LIAM ANNIS' REFLECTIONS

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REFLECTION ON VLOG 1

I knew early on which topic I wanted to investigate during my time in Taiwan. Being an athletic individual, I knew I wanted to focus on a topic closely related to human health and Taiwan’s approach to remedying human ailments. Growing up with a chiropractor as a father, I am well versed in mainstream “western” treatments for pains in the human body, as well as prescription drugs for other such ailments. I have seen plenty of registered massage therapists (RMTs), chiropractors, and applied ointments I knew from Canadian advertising. However, I know virtually nothing about “eastern” medicines. This is the largest difficulty for me in terms of completing this project; I am starting this project with no previous knowledge. It therefore proves to be quite the overwhelming task in being able to narrow down what I am sure to be a plethora of traditions. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly which aspect of eastern medicine I wish to investigate, as I want to be able to pursue the most relevant and widely accepted amongst Taiwanese.
I therefore seek the assistance of our fantastic teachers and language learning partners (LLPs). I am not so much interested in their personal opinions on the topic; they are all very young and therefore have grown up with a larger western influence. I am more interested in being able to converse with an older generation who rely more strongly on Taiwanese culture and practices. This is where I believe we can gain qualitative information on “eastern” medicine. An older generation will have a stronger tie to native traditions, and I believe they will be able to provide a deeper and more profound explanation of beliefs behind such practices. As an accompanying thought throughout my investigation of Taiwanese medicines, I would also like to try and incorporate a little bit of history and how that has helped shaped Taiwan’s modern practices. I do not plan to make the history of Taiwan as the prominent component of my investigation, rather a supporting argument. From speaking with locals, we can gather information on which practices to pursue in our next segment of the project.
Vlog #2 will comprise of Phoebe and I asking locals about their feelings and understanding of traditional Taiwanese therapies. This will give us first-hand information on the general consensus amongst traditional Taiwanese. We can utilize this information to compare and contrast the general feel of these therapies in Taiwan to those back in Canada, where a much more reserved approach is taken towards such therapies. Although we will most likely not be able to understand all that is being said by our interviewees, we can seek help from our teachers and LLPs to provide us with a translation. In light of not being able to have a full conversation with the interviewees, we need to ensure our questions are specific enough so that we can ask multiple questions without the possibility of them having already been answered in a previous response. That would make it seem like we are not paying attention. Once we have a better understanding of the various practices, we can then begin planning for Vlog #3 and which therapy we want to try.
下个星期我跟小月要跟老人聊天儿。我们希望他们告诉我们为什么台湾人用传统疗法。他 们不但可以教我们，而且可以帮我们下一步做什么。上上个星期我喝了苦茶。虽然我不喜欢了， 但是我喝完了。茶店员告诉了我们她每天都喝苦茶，是因为很健康。这是一个传统疗法的例子。 我觉得我想试试针刺。针刺我没过，可是我觉得很有意思。

REFLECTION ON VLOG 2

There has already been incredible progress and learning from our first vlog and from my first reflection. While completing the first vlog, Phoebe and I understood the time and effort it takes in creating a piece we are proud of. Therefore, before creating our second vlog, we created a clear outline of what we wished to include in our vlog. We drew up several talking points that we wanted to elaborate on and imagined specific pieces of video we wanted to capture in order to fully demonstrate our area of research and to captivate our audience. I believe our second vlog reflected the increase in attention and effort given to the creation of the vlog, along with a reflection on our improvements in Chinese.
My main learnings came from attending a Qigong session in Da’an park one evening. We were invited that morning by a lovely old lady who also happened to be the instructor. That night the session lasted 1 hour and was filled with both groans of agony and laughter from some rather strange looking exercises. Our instructor was very patient with us when we couldn’t quite figure out what she was trying to get us to do. Following the session, we were able to ask her some questions regarding Qigong, strongly aided by 大李老師。I about its relation to Tai Chi, which in the beginning I had a feeling it may have related in some way. She was also able to speak on the spiritual and mental benefits of such activities, an area in which I am particularly interested. My main take away from this session was the incorporation of breath, body and mind. This was not simply a physical exercise, but a moment to practice mental discipline as well. I found this aspect the most difficult for a few reasons. The first was this was an entirely new workout, so I was very focused on executing the moves just as the instructor was doing. Secondly, it was all happening in a language I don’t understand and therefore had to pay extra attention to the words she was saying rather than reflecting on myself.
One of the biggest challenges filming this vlog was getting people to be comfortable with us filming them. Since our project focused on traditional therapies, we chose to look towards the elderly whom use it far more often. However, I found the elderly to be wearier of being filmed and are not comfortable with it. Many times, we asked an individual to film them while asking questions and they refused. We therefore were not able to obtain footage for our vlog. When the time finally came that someone agreed, it was difficult to hold a conversation about such a topic since, again, our level of Mandarin is low. I could not decipher the exact words she was saying to me, which made follow-up questions nearly impossible. We were able to build a successful vlog nonetheless and set ourselves up nicely for our next vlog.
我们的第二个 vlog 告诉你们老人做什么提高他们的健康。我们看了气功的运动和加拿大 的运动相似一点.我和小月都觉得这个办法很有意思也很有用。下个 vlog 我们要去看医
生。虽然这位医生不是官方医生，但是他是一位整骨。我们会问他几个问题。我们希望他 可以教我们为什么台湾人去看他，还问他为什么他的办法和加拿大的办法不一样。