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Taipei City Government – Department of Environmental Protection

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Between August 2011 and October 2012, I worked for the Taipei City Government’s Department of Environmental Protection. I was assigned to the Strategic Planning Division, which managed environmental evaluation of development projects and environmental awareness programs in the city of Taipei. As part of the Strategic Planning Division, my responsibilities included English website maintenance, English-Chinese translations and editing, and environmental awareness education.

I lead a team of three as part of an environmental awareness outreach program for primary schools in the city. We designed a performance for children and toured over 200 schools each semester.

I was also involved in a community service program that tutored children from economically disadvantage families.

Leading the education program (I am the lion)

Leading the education program (I am the lion)

Work Sample

Work Sample

Relaunch…The Brand New Ideas by IamLliw

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2015-04-24 10.51.35

Presenting at the Graduate Symposium for my M.A.

Hello everyone!

IamLliw is back! For those that don’t know, check out About Ideas by IamLliw.

It has been a long time. In the last couple years, I attended and graduated with a M.A. from Arizona State University. I focused on urban environment studies through an urban political ecology framework. My passion for space and the use of space led to me examine relationships between social issues and their spatial distribution. Along those lines, I immersed myself in urban planning and development, as I pursued my interest in urban environments that developed during my time in the Department of Environmental Protection of Taipei. The major projects I have been involved in typically revolved around the spatial analysis of cities. That is also where my passion lies – understanding, analyzing, and creating space.

Unfortunately, this blog fell to the wayside with my focus dedicated to my studies. However, my experiences in academics taught me the importance of developing and sustaining a voice. At its core, every published research paper is an intellectually developed and evidence based report from the viewpoint of the researcher, similar to a blog post. It has become important to me to bring those experiences and continue to mature my verbal and written communications. Since May of this year, I have been looking for a job in the fields of market research, urban planner, data analysis, and biological research.

I am relaunching this website to continue the development and establishment of my voice and online presence. I will be covering a broad range of topics, beyond the social and urban issues that has been my focus for the last couple years. In addition, my projects and works are featured and they will be updated as I embark on new adventures.

It’s good to be back. Let’s restart our conversation.

Really, Jeremy Lin is American

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This article was originally seen on the Taiwanese website of the magazine Business Weekly, written by Joey Chung. I thought it was a good take on Taiwanese society, our politicians and media, so I translated the article into English and decided to share it here.

Last week, my editors at Business Weekly invited me to write a piece about Jeremy Lin. Their reasoning was that he went to Harvard and so did I, and technically we were both attending the school at the same time. As such I should have some unique viewpoints to share.

I really don’t.

Personally, I really dislike this attitude of the Taiwanese media: whenever someone or something becomes trendy or a hot topic, everyone needs to have an opinion on it. No matter where you happen to go, everyone wants to talk about the topic, every radio and television station has to discuss it. Do I have anything unique to say about Linsanity?

No. Honestly, I wasn’t in a rush to write this piece. I am just like anyone else, I am very happy to see him win basketball games, really excited to see him play on TV, but my viewpoint on him doesn’t have anything unique to it.

Yet, my editors were insistent. They said this was the hottest topic in Taiwan, and it was difficult to find another Harvard graduate who went to school at the same time to discuss this topic.

OK, if I really wanted to write about Jeremy Lin, I want to make sure this will be different from describing the phenomena or reiterating what others have already pointed out.

I thought about it for a few days, read some news about him and how the media talks about him, and I decided to focus on this:

The truths that we do not want to know about Jeremy Lin.

1. He is American

We need to stop lying to each other and to ourselves. He is American.

His family is from Taiwan, but like many American citizens, he is from an immigrant family, born and raised in the United States. We all know deep down that although his grandparents still live in Taiwan, Taiwanese society, physical education system, and government had almost no influence on his success.

Out of cultural pride and perhaps a lack of confidence in the international arena, Taiwanese proudly associate with him as if he left Taiwan only yesterday. That is fine, but how can Taiwanese politicians and media so casually refer to him as the Pride of Taiwan? Can we not be so generous with ourselves? Taiwan did not contribute to his current achievement, so we shouldn’t so quickly and easily share in his success.

2. He would never be this successful in Taiwan

This might be the most important point.

Taiwanese parents will use Jeremy Lin as a role model of hard work for their children. Schools will use him as an example of hard work paying off. Yet we all know that the truth is, if his parents stayed in Taiwan and adhered to the strict rules and norms of education present in Taiwan, he will have never reached where he is today.

An inflexible education system will have forced him to choose between basketball and academics when he was in 7th grade. The mentality in Asia is that the two are incompatible. If you chose sports, you will almost immediately be labeled as bad at academics. Your entire life becomes preset, and Jeremy Lin’s success at sports might have been limited. He also will not make much before becoming a high school physical education teacher.

