Start from beginning

Ulaanbaatar from Zaisan

Everything started from 2009.

It was my graduated year from Univ. Luckily I’ve already admitted to graduate school. So I still stayed in Taipei, not been bothered by job hunting like others. Because of my classmate’s invitation, I attended a short-term Mongolian course in Sinica. Frankly speaking, I went there every week was only because it’s free and offered nice lunch. In the last lecture, one teacher talked about the program of going to Mongolia as a summer exchange student. It was the first time I met Mongolia, this beautiful and mystery country.

2012 firework for New Year at Sukhbaatar square

We stayed in Ulaanbaatar for only a month. While other Taiwanese students complaining about their bad dormitory, unfriendly people and language, we two wierdos were quite happy. Maybe because of the knowledge of anthropology, we know better of cultural shock and the importance of understanding. In Ulaanbaatar’s BBQ restaurant, Ms. Lan from NCCU suggested that I can do research of Mongolian modern music. It lightened some sparks of my thoughts. Mongolian traditional music has already been studied by many musicologists, but modern pop-rock music still has a long way to go. By coincident, we met Altan Urag, Mongolian folk-rock band, on the street, and it interested me. They started from 2004, playing rock music with traditional instruments. I chose them as my research subject because they’re well known and cool, and also because that I want to go to Mongolia again.

So I started to prepare the exchange student program for a whole semester in 2011. TOEFL, CV… Because Mongolia is not a popular country for applying exchange students, I didn’t do much effort to get into the gate. When I see those students who eager fighting to go to U.S., England or Japan, I don’t really understand. With the help of school to go to some places that’s harder to go to, is much worth for me.

Pulled too far, anyway, because I’m going to Mongolia to do my thesis research, I tried to contact people who can help. But the truth is that Mongolians are not used to internet. It’s much easier to contact them face to face, or in cell phone at least. For example, at first I can’t even contact Altan Urag through their official website. It made me anxious and thinking that if they’re not friendly and not willing to do interview. But when I got there, face to face, they are all really nice and happy to hear some Taiwanese student is interested in their music.

About the flight, because I don’t want landing at Ulaanbaatar directly, and I also want to visit my teacher in Inner Mongolia, so I chose land route: landing at Beijing, taking bus to Huhhot and stayed for some days; taking another bus to Erlian and switch to train, heading to Ulaanbaatar. It’s not easy to carry all my luggage through these transportations. But it’s fun. And it interesting to see the landscape, the languages and people change slowly; more and more Mongolian, less and less Chinese.

Christmas feast made by dorm folks

In National University of Mongolia (NUM), there’s a dormitory only for foreign student. In the first few months, I only went out with friends from my dorm. It sounds a little solitary, but I did make some really good friends. We went to countryside, riding horses, going picnic, and gathered together at corridor almost every day. It’s like the friendship together through hard time. The life in dorm made a great deal in my whole exchange-student period.

In the end, I know most people must been heard of how messy and chaos is in Ulaanbaatar. It’s a city full of thieves and unfriendly drivers, air pollution and xenophobia. But when you’re in countryside, you will be amazed about how friendly and hospitality Mongolians can be. Even when you’re in cities, there’re still cute corners and nice people. It’s a country needed to discover by heart.