Local teacher sendsdispatch from Taiwan

It is about 75 degrees and sunny in Hsinchu, Taiwan this Saturday morning.

I guess that would qualify as a nice day just about anywhere! Took a walk this morning up to Chiao Tung University which is right next door to the seminary. It is mostly a graduate university in sciences like physics and engineering. I have also seen several American students walking around on campus. It sits around a beautiful lake with lots of trees and grassy areas. This morning a group of students in a brass band were next to the lake and playing American jazz and classical music. Lots of young children and their parents sitting around on the grass and listening. Who says the Chinese work all the time? Probably mostly physics, math, and engineering graduate students and spouses sitting around out there. Lots of smart people crowded into one area.

But right outside this large and famous university is this little temple. This temple is to an old local god. Don’t know his name. The tale goes that a long time ago a student came here and prayed for a good grade on his exam after he had not studied too much. They say he got an “A” on the exam. And so every semester at mid-term and final exam time this little temple is crammed with smart science students bringing offerings to this local god. He is supposed to like a certain kind of soda pop. So that is what they bring.

At mid-term and finals time the place is just crammed out to the street with six packs of soda pop. They burn incense and bring soda pop! Go figure. At the same time, quite a few of the Christians in Taiwan are also associated with the universities. Maybe that is partly because many Taiwanese have studied at American universities and some started going to American churches while they were in the U.S. It seems like almost every Taiwanese family has at least one member if not many members of the family who live in the U.S. As a rule, they like us Americans!