yellow T-shirt, explaining some farming stuffs.

Another group photo with the taiwanese family and the owner. 

The way to 2 Mo Zuo Inn

Reaching a new place at night is one of those things I love and also hate the most. The combination of unfamiliarity and darkness is frightening but it does make me feel I am on an adventure. Satisfaction is especially powerful when the place I try to reach is hard to reach and difficult to find, and the night when everything is dark does exactly that : it makes the challenge more challenging. 

So I chose to reach Kinmen after sunset at 20h, partly because the flight ticket was cheaper at this hour and also partly I wanted an adventure, a little uncertainty. At 20h the plane was preparing to land, and all I could see through the airplane window is what I can identify as ghost town, lack of artificial light and no sight of human activity. While the roads were lit, they were totally devoid of cars. 

Got off the plane, got into a cab, heading to this 2 Mo Zuo Inn, the accommodation I had booked. My advantage is I speak the language. 2 Mo Zuo Inn should actualy be pronounced as "Er Mao Zuo" Inn. At first luck was on my side, the taxi driver knew the place. But as soon as we reached the place, it seemed like the most remote place on Earth. There was another building beside the Inn, but apart from that, there was no buildings within a few kilometers radius (or at least it felt like so). Without any light apart from lights from the taxi, the worst was the fact that the building seemed vacant, so as the neighbouring building. I knocked the door and nobody answered. 

There was a phone number on the door, so we asked the taxi driver to make the call for us. Through the phone, a person would be sent to us and opened the door for us. Decided not to stay with us, the taxi driver went off hurriedly as soon as the call ended, which seemed a bit awkward and suspicious. Me and my mom were left alone in the dark in the middle of nowhere. It was really worrying.

In the end, a light came to us, literally. Three motorcycles came, carrying 7 people in total and one of them was the butler of the Inn. We later found out that the other 6 people were a family. As soon as the butler helped us into our room, deep inside me I felt so relieved.   

Going to an unfamiliar place at night can be frightening sometimes, and going to an under-developped unfamaliar place at night is frightening most of the time. But the truth is, great emotions can be found in catharsis. If you choose to do so and reach the place you want to go safely, the next morning when sunshine hits and when you have a look at your surroundings, you will feel like you are magically transported to that place.

  

    

Manly yet peaceful Kinmen

This place reminds me so much of my grandpa. This is the perfect place for him to retire in. On the other hand, it is probably the manliest island I have been to, regarding the things it is famous for : military, knives, liquor and horseshoe crab. 

I have long heard about Kinmen, just never thought of visiting it. I even doubt that is it worth visiting at all. It is not a famous tourist spot, many Taiwaneses on the main island have never even been there. This time, it was actually my mom's idea to go there. She had watched a taiwanese series and she absolutely loves it, a series which set in Kinmen.

Kinmen is composed of a series of islands. But the main island plus Lie Yu (also called Little Kinmen) together are no larger than the Penand island. The most interesting thing about the island is how close is it to the main land China, so close that it is merely 5km away. In fact, it is closer to China geographically than to the main island of Taiwan which is a few hundreds kilometers away.

Since China and Taiwan were in conflict and still it is true today, Kinmen becomes naturally the frontline between two powers. It was heavily bombarded during the peak of the conflict, around the 50's and 60's. It serves as a military point for Taiwan side until today, as many military posts on the island are still operational. It is said that all minefields are disarmed but bunkers and coastal defence measures are still everywhere.

Of course, the conflict is no longer as heated. It have just diluted into this dilemma nobody wants to mention about. Simple fact, all out war will just deteriorate the fragile situation and bring no benefit to any side. So despite being heavily militarized, Kinmen is quite a peaceful place to live in. With very few buildings taller than 10 storeys, Kinmen stays more or less in an agricultural state where almost everybody is still a farmer. My grandpa always loved this kind of places, peaceful and very close to the nature and he loves gardening. That's why I said this is the perfect place for him.

The island is not big, so travelling within on a scooter is ideal. But again without international licence, my mom and I couldn't rent one. Bicycle was the next best choice, as so what I originally thought. How wrong was I! Roads in Kinmen are hilly, plus the intense summer heat, biking is a really bad choice. I still could withstand the severe circumstances, but my mom wasn't. After one morning of biking around, we quickly dropped the idea of visiting all touristic spots on bicycle. Public bus was not so bad after we tried it. The coverage was not as extensive, but it still could get us to major places we wanted to go.

It might be a little hipster-ish, I always have a special love to places where very few people know about. I always love to be among the locals when I visit a place, without the overwhelming waves of foreigners. That is exactly why I love Kinmen!

Taipei SongShan domestic airport

To prevent ships from approaching the coast

Barbwire on the wall of a fort

One of the military post, Mashan observing station

Putting on helmet to enter ZhaiShan tunnel

ZhaiShan tunnel

Right at the entrance of the tunnel

Some heavy artillery outside the tunnel

823 War Museum

Just some used bombs randomly stacked up

Kinmen Military headquaters during Qing dynasty

The headquarter is now transformed into a musuem

The iconic street of JinCheng

Have a stroll in JinCheng oldtown 

One of many knife shops, it is said that knifes from Kinmen are made of bomb shell

Bikes renting requires no fee, just give your ID and fill out some form

Fake horseshoe crab

JianGongYu, can only be visited during low tide

Water level is gradually decreasing to allow us to walk through to JianGongYu

JianGongYu

The village is really nice looking, but the extreme heat is not so friendly

JinCheng bus station during school time

Taking ferry to LieYu (little Kinmen)

Doing "yoga", the city opposite is XiaMen, China

JiuGong tunnel

Water selling station?!

Kinmen airport

Picture with Kinmen's mascot before saying bye bye