The MatriArchitect

“Acts Without Effort” 

Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Harvey, 2010 Earthquake Haiti, Wildfires, & Typhoons. There have been a number of natural disasters throughout the world that continue to impact millions of families. When I entered architecture school in 2005, Hurricane Katrina had just landed in New Orleans.  As a result of the aftermath of the Hurricane many academic institutions rushed to create design competitions and charettes to begin to find potential solutions to address the immediate housing needs in communities post disaster. But, it seems that after the disaster subsides, the interest in this type of work disappears. It’s not glamours and it isn’t associated with Capital “A” architecture. After the Taipei Earthquake in 1999, Hseih Ying-Chun began to refocus his practice.  His work has evolved from a corporate practice to a focus on creating a post disaster reconstruction system. The system designed by Hseih is made from lightweight steel system that can be easily assembled by local inhabitants with simple tools. In his TED X Talk, Hseih states that he has invented a system of architecture that allows for long-term durability. Leila and I recently took a two day trip to Kaohsiung so that we could see the exhibit “Acts Without Effort The Societal Architecture of Hseih Ying-Chun.”  To follow up on our visit, we conducted a follow-up interview about his practice with current employee Shao-yi Chi.

“We wanted to encourage local people to join the reconstruction . . . . The bes therapy is activity. House-building takes a lot of energy as well as a lot of cooperation.  Being involved in such an activity helps to eliminate teh suffering caused by the disaster.” Hseih Ying-Chun

QUESTIONS

When did Hseih Ying-Chun decide to be an architect? What created the shift in his practice from focusing on construction techniques?

When Hseih entered University, he was a physics major. He was later assigned to architecture department because of Taiwan’s practice of major distribution. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Taiwan experienced an economic boom and Hseih was able to get a significant amount of experience.  He became a builder and contractor and eventually was promoted to the lead engineer. His experience in construction processes began at the beginning of his care, and shifted to design practice over time. After his work in construction, he applied for the Taiwan architecture license exam. Before disaster recovery work, he focused on  many factories in Taiwan that were developing micro-chips. These spaces have high technical requirements – particularly with vibration. His practice was based on many obsessions with techniques and details before disaster.

Are there any issues with shipping materials to rural areas post disaster? Is it possible to adapt the construction practices to local materials?

The issue of delivery is advantage to the system. The steel frame components can be assembled on site with hand tools.  His 2016 project in Nepal, had many transit issues. There were dirt roads and all structural members were limited to 6 meters in length. In this case, they were connected in the middle.  The length had to be limited and the connection joint was modified. The core value of the system is skeleton and infill. There are a range of materials that can be used for interior cladding.  In some instances, local cultures have used mud, earth, bamboo, wood, and stone for cladding.

Can you discuss your issue with the housing built in rural areas and expand on why it is problematic to the environment? This is has also been an issue in the United States with the creation of McMansions.

The phenomena we see is strongly rooted in history.  Expansion of new houses during plentiful economic times has something that has been going on for ages. People who earn money want to build house and pass along to their children. Many people that live in rural areas work in construction in cities, and they learn symbols of wealth associated with space.  They begin to implement those strategies although in some cases they aren’t contextual to the rural environment and don’t use construction techniques that will endure typhoons and earthquakes. In Earthquake Sichuan 2009, the houses that were adapted from the urban settings to accommodate idealized aesthetics did not survive the earthquake, but the traditional housing and indigenous structures survived.  Brick and concrete houses by in large collapsed.

How did the open system develop and do you think this system is transferable to other regions?

This system was developed after the Taiwan Earthquake in 1999 near the Sun Moon Lake area.  The system started as few steel members. That was the beginning of this system and we have plans to expand globally. We have considered Chendu, Saudi Arabia, and Philippines. Bamboo or engineered timber can also be used rather than steel.  

What role does gender play in the disaster recovery work?  The spatial needs of men vs. women vs. children. How is this addressed?

Sustainability is core value. We have noticed that work that was completed in indigenous community in China and Taiwan elevates the role of women especially in times of disaster. Women hold important roles in disaster time as a critical force binding the community. In many cases, women are the main participants for organizing and  rebuilding the communities.

In your TED talk you reference “Polyphonic” music and the importance of “participation”.  How did you come to this conclusion and are there other references to architecture and polyphonic music?

Many analogies can derive from this idea of Polyphonic music and the importance of participation.  The system itself requires the group to work together to rebuild the community. Dwelling and housing relates to anthropology, architecture, and social studies. Music is one of his analogies and it is important to connect within this system where a community is devastated that everyone has a role in the rebuilding.

Are there any construction techniques that you borrow from indigenous architecture within rural Taiwan that have informed your practice?

One structure inside the exhibition room is the frame. Studies from Japanese anthropologists have drawings from this time to see how indigenous communities lived. They use those drawings as an inspiration and used this framing for an exhibition. The room for sleeping has an area of elevated bedding, and we re-create this area in the floor plan layout. The structural system referenced past indigenous structures and incorporated this into the logic of the steel frame structural system. In a way, they attempt to insert history into the house.  

