The four months passed quickly, much to my surprise. It had been a long time that I had been away from home for so long- the longest in fact. The last time I was away for that long was when I had gone for my masters to the USA- two years- and even then I had come back in the middle ostensibly for site study- but also because I simply missed home. This time, I surprised myself by my resilience- although I must say the lovely and loving people there, the food, the soft easy landscape and the gentle cities helped me belong.
Taiwan, as some of you know is an island just off the coast of Mainland China and is separated from the great mothership by the Taiwan Strait. The immigrants forced and voluntary from that giant land ended up becoming almost 95% of the population of Taiwan. This gap between the mainland and the island is the primary point of discourse in Taiwanese history. This gap is at the same time enormous and at other times non existent. This gap forms the crux of the discussions around the nature of Taiwanese identity.
A history in précis: Once an island populated by aboriginals who lived off the sea and the mountains, the Chinese came in waves and settled on the flatlands to the west of the great mountains that lie in the center of the country. The western coast is still relatively sparsely populated even today. The Dutch colonized bits of it to the south (Tainan) and then it was the Japanese who ruled the country for around 50 years. They established the railroads, the institutions, and the paraphernalia of modernity until they were booted out after the second world war. Taiwan has a strange relationship with Japan. Many older people still speak Japanese and they were seen as benevolent colonizers.
Soon another wave of Chinese refugees from the mainland followed chiang kai shek to settle the plains of the country pushing the poor aboriginals further into the hills. These new immigrants did not only come from the hakka and fujian communities who were the first settlers but represented all the various regions of china. And here this community recreated China, calling itself the Republic of China to counter the Peoples Republic of China on the mainland. There were now two Chinas- one communist and the other actively supported by the UNited States as the bulwark against the red stain spreading over the world.. Until Nixon ‘betrayed’ Taiwan by acknowledging the PRC as China. And now, here begs the question - who are we? Chinese? Taiwanese? Until that point Taipei ruled the whole of China (theoretically); history books told of the history of the whole country, demonizing the communist government in the china. Meanwhile, in Beijing- Taiwan was just another province. There were then two capitals in Taiwan. The capital of China - Taipei and the Taichung- the capital of Taiwan province. I went to the headquarters of the Taichung province on one of the last days in Taiwan. Garden city principles on a hill, government bureaucracies at the center of the town and low rise residential homes - like dreams of american suburbia. A large sprawling lawn formed the town green near the community hall.
Today, as Taiwan gradually comes to realize its own identity outside the shadow of China, this alternative capital has been abandoned and many of its houses lie empty.
The first years of the ROC were marked by a cult of personality as testified by the oppressive Chiang Kai Shek monument that lies on the edge of the old city of Taipei. Flanked by an opera house and a theater a huge plaza burns in the sun as a blue tiled pagoda houses a statue of CKS looking towards China- the land that he once hoped would become his. Under his dictatorial rule the land was colonized and Sinicized even more. Mandarin was forced upon the country as the official language. Taiwanese was banned in many places and the local aboriginal tongues languished in the mountains. Japanese, popular among the middle classes was also abolished.
The city of Taichung where I was for four months probably had settlements that predated the Japanese- hence the name Tai - zhong (middle) as against Tai -pei (north), Tai - nan (south) and Tai-ding (east); but it became a city under the Japanese who saw its location more to the center of the island as more favorable for governing the country. They built a city around the railway station- a skewed grid to draw in the wind on some British engineers suggestion. Each block had a chamfered edge reminding me of the plan of Barcelona. A road led from the railway station westwards to the docks that connected it to the Taiwan Strait. The city lies in a bowl formed by two mountains on either side. On one side are the grant mountains of central Taiwan and on the other, to the west, is a sprawling long range called the dadu mountain (or the big stomach) to the north and south, two dry river beds, the dajia and the dadu, filled with rounded light grey stone, carry the sudden torrents of rain water from the summer typhoons to the sea.
The city of Taichung where I was for four months probably had settlements that predated the Japanese- hence the name Tai - zhong (middle) as against Tai -pei (north), Tai - nan (south) and Tai-ding (east); but it became a city under the Japanese who saw its location more to the center of the island as more favorable for governing the country. They built a city around the railway station- a skewed grid to draw in the wind on some British engineers suggestion. Each block had a chamfered edge reminding me of the plan of Barcelona. A road led from the railway station westwards to the docks that connected it to the Taiwan Strait. The city lies in a bowl formed by two mountains on either side. On one side are the grant mountains of central Taiwan and on the other, to the west, is a sprawling long range called the dadu mountain (or the big stomach) to the north and south, two dry river beds, the dajia and the dadu, filled with rounded light grey stone, carry the sudden torrents of rain water from the summer typhoons to the sea.
