Last summer, 21 Hawai‘i public high school students traveled to China and Taiwan as part of the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council’s Summer Study Tour. I was one of them. After two weeks of traveling, neither the all-Chinese meals that
Last summer, 21 Hawai‘i public high school students traveled to China and Taiwan as part of the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council’s Summer Study Tour. I was one of them.
After two weeks of traveling, neither the all-Chinese meals that we ate nor the almost ambiguous language that we heard could have prepared us for what awaited in the Taipei World Trade Center.
A banner, which read “WELCOME Pacific and Asian Affairs Council Summer Study Tour Members to ITB,” hung on the entrance door. Inside, Taiwanese women (presumably, World Trade Center employees), all clad in white, were lined up to welcome us.
As we entered the building, we were given the three things which, in my opinion, make up the Aloha Spirit: smiles, hugs and leis. Regardless of the fact that we were 5,000 miles away from home, we experienced the same Aloha Spirit in Taiwan that can be found in these islands.
In response, we treated our Taiwanese audiences with a round of hula performances, dancing to the tunes of “Beautiful Kaua’i,” “Maunaleo” and “Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai.”
Mediocrity and nervousness aside, our hula performance wowed our Taiwanese “braddahs” and “sistahs” in a multi-cultural experience that I will never (ever) forget.
