Andre > Recent Status Updates

So the collection is of items that Mackay had collected from chinese converts. I wonder what happened with them.

A monkey species on Taiwan that is supposed to be similar to an Orang-Utang? The only native primates in Taiwan are humans and Formosan rock macaques. And the latter looks nothing like an orang-utang? I think the monkey mountain he refers to is the Shoushan as Takao was the japanese name for Kaohsiung. But what are these orang-utang like monkeys supposed to be?

Does he imply that the chinese missionary students would quit if they would be taught in english instead of "Chinese" because they would have more opportunity to make money with foreign traiders in Kelung? And btw. what is "chinese" supposed to mean here? I doubt it is mandarin.
And why does he bring up soap in regard to missionary work? Was the personal hygiene that bad back then, just like foot binding?

He wrote several times that the chinese do not like foreigners and highlights it that this Macky missionary managed a good relationship with the chinese.

Man, I wish I had known about Taipeh's old wall last year. Then I could have looked at the old gates or its reconstructions.

It is a bit annoying when I have to search for names like Twatutia to find out that today it is called Dadaocheng or Bang-Ka that is now in Wanhua but it is interesting to read that Bang-Ka is a hokkien name based on an aboriginal word for canoe.

Boy, I had to look for whether Twatutia even exists. Apparently it is a part of Taipeh today.

vice king of Formosa? Is he referring to a governor?

People believed Formosa was once a spanish colony.

end done

so dolls shaped like human beings or parts of dead fetuses' bodies are used in fetus demon sorcery.

Two families using geomancy to harm each other's clans. Both hired feng shui masters to help benefit from the fenghsui of their ancestor's graves while simoultaneously using the geomantic forces to harm each other's lineages.

so a sorcerer can only use a fetus demon for 2-4 years because the spirit has a right to be reborn and if he does not release it, the demon will turn on its master. And apparently they can do a lot of harm and are all knowing. And while the practice of fetus demon sorcery is not widespread apparently the belief is/was.

Taiwanese fear in aboriginal sorcery... hm, I did not hear anything about that so far. But it makes sense that something like this exists. And fetus demons are supposed to be particularly powerful because they are in a liminal state in which they are in touch with the secrets of the natural universe in ways that an adult ghost is not.

sorcerers controlling fetus demons by feeding them human blood... I did not expect that.

Gosh, there are so many prohibitions in regard as to when and where to have sex in this tract that you have to wonder when the people in question ever had any sex.

Conservatives adviced young people to inhibit their sexual instincts pointing out their duties with regard to the future of the race.

so while China back then tried to distance itself from yin/yang thought the believes about the effects of the "excessive loss of semen" continued to be a central theme of medical understanding.

Gosh, the Art of the Bedchamber straight up says that sexual desire must be regulated and you should not give in to carnal pleasure and you must think how it will affect your health. Which sounds like something that would inhibit homosexuality.

of course Focault seems to have believed that Daoist tracts tend to imply that they (and other cultures) did not have the same complexities of control and regulation of sexuality that is in ancient greek texts. He spoke of the erotic art of china, japan, India, Rome and the arab moslem societies in which "the truth is drawn from pleasure itself" . That was such nonsense.

A woman's orgasm is supposed to strengthen the energy of her partner?

I really have to keep this Taoist stuff about retaining semen in mind, the next time someone comes with some stuff about how great and wise traditional chinese medicine is. Because keep in mind, this stuff is from antiquity already, so not even the modern nonsense stuff.

That stuff really sounds like pretty normal behavior for 3 year olds and teenagers, no reason to attribute it to fetus ghosts.

So fetus ghosts also occur due to miscarriage... that was never mentioned before. So far it was always due to abortion.

why were practitioners of western medicine reluctant to answer the questions of patients back then?

So gifts for gods are basically bribes, for fetus ghosts it is either a bribe to stop the harrassment but when it is offerings that are stuff like toys that you would give a child, it is more like comfort.

The portrayal of ghosts is rather corporeal, which is why adult ghosts were depicted as more powerful than the child ghosts.

walking ten minutes to see a tempel? Sometimes it is way shorter to see one.

So fetus ghosts mature to 1-5 years old? How?

So the belief in fetus ghosts may also represent a shift in family dynamics in Taiwan.