What a Butt!

From 2008_11_01

Taipei Times had another great Johny Neihu piece today (Nov 1, 2008):

Poontang in the peddling of Taiwan

"A publication called Taiwanese Businessman Weekly, published in China to promote tourism in Taipei, had the following lines: “Girls who go clubbing in Taipei are all dressed in sexy outfits, showing half of their breasts and wearing mini skirts.”

The mag described our capital city’s clubbing girls as “chicks who dress hot and act wild.”

Good one, guys. Why not just call the article “We’ve got poontang”?"

I have to agree with him. I know of another very strange promotional article for Taiwan that appeared in a tourism magazine here several years back. As you can see, 'What a butt!' is conveniently written in Chinese, Japanese and English for all the pervs (sorry for the clarity as I only have it in photocopy form now... click on the pictures for closeups) and seems to echo the the opinions of Taiwanese Businessman Weekly...

From 2008_11_01

Jesus, who writes this stuff?

Taiwanese Food is #1 in the Taiwanese Mind

The question though is does Taiwan's cuisine rank in the top 10 or even top 20 in the world? Are the Taiwanese true culinary masters or do they just have a huge culinary ego?

Basically, most top ten lists name the usual suspects:

Chinese
French
Italian
Indian
Japanese
Moroccan
Spanish
Thai
Turkish

Indonesian

Mexican, Greek and Lebanese and lots of others also get thrown in. Could these lists be anything other than super subjective though? It's a fact though that I've actually never seen Taiwan on a top ten list unless you lump it in the Chinese category.

Most Taiwanese are ferociously proud of their cuisine (even with respect to other local Chinese cuisines) which in some respects has had thrown in a mixture of many different Chinese styles. This is due to the fact that immigrants to the island have brought their various Chinese local area cuisines with them. For example, I'm a big fan of Northern food (dumplings and buns) but these are hardly traditional Taiwanese food, even though sold everywhere in Taiwan.

Another thing is when Taiwanese travel to other places, they are often disgusted with foods there. My wife wasn't even that impressed by French, which consistently rates as the top in Western minds! But when I experienced her rejection, I presumed that Taiwanese are quite picky about their food's taste and are not so adventurous when it comes to international cuisines that do not resemble their own; they are fond of Italian (noodles) and Thai (spicy) but are turned off by British food (to the point of packing instant noodles in their suitcase when having to live there for any period of time) or German (heavy and would doubtfully rank in the top 10 in Western minds either).

Taiwanese tour groups visiting European destinations famous for their food often hit local Chinese restaurants to essentially please the older (read more stubborn to try new things) Taiwanese travelers. My Taiwanese father-in-law, for example, often shows his dislike of cheese but in fact I think he just can't change his eating habits.

So, in the end, maybe the best way to judge cuisine is on a restaurant by restaurant basis. As such, there are many amazing restaurants and places to eat in Taiwan. Ding Tai Feng, a dumpling restaurant, was rated one of the top restaurants in the New York Times and boasts of this fact. I, for one, agree with the review when talking about the taste and presentation.

However, faced with the 'lu-wei' stall on the street with it's assortment of brown (soy-marinated) animal parts etc., I would say exactly what a old Japanese teacher once said to me when we were teaching at the same school in China:

"Japanese food looks fantastic but tastes so-so. Chinese food tastes great but looks horrendous."

The latter sentence pretty well sums it up for most cases. But then again, I'm an aesthetic minded Westerner! :)

Cosplay is a little freaky

From 2008_10_26 Petit Fancy

I went to Petit Fancy this weekend (for research purposes). This is Taipei's COSPLAY central.

First, I met a colleague of mine who is an all-things-Japanese aficionado. In the two hours we spent there, he guided me through the event which approximates a comic book or sci-fi convention.

What made it different though was the darker undercurrent, a mixture of cuteness, youth and porn. And to think it was held on the grounds of Taiwan's foremost university.

I will be asking my colleague to sort through what we saw and will present it as a series of further posts.

From 2008_10_26 Petit Fancy

TiT Town in Taipei

Taiwan's Tantilizing TiT Townhouses - More free videos are here

What is TiT? Well according to this development it's Town in Taipei.
Maybe I should find some TaT and trade it in for TiT.

This entry's been begging for someone to write up. A few people beat me to the punch...

Other links:
http://www.heresjonny.com/taiwan/2008/05/tit-taipei.html
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/jonnymatthews/1/1210934580/ithink-ixll-call-my-new-shopping-centre-xtitx.jpg/tpod.html

Bike Blind

I have to say that I've been oblivious to a trend that has swept the biking world. Folding, compact and ultra-light bikes are all the rage!

