On Television Shi Chi-ching, a leading Taiwanese feminist, slowly strips off her skirt to reveal her slender legs while she proudly discusses her success at dieting. In a brightly lit bookstore you can find another author's airbrushed studio photograph on the cover of his latest book. When you leaf through the work, which is billed as travel literature, you can almost hear the author shouting: in order to take this photograph, in order to write a book that people would buy, in order to get people to look at it and me, I traveled the world. Meanwhile, in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the Cloud Gate Dance Theater, numerous recent media reports have affirmed the company's place in history, and on television there have been constant clips of Cloud Gate in action.... With people in cultural circles playing around with all manner of "visual effects," people are suddenly beginning to wonder if maybe all the "fun" has gone too far.

With constant technological breakthroughs and advancements, Taiwan has moved from oxcarts to automobiles, airplanes, and the Internet, from an economy dominated by agriculture to one dominated by industry and commerce. As a result, people now have nowhere to hide. Today, no civilization can refuse the challenge of another civilization. In the 1970s, the American film The Lost Horizon portrayed Tibet as a Shangri-La, isolated from the rest of the world and full of mystical religious wisdom. Today's Tibet receives an unending stream of pilgrimage tours, and even the Lamas and high monks must constantly leave their studies to receive visitors.

With technology leading to globalization, it has brought a new set of rules connected to the new game of manipulating market mechanisms. But "rules" may not be the best term to use, since in truth there are no restrictions: neither concerns about morality, nor scruples about the truth. The well-capitalized sweep aside the poorly capitalized, big money destroys little money, convenience stores replace locally owned general stores, and a small number of conglomerates grow ever more powerful. These games have resulted in a growing importance of brand names-whether for clothing or computers or military weapons. In markets that are jointly monopolized, large financial consortiums move fast, attracting the general public in order to make a killing. Then these companies pursue various philanthropic activities to show their compassionate side, by making public displays of charitable donations to the people of Lanyu (even if the people there have no need of their gifts) or funding protection of sea turtles on Lanyu (even if the extra funds actually result in more harm to the turtles).

Who can avoid the reach of multi-media consortiums, with their tremendous financial resources and influence? They can take in politicians who are down on their luck; and even those who want to get public exposure to express their own ideas end up surrendering to the media. The result is that no one-neither the idealistic politician nor the deep thinker-ends up staying true to personal principles. Just look at a newspaper that manages to survive. On one page it may launch a solemn attack on some politicians, and then on the next page it may introduce Rolex watches. You can't really blame it. It's only respecting the market game, and satisfying the needs of a diverse society. Otherwise it wouldn't get any readers.

Everyone gets sucked into this game with the global rules. If you want to survive, you've got to play by them-whether you're a monk, an intellectual, or an artist. Even thoughts are packaged, discussed and merchandized to become hot "name brands" in the "academic marketplace."

It is particularly hard to accept this behavior in intellectuals, whom people hold to high standards and who are assumed to be at least somewhat idealistic. Some intellectuals may say that they want to retreat from the petty world to find seclusion, and then at the next moment, they may adopt the guise of a dieting expert. We may have thought that they wouldn't abandon their search for the meaning of life, but their quest turned out to be just one big lie! It's similar to the famous singer who, after saying she is going to retire, finally gets mentioned on the 8:00 o'clock news when the media make a big deal about the "issue" of her quitting the business. In reality, she goes back to school just briefly, and then resurfaces less than a year later to make a mint on a new album. Or it's like the writer who says he wants to experience life and broaden his horizons and so goes abroad. Yet as soon as he arrives, he immediately begins to fax back articles about his sojourns by the Seine and his strolls through London, even though he really hasn't experienced very much.

Going back to the land? Reflecting on life? Seclusion and reflection aren't valued highly in this day and age. They're too heavy and serious and not appropriate for games in the global marketplace. Did not Ko Chin-ming, a professor of Chinese at National Taiwan University, write: "Hippies? They've all died off, and all that's left are holes in blue jeans. A real hippy should be like the classical Chinese hermit-writer Tao Yuan-ming. But that's too much work!"