Taiwan: All the little things, and more
Of all possible places, the Textile and Clothing exhibit of the Natural Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung taught us about the history of Taiwan by informing us of the reasons for the changing fashions of the Taiwanese Textile industry through the centuries. It was a surprising and exciting exhibit and not at all what we expected.
Taiwan’s Aboriginal population of Malay-Polynesian descent lived on the island for millennia, interacting with others in the region. Their original costumes provided the colors for today’s flag of Taiwan: white, blue and red.
Portuguese sailors who, in 1544, first passed Taiwan on their way to Japan for spice trading, dubbed it Ilha Formosa, a name that stuck until the early 1950s and can still be found on many shops. In the early 17th century, the Spanish and then the Dutch claimed Taiwan, but they were only interested in establishing trading posts on their way to mainland China.
In 1683, the Qing Dynasty in Beijing incorporated Taiwan as part of its domain and many Han people from China immigrated to Taiwan changing the societal structure and economics of the locals. As a result, clothing style in Taiwan differed from China as it had been already influenced by the Europeans.
In 1895, the first Sino Japanese War erupted, and the Qing Dynasty was defeated ceding Taiwan to Japan. The Japanese colonization brought significant changes into Taiwanese society, thinking, and lifestyle, all of which were also reflected in its clothing culture. In the beginning, the Japanese were appeasing the people of Taiwan, but gradually adopted a compulsory and oppressive policy in all areas, the so-called Kominka Policy, to force the Taiwanese to become loyal subjects of Japan. In order to eliminate the Chinese influence, it demanded, for example, that they give up their traditional clothing and change their names into Japanese ones rewarding them if they complied wearing kimonos. In general, it was a very tough time for Taiwan.
After Japan lost the Second World War, several agreements were made that forced Japan to give up Taiwan, but its situation was never fully clarified including whether it would become a part of China. Of course, a lot of other political stuff happened since 1945, but if you’re interested, then I encourage you to investigate further on your own.
Not bad for an exhibit on the Textile industry of Taiwan, right?
The cultural music hall in the CKS memorial park
One day, right in front of an enormous, ornate building (see photo above) we saw a poster for a concert with a lady and the date of December 30, everything else (as usual) was written in Chinese characters. (By the way, Taiwan uses the traditional Chinese characters which are much more ornamental, whereas Mandarin is usually nowadays written in simplified Chinese characters, which still look very Chinese to my Western eyes). I thought: yes, let’s listen to her! … and we ordered tickets. By the night of the concert, we understood what we got ourselves into … a potpourri of famous European Opera arias sung by famous soprano Nino Machaidze and her Italian bass baritone husband Guido Loconsolo.
Contrary to my mother, I never, ever liked Opera music, but we survived it, although both of us were nearly nodding off before the intermezzo. In the end, we enjoyed a pleasurable evening, as the second part kept us engaged. It is what makes life exciting – learning new lessons – for example, should I have trouble falling asleep, I might just listen to a Verdi Opera.
If you are interested in seeing more cosplay photos, then click on this image to open a new gallery
On the day we visited the National Palace Museum in Taipei, situated on a low hillside in the north of the city and bordered by beautiful formal gardens, we encountered many women and men dressed in traditional Chinese costumes of different centuries, posing for photographers and friends.
We stumbled upon a private event hosted by the museum and scheduled for after closing hours comprising of what we believed to be cosplay but has a more specific name: Hanfu. Hanfu is the traditional clothing of the Han Chinese people since centuries. It's characterized by its unique style, fabric, and stitching methods according to Wikipedia. Like most traditional costumes in foreign countries, it is stunningly decorative and we felt fortunate to have visited the museum on that day and at that time to experience it.
For us Westerners, the current political situation was on the forefront of our minds coming to Taiwan. The few times we read Taiwanese newspapers, there were always articles about the threat, where infiltration happens and what the government is doing to curb it. Yet, when we talked to locals, none seemed worried as they do not expect a military takeover because of the semiconductor silicon shield ridge. The company TSMC produces 90% of the world’s highest end chips, and its many factories are placed from the North to the South of the island and not even the mighty mainland neighbor wants them destroyed or even to interrupt their highly-sensitive production.
Politicians and citizens of Taiwan seem to differ in their opinion about a possible take-over
There have been numerous recent incursions into isolating areas in the North of Taiwan by cutting off their internet access via undersea cables.
In general, earthquakes not withstanding, we felt really, really safe. Which was a very comfortable feeling when walking through small quiet back roads at night in a busy capital city.
We booked a cooking class and were fortunate enough to have it all to ourselves. We cooked four dishes, and every one tasted delicious. We are sharing one of the recipes that we learned. It is douhua (click on link if you are interested in the recipe) a non-dairy dessert we liked – somewhat similar to a plain pudding made from soy milk, served with a fruit- or ginger syrup topping. Taiwanese prefer their desserts just a tad sweet, but not very sugary. With this dessert, you can adjust the sweetness with the syrup.
Admiring other artists’ art pieces after a session of sketching. It is a really large and very welcoming group.