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR – The Dadvocate (Len H. Kamdang) 

“They don’t really do play-dates here in Taipei like they do in Brooklyn,” Latoya explained to me in advance of my holiday trip to Taipei. I had asked Latoya about the social scene for parents and their children. There are many obvious and dramatic differences between Taipei and Brooklyn: language, food, architecture … just to name a few. But of all the social norms that differ, oddly the one that stuck out to me the most is that parents don’t really do play-dates in Taiwan.

It’s especially odd because I don’t even think that particular difference is necessarily cultural. In most places, kids have their own extended families.  Families spend time with each other on weekends. Brooklyn has an unusually high number of families who don’t have a strong local family support network. My parents live in Asia. Latoya’s parents live in Memphis. For us and many of our friends we just don’t have that much family in New York. Consequently, play-dates have become a sort of pillar of social existence for kids in our social circle. Kids get along and parents seem relatively normal? Let’s get a play-date on the calendar. Parents seems really cool and have kids the same age as ours? We should do a play-date. Leila makes a new friend at school and wants to get together on the weekend? Play-date. From the parents’ perspective, the kids occupy themselves for a couple hours. The parents chat, they laugh, they politely debate the thicket of educating school-aged children in New York City. In its highest form there’s some decent wine or interesting beer and something delightful to munch on. What’s not to love? What do you mean they don’t do play-dates in Taipei?

In all seriousness, something I’ve worried about as Leila adventures on the other side of the world is how she will adapt socially.  People frequently ask me how it is being away from my wife and youngest daughter for a year. It’s difficult. I won’t lie. I know people ask Latoya how it is to be raising Leila all alone in Taipei without her husband. Without question, that’s even harder. But leading up to this international journey, I think we’d both agree that we’ve asked the most of Leila. There are American schools in Taipei where American kids can learn with other American kids. Leila does not attend one of those schools. She goes to a Taiwanese school with Taiwanese kids who, for the most part, only speak Mandarin. That’s not to say we completely threw her off the deep end: she actually attends the mother school of her Montessori school back in Brooklyn. We knew she was comfortable taking classes in Mandarin – in fact, her teacher this past year did not even speak English. Still, I worried before she left: how would she adjust to speaking only Chinese on the playground with other kids? That’s has to be a huge adjustment. On top of that, she wasn’t going to get to see her dad every day. It’s a lot to ask of a five-year-old.

If you don’t know Leila, one thing that becomes immediately clear upon meeting her is that she is social. She loves meeting people. She loves talking to new friends. And she loves being in the mix. How was Leila going to do in a new country with kids from a different culture who don’t speak English? I often thought of the play-date as our ace in the hole for making friends. Leila loves them just as much as me. Yet, as we’ve video-chatted over the past few months, I was a little surprised that how much less concerned Latoya has been about Leila developing a happy social life. She’s repeatedly dismissed my concerns, “You don’t have to worry about Leila…she’s always going to figure out how to make friends.”

I was excited to spend the holidays in Taipei with Latoya, Leila, and our Memphis based family over the holidays. In my first visit in September, I was interested in seeing the sights and doing all the famous experiences. This time, I hadn’t seen my wife and kid in three months. I only really wanted to spend time with them, to observe their adjustment to living in another country. I wanted to experience their Taipei life.

I’m happy to report that Latoya and Leila have fully integrated into their neighborhood. Everywhere they go, they seem to know people, and the locals are really happy to see them. When we walk by the fruit stand at the counter, the lady running it always waves and offers Leila a piece of dragon-fruit or an orange. By her school, there’s a street bao (bread) vendor who waves excitedly at Latoya and Leila when they walk by. My first day there, I walked Leila to school and the bao lady ran out, hugged Leila, and she said something to her in Chinese. I did not understand it. As we continued on the way to school, Leila whispered to me “she calls me her little princess.” For her part, Latoya has been studying Mandarin with a private tutor daily and she’s getting good at it. She does all of the talking when we go out. Everyone seems pretty amused to encounter this family where the Chinese dad barely speaks, the black mother from rural Mississippi speaks functionally, and five-year-old high-energy firecracker is totally fluent in Mandarin. Leila absolutely recognizes that she speaks the most Chinese and she loves it. She loves speaking and making friends with everyone. If you didn’t know, Leila is social.

Although her Memphis extended family also made the trip for the holidays, I made it a point to spend as much one-on-one time with Leila as I could – both to try and give Latoya some relief but also so I could observe Leila privately. I wanted to see how she was making the adjustment socially and see if she was happy. One day, on the way home from a movie, we were on the train and Leila saw a boy her age watching her play Super Mario Brothers on her Nintendo DS. It was raining out (it’s rainy season right now, if you are reading this close to posting time, assume it’s raining in Taipei) and the train was pretty crowded.

