Dan Bloom has done it once again! Here is a first hand report from Dan himself:
"My book will be published by Tongyo Cultural Affairs Ltd. Co. in Taipei on September 1, 2002. The text will once again be in in Chinese only, translated by a young woman in Taipei named Lisa Huang, who works in a lawyer's office during the day and does translation work at night. I think she did a very good job translating my stories about Taiwan and I want to thank her publicly here! [Thank you, Lisa Huang!]"
"The book will be sold in bookstores all over Taiwan soon, and the price will be .... (I am not sure}....maybe NT$180, maybe NT$190, maybe NT$200. There are 50 new stories in the book, all about Taiwan, of course, and my adventures in the night markets of this wonderful country .... selling my books and meeting new friends!"
"Maybe I met you this way already -- in the Chiayi night market or on Culture Road in Chiayi or maybe in Little Tokyo along Linsen North Road in Taipei."
"I just want to tell you the news here on my website, and if you want to read the new book, look for me in the Chiayi night markets or on Culture Road or visit your local bookstore in Taipei or Tainan or Kaohsiung or Taichung or Chiayi -- every bookstore in Taiwan will sell my book. My editor Jean Chien did a great job selecting the stories for this new book, and I want to thank her here, too.
[Thank you, Miss Chien!]"
"And of course, my publisher, Mr Huang, the boss of Tongyo Cultural Affairs Co. Ltd. -- thank you, sir! One of the reasons that Mr Huang decided to publish my second book here in Taiwan is because he is a native of Chiayi City, and when he heard that I have made my home in Taiwan in his hometown, we immediately made a deal to publish this book! That's what I like about Chiayi people, they don't waste time waiting around for something to happen: When Mr Huang met me at theTaipei International Book Fair in Feburary 2001, he decided in just five minutes to do my book! Long live Mr Huang!"
"So...."
"See you soon ... online .... [email me if you have any questions] ... or even better, see you soon in the night markets of Taiwan!"
"Your friend ... and a Very Happy Writer... (with lots of time on his hands and very little money in his pockets! ha ha!),"
DAN BLOOM
We at CDOT continue to be proud to offer books written by Dan, and are now able to offer them at the price of $8.00 each.
Dan Bloom's Book - I Love Taiwan
DAN BLOOM'S BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE IN THE UNITED STATES!!
It is with great gladness and deep respect that we at "Crystal Dragon of
Taiwan" are able to offer our visitors copies of Dan Bloom's book "I
Love Taiwan". All copies have been signed by the author and are in brand
new condition.
This book is offered at cost. Due to our feelings for Taiwan and its people we
would like to share this wonderful book with others. The current cost is $8.00
per copy. This includes postage and packaging within the United States. After
other copies arrive by boat the per copy price will be reduced. However, we do
not expect to receive the other copies for two more months. Due to unbelievably
high shipping costs we have had to rely on "boat mail" so as to keep
the future per copy price more reasonable. These first offered copies were
mailed via air and as a result cost more. Those people ordering copies for
overseas delivery will be charged actual cost of postage.
For those desiring to order a copy of Mr. Bloom's book please email our staff
at: sales@cdot.org
or please write us at:
Crystal Dragon of Taiwan
151 Cohn Valley Way
Folsom, CA 95630-5050
We accept payment by way of Paypal, Bidpay, personal check, money order and
cash.
All orders paid by secured forms of payment are mailed within 24 hours of
receipt.
We wish to thank Mr. Bloom for agreeing to work with us in our effort to offer
his wonderful book to the people of the United States and world. We share his
love and respect for the wonderful country of Taiwan and its people and are
deeply honored to be able to share these feelings thru the offering of his book
to all people.
Below are several articles written about Mr. Bloom and his book. We hope our
visitors will find these articles and his book as inspiring, informative,
interesting and wonderful as we and many other people have.
Sincerely:
The Editor and Staff of "Crystal Dragon of Taiwan"
(PLEASE NOTE: Currently, Mr. Bloom's book is published in Chinese)
Taiwan Headlines
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
Giving Away A Little Love For Taiwan
Published: February 21, 2002
Source: Taipei Times
On a November day in 1996 Dan Bloom disembarked on a lush subtropical island and
penetrated deep into its sparsely populated hinterlands. He arrived as an
adventurer and observer.