I recently had a talk with a Dahon employee Matthew Davis who brought me up to speed with the phenomena.

It seems that with the high price of oil, there has been a boost in public transportation use. The problem is the soft connections, that is the connections between the home and the public transportation outlets.

Step in the folding bikes. You've seen them around Taipei. Taiwan still remains one of the foremost places for bike design, you know! Old ladies ride them, business people ride them and some are even motorized (electric).

The fact is they really fit the bill here in Taipei in order to make the connection with MRT stations (who wants to take the jerky old crowded bus). Just pack it up and take it with you on the MRT. It's as easy as that! It's good exercise and it's environmental!

Well needless to say, I'm really considering one. Maybe you should too!

http://www.dahon.com/choosing/choosing-intl.htm

P.S. There are actually many companies that manufacture these things so this is not necessarily an endorsement of Dahon only!

Third Wave of MRT Lines

I was in YingGe visiting the in-laws and I spotted this poster in a new building developer's office. It shows the path of the MRT through YingGe.

You see, what's likely going on here is that the developers are likely asking an MRT price for their buildings. Property around MRT stations usually goes up quite a bit when the proposed lines are announced.

What's amazing when researching this entry is the DORTS maps are pretty terrible so it's difficult to know just where the MRT is really going and where the stations will be.

The planned system map so far on a great but HUGE map (2,973 × 2,064 !!!)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Taipei_Rail_Map_ENHP.png
A lot of the stations have numbers and/or no names...

Here's a previous entry about the system:
http://blog.islaformosa.com/2007/06/imagine-what-mrt-system-will-be-like-in.html

Anyone know where the new MRT stations will be exactly?

Being a Banana or an Egg

Are you a 'banana'? If you didn't know already, 'banana' is slang for an Asian born in North America. That's right, yellow on the outside, white on the inside. However, I really think that the term applies to Asians who have left their country and have pretty well adopted their new 'white' country's culture (for example, leaving Taiwan at even a young age).

Some ABC and CBCs I know have told me about their experiences in Taiwan, interacting with their relatives without the language ability or the acceptance of a lot of the customs. It's the distance they sometimes feel cultural-wise from their local counterparts. Some Taiwanese must really feel that these guys are a pale shade of what real Taiwanese are.

And another odd thing happens to me when I go back to Canada. I go see my Chinese friend who, for all extents and purposes, is less Chinese than me. Hey, I speak Mandarin; he doesn't! I eat Chinese food every day. Not him!

That's why I guess I'm kind of an 'egg'. You got it! White on the outside and yellow on the inside. Hey, I don't get offended! I'm not a total Asian convert and will probably never be but there is something to be said about returning to your native country and have a little bit of reverse culture shock.

In fact, I believe there is a kind of reversion that happens when we do return to a place that we have an affinity for. I guess for some it can really get confusing, especially when you don't know where you should really call home. Eggs of Taiwan unite!

Saw a funny thing at the gym the other day...

Going to the gym in Taipei is good for the obvious reasons. You can burn off that stress by throwing some weights around and make new friends while you are at it.

However, there is another reason to go: people watching. I get a kick out of watching people use machines and weights the wrong way.

I take delight in watching young ladies lift their flimsy weight dumbells or step erratically on the elliptical machine because they are more interested in watching their TV shows on the overhead monitors than to concentrate on their workout. Or how about the guy who uses the lateral pull down bar and either pulls the bar to the back of his neck or uses it like a rowing machine!

One of the funniest things that have seen are bunches of university age guys using the Smith Machine, a type of bench press consists of a barbell that is constrained to move only vertically upwards and downwards on steel runners. Behind each runner is a series of slots on which the barbell can be hooked. Even though there are these extra safety measures, it is advisable to have a spotter to make sure you the barbell doesn't pin you or just drop on your chest when lifting the heavy stuff. What had me laughing is that, instead of standing behind the lifter (as in the picture), the lifter's spotter had actually straddled his buddy facing his head. Man, talk about gay!

Anyone have any other pet peeves or funny experiences at a Taiwan gym?

Taiwan Blogger Sausage Fest at onHouse

Was it just me or was that a total sausage fest at onHouse? Oh well, I'm sure my wife can sleep soundly knowing this fact.

A big thanks to Byron, here for an Intel conference, for treating us all to his hospitality at onHouse. Byron is the interesting and active individual who hosted the blogger/techie event attended by a lot of Taiwan's foremost bloggers (myself included) on Sunday, October 19.