Leila leaned in to whisper in my ear: “Baba, I’m going to go ask him if he wants to play with me.” With that she slid off her seat and sat next to the boy. As the train continued along, I watched Leila explain Super Mario Brothers to her new friend. I could only make out some of the words: tiao! (jump); mogu (mushroom); gui (turtle); and huo (fireball…I think?). They were having a pretty good time. For months, I’ve worried about her going to a new country. I worried how she would do speaking to her classmates on the playground. And now here was my child telling me she wanted to go up and talk to random kids on the train. All of my fears turned out to be unfounded. Leila will always figure out how to make friends.

On one of our final days, I told Latoya that I wanted to take her parents to Din Tai Fung – a famous restaurant in that began in Taipei that is famous for their xiao long bao (soup dumplings). As Latoya explained to her parents, it’s a bit of a tourist destination, a little overpriced, and the wait times can be excessive.  In that sense, Latoya’s mother compared it to Rendezvous, the famed barbecue joint in Memphis. The food is undeniably delicious though. Although we did our best to get there early there was no escaping the crowds: there was a two hour wait. Latoya decided to take her mother to a spa, Leila and I opted for a walk in the neighborhood together. More baba-daughter one-on-one time for Leila and Len.

We soon happened upon a playground teeming with kids running around and having a good time. Leila’s eyes immediately lit up. A playground filled with happy children in any country is her catnip. We spent some time playing on the monkey bars but she soon got bored with me. “Baba, I’m going to make friends with those kids and see if anyone wants to color with me,” she told me confidently.  “Okay, have fun” I told her…And then I sat back watched with great interest while she went to work.

Although my Chinese is shaky at best, it’s good enough to understand that this is literally what my daughter told these kids: “Hi, that’s my dad, he doesn’t speak Chinese, do you all want to go sit over there next to him and color with me?” While that was perhaps a bit embarrassing for me, I couldn’t help but marvel at Leila’s friend game. She has no fear. Here she was out in the middle of Taipei on a playground where she didn’t know anyone and she marched right up to a group of little girls to introduce herself.

I watched as they continued to laugh and play together. I honestly couldn’t follow everything they were saying. But it warmed my heart and I understood why Latoya was so relaxed about Leila’s social life. Before long, Leila brought her new group of friends over and asked if they could have the art materials she had brought with her to occupy herself in the restaurant. They gathered and started drawing portraits of each other on a bench next to me.

As it got closer to the time we had to report back to the restaurant, Latoya returned. She was completely unsurprising to find Leila coloring with a group of little girls she had just met. Latoya politely introduced herself to their parents and told Leila it was time for lunch. Once the kids stopped playing, the mothers exchanged social media information with each other. They explained that they had recently enrolled their children in English lessons. What an opportunity it would be for their daughters if they could play with their new American friend and speak some English. Each of the kids introduced proudly introduced themselves with their “English” names: Lily, Iris, Alice. The moms suggested it would great if Leila could come over sometime so the kids could continue their friendship. They also expressed interest in learning more about Latoya’s research. They talked about getting something on the calendar soon. In that moment, I came to a realization: as much as Latoya is in the midst of her own journey of scholarship and cultural exchange – Leila is as well.

I need not have worried. Leila will always figure out a way to make new friends. As the mothers wrapped up and began making their way out of the park with their daughters, Leila came running up to me and gave me a hug. “Baba, those are my new friends, they asked their mommies.  We’re all going to have a play-date soon.”

 

The Matriarch – Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Along with the New Year, I’m also celebrating  my seventh year wedding anniversary.  The significance of the New Year is written into our wedding vows as a time that our family reflects and looks toward the future.  I couldn’t have imagined seven years ago that we would be completing this annual ritual in Taiwan.  My first four months as a  U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar has been trans-formative, but the  flip-side of this venture is that I am spending time away from my husband while taken on the role as primary parent while living in Taipei. This 11 month research and teaching endeavor was possible because I have a husband that is open minded enough to support my career and research efforts. I am fortunate because my husband realizes that in the context of life-long partnership eleven months will only represent a fraction of our relationship.  When I announced that I received a Fulbright and that I would be moving to Taiwan with Leila, some people scratched their heads and wondered how a husband would be able to survive without his wife for 11 months. It says something about our society since no one ever questioned my ability to do the same thing with a more complex variable of learning a new country while parenting a five year old. It was a judgement on the capabilities, behaviors, and needs of men. (It is amazing that we have such low expectations for their behavior, yet we still allow them to lead countries. ) I am hoping that in this generation and future generations that we can continue to move forward on issues of gender equity and perhaps raise our expectations of men. I’m grateful that my husband is leading the example of what it means to be a supportive spouse. Happy 7th Year Anniversary!

