Journeys through Asia: Taiwan – LETS EAT!! (...and reflect on democracy)

Taiwan is still very green and lush
Views from Maokong, just outside Taipei

Going to Taiwan, I was expecting a very clean Chinese city with amazing street food. After talking to many of my colleagues, they said the main thing in Taipei is the street food. You can literally eat 24 hours a day. The accessibility of street food was very apparent. You couldn't turn a street corner without noticing it. When thinking back on our trip to Taiwan, the food is far and away the most memorable aspect. The most prevalent street food was in the street markets and boy did the boys take advantage of that; eating dinner and than proceeding to go to the night market and have another dinner at the food stalls just a couple hours after eating. For me, it was difficult to make room for so much food, but for the boys they were up for any eating challenge. They pushed each other to eat as much as possible till they were going to burst…in some instances they literally did ‘burst’ (Jason and Tat know what I mean...).

This is man filled with sheer excitement...a man and his fried chicken

If it were up to tat he would eat 10 of these fried chickens a day

Continued gorging on street food as the boys revert to OG fob squatting

I too submitted the gorging...especially when it came to the shaved milk ice

The Shilin night market is not merely vendors selling very possible knick knack imaginable, but it was a social mecca for the youth of Taipei. People from 15-25 years of age would go to the night market as a prowling ground to see and be seen. Girls would put on their full face of make up and sluttiest clothes to go to the market. The attire is similar to Vegas club attire - lots of booty shorts and fake eye lashes with dark eye make up. I found it amazing that a street market could literally become a ‘meat market’. Not only those shopping were caught up in the clubbiness of the street market, but those selling the clothes and souvenirs. The boys and I decided that these girls and guys were recruited to work the street market for their hip and super hot looks. Shopping at these stores is not quite like haggling with the old ladies in Mong Kok. Needless to say, you bring your ‘A’ game to the night markets.

Thanks to Jason for this pic of booty shorts galore in Shilin Night Market

Then again every neighborhood we visited in Taipei, I was drowning in the seemingly countless number of teenagers. It may be due to the approaching Chinese New Year holiday, but everywhere we went we were overcome with high school kids – especially in Danshui, a Taiwanese version of the Boardwalk. In Danshui, carnival games and cheap street food attract in hoards of kids, even in the middle of the school day. Out of all the countries I’ve visited so far, I find that Taiwanese youth is the most similar to the Asian American culture in the states. I found this most noticeable in the young women at the night markets, who never exude the conservative Chinese culture that is so prevalent in the mainland and even in HK. With my last trip being to Yunnan, it was amazing to compare the drastically different lifestyles. In Taiwan, the youth no longer even notice their luxuries of living in a first world country. Instead their energies are focused on following the scores of pop stars and Taiwanese dramas and buying the up-to-the-second fashion trends set by the Japanese. Scanning the MTR in Taipei, you will quickly notice that the tech savvy youth of Taipei are not short of the most high tech cell phones, MP3 players, and hand held gaming devices. In comparison to those teenagers living in rural parts of Yunnan, China they realize that means of survival is not just given to you by your parents, but it is earned on a daily basis through hard work out in the fields.

Taipei 101 - the tallest building in the world

Democracy is everything that Taiwan stands for. It is something they fought long and hard for. Going to the tremendous memorials of Chiang Kai Shek and Sun Yat Sen, the leaders of Kuomintang armies who fought the Red Army and Mao, you can see that democratic liberties is not something taken lightly. With the never ending political battles between PRC and Taiwan, I can now understand why Taiwan doesn’t want anything to do with the mainland. The cultures are fundamentally different as night and day. Democracy allowed Taiwan to grow and flourish and its people were able to reap its benefits. Joining the Party would mean giving up their history of political and economic freedom. My mainland students often discuss how Taiwan is not truly a separate country but a state of China. These kinds of remarks are coming from people who have never been to Taiwan. One step into Taiwan you can realize that the Maoist terrorism and the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution were not felt in Taiwan. Chinese history is something cherished and loved here, which is encapsulated in the 5000 years of art and artifacts in the National Palace Museum. Mao was able to destroy all the remnants of ancient China in the mainland in merely 10 years. Democracy provided the people of Taiwan the freedom and liberties to prosper into a great nation. As quoted in NY Times, "Here is a Chinese culture (some contend that it is uniquely Taiwanese) that practices bare-knuckled democracy and has preserved traditions thousands of years old in a way that was impossible to do on the mainland."