Of note in attendance on the Taiwan front:
Byron
http://texturadesign.com/
http://bikehugger.com/

David Reid
blog.taiwan-guide.org

Bushman
http://www.thenhbushman.com
http://www.thenhbushman.com/2008/09/27/bushmans-blogtoberfest/

Matthew from Dahon bikes
http://www.dahon.com

Darren Melrose
http://www.darrenmelrose.com/
http://www.conductorsnotebook.com/

Christopher Lee Adams from Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/

Going back to my original festive note, just noticed that there weren't any female bloggers. C'mon you guys! Get your ya-yas out and blog in Taiwan! I know it's Octoberfest and everything so sausages were in order but this was ridiculous!

Anyway, it was good to put a face to the bloggers and chat about tech, biking, Taiwan strangeness, expats, politics and finance.

Cheers Byron and thanks for the gracious door prizes!

What're you going as for Halloween?

Will it be the naughty maid? Cat woman? Betelnut girl? Race queen? Dominatrix? Oh the choices!

Thankfully we live in Taiwan were a lot of the costumes are distributed. Halloween? Cosplay? Betelnut girl? Dancer? Role play? Show girl? S&M? Bondage? There's definitely something in Taiwan for you!

Although I'm not sure that the only purpose of this website's costumers is for Halloween, I'm sure you'll enjoy...

http://www.wretch.cc/album/shyingcat

You just have to love women in leather. (Ladies can love the male sections too.)

Return to BigBrother Graffiti

A couple of interesting ones from BigBrother again. The top one is a man in a garbage bag sprouting a tree.

Love BigBrother's stuff.Very thought provoking.















Stalkers are also a good theme for Taiwan...

Gold in the Age of Doom and Gloom

A nice Taiwan motif done in gold that I saw at Just Gold across from SOGO. Too bad gold prices are so high lately! I wonder if their business is hurting or is booming

And that's a funny thing about gold in hard times. It's interesting to note the Chinese obsession with things golden which can similarly be found in other places in the world like India. Gold, they say, is always useful in financial hard times so it doesn't hurt to have some stored away.

Gee, in these days of financial doom and gloom are we going to go back to melting down jewelry to make gold ingots to buy stuff or trade? Get out those antique gold weighing scales!

Double Ten's (in)significance

Double Ten is upon us. Yawn! Not an inspiring national day. But at least it's a holiday. These days people just seem to go through the motions with the ceremonies, the parades, the fly bys and the fireworks show for the ROC's national day.

It takes its name from the Oct. 10, 1911 Wuchang uprising which is the symbolic beginning of the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

The symbol for the holiday is an joint double cross signifying two Chinese character 10s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Ten_Day



What is an interesting little known fact is that the symbol is also a powerful fengshui symbol as well. Taipei City Hall is situated atop the T-junction of Renai Road. Having a home or building atop a T-junction is considered bad fengshui.

In order to combat the bad vibes, the city hall designers made the building in the shape of a Double Ten symbol, which is really evident when looking at it from the air (satellite or Taipei 101 observation deck).

The logic goes like this: T-junction is bad luck, Double Ten is good luck therefore bad luck is canceled by good luck. Kinda neat!

Google Street View Coming to Taipei?

I was riding my scooter in YongHe today when I spotted a very odd-looking van. It had a rack mounted on the top with about 10 CCTV cameras facing in every direction.

I thought about what the use could be. Advertising? Traffic? News? I just couldn't figure out why the cameras would be facing in all directions.

Then it occurred to me that it might be a Google van!

Google, as some of you may know, has been taking pictures in 360 degrees of streets and intersections in many big cities. They are documented on Google Street View's wiki page:

google street view wiki

Could Google be planning to Street View Taipei next? I certainly hope so as it could have many applications and implications. First, it would help people find places without having to read Chinese that is through matching pictures. That's a plus for newbies to Taipei. A further development could be that Google is planning to offer Street View of Taiwanese cities on a phone models in Taiwan. Could the gPhone in Taipei be far behind?

Well, if anyone else has seen the van I describe, I sure would love to know your impressions or take. BTW, the pictures I googled are believed to be the Street View van in the US. The van I saw had all the cameras exposed on the roof on a rack. Seen it?

Taiwan is a Monopoly!

Monopoly is one of the best selling board games of all time with a 'rich' history

monopoly
Rich Uncle Pennybags

When I was back home recently I was surprised to see that it now has hundreds of incarnations from global monopoly to even Family Guy monopoly.

world edition

I was at Carrefour the other day and noticed that there is even a Taiwan edition (see pictures).

for sale

I mentioned it to people in the office and one person asked what the equivalent of Park Place was. He guessed it would be Renai Road in Taipei. But no, what is it? TaiPing Shan! What the %@#^#$?

