Subject: soc.culture.taiwan FAQ ( part 1/5 ) -- General
Date: 1 Apr 1996 16:43:20 GMT
Summary: This posting contains a list of frequently-asked-questions
. ( and their answers ) about the newsgroup "soc.culture.taiwan".
         The first part covers a survival guide and deals with some
. general questions, together with a list of all the questions in
. other parts.

Posting-Frequency: approximately monthly

  "soc.culture.taiwan" Survival Guide and Frequently-Asked Questions

                                by

                          Tung-chiang Yang 
                         tcyang@ee.ucla.edu 


Welcome to "soc.culture.taiwan", the Usenet newsgroup for discussions
about things Taiwanese.  On "soc.culture.taiwan" we discuss Taiwanese
culture, including the customs, food, language aspects, political dis-
cussions and related topics.  For historical reasons, a lot of messages
about things Chinese and Taiwanese are crossposted in
"soc.culture.china" and "soc.culture.taiwan" too.  For simplicity's
sake, "soc.culture.taiwan" will be abbreviated as SCT henceforth.

Please keep in mind that SCT is for "discussing things Taiwanese", not
necessarily for people from Taiwan, though people from Taiwan should form
the majority of the subscribers of SCT.  Therefore, please try to keep
your postings in SCT on topic.  A lot of friends from countries all over
the world learn what Taiwan is through SCT, and most people are not
interested to wade through off-topic postings before reaching what they
are really looking for.

You might also want to check out another Usenet newsgroup
"alt.taiwan.republic", which your newsgroup file describes in this way
"Like soc.culture.taiwan, only different".  However, it seems that lots
of postings there are also crossposted in SCT.  Besides, it is much
less active than SCT.

If you have access to some Chinese character software, you can also try
the newsgroup "alt.chinese.text.big5", in which people post their ideas
in Chinese characters as SCT is designed in ordinary unencoded text.
Because of this reason, messages had better not be crossposted in SCT
and "alt.chinese.text.big5".

This guide might be able to help you avoid being flamed ( insulted and
abused ) by the other users of this newsgroup.  Nevertheless, you will
be flamed or insulted occasionally for no reason at all after some
posting.  This happens to everyone who posts.  Some newsgroup readers
will misread your eloquent post and rant about your idiocy and lies from
just one sentence out of your 400 lines of posting.  If this is the
case, keep cool for some time, and briefly explain what you really meant
in the previous post by personal E-mails, or a follow-up to his/her rant
if you consider most of the other SCT readers might also misunderstand
you.

When posting to SCT, there are many previously unwritten rules you must
follow in order to receive an answer instead of a long round of abuse
and name-calling, like "liar", "idiot" or "moron".  Don't be surprised
if you see occasionally outrageous flames here at SCT.

The most intelligent thing you can do to avoid being flamed on SCT when
posting is to post things, including inquiries and discussions, which
are related to Taiwan culture, or things people interested in Taiwan
might care only.  Because of the complicated political situation Taiwan
faces, if you want to initiate a political thread in SCT, you are ad-
vised to read this newsgroup for approximately ONE MONTH before you
begin posting.  This will give you a good feeling for the social climate
existing in the newsgroup.

When you do post, either a new topic or a follow-up to an existing
topic, try to make your post meaningful by including some useful infor-
mation.  If you are following up another thread, please quote the pre-
vious text appropriately.  It should contain enough information so that
a new lurker can understand what you try to describe, but not necessa-
rily the whole message you are following up, which is an obvious waste
of Internet bandwidth.  You should keep in mind that for some sites your
follow-up might arrive there before the original article, which makes
appropriate quotation even more important.  When following up political
threads, you should pay special attention as mistakes in the quotation
might attract the flames from the original poster.

When you read news items and feel like following up, maybe you want to
finish reading all the follow-ups along that thread first.  It is very
likely that someone has already said what you want to tell others.  Fol-
lowing up is not a voting process.  More people speaking in favor of
some concept along a thread does not mean anything at all.

Commercial advertisings are not welcome in SCT, as readers here are
interested in two-way discussions about things Taiwanese but not the
rate for the long-distance carriers or the premium for health insurance
policy, which are one-way announcements and not specific to SCT.  If you
post ads here, SOMEONE WILL FLAME YOU.  On the other hand, posting per-
sonal ads like "Apartment for Rent" and "Used Car for Sale" are not en-
couraged for the same reason.  Readers of SCT are all over the world,
and SCT is not a good medium for such messages which are supposed to
attract local attentions.  If you still prefer to post personal ads in
SCT, please be sure that you can master the "Distribution" feature in
the newsheader so people in Taipei won't read your "Apartment for Rent"
in New York City.

