About the Engagement (II): Some Technical Facts

I started feeling that it will be a long journey before I can actually finish writing everything that I want to write about the engagement. At the same time, I am feeling the pressure of writing as the preparation for the wedding reception in September is now taking place.

I didn't organize every bit of the engagement reception on my own, and the entire event was a final presentation of many people's professional assistance.

It is not a commercial entry, but I do owe a big thank you to the professionals who were involved in the organization and preparation. At the very early stage of the preparation, I resisted some nuptial conventions that have been commercialized and over-emphasized in the last few decades.

However, in the end, I followed some of the 'chessy' fashions. (The term 'chessy' reflects nothing but my snobbery, I confess.)

Although I still feel quite ambivalent about the significance of these nuptial fashions, it is undeniable that we have been enjoying the beautiful and good memory that they have created for us since then.

First, wedding portraits.
The idea of taking portraits to commemorate marriage sounds simply exhausting to a couple like us who normally lack energy in everything. Although I dread the thought of posing for hundreds of shots as newly-weds normally do in Taiwan, I still fancy portraits like those of my parents and grandparents.

One good photo will do, black and white, serious looking but sweet, coy bride and nervous groom, I think.

I made the decision about which salon to go, as K's physical absence conveniently excused him of the duty. We choose to do only 6 photos, which, however, cost us as much as a normal 30-photo package. The wedding gown that my mom picked up for me was magnificent, at least we thought so. The shooting went smooth but was really exhausting. I ended up indulging myself in a 12-hour deep sleep. It was thought to be rather fortunate that there were not another 24 shots to go in the end of the day.

The photos were done in Wernar Wedding in Taichung. I don't have much to comment since I didn't really compare its price and service with other salons. We like the photos (taken by Mr. Chou, lighting by Margo, makeup by Nicole, costume assistance Enes, sales manager Ms Ya-chi Chen) and so do our families and friends. However, sometimes I wonder if it's because I appeared to be rather detached so that the assistants were also very detached from me. Or, perhaps I just need to say honestly that I hope the environment had been more friendly and relaxing.

Second, reception day photos.
I think it was a correct decision to hire a cameraman for the reception. The photos were mirrors of every moment that we shared with all of the guests. I believe the albums (see either my flickr or Mosaic 馬賽克) will be reviewed over and over again, and the pleasure of it will never be exhausted. Mark Wang （馬克）, who is running the salon of Mosaic, is our photographer for the day. In addition to the photographer's perspectives that I have appreciated in his work, he is very friendly and attentive to details. Most impressive of all he is very quick in responding queries and doubts that a busy and anxious bride like me would have. (All the photos in this entry are Mark's snaps.)

Third, venue decoration.
The idea to have the reception venue decorated did not come to me until a close friend of my parents offered this help. Ms Shen and her team at Star Wedding Studio （星辰(Star)會場佈置）created a romantic corner in the venue. Ms Shen was patient enough to visit the venue several times beforehand and to talk with me about their blueprint. At first, I resisted the glamour and extravagance of their design, which might contradict the small and quiet reception that I was expecting. However, their ideas were carried out beautifully, and the corner turned into a quiet gallery where guests would visit and taste the joy of the engagement.





Fourth, venue.
We had our reception in Freshfields Resort and Conference in Taichung. It was a beautiful place that promises a panoramic view of Taichung county. The orchestration of the event was quite eventful, but it was a good day in the end.

Death of a Cockroach

K was shocked when seeing a cockroach in the living room. The amount of poison that he sprayed on that evil insect probably explained the unmeasurable astonishment that he was thrown in.

After clearing away the remains of the cockroach, K determined to chase out all of the possible members of the cockroach family remaining in the house. He showed to me his lethal weapon: cockroach houses. This time, I was the one who was in astonishment. Products of cockroach house across the world, I believe, shared the same design and adopted the same method no matter how culturally distinctive their appearances might be. I thought that the design was usually made as unnoticeable as possible, for instance, small size and simple color prevailed. After all they were kind of embarrassing witnesses to the hygienic standard of a house, weren't they? (of course, this statement can be challenged in many ways especially in the context of Asian countries where this creature never seems to disappear.)
However, the cockroach house that K presented to me was certainly another unmissable product of the kawaii (可愛い) culture of Japan.

