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• Post #2144054

  It has been such a delight this afternoon, hanging out in the 小陽 (Little Sun) bookshop here in #Pingtung, in the south of #Taiwan. https://www.willbuckingham.com/a-little-sun/

• Post #1013809

  This was fun to write: about #writing, #divination, #translation, and a terrific story by my brilliant friend, the writer Naomi Sím. https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/liljournal/vol4/iss1/5/ #taiwan #literature

• Post #799599

  I went to an industrial chemical (化工) wholesale shop yesterday to get some boric acid, to mix up an anti-ant potion. And—oh my!—the things you can get on the open market in #Taiwan. Vast sacks and jars of potent things. It's a mad scientist's dream. Now I'm going to retire to my lab with a dead cat, and some random stuff I picked up from the shelves for a few NTD, to see if—through the practice of my subtle and profane arts—I can re-animate the lifeless clay....

• Post #744516

  Taiwanese friends tell us that one household’s ancestors are another household’s ghosts. We just bought this picture of some ghosts from a junk shop. We take full responsibility for whatever happens next. #Taiwan #ghosts

• Post #744515

  As far as I understand it, this is not the question. #Taiwan

• Post #744514

  50% of teaching is moving furniture. 30% is show business. 20% is content. #teaching

• Post #744513

  Pingtung cycle path. Some cute gods, and some very musical vegetables. #Taiwan #cycling

• Post #513169

  For my Mandarin Chinese homework, I have been set the task of promoting the deep fried Mars Bar—pinnacle of Scottish cuisine—to Taiwanese audiences. I am very proud of my translation of the delicacy into Mandarin: 炸馬霸 (Zhá Mǎ Bà), or Deep Fried Horse Hegemon. #中文 #Mandarin #Taiwan

• Post #498055

  Some heavy-duty theological content in this mural spotted in Pingtung, Taiwan. (Fall and redemption. Genesis meets Chris de Burgh...) #Taiwan #WallArt #religion #Pingtung

• Post #446501

  Finished reading this on the train today, and it's a fun and interesting book. I have a soft spot for Zhuangzi's happy fish, and so this was up my street. It's also open access, putting the "free" into "free and easy wandering" (逍遙遊) #philosophy #zhuangzi https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111568171/html

• Post #446500

  Had a dream last night that Nick Cave popped in to borrow a duster. I offered him a J-Cloth, but he regretfully declined, saying he wanted a proper duster or nothing at all.

• Post #446498

  An excellent piece on the virtues of sad sandwiches by Misato Okaneya. "Boterham demands no love or effort, and keeps the day going. I feel there is absolute trust in a boterham, not necessarily because it is excellent, but because it is simple and unpretentious." #Sandwiches #SadLunch https://www.leidenanthropologyblog.nl/articles/why-do-the-dutch-never-get-tired-of-everyday-sandwiches-the-boterham

• Post #446497

  We're galloping into the lunar new year here in Taiwan, so here's Ludwig Wittgenstein, wishing you a very happy year of the horse. 馬上成功！ #NewYear #Wittgenstein #philosophy #Taiwan

• Post #446496

  After years of refining and further refining a book proposal, and agonising over the market—an abstraction entirely beyond my comprehension—I've started from scratch, putting words to paper, writing what I want to write. And I've no idea how it's going to go, but there's life there, and fun, and a sense of something real. #writing

• Post #446495

  Got talking to the Hakka guy in the coffee shop across the road from our home. He said he'd guessed I was British because a) I'm not tall, and b) I seem cultured, whereas (I'm just reporting what he said... this is not an endorsement of his view) Americans are a) tall and b) uncultured. #Taiwan

• Post #446494

  This was the loveliest way to spend a Friday early evening, listening to Hug Muzik / 曾立馨 performing their amazing Bossa Nova / Taiwanese pak-koán 北管 mash-ups in Xishi. Met lots of good folks, caught up with some old friends, then Youbiked back to Pingtung along the bike path under the railway line. #Taiwan #Music

• Post #239159

  I lost my wallet in Taipei. It was returned to the police station. Not only that, but all the cash and cards were still there, and had been removed, catalogued, and put back with such neat orderliness that I'm tempted to lose my wallet more often, if only to take advantage of this extra service. 😍 My wallet is normally a horror-show of scruffy disorder. For the first time in years, I feel like a proper, upstanding citizen. #Taiwan