Before you create a new topic, read the topic names of each and every
thread in SCT.  If you create a topic that duplicates an existing one
( say, you can follow up that topic but you post a new topic instead ),
it might waste the time of every participant in that topic.

=======================================================================

***** FAQ's of SCT *****
<< General >>
  (G. 1)  Where can I get the FAQ of SCT?
  (G. 2)  What is Taiwan, after all?
  (G. 3)  I am quite a newbie in Usenet.  Where should I start?
  (G. 4)  What is "News from Taiwan"?
  (G. 5)  Anyone there knows Xxxx's E-mail address and phone number?
  (G. 6)  Is there any other FAQ in SCT?
  (G. 7)  SCT is unmoderated.  Why some people like to play net-cops?
  (G. 8)  Someone just posted an offensive stuff.  What can I do?
  (G. 9)  The discussion along this thread is now off-topic.  What can I
          do to attract the attention from the correct audience?
  (G.10)  Are there any short wave radio station from Taiwan?
  (G.11)  Is there any on-line map for Taiwan?
  (G.12)  Where can I get on-line information about Taiwan stock market?
  (G.13)  Where can I get the information about teaching English in Taiwan?
  (G.14)  Is there any on-line information about libraries in Taiwan?
> (G.15)  Is there any on-line "newspaper" in Taiwan?
  (G.16)  Is there any on-line information about jobs in Taiwan?
  (G.17)  Credits

<< Culture >>
  (C. 1)  What are the taboos for Taiwanese people?
  (C. 2)  What are the national holidays in Taiwan?
  (C. 3)  What are the days with special meanings in Taiwan?
  (C. 4)  I have a Taiwanese friend.  How can I avoid misunderstandings?
  (C. 5)  Where can I take a taste of the Taiwanese cuisine?
  (C. 6)  What are the special products in Taiwan?
  (C. 7)  What are the special events in Taiwan?
  (C. 8)  What are the recommended sources for learning Mandarin?
  (C. 9)  What are the recommended sources for learning Hoklo and Hakka?

<< Internet >>
  (I. 1)  Is there any World Wide Web page for Taiwan?
  (I. 2)  Is there any FTP site in Taiwan?
  (I. 3)  Is there any archie server in Taiwan?
  (I. 4)  Is there any gopher server in Taiwan?
  (I. 5)  Where can I get Internet access in Taiwan?
> (I. 6)  My friend has such an E-mail address.  Where is he?
  (I. 7)  How can I read local Usenet newsgroups in Taiwan?
  (I. 8)  Is there any list for TANet BBS'?
  (I. 9)  How can I sign in the TANet for BBS access?

<< Politics >>
  (P. 1)  What do these abbreviations mean?
  (P. 2)  Are there any Internet accesses for the major political
          parties in Taiwan?
  (P. 3)  Is it New Party or Chinese New Party?
> (P. 4)  Are there any Internet accesses for political figures in
          Taiwan?

<< Tourism >>
  (T. 1)  Where should I go when I visit Taiwan?
  (T. 2)  What are the prohibited and restricted articles when I enter/
.  leave Taiwan?
  (T. 3)  Where can I find foreign publications in Taiwan?
  (T. 4)  Can I bring some electrical appliances into Taiwan?
  (T. 5)  Is there any Internet cafe in Taiwan?
  (T. 6)  Where can I find the representative offices for Taiwan in
.  other countries?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
(G. 1)  Where can I get the FAQ of SCT?

   You are reading it now, aren't you?  Save them for further reference.
   Lines just added or modified are marked by leading ">" signs in Usenet
   postings and those going to get deleted are marked by "-" signs ( in
   the WWW page they becomes boldfaced and italic, respectively ).  In
   this case you can find the information you want when you need them.

   For anonymous ftp, you can try to use the following URL sites:

      North America:
      ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/Taiwan-faq/Xxxxx
      ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/soc.culture.taiwan/Xxxxx
      ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/soc/culture/taiwan/Xxxxx
      ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.answers/Taiwan-faq/Xxxxx

      Europe:
      ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/FAQ/news.answers/Taiwan-faq/Xxxxx
      ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/usenet/news.answers/Taiwan-faq/Xxxxx

      Asia:
      ftp://nctuccca.edu.tw/USENET/FAQ/soc/culture/taiwan/Xxxxx

   where the keyword "Xxxxx" is replaced by the filenames in the
   corresponding directories.  In fact, this also implies the way how
   you can find FAQ's for other newsgroups.  Some of the archive files
   are compressed and you need to "uncompress" them before reading.