We joined several meetups of the Urban Sketchers of Taipei (UbSkT) and were integrated into their group from the moment we arrived. Randy and I draw and sketch regularly now, creating nice memories of the places we visit. On our sketching outing right before the Lunar New Year, we received painted good luck wishes from several sketching artists.
The absolute highlight of our time on this beautiful island was meeting the acknowledged best watercolor artist in the world, Chien Chung-Wei, and his wife Jasmine here in his hometown.
When I reached out to Chien Chung-Wei, I never expected such a warm and generous offer to meet for cookies and coffee in his art studio!
Standing in front of some of the best paintings I only knew from his art books was a fantastic experience
He has won many awards in the USA several years in a row from the American Watercolor Society (AWS) and received international recognition as the leading artist in the world of watercolor.
Both Chung-Wei and Jasmine brought me to the most amazing art shop I’ve ever visited and … just … wow!
It was an absolute pleasure to chat with him and see many of his original art pieces, have coffee and discuss watercolor.
To top it off, we all went to his favorite art store and I found all the watercolor supplies I need, together with the set of Escoda brushes that was made specifically for Jasmine.
That was something soooo extraordinary for me! Taiwan!!!!
Back to Daily Life……
Specific chop stick and spoon holders come in a lot of variations
A nice dent for the spoon!
Maybe you use several chopstick sets for your dinner - one for eating, one for serving from a communal plate
Here the hotel had a chopstick cleaning apparatus !
Many restaurants or bars have a minimum order fee (NT$100 = $3)
Sidewalks are often just painted on the side of smaller roads, especially in living areas.
I loved seeing those older, twisted trees; often big parkways are lined with them, looking like the trees in old Chinese landscape paintings.
Motorbikes are everywhere. Then there are of course repair shops like this one just for them.
We are trying to lead regular lives where ever we are. We are busy doing things that are independent of location (working on the blog, drawing + painting, listening to live music, stretching class, wandering through a new city, watching programs in the evenings thanks to AppleTV!) and with interests that diverge (Randy: playing the Ukulele; exercising; Gitty: learning Chinese; reading news).
Our home at a time is always one small hotel room that we make to fit our needs. Here we were for 6 weeks in one hotel (as we wanted it nice for Christmas and New Years) and so we made our room workable for us (2nd table and chair), expanded the coffee corner into our own little cold kitchen for our breakfast (yogurt, fruits, müsli) and sometime lunches (cold cuts, salads). Hotels feel like home after a while, and we love that part.
Sitting in the hotel cafe on our last full day here, we just couldn’t help but feel nostalgic about these past two months in Taiwan. One of our guiding principles for our plan was to live like the locals and connect with a community and although we expected this to be mostly expats in apartments and meet ups, we found something altogether different, staying in a hotel for six weeks.
Sarah helped Randy expand his chest and neck flexibility through a series of exercises
From the Zumba classes and health club staff who fondly greeted us to our personal trainer Sarah who helped promote our fitness, we forged connections. We passed Chinese New Year red envelopes to Sarah and she had some waiting for us along with some small gifts during our final fitness session together.
We bought an orchid for our room early on and watched as the pink blooms blossomed. On our last day we brought the orchid to the Health Club for them to enjoy like we had all these weeks. They brightened by this gift like we hadn’t seen before and we received many thanks.
The pool attendant would ask Randy about me when he went to the hot tub alone. He would always smile and welcome us by name when we arrived together. He knew us more familiarly than just a casual guest due partially to our nature but also because of our long stay.
On the left - Chen - our favorite piano player in Taipei
We greeted the piano player, Chen, almost daily. She played in the ground floor cafe in the afternoons and on the sixth floor restaurant/bar in the evenings. We made the effort to listen to her play the piano and we would applaud after every song and she would wave back from across the piano. We will miss her smile. She also insisted on hugs on our last day.
And as long term guests of the hotel, we occasionally got plates of sweets and treats delivered to our room. We left money for the room attendants daily because it seemed more appropriate than just something big at the end of the stay, something we did before. And on Chinese New Year, the woman responsible for turn down service wanted hugs from the both of us.
We were always cheerful and got to know all of these people over time. We recognized them and were recognized by them. We were always upbeat and happy and with that mix of time and joyful essence, something magical happened. We found a community.
Although Taipei is a large city with 2,5 million inhabitants it never felt that large due to the excellent transportation system and several rivers and many green parks, with rolling hills nearby.
And there is much more to explore on this lovely island. We haven’t been at the eastern coastline, which is left without much urban development and rather wild, but an earthquake last Spring caused several mudslides destroying the main road and it is now only partly paved. We hope to return to Taiwan in the future to see if, by that time, my Chinese has improved so that at least I can talk a bit with the people I meet. But also to see some parts of the island we intentionally avoided so far. Like that east side of the island with a low, wooded mountain range and lots of hills, valleys and several National Parks supposedly beautifully to hike and walk in.
There are also islands in the South of Taiwan that are famous for good scuba-diving in the summer (!) and aboriginal villages that could be interesting to explore.
Finally, also interesting to us, other places like South Korea, Philippines and Japan are from here only two-hour flights away! So yes, we definitely look forward to returning to Taiwan, this pleasant and friendly island!