The Matriarch – The Honeymoon
The stages of culture shock are honeymoon, frustration, adjustment, and acceptance. Technically, Leila and I are still in the honeymoon phase since we have been in Taipei just over two months. I’m curious if and when we will hit the “frustration” phase. My most dramatic cultural shift to date was my move from Nesbit, MS to Washington, DC. I moved from a rural area to an urban environment, and I had to adjust fairly quickly. I was a Freshman in college and the shift in cultural was in a way invigorating. The differences were the differences I needed. Mississippi remains an extremely marginalized space for black people, and at the time when I moved to DC, it was popularly celebrated as “chocolate city”. I’m curious if the transition from a global, diverse urban environment like New York, will pose the same challenges. I lived abroad in 2000 for a summer in Florence, Italy to study environmental design. The time period was not long enough to warrant culture shock, but toward the end of my stay, I vaguely remember feeling nostalgic for American culture. In particular, I missed the sounds from my favorite music. Ipads and Ipods had not been invented and music streaming services were not ubiquitous. Times have changed pretty dramatically. In a way, the world has become much smaller. I can feel connected to what my friends and family are doing through social media. Leila and I can pull up our personal music lists on Spotify for our impromptu dance parties. We can use Whats App to immediately speak to our friends and family (although the extreme time difference does present a challenge). Technology has the ability to draw us closer since we are geographically distant.
I have been watching Leila closely to see how our dramatic move will impact her. I am not writing this blog as a working mom that has all the answers, but as mom that is doing my best to figure things out. There are some days that self doubt creeps into my psyche and I question myself– especially the week when we were inundated with multiple doctors visits and found out Leila had Scarlet Fever. Was it the right decision to move my daughter so far away from friends and family and everything familiar? Can I give her everything she needs over the next eleven months? As a working mom, I’ve struggled with feelings of guilt. My work schedule in New York was difficult. Since Leila was two, she has been in pre-school from 8:00 in the morning until 6:00 evening. With a bedtime between 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm that left very little time for us. The most dramatic difference in our schedule is now I pick Leila up from school at 4:00. We spend afternoons at the park. We go on adventures after school to new places, and we spend time really talking, reading, and drawing. There are times that I do remind her that my schedule in Taipei gives us so much more time together and my work schedule is very different than in New York. But of course, with that, I also want her to understand that there are trade offs. I am hopeful that when we return in July that she will recognize, understand, and appreciate these trade offs.
The Architect – Sacred Spaces in Taiwan
Some of the most famous architectural spaces on earth are spaces for prayer and worship. St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome (1626), Notre Dame in Paris (1345), and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London (1708). When the Chinese migrated to China during the Qing Dynasty rule, they also brought the architecture of Buddhist and Taoist temples with them. Leila and I had the chance to visit Longshan Temple and Bao’an Temple and Garden. General impressions include color and material similarities, and both are layered with similar iconography as well as identical site plan layouts. The symbolism of the dragon appears dominant in both as well as the traditional Chinese vernacular architectural roof line. Both temples are now located in the midst of the bustling city and directly adjacent to the buildings commonly seen in the urban landscape in Taiepi. Baoan Temple has a much larger site. It is designed with an extended garden area beyond the temple. In reading on the history of Chinese architecture, there is a very detailed and precise rules for space planning, and this is deeply embedded as a cultural practice. Most buildings were designed with bi-lateral symmetry and balance was important to the architectural and life philosophy. Even the way that space itself was measured was meticulously written into law. Westerners may understand this practice as Feng-shui.
While these are both historic buildings, they were not flooded with tourists but crowded with local residents visiting for a ritual prayer. Many people are lined up to collect their incense, light them with strategically placed fire pits, and then pray to the discrete areas aligning the temple. There were also tables filled with offerings for the ancestors.
Longshan Temple is founded in 1738 and contains the God of Mercy. The name originated from the Fujian province in China where a similar temple was historically located. The temple houses deities from Taoism and Buddhism. The Longshan Temple was erected during the Qing Dynasty rule, but the architecture is not original to that period of time. The new temple rebuilt during Japanese occupation in 1919 and designed by Architect Wang Yi-shun. The dragon columns in the front area are the only bronze columns in Taiwan. The temple is flanked by two towers — one for bell and the other for drums. Double eave roof lines are consistent throughout most of the structures. Wang introduced some western techniques into his design. He added Corinthian Capitals on some ornamental columns.
Images Longshan Temple
Bao’an Temple Garden is known because it is the only temple in Taiwan to receive UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conversation. The temple itself is dedicated to Baoshen Dadi, the Emperor of Health worshiped in the Minnan region of China. Built in 1742. Baoshen was a doctor that saved many people from a local health scare. Bao’an temple 5 renovations in the last 200 years. The 1919, the temple was renovated by two architects. Rather than select one architect for the renovation, they divided the building in half and let each implement individual strategies for the renovation. If you look closely, you can see that the building is not identically symmetrical.
Images Bao-An Temple
Life in Taipei – Cost of Living
Food and coffee prices in Taipei are sometimes unbelievably low. Lunch on National Taiwan University campus costs approximately $1.75 – $2.50 USD and a latte at a local coffee shop is around $2.50. There are expensive restaurants and if you’re seeking specialty cuisine or a famous tourist destinations, it is likely you’ll pay a premium. The popular night markets that have historically used informal spaces to sell food and beverages are inexpensive and very popular. Leila and I live close to Shida night market and have our favorite places. Again, we can pick up a meal and a bubble tea at the night market for less than $5.00 USD.
Imported beers and wines are equivalent to the U.S. prices. You can easily pick up alcoholic beverages at 7/11 but wine and cocktail offerings are not so common in Taiwanese restaurants. While in New York, I’d typically have a glass of wine (or two) with dinner. In Taipei, the offerings have been either non-existent, questionable quality, or when the quality increases, the price increases substantially. When my husband was visiting, he managed to find a New York style bar with a mixologist, specialty cocktails, and English speaking bartenders. Since I am traveling with Leila, I have not had a chance to explore the Taipei social scene, but my observation has been if there is a heavy drinking scene in Taipei, it is not that visible.
The housing prices are disproportionately high when compared to the average salary of a Taiwanese resident. A two bedroom apartment in the Da’an District ranges between $1.2 million – $1.8 million. In short, if you owned a coffee shop; you’d have to sell 72,000 lattes for a 10% down payment on a home. Affordable housing in Taipei is a major urban planning issue, and the housing prices have grown increasingly unaffordable driving some people further away from the city center.