   If you want to include this version of SCT FAQ in your homepage, you
   can point your links to

      http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~tcyang/html/Taiwan_faq.html

   In this way you don't need to keep the FAQ at your own memory quota,
   and you don't need to spend time updating them.  With some appropriate
   Web browser, you can also download these files.

   Some of the above HTML documents include images linked to sites in
   Taiwan, and for some readers and browsers viewing them could be quite
   slow.  If this is a problem for you, you can try the URL at

      http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/bngusenet/soc/culture/\
           taiwan/top.html
      http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-bng/soc.culture.taiwan.html
      http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/soc.culture.taiwan.html

   The FAQ files there are obtained directly from Usenet posting and cover
   fewer links, but they are fast for reading since they include no images.
   By changing the directories "soc/culture/taiwan" you might also obtain
   FAQ's for other newsgroups.

   If you only have E-mail access, you can send an E-mail to

      mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu

   with the following line in the body of the message:

      send usenet/news.answers/Taiwan-faq/*

   You will receive all five parts of this FAQ.  You can replace the
   asterisk by the part names like "politics" or "culture" so you will
   receive one part only.

   For SCT FAQ by other authors ( refer to (G. 6)  Is there any other FAQ
   in SCT? ), you can contact their authors for a copy, or wait for its
   postings in SCT.


(G. 2)  What is Taiwan, after all?

   Geographically Taiwan refers to an island around 250 miles ( 400 km )
   long and 60-80 miles ( 100-130 km ) wide in eastern Asia, roughly
   lying between Japan and Philippines.  It is separated from Mainland
   China by Taiwan Strait, which is around 160 km ( 100 miles ) wide in
   average, from Philippines by Bashi Channel, and from Japan by Ryukyu
   Islands.  There are larger plains in the western Taiwan as Chungyang
   Shanmo ( Central Range ) lies closer to the east.  Taiwan was named
   "Ihla Formosa", which means "the beautiful island" in Portuguese, by
   those Portuguese traders and sailors in the 16th century.

   Taipei, the largest city in this island with population around
   5,913,033 ( including the suburb area as of 11/30/94 ), is the poli-
   tical and economical center and it lies in northern Taiwan.  Kao-
   hsiung, the second largest city with population 2,596,891, is the
   industrial and transportation center and it lies in the southern
   part.  Agricultures, especially for its fruit production owing to the
   warm climate, are evenly distributed in the western part of Taiwan,
   where there are larger plains for farming.

   With an area of 36,002 square kms ( 13,900 sq. miles ) and 21,118,903
   population ( as of 11/30/94 ), there are 587 people per square kms
   ( 1,519 people per sq. miles ), which makes Taiwan one of the
   crowdest places in the world.

   The summer might be considered the rainy season as typhoons strike
   this island often and bring abundant rainwater to Taiwan.  For Taipei
   and Keelung, the major harbor in northern Taiwan, it also rains a lot
   in winter because of the northeast seasonal wind which brings a lot
   of moisture.  As the Tropic of Cancer passes through Chia-yi, the
   climate in Taiwan may be considered subtropical.  Being located at
   the adjacent point of Eurasian plate and Pacific plate, earthquakes
   in Taiwan are quite common like in Japan and California.

   Politically Taiwan is almost identical to Republic of China (ROC), as
   the latter effectively controls Taiwan, in addition to the Penghu
   islands which lie in Taiwan Strait, Kinmen ( also known as Quemoy )
   and Matsu, which are two groups of islands lying very close to Xiamen
   and Fuzhou, two cities currently controled by PRC.  Troops from
   Taiwan, ROC are also stationed in some of the larger islands in the
   South China Sea like Tungsha Tao among the Spratly Islands.

   In 1971, Taiwan, ROC lost its seat in the General Assembly, together
   with the membership for the Permanent Security Council of the United
   Nations.  In 1979, the United States switched diplomatic recognition
   from ROC to PRC, which were two strong blows for Taiwan.  Right now,
   only a few countries in the world have diplomatic relationships with
   Taiwan, ROC; among these countries only South Africa and Vatican can
   be considered major players in the world stage.  On the other hand,
   PRC claims that "there is only one China, and Taiwan is part of
   China" and asks most countries to agree to this condition when they
   set up diplomatic relationships with PRC.  In spite of this, Taiwan
   still keeps some unofficial agencies in foreign countries to serve
   functions as embassies and councils.

