It’s finally the Lunar New Year vacation! I’ve been cleaning up the house these few days. As the new year approaches, our e-newsletter is also one year old. Thank you all for your continuous reading and support : ) I hope to be able to cover more interesting stuff this year.
Regarding our reading club, the next meeting will be held online at 10:00 am (Taipei Time) on February 11 for Home is Not Here by Gungwu Wang. If you are interested, feel free to leave a comment, reply to this e-mail message or write to me at transcreation@substack.com to register by February 4.
Happy New Year! See you soon :)
《翻譯鳥事一籮筐》是中英文雙語電子報。如果只想收到中文版,請到網站右上角的「My Account」內進行操作。有任何問題都歡迎來信聯絡,請直接回覆這封 E-mail 或寫信到 transcreation@substack.com。再次感謝你的訂閱支持!
這篇文章的中文版在這裡。
My Co-authored New Book Published: Taiwan History in Images
Here is some exciting news to share in the new year: I just published a book (co-authored), this time not as a translator but as an author: Signals Across the Centuries 3: Taiwan History in Images (18th-20th Century), the third volume of this series. I also contributed a chapter in the previous volume, Signals Across the Centuries 2: Taiwan History in Diaries (17th-20th Century), in which I wrote about a story of George Leslie Mackay (1844 - 1901). You may take home all 3 volumes together!
Taiwan History in Images, as the name suggests, is to “tell stories with images,” and to “tell the truth with images.” With 10 authors and 10 chapters, it covers a variety of images, including portraits, comics, photos, and stamps. My chapter focuses on scientific illustrations related to birds (yes, birds again) — but in fact I only started birding seriously after writing this article on scientific illustrations (the second half of this piece is on how I embarked on the road of birding).
Back to this book, there will be a few events in February and March. I will speak on February 1 and February 11. Please come and join us!
The February 1 event is part of the Taipei International Book Exhibition:
Time: 11:45-12:45 on February 1 (Wednesday)
Venue: Yellow Salon, Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1 (1F, No. 5, Sec. 5, Xinyi Rd., Taipei City)
Speaker: Authors of Taiwan History in Images
The February 11 event is a talk on scientific illustrations by another author, Tsai Szu-Wei, and me:
Time: 15: 00-16:30 on February 11 (Saturday)
Venue: Eslite Spectrum Nanxi (No.14, Nanjing W. Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City)
Facebook event page: https://fb.me/e/2qpiOTgTX
Registration through Google form: https://forms.gle/RTHJQtUJyf43hSRY9
My Birding Anniversary (1): That’s the Bird
One morning in April 2021, Kuang-wei and I had breakfast not long after dawn, getting ready to leave the B&B in Dasyueshan (大雪山), not without anxiety. There were only us and another couple of guests in the B&B that day, and the other two happened to come for birding as well. The conversation flew naturally once started. After learning that I just started birding recently, they shared their experiences enthusiastically, suggesting me go to Yehliu (野柳) in April and May, to Kinmen (金門) in summer, to Kenting (墾丁) in autumn, and come back to Dasyueshan later when the iigiri trees (Idesia polycarpa, 山桐子) are ripe. As a beginner birder, I listened to them with admiration and wonder.
They had already been to the Dasyueshan Forest Recreation Area the day before, and this day they were heading south to Chiayi to look for a rare migrant bird, fairy pitta (Pitta nympha). The “bird condition” in Dasyueshan was good. They saw the small and exquisite flamecrests (Regulus goodfellowi) hopping up and down on the branches, surprising them with the crest opening. They asked if we were targeting any birds in particular this time, and on hearing my answer, they guaranteed it was “very easy to spot,” and that we would “definitely see it.” They had witnessed it three times the previous day. I did not feel rest assured though: this was the first time I dragged Kuang-wei onto a birding trip to a distant place; I was both excited and nervous. Fortunately, it was a beautiful sunny day, and it would be nice to walk in the mountains. They wished us good luck; we parted with them and set off early.
It had rained the day before, and the air smelled of grass and earth. The sun shone through the leaves, illuminating the cool and refreshing morning. We drove up the mountains, attentive to every movement on the road and on both sides. In a short while, a sapphire blue creature appeared in front of us, exactly what we were looking for — a Swinhoe’s pheasant (Lophura swinhoii). Startled by our car, the pheasant hurried into the nearby woods. As there were no other cars on the road early in the morning, we stopped immediately to take out our cameras and binoculars. Unfortunately, while I was still fumbling for the equipment, the pheasant took another glance at us and vanished into the deeper woods.
Both of us felt satisfied and relaxed to be lucky enough to see a Swinhoe’s pheasant. In fact, this was the third time we travelled expressly to look for one. We had been to the Fushan Botanical Garden in Yilan twice before, and had failed to find it both times. This time we decided to travel further to Dasyueshan, and our wishes were finally granted.
My family used to keep a parrot lost by someone when I was a child, so I have always been fond of birds, but it was only in these two years that I started serious birding. The trip in search of Swinhoe’s pheasants in Dasyueshan could be said to be the starting point of my birding life, and I targeted for this species because I was studying the birding past of Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877) and the scientific illustrations of this bird. Reading the ornithology publications of this British naturalist and diplomat closely, I saw how Swinhoe heard about this beautiful pheasant (called “Wa-koë” by the locals), how he asked people to collect specimens for him, and how he even sent several pairs of these pheasants back to London, while lamenting that he did not witness these pheasants in their habitat.
Tracing the footsteps of a naturalist a century and a half ago, reading his descriptions of specimens, I felt a stronger and stronger urge to try to see these pheasants with my own eyes as well. I became curious not only about Swinhoe’s pheasants but also about all birds in Taiwan and in the world. So starting from literature, I walked into the mountains with binoculars and field guides, to adore the feathered descendants of dinosaurs.
The story of “My Birding Anniversary” will be continued next time. It is really a pleasure to share this story with you. I once heard from a lecturer about how we usually started birding: from seeing a bird, asking about its name and forgetting it the next moment, to finally encountering a bird that aroused our curiosity and serious interest in birding — that bird would be our starting point. For me, the Swinhoe’s pheasant was the bird that led me onto the way of birding. It was a real joy to start birding because of this pheasant and its scientific illustrations, and an even greater one to continue journeying on the way.