A Visit to Hui Chi Temple...

(Note that this post is relatively image-heavy and might take awhile to load if you have a slow internet connection. My apologies! You should know that you can click on all the pictures to see a larger version of them.) 

Hey guys. The weather here in Taiwan has been vacillating between crappy and less crappy as of late. Today it's crappy, but yesterday it was quite nice. So what did I do? Took my dogs down the mountain and decided to visit a temple that's on my bus route. Now, Taiwan is one of the most dog-friendly countries in the world, so it wasn't a problem to bring them along. You see them everywhere: in shops, restraunts, stores...and not just the little ones, either. It's great to be in a country of dog-loving people.Anyways, we went on down, and found Hui Chi Temple, which, translated, literally means "Good Fortune Temple." It's really beautiful, as you can see, very ornate but not tacky. The picture you see to the left is only the gateway to it. 


 As we walked onwards, my dogs and I saw the temple's two guardians. They're Chinese lions, and they're pretty common around temple areas, and even houses or bridges. There's usually a male and a female, and in Chinese they're known as shizi. (Side note: the two dogs I own, Daisy and Happy, are known as Shih-Tzu dogs, which is basically the American way of pronouncing the Chinese word for lion. Yes, my two furballs were actually bred to look like miniature lions...which they kind of don't, but the statue above doesn't exactly look like a lion, either. I'm not sure if the ancient Chinese actually ever saw a live lion.) 

We went through the gates, and saw that the temple had only just begun: as you can see, there are steps that lead up and up, towards the real temple. It's not much of a hike, since the steps are relatively low and very wide, but it was fun to look around. The pictures here don't do the place justice; with all the lanterns and the surrounding greenery, it looked truly magnificent. 

As my dogs and I traveled upwards (meeting many other dogs on the way, most of them Shih-Tzu as well) it began to grow darker, and our only light was that of the lanterns, as you can see to the left. They're really gorgeous in real life, and are probably one of my favorite parts about Asian arcitecture.  

Here's a closer look at the statues that line the stairway (look to the right.)  I'm not exactly sure what they're supposed to be (lion? dragon?) but they're a cross between adorable and hideous. A face only a Chinese mother could love, I suppose. 

The stairways continued going upwards, and began to twist and turn. To the right there was a beatiful garden area, filled with statues of what I'm guessing to be Buddhist deities. Buddhist deities that ride tigers for fun. That. Is. Awesome. Though the tiger doesn't look too happy, from the look of his face. There are other ones as well, including a pedophile-looking old man riding a deer (not as awesome as a tiger, but it probably takes skill) and another guy on top of a mini elephant. The tiger still wins in my book, though. 

 By now my dogs and I were about a third of the way up, and continued. It got continually more tropical as we did so, and the stairway rails started showing carved panels on them, most of which had a) dragons b) people riding dragons c) dragons fighting each other d) or tigers. If you're reading this blog and know you're not going to remember anything I'm writing, at least remember this: China and Taiwan like their dragons. And I can see why - they're awesome. Forget those nasty Western dragons, man. I want an Oriental dragon. 

By now we're finally at the top, and we've passed a koi pond, another garden, several trails, and a couple of locals who were giving me some strange looks (I'm not sure if it was the dogs or the camera, or the fact that I'm white. Probably a combination.)  By the time we got the the top, my poor dogs were panting (they're lazy) while I was doing just fine. And, let's just say, the views got even better at the top. (The picture to the right is one of the carved dragons on one of the incense burners. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a big fan of dragons.) 

Because, at the top, we saw the temple. The actual temple. Yeah, all the preceeding stuff was just a precursor to the big show up on top of the mountain. Needless to say, I was kind of impressed. The cool thing about living in Asia so long is that I've been able to see how temple styles differ in various countries. In Korea, they're very bright and have a lot of woodwork; in Thailand, there's a lot of gold used; in China, the style is darker in color but much more ornate. Taiwan is like a mix of all three, and the resulting buildings are beautiful. Very colorful, very ornate, with some beautiful stone and wood carvings. It also smells great. 

After wandering around the courtyard area for awhile (see the link below to see all the photos in the album, since too may on here will overload the post) I tied my dogs outside and decided to take a look inside. Since this is one of the more "touristy" temples, I didn't have to take off my shoes or anything, and even though taking pictures wasn't exactly condoned, nobody yelled at me for doing it. I just tried to look nice and innocent while taking a look around. 

