[note to the mods, the reason I put this in the Open forum was that is maybe of interest to people in both the culture and sports forums and since double posting is bad karma I went with this open catagory]
My book on Chinese martial arts history, which includes a fairly long chapter on the history of martial arts in Taiwan is finally available—in Taiwan. It becomes available curtsey of President Inc. and these folks:
I am told the ordering process is easy as pie (well, if you can read Chinese or get someone who can to help you). You apparently just fill in some cyber-form, then they will send the book to the 7-11 nearest your house and then you take your cash money (no credit card needed) to that 7-11 and go pick up my wonderful tome on Chinese martial arts. And all this for a mere $628 NT. Christmas will be here soon. Everyone likes martial arts!
The actual page with the book is:
books.com.tw/exep/prod/books … F010327698
To give folks some idea of what the section on Taiwanese martial arts talks about I will cut and paste an excerpt about Liao Tien Ding(廖添丁)The Righteous Thief, famous Taiwanese martial artist during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan
Excerpt:
"No discussion of Taiwanese martial arts history would be complete without mention of Liao Tien Ding, the Righteous Thief of Taiwan. The Righteous Thief was a real person and his exploits have made him the best-known figure in Taiwanese martial arts folklore. A regular person on the streets of Taipei may not know anything about martial arts, but they will know the Righteous Thief. His story has been the subject of a popular television series and modern stage play.
Liao Tien Ding was born April 5, 1883, in a village in Taichung County. When he was two years old his father was killed in a fight arising out of some personal dispute. His mother later remarried. When he was small his family was poor, so he began to work early on as a general laborer for wealthier families. He was less than a model employee and his careless attitude towards his work caused him to be routinely fired from his various jobs.
Most likely as a direct result of having been fired from all the local employers and finding his future prospects rather dim, Liao ended up going to the big city of Taipei with some of his friends in order to make a living. He worked in various shops but had the “nasty habit”, as it is euphemistically put in his biographies and hagiographies, of stealing from his employers. This naturally resulted in him being fired many times over. The move north seemed to have done little to improve his work ethic.
He drifted into full time thievery and very soon he had a long criminal record. One time he was tried by the Taichung District Court and sentenced to 10 months in prison. After that prison stint he continued his criminal career by advancing to full-scale burglary of rich people’s houses, including the well-known Taiwanese Koo family. The Koo family was closely linked to the Japanese colonial rulers, and the patriarch of the family even served in the Japanese parliament during the occupation. This step was the start of Liao’s move from pretty criminal to folk hero.
His next major exploit was breaking into a police dormitory to steal guns and ammunition. After that caper, Liao killed a Taiwanese cop who had been working undercover for the Japanese police. Those two crimes put him at the top of the Japanese police most-wanted list.
The attacks against the Japanese colonial police also completed Liao’s transformation to folk hero. He was much admired for his ability to steal from the police and from the rich, whose homes were usually quite well guarded. In Taiwan at that time, the general public had a marked distaste for rich people who were seen somehow as collaborating with the Japanese……"