Being Monitored

As a nobody who lives in an age of surveillance, it's kind of flattering to know that I have some loyal readers who check my blog everyday.

About Thanksgiving

Here comes the holiday season, beginning with Thanksgiving. It is a time people usually spend at home with their families. As for me, I can't remember either the location or the year that my family actually had our Thanksgiving dinner together last time. Maybe it was my senior year in high school when all of us lived together in Bethesda, Maryland? I'll just say it is.

I remember on that Thanksgiving Day, my dad and I were grocery shopping at Giant for the big meal. A local news reporter approached us and asked why we were buying steak instead of turkey. Although the answer was, "we like steak betterthan turkey", the real reason was that, as a very Fobby family, nobody knew how to deal with a turkey. The news reporter wanted to take some shots of us making dinner in our kitchen. Therefore, my family was on the local news channel for 3 minutes that evening, when everybody was having dinner and not watching the local news.

This year, my sister Grace will fly from Charlottesville to Geneva and spend her Thanksgiving break with our parents. I am still not sure about where to go. Maybe I'll just stay in Carlisle; maybe I'll hang out with the Lin's in Maryland.

Hopefully, I can catch up with my schoolwork over the break, when the library is quiet.

As a Taiwanese, I felt ashamed

A few days ago, I received a forward email titled “A message from Taiwan” through the MLSA list-serve. (MLSA stands for Minority Law Student Association, which is one of the largest student organizations on campus) A guy named David Chou sent the original message to his former professor who teaches at our school.

Here is David Chou’s email--
I studied law at Dickinson in late 1970s. I founded and started the Formosan Statehood Movement (台灣建州運動). I would like to welcome you to visit our new web site, The Movement calls for Taiwan's integration into, and political association with, the United States.
By the way, please let your colleagues/ students/ friends/ relatives, media reporters, town folks/ federal & local government officials/ federal & local judges/ local lawyers you know get a chance to know of our web site.

I know that most people on the MLSA list would just delete this forward message; however, I felt that I had to say something about it because I want people to understand that not all Taiwanese believe in the idea of being the 51st state of America.

Therefore, I replied to the MLSA list-serve as follow—

Dear MLSA members, You can disregard my email if you don't care about the original message, but as a Taiwanese, I respectfully disagree with the idea of the "Formosan Statehood Movement", which calls for Taiwan's integration into, and political associationwith, the United States. Thanks Dorothy Deng

I personally felt ashamed that there are Taiwanese people out there who have the idea of being part of the U.S, but I didn’t want to make personal attacks in a public email. Guess what, I received this replied message through the MLSA list-serve this morning, which made me extremely ANGRY!!

(A public letter to DSL-MLSA Members)
Dear Ms. Deng:
You said you "respectfully disagree" with our Statehood Plan. We must respect your reaction. However, I felt a little bit sorry to say that it seemed to me that you overreacted when you sent your letter to DSL-MLSA.

If you don't mind, please allow me to ask you a very personal question: Are you an American citizen now? If you are an American citizen now or if you intend to reside in the States permanently, please let me suggest you to have a second thought about our Statehood Plan.

There are so many Taiwanese people of the elite class holding U.S. citizenship or permanent residence. Some of these people, however, are not ready to accept and support our statehood proposal so far. Sadly speaking, we do not know why. I hope someone can explain to us someday.

God bless you.
Thomas Chen
Assistant to David Chou

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this email. Someone actually asked me a “very personal question” in a public letter?

Yes I am a U.S. citizen because I was born in the States, and yes I might stay in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean I should support the idea of Taiwan being the 51st state of America.

I could say more about how ridiculous I think this “Statehood Plan”is, but this blog post is too long already and I know you won't continue to read it anyway. Just want to say that as a Taiwanese, I felt not only angry but also ashamed.

因為寂寞

我知道為什麼我喜歡李宗盛的歌

會愛上我因為你寂寞

雖然你從來不說 你不說我也會懂

其實 會愛上你也是因為我寂寞

因為受不住冷落

空虛的時候有個寄托

雖然總是被人們圍繞著

在曲終人散以後

會想念你的細心溫柔

原諒我不能承諾什麼

我會愛你 只是因為寂寞

會愛上你因為我寂寞

雖然我從來不說

我不說你也會懂

而且 感情的事你我都脆弱

談到未來的生活

我們對自己都沒有把握

請不要對我承諾什麼 是否要一起生活

還是要一個我們的窩

你不必為我承諾什麼

我會愛你 你會愛我 只是因為寂寞