Random notes and thoughts about Taiwan

Talking to a recent Colgate graduate in Taiwan, she called Taiwan “America Light”. It’s kinda true but then some things are just exaggerated to the extreme. Like 7-11’s. There’s quite possibly a million of them on this island. According to the always-right Wikipedia, Taiwan has the highest concentration of convenience stores anywhere in the world and many will be right across the street from the last one. It’s almost an economic mystery to me how they all manage to stay in business. Then again, this one of the most densely populated places in the world.

Taiwan also has one of the lowest birthrates in the world apparently. Going of second hand observations, I’d say no to this since we saw toddlers everywhere. Though I’d probably have to say most of them looked to be only children. Another odd thing with all the babies everywhere was the lack of pregnant women. I mean, babies have to come from somewhere right? So if there’s all these babies, where are the pregnant people? I managed to spot one pregnant lady the last day we were in Taiwan, but that was it. Seems like there ought to be more. Maybe they stay inside.

If most people only have one child, wait until late(r), or none at all, they seem to shower all that unused affection on their small dogs. Every small dog wears clothing and most are usually carried from place to place. Some even ride in strollers. The last entry about moving through crowds might help explain why the dogs are carried. In some areas you can’t see the ground and a small dog would easily be lost.

The clothing concept is not foreign to me since I’ve dogs wearing shirts before. What’s a little strange is these dog clothes have back leg coverings. It’s like a huge gasty accessorized sock with four leg holes that they put these creatures into. We met a nice little hot dog in a bumblebee suite. That was a pudgy little dog.

Not all dogs are so lucky to be carried around and wear clothing. There seems to be an abnormal amount of loose/stray dogs on this island. These are much more ratty and seem rather oblivious to people in general. They sleep soundly in the middle of any kind of foot traffic and can be found nearly anywhere. They all need a good bath and brushing. I didn’t see so many cats, only a couple here and there. Maybe all the stray dogs ate them…

I think these next observations might be just an Asia thing and not so much a Taiwan thing, but museums have been done to death. One of my pictures focuses on the tourist advertisement for the Museum of Drinking Water. Not only have they been done to death but museums strictly contain Chinese things. If you go to a museum in America there’s stuff from all other countries and cultures, and Europe is pretty similar in featuring stuff from other areas. China/Taiwan has only China/Taiwan stuff. I attribute this to having an abnormally long history and being more than capable of filling an entire building with their own history. Not to mention Taiwan sees itself as the preserver of “authentic” Chinese tradition (aka, the old things weren’t destroyed during the Cultural Revolution like they were in China).

Another thing you won’t find in most art museums is the color purple. Pottery is a lot of color, especially blue and white, or red and white, but almost nothing is purple. Light greenish purple can sometimes be spotted but a deep violet is hard to spot. I guess the technique just wasn’t there. A shame really since that’s really the only color I would like on a vase. Chinese art is very much not my favorite type. In fact, art in general is pretty wussy. Unless it’s a good marble carving. Marble sculptures are impressive.

Moving to a different tangent, people love to eat bread filled with meat or sweet things here. It’s the same in China too. Just something about a bread filled steamed bun seems to get people excited. There’s an abnormal number of variations you can do with bread filled meat. I find it rather bland because most of its tasteless steamed bun bread or filled with pork. Neither inspires me to eat more than I have to.

And red beans. What is with the red beans? Red bean soup, red bean ice cream, red bean paste, red bean bread…the list goes on! They’re just red beans cooked with enough sugar to make you a diabetic but they’re EVERYWHERE. I like them well enough, but sometimes you’ve just got to say no to red beans. I find it questionable that the stray dogs don’t want to eat it.

[The following is a homework assignment on which we had to turn in our thoughts on Taiwan. Most of it has already been stated in different ways already but it had to be put into a more stuffy way to present as homework]

Jan. 19-Jan.30: Taiwan, Special Administrative Region of China
I must admit that starting out our trip to Taiwan was not my favorite idea. Taiwan had always seemed like a trouble maker to me, something I can’t stand. Maybe it’s not the “right” way to think, but I prefer falling in line and if I disagree I’ll do it on my own time. All I knew prior to coming was that it was an island and its defense was contracted out to the U.S. Getting there and meeting the people reminded me of what I should have known all along- a country’s image is not representative of its people.