Since my last post on December 15, I fully entered the Christmas season, hosted family in Taiwan, and continued to advance my research agenda. Being a mom in a new country and establishing a routine has come with unforeseen challenges. Leila and I have learned to navigate the healthcare system, the family-centered culture, and the language. The culmination of being the Matriarch and Architect came together in the most wonderful way in the recent weeks when Leila had her Christmas program at school, and we followed up the afternoon with a visit to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Early Saturday morning at 9:30 am, we woke up to attend her Christmas performance. The school rented a sizable auditorium and each of the graduating kindergarten classes in the school performed.  Leila sang and danced. I had noticed in the approaching weeks that she had been practicing. She performed with her classmates and was as outgoing as ever but mostly, I appreciated the village of parental support. The auditorium was filled with enthusiastic parents, grandparents, teachers, and administrators. The school enrolls students two-six year old but only the graduating class of kindergartners were performing. Not only was there a performance of school children, but they also had two other groups perform for the students as well.  You could witness each child’s joy as they exited the stage. The younger classes learned the importance of supporting the older classmates. It made Christmas (which is not celebrated as a national holiday in Taipei) feel very special for Leila, but also another example of how education and young people are truly treasured here in Taiwan. When the conversation is not focused on lock-down drills or maneuvering the system to make sure that your child gets into the few good schools, your energy can be shifted to other things more dedicated to the nurturing of the children.  Having universal access to good education and a society truly focused on making sure that all children (not just a select few) are educated feels right.

During the last blog post, I wrote about the Indigenous Justice Classroom and my visit to the Taipei Biennial. On the same Saturday of Leila’s Christmas program, we also made a trip to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Leila and I have been to numerous fine arts, cultural, and history museums, and by far, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum is the most child friendly fine art museum that Leila and I have attended to together.  There is a large area dedicated to hands on activities for children and it is open and accessible daily. These spaces allow the children to create artwork, learn how some of the works are created, and begin to implement some of the strategies used by artists. She spent hours designing a custom wall and taking part in activities that allowed her to draw and create. We also returned to the indigenous classroom. She felt at home and sat down and painted rocks with the featured indigenous artists.  She was in a zone. Her Chinese is so fluid that she can communicate seamlessly, and that afternoon she hand painted four rocks to be included in the exhibit.

These events are a break from the norm of our usual day.  Other than our trip to Korea, we have our routine and we execute. I’m currently a single parent in Taiwan and being alone in Taipei has enlightened me to some unexpected aspects of being the sole nurture for Leila daily.  On the positive side, my daily hugs and kisses have increased exponentially. I’m not sure if she grew more affectionate because we are not close to family or our closest friends, or if the general affection that she spreads around daily has been focused on me or perhaps, it is a combination of both.  I would say that it is remarkable to get so many hugs and kisses in one day. I think its something she genuinely needs and I force myself to pause to make sure she is getting it. The second thing I noticed is that she calls mommy 100% of the time instead of whatever the split was when we were in Brooklyn. My brain has certainly recognized this shift. I am the person. There is no other caretaker, no other parent . . . there is just me.  Sometimes the answer to all of the “mommy” inquiries is, “You’re going to have to learn how to do “xyz” for yourself if you want it done now”. So, the result is she has been forced to be a more independent and/or patient person. She realizes that I cannot cater to her because I am just one person.

Mentally, I think there has been some benefit to understanding I am fully responsible for her.  My therapist and I discovered that my reaction to trauma and combating racial microaggressions in my daily life in New York (and perhaps since I was a child) is to seek order. The mental awareness of knowing what I have to do each morning is comforting even if it means it is 100% on me. There are no expectations to what degree my husband will contribute on any particular day. So waking up to knowing I have to do it all has been somewhat liberating. When I get out of the shower in the morning in Brooklyn, it is a guessing game. Some days my husband is on top of it and Leila is fully dressed and ready to go, other days, she’s still in bed.  This mental inconsistency I find to be draining. So learning that it is not the actually “what” or “how much” I have to do, but I find comfort in knowing exactly what I need to do each day. The guessing game activates my trauma. His freedom to decide his participation each day has been my greatest stress. I think that’s a valuable lesson for me. It doesn’t matter that he has actually helped 3 of the 5 days, the unpredictably is really unhealthy for my mental disposition. Who knew that learning it is not the ‘how much’ but the consistency of ‘the the what’ would be a part of my self-learning about myself and my marriage.

Leila always comes first here in Taiwan.  If she is sick, all else stops and the negotiating of who leaves work is not necessary.  It’s always me. I am 100% responsible for those needs. I beat myself up for falling behind or not achieving what I should be achieving with my Chinese study and research. I set high expectations for myself as a parent, architect, and in my efforts in navigating Taiwanese culture.  I’ve been in Taipei now for four months with my daughter, and I’ve learned much more than I would have ever expected — about parenting, marriage, and myself.

The Architect  – KMT Inspired VS Indigenous Architecture

I’ve written about in previous blogs that Taipei’s architecture is not harmonious in its execution.  I have interpreted this diverse building styles to be influenced by multiple layers of cultural influences throughout Taiwanese history. Beyond this, the overall urban planning strategy shifted directions between Chinese, Japanese, and KMT occupation.There were two significant waves of Chinese Migrants.  The first wave was before Japanese occupation (1895-1945) when the Qing Dynasty (1683-1895) occupied the island, and post Japanese rule when KMT (Nationalist Party) came to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War.