The inside, obviously, was quite lovely. Besides smelling strongly of sandalwood incense, it was really quite beautiful. I don't know...it had this kind of aura around it, I guess. Even though I'm a pretty devout Christian, I couldn't help by be impressed by all of this. Within, there's a large statue of Buddha; around there are more minor gods. There's a place where people can kneel and pray and burn incense and give offerings. I kept walking forward, and found another koi pond, as well as a pretty cool dragon engraving. It kind of amazes me, how much effort that people put into this temple, which is kind of out of the way to see. 

After a few minutes of quietly looking around, I went back outside to find some pretty impatient dogs waiting for me, so I decided to take them back home. Back down the stairs we went! By this time it was getting pretty dark, and the lanterns had started to light up properly. They have the name of the temple painted on them: Hui Chi Temple. The character on the bottom looks kind of like a temple, I suppose. 

That's all for now - until next time I go out and find some other part of Taiwan to explore. If you want to see more of the pictures, you can view them at my Facebook album, here. (If for some reason you can't get onto my album, comment and I'll see what I can do.) 

Until next time, guys. 

~Ari

Spark Wordcount: 120,00 words, currently writing the ending
Music: Vienna Teng, Recessional 

Poetry Slam

Yesterday my school had their first "annual" (I use quotations because I think it will be the last of its kind) poetry slam. Being a somewhat enthusiast, if sporadic, poet, I decided to sign up, even though I despise being on stage. But I figured, "Hey, I'm a good writer. Maybe I'll have a chance of winning this thing." Unfortunately, all the "judges" were random people in the audience, and about 75% of them were seniors...and friends of the seniors who were performing. Being a lowly junior, I didn't even make it into the second round. Only seniors did. Oh, well - I got some darn good poetry out of the thing. 


We had to write three poems: the only guidlines were no lewdness or language. I'm posting one here on the blog for the funzies, but you can view the other two on my DeviantART account, here and here. 


This one is titled "Bird Bones" - yes I have a fascination with skeletons. Enjoy. It's a little long. 

Upon the ground against the sand
I saw it: the skeleton of a bird long dead. 
Sightlessly staring at the sky. 
The cage of its ribs gleaming white,
its keeled breastbone, strung 
in perfect harmony
against those outstretched bones of wings,
scrubbed clean by constant rivertide
‘till flesh is but a memory,
yet still contains the yearning, 
the aching memory of flight.

I stopped to look at those old bones
huddled on the river’s edge,
like fledglings too afraid to fly. 
Within, I saw their hollow chambers,
cathedrals in a dust-bound world.
Sacred geometry, delicately forged, 
gossamer webbing against the dark.

The bones began to speak to mine;
whispers, just the barest voice.
Let me tell you, so they whispered,
let me tell you of the story
when my old kind first took the leap,
and crossed the gap from ground to sky.
Let me tell you of my story,
when these old bones once dreamt to fly:

Shallow seas act as a womb; 
a cradle; the stirrings of life contained
in its evanescent hold. 
Armored ancestors tread the sand
as seas conjoin and landscapes shift;
to suit the ever-present wish,
the need to overtake the skies.
How bones and carapaces are the ballast
a constant temperance to their flight.  
And even now, as time has passed
and as the old ones have turned to dust,
the dream to fly is still kept beating
a dream forever realized. 

The bird’s old skeleton lay untouched
save my careful observations.
I blinked, and saw them as they were: 
simple bones they are no longer,
instead, the path to something more,
something old and uncontained:
the children of a careful plan,
evolution at its best
designing this uncanny blueprint
to celebrate the joy of life.
That croon their secret words to mine,
their story of the urge to fly,
and simple ballast, the reminder,
that we can always find the ground.

Book Review: Legacy, by Cayla Kluver

I think that spring has truly and finally arrived upon my little island. The sun has finally broken free of the fog that entraps my mountain, and the day's been entirely blue and clear. In the bright light, all the tropical foliage looks pristine, almost like a picture. I took my two dogs, Daisy and Happy, out on a walk this morning at about seven down a trail near my house, and it was gorgeous. It leads down, past a valley full of growing vegetables, and down more steps to a beautiful waterfall. If you go another way, you can head onto this other trail that I love, as seen to the left. It follows a 1940's waterpipe around the mountain and leads to a beautiful river that you can cross by foot. I'm so glad I live on this mountain. 

A few more things before the book review: 

1. My new friend, Kaiyuh, has written and self-published her book, Shinken. At first I was admittedly wary of the premise of her self-publishing, but after learning more I've become rather impressed, instead. I'm ordering the book off of Amazon (you can as well!)and I'll soon be reviewing it on here, with the additional chance of an interview with Kaiyuh. 