Anyhow, just wondering if anyone has bought or played the Taiwan version and would be willing to tell us what other little changes they have made. Or what changes you would make to make it more reflective of Taiwan today?

A funny thing is that the World Edition actually has Taipei as a city on it, right up there with Riga (yes, Riga in Latvia!). What's more, the most expensive city on the board apparently is Montreal. Are Parker Brothers smoking crack or what?

Big John's Excellent Taiwan Coastal Adventure

Here's a little promotional bit about a friend of mine's blog, Big John. John's goal in his own words "is to walk all the way around Taiwan, staying as close to the coastline as reasonably possible." He has also set a goal of doing the circumference of the island in 80 days.

He hasn't been doing it all in one shot, though. He's been doing it in pieces on weekends and on holidays, picking up where he left off the previous time.

It's a worthy concept and he seems very determined, despite what some may feel are walks through pretty bleak, isolated and even dangerous stretches of coastline. The pockets of beauty captured in his logs and accompanied with photos are proof of the beauty of Taiwan which obviously spurs him on in his quest.

From my experience of driving the coastlines, the point of interest were far and few. Upon looking at John's blog, I have somewhat reconsidered my view and might take a better look.

John has recently added a crude, albeit useful map. Hoping for something a little more precise using Google Maps and GPS points so that others can find some of the points of interest he has experienced without the distances in between.   

Here is a recent article John has written for the latest issue of Highway 11:
highway11

John is a self-professed newbie of things blog but his site is coming along great!  He maintains a day by day blog of walking events here:

http://aroundtaiwanin80days.blogspot.com

Betenut Girl Meets Art

We all knew this was bound to happen eventually. An artist in NYC has used betelnut girls in her latest exhibit. And apparently it's a revival of something she did on a previous occasion.

http://betelnutgirls.com/
http://www.annamarieho.com/betelnut2008.html

According to one article:
"The piece intends to examine the complicated social and cultural exchange between the girls and the customers."

nylocal
boingboing

And let's not forget, passersby can get titilated as they walk by the store fronts of New York.

Take that Sex in the City!

Lessons from Beijing

Watching the Olympics it's interesting to note how different countries and different races excel in different area of sport.

And it's obvious that Asians are good at several sports. I think the implications are clear for Taiwan. Put more emphasis on exercise, sport and health and you can get results.

Since I have been living in the Taipei area, my judgment is based on what I have seen here. People do a lot of sports and exercise through high school but it all falls off in university. Once students reach the workforce, they are mostly couch potatoes.

Girls turn to makeup and high heels and boys turn to their computer monitors and video games.

Women worry about building muscles but don't realize that exercise can tone and tighten flabby body parts. They go on no-eating diets which are not really even diets at all. But their slim bodies for the most part put on the extra weight they so fear in their 30s.

They also try to maintain their pristine white skin by staying indoors explaining it away with "one white hides three darks". In fact, this expression, which is used to justify staying as white as possible, harks back to times when having dark skin meant that you came from a working background (ex. working outside in the fields as a poor farmer). It separated you from the rich and pampered who never had to work under the beating sun. It's hardly the case in modern society Taiwan. God knows people need to get active outside more rather than less.

Men are not afraid of getting a little dark. However, the white collar workers sit in cubicles and their cars relatively motionless. On the weekends, they huff and puff with a baby on their back in the park or take naps in department stores as their wives and kids shop on. As for the
blue collar workers, they do backbreaking work but smoke heavily and sometimes drink excessively as do some of their white collar counterparts.

The point is that people never look back at their healthier earlier selves to discover what they need to do differently. They largely become lethargic and lazy. And although there are some noticeable exercisers they are the exception rather than the rule. And what is the root cause? Well, it's a mixture of long overtime work hours, terrible commutes, a more and more unhealthy diet which are sometimes unavoidable. However, mostly little or no emphasis on exercise past a certain point in Taiwanese's lives is a big factor as well.

Taiwanese can be better at sports and exercise in general. This is clear. However, if Taiwan wants more gold or any kinds of medals to push their international recognition status, they have to somehow change the general later life mindset against exercise. You can maintain (at least) your shape with healthier eating AND regular exercise and being active. This is the message that needs to get across.

We know Chinese Taipei is really Taiwan

So far 2 bronze medals for Taiwan female weightlifters.


















Follow all the Olympic medal counts here:
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GL/95A/GL0000000.shtml

Taiwan's medal count here:
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GL/92A/TPE_T.shtml

Taiwan Olympic history here:
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BIO/NOC/TPE.shtml

My 10NT's worth

In Canada, one of the first things I noticed was how light an shiny the coins are here compared to Taiwan's coins. The later are often scratched to hell, are filthy and weigh down in your pocket.