World War II ended in 1945.  America entered World War II when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. China and America were allies against Japan. At the end of World War II, Japan was required to leave Taiwan.  Japan’s surrender was aligned with the drop of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.  When Japan left Taiwan, the new KMT regime paused the urban planning strategies that were already in place. After World War II, China was in a Civil War from 1945-1949. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Zedong and Kuomintang Nationalist Party (KMT) led by Chiang Kai-Shek could not agree on the final direction of China. At the end of the Civil War CCP (supported by Russia) occupied mainland China and the KMT party (supported by the United States) departed to Taiwan in 1949. They were mostly from the Sichuan Province. When KMT left for Taiwan, they mostly saw their presence as temporary.  There was no effort made to a long-term urban plan for Taiwan, but the urban planning strategies implemented by the Japanese were immediately stopped.

One of the architectural results of the temporal architectural culture is the Military Dependents Village.   Initially, there were over 800 villages built rapidly during the late 1940’s and the early 50’s to deploy housing for the influx of KMT residents.  They were usually built on the hillside to offer protection from any potential intruders. There are over 150 settlements remaining. The two settlements that I have been researching, Toad Mountain and Treasure Hill are a result of the post-World War II history and Japanese occupation.  Over 600 settlements did not survive. They were built with varying degrees of longevity in mind and some have been reconstructed with more durable materials. So, why are Toad Mountain and Treasure Hill uniquely different?

Toad Mountain was established in 1739 as a conduit for transportation for the Qing Dynasty. As a land mass, it doesn’t follow into the same categorization as the KMT settlements that were established after 1945.  This area already existed as a military area. During Japanese Colonization, the Japanese set up experimental farms and began agricultural modernization projects. In the 1950’s, the US Air Force invested in the area with MT to create an Air Force Combatant Command.  The residents built homes along the contour of the hill lines. The original residents were Southern Min People, but eventually integrated Taiwanese, Chinese, Hakka, and Aboriginal cultures into the fold of the space. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology attempted to tear down the military settlement in 2013 but there was some resistance.  NTU, NGO, and Good Toad Studio revolted against the erasure of this historical marker. Toad Mountain was designated a “cultural landscape” by the Department of Cultural Affairs in July 30, 2014, and was fully preserved from demolition on January 13, 2016.

Treasure Hill was established in 1945 as part of the KMT occupation.  It currently represents a blended community of artists in residents and the original occupants.  It had a similar experience as Toad Mountain since it also faced a threat of demolition in the late 1980’s.  The current residents formed an NGO and worked with National Taiwan University Graduate Building and Planning Institute to preserve the settlement. The occupants were military veterans fleeing China after the Civil War with intent for a temporary transition that shifted to a more permanent occupation.

Both settlements represent architecture and space that was highly influenced from Chinese culture as both inhabitants were migrants from China.  I’ll continue to compare and contrast the informal planning settlements of Toad Mountain and Treasure Hill with indigenous architecture.  The second phase of my research will expand into this realm.  The first societies that occupied the island of Taiwan have a different vernacular style and use of materials than the military settlements. In particular, I will be exploring the architecture of the Rukai and Lanyu areas.  While in Sun Moon Lake, my family and I went to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village. Within the village, they dedicate space to the re-construction of indigenous societies throughout Taiwan. Within this space, I was able to get a sense of the scale, materials, and spatial arrangements of the tribes that I will be visiting in Southern Taiwan in the Spring.

I will be teaching a course with co-professor Dr. Shu-mei Huang at NTU called Heritage and Community Development in Indigenous Context.  The course is structured as a workshop and will be regarding the restoration of four houses from the Rukai tribe. There is a long term re-building plan to preserve the existing housing of the residents.  

Life in Taipei – Nelson Family Visit

Leila and I  were fortunate to have family visit us for the Christmas Holiday.  My two nephews, my parents, and my husband came into town just before Christmas.  There are Christmas decorations throughout the city, and you can certainly purchase presents any time. There are a number of Christian and Catholic churches also.  However, the Taiwanese government does not recognize Christmas as an official holiday, so all of the schools were open and most people were required to go to work.  Even Leila attended school for the first time on December 25.  We are eternally grateful for being able to spend these days with family so that we could have the gift of time with family on Christmas.  Leila was the only person to receive physical gifts.  We enjoyed a special family trip to the beautiful Sun Moon Lake.  All directions regardless of angle are picturesque.   