After almost five years of living among the natives and observing their
behaviors, eating habits and social structures, he wrote a book proclaiming his
love for his adopted land and its lifestyle. Theirs is a peaceful society, he
writes, that exhibits the brightest possibilities of human nature.
In fact, Bloom is not a modern-day Margaret Mead wearing a palm frond skirt on
Borneo. The place he traveled to is nowhere other than Chiayi, Taiwan. And his
book, which he wrote in English and had printed in Chinese with a title that can
be translated as "That's how I fell in love with Taiwan," is not
exactly a ground-breaking ethnographical treatise on the peoples and cultures of
this island.
He's fully aware that his book is not academic and he has no pretensions about
exposing deep truths about this nation as a long string of foreign observers are
often tempted to try. "I'm not attempting to say anything meaningful in
this book," he says.
But judging from readers' reactions, his book seems to have held up a mirror to
Taiwanese people and displayed an image of the culture that, to its own
inhabitants, is at times exotic-sounding and shockingly different from the one
they had imagined.
Here is an American from cozy Boston, living in a town that most Taiwanese agree
is a relative backwater. But he loves it, and most importantly he seems to
really mean it. Bloom's earnest enthusiasm and gushing praise for virtually all
things Taiwanese obviously has struck a chord. He says he has received hundreds
of e-mails from Taiwanese readers touched at times to tears over what he writes
about their country.
"I can't hardly imagine why there's people who don't like American or
British cities. Now I think I know the reason why: confidence in yourself and
your native country. I'll cherish Taiwan more from now on", wrote one
26-year-old from Taipei.
Some go even further. One woman wrote that after reading his book she felt
"just like a dream."
"I still couldn't believe that there's someone who loves Taiwan very
much," she said.
On Tuesday, Bloom was at the Taipei International Book Exhibition hawking his
book by walking up and down the aisles between the stalls (he doesn't have a
permit to sell there). It was a hard sell because the visitors were mostly
publishing agents looking to sign contracts not buy new books, but he still
managed to unload several copies. Several people pointed in his direction,
recognizing him from the recent sizeable write-ups in the United Daily News and
Next magazine, among others.
One man from Taitung, surnamed Chang, walked up to introduce himself and say he
had read the book and "gained a totally fresh perspective on Taiwan."
"There's nothing new in the book, so I don't really understand why people
feel they've learned so much from it," Bloom says. "I think people
like to hear these things from a foreigner because it's somehow
comforting." Bloom apparently is a hit because his book provides a
reassuring contradiction to the self-loathing that is so rampant in Taiwan. It
also helps that he connects directly with his readers by selling the book from a
paper lantern-festooned pushcart at the Chiayi night market, where people can
see who wrote the book and get a signed copy for NT$100.
"It's a novelty, and interest will probably fade. But it's fun, so
whatever. It's certainly not a money maker," he said. Actually store sales
have been miserable, and his NT$100 price at the night market is NT$14 less then
his cost to buy the books at the author's discount from the publisher. So far
he's sold about 5,000 copies.
Now Bloom is looking to expand the book into a series. He's not quite certain
what the next topic will be, but it will surely be about something
quintessentially Taiwanese, like night markets, which he knows a lot about. It
will no doubt also be full of ebullient praise to soothe delicate spirits.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINE: American writer is just crazy about Taiwan! And he regards Chiayi City
as his hometown now!
United Daily News
SUBHEAD LINE: He likes to chew betel nut, nosh on cho-dofu and loves to travel
around the "beautiful Formosa island" by train
Don't be surprised if you go to the Carr four Night Market in Chiayi City one
night and see American writer Dan Bloom standing next to his red bicycle and
selling his new book "I'm Just Crazy About Taiwan!" The 42-year-old
Boston man has lived in Taiwan for five years now and loves life here so much
that he plans to stay forever. Yes, Dan Bloom really loves Taiwan!
A former teacher who now makes his living as a newspaper reporter and book
author, Dan Bloom is a happy-go-lucky fellow who has spent time in three cities
in Taiwan over the last five years: Taipei, Taoyuan and Chiayi. He says he calls
CHiayi his "hometown" because it was the first place he lived when he
first landed in Taiwan in 1996 and his best friends live there.
"Chiayi is a comfortable city to live in, to work in," Dan Bloom says.
