Taiwan Day #1

I recently got back from the Women Make Waves Film Festival in Taipei, where I spent four and half days touring the city and enjoying the festival. This trip marks my third trip to Asia, which my mom likes to think is a "record" (I told her that three really wasn't much of a record but she says it is for our family, so I guess we can pretend).

I visited a college friend for two weeks in Hong Kong 11 years ago right before they reunited with China, and as I covered in my blog last April, I went to the Women's Film Festival in Seoul, Korea. Despite the similarities between the countries, they are still so distinctly different. Compared to the culture in Seoul, Taipei seems to be several decades ahead in terms of women's rights and GLBT issues. I also learned that Taipei has the largest gay pride parade in Asia.

The culture in Taipei also seems more Westernized - there weren't the same formalities that I found in Seoul. For example, I noticed that people didn't think twice to pour themselves a drink whereas in Seoul it was a definite faux pas. Also, there was a certain awkwardness in the social rules concerning handshaking in Korea that I didn't find to be the case in Taiwan. My volunteer guide did ask me, however, if I minded that she call me by my first name, whereas in Seoul my guide automatically assumed otherwise. Status issues between young and old, male and female, gay and straight, seemed much more pronounced in Korea, and as a result Taiwanese culture, at least in the city, felt very similar to America despite differences in language, religion, and cuisine.

So I'll start at the beginning. Here's the view from the plane as I left L.A. -


After a 14 hour plane ride and a 15 hour time change, I arrived in Taipei late at night and ready to go to sleep and get on schedule with the local time. The next day I woke up at 8AM (something I don't do at home) and was ready to tour the city.


My first stop was Longshan Temple, the oldest and most famous in Taipei. I expected something similar to the Buddhist temple I visited in Seoul, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was completely different. For starters, the religion at the temple was Tao. Buddhism and Tao are the two main religions in Taiwan, with Buddhism at 35.1% and Taoism at 33%, according to wikipedia.




Since my guide came from a Taoist background, she was able to tell me about the various customs in the temple. It was very crowded that day because it was one of the god's birthdays.







Most people carried several sticks of lit incense, which they carried around and made a wish on before they tossed them into a fire.




In Taoism, there are several different gods, each with their own specialty; you pray to one god if you want to do well in school, another if you want to find love, another if you want to have children, etc. All of the gods were at one time humans, and they are pronounced as gods after they die. From my understanding, there is also an overall God that was not ever human.







Bringing food for the gods is very customary.





Including prepackaged boxes of Chocopie.



I asked my guide what happened to all of the food at the end of the day. She told me that whoever puts it there can come back and take it.


Flowers are also a common gift to bring. These women are making small arrangements outside the temple to sell to visitors.


After the temple, we still had most of the day left to sightsee and enjoy the film festival. I'll continue with that in my next post.

Korea Day #4

I started my day off by going to Namsangol Hanok Village, a Korean Folk Village with traditional-style houses. The houses were transported from other parts of the country and reconstructed here as a free tourist attraction.





In the old days, kimchi (spicy, fermented cabbage that is still a common side dish) was placed in pots and dug into the ground to keep it refrigerated. The pots were then protected by a small hut like this one.



In the background below you can see N Seoul Tower.




After the folk village, my guide and I went to Namdaeman Market, an open air flea market that is popular with the locals.




This is a boiling pot of beondegi (silk worm pupae), which is a popular street vendor food.



The way the pot was boiling, it looked like they were still alive and moving around. I didn't try any, but the smell gave me enough of an idea.

After the market, we took a subway over to the theater for my interview with Cine 21, another popular film magazine in Korea. Outside the theater, we found a group of volunteers cheering about the festival to publicize the event.


During the interview, I was given a translater. Here she is explaining my responses in Korean.


For this magazine we also did a photo shoot with a silk flower, although the poses were more low key than my previous photo shoot.



Although the magazine article wasn't printed by the time I left Seoul, the festival had it printed in a festival news pamphlet the next day.



That night I met up with some people to go out for karaoke. As you may know, karaoke in Asia isn't like in the U.S. where you sing in front of the whole bar. Instead, you and your friends rent a small room where you sing to each other.







This is me and lesbian filmmaker Lisa Gornick, singing the duet Summer Lovin' from Grease.



Things I learned today about Korea -

- Koreans often say "kimchi" when taking a photo, similar to how in the U.S. we say "cheese."

- It is appropriate for people to address people older than themselves as Mr. or Ms. so-and-so. Today my guide (who is college-aged) called me Miss Ehlen, a formality that surprised me especially since we've been hanging out for a few days and have otherwise had informal interactions.

- While Asian culture as a whole seems to be more "polite" than western culture, one thing I noticed is that it is not inappropriate (as it is in the U.S.) to make a reference to someone about them being overweight. While thinness seems to be emphasized even more than in the U.S., my friend told me that references to one's weight are more of a matter of fact than anything. For example, one night when we were out, someone told me that I may be her friend's type because she likes chubby girls. Not the kind of pickup line that I usually hear, although I suppose its originality tops "Come here often?" and "Did you come here alone?"

We were all a bit tired from staying out late the night before, so we returned to the hotel around midnight. I was glad to get to bed at a decent time as the next day was my last day in Seoul and I wanted to make good use out of it.