First Semester: Done!
On Thursday I attended the final class of my first semester of Chung Yuan University’s Master’s Degree program in music production. All my tests are done, all my projects completed. I was expecting a challenge, and I certainly got it, but it went more smoothly than I thought it might, mostly thanks to the support and understanding of the faculty and staff there. Since September I have spent three days a week riding trains back and forth between Taipei and Zhongli (made financially feasible thanks to the excellent monthly NT$1200 T-pass system), in addition to my day jobs, music gigs, and teaching photography courses at Shih Hsin University and Zhong Zheng Community College.
It was a rather exhausting schedule (not helped by an annoying cold that lasted a couple of weeks at the end of the year), and I’m looking forward to a break before the spring semester begins in February. But just being a student again, actually attending classes on campus and participating in discussions and projects, felt extraordinarily rewarding and brought a different level of connection with younger people than I usually hang out with as well being able to take advantage of my professors’ knowledge and experience. In the college days of my youth I might have been hesitant to ask questions in class, but these days I have no such qualms. I sit in the font row, ask any dumb thing that comes to mind, and just enjoying learning stuff I had no idea about before. I had classes in music production, basic recording, a lecture series, video production, classical music appreciation, and a fun elective about UK Culture as seen through a Taiwanese viewpoint. Our program even provides a nice room on campus where we can hang out, work on projects or just chill while looking at the view outside. I’ve been using a tiny Korg MIDI keyboard and a cheap Audio-Technica USB mic to make music for class so far using free versions of software like Pro Tools and Cubase, but I suspect I’m going to need some more serious equipment for more advanced projects going forward.
Hopefully next semester I will be able to get the lion’s share of my required credits out of the way so I can concentrate on my graduate thesis for the second year of the program, but I always enjoy being on the campus; it’s a pleasant, attractive place with restaurants and cafes, concert halls and just a cool vibe in general. Chenbl’s father was one of the first students there after it opened in 1955 (the same year as Tunghai University, as it happens), and his brother-in-law went there as well. I haven’t had time to properly explore Zhongli or any of the stops on the way there, but I might do some walks over the break, weather permitting.
One thing I haven’t done a lot of lately is blogging; I think using Substack put me in the mind frame that I needed to have a proper topic in order to write entries, whereas in the past I would just write about random thoughts or how my day went and throw it all up onto my blog. And might have been a mistake…hardly anyone reads these things, regardless of whether or not they’re on Substack or my site, so why should I care about “brand building” or topicality? None of that matters. I’ve never been an influencer or relied on any of that anyway. But I have a YouTube channel, so I might as well use it.
It’s been a full 20 years since 2005, and obviously a lot has changed. I’d been blogging for four years at that point, had just joined the Muddy Basin Ramblers the year before, and was busy filming our feature film which would eventually be titled the Kiss of Lady X. George W. Bush was president in the U.S., and Chen Shui-bian was president here; Taipei 101 had just opened and I was working at the GIO. Having moved from downtown out to Xindian a couple years prior, I bought my current apartment, aka the Water Curtain Cave, at the end of the year following an excruciating house search and a stint at the neighboring Lofty Sky Palace; now I’m close to finally paying off the mortgage. I signed up for YouTube in 2005, and also Flickr, where I’ve since posted 15,000 photos over the last 20 years, an average of posting two photos a day, every day, since I joined.
So now, as we begin 2025, this year of the world trying to come to grips with the U.S.’s recent Plutocracy Reveal Party as well as deepening commitments to willful ignorance and fascism in general, perhaps it’s time to shake things up a little. Write more random posts. Make street videos. Try not to skip so many tai-chi sessions because it’s cold and I just don’t wanna. Perhaps even take a trip somewhere; I haven’t had a proper trip abroad since 2020, and the world ain’t hanging around waiting.
Was totally unaware you were studying for a Master’s Degree in music production–that’s very cool! 加油加油！:-)
(& it’s true that “hardly anyone reads these things”, but there’s always the occasional random reader who stumbles across an interesting article. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!)
Comment by L.F. Lee — January 10, 2025 @ 1:17 pm