   Historically Taiwan belonged to China in the Ching ( Manchu ) Dyna-
   sty.  Originally Taiwan was inhabitated by Malayo-Polynesian abori-
   ginies and in late 16th century Chinese traders, bandits and peasants
   arrived and settled.  In 1683, Ching Dynasty defeated troops of
   Cheng-kung Cheng ( also known as Koxinga ) and his son who used Tai-
   wan as a base for restoring the Ming Dynasty, and put Taiwan under
   control of the Fukien Province.  Some people from Fukien and Guangdong
   began to relocate themselves to Taiwan for a better living.  Because
   of the increasing importance of Taiwan, Ching Dynasty set up the
   provincial status for Taiwan in 1887.
 
   In 1895, after losing the first Sino-Japanese war to Japan, China
   was forced to cede Taiwan to Japanese control, and it did not come
   back to Chinese control until the defeat of Japan at the end of World
   War II.  In 1949, after the defeat in the Chinese Civil War to CCP
   Mao, CKS and a lot of residents in Mainland China relocated them-
   selves and the ROC government to Taiwan.

   Culturally Taiwan is closely related to China, though the Japanese
   occupation has some certain effects in Taiwan, say, some word usage
   in ordinary lives.  The official language used in Taiwan is Mandarin.
   However, in the countryside, Taiwanese ( Hoklo, Minnan or Southern
   Fujian dialect ) is more popular.   Hakka is also used in Taiwan by
   some people whose ancestors came from Mei ( Plum ) County in Canton,
   and their origin can even be traced back to Henan province in Nor-
   thern China ( in Chinese "Hakka" means "guest" ).  Tainan, a city
   which is around 50 km apart from Kaohsiung, might be the most histo-
   rical city in Taiwan.

   Economically Taiwan is proud of its dynamic export-oriented economy.
   Decades ago low-technology exports are the mainstream, like clothes
   and cheap toys.  Nowadays they have already been replaced by high-
   quality TV sets and computers.  Taiwan now holds one of the largest
   reserves in foreign currency in the world and it exports US$ 83 bil-
   lions in 1992.  Due to the extraordinary achievements, Taiwan, toge-
   ther with South Korea, Singapore and Hongkong, are also known as
   "the four little dragons" in Asia.


(G. 3)  I am quite a newbie in Usenet.  Where should I start?

   Well, this should not be a FAQ in SCT, but it might be better to be
   included here.  For starters, you can subscribe to the newsgroup
   "news.announce.newusers".  The following postings are recommended:
   ( all these were written by Mark Moraes unless otherwise mentioned )

       "How to find the right place to post (FAQ)" by Aliza R. Panitz.
       "Rules for posting to Usenet".
       "Hints on writing style for Usenet", all the above three items
          are musts if you might want to post in SCT instead of being
          a lurker.
       "Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette" ( Note:
          this is a satirical text )
       "A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community"
       "What is Usenet?"

   Some of the basic netiquettes can be found in the magazine "TIME",
   Special issue in Spring 1995 on page 42:

       (a) Do not Shout -- don't type all the message in ALL CAPS.
       (b) But Speak Up -- typing everything in lower case might be
                           equally bad.
       (c) Stick to the FAQs -- Don't repeat unnecessary questions.
       (d) "Smile" Discreetly -- Make use of the flame retardant :)
       (e) No Parrots, Please -- Only quote what you need.
       (f) Please, No Commercials -- Unless they are on-topic in SCT.
       (g) Lurk Before You Leap -- Read for a while before you post.
       (h) Don't Blow Smoke -- Know whereof you speak.
       (i) Don't Be the Skunk at the Picnic -- If you don't like SCT,
                                               just go away.
       (j) Think Twice, Write Once -- A careless posting has much
                                      stronger staying power than some-
                                      thing slipped out of your lips.
       (k) Apply the Golden Rule -- Do to others what you want them to
                                    do to you.

   The moderated newsgroup "news.answers" includes all archived FAQ's
   for miscellaneous groups.  It is a good starting point.

   If you want to test your newsreader program to see if you can post,
   please use "*.test" newsgroups, like "misc.test" or "alt.test".
   Don't forgot to include the word "ignore" in the subject of your
   test posting.


(G. 4)  What is "News from Taiwan"?