"The people are friendly, the pace of life is slow and relaxing, and
although the salaries are lower compared to high-paying jobs in Taipei, I like
the coutry life, far from the hustle and bustle of the big city up north. Chiayi
is my kind of town. I love it here!"
Go to the night market in Chiayi on any Tuesday, Friday or Sunday night and
chances are you will see a "big-nose foreigner" with a French hat
barking out his sales pith: "Hello, hello; come one, come all, take a look
at my new book, just published, yes, I really love Taiwan!"
Bloom sells his book, written entirely in Chinese, for just NT$100, a bargain
compared to the retail price in bookstores, where the new book sells for NT$190.
"Yes, I don't make any money selling my book so cheaply," Bloom says,
with a smile. "But this is my only way to introduce the book to the people
of Taiwan, to the reading public. The bookstores around the island have not been
promoting my book very well, since I am not a star or a celebrity or a
bestseller, so I had to take matters into my own hands and use the night market
here as my advertising vehicle. And it's working! Although I only sold three
books the first night I came here, quite shy and nervous about doing this in
public, now I can sell around 25 books every night, and the night market
strollers seem happy to meet a real American writer face to face, chat with me
for a few minutes, get a signed copy of my book, a handshake, a smile, and a
nice little book for a great little price of just NT$100."
Since beginning his night market vending gig in September 2000, Bloom estimates
he has sold around 1,000 copies of his book by himself, with the rest of the
first printing of 3,000 sold in bookstores island wide.
Flush with success, although on a minor scale, Bloom's publisher decided to
print a second edition, and promises more editions if the night market sales
keep going strong nationwide.
Visits to night markets in Taichung, Hualien, Taitung, Ilan, Kaohsiung and
Tainan are being set up now, with a few gigs planned for Taipei, Keelung,
Taoyuan and Hsinchu as well.
Dan Bloom, who lived in Japan for five years in the early 1990s, before coming
to Taiwan, used to work as a copy editor for the Taipei Times in the capital
city. He received a good salary and lived a good life in Taipei, but when the
chance came to write a book about his many adventures and experiences in Taiwan
-- in Chinese, for the Taiwan market -- he packed his bags and moved down to
Chiayi City in the southern part of the island, where he had spent his first
year in the ROC, visiting friends he had met in the USA there and teaching
English part-time to support himself.
Juneau, Alaska, Bloom's former "hometown" in the USA, and Chiayi City
are "sister cities" and that's how he came to Chiayi -- to visit some
Taiwanese friends he had met in Alaska 10 years earlier. To write his book,
which began as a series of newspaper columns for the Liberty Times in Taipei,
Bloom returned to Chiayi after living up north for three years.
"I felt that in Chiayi I could relax and begin working on my book, with no
pressures or stress, and that's exactly what happened," he says.
"Coming back to Chiayi after living in the big city for a few years was a
relief! It's so quiet and peaceful and livable here, I love it! Plus, my best
friends in Taiwan, my good friends and acquaintances, live here and they make me
feel at home."
Dan Bloom says he loves Taiwan so much that he has coined a new term for people
like himself: "We are members of the 'Taiwan Tribe.' Justlike the young
Taiwanese who love Japan and Japanese pop culture and call themselves 'the Japan
Tribe,' I am a member of the 'we love Taiwan' tribe."
The title of Bloom's book in Chinese, "Wo Jyo Tse Yang Ha San Le
Taiwan," means roughly "I'm Just Plumb Crazy about Taiwan" (or
literally, "In just this way, I have come to love Taiwan").
Dan Bloom's book is selling well in the night market in Chiayi, and it might be
the first time an author, any author, has ever taken to selling his newly
published book in a night market in Taiwan. It's a first, it's surprising, and
as far as Dan Bloom is concerned, "it's fun."
"I love this face to face contact with the public," he says. "In
a bookstore, I never get to meet my readers, they ever get to meet me, it's all
very boring, and besides, the bookstores don't even care to help me sell the
book. Some stores even put my book on the second floor on a high shelf where
nobody can see it! That's ridiculous. So I decided to forget the bookstores, and
the really inefficient book distribution system in Taiwan, and just sell my book
myself in the night market. I have never enjoyed myself so much in my life! I
feel as if I have discovered a new career: night market bookseller! I love
it!"