2. Schools' getting to that point where teachers realize how much crap they have to stuff into our heads, which means many projects, papers, and homework. Which means less blogging time for me. D: 

3. Saw How To Train Your Dragon. Loved it. Love the music. Want to own it. So should you. 

Without further exposition, here's my new bi-monthly book review. Today I'm looking at a medieval romantic fantasy by the name of Legacy, by teen writer Cayla Kluver. I'm not usually interested in anything medieval nor romantic, being more of a gritty steampunk-esque (think China Mievelle here, you guys) kind of girl, but I'm always interested in seeing what people my age are turning out, so I've looked into it.  

Legacy, the first in a planned trilogy, was originally self-published by Cayla and her family, and was later picked up by Amazon's new publishing industry (yes, Amazon's become a publisher now), called Amazon Encore. I read it on the school library Kindle. 

First off: I'm rather opposed to teen publishing. Yes, yes, I know it sounds a bit stupid, seeing as I'm a teenager myself, but I honestly think that most teenagers don't have the skills to be properly published. But ever since Christopher Paolini opened the door, there seems to be a growing number of teens getting published. And most of them, while definitely showing talent, need to improve a lot before they have the skills to be real writer. It's not their fault - they're young, and there's a certain amount of experience that's needed to be gained before I think they can produce worthwhile stuff. Anyways, on to the review. 


Plot 
Though Legacy is sold as a fantastical romance, there's very little of the fantasy element added in, at least until the very end of the story. We begin with a suspiciously specific prologue, detailing the story of two countries with names that are totally not innuendos, Hytanica and Cokyri. Apparently thirty-or-so babies were stolen from Hytanica sixteen years ago, and only one of them wasn't found dead. There's also mention of a Blood Moon. 

The main story, however, is told through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Alera, who is one of the two princesses of Hytanica. She's being forced to (what a surprise) marry someone she doesn't love, and this person is the son of the Captain of the Guard, Steldor. Meanwhile, a hot new love interest crops up from the Hytanican enemy: Cokyri. *snort*  as a prisoner, dragging along the plot. The story revolves around Alera and her struggle to make a choice: marry the man who was brought up to be a king (Steldor) or sacrifice everything and go with Narian, the Cokyrian boy. There's also something about an ancient blood feud.

Like I said before, the romance factor wasn't what brought me in, and I was pretty disappointed to see that there wasn't much of a fantasy element in the story. To the book's credit, though, I kind of got into the whole "Alera having to choose" factor, mostly because both Steldor and Narian were jerks in their own right. However, it was too bloated; there were too many wandering chapters that didn't really lead anywhere, which made the book hard to get through at times. For a character-driven novel, this can be a problem, but experienced authors know how to deal with it. Unfortunately, Legacy doesn't do that. 

Plot: 5.5/10

Characters & World
Like most other medieval fantasy books, Alera, the protagonist, tried hard to be the spunky, rebellious princess that we know so well. At first this deterred me, because the "rebelliousness" read more like "annoyingness", but I grew to like her a little more, mainly for one reason: she made mistakes. Big ones. It shows a lot of potential for character growth in later books, and since this is a trilogy, I'm willing to let her go. The rest of the characters ranged from nicely written to plain annoying (I liked London, Alera's bodyguard, but Tadark, her other bodyguard, grew grating after a few chapters of complaints.) As for the two love interests, Narian and Steldor...well, both seemed kind of like douchebags in their own right. Steldor was the stereotypical aggravating, pompous man-boy, and Narian was just kind of insolent. If I had to choose, I would say I liked Steldor better, actually. In general, the characters here weren't great, but most of them weren't too terrible, either. 

 As for the world...well, if you're a history buff, don't get your hopes up. Cayla tries to create a fantasy world, complete with names like Emotanya (it's a country full of sad people, I presume), etc. But there's a lot of inconsistency. The character names vary from your standard fantasy names (Alera, Miranna, Steldor) to the pseudo-Asian (Sadhienne, etc.) to just...weird. (London?) Even though it's supposed to be a fantasy world, there's mention of Christianity (both God and Christmas are referred to) as well as Latin. Alchemy is used as a substitute for all things science, and the economy/worldbuilding is nonexistent.  In short, Hytanica is a very shallow world, a backdrop for the characters and nothing more. 