   "News from Taiwan" is a regular posting made by Chang-Jiu Chen at
   Dept. of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National
   Chiao-tung ( Communication ) University in Hsinchu, Taiwan.  He
   posts titles, and most of the time the outlines, of the news items
   in the English newspaper "The China News" published in Taiwan.  Cur-
   rently his beloved and respected efforts are the most trustworthy
   items in SCT.  Let's thank for his contribution in SCT.


(G. 5)  Anyone there knows Xxxx's E-mail address and phone number?

   In SCT we can usually find questions like this, asking other subs-
   cribers of SCT to help locating another person, say, asking for
   his/her address and/or phone numbers, and/or E-mail addresses.  How-
   ever, this is not encouraged in SCT unless the one you are looking
   for is indeed famous either in the world or in Taiwan for the fol-
   lowing reasons:

   [1] There are a lot of people who share almost the same names in Eng-
       lish when translated from Chinese, not to mention people using
       the same English names like Joe or Josephine.
   [2] Some additional information might be of help, say, where he/she
       lives, where he/she works/studies, and so on.  However, in this
       way more or less his/her privacy might be compromised.
   [3] Last but never least, we have lots of reasons to believe people
       in SCT are well-behaved.  However, we never know if one day a ha-
       rasser will try to find his/her prey by posting a message in SCT.

   To sum up, you are advised not to help people in this way unless the
   person he/she is looking for is indeed famous and the corresponding
   information is easily obtained in the public domain.  On the other
   hand, if you do want to help a guy posting "Xxxx Wanted" and you
   happen to know Xxxx, you can notify Xxxx about this and let him/her
   decide if he/she wants to respond to this guy or not.

   You can try to use the "netfind" feature of Internet to find the
   E-mail address of your friend.  You can use the following servers
   with login name "netfind":

      telnet bruno.cs.colorado.edu ( Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, USA )
      telnet netfind.sjsu.edu ( San Jose State University, San Jose, CA,
                                USA )
      telnet netfind.mgt.ncu.edu.tw ( National Central University,
                                      Taiwan )

   If you are not in the U.S., you can try the above two netfind servers
   first.  Upon entry a list of netfind servers all over the world will
   show up and you can choose one which is closer to you netwise.

   For phone numbers in Taiwan, you might try the Directory Assistance
   ( English speaking ) provided by International Telecommunications
   Administration, Ministry of Transportation and Communications at
   (2)311-6796.


(G. 6)  Is there any other FAQ in SCT?

   The answer is "yes".  There is no rule which says there must be one
   and only one FAQ made by one person in each Usenet newsgroup.  As
   long as people are willing to contribute their time to collect infor-
   mation for others, theoretically, the more FAQ's we have in SCT, the
   better for all its subscribers.  People will make the most of the
   FAQ's on their own.

   Before the creation of this FAQ, Po-han Lin "plin@phakt.usc.edu" from
   University of Southern California, U.S.A. also worked on another FAQ,
   which more or less concentrates on the political issue, though it is
   not regularly posted.  Check out Lin's work at

      http://langevin.usc.edu/~plin/FAQ/taiwan.5.html

   if you cannot find here the answers you are looking for.


(G. 7)  SCT is unmoderated.  Why some people like to play netcops?

   In an unmoderated newsgroup like SCT, people can post whatever they
   want, which of course includes complaints on some other people's
   postings.  Everything is within the "freedom of speech" domain if
   people argue, discuss or debate on something in speech means, that is,
   postings, followups and E-mails in the reasonable extent.

   The fact is, if some people like to play netcops, we don't have
   netcop-cops to "moderate" these netcops.  Probably the best thing we
   can do is ignoring them.  If they did the right thing, they will win
   the respect from other subscribers and people appreciate their
   existence.  On the other hand, if they keep harassing innocent people,
   they will receive enough flames, and they stop when they feel bored,
   or get stopped by their system administrators if they did attack
   innocent people.

   If these people just don't stop, and you don't want to put them in
   your kill file, you can try something on the license frames for some
   cars, "Pray, it works." :)


(G. 8)  Someone just posted an offensive stuff.  What can I do?  

   First of all, if it is a political offense, the best policy is stop.
   During a heated debate, especially around the TI/U issue, people do
   lose their control.  Using personal E-mails to exchange some ideas
   with the "offending" poster, you will usually find how nice and rea-
   sonable he/she actually is, and actually you might get a friend
   holding different political views from you do.