Perhaps it was part of Taiwan’s somewhat unique history of never being…by itself, if you will, that makes it seem like a conglomeration of several places at once. When it was referred to as “America Light”, at first it seemed like that wasn’t giving enough credit to Taiwan and its people, but the longer we were there the more it seemed to be an accurate description. There were recognizable stores everywhere- most notably 7-11, store procedures like America, and everyone could speak English (which they did whenever we wanted to communicate to our unending frustration).

Even the lecture on politics did nothing but remind of America. They have a rather giant divide between the two main parties, which I found remarkable similar to Democrats and Republicans, and they have the North-South disparity and resentment feelings.

There were of course, some differences to be found. I’m inclined to think that people treat their dogs like children (or in some cases in the place of children if the birthrate is anything to go by) with the dressing in clothing and carrying around. Some of them even would ride in strollers! Coming from a doting dog family, I understand where they’re coming from, even if I find it mildly excessive.
The style of eating and type of food still had the atmosphere of being abroad, for which I am quite grateful. There’s (almost) nothing worse than going on vacation somewhere far away and eating something you could’ve had at home.

I left Taiwan much less hostile to the area, but it didn’t really feel like Asia to me (I think it was the abundance of Western style toilets). It felt like the midway point between East and West, just enough of each for everyone to fooled into thinking they’re home.

January 29, 2009: Taipei, Taiwan

Yah for Taipei again! It felt like coming home when we ended our bus tour, even though we’ll only be here two more days.
Our last stop on the bus tour was Taroko Gorge, the place that apparently represents Taiwan best. It’s kind of a big deal. It was gorgeous (hah! Get it? …I know, very bad) and the story of the road’s construction through it was almost as impressive. It was dug out by hand for most of the way since when it was being built Taiwan’s infrastructure and technology was pretty nonexistent. For one section of 200 meters, 2000 people were injured or died. This is why I won’t work in construction. Even if working a big rig would be something work bragging about.

Tram and I are known unofficially as the White Twins. I’m Big Twin and she’s Small. Reason being I were my white hoodie every single day and she also has a white hoodie she wears nearly every day. They’re both Aeropostale too. We also happen to always be in the same place at the same time and bicker about every possible thing. I think we were a good match as roommates.

Yesterday we went to Taipei 101, a giant building that they love to talk about. It’s one of those engineering marvels that get included on Discovery Channel programming once in a while. The elevators take you from floor one to 89 in about 40 seconds. Does anyone else think it’s frightening to think how many meters per second they have to be moving? Elevators = one of Kaela’s irrational fears. I blame it on watching a movie where the cable snapped when I was a child. I don’t remember any of the rest of the movie or even if I watched anything other than that scene. We also went to Memorial Museum of Art. I remember nothing other than there’s a lot of pottery and some gold stuff.

Today we went to yet another museum, the National Palace Museum. Again, I remember nothing. I guess art just isn’t my thing. The coastal part of the northern island was more interesting to me. It was absolutely packed. Which wasn’t so bad of a thing when you were out in the open, but down the street where all the street stalls and shops were made for a living sea of people. I can see over their heads. The small children reach my knees if they’re lucky. I feel like Godzilla.

I can even move like Godzilla. See, there’s no such thing as “space” here. If there’s a gap, someone will be in it before you can even think about moving into it. The result of this is a cultural norm of shoving, esp. in crowded market places. You just walk where you want to walk and if there’s no gap (no matter what size. A gap is defined as visible space between people and objects) you make the gap. I make gaps rather easily and if my class mates walk behind me close enough they can just file in behind. Most of the others still move like Americans in crowds, polite like. I find it refreshing to be able to plow through without having to worry about decorum. The only rules are Don’t hesitate and Don’t take it personally. Trampling young children is probably discouraged, but not ruled out entirely.

Dinner was at Professor Ying’s house (he gave the lecture on economics earlier on) where we met his family. His wife and nanny(?) made the meal. All of it from scratch. Oh so so good. We were all suitably impressed. Have you ever made lasagna noodles from flour? I imagine it’s not quite so easy…

As a side note, there was actually enough for all of us. We eat like starving wolves. The four boys easily tuck away as much as all eight girls eat. We call them the human garbage disposals. Before we even finish our meals, they’re always eyeing our table for leftover food. It can be a little unnerving. I hold the title for fastest eater on the trip. If we have single servings of food, I will win that race every time. It only looks like I don’t win when we group eat because they have stamina where I have speed. I haven’t choked on a fish bone yet, but it’s a definite possibility (since they don’t debone anything here).

