Taiwan: More Than Just Factories! What?

I’ve been in Taiwan nearly a week and have really enjoyed the place. Believe it or not, there is more to Taiwan than factories making products for Americans! Who would’ve thought?

In all my travels, I look for cultural peculiarities. Many other travelers I meet are interested in shopping or in clubbing or in researching some particular genre. I, however, am fascinated by the weird, wacky, and peculiar. I will go out of my way to find and see the unusual. Taiwan is full of unusual.

I see blond Caucasian female mannequins in quite a few stores. I am a little offended at this since the Taiwanese population has about .000001% blond Caucasian women. I am offended for the Taiwanese. Maybe I shouldn’t be. Things like this disturb me. Remember a few months ago when everybody was upset about a Microsoft advertisement that replaced a black man with a white man for the Polish version of the ad? The media shouted racism and many people complained. Microsoft put the original advertisement back up, and profusely apologized. All this, despite the fact that Poland is nearly totally homogeneously Polish (97%). It makes complete sense that a company would advertise using models representative of their customers, doesn’t it? Of course it does! For the same reason I was NOT offended by the Microsoft Polish advertisement where the model was switched to a person resembling the customers, I am slightly offended, albeit from an outsider’s perspective, of seeing all these blond mannequins in Taiwan. Whew. Glad I got that off my chest. Now I’ll be able to sleep better.

Hmmm, what else is strange about Taiwan? Lots.

Taiwan is incredibly green and mountainous. Aside from coastal population centers, the majority of the island is lush jungle and wilderness. It’s beautiful. Think marble mountains, massive canyons, fog-topped peaks, world famous birding.

Taiwanese are quite possibly the friendliest people I’ve ever met. On my flight to Taipei, several were competing for conversation with me, maybe because they wanted to practice their English or maybe because they were just that curious about why an Americano would want to visit Taiwan. Off the airplane, one person helped me get the proper bus to downtown and ensured I was set for success with the appropriate maps.

In a store one day, I tried some strange preserved egg. It was kind of like a hard-boiled egg. Same, but different. These eggs were sold in vacuum packed plastic at room temperature. When broken open, the yolk was green. I tried a sample and they tasted like any hard-boiled egg would. In another example of Taiwanese friendliness, the clerk who didn’t understand my question about why the egg was green called over others that could speak English. They understood my question, but when they couldn’t answer the question still others were called over. Soon there were a half dozen employees standing in front of me to ensure I knew why the egg yolks were green (”soda and salt” one said).

Many women wear polyester miniskirts and leggings.

Taiwan has strange food like asparagus juice and snake soup. I tried duck tongue, heart, stomach, and butt (someone told me this was the gluteus maximus muscle of the duck, if they have such a thing). The worst thing I have tried in Taiwan, besides the duck tongue, was pig blood on a stick. Seriously, they don’t let anything go to waste. I thought Mongolians were the most resourceful, but I don’t believe they go so far as to eat the blood. Taiwanese take the blood and put it on a stick. They’ll roll it in some peanut crumbs or other seasonings before serving. Yum. The stinkiest of all food here has to be Stinky Tofu. It smells like a sewer or open septic tank if you’ve ever had the pleasure, and it tastes exactly how you would think sewage might taste. Wikipedia says it is made from fermented brine juice with many days or weeks of maggots crawling around the soaking tofu. Occasionally, in some parts of China, in order to speed up the stinkiness process, human fecal matter is thrown in the mix. Fortunately, it is more edible than the blood on a stick, but stinky tofu leaves a certain aftertaste that leaves one wanting some floss and a fresh brushing.

Two of the first questions I had upon arriving in Taiwan revolved around Betel Nut. On the subway, the automated voice would say “Please don’t eat, don’t drink, don’t chew gum, and don’t chew betel nut on the train.” How weird for Betel Nut to be included in such a short list of train prohibitions. I had to find out about this stuff. Another question popped up on the night time bus ride from the airport to downtown Taipei. During the ride, I saw several stores, in front of which scantily clad beautiful women walked. The stores were dimly lit, framed with pink and purple neon tubules, and seemed to have no products whatsoever inside. I didn’t know if they were selling lingerie, perfume, or what. I had to find out. It turns out that these women are selling Betel Nut! Betel Nut, as best I can figure, is similar to chewing tobacco. It is made from a plant, but will cause cancer if overused and will stain the teeth red. It is marketed primarily to blue-collar workers and is frowned upon socially. Rather than selling Betel Nut in grocery stores, the companies compete with each other like crazy by putting these hot women in flashy stores right near freeway exits. Google “Betel Nut Beauties” if you want to know more. These girls have become a major Taiwanese pop-cultural phenomenon.

Everyone has an “English name.” Sometimes Taiwanese will use their real names when we meet, and sometimes they’ll give me an English version. Where do they come up with these names? From English teachers at school, sometimes in elementary school and sometimes at the university level. Sometimes they pick their own names and sometimes they change it. It turns out my Chinese names sounds something like Schu-Bo-Lu. These three Chinese characters are part of my last name converted to a Chinese character of similar sound, and my first name (Brook) translated into Chinese (Bo-Lu). Have you ever had your name converted to Chinese or another language?

7-11 stores are on every street. It’s not unusual to see two or even three 7-11s from a single vantage point. Every 7-11 here sells these overcooked hard-boiled eggs than sit simmering in the front of stores. The shells break apart and turn black, but apparently that’s perfectly okay here. FYI, There are more 7-11s than McDonald’s in the world, and they are now owned by a Japanese megaconglomerate.

Jaywalking is frowned upon in Taiwan. I’ve been to other places where the citizens are much more compliant and where the social pressure to conform is much higher (I’m looking at you Denmark), but Taiwan makes me think twice before crossing a perfectly clear street. I don’t want to be the Ugly American traveler.

Taipei 101 was, until recently, the tallest building in the world and still owns some more specific world records…but it looks like a stack of Chinese takeout cartons! In any case, the food court in the basement is amazing.

Motorcyclists desiring left turns onto cross streets have to turn to the right instead, positioning themselves in front of the perpendicular traffic awaiting the light change. Confusing? Here’s another one—if you want to turn right on a red light, then just do it! Don’t stop…the other traffic knows to leave you some section of outer lane.

You know those road construction workers that get paid $15/hour to stand on the side of the road with ”Caution!” or “Slow Down Men at Work!” signs? It is an unsafe job, exposing them to the environment, traffic, and even construction residue (fumes, dust, etc.).  Well, the Taiwanese smartened up and have automated mannequins doing this work! Imagine a stick figurine with a yellow hard hat, a safety vest, and automatically moving arms waving caution signs and flags. Why don’t we do this in the US? I guess this wouldn’t help our unemployment problems right now…

Garbage trucks, when driving down the street play a little jingle to get people to bring trash out to the street for pickup. I was totally caught off guard when I first heard this because the music sounds exactly like what those little American ICE CREAM jeeps/vans/trucks play when driving through neighborhoods in the Summer!

What are some of the strange things you’ve seen while traveling? Maybe you’ve seen things that aren’t necessarily strange, but different and clever enough to make you wonder why we don’t do them?