   On the other hand, if the post offends you in some other way, like
   using derogatory words and/or sex-related stories, things might be
   different.  The best solution is ignoring it.  Eventually the thread
   will die away naturally as it expires and get purged everywhere around
   the world.

   If you find the same person posted a lot of such flamebaits in SCT,
   you believe they are not forged, and you feel like doing something,
   you might want to read the followings:

      [1] Check the news header to see when they are posted.  If they
          were posted within a short amount of time, say, 10 minutes or
          15 minutes, it is likely that he/she forgot to logout and some
          naughty boy taught him/her a lesson.

      [2] The second possibility is that his/her account is hacked by
          some intruder because he/she failed to use a good password.

      [3] For some reason the offender felt desperate and he/she would
          like to shout out his/her anger, revenging on some people
          ( like Taiwanese ) and release his/her internal pressure, and
          try to get the attention from all other people.

   For [1], you can send the "offender" a polite reminder about his/her
   posting.  In that case, he/she usually will learn to log out or lock
   the screen when he/she leaves, he/she will send you a thank note and
   apologize in SCT for what he/she "posted", and even try to cancel the
   offending post.  SCT is back to a nice forum for us.

   If you do not receive any response from the "offender", and he/she
   even replied back harshly, then [2] and [3] are more likely.  In this
   case, if you choose not to ignore his/her offense, you can file a
   POLITE complaint to his/her system administrator by E-mails ( you can
   replace his/her login ID with "postmaster" to get the address for
   his/her administrator, say, "badguy@department.school.edu" becomes
   "postmaster@department.school.edu" ).  The administrators will take
   whatever actions they consider necessary.  Usually the offender's
   account will be temporarily suspended in case his/her offense is
   serious enough.  In [2], he/she might receive another new account and
   be advised to use a good password, just like what happens when credit
   cards numbers are illegally used.

   It might be another option to follow up his/her posting and make fun
   of him/her.  However, this is not encouraged as it in fact makes the
   thread to survive longer.  Usually such a flamebait is crossposted to
   several completely different newsgroups, like SCT, a sex newsgroup
   and a religious newsgroup.  Once ignited, people from different
   newsgroups with different interests, belief and background just keep
   flaming the offender and/or each other and the offending thread never
   dies, and this is exactly what the offender likes to have.  If you do
   choose to follow up his/her posting and laugh at him, please edit the
   header appropriately, refering to (G. 9), "The discussion along this
   thread is now off-topic.  What can I do to attract the attention from
   the correct audience?"


(G. 9)  The discussion along this thread is now off-topic.  What can I
        do to attract the attention from the correct audience?

   The discussions along a thread is quite dynamic.  As people join and
   leave the discussion, the topic might also change significantly.  At
   first dinosaur existence in Taiwan might be discussed, but later it
   might become the molecular structure of DNA and RNA, and later it
   becomes biochemistry, and then goes to organic chemistry, and even-
   tually it becomes the structure of urea.  SCT is unmoderated and nobody
   have the ability to correct this, but people attracted by the subject
   "Dinosaurs in Taiwan" will feel disappointed if they learn that
   actually biochemistry instead of dinosaurs is discussed, and people who
   do know urea and biochemistry but not interested in dinosaurs will not
   join the discussion.

   You might do the followings on the newsheader to improve this and get
   a better discussion.

      [1] Change the "Subject:" into an appropriate one which is not
          misleading.  For instance, change it from "Dinosaurs in Taiwan"
          into "DNA and RNA for dinosaurs" once the focus turns to DNA
          and RNA.  It would be better if you can use "DNA and RNA for
          dinosaurs ( Was: Dinosaurs in Taiwan )".

      [2] The line "Newsgroups:" shows the newsgroups your followup will
          be crossposted.  All the entries are separated by commas (
          without space ) and at least one blank away from "Newsgroups:".
          For instance, if originally "Dinosaurs in Taiwan" was
          crossposted in SCT and SCC, later when the discussions concen-
          trate on DNA and RNA, maybe you want to add "sci.chem" in this
          list so people interested in and good at chemistry can join the
          discussion.  As the discussion deviates from Taiwan, you can
          remove "soc.culture.taiwan" from this list.

      [3] The line "Followup-To:" shows the newsgroups other people's
          following up to your followup will be posted to.  If it is
          missing, by default it is the same as "Newsgroups:".

