Howdy,
I had a feeling - from the rather terse way Mr. Winterton notified me that I could expect to see the review in today’s paper - that it might not be favorable. But I didn’t think it would be savaged. I feel that not only is the review unfair in the extreme, but that the reviewer purposefully distorts what I say.
For example, nowhere do I imply that Taiwanese friendliness is ridiculous. Nowhere. In fact, I mention it - sincerely - in at least two places. For example: “It must be said that Taiwanese … are an infinitely cooperative and friendly bunch…” And, “…(The Taiwanese) are absurdly friendly.” Winterton makes my quote “… these people can make you loopier than a spool of yarn,” appear as though I were disparaging (all) Taiwanese. But, that is not what it refers to at all. It is a reference to unprofessional bank tellers who treat foreign nationals with suspicion (in this case a specific group of banktellers who wouldn’t allow me to cash a government issued cheque, saying that I didn’t have the right ID, despite the fact I did). Also, I openly sympathize with Taiwan’s political plight and mention, for example, that they are not part of the WHO, something I find highly distasteful.
He also claims that I treat Japan sardonically and uses my admittedly rather silly chapter title No Yen for Japan as evidence. In fact, that is an allusion to how I foolishly lost my money and barely made it out of the country. By and large, I was only making fun of myself and my youthful foolishness. I was actually quite impressed with Japan, and still am, and said so in the book. Mind you, I do poke fun. I am, after all, a humorist. But if it’s one thing that Winterton was attemptiing to make clear in his review, it’s that humor is not always funny.
He also claims that I treat the Philippines sardonically. The chapter on the Philippines is largely about Ferdinand Marcos and the legacy of insitutionalized corruption that he left behind. Winterton asks, “What on earth, you wonder, will he have to say about Taiwan?” (as the section on Taiwan follows the one on the Philippines) Again, this chapter was - in the main - an overview of the life of a dictator; one of the worst dictators of all time. As I point out in my book, under Marcos’s reign of kleptocracy, the Philippines became “… an international center for arms trafficking, drug running, gambling, money laundering, prostitution, and child prostitution.” I then go immediately on to add that the effects of this period can still be seen today, which is a shame because “the Filippinio people are unquestionably a friendly lot and the country is quite beautiful.”
How, may I ask, is that sardonic? And how could I have treated the topic positively?
Here’s another example: I did indeed call Annette Lu a “poor, misguided soul.” Winterton has that right. But what he fails to mention is that I said so in response to her comment about AIDS being ‘God’s way of telling us that he couldn’t take it anymore.’ ‘That he had to mete out punishment, “or there wouldn’t be any difference between men and animals.”’ My own comment read, “I wonder if anyone has had the heart to inform this poor, misguided soul that humans are animals, or that millions of children have been born with this dreadful disease.”
Winterton also lambasts me for what I ‘perceive as Taiwan’s fondness for Nazi iconograpghy.’ Yes, the DPP used an image of Hitler in a TV ad, a restaurant featured pictures of the holocaust on its walls, a German heater company used a charicature of Hitler to try and sell its product, and Taiwan actually has a National Socialist party with a reported 1000 plus members. All of these stories have been in the news, including international news. Time magazine picked up on the heater story and I have an article from the Taipei Times - the newspaper Mr. Winterton writes for - about the holocaust shots. Like much else in the book, it’s not only what I percieve, it’s what can be substantiated by facts, figures, and evidence. I do know, after all, how to concretize a claim. I actually took two of my own surverys during this book and cite at least two more. It’s also liberally sprinkled with references and statistics, none of which Winterton mentions. He would have you believe that I am purely a “bad traveler” and a “loud-mouth,” and this, of course, is because my views don’t match up with his own.