Professor Ying has two daughters and after his wife gave a rather informal lecture on the healthcare and educational system in Taiwan I had the older one teach me Chinese Chess~checkers. It must have been the prelude to adult checkers cause I’ve played that before and this was a little different. A bit easier, but impossible for me to play without asking lots of repetitive questions. You had to remember which piece was stronger or weaker so you could kill other pieces, which is hard to do when you are looking at Chinese characters. She said I was harder to play than her Dad, which makes me feel pretty cool. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t go easy on her either. Watch out David VanB, I’m coming for you! (Yes, my self-confidence is boosted when I can beat a 7 year old. Except I didn’t beat Professor Ying’s daughter…)

January 26, 2009: Hualien, Taiwan

住你新年快乐！牛年对你好了！Happy Chinese New Years!!! May the Ox treat you well!

I’m going to compile a few days into this entry as I can hardly remember what happened on which day. That’s the downside of cramming so much activity into a short time span. You don’t even remember what you did after breakfast.

The last two days were spent in a city called Kending. On the first day we started with taking a group photo under Big Pointy Mountain. Isn’t it a lovely name? Apparently, from some angles you see it as a sharp pointed mountain and from other’s its nice and rounded. We’ve been working on coming up with a translation that sounds a little more regal…

There was lots of scenery but the highlight for me personally was when we ran into another tour group following our path. They were students of some sort and were chatting (loudly) among themselves. We knew that they were talking about us because A) we can speak Chinese too and B) even if we didn’t, the word for foreigner is a word everyone who enters the country learns first. I don’t mind people talking about us, but it wouldn’t serve them well if they thought that they could do that to every foreigner they ran into now would it? I accidently got caught up in their group at some point and asked in Chinese (hopefully eloquently) what grade level they were. The boy responded in English, looked confused, and then dismayed while the rest of the group laughed quite a bit. Moral of the story- you never know who can understand you. If you wouldn’t speak about them when they can understand you, don’t do it if they can’t.

Later that day we went to a village with replicas of the original style of homes that the aboriginals lived in. They looked very similar to the Chinese style homes I was already familiar with. There was also a bridal sedan chair in one of the court yards, so we put Ellie in it and made the boys carry her around. It was funny. She looked terrified (that they’d drop her), which was appropriate- brides were supposed to weep the entire way from their parents home to the grooms for some cultural reason .

The next day was full of stuff seeing. We went to maotoubi. Literally cat head nose. It’s the southern most point of Taiwan and is called that because of a rock in the ocean that apparently looks a bit like a cat. There’s some debate about that though. Personally, I think it looks like a fish.

We went and rode around on a Go Cart track for a little bit. That was fun. Gunning a car as fast as you can go, even if it is a go-cart, and then whipping around a corner is awesome. I will of course not try it in a full size. I’d have to pay for the damages. Maybe if I didn’t have to pay…

We also went to Eluanbi where we saw the lighthouse fortress. Previous attempts to light fire stacks to warn ships of the shallow coast had been put out by natives because they were afraid of them. The British decided that a proper lighthouse needed to be build and fortified against attempts to put it out. You can count on the British to put fortification into everything…even a lighthouse. There were even holes in the wall to place guns and cannons, although there was never any firing done.

We left there and went to Taitung to stay at a hot springs hotel for the evening. It was nice enough, but I personally liked Kaohsung’s hotel better. They had better soap.

Girl bonding is pretty amusing, though I’m not allowed to tell what it was. It’s a secret J

There was the sporadic sound of firecrackers in the evening but I slept like a dog (I accidently wrote “god” the first time I typed this entry, haha.). Today is New Year’s but we don’t see a lot of evidence of it. If I think about it, there’s not much life in America on New Year’s Day either, aside from TVs showing the Macy’s parade…talk about a shopping culture :P

Today we went to the Siaoyeliou and Sansiantia Nature Reserves, as well as a place where there was a bunch of Caves and Buddhas/various Gods. At Sansiantia we watched a fisherman reel in a fish up the bridge we were standing. The fish looked like a barracuda and had a long jaw full of teeth. He takes out a pair of things that could be pliers or those scissor wrenches and the naïve girl in me thought he might be pulling out the hook. Nope, he snapped off the upper than lower jaws with it. I wish he hadn’t thrown them over the bridge though. It would’ve been cool to have some of those teeth.

