Infrequent Nights

Emerging countries seem to like to build huge skyscrapers. It is as if they are declaring the maturity of their economy and infrastructure by demonstrating to the world the immensity of their industrial and engineering capabilities. The United States went through an early phase of this in the first half of the twentieth century, and continued until the seventies. Canada built its own concrete phallic symbol in Toronto. Europeans don't seem as turned on by tall buildings. Maybe it is their innate sensibilities, as once a building goes beyond a certain number of floors it actually begins to lose square footage as the elevator shafts required to service the upper floors take up so much space. Emerging, and fully emerged, Asian economies have been announcing their presence to the world with these huge buildings more and more recently

Now Taiwan and China are competing for the title of World's Tallest Building (apparently there is a distinction between building and tower, otherwise the CN Tower would still trump these Chinese skyscrapers). Shanghai is building a mammoth tower to try to claim the world title. Here in Taiwan they have Taipei 101.

It is, intuitively enough, 101 stories tall. That is tall for any building, anywhere. In fact the Taiwanese claim it is, right now, the tallest building in the World. But here in Taipei 101 stories seems even taller than it would elsewhere. You see the Taiwanese don't seem to like to make their buildings overly tall. This is a sensible trait, as the island is plagued not only with frequent Typhoons, but also occasional serious earthquakes. Taipei 101 literally TOWERS over the entirety of Taipei. It dwarfs everything in this city. It is usable as a landmark from most places. Just look up and, if you aren't too close to any buildings, chances are you'll find Taipei 101. It is quiet a pretty building and, incidentally, has a very good food court in the basement. I reckon this one towering structure will suffice to announce to the world that Taiwan is a member of the big boy's club. The adolescent urge to build huge things is tempered here by the prohibitive cost of planning for potential natural disasters. The amount of engineering ingenuity required to ensure that Taiwanese buildings don't topple makes undertaking these symbolic projects less attractive. Taipei 101 will have to serve as symbol enough to demonstrate Taiwan's advanced, and affluent nature.

Posted by Ryan at 01:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This afternoon I did some touristy things here in Taipei. I started off at the National Palace Museum at about noon. To get there from my current lodgings I took the MRT for about twenty minutes, and then switched to a bus for about another ten. It was my first time on a bus here, and I was again impressed with the public transit system here in Taipei. It is cheap, clean, comfortable, and extensive. Nonetheless many locals seem to prefer the freedom offered by their scooters. While riding the bus this morning I saw a not uncommon sight. It was an entire family piled onto one tiny scooter. The father was driving, while his wife clung onto his back. Meanwhile his legs were splayed apart to free up room where his feet would normally go for both of his children to stand at attention. The child in front held onto the middle of the handle bars, while the child behind her held onto her sister’s shoulders. Between the children’s feet was the family dog curled up into an impossibly small space. I guess it makes for a fuel efficient way to transport four people and a dog, and saves on parking charges.

The National Palace Museum houses what many consider to be the best collection of Chinese art and artifacts in the world. The KMT brought them from the mainland for ‘safe keeping’ during the withdrawal. Mainlanders gripe about this cultural ‘theft’ but considering the various upheavals the mainland has gone through since ’49 it is probably for the best that these priceless items are safe and sound here in Taipei. The collection is so vast only a fraction can be displayed at any one time. Thus the exhibits are rotated on a fairly regular basis. Today there was a display of Imperial name stamps, jade artifacts, calligraphy, ancient maps of Asia (these were all of European origin), Buddhist and Hindu statuary, and some highlights of the museum’s porcelain, ivory and jade collections. My personal highlight was one of the museum’s most famous pieces. It is a single piece of ivory carved into an incredibly ornate and intricate decorative item. Somehow the artisan managed to carve seventeen concentric spheres from this single piece of ivory. The spheres are held within a framework made of the same piece of ivory which is suspended from chain, yet again carved from the same material.

