Two Young Girls And One Old Woman

Most Taiwanese women at my age grew up in a “de-sexualized” environment. I still remember when I was still a teenager university is a place for “competition of being ugly.” Girls went out without any makeup and dress-up, and nobody has ever taught us how to take care of the appearance or express ourselves while being interested in a guy. But it doesn’t mean that there aren’t beautiful girls on campus. A lot of Taiwanese guys like thin girls with long hair and big eyes; furthermore, they got mean mouths. When guys saw an ugly girl trying to wear some makeup and a mini skirt, they laughed and exchanged strange sight with each other. Once a guy even told me: “you got fat legs and how dare you wear miniskirt?” Sometimes I wonder if girls in Taiwan are too nice to stop this kind of comments.

However, when coming to Taiwan this time I was surprised to find that girls have changed a lot. One of the informants I interviewed with for my fieldwork, who is a feminist activist, told me that women’s rights have been paid a lot of attention during the past decades, and she proudly said: "the congressmen and congresswomen are glad to cooperate with us.” I can tell women are active and brave, and it shows by their appearance: girls in miniskirts are everywhere regardless the size of their body. In addition, a lot of TV shows and magazines are teaching girls how to dress nicely, and of course, how to be confident when either being in a relationship or single. Looking at these changes, I’m so happy for girls in Taiwan. When visiting the Fengjia market in Taichung I saw two girls in anime style of makeup, and I asked them: “can I take a photo with you?” They were kind of shy, but immediately went to me and smiled in front of the camera.

The divorce rate is increasing rapidly in Taiwan now. One girlfriend of mine- Amanda- told me that she got divorced after being married for 10 years. I was kind of shocked, but after one-day chatting I totally understand her choice. Divorce is not a great thing; on the contrary, it could hurt a lot and stop a man/woman from believing in a relationship anymore. But compared to the past which a lot of Taiwanese women got married simply because of the pressure of the family or the society, it’s encouraging to see that women nowadays make every decision by themselves.

The "West Gate Town" (Ximending) where young girls go shopping and to the movies in Taipei.

Shopping in Taiwan: Department Stores

Department stores are somewhere we go either when we have a lot of money or when there is a big sale. It’s a lot of fun to go to the department stores, not only because of the high quality of goods they got, but also the nice decoration of the buildings. I went to some department stores at the end of August since summer sale was going on everywhere. I like Sogo’s new plaza on Zhongxiao Fuxing, the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi across from the Taipei Main Station, and another Sogo in Taichung. I bought some cute dresses and shoes. There were wool coats and pelerines left since last year and were sold at great price, and of course I got some for winter in Montreal!

Best sellers in Taiwan: how to eat healthy?

The Japanese garden on the top floor of Sogo

The cosmetics counters in Sogo

Roots in Taiwan

Inside the Taipei 101 Mall

People lined up to get free Minute Maid juice

Shopping in Taiwan: The Fengjia Market

The other place I shopped my fieldwork uniforms is the Fengjia Market in Taichung. The market is named after the university where it’s beside. Honestly it’s not a good place to live- too crowded and noisy-, but it’s a great place to shop since it’s a students’ neighbourhood and there are a lot of cute clothes with good price.

Shopping in Taiwan: The Wholesale Market of Wufenpu

I didn’t bring a lot of clothes with me coming back to Taiwan. First, I don’t want to carry a big and heavy luggage; second, Taiwan is a great place for shopping and I can always get beautiful and inexpensive clothes here. During the first two months I went to cheap places to shop the clothes for fieldwork. I need something easy to wear and easy to wash. In Taipei, the wholesale market of Wufenpu is a great choice.

Wufenpu was originally the market for retailers to purchase their goods. However, it has been getting more and more famous and popular among common people during the past decade. Now when I go to Wufenpu I can see a lot of individual consumers like me. I’m like located in the mountains of clothes and people and don’t know where to start (so sometimes got kind of angry). One friend of mine- Chengyi- who was working as a shop attendant in the department store told me as an individual consumer never try to bargain in Wufenpu, because those shop owners need to offer retailers with a better price. I got a lot of clothes in Wufenpu, and they are called “fieldwork uniform” by me.

A Small Town Close To Taipei: Shiding

I visited the “Guniang Miao (temple of the girls)” two weeks ago. In traditional Chinese thoughts an unmarried woman can’t be worshipped with other ancestors of the lineage after their deaths, and their tablets can’t be placed in the household, and hence the temple of the girls provides the family with a space to commemorate her. This temple originally worshipped the Lady Wei Bian, who died early but has been acting as a virtuous girl of the family. The introduction of the temple warns people that Ms. Wei is kind and affectionate to worshippers, but at the same time very serious. So visitors shouldn’t make jokes in the temple in order to avoid offending her. The statue of Lady Wei Bian wears a gown and jewleries, and the shop of the temple sells paper money which has images of girls' dresses and jewleries on it.