If he chose academics, then from the age of thirteen to twenty-two, the Taiwanese education system will advise against his pursuit of his passion and rare natural talent. Instead, it will keep telling him to keep studying and score well on exams. The world will never see his talent and after several years, the fans, ball clubs, or sponsors also will not profit from his success.

Harvard is special, because like other Ivy League schools, their academic requirements for student-athletes are the same as other students. Unlike other American universities that hand out full-time scholarships and enrollment based on pure athletic ability, Harvard student-athletes must meet the entrance requirements. This is also why traditionally, Ivy League schools aren’t strong in athletics and can’t truly compete with the other schools.

Just from this fact, Jeremy Lin, being from an Asian family and graduated from Harvard, could still shine in the NBA is extraordinary. He wasn’t forced to give up his talent in either areas and successfully proved that academics and athletics can coexist.

In addition, Taiwanese parents love to use him as an example. Let’s face reality. The average Taiwanese parents, when they here that their son wants to become a professional basketball player, they will immediately furrow their eyebrows. Especially if he graduated from Harvard, this decision will be ridiculed by other parents and relatives.

In the States, Jeremy Lin’s parents live in a more open-minded society, where success isn’t completely based on grades and the school name. This allowed his parents to support him openly and nurture his talents. This might be a depressing truth:

As a Taiwanese, the best thing we can be glad for Jeremy Lin is that he successfully left Taiwan. Otherwise he never would have had the resources and environment to achieve so much.

3. Stop trying to draw illogical connections to Jeremy Lin

During Jeremy Lin’s first winning streak, I happened to be in Taipei on the weekend. Everywhere I went, newspapers, magazines to talk shows on television were all discussing issues like: how to find the Jeremy Lin in your organization, how to become the Jeremy Lin in your industry, or what the Taiwanese education system could learn from Jeremy Lin.

Is there any  meaning to this? Most of the sentences aren’t even logical. They are just politicians and media using easy, lazy, and sometimes even irresponsible ways to profit from Linsanity. They use your insecurities to hold your attention, whether it is to sell more newspapers, magazines or to make the politicians look more cool. For example, how to find the Jeremy Lin in your organization really just means how to find the member in your organization who is overlooked but has potential.

If you are a medical supplies manufacturer, does Jeremy Lin have anything to do with that label? Do you seriously believe that by reading a piece about how to become the Jeremy Lin of your industry will suddenly make you a superstar and achieve a 200% growth in sales overnight? Without discussing or thinking about how his childhood, family and education environment and what is it that really made him successful? As a member of society don’t be so easily fooled and agreeable, only because someone put Jeremy Lin on the cover or used him in a speech, to parting with your hard-earned cash.

The famous director, Roman Polanski once said,

“When filming a war movie, the director is obligated to make the war scenes the more gory the better.”

(I think the actual quote might be “You have to show violence the way it is. If you don’t show it realistically, then that’s immoral and harmful. If you don’t upset people, then that’s obscenity.” But I am translating a translated quote…double translation? LOL)

When I was younger, I didn’t understand what he meant. Why are war movies better when it is more violent? Why does the direct have an obligation to society?

As I grew up, I slowly came to understand his quote and the wisdom behind it.

“If the director celebrates war but never shows the blood and gore and the inherent horror behind war, then the younger generation will grow up thinking that there isn’t much to war. It is just a game where people fall but doesn’t bleed. The younger generation will die without real pain.”

Don’t misunderstand me. It is exciting to see Jeremy Lin on television. As an Asian, we are cheering for the fact that another Asian is proving to the world that we can succeed and deserve respect at more than just the fields of IT, engineering and academics.

When the game is over, when the applause stops and we return to our lives, if we can extend time a little and think about things other than what is discussed so superficially about Linsanity, we can truly understand which part of his success is really of value to us and use it as a mirror so that we can admit to ourselves which part of our own lives needs improvement.

Everyone knows that to improve, we first need to admit the truths that we don’t want to face.

Why can Jeremy Lin succeed in the States but not in Taiwan? Why can his parents develop his talents and support his passion, unlike other Asian parents? Where can Asian education and social mentality change or improve so that other Jeremy Lins can start to emerge in other industries on the international stage?

This is an important first step. If we want to translate his success on the basketball court into our daily lives, this is what we must do.

Now turn off your computers and go play some ball.