I mentioned in my earlier blogs that having a working knowledge of Mandarin is very useful and understanding and reading characters are primary in truly integrating into the culture.  The greatest challenges of hosting visitors in Taipei is  navigating food and language. The difficulty in language  there became a challenge of communicating with cab drivers and restaurants. Also, I found that even when local Taiwanese people spoke English, they spoke with an accent that was difficult for my parents, who live in the South where everyone speaks English at a slow pace, to decode English if it was layered with any sort of accent.   I try to be very patient with everyone because I know most peoples English is much stronger than my Mandarin and the languages are not similar.  We learned to navigate this. With my broken Chinese, I could communicate instructions to the driver and everyone was able to coordinate easily with cellphones and google maps upon our arrival. 

Taiwan is known for having very delicious food.  There are specialties here that are made unlike any other place in the world  – stinky tofu, xiao long bao, beef noodles, bubble tea.  The Asian food available throughout America is not quite the same as the food that you would get in Taiwan. (I think that New York and San Francisco are exceptions.)  In Taiwan, there are restaurants that cater to American and European tastes but they tend to be more expensive and not as good as  the food they are attempting to replicate.   

The city is easy to navigate as a group of seven. We never had a problem getting a reservation.  We were able to hail cabs with ease.  Fulbright has a goal of cultural exchange, and my parents who are Native Mississippians got to experience and see Taiwan for the first time with a more personalized perspective since Leila and I are residents.  My nephews that are of mixed cultural backgrounds (Moroccan and African American) seemed to be more pliable with navigating language and food.  Other than the pork restrictions, which is fairly dominant in Taiwanese cuisine, they were open to trying different foods.  As children, they spoke Moroccan Arabic pretty fluently but as they entered school they gradually lost more of their ability to speak and understand the language. What they still have is the facility to pick up spoken languages pretty quickly.

As I’m heading into the second half of my visit here in Taiwan, I have several more visitors that will be coming to Taiwan.   I think Leila and I will improve in our ability to be cultural ambassadors.  We hope to introduce our friends and family to Taipei and greater Taiwan in a way that feels safe and comfortable and hopefully they will leave this place with more understanding of the way it works in the context of the rest of the world.

 

The Architect

The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) is currently hosting its 11th Biennial. It started Nov 17 and will be running until. The theme is “Life-Support, Living, Survival System” which interrogates the museum as an Ecosystem.  Mali Wu and Francesco Manacorda are co-curators.  Beyond visual artists, they have also included NGOs, activists, film and documentary makers, architects and other non-visual artists, in an effort to create a cross-disciplinary dialogue. By presenting non-traditional creatives in the museum’s galleries, the curators aim to enhance the discussion and the exchange of knowledge, responding to the diversity and possibilities of ecology.  There are 41 dynamic works.  A few that captured my attention are described in more detail.

Jeffrey Hou & Dorothy Tang:

Plant’s Eye View of Taipei literally interprets the way that plants perceive space in Taipei.  Within this exhibit, each plant has a life story. Rather a plan is existing as a tree-lined street, a decorative plant for a entry area, or an unwanted “weed”.  Plants continue to adapt to their urban environments and certainly in Taipei shape the visual space of the atmosphere. This exhibit was born from work at Treasure Hill International Arts Village in Taipei in summer 2018. Under the direction of the artists, and working in collaboration with ecologists and , a group of students from several countries in the Asia-Pacific region each imagined themselves as a plant species. This work was re-interpreted by the biennial.  

Huai-Wen CHANG+MAS (Micro Architecture Studio)

Micro Architecture Studio has created a spatial construction on the second floor facade which tracks the movements of the wind.  Museum in the Clouds is activated from the interior and exterior of the building. The project is ongoing beyond the biennial and interacts with the weather station on the museum roof that records micro-climate.  The museums weather station documents micro-climate data around the museum, including light, wind, rain, temperature, heat radiation, ultraviolet light, wind flow velocity, wind direction, and rainfall. It also receives remote data on air quality and information on pollutants in nearby rivers.   When temperature and humidity reaches a certain level, there is a mist activated that forms a cloud over the museum that clues the immediate area. In the evening, the lighting system responds to the air quality by showing a variety of illumination colors. These colors communicate the current quality of air varying from “perfect” to “stay indoors”.

Indigenous Justice Classroom

Indigenous Justice Classroom is a collaboration between documentary director Mayaw Biho, musicians Panai Kusui, Nabu Husungan Istanda, indigenous Taiwanese creatives, and people from all ethnic backgrounds that mutually care for the land.  ‘Indigenous Ketagalan Boulevard protest’ in 2017, was initiated by the Indigenous Justice Classroom following the announcement of Taiwan’s new ‘Regulations for Demarcating Indigenous Traditional Territories.’ These regulations enable the exploitation of indigenous territories by corporate interest, stifle existing indigenous culture and damage the environment. The protest set up camps in front of the Presidential Palace on the Ketagalan Boulevard. They were evicted by the police a hundred days later and relocated to the nearby NTU Hospital MRT station. Over six hundred days have past since the protest began and the exact number of days is displayed in the exhibited artwork photographed below.