At the Buddha caves we saw more scenery and walked around. We’re all going to have a million pictures of the coast that all look exactly the same. We also saw a monkey and tried Betel nuts. Do not ever eat them. EVER. It was a less than pleasant experience. They taste nasty and make you feel like there’s cotton shoved down your throat. Old people love chewing them. I think its cause when you’re old you lose more of your sensitivity to things and this is strong enough for them to enjoy. That or they’ve gone senile.

We also went to an Ami cultural village and saw some traditional dancing. Very much like what you might be able to do in the States with our Native Americans. It feels a little like they’re whoring out their traditions so people can gawk at it and buy silly trinkets. I think that’s just me though. Geoff was included in a mock marriage ceremony and carried the girl around on his back with the help of a little tiny chair (real Ami guys were supposed to make a chair on their back using their arms and hands). Poor boy didn’t know what he was getting into when he was invited upstage. I suspect this might be true for guys in every culture.

At least our boys didn’t have to hike up a vertical mountain with a girl on their back.

January 23, 2009: Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Today we got exercise! And by exercise I mean bone numbing excruciating difficult upward mountain climbing. You think I’m exaggerating, but it’s only by a little. Our director told us in an email that we’d be going on a hike. We pictured some sort of nature walk with a little bit of uphill walking. Nooooo….we climbed up on all fours on occasion with the aid of ropes tethered to trees. As we continued up we steadily lost more and more members of our parties. The view at the top was pretty impressive though. We could see most of the school on that side (but none of the city. There is a GIANT wall of green plants that separated the entire school from the city) and the harbor.

Speaking of harbor, did I mention that the Marine Biology department has one? Their own personal harbor. And their own boat? A 20 ton boat.

Later we took a tour of China Steel Corporation, one of the Steel companies of Taiwan. It was cool, but not as cool as it could have been since they weren’t producing anything during the New Year holiday. The area where it’s built is literally a small city. They’ve got everything they need including a fire department, hospital, and movie theater. The downside is that there’s 99 guys to 1 girl (steel production, duh). I’m not sure how men who work there manage to socialize with the opposite gender. With that sort of ratio, women might be like Martians to them.

For dinner we took a ferry across the strait about 5 minutes to Cijin where Tram and I broke off from the main group. We ate and then poked around a few shops. In one of them the owner was very helpful and chatty with us and told us we should see the Night Market then promptly circled it on a city map and gave it to us for free. People are so friendly when you are obviously bumbling around like an idiot (at least here). We hit the night market and Tram went bonkers for the street food. It was amusing to watch. I personally liked the stick with sugar engulfed strawberries (though the tomatoes were no good. Who eats sugared tomatoes for dessert?!).

Taiwan seems to like us. We like it back.

January 22, 2009: Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Trains go fast-ish. Bullet trains go faster than I want to think about riding in. We went to the train station to catch a train to Kaohsiung, which is about mid-way down on the West coast. The whole ride only took us about an hour and a half. The trip was informative as Tram began my Asian boy band education via her iPod. It’s like watching the Backstreet Boys all over again. Only with strangely painted eye makeup and matching hairstyles.

This trip is the vacation within the vacation. We’re taking a bus tour all the way around the island back to Taipei and stopping at certain points to see scenery and various sites. It should be pretty neat. Few people live on the West and Southern Coasts and more of them are aboriginal peoples.

In Kaohsiung we stayed at National Sun Yatsen University, another breathtaking campus. Seriously, if I wanted to go to school to enjoy the area around me, I might move to Taiwan. They’ve got a beach <2>

We had two lectures while we were there, one on econ and one on Taiwan’s political history (which is just messed up and confused). The econ lecture was fascinating to me, which is frightening, and I want to take an economics class next semester. I think it might come in useful eventually.

Time for the thirty second Taiwanese history lesson!!! Taiwan (population: 23 million & second most densely populated country) was found by Portuguese in the mid-16^th century. They called it Formosa (the beautiful island. Very original of them). The Dutch bullied the Portuguese off the island and made it a colony from 1622 to 1662 when the Ming Dynasty took the Island for the burgeoning Chinese empire. In 1895 Taiwan become the spoils of the Japanese when they won the Sino-Japanese war. In 1945, after the end of WWII, Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China and in 1949, the Nationalist Party limped over the Strait of Taiwan after being beaten by the Communists. In 1951, Taiwan was a major base for the United States during the Korean war. The icing on the cake is that the aboriginals of Taiwan have been jipped throughout the entire story, what with the murdering and the uprooting (the major theme of the world it seems).