Beyond the concentric ivory spheres, I found myself gravitating towards items which had more utilitarian backgrounds. I can only stand to look at so many decorative items in one day. However, items that had a purpose when they were made are more evocative to me. I prefer to be fascinated by things which were used by real living breathing people in their day to day lives rather than to be dazzled by some decoration which has spent its entire existence being appreciated only because it is particularly pleasing to the eye and constructed of some valuable substance.

One could spend a lot of time in the museum, as there is a lot to see. However today was Saturday and I found it a bit too crowded to really take my time and enjoy myself. I can’t count the number of times I was looking closely at some object only to be quickly surrounded by a pack of tourists (almost invariably Japanese) and their very loud guide. This particular breed of tourist has no inhibitions about jostling people out of the way to get a better look at whatever it is the guide is describing to them. Eventually I got hungry and left to browse around some other touristy areas, and get some dinner.

Posted by Ryan at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the photo of Chiang Kai-Shek’s memorial hall. It is a popular spot to relax, or participate in outdoor activities. While there are quite a few parks here in Taipei, there isn’t nearly as much open space as I am accustomed to. Virtually no one in the city-proper has space of their own outside of their home. There are no lawns. Large balconies are uncommon. Subsequently when outdoor activities take place, they take place in the public sphere. This gives communities here an interesting dynamic as people interact with one another on the streets.

This Sunday was the mid-Autumn moon festival. The festival involves giving and eating mooncakes, and barbequing with one’s family. I was offered numerous mooncakes in the days leading up to the festival, but due to my dietary restrictions didn’t get a chance to taste them. They are wee compact cakes, similar in shape to an English pork pie, with sweet filling and usually an egg inside. Legend has it that these cakes were utilized during the late days of the Yuan dynasty as a way to communicate messages of dissent, calling for citizens to rise up against their Mongol overlords. Notes were hidden inside of the cakes organizing an anti-Mongol uprising on the day of the full moon, hence the moon festival.

The Barbequing portion of the festival takes place on the sidewalks and streets of the city. Families are everywhere, squatting or sitting on small stools around barbeques eating, talking, and drinking. Everyone shares the public space here. Often families are sitting outside of their shops doing business and celebrating the moon festival simultaneously. In places where there are sidewalks they are smoky and smell of food. In places without sidewalks families are sitting on the streets with cars and mopeds zipping by as they barbeque their meat and fish. At the same time people take advantage of being outdoors with their barbequing implements to burn some ghost money. They have special portable fire-pits just for the purpose. They start a fire and feed it with wad upon wad of ghost money. This pays respect to their ancestors and presumably ensures that they need not go without creature comforts in the afterlife. All of this outdoor activity adds a sense of community to areas of the city, whose North American counterparts are populated with well cocooned individual family units which rarely interact with one another. I enjoy the street culture here. It adds a vitality to Taipei which is lacking in many cities around the world.

Posted by Ryan at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While there are some indicators of beauty which seem to exist as culturally independent truisms, there are others which are specific to certain regions, classes, and cultures. Here in Taiwan fair skin is a highly prized feature sought after by most image conscious women. These women are willing to submit themselves to various inconveniences, and discomforts to either make their skin appear paler, or at least prevent it from becoming darkened. The majority of women here use parasols when walking out of doors. This is an understandable tradition, as it not only keeps one pale but it also helps keep one cool. However I have observed women taking their parasol (which doubles as an umbrella on rainy days) out of their bags, opening it up, and holding it above their heads so that they may cross a three meter long un-shaded space without having the sun’s direct rays fall upon their skin. This strikes me as rather inconvenient and even slightly obsessive. Others wear scarves over their faces and seemingly ridiculously large sun visors atop their heads. Both are again somewhat practical as the scarves help filter out pollution, and the visors do provide some pleasant shade. Still others, while riding on their ubiquitous scooters, wear a jacket backwards to cover their arms, and any chest that may be exposed by a low-rising shirt. This one just strikes me as being an uncomfortable hassle. However, having not ridden on a scooter here, there may be some practical reasoning which escapes me. For those who are not content with their present complexion there are a multitude of creams and other medicinals available to help lighten one’s skin to a more eye-pleasing shade. These are aggressively marketed on television, in the MRT, and on billboards about town.