As seen in  Business Weekly by Joey Chung, March 26th, 2012

Image via ESPN

Kenting Travelogue

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Kenting – a summer paradise for beach-goers and sun-lovers at the southern tip of Taiwan. It has been almost ten years since I last set my eyes on its bustling main street, its numerous inns and shops, and its small beaches. The sun just feels different there, different from the sun in Taipei. More radiant, it shines down from a blue sky flanked by towering white clouds that floats like cotton candy instead of the dark, foreboding rain clouds that seem hang over Taipei perpetually. Perhaps that is just my imagination, fueled by a desire to get out of the trappings that I have come to associate with Taipei.

What makes a place attractive is not what characterizes it. It is just how much we prepared ourselves to find the place attractive (kind of works with people too…hahaha). For me, someone who loves being outdoors in the sun, Kenting is vastly more attractive than Taipei. For others, those who show up on a trip to the beach with brand-name bags, make-up, and high heels, the city is much more attractive.

But you don’t want to expect too much from your experiences either. We went to a pretty well regarded restaurant for dinner there on the first night, and to be honest, we all left wondering what the hype was about. The food wasn’t bad, but I would say to all those tourists and foodies lined up outside, you could do better than this – at least for all the wait you have to endure before being seated. Well, maybe the hype of the good food came from all of the tourists and foodies who got hungrier and hungrier by the minute. It is all about perception.

Traveling is a joy, whether it’s going to a place you have never been or have been before. Kenting is no different. This is my first trip since coming back to Taiwan to fulfill my obligatory military service. This is my first trip to Kenting, a place I loved as a kid, without my parents. It is something else travelling with friends instead of family. You end up doing things you never would do, like water activities my parents were always too hesitant to pay for, or a crazy show with pole dancers and cross dressers in a loud bar with cheap alcohol.

Kenting is small, but its beaches and sights would still be best seen if you rent a car or a bike. There is still quite a bit of distance between places, and the aquarium is a far away off if you wanted to visit. There are numerous accommodations, but if you wanted to go during the summer, you better call a month or two in advance for a reservation. The people there are all genuinely friendly and ready to strike up a conversation, but you could never tell if there’s an agenda – like most tourist destinations, there’s money to be made. At night, the main street is choke full of people and there’s always music coming out of some restaurant or bar and there’s always the noise of people buying and selling, price haggling…but I say, the main attraction is the night market food. Travelling in Taiwan always seems to end up being about food. Live and die by the tummy.

All in all, it was a short weekend getaway. For someone like me, always yearning to be places and to be out in the sun, it can work wonders for one’s psyche. What kind of a trip makes you tick?

MC HotDog Sings…About Society

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MC HotDog is back with a new single called “離開”, which translates to “Depart” or “Leave”. In a departure from his last collaboration with A-yue about Taiwanese chicks, one night stands, and bras, this song is about the spread of social media and online connectivity and how it has affected our interactions with each other and ourselves. Many of us become trapped in our online identities and become disengaged from reality.

A particularly poignant verse in the song goes, “在 Real world 我用真名說假的話 Another world 我用假名說真的話 有點疑惑　我也開始變得有點掙扎 在我的兩個世界裡　分不清真假” which points out how we seem to live different lives in reality and in the virtual world. Translated, it says, “In the real world I speak falsely while using my real name, another world I speak the truth using an alias, it is a little confusing, I am starting to struggle a little in both my world, it difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not”.

This brings me to my point – what is media really doing to us? Are we using it for our own advantages or are we becoming used by it? Being online and connected to the “world” becomes more and more important in our lives as we find ourselves needing to process massive amounts of information in order to “keep up” with the daily news and changing trends. We set up accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media sites to extend our networks, to maintain our networks, and to establish our own individual presence online. Yet where does this lead us, when many of us “expose” ourselves online where privacy is an increasing concern and where much of our image can be carefully constructed and presented? Can you still be you when all you have to present yourself is limited by how many words and pictures you can stuff on a computer screen?

Furthermore, because many of us cannot present ourselves comfortably in reality, the web becomes a platform where we can be who we want to be. This means people are increasingly disengaged in reality with each other, because they aren’t comfortable with their realities. Almost everywhere I look when I walk on the street are people plugged into their iPhones, HTCs, and other smart devices. In restaurants, it is not uncommon to see couples or friends dining with their heads down looking at their devices the entire dinner without as much a word between them. Plugged in and distracted, are we becoming a society where our real, authentic identities are no longer present in reality but as portions polished and published in an online community?

Well, that’s definitely a thinking man’s rap if you ever showed me one.

As for MC HotDog, his new album comes out on July 13th.  For those of you who like his music, enjoy! =)

P.S. This is a different kind of post from what I am used to (more of a thinking aloud stream-of-consciousness style), please give me suggestions on improvements! Thank you!

Image via MC HotDog 

Curious Prometheus

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This is my first, ever blog site. Finally, after all these years, I decided to open my mind up to the wild world of the World Wide Web.

