You might notice something weird when buying food in Taiwan. A lot of stuff expired 11 years ago! Check out the orange juice I bought on the picture - the expiration day states 97 03 01. Nope, there's nothing wrong with this orange juice. Some stuff in the convenience store show the year "97" and some show the correct year (2008). But what's with the "best consumed before 1997" thing? Well, it's not really 1997... It's not 1997 AD - Christians, and most of the world, follow the AD format since it's how old Jesus Christ would be if he lived up to this day. It's 97. The year 97.
Ok, so what's with the year 97? Someone (or something) was born 97 years ago and he (or it) was special? Yes, to the Taiwanese (and Chinese) people, the answer is YES. On October 10, 1911, there was this WuChang Uprising in China which eventually led to the end of the Qing Dynasty and the "Birth" of the Republic of China. This "10/10" or Double Ten Day is a holiday (wooohooo!) and is called National Celebration Day 國慶日 . Going back to the story, a couple of months later after the uprising, they have set January 1, 1912 as the First Year of the Republic. And so, the year 2008 is the 97th year of the Republic.
So anyway, the next time you buy orange juice, or milk, or any stuff with a weird year, confirm it by adding 1,911. 97 + 1911 = 2008! The year would look more weird on 2011, the expiration date on my juice would be 100 03 01, it would not look like a date at all!
Whew! The history stuff made me thirsty, let's drink that orange juice!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Taiwan Calendar System - What's wrong with my Orange Juice?
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13 comments:
Er.. ok. Let's hope that you're still up and running (and blogging)tomorrow. :p
Haha! Hmm... I am pretty confident that the "97" on this orange juice refers to the Taiwan year and not 1997... I hope ^^
Interesting. Japan has has a different calender year too which corresponds to the Emperor's age. It is now the year 20.
Thats different but interesting! :) Hope your tummy's okay tomorrow! hihi!
Marie
I get really confused when checking the dates on food as I'm not good at math. There're many systems used here - local food with the republic year, imported food with dates like yyyymmdd, ddmmyy, mmddyy. Sometimes I really want to scream, 'this went off ages ago!'
@thomas
Wow! It's year 20 in Japan? Now that's confusing... if I will go to Japan, I have to adjust my clock (timezone) and my calendar too! ^^
@Gorgeous Traveller (Marie)
My tummy's still ok... so far ^^ Thanks!
@la.traducteuse
Yeah! Not only do you have to "guess" what the chinese character's mean (which one's the expiration)... you also have to guess what the date format is (is the first two numbers the month? day? or year?). And lastly, if they are using the Taiwan year (97)... whew! food shopping is very stressful! ^^
thanks for the lesson, learned something about Taiwan
Oh my goodness, I have to know math when buying orange juice? I would be better off sticking with water.
Luckily I found your blog. I was confused when I was looking through First Day Cover's cancellation mark on it which was showing 97 instead of 2008. At first I thought I was the Chinese Lunar Year, but it doesn't match with it neither. I was somehow sure there must be some sort year system involved.
Thanks for the explanation,dude.
I figured it was something like that, but I could not for the life of me figure out what 97 had to do with anything. :)
I didn't read the title and thought that the Taiwanese don't care if they sell expired goods.
Nice blog, this is my first visit!
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