The city of Taichung used to be centered around the railway station. In the distance off the Taichung Dock road Tunghai University (where I was based) was established. Around the railway station was where the markets were, the place where the Japanese prince came and established a garden was. The older Japanese market still stands today on the main road dividing the city into the Japanese quarter and the Chinese quarter. The story is that the Japanese princess used to walk to this market from the railway station and then make her way to Taichung Park where a pavilion an a lake marks their presence. Towards the other side is where the government buildings lie- Japanese colonial sprawling masses.
Over the years this center gradually lost its importance. The city grew towards Tunghai, creating new districts as it went along. Every extension had little to do with the one before it. Simon says that this disconnectivity was the reason for the decline of the inner city. Today the inner city of Taichung is an empty shell. The few families who haven’t abandoned their older homes for the bright and shiny apartments in the newer districts stay because of nostalgia, or because they cannot afford to live in the fancier parts of town. The population is therefore old and poor and the buildings are slowly disintegrating, but are being colonized by those who cannot find homes elsewhere. IN huge abandoned buildings that were once shopping centers and office buildings homeless have set up homes, migrant labor has set up camp. The older community hall building has informal houses lining the ramp that rises within to the swimming pool above. Perhaps the most dramatic examples of this are the Jade Market and the site for the First Market.
The first market square lies right near the railway station. This was the market where the Taiwanese bought their stuff. In the 1980’s (I think) this building was demolished and a huge shopping mall was built here. Chiu-Chiu remembers coming here when she was young to collect manga stickers. But with the Taiwanese retreating to the periphery of the city, this building has been colonized by migrants from all over south-east Asia.
Taiwan attracts migrants form Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Most of these work primarily as housekeepers for the aging population. There is
lso a small section that works as laborers in the factories. Speaking strange language and far more boisterous than the Taiwanese, these laborers throng towards the public spaces in Taipei and Taichung during the weekend. Here they come for the shops, the telephone calls, the restaurants an the karaoke. These line the corridors of the shopping mall on floor after the floor. The Taiwanese have abandoned these spaces and see no reason to come back. The distance between the migrant and the local grows.
The Jade Market actually works only on the weekend. It is an informal market that colonizes the lower floor of a monstrous building on a plot that is adjoining the Taichung Park. Within the residential buildings that form the periphery of the block is a huge RCC block that floats within the courtyard. This is a Cinema house that was quite popular in the 1980‘s. Today it lies abandoned. Old whore’s sit in the dark alleys below it soliciting older men who come in for a little bit of company and comfort for a price. The empty lobbies and the hall of the cinema are used sometimes as bed chambers. But this is prostitution of the lower rung.
Simon was full of stories of the higher grade of prostitution- an essential part of the speculative landscape that makes up most of Taichung’s skyline. IN the 7th District, the most recent of Taichung’s new developments you will find large properties in the middle of empty or half built apartment buildings that have these large box like buildings occupying the space. Built only to make use of the space while rates rise all around they are generally temporary buildings that house restaurant braches as they test their menus on new customers or motels (love or otherwise)- lavishly themes with palm trees and pools within and saunas in the rooms where sometimes even families have their get-togethers or a strange phenomenon called ‘Barber Shop Karaoke’s”. These are box like buildings with frills paste don with a large sign that says ‘Barber shop’ in neon - but without- and this is the key- the barber shop striped stick. It also says ‘KTV”. And this I was told is the code for a sex shop. Young college going students supplement their incomes by playing escort to the politicians, businessmen and the gangsters who frequent these places. Outside armed bodyguards make sure that the unwitting do not enter. The Taiwanese attitude to sex is far more liberal than on the mainland. Homosexuality although legal is still not easily accepted socially but there were definitely more ‘out’ gay men than is usual in an architecture college.
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On the older roads between the towns, hot young girls sit in mini skirts and high heels in picture window boxes to sell betel nuts to truck drivers- attracting them with their sex appeal. I was told that once there were funeral processions with hot women in bikinis dancing on top of the coffin to send the dead man away happy. Meanwhile the obsession with Caucasian beauty is not only our bane. Following trends from Korea and japan, young girls (and a few boys) are getting Caucasian eyes through plastic surgery. Large posters outside feng jian university display the changes possible. White women pose in bikinis at the dragon boat festival much opt the delight of the young men from the villages and photographers.
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