What I find interesting about this particular aesthetic is what it has to say about Taiwanese culture. The particular traits which we find attractive express certain values held by our culture. In the West, unlike here in Taiwan, being tanned is a highly sought after attribute. People go to great lengths to attain, and subsequently retain, a tanned complexion. Entire industries are predicated upon Western individuals' desire to be tanned. This hasn’t always been the case. In the past the West’s perception of beautiful skin was more similar to that held here in Taiwan: Fairer is better. A fair complexion used to indicate that one had no need to work out of doors. The labouring masses were destined to darken as they worked on fields and farms. Upper-class individuals could afford to avoid the sun and out of doors as much as they pleased. At some point in time in the West this perception changed. I posit that the rise of indoor working environments and sheltered late twentieth-century living gave rise to the attractiveness of the tan. A good tan now subconsciously informs us that an individual has either the time or money necessary to lay about in the sun or in a tanning booth acquiring their attractive complexion. An uneven ‘Farmer’s’ tan is not considered attractive. But a surfer’s consistent complexion tells us that he can afford to spend hours out in the sun with his shirt off enjoying life instead of being locked up in an office trying to pay the bills. The same logic applies to long nails, and bound feet. An individual with long nails obviously doesn’t need to pick cabbage for a living. It is a visual marker of class status. Bound feet are an especially interesting marker, as they essentially cripple a woman so as to indicate the status of her family. This crippling, and to modern eyes unappealing, body modification was highly sought after by contemporary Han Chinese men as an attractive physical attribute.

I reckon the Taiwanese attraction to fair skin stems from the same initial reasoning as the, now outdated, Western attraction to fair skin did. Fair skin used to mean upper class. In the same way that renaissance paintings glorify the beauty of larger pear-shaped women, so do Taiwanese ad campaigns glorify the beauty of pale skinned models. However the renaissance masterpieces were painted during an era of scant resources in Europe. To be large was the exception. Here in Taiwan it is now easy to avoid the sun at almost all times. Most people spend the majority of their day indoors or at least in the shade, which is very cleverly assured via the local sub-tropical architecture. Thus individuals, to be an exceptional beauty, must go to great lengths to become paler than would naturally appear. They avoid all contact with sunlight, they use whitening creams, and generously apply light shades of makeup. The result is an interesting visual spectacle and a cultural marker which can help us appreciate the historical background for our, sometimes seemingly arbitrary, perceptions of beauty.

Posted by Ryan at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The other day, as class was about to begin, an air raid siren sounded. Or at least it sounded like an air raid siren. Nothing seemed to happen immediately. I listened for fire engines, or police cars, or other sounds of an emergency response. Nothing came and so I shrugged off the siren sounds as an anomalous foreign noise. Shortly thereafter a small man walked into our classroom, switched off the lights and air conditioning, and walked away without saying a word. I saw him do the same thing in the room across the hall. A girl in the room opposite to us stood up and, with a confused look on her face, turned the lights back on. She was immediately berated by the small man, who returned to turn her lights off and reprimand her insolence.

This piqued my curiosity. Something strange was afoot. When our teacher arrived she placed her fingers over her lips and made a shushing sound. Using a dry-erase marker she wrote ‘Raid Alarm’ on the board. She whispered “no class, twenty minutes, no lights, no air conditioning…Raid Alarm.” Apparently Taiwan holds occasional raid alarms to ensure readiness in case of an attack by the Mainland. During these alarms we turn off the lights and air conditioning and sit quietly in our classrooms. Exactly why we do this I’m not sure. Maybe Taiwan needs all of the available electricity for defense efforts? Perhaps they have some sort of technologically advanced, power thirsty, anti-communist ray gun. As for our need to remain quiet, I suppose it is to inculcate a sense of calmness in the event of attack. If the raid were to ever become reality, having the lay-people trained to sit quietly in darkened rooms would be preferable to having them running about the streets panicking and yelling about the raiding commies.

