Get me out of here

I was assigned to do live coverage of the awarding of honorary doctorates to Morris Chang (張忠謀, founder of TSMC), Lin Huaimin (林懷民, founder of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and Jin Yong (金庸, journalist and author) this morning at National Cheng-chi University (政治大學) this morning.

In the end, all the producer was interested in was what details Morris Chang could reveal about the wedding of Shirley Guo (郭曉玲), the daughter of Terry Guo (郭台銘, founder of Fox Conn and Taiwan's wealthiest man). Morris Chang revealed nothing, but still, the producer wanted to broadcast live his revealing of nothing, with no regard whatsoever of what was really taking place - the recognition given to three very special Taiwanese men for their enormous contribution to Taiwan's economy, arts and literary scenes. How sad I was.

The afternoon, after starting work on the American Pastime story, I got called to support my colleagues in the media circus surrounding President Chen Shuibian (陳水扁) renaming the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂) instead. The pro-independence camp basically wants to cleanse Taiwan of all Chinese influence, and seems to show that historical pain and suffering caused by the KMT (pro-independence camp) can be minimized by renaming everything Chiang-related (Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the KMT and ruled Taiwan from 1925 to 1978). However, since there is a huge power struggle between the different camps, fierce political drama is played out every single day here. Today was one crescendo, and a miserable day for me. While my colleagues were at the memorial hall covering the president's speech on the name change, I was at Taipei City Hall, where the mayor (Hao Lungbin, 郝龍斌 KMT) held a press conference basically saying that what Chen is doing is illegal and despicable.

This kind of thing is so physically and mentally draining. Sigh.

I need sunshine. I must find a way out of news.

Looking forward to my campus tour series.

Looking forward to pottery in Yingge tomorrow.