The social movement is recreated within its exhibition at Taipei Biennial.  The physical tents from past protest camps pictured below hang from the ceiling, protest quotes are displayed on towels,  a circle of rocks is emblematic of customary rituals, and an indigenous woven lily form represents housing structure. 

The Matriarch

Grandparents day at Ms. Lam Montessori was December 5. Leila’s grandmother was visiting Taiwan for her high-school reunion.  The coincidence in overlap with Leila’s schedule was to her great benefit. Leila had a grandparent able to attend. The circumstance for us.  She may have been the only students without a grandparent present if her grandmother was not in town, and it is moments like that make you feel a bit more isolated.  (Although grandparents day in NY also presents complications for our family.) She was ecstatic and my mother-in-law enjoyed seeing her interact with the class.

Life in Taipei

Christmas is not a major holiday in Taipei.  Leila’s school calendar has her scheduled to attend school on Christmas Day, and the holiday schedule shows the school as closed on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.  There are Christmas events throughout the city. You can visit Santa, purchase a Christmas tree, or see holiday lights. I assume that these events are designed for expats. I haven’t gone out of my way to attend.  The reality is, I actually don’t mind. I am not missing is the consumer pressure to purchase gifts. Last year during this time, I was searching for the perfect gifts during lunch breaks, and searching online to make sure that I could find the perfect item. Leila’s received so many gifts some Christmas’s that I could see the actually fatigue in her body language from opening them.  Her list this year was so simple. It included items such as a candy cane or a Hershey’s kiss. We continue to say that Christmas is not about gifts, but more and more, it seems to be about gifts. And perhaps because I’m not inundated with the messaging, I feel less pressure to equate giving someone a gift with Christmas. Leila and I are so fortunate to have family visiting us throughout Christmas, so we get to experience a holiday together in a new place.  It really is for us about seeing and spending time with family. This in actuality is the best gift for us.

The Architect – Taipei to Busan

I was invited by Dong-Eui University in Busan to expand the conversation on gentrification.  As it happens, displacement is happening throughout the world as real estate prices are rising exponentially.  In Taipei for instance, real estate prices have rose 70% in from 2005-2014. And with this rise in real estate, the income has not risen at a similar rate. It’s not enough to say who cares and let the markets continue to rise at unsustainable rates.

American Indonesian Exchange Foundation supported the trip  to Busan with the goal of encouraging the exchange of ideas within the region, and this trip was educational for me, but also I  spoke to the students and faculty at Dong-Eui University about my research.. I learned that Busan faces similar issues.  I learned that they also have a team currently investigating the role of gentrification in the city of Busan. I delivered a lecture in English and my former classmate, Jin Kyu Kang, translated the lecture into Korean.

My interest in applying for the Fulbright Scholar program, started with the co-creation of a course at Pratt Institute, “Productive Collisions” with co-professors Jack Travis and Jeffrey Chen.  The course has three goals which include an interdisciplinary approach, student awareness, and facilitating design to generate understanding. My lecture framed gentrification as it has occurred in Brooklyn and begin to explore the ways the “Productive Collisions” course has approached educating students about social issues surrounding Pratt Institute.  As part of the lecture, I introduced them to the work we are doing with Reconnect Brooklyn in the collaboration Productive Collisions.

With the translation included, the lecture lasted over two hours and was followed up with a conversation and student and professor questions. In many ways, our concerns are more similar than different, but more importantly, as academics I believe that architects and designers should be in many ways involved in these conversations.  Design strategies can be used to create solutions. We share a planet and the planet in many ways revolting against us with rising sea levels, wildfires, and extreme shifts in climate. Coincidentally the weekend we were in Busan the global climate report was released in America. Architects and urban planners have to be invested in solving these issues.

Busan to Seoul

We took the high speed rail from Busan to Seoul.  The travel time was 2 hours and 15 minutes and the amount of distance traveled was 325 km/505 miles.  Within hours, we transformed from a coastal city to the metropolitan of Seoul.  Seoul is a city that loves design.  You can tell by the way the residents are dressed and by the look and feel of the city.  There is great attention paid to the aesthetic of the urban environment.   I am certain there must be a historical context, but unfortunately, I  haven’t been able to fully understand the history.  We did start our visit with historical structures of Jongmyo and Gyeongbokgung Palace.  You can see a brief description below and a few images from our trip.   We finished our trip with one of Zaha Hadid’s last projects, DDP.  With a budget of $446 million, this project is the essence of the Starchitect Architectural movement.  The scale is grand, the materials are innovative, and as a building (beyond programming), it is a cultural attractor.

Jongmyo 

Jongmyo is a shrine based on Confucian principles dedicated to the spirits of the former Kings and queens that once ruled Korea.  The structures are simple wood structures that intentionally lack adornment. It is on UNESCO World Heritage list (1995).

Gyeongbokgung Palace  

Gyeondgbokgung was established in 1395 by the Joseon Dynasty that ruled Korea from (1392-1910). It’s situated adjacent to the mountains.  The literal meaning is “brilliance and fortune”. The palace was destroyed in 1592 by fire and was in ruins for 270 years until 867 when it was restored by Heungseon Daewonggun.  The restored palace suffered more damage between (1910 – 1945) during Japanese occupation. In 1990, Japanese structures were removed and the palace was restored.  

