I traveled to a small city (Hsinchu) outside of Taipei, here in Taiwan. If you want to know a people, a place, don’t judge it by its big capital city. It’s a rule of thumb. Next post, I’ll list some general impressions about Taiwan and its people.
I decided to visit the zoo. I’ve avoided them most of my life but this time, had my reasons which I’ll touch on below. It is Taiwan’s oldest, a short walk from my hotel.
The weather was extremely hot but pleasant. Nice breeze and unlike my last time in Taiwan 20 years ago (running in the World 24 Hour Championships), not humid at all.
Families and children, young lovers, groups of elderly people all strolled about, laughing, enjoying their time outside. Life is good …
The zoo itself is small. The entry fee a mere $1.75. I entered and took a stroll along the leafy, tree filled paths.
Then, a sadness descended upon me, like a fog, a heaviness of the head – arriving at the first “exhibit” – this hippo. Not a patch of wet mud anywhere to be seen.
And it just kept getting worse as I visited the ostriches, the Bengal tiger, the gibbons, the macaques, ducks and finally Xiong-Da the old man of this manufactured forest.
A massive orangutan, he just sat there across the chasm, in a lump, so solemn, so alone. He used to have a few deer with him for company but one day he got annoyed at them. He seemed to have wrapped up all the human suffering of the world into himself. My sadness grew to overwhelm me and I hurried out of the zoo, so I could breathe a little.
I read a little about the man, 32 years old. Fairly young. He once had a girlfriend (named Baby) here but she died, falling from one of the few trees of her enclosure. Xiong-Da wasn’t there, he was on exhibit in the big city. After her death, he was returned here – there was a job opening for an orangutan.
Zoos to me are evil. It is something that I concluded years ago, a young man, after shaking off the effects of enculturation and being told they are “humane” and part of our social fabric and adolescent upbringing. It is not just that enclosures are small and about making animals feel more “natural” in the zoo. A cage is a cage is a cage. You can’t put enough lipstick on it, to make it a home.
Zoos encapsulate all that is evil in the world – a superiority complex. They teach that to each child, that they are superior and animals but mere oddities, curiosities set on a table for our reflection and stimulation. There is nothing educational about them. They teach us that we can enslave, demean, violate the principles of brotherhood and lifehood.
I thought of the zoo of Gaza. I also thought of the many human zoos that were once common place. Noble people from around the world put into cages for a laugh at “World Exhibitions”. All the fashionable people visited - it was a calendar must. I thought too of Kafka’s “Hunger Artist” – our perverse drive and need to see things suffer so we feel secure, puffed up, superior.
I’m writing this, the next morning. Last night I had a vivid dream, a dream that all the animals of the zoo had held a meeting and the hippo led the charge as they escaped through the lightly fenced zoo. Animal Farm redux. I awoke in a cold sweat, shots ringing out, as each were hunted down in the streets of Hsinchu and shot where they stood – free, free at last.
So, I don’t think I’m going back to any zoo, any time soon. But I’m glad I forced myself to do so, to feel Xiong-Da’s suffering and in some mystical way, make compassion more evident in this world of us evil, not so human, beasts.
Today, I’ll spend time at the temple, thinking, being, writing some poems. Piecing my suffering world back together into the lotus it is. I’m on a kind of Basho style walk - a narrow road to the deep north … and I think of him and his thoughts often … I’ll end with his words;
Natsugusa ya - Summer grasses
tsuwamono domo ga - after great soldiers’
yume no ato - imperial dreams.
I, too, don't like zoos because it's inhumane to think of ourselves as superior to animals. Animals are as smart and as caring as humans (i understood that from observing cats, some of which i had close contact with). And about the other part, yes i agree with you (we're all living in zoos created by animals with various qualities).
I'm heartbroken for opening this, but was compelled to look. Grateful for you having the words, and heart to share. I've always been weary when visiting zoos, praying for reform and restoration, but realizing I might not know the whole stories. Primates particularly grab me, as we are they and they are us.