The occurrence made me giggle. However, it also made me stop and think for a moment. An invasion of Taiwan by Mainland China is, of course, no laughing matter. The People’s Republic takes their perceived territorial integrity and subsequent irredentist claims seriously. The CCP seems resolute about the repatriation of Taiwan. The cross-straits military teeter-totter is increasingly teetering in the favour of the Mainland. One hopes that the growing relations between the two regions help to mitigate the possibility of conflict in the future. The business, familial, and political ties which are being renewed and newly developed between the two regions should be encouraged by both governments involved, and by the international community at large.

One would hope that in the not too distant future it won't be necessary for Taiwan to hold raid alarms. Hopefully Taiwan's current state of international limbo can be sorted out in a way advantageous to all parties involved. In the meantime I guess I have the occasional darkened classroom to look forward to, as a country (for lack of a more appropriate term) prepares itself for the possibility of an invasion or missile attack.

Posted by Ryan at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I type, I’m taking a break from studying. I’ve been doing a lot of studying recently. Class always starts with a test, and I need to keep my test marks up to keep my scholarship funds rolling in. As a break I’m watching some strange cartoon in Chinese. I find the cartoons help me with my listening comprehension. The subtitles in Hanzi are particularly helpful. One of the characters just transmogrified into an imposing white angel. Now there’s a huge talking tiger as well. I’ve now completely lost track of what the hell is going on. All I know is that the little flying teddy bear is more powerful than he looks.

Classes go well. My teacher is a year or so older than me. Like most unmarried folks here, she lives at home with her parents. Her favorite activity is shopping, which again is not unusual for folks her age here. I think she has a bit of a crush on me. For the first few days I just thought I was being overly sensitive, but it is becoming apparent by her usage of classroom ‘examples’ that I may be the teacher’s pet. For instance she often addresses each of us in turn when explaining a new word or grammatical rule. She will go around the room and say things like “Yesterday Bob ate lunch at home”, “Today Sarah will study Chinese at school”, and “Tomorrow Ryan will dance at teacher’s house” (I’ve used English names instead of Chinese ones for simplicity’s sake). These examples crop up on a daily basis. So far she has used: “Ryan drinks alcohol with teacher” “Ryan eats dinner at teacher’s house” “Ryan goes for a walk with teacher” and my personal favorite “Teacher slept in Ryan’s bed.” The crush is flattering, and humorous. It doesn’t really affect classes and adds a bit of excitement to my day. I’m waiting for the examples to get completely absurd before I start acting like I’m on to her. When she starts saying things like “Ryan has very nice eyes, and I’d like to touch his package” I might voice some concerns.

Posted by Ryan at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I pass this poster every day on my way to and from the MRT station. I can’t help but look and wonder. It is affixed to the front of a National Health Services office. They must do something to your spots inside. Exactly what they do will remain a mystery until I learn enough to read the poster. But whatever they’re doing in there is being effectively advertised. They get my attention every day. The photos of spotty body parts, while semi-repulsive, is somehow fascinating. The fact that, if you look close enough, you can see that man’s left nut between his spotty ass cheeks makes me smile. I wonder how he feels having his ass emblazoned on National Health Services posters? Furthermore I wonder if he even knows that his ass has been so utilized? He may go in one day for a regular check up and recognize his ass staring him back in the face as he walks through the door. How surprising would that be?

Nurse: “What is your appointment for, sir?”
Man: “Well, I have a check up. I had some spots on my ass, but the doctor did something to them”
Nurse: (pointing) “Were they spots like these?”
Man: “Well…they were THOSE spots.”
Nurse: “Excuse me?”
Man: “Those spots…they’re my spots. That’s MY ass.” (raising eyebrows seductively) “And THAT’S my left nut.”
Queue electric guitar with wah-wah pedal…

Posted by Ryan at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a photo of the street I'm currently living on: Xin Yi Lu.

Judging from my preliminary observations, it is a fairly typical Taipei thoroughfare. The ground floor is lined with shops while the upper three to five floors are residential apartments. The shops are often segmented into types. For instance a certain area of town will have a very high concentration of electronic goods shops, while another may have a higher concentration of painting supply shops. The convenience stores and family run restaurants however, are ubiquitous.

