Stop 3: Taichung

Taichung is the third largest city in Taiwan, after Taipei and Kaohshing. Alas, I was not getting my desired view of the countryside and the cherry blossoms because of the inclement weather, but that’s all right. There were plenty of nice views during the drive.

We went to the Science Museum. It was targeted at a youngish audience, showing children what science can do, and also educating them about various relevant topics. For instance, there was a detailed exhibit on the “red imported fire ant.” (Note the emphasis on imported-- brought in by foreigners!). These are the same fire ants we’ve been dealing with in the US. A large map showed their migration from South America to North America, and from there to various places in Asia, including Taiwan. There were pictures of the ants destroying crops, as well as pictures of people’s arms and faces with ant stings. One caption said, “So tiny, so dangerous.” A glass case housed a few of the beasts too, and people gawked at them as if they were aliens.

Much of the museum was a long exhibit on evolution and natural history. It started with a general overview of evolution, showing the usual progression from water to land, as well as the “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” theory (the notion that fetuses of mammals first resemble tadpoles, then fish, and finally mammals as they develop in the womb). I thought this section was a little confusing.

One intriguing thing I noticed was that creatures were classified according to the angle of their shoulder and arm bones. In fish, the front flippers come straight off the body. And then in land creatures where weight is borne on these legs, they come off at an angle, but then have a joint so the lower part sticks straight down. In humans, where no weight is borne, the arms can form a right angle with the body (think of the push-up position)—not many creatures can do this with their shoulders. I had never seen that kind of classification, although it may be related to one I’ve heard of. I remember that dinosaurs used to be divided into “bird-hipped” and “lizard-hipped.” This may be similar.

The evolution section flowed into a very nice dinosaur exhibit. I was a little worried that people would think the dinosaurs were evolutionary relatives of humans, but it didn’t seem to imply that. In fact, there were some rather sophisticated sections, asking questions about whether early birds began flying by jumping up from the ground or jumping down from trees, and whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded. A marvelous T-Rex animated robot growled and waved its tail. The skin was really well done—leathery and realistic-looking. Many of the captions were in English too, which was good for me.

Then came the section on mammals, culminating in the apes and humans. The animal section was a little weak, consisting mainly of stuffed foxes, bats, bears, bobcats, orangutans, and the like. Some showed skeletons and asked the viewer to guess what creature it was.

The human section was quite good. They showed a family tree of all the types of humans we have found so far (various homo species), and roughly how old we think they are. There were nice skeletons, and drawings of how they might have looked. As always, non-American cultures are completely unprudish about showing the body—all the old humans were full-frontal naked. (I had to smile that the males were often shown circumcised; do we really have evidence that circumcision was practiced? Or perhaps foreskin hadn’t evolved! Just kidding).

I asked my companions if most Taiwanese believed in evolution. They said yes, and wondered why I had asked. They were shocked that only about half (if that many) of Americans give it credence. I explained that it conflicted with some versions of the Christian creation myth. My companions were sharp—they immediately asked what someone who didn’t believe in evolution would think of the museum. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond, but said that they might not come to the museum, or they might feel that it was simply stupid and misguided, or they might actively be offended.

The section on human culture was also quite good. It started with tools and clothing and simple art, then went on to show the development of writing and machines. There was a replica of the Rosetta Stone, which my companions glanced at and went on, while I marveled at it and brought them back to explain how critically important it was. I showed them the Greek on the bottom and the two forms of Egyptian on the top, and explained that it was really neat that it said the same thing in three different languages, so it served as a pattern-matching dictionary.

I don’t know why I got so into it—maybe it was because I had spent all day not really being able to read the captions (or the road signs, or the menu…), so I had the issue of translation on my mind. Also it represents a piece of Western history that is just really cool, and I wanted to share it. Anyway, they were happy with the explanation—they had actually never heard of the Rosetta Stone. It reminded me that there must be reams of Asian history that is standard knowledge in the heads of educated Asians, but I know very little about. And yet the world goes on. Factual knowledge is important, but probably in more complex ways than we realize. And other kinds of knowledge matter more in some situations.

Across the street from the Science Museum is a botanical garden. We stopped by briefly, looking at various species of orchids, tropical plants, and huge hanging vines. We were too late to take the elevator up to the top (a couple stories high) and look down at the whole thing from where the water system feeds in the artificial rain, but it was OK to stroll around the bottom. I wondered how well the tropical plants were holding up in the cold weather. Sometimes I feel like a tropical plant—easily damaged by cold—so there was some genuine sympathy there. It’s just how my body is.