Useful article you must read

Dear students,

The following extracted article is from Taiwan Panorama, vol. 34, No.2, p9. This article contains the latest economic trend and how Taiwanese people deal with the recent economic recession. I believe that this article will certainly open up your horizons and give you more perspectives on things. Besides, you have to learn the exiquisite, yet not complicated or difficult, expressions in this article, from which you can familiarize yourselves with this American style writing. I sincerely hope that this piece will not only expand your insights, but also provide you with whatever you need in English writing, in terms of composing skills and writing resources. A good essay should be able to convince its readers. Therefore, you need to draw on compelling information, concrete examples, and authoratative resources. That's why I always ask you to read extensively to enrich your own knowledge. In so doing and by reading such informative articles as this one, you won't be worrying about what you should write while taking the exam.

Take my advice, make more efforts, and write at any time everyday. Writing is interesting. I hope you will enjoy the journey of writing as I do because it represents the most prudent skill you can ever possess in a language. keep on practicing. Good luck to all of you!

BR,
Sincerely your teacher,
Christine

Sensory Therapy—The Answer to Your Economic Blues?
“She says, let’s have Valentine’s Day early this year, and a few extra roses never hurt anyone…. She says that the seats in the luxury lovers’ boxes at theaters are not as soft as my shoulder…. She says, sometimes staying at home with me is more romantic than going out anywhere….”
This is the track from an advertisement called “Use ‘love’ to beat the recession” put out by PayEasy, the biggest women’s online shopping site in Taiwan. The handsome guy and beautiful girl, in a romantic setting with touching voiceovers, enabled it to win the “most popular” award in the “Happiness Advertising” contest sponsored by the Taiwan Public Service Advertising Council.

In these days of economic recession, which have been characterized as the era of the “three lows” (low interest rates, low salaries, low confidence), everywhere you look there is bad news, and many people have accumulated a whole barrelful of frustration, disillusionment, and stress. “Healing series” goods and services (the term comes from Japanese) like this advertisement can bring a temporary sense of happiness, and go against the rising tide of the times. The “healing series” economy, which we might also call the “therapeutic economy,” has not only supplanted the recent discourse on the “M-shaped society,” it has become an important new trend in the consumer market.

The therapeutic economy provides “hand warmers”(暖暖包) during an economic ice age that allow people to temporarily put their troubles aside. In fact, “healing” has proved even more effective than PayEasy’s “love” as a force for combating the recession, with healing-series products generating eye-catching returns against a backdrop of withering sales for other kinds of consumer goods.

Healing hits its stride
In fact, since the economy began turning sour in the second half of 2008, there has been a surge in popularity of products that claim to have physical or psychological benefits.

One example is the Self-Help and Spiritual Book Exhibition held in October 2008 by online bookstore Books.com.tw. Within less than a week after the event began, they already had more than 10,000 online purchases of related books and audio or video products.

Also, in 2008 total sales of online games, for which the appeal is based on “having a lot of fun without spending much money or having to go out,” broke through NT$10 billion for the first time. Other goods and services that are connected to the idea of emotional reassurance or relief—such as fortune telling, professional counseling, and collectible figurines and toys that are either very cute or good for venting stress, as well as large-scale outdoor activities that can take one’s mind off of daily life for a while—have all prospered in this recent stretch of time.

That’s the way the bubble bursts
It is not only in Taiwan that the “therapeutic economy” has brought business opportunities. Huang Jennjia, who teaches in the Department of Mass Communications at Tamkang University and who has done research in consumer anthropology in Japan, explains that this concept originated in that country, and that it refers to goods and services known as “healing series” products. This suggests the application of medical ideas from physical therapy to recovering from psychological injury, to relaxing, and to increasing stress resistance.

Huang relates that Japan is the most socially organized and urbanized country in the world, and Japanese culture is relatively introverted and repressed, with particular emphasis on self-discipline and group conformity, so that there is a great deal of accumulated stress. This may be why Japan has long had izakaya, karaoke, and pachinko, where people can appropriately dissolve the pressures of work and feelings of melancholy in drinking, belting out some tunes, or losing themselves in the mind-numbing cacophony or a pachinko parlor.

In the early 1990’s, Japan’s high-growth “bubble economy” suddenly burst, sending the country into economic doldrums lasting over a decade. Such a dramatic change was a serious blow to Japanese psyches. In response, “healing series” products claiming to help put people’s minds at ease came to prominence, helped by strong coverage in the media.

Huang Jennjia points out that today “healing” claims are advanced for products in virtually all aspects of life in Japan, including attire, dining, housing, transportation, and entertainment. One example—perhaps the prime example of warm-and-fuzzy TV advertising—was an advert for the Shinkansen (high-speed train) of Japan Railways. Featuring detailed and beautifully filmed symbols of Kyoto such as cherry blossoms, maple leaves, and traditional buildings, the ad was so moving that people mired in the pressures of everyday life could hardly resist the temptation to spontaneously order a ticket and go on a trip.