With Bloom's nightly appearances in the six night markets in Chiayi City now,
the national media has suddenly taken an interest in the enterprising American
writer, who bears a passing resemblance, according to one newspaper, to Albert
Einstein! Several major weekly magazines have flown down to Chiayi to photograph
Bloom in action at the night market and interview him for profile articles set
to appear soon. With NEXT magazine and the China Times Weekly set to publish
major stories about "the Chiayi Night Market Man," Dan Bloom's star
may be rising in Taiwan and his book may even eventually become a bestseller.
"I certainly hope so," he says to a reporter. "I love writing, I
wantwrite more books for the Taiwan market, and if this night market gig takes
to the place where I want to go, more power to it!"
Dan Bloom has been known to chew on betel nut when offered the "Taiwan
chewing gum" by locals, and he loves to eat such island delicacies as fried
crickets, stinky dofu, rat stew, black chicken and spicy hot pots. But most of
all, he says, he really loves and enjoys interacting with the people of Taiwan.
"The Taiwan people are great!" he says. "You got a great country
here!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AMERICAN WRITER TO PUBLISH BOOK IN CHINESE ABOUT SOJOURN IN TAIWAN
by Sophia Wu
Central News Agency, Taiwan (CNA wire service)
DATELINE: Chiayi City, Taiwan
He likes to travel around Taiwan by train and takes great pleasure in rubbing
shoulders with Taiwan folk in crowded streets.
He can only speak a little Chinese, but he has a good rapport with middle-aged
Taiwanese men. In Taiwan, he has been an English teacher, a newspaper copyeditor
and a newspaper columnist for the Liberty Times. He once appeared as a model in
a very popular Hello Kitty telephone card newspaper advertisement campaign. And
now he will publish a book about his life in Taiwan, in a Chinese-language
edition only.
"I'm Just Crazy About Taiwan!" [Wo jyo tse yang ha san le Taiwan
records Dan Bloom's five-year sojourn in Taiwan. The book was published by
well-known Taipei publisher Lee Ming-yung, edited by Amy Lin and translated into
Chinese by Wang Yu-tai. Bloom says the entire project was a team project from
the very beginning. "These publishers and editors in Taiwan are
great," he said. "They make writing a book a real pleasure, even when
a difficult translation process is involved."
"Taiwan is a wonderful place, and my everyday life here is very
interesting," Bloom said Friday in an interview with CNA.
Bloom came to Taiwan five years ago on what he thought would be just a two-week
visit. He now plans to remain on island for the rest of his life.
"I have been in love with Taiwan ever since," he said, adding that he
loves to eat Taiwanese snack food at street vending stalls and that spicy bean
curd ("stinky tofu") is his favorite night-time snack in Chiayi City.
Bloom said that although Taiwan's traffic is often chaotic and its air polluted,
its people are very kind, friendly and hospitable. "I find robust vitality
on this island," he said.
Bloom graduated from Tufts University in Boston. "I majored in French
during my college years. At that time, I never thought that I would one day
travel to Asia for a long stay."
Bloom had lived in Japan for five years prior to his arrival in November 1996 to
visit his only friend here, a English teacher at a Chiayi middle school named
Dominic Lin.
Bloom recalled that he traveled directly to Chiayi from Chiang Kai-shek
International Airport in northern Taiwan. "At that time, I just wanted to
visit a Taiwanese friend that I got acquainted in Boston. I never thought that I
would settle in Taiwan," he said.
But things took an unexpected turn, and he found himself with a work permit and
resident status in Taiwan. "I have stayed here for five years and plan to
continue to live and work in Taiwan."
Bloom became a columnist with a local newspaper in late 1999. His articles on
his life in Taiwan have received warm response from local readers. Bloom said he
has received many letters from Taiwan readers expressing their happiness to
learn that a foreign writer takes true pleasure in his life in Taiwan.
Bloom's book is scheduled to hit local bookstore shelves nationwide in early
September. One of his local friends, Wang Yu-tai of Keelung, a professional
translator, translated Bloom's 176-page book into Chinese. It has been published
in a handsome Chinese-language edition only by Eurasian Publishing Company in
Taipei, and sells for NT$190. There are no plans at this point for an English
edition, as Bloom said he wrote the book to communicate directly with Taiwan
citizens in their own language.
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