Characters: 6.5/10
World: 3.5/10 

Writing Style 
This is where the ball drops, people.  Cayla Kluver, as reviewed by Amazon, is thought to be "marked by witty, rapid-fire dialogue and dramatic complexity that belie the writer's age," This must be for a different book, because I found no such thing. Much of the story is bogged down by unnecessary descriptions, adjective-loaded sentences (e.g. "He stroked my long brown smooth hair.") and "look-at-me-I'm-a-writer" words. Cliches are abound ("raven hair" and "startling blue eyes" are only the beginning) and the rest of it was so boring I wanted to skip. Many of the descriptions were out of place for a fantasy novel (calling one dress "fun and flirty".) As for the dialogue...well, it would have been good if the author had made up her mind. Everyone kept switching back from Ye Olde Medieval speech to stuff you would hear in a shopping mall. It was jarring, to say the least. 

The biggest sin, however, is Cayla's tendency to tell versus show. She obviously knows the difference between the two, but for some reason would use both in the same sentence. (Narian looked surpised, mostly because I knew that he knew that something was wrong...). It was unnecessary and redundant all at once, and made for an annoying read.  if you're a critical reader or writer, it will make you want to scream at times. 

Writing: 3/10

In short, if you want an easy, if verbose, romance, this is the book for you. It's not bad, and in several parts it's quite good, but the inconsistency makes it hard to keep up the suspension of disbelief. Like I said before, if you're a critical reader or a history buff, this isn't the book for you. As critical as I've been, however, I will say that I enjoyed it, despite all the errors. With some practice and a little more research, I think Cayla Kluver can turn into a great writer. As for now...well, this is a darn good first draft. 

Total Score: 4.6/10   

Cheers,
-Ari 

My Works: Current Writing

If you ask me what I am, my first answer will probably be "I'm a writer." Okay, I get it, that doesn't really make me special. Lots of people like to write. Lots of teenagers like to write. Yeah, well, me too. The cool thing is to see how much my life as an expat has influenced my writing. If I lived in America my entire life, I probably wouldn't have a fantasy story taking place in the ruins of Shanghai with a Han Chinese girl as my protagonist, or an Arabian faerie-tale that takes place in Marrakesh. So yeah. Here's a rundown of my main projects, from biggest to smallest:


Spark 
A five-part book series that I've been conceiving, writing, and creating for several years. I recently finished the first book, Spark, and I'm now working on the sequel (steampunk!) called Ironsong. This is my main project that I've been working on for about four years, and I love it. Snippets of excerpts and more information are available on my main blog. 


Chiaroscuro
A single-standing novel about a boy with PTSD and depression who sees a monster whenever he looks in the mirror, and can't stop killing people. 


The Night Dance
The story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, rewritten from another point of view. Ora is a serving girl in King Pierus' castle, and is chosen to follow his nine daughters when they travel each night to another world. 

England + Spring

Spring has alighted over Taiwan; a few months later than I'd prefer it to, but I'll take what I can get. Up here in the mountains, a mist has settled over everything, just like before, but there's notable changes - the birds are starting to herald me in the morning. There's one bird in particular that's endemic only to Taiwan, called the Formosan Blue Magpie (Urocissa caerulea) It's one of the most beautiful birds I've seen, and I had the pleasure of seeing one on a hike a few weeks ago. They're called the blue-tailed faeries of the forest over here, and you can see why: 

 They're really quite lovely, aren't they? 

Now, onto the reasons I haven't posted in two months: 



- Going on a weeklong trip to London and Stratsford-upon-Avon with my theatre buddies
- Preparing for college stuff, IB exams, and getting up to par on my homework
- Revising and editing Spark.

First off: England. I got back about a week ago, and I'm still in awe from it. I've been to England and Scotland before on a family trip, but this time it was just me, my friends, and a very cool brownie-baking theatre teacher. I can still taste it. We saw a pack of musicals and plays, including Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Sister Act, The 39 Steps, Romeo and Juliet, and more. Not to mention the shopping. It's always a strange feeling, going somewhere that uses English as its predominant language. A foreign country. Living overseas turns everything around, I suppose. 

Now I'm back in Taiwan, rooted in my own geography. School's been going for a week, and I've found myself trapped beneath a mountain of makeup homework, projects, exams, and college prep. Writing is the only way I can breathe, and I've been hard-pressed to find any time to do that. Three or so weeks ago I sent in the first five chapters of Spark in to an international writing contest after some encouragement from the local writing teacher. It's a pretty big contest; about 500 novels are entered each year, and only one gets to the top, where there's the chance of publication. I should be notified of whether I've gotten into the first submission process soon. 

Spark: 116,000 words, currently editing

-Ari