          Suppose now a message posted by Joe Bruin along the thread
          "DNA and RNA for dinosaurs" is crossposted in SCT, SCC and
          "sci.chem", while you consider it off-topic in SCC and SCT.
          You can remove SCT and SCC from "Followup-To:" in the header
          when you follow up Joe's post.  In this way, the "Newsgroups:"
          line shows SCT, SCC and "sci.chem" while the "Followup-To:"
          line shows "sci.chem" only.  Your followup to Joe's will still
          be crossposted in SCT, SCC and "sci.chem", but "Newsgroups:" in
          its newsheader shows only "sci.chem".  Therefore when people
          follow up your message, by default the posting will go to
          "sci.chem" only.  They can override your decision by editing
          "Newsgroups:" when they follow up your postings.

          Such a modification only affects the followup you post and
          other people's followups to yours.  It has no effect on fol-
          lowing up to other previous messages in the thread.

          It is a netiquette to mention the modification on "Followup-To:"
          in the message body so the interested people know which news-
          group to follow.  In the previous example, SCT and SCC readers
          also interested in biochemistry know that the followups to
          your posting will disappear in SCT and SCC and they will go to
          "sci.chem" if they are really interested.

   When you edit the "Newsgroups:" information, be careful not to create
   a "velveeta" by crossposting it to too many newsgroup at a time.  It
   is very rare for a message to be crossposted in more than 4 news-
   groups if it is on-topic in each newsgroup.  In this way you help
   reduce the signal-to-noise ratio in Usenet and benefit everyone.


(G.10)  Are there any short wave radio station from Taiwan?

   Yes.  You can listen to "The Voice of Free China" in Mandarin,
   Cantonese, English and Taiwanese.  You can try 5950, 7130, 9680, 9850,
   9955, 11740, 11745, 11825, 15215, and 17845 KHz.  Write to "The Voice
   of Free China, P.O.Box 24-38, Taipei, Taiwan" for a detailed schedule.

   ( Thanks for Dan Jacobson at "jacobson@fcusqnt.fcu.edu.tw" for contri-
     buting the information here )


(G.11)  Is there any on-line map for Taiwan?

   Yes.  Try the home Web page at 

      http://rowan.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html

   clicks at the entry "Maps of Asia" and then the entry "Taiwan (283K)".
   This CIA prepared map includes the names of major cities, a rough topo-
   logy, rivers, railroads, freeways and county boundaries.  It might be
   the most detailed map of Taiwan currently available in Internet.

   You can find another on-line map at

      http://peacock.tnjc.edu.tw/ADD/maps/taiwanmap.html

   which provides an interactive mechanism so you can zoom into details
   of different part of Taiwan, though information about the central
   mountainous area might be limited.


(G.12)  Where can I get on-line information about Taiwan stock market?

   You can try the Web page at

      http://www.asia-inc.com/lippo/tw.html

   which includes the top 20 entries for volume, gain and loss for the
   Taiwan stock market.  The company "Asia Inc." is based in Hongkong.


(G.13)  Where can I get the information about teaching English in Taiwan?

   You can try the Web page at

      http://www.u-net.com/eflweb/taiwan0.htm

   The author Hall Houston himself spent a few years in Taipei and taught
   English there.  You can ask him some questions not covered in the
   above Web page ( or you don't have access to WWW ) by sending E-mails
   to him at "hhouston@mail.utexas.edu".

   ( Thanks for Hall Houston, "hhouston@mail.utexas.edu" for providing
     the information here )


(G.14)  Is there any on-line information about libraries in Taiwan?

   You can try to telnet the IP address "192.83.186.8" or
   "opac.ncl.edu.tw" to reach National Central Library.  The login ID is
   "ncl" and the password is the same.  To make full use of this
   facility, you need to have a Chinese system installed.

   ( Thanks for Ling Yang, "L.H.Yang@sussex.ac.uk" for contributing the
     information here )


(G.15)  Is there any on-line "newspaper" in Taiwan?

   Yes.  You can read Taiwan Headline News provided by Central News
   Agency at the URL of SinaNet

      http://sinanet.com/bay/news
      http://sinanet.com/bay/news/MMDDnews/index.html

   The former refers to the news today while you can change MMDD in the
   latter URL to choose the date on which you want to read the news.  For
   instance, replace "MMDD" with 0624 to read news on June 24.  This site
   keeps a record of news for 5 days as of June 24, 1995.  The advantage
   of this site is that all Chinese text are represented by "gif" file
   format, so you can read news in Chinese even if your Web browser cannot
   decode Big-5.