A quick look around the Wikipedia found this: wiki

It seems that Taiwan's silver colored coins are made with cupro-nickel (copper and nickel alloy). Aha, that explains it. Canadian silver colored coins are made with nickel, right?

Well, actually this is wrong. In fact, according to Wiki, Canadian coins
"in 2000, [...][had] plated-steel 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents coins, with the 1 cent plated in copper and the others [dollar coins] plated in cupro-nickel".
wiki
wiki

The steel in the coins seems to explain why silver-colored Canadian coins are lighter and shinier (stainless) than their Taiwan counterparts. 10NT weighs 7.5 grams while the comparably sized Canadian quarter (25 cents) only weighs 4.4 grams.

The Canadian dollar coins do seem a bit duller in comparison due to their cupro-nickel exterior which fits with how the Taiwanese coins are. Plus they are fairly heavy. If you want to see and compare this, use the pictures and the information on the above mentioned wiki pages.

eeePC for free... kind of...

There has already been some talk about other companies giving away eeePCs to people who sign up for services but this is the first I have heard of it in Canada.

It actually is questionable whether they are really 'free' as the service costs often are high. Sometime the service fees can increase the actual cost drastically.

skillet

I was watching an TV ad in Canada for the Royal Bank of Canada that offered this:
"To get your FREE^† ASUS Eee PC, just open a new RBC Signature No Limit Banking^® Account or RBC VIP Banking^® account by September 12, 2008"

However, upon further reading they really come to the point:
"Take a closer look at this all-inclusive account. For just $13.95 a month with no minimum balance required"

rbc

$13.95 is quite a but of a bank account fee! The true free eeePC remains elusive!

At least the eeePC seems to be riding high though.

A bit about banks and banking

I thought I would write a bit about going to banks in Taiwan.

The first thing is about opening bank accounts. Usually businesses you work for will ask you to open an account with a bank of their choosing, usually as close as possible to the office. They do this because banks offer them deals to open multiple accounts. This is very different than in my native Canada where people have their pay deposited in their respective banks regardless of their name or location.

By the way, on an aside note, if you are free to choose a bank then there are a multitude of small and large banks to choose from in Taiwan. However, not all are in great financial shape. Of the top banks, I would recommend China Trust. Their service is fantastic, they are open later until 5pm instead of the regular 3:30 of most banks, they have a good financial advice section (I bought foreign mutual funds when other banks turned me down!) and they are efficient in their use of depositing bank machines. On the negative side, they didn't have safety deposit boxes free (all full they said) and they don't deal with a lot of foreign currency (I couldn't make Canadian travelers cheques there although American funds were ok. I went to ICBC and they had Canadian ones.).

Speaking of foreign exchange, here's a second thing I experienced recently. As I was planning a bit of travel and the exchange rates were decent, I decided to change some money. Being a month before my departure, I did not want to leave the money lying around the house. So I purchased traveler's cheques. Traveler's cheques are, as far as I can see, little used by Taiwanese. In fact, students have mentioned that they believe Taiwanese are easy targets for thieves when compared to foreigners for the very reason that they carry cash on them. This makes sense. So it makes you wonder why they don't think of using traveler's cheques. It may have to do with older people's mistrust of them or for the general reason that they are not convenient for Taiwanese. In Asia they usually need to be changed at banks as local merchants don't recognize them (apart from perhaps hotels).

The thing that stunned me the most when I purchased my cheques they did not ask me to sign them on the spot. Although I am not too sure why this happens (the cheques themselves have a message on them to sign upon receiving) I assume that the Taiwanese use the cheques as a way to send money to people by mail. A foreign friend of mine told me something about this.

Here's how it works. You want to send money overseas. You buy the cheques and do not sign them. You put them in a letter and send them overseas. If they are lost, you call the company and have them replaced (remember you keep the receipt for the cheques with the series numbers on it in case of theft). Otherwise, when they reach their destination, the receiver signs them and countersigns them and voila the money is transferred.

Just so you know, if you decide to get traveler's cheques like a good Westerner should, there may be some fees involved. The bank I went to gave US fund cheques no charge. CAD required a one time fee of $100 no matter how much money is changed. And remember to sign at least once before cashing the cheques. Some banks won't even cash them if they see the cheques were not initially signed. Finally, although you may get away with no charge on the purchasing end, there may be bank fees on the selling end.

So there you have it. If you have any other bank stories about depositing, withdrawing, wiring money, getting a safety deposit box or whatever, drop me a line.