Matthew Lien - Music and Liner Notes from a Canadian Musician in Taiwan

Story By Stephen A. Nelson 

(from The Maple Leaf)

His name is Matthew Lien, a Canadian guy with English first name and what sounds like a Chinese family name.  He's a big star in Taiwan, but when hanging out with Canadians, he’s just a regular guy... I feel like we should be talking about hockey and Taiwanese girls.

Look Through Your Window: A Room With A View

A view of Taipei's RenAi Road, from the RenAi traffic circle, looking east towards city hall and Taipei 101.
Taipei 101 is no longer the world's tallest skyscraper - but it is impressive at night.

Around this traffic circle are a 24-hour bookstore (with a 24-hour coffee shop) and a 24-hour Cantonese restaurant.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Taiwan

Teaching in Taiwan:
When I quit my job to become an English teacher,
many people started asking me “Why?”

A Story by Stephen A. Nelson (Originally published in Maple Leaf,
the magazine of the Canadian Society in Taiwan)  Not long ago, I started my life as a teacher in Taiwan. Now, 20 years after graduating from journalism school at Ryerson, it seems a long way from what I started out to do.

So, if a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, when did I take that single step?

Let's say that this journey began in the early 1970s when I first saw David Carradine in the original Kung-Fu TV series and persuaded and my mum to sign me up at a martial arts school. Ever since then, I've wanted to go to China. I guess I just always thought that it would be Hunan province, home of the Shaolin Temple. I never thought it would be Taiwan.

Before coming to Taiwan, I took another step. I quit my job with the Thomson Newspaper chain after more than 10 years as a working journalist — the last eight and a half at the Brandon Sun. At the time, many people asked me “Why?”

The truth is, the chance to teach English in Taiwan couldn't have come at a better time. Now is not a good time to be a journalist in Canada.

For those of you who don't actually work in the business — or at least know somebody who does — you need to know only one thing about journalism. The business of journalism isn't about journalism any more. It's about business.

Want proof? Just look at media magnate Conrad Black, sometime owner and publisher of The Times of London as well as the National Post. Conrad Black's hero is Napoleon. His workers are his armies and his henchmen are his generals.

When Conrad Black used his armies at Hollinger Publishing to conquer Canada's largest newspaper chain, Southam, Black told reporters that he was “the best friend a working journalist had in Canada.”

To prove it, he immediately laid off hundreds of journalists at the newspapers he'd just acquired. Apparently, if you didn't think Conrad Black was your best friend, you weren't a working journalist any more.

But, perhaps not surprisingly, many ex-journalists found out that this was not actually a bad thing. A lot of people, like me, felt trapped in their jobs. It wasn’t fun any more. They may still have liked their work. But they hated the job. They felt overworked, overstressed, underpaid, unappreciated, depressed and in debt. But they, like me, stay in the job because of their commitments — a family, a mortgage, and a credit card.

The Brandon Sun was once considered “the Cadillac of small newspapers in Canada.” But for my last two years at the Sun, my mantra was “I just want my life back.” I said this at least as often as I said, “I hate my job.”

When I decided to take a chance on Taiwan and become a teacher, I took the most important steps. I sold my house, cashed out my retirement savings funds, and paid off some debts. What I couldn’t give away, I put in storage. And then, on a wing and a prayer, I came to Taiwan.

In Taiwan, I have found that teaching children can bring redemption for jaded souls, and life to weary bodies that have spent too long in jobs they can't stand.

Perhaps that's because children are life. Did not a very wise man once say “Allow the little children to come to me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”?

That same wise man (those who knew him called him "Teacher") also said, “Whoever would save his life must lose it. And whoever loses his life... will gain it.”

When I became a teacher, for the first time in a long time, I felt like I had my life back. All I had to do was take that one child-like step.

All I had to do was give up everything I had.

Seeing Red at Chinese New Year: Taiwan in the Year of the Dog

Maple Leaf, Summer 2006: Music and Liner Notes from Mathew Lien and Canadian Voices: North American in Paradise?

The stories as originally published.

Alice in Wonderland: The Lure of Taiwan for Ex-pats

By Stephen A. Nelson
Maple Leaf
Fall, 2005

Through the Looking Glass: The Lure of Taiwan for Expats Who Stay

Adapted from Maple Leaf Magazine

Autumn 2005

For some, Taiwan is a pit stop in the journey of life, or at least in a journey around Asia. They make some money (often quite good as far as temporary gigs go, especially), check out the nightlife and then move on to other locales.

Others, however, are captivated by the opportunities, lifestyle, culture, energy and ambience that the country abounds with. Even though they may have intended to stay only a few months, or perhaps a year or two at most, they linger longer; in some cases, decades or the rest of their lives.

Maple Leaf Magazine asked four Canadians – including broadcaster/journalist Stephen A. Nelson (born in Scotland and moved to Canada in 1965) why they remain here after years away from Canada. The insights about Taiwan and motivations for staying make for good reading, especially Stephen’s more humorous approach, complete with a mock interview - appropriate for a guy who first arrived in Taiwan on April Fool’s Day seven years ago.

Stephen in Wonderland

By Stephen A. Nelson

Maple Leaf: So, Stephen… What brought you to Taiwan in the first place?

Stephen: Canadian Airlines.

ML: I see. But what I mean is, “Why did you come to Taiwan?”

Stephen: I used to tell people that it was my purpose, my destiny, God’s plan for my life. But a lot of Canadians get real nervous when you tell them that - especially if it’s true. So now I just tell them I came here because I was lured by promises of love, money and future considerations.

ML: So how did you find Taiwan when you came here?

Stephen: I turned left at Japan.

ML: No, I mean did you find your destiny? Did you find love, money and future considerations?

Stephen: I did, but then I lost them.

ML: So what keeps you in Taiwan, then?

Stephen: Gravity… gravity and inertia. A body at rest tends to stay at rest.

ML: So why don’t you do something? Go somewhere?

Stephen: Well, I keep running and running, but never seem to get anywhere.

ML: Why’s that, do you think?

Stephen: Coming to Taiwan is like Alice stepping Through the Looking Glass. Things may look the same, but nothing works the way you expect it to. It's like playing speed chess through a mirror. Sometimes you have to move backwards to move forwards.

And there is always someone yelling, "Faster! Faster!" So you move faster.

But as the Red Queen says to Alice, "You have to run much faster than that if you want to go anywhere!