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Dancing to a Different Beat

Nathan Haslewood | November 17, 2006

As you approach you are first struck by the grandeur of the building; the sheer size of the yellow roofed structure and the spacious, well laid out gardens surrounding the monument. Having walked from the MRT station, you round the corner with the intention of seeing Sun Yat Sen himself before you notice Taipei 101’s neon magnificence looming up before you. It’s quiet, peaceful even, the stillness only occasionally broken by a distant siren here and giggle-laced conversation there. And it’s then that your ear picks up on a strange sound. There is some form of chanting not too far away, accompanied by a rhythmic, almost tribal drum beat. As you move closer you can begin to discern that the chanting is repetitive, with what might be described as a single “caller” being answered by an array of voices. Your curiosity now having been thoroughly tickled, you finally get close enough to glimpse white clothed bodies conducting what looks like a bizarre dance while their compadres encircle them and clap. Bewildered, surprised, but also strangely enthralled, you reach for the camera while thinking to yourself, “what in the world is going on…?” More

Walking Tours of Taipei

Daniel Wallace | November 3, 2006

You can only really know a city if you explore it on foot, and this is especially true of a particularly ugly city like Taipei. Just travelling between work, café, bar and home, you can feel surrounded by the same architecture on every street, and the same 7-11 signs on every corner; you’ve got to spend time to get down into the cracks of Taipei, to find some of the more attractive spots, and I do this by taking long walks without a map. The heat and humidity means that this is best done in the evening or at night, but as autumn has arrived, now is the perfect time of year to go searching for new places in Taiwan’s capital. More

Mosquitoes: Justifiable Force

Linda Gail Arrigo | November 3, 2006

I have just found myself a new sport, and anyone who is a big-nose old Taiwan hand, like myself, will understand just how sporting it is. More

The Cricket Test

Daniel Wallace | October 20, 2006

I’ve asked many Taiwanese people whether the foreigners who live here should learn Chinese. On the whole, people don’t seem bothered. “If they want to, they can”… I then ask whether foreigners need to learn about Taiwanese culture, or adapt to Taiwanese lifestyles, and on this, people’s responses are even more blasé. It would be a smart move, seems to be the majority opinion, but only very rarely will someone describe it as a moral obligation. In fact, many people act surprised if I display any local knowledge at all. More

Feathered Bars

Nathan Haslewood | October 20, 2006

“I had to pack up my things and leave secretly in the middle of the night. I drove my sister’s car alone to my new apartment. I had to sneak out. My father wouldn’t let me leave.” While it may sound somewhat surprising, this is exactly what this young Taiwanese woman feels she was forced to do. But, Kim, at 24 years old, is very far from being your typical Taiwanese daughter. This year, she made the decision to move out of her family’s home to live independently, something that was met with a huge amount of resistance. “My father’s a very traditional Taiwanese man,” she says, “He wouldn’t let me leave and didn’t understand why I wanted to go. He thought I was going because I had a boyfriend and I wanted to live with him, but it wasn’t about that. It was about getting my independence; about getting control over my own life.” More

Observing Taiwan

Daniel Wallace | October 6, 2006

Figuring things out about Taiwanese culture is a fascination of mine, and I love to ask questions, conduct surveys, and theorise about the strange things I encounter. It seems that all foreigners have opinions about their host country: I just try to test mine against reality. This article describes the techniques I use. More

Hakka Dreams

Steven D. Quinn | September 21, 2006

Some years ago at a popular restaurant in Xinzhu,* I joined a gathering of twelve business owners, all local Rotarians, for a feast featuring the local Hakka fare. Shortly after the first bottle of whiskey was opened, the backslapping and the joshing began. “Steven, this is Mr. Gao. We call him “Hotel”. He’s the richest man in our Rotary Club.” More

Before Coming to Taiwan

Daniel Wallace | September 21, 2006

Before coming to Taiwan, I lived in the city of Kunming, in southwest China. There are many things I miss about my old life there; in particular, I miss the warmth and fire of Chinese people. Compared to Taiwan, people in China are much more assertive, and much more talkative towards foreigners (no matter how broken the conversation was). It was common for strangers to start conversations with me, and common for them to pay for my meal or invite me to join their drinking. Whereas, in Taipei, although I have several great friends, and have many places where people know me well, the average person in the street still gives me the wide eyed “Borg stare” - as if they think that talking to me would be a very serious, possibly even dangerous activity. I miss the hearty Chinese welcome and curiosity, and the big dreams they had for their country’s gold rush age. More

The Hard World of Buses

Daniel Wallace | September 1, 2006

Taiwan is a surprise - the place that they told you was “Eastern” and "collectivistic", seems actually better described as "every man for himself". On buses, people get on, find enough space to stand, and once they've done that, they will rarely move to make things easier for other people. If I’m standing near the front, and there is space at the back of the bus, then you will have to push me past to get it. Routinely in London, someone would cry, "Can you all move back, please?" but this kind of communal thinking is not common on Taiwan’s buses. More

Mormonism in Mandarin

Steven D. Quinn | September 1, 2006

On a rainy morning in March 1988, I stood on the covered walkway outside the Taichung, Taiwan mission offices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, awaiting the arrival of my trainer, Elder Tim Bowman.* The fellow “greenies” I’d arrived in Taiwan with had departed on early morning trains for towns in the south. I had been assigned to begin my labors in the hamlet of Qingshui, about forty minutes outside of Taichung. Pacing about in freshly polished shoes and a new suit, I was impatient to begin the first real adventure of my life, and the veteran missionary who was to shepherd me into it was more than an hour late. More