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.
You have to have “Jewish Food”?
Yes. Orthodox Jews eat only kosher food. With that, you have a problem?
“Stay home then. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you.”
Of course not. It revolves around you, dontcha know. And whatever ignorance you choose to flaunt is cause for major concern from Taiwan to Houston. Joseph Stolen will be calling you shortly to make sure you’re not traumatized. Jooooz! eat kosher. Who knew?
“Food is food. Eat the food.”
OK. You go to Paris then, and pay fifty bucks for some snails. Let me know how that goes.
Ach du lieber!
To them it means the Dharma.
Swastika on a red pillow in East Asia has nothing to do with Nazism.
They make great food those Buddhist vegetarian restaurants.
Does this mean that they serve vegan on comets, or that that’s where der Fuhrer really is?
Yeah. They used to have Chinese and American patrons and play Chinese muzak, and have a sort of condiment made from a mold that grew on a big wet sponge, and every fifteen minutes or so they would shave it off with an electric knife, puree it, and then put it in plastic cups to give to the customers, and it was tasty. When they tried to Americanize the ambiance, it went downhill, and it eventually closed.
Interesting “cometary.”
When did that come by and what was its name I am wondering?
Ach Du Lieber Augustin...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXKv_RfAVhM&feature=emb_logo
It’s just a song about a travelling musician during the plague in Vienna.
I can no longer find the source of that graphic, sorry, however, the symbol appears to be prehistoric.
It came from the same site as the above illustration, it's all in Russian, I'll look further into it tomorrow...
I know. They made me sing some English version of it in grade school.
Fantastic. i was pretty sure it was, because my lineage shows that iot was in use even before Buddhism tool root in Tibet. Its very old by India’s standards as well, going thousands of years back into India’s history.
“India has been the only country where the word and the symbol have been used uninterruptedly at least for 4000-5000 years 1.”
1. Swastika symbols were said to be found on the walls in the rock cut paintings in Khammam District of Andhra Pradesh (Now Telangana) which date back to 3000 B.C.**
**From pretty comprehensive article on Swastika in India:
“The Meaning And Significance Of Swastika In Hinduism”
https://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/concepts/meaning-and-significance-of-swastika-in-hinduism.asp
Great article on comets and the Swastika:
Yes, definitely pre-historic. Seen by people in the northern hemisphere...nothing I could find south of the equator.
I lived in a place built in 1915 in North Dakota and the tiles on the floors had little swastika designs. We never heiled Hitler though.
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