Posted on 03/01/2021 1:55:20 PM PST by SJackson
The same symbol whose sight would make me feel uncomfortable, even unsafe, back home, sparked in me some sort of relief and sympathy on this distant island
onsidering that we would be in Taiwan for 24 hours total, my travel buddy and I didn’t worry too much about finding kosher food. We’d arrive on a plane in the morning and leave on another plane the following morning. We’d bring our usual picnic bag with challah rolls and other sorts of Jewish foods we always take with us when we fly abroad. Still, I wanted to make sure we’d easily find something vegan to eat in case of need.
The advice of my Lonely Planet travel guide, which I borrowed from the library a few days prior to the trip, was clear: it said to look for the swastikas.
I nearly fell off my seat. We were on the plane, flying somewhere over the Arctic. I had to look for… what?!
A more careful read of the guide revealed that vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan are indeed marked with a backwards swastika, a Buddhist symbol. Buddhist cuisine, which is quite popular in the country, follows the concept of ahimsa, which translates into non-violence; it avoids meat, certain “stinking” impure vegetables (namely garlic), and sometimes eggs, too.
There are several other Mandarin ideograms indicating veganism and vegetarianism, but the backwards swastika is definitely the easiest to memorize.
While I thought it was just a funny coincidence, as soon as we arrived to Taipei, I found myself—a Jew from Turin, Italy, where the only place you can see a swastika is possibly a history textbook—looking out for swastikas on billboards and shop signs. It took less time than I’d imagined: as we walked out of the Lungshan Temple of Manka, in the old district of Wanhua, we saw one.
I laughed to myself. The same symbol whose sight would make me feel uncomfortable, even unsafe, back home, sparked in me some sort of relief and sympathy on this distant island. Of course, a symbol is nothing but the meaning that a culture and a society attribute to it. Yet, Nazi symbolism and East Asian countries have a much more complicated history than just a funny, food-related coincidence.
Last year, a group of high school students held a mock Nazi rally at a private school in the north of Taiwan. They wore Nazi uniforms and held cardboards displaying swastikas. (I doubt those swastikas were pointing to the closest vegetarian restaurants.) After German and Israeli officials in Taipei protested and the country’s president condemned the incident, the principal of the school offered to quit.
It’s quite common to run into Nazi symbols in East Asia. Whether it’s a teenage girl wearing a Nazi Chich-inspired outfit or a night market vendor selling red pillows with swastikas on them, it’s more likely that these acts are the result of ignorance rather than malice. A local blogger, who photographed some blatant examples of Nazi symbolism in Taiwanese streets, wrote: “Consider this: would you even recognize any symbols of Imperial Japan? Do you know anything at all about the 228 Massacre?” (The blogger later removed the post from his website.)
Taiwan was a Japanese colony for decades until World War II. Now it’s an independent state, but China claims the island to be part of its territory; due to this dispute, few countries recognize Taiwan’s independence.
We can’t expect others to learn about us if we don’t learn about them, too. I agree that knowledge, in an ideal world, should be universal. Yet, dismissing this Nazi symbolism issue as ignorance is surprising if we consider that Taiwan has one of the most educated populations in the world.
I left the street of Wanhua with a smile on my face. As I thought of how stimulating it was to be in a place with no familiar symbols or signs whatsoever, and how cool it had been to wander in search for swastikas, I ran into a Starbucks.
Exactly. Anyone watch the old Jackie Chan / Shaolin movies circa 70’s and early 80’s? I can count the swastikas in a number of them.
” You have to have “Jewish Food”? Stay home then. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you.”
So you are objecting to Jewish people brown-bagging kosher food. Interesting.
Their brown-bagging kosher food means the “world revolves around them”?
No, demanding people eat a certain way means the person thinks the world revolves around them.
I'm commenting on people travelling and crying about not
having other cultures cater to their picky little needs.
Pay more attention, you'll pick up on stuff like that.
the “swastika” is spastic
more projection by the left
They weren’t complaining about anybody not doing something for them. There’s not a word of complaint in the article except about actual cars carrying nazism. They bring their own food - they didn’t complain because others didn’t supply them with the food they wanted.
look inside a bit, Humblegunner, and ask yourself why their deciision to bring their own food pissed you off so much.
Vas it “Lily Marlene”?
Bullshit. Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit. Every last one of those homegrown weeaboos knows exactly what the swastika means.
Yes they do. It is part of their religion to only eat Kosher food. The author wasn't complaining. The author was explaining why they were looking for vegan food.
So far as "traveling," I think, as a group, Jewish people have traveled a lot, e.g. migrated all over the world.
Here is something to think about. If you have no to little sanitation or water for cleaning items (living in a desert), then a Kosher diet is a pretty good way to stay healthy.
I read the article as well. I did not see any "crying about not having other cultures cater to their picky little needs" written there. What I DID see was someone eager to learn about other cultures but personally restricted to eating only kosher foods.
Many's the kosher-keeping businessman who had to live on canned tuna and fresh vegetables while on business trips to places where there were few Jews. Today, you have a variety of vacuum packed kosher foods which don't even need refrigeration, some of which are self-heating after you pull a couple of strings. I've camped out in the AZ desert and other remote areas and enjoyed gourmet meals packed like that, so it can be done.
What I think is that you are just looking to make foul remarks about Jews, particularly observant ones. No one asked you to do so, and it would be best if you kept such nasty remarks to yourself.
The base of the street light posts in our downtown area had swastikas on them when I was a boy in the 1950s. The lamp posts had been there since about 1910.
Yeah, you’re a liar.
When i am in a strange or unfamiliar place, with unknown foods and food sources, eating kosher assures some significant known food hygiene , sanitation, and preparation per Old Testament. As a veterinarian, food hygiene and sanitation are important to me.
My college roommates and Our best man was Jewish. We are Lutheran.
DOn’t forget the 45 degree offset.
The symbol is actually a radial representation of a spinning comet...
The Buddhist or hindu svastika 卍 (left-facing, counterclockwise,, represents a sunwise spin,( the opposite of Widdershins) where in circumnabulation of an object, that object is always on your right.
Both are often used to balance each other in religious garments imprinted or woven with the svastika pattern which are said to invoke a magical quality of protection. It is called sayagata pattern in Japanese:
because of the contotation of magical protection, the sayagata svastika pattern is also a popular tattoo pattern for protection:
A lot of weird shit can happen when you start dabbling in magic, as the Nazis discovered much to their own destruction.
Yes the symbol represents many things, but the actual pattern was born on the side of Mount Kailas, which was regarded for thousands of years by many cultures in the east, the levant and in some parts of Europe as the Center of the Universe.
Even the Mayans knew of it.
Mount Kailasha, Center of the Universe:
https://realbharat.org/mount-kailasha-the-centre-of-the-universe/
I wonder if their menu has a number 88, and what it is? Frankfurters with sauerkraut;-?
There used to be a great vegan restaurant on Mott Street in Manhattan called Vegetarian Paradise, that was also kosher, run by devout Buddhists. I was a regular there.
they all saw it...
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