In the basements and on the roofs of the train stations along the Odakyu Electric Railway there are many privately run “urban gardens.” These give people who have been cooped up in an office all day the chance to get in touch with nature and work off some stress through physical labor.

“In Tokyo you can even find places called ‘oxygen bars.’ The décor inside is like a high-class salon or spa, very fashionable. Customers can sit in luxurious chairs under soft lighting and read or just relax, all the while taking a hit from an oxygen mask whenever they want. They are quite popular,” says Huang.

I hurt therefore I shop

How can shopping for certain products bring people peace of mind, and relieve anger and insecurity? Huang Jennjia says that from the perspective of consumer psychology, buying is a way in which some abstract concepts can be put into concrete form. When a certain product is endowed with or associated with a particular meaning, buying that product becomes a method of physically connecting with that meaning.

He says by way of illustration that roses and chocolate are often associated with “love,” so they are seen by both givers and receivers as conveying this meaning. By the same logic, healing products are associated with a sense of peace and well-being, so people do in fact connect to that concept by acquisition.

Psychiatrist Billy Pan of Wan Fang Hospital says that in fact almost all economic activities not related to the essentials of daily life (food, clothing, housing, transportation) have some effect in terms of relieving stress, healing psychological wounds, or improving mood. It’s just that when the economy turns sharply for the worse, people need to cut back on random extravagance, yet they are already accustomed to using consumption as a mood enhancer, so they end up focusing their spending on products specially endowed with therapeutic significance.

“When you get right down to it,” says Pan, “it’s also a kind of worship of the latest fashion.”

Sensory therapy
Of all the various healing series products out there, the ones that have the most direct effect, and are most easily acceptable to people, are those that achieve their psychological impact through one of the five physical senses: hearing, vision, smell, touch, and taste.

Meadow music goes mainstream (草地系音樂跨越主流)
Music, which appeals to the sense of hearing, is another widely used stress reliever. Besides the New Age, world, ethnic and spiritual music forms that most people are familiar with, even in the pop-music market the “healing style” is starting to make an appearance.

“Grassy meadow music,” as this genre is known in Chinese, literally means “music that makes you feel as if you are listening in a grassy meadow.” The tempos and rhythms are moderate, the voices inclined toward the soft and gentle, and the subject matter depicted in the songs is mainly positive and sunny. The images projected by the singers also differ from the flash of pop idols; usually they appear on stage in jeans and t-shirts with just a few guitars. “Grassy meadow” music seeks to give the listener a stress-free listening experience.

Provide an answer
Besides therapy that directly appeals to the five senses, other goods and services that can have a curative effect for consumers fail into one of three approaches: temporarily taking the individual off the beaten track; trying to provide an answer; and connecting the consumer to emotive personal or collective experiences.

The best example of going off the beaten track is computer games. In the non-stop course of smashing through obstacles, fighting monsters, and seeking treasure, game-players enter a different world where they can forget the troubles of the real world.

In terms of “seeking to provide an answer,” fortune telling, tarot readings, and psychological counseling all have the function of providing direction to the lost. They become tranquilizers craved by the public when people are flustered and confused and don’t know where to turn.

United Counseling Center founder Alan Chou relates that since the global financial storm touched off by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the US in the fall of 2008, many financial and high-tech firms have come to them to ask for classes in stress relief and mood control for employees. Business was up nearly 30% over the same period in 2007.

Chou points out that psychological counseling courses allow these people to get some relief by commiserating with others in a similar predicament, so that they don’t feel so alone. The courses also offer practical suggestions to help them through their troubles.

“For example, a lot of high-tech people were formerly so busy that they neglected their families and health, so you tell them that a leave without pay is in fact a great opportunity to take a breather from work,” explains Alan Chou, “Sometimes just changing the way you look at things opens up whole new horizons.”

Tapping into memories
In times of economic distress, comedies often become the mainstream of film, stage, and other forms of popular culture. For example, during the Great Depression in the US in the 1930s, movies in the genre of “screwball comedies” really hit the big time, because people who were crushed by the weight of daily life needed comedies to give themselves something to smile about, however temporarily.

But besides comedies, even more perceptive works of a healing nature are able to tap into the common memories of, and find resonance with, large numbers of viewers, and to touch them deeply through a combination of laughter and tears. The most popular domestically produced films of 2008—Cape No. 7 and Orz boyz—are representative of this.


Whether it be sensory therapy, or goods and services that draw on memories, offer explanations, or create imaginary worlds, perhaps, given the commercial operation of capitalist society, it is only natural that consumption is one of the most convenient and effective options to turn one’s mood around.

In this winter of our economic discontent, when most industries are going into hibernation, the “healing series” industry seems to have clear skies ahead. Although these products that bring a sense of well-being may just have a temporary band-aid effect, at least they provide a breather to find the strength to get up and get moving once again. As for the future, will they just blow away with the first warm wind? Or is this their chance to set down firm roots? It depends on whether those in the industry can correctly gauge the pulse of society, and keep coming up with an endless supply of creative ideas to touch people’s hearts.