1.媒體來源:
BBC
2.記者署名:
Hope NGO
3.完整新聞標題:
The 'good luck' snack that makes Taiwan's technology behave
讓台灣科技乖乖聽話的好運零嘴
4.完整新聞內文:
In Taiwan, coconut-flavoured corn crisps are seen as good-luck charms that
ensure high-tech machines co-operate. But why?
Crisps have a sacred role in office culture. They are the perfect mid-morning
pick-me-up, the moreish side to a light sandwich lunch, or the fuel that
keeps us going when meetings run past mealtimes.
But in Taiwan, one particular brand of crisps does more than keep hunger
pangs at bay. Many of the island’s machines – from cash machines to radio
transmission towers – seem to rely on the presence of green bags of puffy,
coconut-flavoured corn crisps to stay in tip-top condition.
People see these crisps as amulets – or good luck charms – that, if used
properly, will ensure that technology behaves well and doesn’t break down.
They place bags of this humble snack, known as ‘Kuai Kuai’, on or around
vital machines in many of the island’s laboratories, banks and even
hospitals to ensure the machines continue to do their jobs.
But how did this savoury product end up assuming near-mythical protective
properties and, in a technologically advanced society that supplies most of
the world’s semiconductors, why exactly do people buy into it?
‘Be good’
No one is entirely sure exactly when or how the green bags of Kuai Kuai
crisps became seen as symbolic tech whisperers whose mere presence could keep
electronics in line. The Kuai Kuai company was established in 1968 by Liao
Jing Gang and his son Spencer, a team who needed to find a way to keep their
main business, a pharmaceutical importing and manufacturing company, busy
during slow periods, so they began making snacks and confectionery.
“Kuai Kuai were specifically created to be sold to children. Back then,
there was nothing like that on the market,” says Irene Liao, who is Spencer’
s daughter and the firm’s current general manager. But that all changed when
the crisps, whose name means ‘behave’ or ‘be good’ in both Mandarin and
Taiwanese, caught the eye of a graduate student.
The student was in IT, his story spread by word-of-mouth and the Kuai Kuai
legend was born
“It apparently all started with this graduate student who was working on his
thesis and his computer kept crashing. So, he had the idea that his device
might have needed a talisman,” she says.
Lucky charms still play a significant role in Taiwanese society regardless of
industry, so it is understandable that the student felt he needed one. And
there would have been logic behind using a green bag of Kuai Kuai crisps; the
name was right (‘be good’) and there is a general assumption that green is
synonymous with ‘go’, as it would be on a traffic light – so the student
put the bag on his computer. “Next thing he knew, the computer was working
normally, and he was able to get his thesis done in time,” Liao says.
But even Liao says she had to track down the story of Kuai Kuai’s
metamorphosis from children’s snack to technology-tamer online, because she
had only heard it third hand. As far as she knows, the student was in IT, his
story spread by word-of-mouth and the Kuai Kuai legend was born.
The company says it hasn’t promoted the tech-protecting properties of its
product. “The story grew and developed organically, [which means] different
people from different industries are able to put their own interpretation
into how they think the bags ought to be used,” says Liao. A case in point
– as well as being used on cash machines, office servers and copying
machines, bags of Kuai Kuai are also being used in hospitals across Taiwan to
keep critical machines like ventilators going.
They can be found at radio transmission sites, too. Lionel Leng, an engineer
who has worked at International Community Radio Taipei off and on since the
1990s, doesn’t remember when the practice began, let alone who started it.
But he says he started using the crisps because he’d seen other people in
his profession do it. “I saw what they did with the bags, and then I’d ask
the other engineers what they were, and they would say, ‘oh those are Kuai
Kuai’, which means ‘listen to me’ or ‘obey’, so the machines would do
that.”
Obey the rules
Although Kuai Kuai’s role in the tech workspace evolved organically, the
crisps’ use is governed by a set of hard-and-fast rules. Kuai Kuai bags may
come in three colours – the other two are yellow for five-spice and red for
chocolate – but everyone knows that only the green bags can be used on
machines. “Both yellow and red are colours that signal caution and alarm,”
explains Leng.
The bags also cannot be used as amulets beyond their expiration date, so Leng
says they are usually swapped twice a year – once during the start of the
Lunar New Year, which normally takes place around February, and again during
the Ghost Festival in July. And lest you think you can get away with
displaying empty bags of Kuai-Kuai, those in the tech world say the snack
shouldn’t be consumed, otherwise you technically void its protective
warranty.
And it’s not just the tech sphere that relies on these good-luck charms;
Irene Liao says bags of Kuai Kuai make their way overseas when performing
artists go offshore and they need to make sure their equipment is protected.
While Peter Hsu, who has an advanced degree in photonics technologies, was
working on his post-graduate degree at university, he said bags of Kuai Kuai
could be found in the laboratories. “I really don’t know if people buy this
[the idea that the bags keep tech from breaking down], but everyone does it
because it doesn’t hurt,” he says.
The power of ambiguity
Kuai Kuai can even be found at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s premier research
institute. Ting Jen-Chieh, a research fellow who specialises in social
psychology, confirms that the institute’s technicians have been laying out
bags of Kuai Kuai since 2002. To discourage rodents, the Kuai Kuai bags are
themselves protected by being kept in their boxes.
We believe there is plenty of ambiguity between what is believable and what
isn’t – Ting Jen-Chieh
Ting, who is attached to the Institute of Ethnology, believes the use of Kuai
Kuai reflects several trends: that the practice was something that everyone
wanted to try, that it was not viewed as illogical because everyone else was
doing it, and that it was a ritual that everyone undertook because there was
a genuine fear that without the bags, machines might actually break down. “
Some people may believe it, some may not, but we believe there is plenty of
ambiguity between what is believable and what isn’t, which is why it
continues to be done,” he says.
Irene Liao is grateful that her father and grandfather’s legacy is so keenly
appreciated by Taiwan’s workforce, especially since belief in the crisps’
power as a tech whisperer has helped the brand endure. “This is the only
place in the world where a snack brand can become a cultural phenomenon. I
cannot see that happening anywhere else,” she says.
And even though she believes that only a small portion of the crisps that are
purchased are actually consumed, she is not tempted to skimp on the quality
of the ingredients used to make Kuai Kuai because, as she puts it: “They’re
meant to be eaten.”
5.完整新聞連結 (或短網址):
https://bbc.in/3gqaqrN
6.備註:
台灣人的小秘密被發現惹？>///<
全文好長 _(:3」∠)_
只翻標題＋摘要重點應該可以...吧？
基本上很詳細地報導了機器上放乖乖的歷史由來、
哪些場合會有人放乖乖來祈求機器正常運作、
也有提到乖乖三種顏色包裝各自所代表不同的含義。
註：準備PO文前發現報橘也有報導這篇，
不想看英文的鄉民也可以直接看
https://bit.ly/3tmDhAK