The packet contained several parts that would make a good and effective trap.

First you removed the paper that covers the sticky pad and glued a sachet of 'cockroaches' snacks' in the middle in order to attract those unpleasant cohabitants.Then, on two of the entrances to the house, you stuck cotton slips. My Japanese proficiency, if there were any, didn't really help me at this point. According to K, sometimes cockroaches had wet feet after crawling through pipes or wet stuff, and they were expected to wipe their feet on these 'doormats'!

Oh my! :-O No wonder the slips had images of cockroaches with their dry and happy feet!

There was more etiquette awaiting its visitors, it seemed.
On the other two sides of the house were two doors through which cockroaches might also pass. A cockroach san was represented as a gentleman knocking on the door before being invited into the house!

I knew it's going a bit insane now, but the imagination behind the design didn't seem to stop here.

The house had a weathercock on the roof!!
At first, I thought it was another useless decoration that was imposed on the world of non-humans. But guess what, to my surprise, it was also functional!! K told me that it served as a handle when you pick it up and throw it away. It kept your hands uncontaminated.

Up to this point, the initial shock at the appearance of the cockroach was gone. The entire process of assembling the cockroach houses and understanding its design were absolutely amusing.


Let's wait and see how many cockroach sans would come to have a cup of tea.

About the Engagement (1): About Writing the Engagement

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Originally uploaded by Wanchen Tai

It has been more than 2 months by now since the engagement between I and K in the end of March in 2009. I have been thinking about writing about it but have been either kept busy with other tasks or indecisive about how the event can be represented.

It felt like a dilemma of writing, which I never could avoid ever since the moment when I learned to write. The writing school that I attended in my childhood taught us to be always committed to a good opening, an opening that would surprise readers and that would tantalize their anticipation. This principle, however, has made every writing difficult. Of course, it is also true that I am yet far from good at 'writing' after all. Hurdles are always there not to be overcome.

So an entry about the engagement has been postponed.

Yet I found the 'non-writing' of the engagement quite a serious problem for me since my settlement in Tokyo about 2 weeks ago. When life moved on and the space and time changed, the flow of time that my blog followed lagged behind. I felt rather unorderly if any post about my life in Japan would appear before 'that' piece of writing about that moment.

Then, miraculously, I happened to be able to overcome (or ignore?) this dilemma a couple of days ago when I was reading a novel （月色撩人）by Wang Anyi (王安憶).

She writes about a male character's feelings about love, marriage, and romance:

"另潘索感到沮喪的是，每一次的開頭都很特別，但是結局都是一樣，總是落入窠臼。" (p. 47)
(what disappointed Pan is that every romance begins in a unique way, but nothing ever escapes the set pattern in the end.)

Of course, it is not how I feel about marriage at all. Instead, I am intrigued by the literary contrast between the anticipation for being unique and the disappointment at the inevitable falls into cliches. Any attempt to be different is after all another failed attempt to make difference, that is. What an amusing observation about the destiny of struggles of human beings in life!

I understood that this passage presented a rather hopeless or even pessimistic situation, but I couldn't help laughing at myself when I read this. It set me free from my serious (but useless) attempts to impress readers (or myself, more accurately) by writing a unique article to mark a good moment of my life. If it was only another attempt, I felt less anxious about making this other endeavor now.

The dilemma was then solved.

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Originally uploaded by Wanchen Tai

After the buzzing noises of the efforts to fulfil the household duties in the morning, the room calmed down in the end.
K was away at work, and I was enjoying typing and working by the window. Yes, literally, by the window.

The grey luminescence in the room in the afternoon was very soothing.

The sun slid in leaving traces on the cool surface of a clean floor.