After visiting the temple, I took a walk in the small town Shiding. It used to be prosperous because the coal mines, but it’s so quiet now that only some households can be seen in the mountains and the bus only comes every 30 min..

The temple of the girls

Lady Wei Bian

The town Shiding

The Korean Street

I heard there is a “Korean street” in the suburb Yonghe of Taipei long time ago. The street gathers a lot of importers selling Korean food, clothes and accessories. It’s been flourishing for at least 2 decades, especially Korean goods are getting popular in Taiwan.

I visited the street after an interview with two informants. The Korean street is not a fancy new neighbourhood, but quite lively. I saw posters of Korean stars on the wall, and smelled ginseng and kimchi. Inside the lanes there is a traditional Taiwanese market selling fresh food. I guess this street has been this energetic since Taiwan and Korea launched the trade. It tells a lot about how the two countries have been working hard as new economic bodies in Asia.

A shop selling Korean herbal medicine and snack

The street

The market

A promotion vendor by the Korean Tourist Board in the Xingyi commercial area of Taipei

My Hometown Taichung

I was born in Puli, a beautiful small town in central Taiwan, but moved to Taichung when I was 10 years old. For me Taichung has been the representation of a big city.

There are a lot of beautiful architectures in Taichung and those nice resaturants and tea shops amaze me. However, Taichung is famous of being “undisciplined” in Taiwan, which means people here don’t behave very well. They drive fast, and the pavements are full of scooters and parked cars and I have no choice but to walk on the roads. In addition, there are a lot of robbers here. Actually robbery happened to me once when I was still living here; fortunately because of my scary screaming, I didn’t lose my purse. And then I called the police right away, but to my surprise, he didn’t care at all. I gradually realized that the police didn’t care because there were just so many robberies in Taichung.

Although I don’t like Taichung that much anymore, I still enjoy staying with my grandma, auntie and old friends in the city. After all, this is the place where I grew up and has been part of my life.

A clothing boutique

Starbucks

A tea shop

Inside the Eslite Bookstore

A Karaoke place

The Baseball Fever

The Olympic games were over. Due to political reasons, Taiwan has been given a strange name "Chinese Taipei" while attending international sports games, but people in Taiwan are still enthusiastic. During the first week of the games I was overwhelmed by the baseball fever in Taiwan. The baseball is called “guo qiu (the national ball game)” of Taiwan, and everyone wants the Taiwanese team to win a medal. So during the games between the 8 teams I can see people sitting in front of TV cheering, but too bad the Taiwanese team didn’t play well this time. It was defeated by Cuba, Korea, Japan and China. I saw fans in Beijing crying “I’m so disappointed! But I’ll still be here to support our team!”

When the Taiwanese team lost the game against the U.S, it is not qualified to attend the semi-finals any more. Interestingly it looks like all the team members can finally get relaxed and then play a good game against Canada. I was eating dinner at a small restaurant while the game began, and everyone there was watching the TV screen. Of course the hosts both cheered for Taiwan (however, I felt like one part of mine fighting against the other, and honestly when Taiwan was gradually winning the game I totally became Canadian!) The result was 6 (Taiwan): 5 (Canada), and the two are both ranked top 5.

People watching the baseball game in front of the SOGO Department Store.

Going East: Yilan

Upon my friend Petty’s invitation, I visited Yilan last week. Yilan is located in eastern Taiwan, and originally the domain of indigenous people. Petty told me her father is from the Fujian side, her mother Hakka, and her grandmother is partly indigenous. Her family is a good demographic representation of Yilan.

This is the first time I’ve been to Yilan since coming to Taiwan. Yilan is a peaceful county, and people are nice and generous. In addition, the food is so good that I ate the most on the table. Petty guided us through mountains, sea, rivers and towns. I enjoyed the beautiful scene and believe firmly that Taiwan is an island full of geographic characters.

The Turtle Mountain Island outside Yilan

The dolphins in the Pacific Ocean

The Taiwanese hamburgers we had for dinner. The bread is green because it's made with tea.