To start off, I will be writing about the new movie, Prometheus. Warning: there will be some spoilers, so don’t read it if knowing will ruin your enjoyment of the movie.

Prometheus, what a movie: incredible mythology, motifs, and imagery. However subtle, it has numerous philosophical views and references to other media cultures such as religious symbolism and self-sacrifice and human conceit.

I would like to introduce another thread of thought. The movie is about the human inclination to be irresistibly drawn to the unknown – that unfettered curiosity that consumes all of us, at one point or another. Humans seem to instinctively thirst for knowledge. Prometheus is a movie about the dangers of unbridled curiosity and the power of knowledge, much like the story of its namesake.

When the first scene opens, you are immediately  drawn to the clear references of Prometheus, the Greek god, self-sacrifice and panspermia, as the robed Space Jockey ritualistically downs a metallic, black liquid and subsequently dissolves into his molecular components. It immediately piques the audience’s curiosity – aren’t we all just a curious bunch, the black liquid obviously looks dangerous after what happens, but I am sure we were all dying to know what it is. Human curiosity.

Though I do realize the urge to drive the action and suspense sells a movie, in Prometheus, the theme of curiosity starts almost from the very beginning, as we see Shaw and Holloway digging at an archeological site, David peering into Dr. Shaw’s dreams and David learning a multitude of languages. The list of acts of curiosity and thirst for knowledge essentially keeps going.

However, in the movie, the dangers of a relentless pursuit for knowledge are front and center. As soon as the crew lands on LV-223, Holloway wants to immediately go investigate the obviously alien mounds despite the warnings of nightfall. Then, when a storm hits Millburn and Fifield don’t get the news and are left in the mound – with obviously dire consequences. Shaw almost gets killed in her insistence on bringing back the severed Engineer head they found – first by taking the precious little time they have to secure the head, leaving them barely enough time to escape the storm in their vehicles, then by jumping back out into the storm to grab the head as it falls off the vehicle. That’s almost three casualties as soon as the crew gets the chance to somehow “satisfy” their curiosity.

Then they try to “re-animate” the severed Engineer head without thinking about the consequences, trying to figure out what the tissue growth on the head is. It spirals out of control as Ford loses control of how much electrical pulse is running through the nerve as the head wakes up almost completely in disgust and started mutating, probably due to exposure to the dark liquid. Sometimes, a leap of faith can discover something; when it works it’s brilliant genius. When it fails, however, it just highlights how absurdly stupid an action can be without careful consideration, and yet, many of us continue to leap without thinking.

Holloway himself becomes a victim of “curiosity” as David clandestinely feeds him some of the dark liquid. As a side note, I am surprised that as a scientific exploration vessel, the Prometheus does NOT have lab animals or some sort of test subjects (not necessarily human obviously, there would be…moral arguments there) on board as a precaution. Instead, we see David using Holloway as an experiment, which ultimately results in his death. Ironic indeed.

At the end, having learned almost nothing about the dangers, Shaw still retains her incessant thirst for knowledge. Instead of returning to Earth, she decides to go pay the Engineer home world a visit to “find out”.

We can only imagine out it turns out. She walks into a death trap, gets eliminated before she finds out anything and reigniting Engineer interest in destroying humanity. Or she could find the Engineers eliminated and discovers what killed them (and those on LV-223). Obviously there is a chance to reconcile with the Engineers, but really what are the chances?

So what are the chances to her not only endangering herself but the entirety of humanity?

This brings me to a question that lingered in my mind after watching Prometheus: When is it enough to say, let’s take a step back and figure out if this route of knowledge is worth pursuing? Being a scientist by training (I was a Bio major), sometimes we are blinded by our pursuit of truth, not realizing the true dangers despite our best intentions. Knowledge, especially science, has always been about uncovering the “truth” about the world around us. Yet, do we really need to know so much? Without modern civilization and our pursuit of “knowledge”, humanity managed to live in harmony with nature for almost 200,000 years. As soon as we began to create science (as we know it), well we know the rest of the story: global warming, weapons of mass destruction, ecological degradation, etc. I bet most scientists want their science to make the world a better place, but sometimes, many times, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage consequences of such knowledge.

Furthermore, as in reality, the pursuit of truth almost always results in even more questions and increasingly complex questions. In this case, “What happened to the Engineers on LV-223? Why did they leave Earth? Why do they want to destroy us?”. Where do we draw the line between opening up a possible can of worms like Pandora opening up her box? To me, Prometheus is a movie that centers on our incessant pursuit of knowledge and belief in “progress”. Though Prometheus is not so much so a thinking man’s movie, as many have commented on and alluded to, it does touch on many themes that you only need to dig in a little to contemplate.

All Images via ProjectPrometheus