At my desk, feeling fine, surveying the surroundings from far to near: computer screen, keyboard, mouse, stereo speakers. On my right: desk lamp, business cards, coffee cup, clock, pen holder, adhesive tape dispenser. To the left: stapler, sticky notes, glue stick, scissors, correction tape, utility knife, ruler. In front: pens and pencils, eraser, paper clips, binder clips, notebook. Further afield: mobile phone and tablet on top of a pile of letters. My desk! High and low, vertical and horizontal, across and straight ahead—red, blue, yellow and black. A landscape of mountains and rivers. My own little state—my world. Magnificent.
This little kingdom with access to the entire world through Google is a place for planning one’s future, a private space to contemplate even the renewal of one’s life. A room for making notes and penning life’s stories, a garden full of books. The ancient and the modern in stationery: together, like good friends working hard with you and for you. Taiwan Panorama, always with you and for you, a companion alongside you moving into an increasingly progressive world.
The little world on my desk embraces diverse viewpoints, ideals carved by time hiding one’s own petty ambitions. Across my desk, life’s experiences appear so immense, but the minutiae of daily life encroach.
Taiwan Panorama has been running a series of articles on the seven necessities of life: firewood or charcoal, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. This month’s feature looks at salt, a mineral whose refining process is so very -complex. And Taiwan’s long-established salt industry is in the process of integrating culture with salt: artistic salt is the flavor of “white gold.”
This issue we also continue to explore Taiwan’s cities and towns. After looking last month at the southern port city of Kaohsiung, our focus this time around is on that pearl of Eastern Taiwan, Yilan: happy villages full of art and the richness of life, leisurely and slow living, soaking up the green wonders of the countryside. We also explore Taiwan’s eight scenic wonders from the olden days, reviving their past glories through old maps; and we report on a difficult and admirable venture to track the origins of a solitary crane that strayed from the Siberian tundra into northern Taiwan’s Qingshui Wetlands.
Continuing our Southeast-Asian focus, Thai culture has become almost a craze in Taiwan. Learning the Thai language, worshipping the Thai Buddhist deity Phra Phrom, and enjoying the flavors of Thai cuisine (as highlighted in last month’s issue) have become popular activities in Taiwan. Collectively they have become ways of more deeply grasping the essence of the Thai kingdom.
Time to move on, turn off the computer, put down the pen, close the book, turn off the lamp, and finish that cup of coffee. Change the seat and change the scene. And how about your own unique and exclusive little world, your universe? What grand, glorious or serene and simple scenes are happening on your desk?