The Lanyang River

On the top of the 2,000-meter Taiping Mountain

Korean Food in Taiwan

I’ve heard that Korean dramas are very interesting since long time ago, but didn’t have many opportunities to watch it. After arriving in Taiwan I turned on TV and found at least 5 Korean channels. Korean dramas are really well made! The stories are so good and with the intensive path I just can’t stop myself from watching them. At first I watched “the Golden Era of Daughter-in-Laws” and now I watch “the King and I” everyday. Two weeks ago when the queen was sentenced to death I kept tearing up all night long. Last week while visiting Yilan with a group of journalists, I asked my roommate “can I watch the Korean drama at ten?” She nicely switched the channel from the Olympic game to “the King and I”, and we watched it together.

I sometimes went to Korean restaurants with Mr. J in Montreal. Yesterday my friend, Thomas, brought me to a Korean restaurant in the neighbourhood of the Taiwan Normal University. Honestly I think the food is better in Montreal (especially the one on Sherbrooke close to NDG), but to enjoy Korean food in Taiwan is fun, too. I heard people talking in Korean loud, and many Taiwanese couples visited it together. Thomas told me the owner is one of his old friends, who is a Korean guy coming to Taiwan decades ago. He opened a small restaurant in this students’ area, and then it got more and more popular so he opened the new one recently.

The appetizers

Different kind of seafood cake

My seafood pot

Thoma's beef pot

Going North: Keelung

The City of Keelung

July in Chinese lunar calendar is the month of ghosts. To see the ritual “Opening the Underworld Door” I visited Keelung last week. I went to that city with a co-worker when I was still working in Taipei who is originally from Keelung. I still remember how delicious the food is during that trip.

Keelung is at the northern point of Taiwan. It’s located between a harbour and a mountain, so the land is small and got small size of population is small: 340,000. However, this city is working hard on tourism. The tourist center beside the train station is great. The staff enthusiastically introduced me interesting spots in Keelung, and to my surprise buses and ferries are always accessible and can bring the visitor to everywhere.

It takes only 50 min from Keelung to Taipei by train. When I watched the sea from the harbour, I think if I were working in Taipei I’d certainly choose this peaceful city as the city I live.

Street vendors in front of the temple.

The fresh seafood a street vendor serves, where I had my lunch.

The temple, Xiandongyan, inside a rock cave.

The quiet community beside the mountain.

Business Class: The Taiwan High Speed Rail

In order to arrive in my destination faster, I take the High Speed Rail in Taiwan quite often. It’s really fast- around 300 km/hour- and I like the comfortable and convenient train a lot. Normally I take “Non-Researved (ziyou)” seats, and since I’m alone it’s always not too hard to find a seat. But the other day when I went to Xinzhu for whatever reasons I took a “business class” seat, and I enjoyed the ride!

Bigger seats in the business class

Attendants serving tea, coffee and snack

The Hsinchu station at night

Staff waiting to clean the cars at the terminal at Taipei station

The Taiwan High Speed Rail

Costco in Taipei

I’ve been to Costco a couple of times in Montreal. My friend Vicky got a membership card and kindly drives me to the store close to Verdun and let me purchase a lot of body lotion, shampoo and food for my family, and of course cat’s litter for Akan. To me Cosco is the place for people who need a big amount of goods but wanna save money, and they won’t go there very often since they buy a lot each time.

However, in Taipei, my friend Randy told me Costco is seen as a “high-class (or at least above middle)” store here. People go there to get fresh food of good quality, and what sounds funny is, to get something American in order to feel like “American.” I was so driven by the curiosity and asked him to take me there. So last week we went to Neihu- a technology park where Costco is located- and had a “tour.”

Indeed, people in Costco are kind of different from what I saw in Montreal. First, a lot of people’s carts are almost empty. I even saw a woman leaving with only 2 boxes of cereals. Second, Costco in Taipei is a boutique at the same time because there is a section selling brand bags such as Burberry and Fendi, and one of each costs 20,000 NT (600 CDN) to 75,000 NT (2,500 CDN). Other than the boutique, it got a drug store, a photo studio, a glasses store which provides service of optometry. Third, it got a lot of nice ready-to-eats, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean dishes. Fourth, the most interesting to me, Costco in Taipei seems to be a spot of entertainment. I saw dressed-up girls strolling as groups, and numerous parents and their kids trying all kinds of food and goods excitedly. Randy told me Costco is like a supermarket: a place you can go everyday and enjoy the pleasure of shopping.

I had thought it’s stupid that Costco became “high-class” in Taipei. But while being there I realized that people in Taiwan are simply trying to transform an American input into their own output. I believe this kind of transformation of consumption due to the longing for exotic life style is everywhere in the world, including North America and Europe.

The Neihu Technology Park

Costco in Taipei

Inside Costco

Brand bags

"Food Trying" attendants are everywhere in the section of fresh food

Japanese Sushi

Korean Kimchi

The food court