   Quintet Inc. also provides a similar on-line news service at

      http://www.taiwan-roc.com/cna/index.html

   for which you don't need a Chinese environment to read news in Chinese.
   Besides, a longer expiration is used.  For the testing conducted on
   Dec. 25, 1995, the expiration for news items at this site is about two
   months.

   China Times set up its homepage, whose URL is at

      http://www.chinatimes.com.tw/

>  and

>     http://chinatimes.nsysu.edu.tw/

>  works equally well.  If you want to read the "real-time" news, you
   can go to the URL at

      http://www.chinatimes.com.tw/RTNEWS/RTNEWS.HTML

   directly.

   United Evening News set up its homepage ( network edition ) at

     http://tp.globalnet.com.tw/~uen/

   On the other hand, Ming-shen Daily News cooperates with Department of
   Education, Taiwan Provincial government and set up its WWW at

      http://msdn.aide.gov.tw/

   The above two sites require Chinese environments.

   Commercial Times has its WWW with Taiwan-on-Line at

      http://www.tol.com.tw/READING/HTML/reading.htm

   which is also related to China Times.

>  New Asian Weekly also provides its WWW site in the cyberspace.  You
>  can go to

>     http://www.newasian.com/naw.htm

>  and then go to NAW site.  Nevertheless, a Big-5 environment is
needed.

   For some magazines focusing on discussions about current news and
   political events, you might try

      http://supertag.com.tw/

   in which you can find on-line magazines like "The Journalist" ( New
   News ) and "Taiwan Weekly" ( Black-and-White News Weekly ).  You will
   need Big-5 environment to read most of the materials at this site.


(G.16)  Is there any on-line information about jobs in Taiwan?

   Yes.  For gopher, you can use "gopher.nyc.gov.tw" to browse some
   information about job conditions and information about starting a new
   business in Taiwan.  Chinese environments are required for this
   database which is provided by National Youth Commission under the
   Executive Yuan.  You can also use "telnet" to access the information.

   You might also use the BBS' set up in New York and Atlanta to obtain
   the most recent job opportunities in Taiwan.  Their phone numbers are
   (212)373-1879, (212)373-1881 and (404)457-4538.

   The following Web sites provide some links to job related ads in
   Taiwan.  Individuals can leave their resumes there and companies can
   also post their requirements for potential employees.  Some fees might
   be accessed.

      http://www.job.com.tw/
      http://www.104.com.tw/


(G.17)  Credits

   This FAQ for "soc.culture.taiwan" is an improved version from the
   drafted FAQ for SCT by Tung-chiang Yang, "tcyang@ee.ucla.edu", which
   was first posted on January 16, 1995, though FAQ's by other authors
   also exist.  The structure of the survival guide is based on that for
   newsgroup "alt.2600" under the consent by its author Will Spencer.
   Both the survival guide and the FAQ will be regularly posted in SCT.

   Thanks for the following friends who contributed some precious com-
   ments to this work, in addition to some others who chose to remain
   anonymous.  However, their contributions do not necessarily represent
   the endorsement of the full contents of this work.
   
      WANG, Yih-jih,                 "alan@cs.ucla.edu"
>     CHEN, Chang-sheng,             "chen@cc.nctu.edu.tw"
      LIN, Heng-yi,                  "hlin@c4.hinet.net"
      JACOBSON, Dan,                 "jacobson@fcusqnt.fcu.edu.tw"
..                     "kevinfish@delphi.com"
      CHANG, Yu,                     "yu@pyramid.com"

   The following reference books are used in writing the FAQ part:

      "TAIWAN - a travel survival kit" by Robert Storey, 3rd edition by
         Lonely Planet ( ISBN 0-86442-228-8 );
      "Rand McNally World Atlas" by Rand McNally, 1994 edition;
      "Directory of Taiwan" by China News, 1995 edition.

   In addition to what is included here, if you have some comments, like
   suggesting other useful questions or correcting some mistakes, please
   send your previous ideas to Tung-chiang Yang, "tcyang@ee.ucla.edu".

   This article is provided as is without any expressed or implied war-
   ranties.  While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy
   of the information contained in this article, the author assumes no
   responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
   the use of the information contained herein.


   ( Permission to repost the finished document or make copies of it in
   electronic, mechanical, photocopied, or other form as appropriate
   will be granted provided it is not modified in any way whatsoever,
   and it is not used for profit purposes without prior explicit consent
   from the author.  Copyright 1995, 1996 by Tung-chiang Yang ).