Is it obvious as to why this country/area has identity issues?

Political system is fun too. They have five branches of government compared to our three. There’s the standard Executive, Judicial, and Legislative, but also Examination and Control branches. The Examination branch recruits civil servants and is in charge of determining public servant’s benefits and responsibilities. The Control branch assesses government officials and offices and ensures no fraud. I’m sure it’s somewhat effective since the Taiwanese seem to love talking about how their previous President is now in jail for fraud and money laundering.

There are two main political camps (even though there’s over 100 officially), the Pan-Blue camp and Pan-Green camp. Tram wanted to know why they were called blue and green, a valid question. Apparently, it’s the color they choose for their representative flags XD. Pan-Blue is dominated by the KMT and is rather pro-China. Pan-Green is all about Taiwanese specialness and is run by the DPP, Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan is unfortunate to only have 21-23 countries officially recognize it as a country and most of those are poor Central and South American countries. Officially doesn’t mean that there isn’t ways to bend the rules (which most countries seem to do on a regular basis) so Taiwan has a pretty good handle on exporting goods. Some people think that Taiwan and China have a strained relationship, which has been true in the past but currently the relationship is doing quite well. For example, direct flights from Taiwan to Chinese cities have begun in this last year for the first time. Some reasons for this change include the fact that America has become rather friendly/reliant on China and is also the main purchaser of Taiwanese goods. Hence, it’s a good idea to also be friends with China. Secondly, the new president is from the Pan-Blue camp and is working to tie the mainland and the island together. So far so good.

For the rest of the evening we took a brief trip to the (black sand!) beach and had dinner. I stayed in and went directly to bed, but apparently some of my classmates had an adventure to the 7-11. Taiwan has the highest density of convenience stores anywhere (as stated by Wikipedia) and we literally pass one or its Asian variant every 100 meters or so. This might be why the biggest disease problem in the country happens to be diabetes.

January 21, 2009: Taipei, Taiwan

Today we had a tour of Shih Hsin University (they specialize in communications). The school is in a phenomenal location- literally in a valley and the buildings are built on staircases. You had to walk through a tunnel to get to the school from the street. It felt a little like walking into to Dinotopia (if you’ve seen the movie). Sadly, there were no dinosaurs around. Just a bunch of Chinese students eager to meet us. We’ve had welcomes like we were Prime Ministers and Presidents everywhere we go. It’s going to be a let down when we finally come back to the States and aren’t special anymore. L

We were there for a while, what with the tour, lecture on Taiwan’s educational system and improvements (which started awkwardly for us since we had to introduce ourselves in Chinese. Let me restate that none of us have confidence in ourselves speaking Chinese. Though I complimented their campus, so hopefully that earned me extra points).

Lunch was also with them at a nearby restaurant. I sat by the guy who was in charge of our visit and rather important on campus. It’s been happening more than occasionally on this trip so far. I figure it helps them remember me and I get more information than the people sitting elsewhere. Yay for networking! Anyways, he was very nice and I was rather pleased with the fact that he didn’t know my English name, only my Chinese name (but knew the English names of the others of us at the table).

Two students offered to take Tram, Becky, Tina, and I to a nearby temple for folk religion. We’re going to visit it as a group later on, but we won’t get the inside version of what’s actually going on like we did with the girls. Like everything else even vaguely Chinese, religion is mad confusing. No body actually know’s what’s what because there’s a lack of distinct guidelines. This temple was used for popular folk religion. Lots of incense and bai bai-ing (the Chinese equivalent of kneeling for prayer. Only you don’t typically kneel…only sometimes…). You could ask the gods for good health, prosperity, help with your studies, children, and finding significant others. I declined to request a boyfriend but Becky and Tram did. Now Tram wishes she didn’t after I reminded her she might get a boyfriend while she’s in China.

Not much else to mention except we found dark beer flavored ice cream (which was disgusting. But maybe that’s because I find dark beer disgusting in general) and Tram and I did laundry. Lots of trekking up a flight of stairs and riding the elevator back down (because we were both too dense to figure out how to open the stairwell door from the inside). Not to mention the dryers were ineffective so we ended up laying out all our clothes on every available surface to continue drying. It looked a little like a bomb blew up and very precisely scattered clothing. Which may be against the definition of what bomb aftermath is…