Posted by Ryan at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before my current endeavour I’d never genuinely tried to learn a second language. My French is passable, but that is simply a product of growing up reading the French sides of endless cereal boxes, and occasionally listening to Radio-Canada. Having never really attempted to learn a second language I hadn’t given much thought to those who, on a daily basis, work in a language other than their mother tongue. Well, it isn’t that I hadn’t given it thought, rather that I couldn’t appreciate it fully.

The experience is an interesting one. There is a tangible distance, for lack of a better word, between myself and the locals. I feel hamstrung on a daily basis. Language, being my principal way of interacting with the world at large, is an incredibly important facet of my personality. In English I fancy myself a moderately articulate individual with a functional vocabulary at my disposal. While trying to use Chinese my ability to express myself is compromised. I am effectively a different person in Chinese than I am in English.

Nonetheless, I’m learning. I don’t reckon I will ever be as proficient with Chinese as I am with English, but I will certainly improve. Hopefully my ability to identify various Chinese foods is one of the first things to improve. About fifty percent of the time I’ve little to no idea what it is I’m eating. Sometimes I can hazard a guess as to whether it be game or fowl or seafood. Other times I am completely flummoxed. This evening I was having some scrambled eggs and rice with bean sprouts. Or what I thought was bean sprouts. That is until I noticed they were a bit too soft, and made a closer inspection. Up close I noticed my bean sprouts had eyes. I haven’t yet encountered anything I wouldn’t eat. I’ve had a few things I didn’t enjoy a whole lot, but I’ve also had some things that were great.

Posted by Ryan at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Class was intense. I gather that is why they refer to it as the ‘intensive Chinese’ lessons. I’ve been put in a ‘slightly beyond beginner’ class. There are six students and one teacher. We meet at 2pm until 5pm daily.

We started our lessons on Chapter 13 of the ‘Practical Audio/Visual Chinese 1’ textbook. Today I have a test covering the first seven Chapters of the text book. This wouldn’t be much of an issue, as I’m familiar with most of the material, but for the traditional characters. Essentially I had to memorize 140 Hanzi this weekend to prepare for the test. How effective I was remains to be seen.

On Saturday I went apartment hunting and came home with the goods. I found a nice place very very close to school. It is just off Shi Da road which is very near NTNU (colloquially referred to as Shi Da Da Xue or Shi Da University because of its location). I’ll be sharing with three other fellows. One is an older South African gentleman who works as a teacher here. Another is an anti-social Irish-Pakistani who apparently is always either working or shut up in his room. The third is moving soon, so I will get a new roommate within a few weeks. I don’t move in until the 25th. I will stay where I am in the interim. It is convenient enough.

Taipei has an interesting apartment deposit scheme. There is conventionally a deposit to be put down on a room or apartment of two months rent. However this deposit does not go to the landlord. It instead goes to the person who is vacating the room or apartment. One gets his own deposit back when he finds someone to replace himself as he leaves. Therefore as I leave Taipei I’ll (hopefully) get my deposit back from the person I find to replace me in the apartment I’m currently living in. I guess it makes the landlord’s job easier as departing tenants have a pecuniary interest in keeping the place rented, thereby discouraging unwanted vacancies.

Posted by Ryan at 06:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finally got this puppy online and did some updating. Below is a photo of the entrance to the apartment I'm currently staying at. It isn't much of a photo, but it is the only one I currently have sized to the right dimensions to post here.



I'm off to my first class right now. I just had a nice lunch with a fellow named John. He just finished his Poli-Sci Master's somewhere in Wisconsin and is trying to learn Chinese so as to improve his chances at getting a sweet spot in a nice school to do his PhD. It was nice to have a cogent conversation about things political. I find my brain is slightly atrophying as I spend too much time writing characters, and not enough time analyzing or constructing arguments.

I'm off to class.

Posted by Ryan at 02:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)