Mr. Winterton accuses me of engaging in hostility. But I am not being hostile. I am simply trying to illustrate what a peculiar place Taiwan can be, or what a peculiar place Taiwan can be for me. The only thing hostile here is his review, which is little more than intellectual intolerance scribed by an individual whose love for this country precludes any negative assessments or any academic investigation that will lead to negative assessments. For the record, I also think my own country is unusual and hope to one day have a go at its many idiosyncracies (wearing baseball caps with beer logos comes to mind). I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I take particular issue with Winterton’s implication that I lie about the presence of police at an underground market in Seoul, South Korea, which sold things like cheese, mustard, and so on. That is absolutely the truth as anyone who ever went to Namdaemun Market in Seoul during the 1990s can tell you. In fact, police used to regularly harrass vendors and would occassionally tip over their stands. I saw this with my own two eyes. They were, as far as I know, selling foreign goods illegally, you see. And this at a time when there was a total ban on all Japanese goods. Additionally, yes, I did point out the high incidence of domestic violence in Korea. I saw plenty of examples and cross referenced the phenomenon in a book by leading Korea analyst, Michael Breen, entitled The Koreans. Winterton also seems to disbelieve my hearing about teachers being “roughed up” by the police. In fact, I heard a first hand account of someone being threatened to be roughed up by the police. But I never said, as Winterton says I do, that I had heard of “foreign language-teachers being beaten up” for not taking classes.
I would like to think that that is merely an oversight, and that Bradley Winterton didn’t engage in direct dishonesty in order to discredit me and my book. But, I can’t be so certain given that the majority of quotes are taken completely out of context. It is, of course, highly ironic that he insinuates - without so much as a particle of evidence, mind you - that I am lying when there is such obvious disparity between what I say and what he says I say. Also, why would I lie about police presence at an underground market? Surely, I could be more imaginative than that. But more to the point (and a point, I might add, entirely lost on this critic) the reference to the “cheddar police” was a joke.
Clearly, I hit a nerve. I am not allowed to poke fun of Mr. Winterton’s adopted homeland. I am not entitled to my opinions nor may I relate my own personal experiences. They are, in some undefined way, invalid as they don’t always cast people in this country and continent in the most favorable of lights. But of course the bitter dismissal of what I have to say, rather than its debate, is the argumentative equivalent of “Na, na, na, na, na. I can’t hear you.” This is staggeringly ironic given that one of my critcisms of Taiwan and/or Chinese society is an inability to admit or do something about an obvious problem. Winterton casts aside my description of Taiwan’s environmental troubles, saying that I engage in “heavy-handed irony.” What he fails to mention - yet again - is that my evaluation is based on a Yale survey, the results of which were featured prominently in the Taipei Times.
I seriously doubt Bradley Winterton found my article about Japan offensive. I only make fun of how hard it was to find a hotel that wasn’t a love hotel, which, I think you’ll agree, is hardly the type of thing to make someone “angry” as he claims to have been. I believe he just pretended he was offended by this and other sections because of what he really finds offensive: the somehwat casual and uncharitable assessments I make about Taiwan. The most telling line in his review is: “It’s hard to know whether Parfitt genuinely doesn’t see the innumerable positive qualities of the Taiwanese that I see, or whether he just believes that concentrating on any absurdities he can find will gain him the loudest barroom laughs.” Aye, and there’s the rub. It’s that I don’t see things the way he sees things, you see? Never is a stated fact refuted. Never is the quality of my writing brought into question. I just refuse to say, “Taiwanese people have, well, innumerable positive qualities,” and that is something he cannot accept.
His evaluation is purely and emphatically subjective, and by rendering such a devastating blow I can only assume Mr. Winterton is hoping that I won’t convert people into believing Taiwan is on occasiion an unusual place and one not to be taken so seriously. Instead of having the class, the maturity - the manliness - to say, “Well, I disagree with Parfitt here, here, and here, although I will concede that…” he simply - and tempestuously - brutalizes my point of view. There is not one, single, positive comment about the book, which many people have told me they sincerely enjoyed. My first book. That took me two years to write and another year to edit and have published. By a publishing house that specializes in academic volumes. In New York. Gee, thanks Brad.
Mr. Winterton concludes his review by saying he flung the book down “out of sheer embarrassment.” Perhaps he flung his laptop down. I never actually sent him a copy of the book. I sent him a file. Also, Mr. Winterton. Honestly. If nothing I put down was valid, then what was it that made you feel so embarrassed? And why do you think it was picked up by an industry hardened and experienced foreign publisher?
If you haven’t read the book and would like to, please send me a PM and I will see about getting you a complimentary copy. You can judge for yourself just who the ranter, who the loud-mouth, and who the bad traveler is. If you do read the book, I must warn you: you just might laugh. Heaven forbid.
Thank you very much,
Troy Parfitt