Dongdaeum Design Park (DDP) – Zaha Hadid’s Final Public Project

This building exudes Zaha Hadid’s style.    A 338 SM cultural center sits in the garment district of the city. This building is striking and the scale is monumental.  You can wonder throughout this space for hours. It is programmed as a space for public art display.  It is impossible to capture the building from just one camera shot.  It is dynamic and complex and if you have an interest in architecture,  you should see this building.

The Matriarch – Leila Loves South Korea (too)

Leila’s most challenging and impressive feat is that she sat through a two hour lecture I delivered at Dong-Eui University with minimal fidgeting or disruption. She acted as the photographer for the day documenting most of the lecture and when I finished she walked up to me and let me know that I did a good job.  This is the same Leila that will also throw a tantrum about ice cream, but in fairness, we had a pretty detailed conversation about our trip and the importance of it. This was a test run for us and that if she was unable to travel and sit through the not so entertaining parts of the trip, we would likely be unable to make other similar trips.

Leila and I both know very little Korean but managed a correct pronunciation of “thank you” before we departed.  Leila’s social personality makes her an ideal traveler. She is often meeting children on the train, in the park, or any public place when she is in her element.  When she’s tired, we have to completely shut down our schedule for the day until she recuperates. The weather is 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler in Korea, and on Saturday morning,we woke up to snow.  Leila has expressed her love of the seasons and when I mentioned that she would likely not see snow in Taipei, she was really upset, so to wake up to this surprise in Seoul made her day. We visited, the Thanksgiving weekend (which is not celebrated outside of the U.S.), but obviously a very important holiday on our calendar – a time to be with family and friends.  Seoul has a different look and feel than Taipei.  There are several shopping malls. The building feel intentional and the historic spaces are given space to breathe from the more contemporary architecture.  

Life in Taipei

The scale of Taiwan is comparable to the size of the state of Indiana.  Within two hour flight time North, you could potentially be in Japan or Korea.  A two hour flight south places you in the Philippines. Directly West of Taiwan is Mainland China and Hong Kong is also a 2 hour flight just East of Taiwan.  Taiwan is also an ideal location for visiting other countries in Asia relatively quickly. The closest flight from the United States, is an 8 hour trip from Hawaii. Flights within the region are from $100- $300 US dollars.  Leila and I have taken several trips in Taiwan beyond Taipei, but this is our first time outside of Taiwan.  We have more trips to come and we are so fortunate to have friends and family throughout the region.  

 

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.  

 

 

 

The Architect – Taiwanese Architectural History

During this period we are now investigating the architecture built during the Qing Dynasty.  This period lasted from 1683 -1895. The Lin Family Mansion completed around 1847 falls during this period.  The preserved architecture of Taiwan includes several temples. Since this period represents a few centuries, we will be spending a longer period during this investigation.   We had a brief departure back to Toad Mountain where we attended a public exhibition. Returning to Toad Mountain, even with the expanded context of Taiwanese architectural history was enlightening. I was able to see the spatial constructions with a different perspective.  It was our plan this week to visit the Mengia Longshan Temple that was built by Fujian immigrants in 1738. However, because Leila came down with an unexpected illness; we had to put our visit on pause. There comes a time when the matriarch roles supersedes the architects and this week was one of those weeks.   

The Matriarch – Nurturing Leila

    Leila and I had to have our first experience with the healthcare system in Taiwan.  Now, we are both fine, but she encountered a virus that resulted in a fever and mysterious rash.  Health insurance for me is immediately covered as a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan’s universal healthcare program.  Leila’s coverage will begin after six months of residency. Unfortunately, she needed medical service before the six month time period. Another small issue is that we were both covered under my husbands family plan and in the interim, he happened to switch jobs, so at this time Leila is not covered under his plan.  Actually, none of this was a huge problem for us. Leila had a total of four doctor’s appointment in the past weeks,and I paid for her uninsured appointments out-of-pocket. The appointments ranged from $30-$50 for each appointment. This fee also included the necessary prescriptions. The pharmacy is located in the doctor’s clinic and when we checked out, we paid and retrieved our pharmaceutical needs in the same building within minutes.  When we arrived to the appointment, I came with several books, an Ipad, and crayons and activities. When going to the doctor, especially without an appointment, I’ve learned to anticipate a long wait. For all four visits, we waited no longer than 10 minutes. The system’s advantage is its efficiency. Each time we entered the office, the waiting room was completely full.

Life in Taipei – Language Challenges

My Mandarin is improving, but not to the extent that I can have a conversation about allergies, history of skin sensitivities, and medical history.  When I first took Leila to the doctor, I noticed a rash on her skin. It was extremely unusual because she has no allergies of note nor has she ever broken out before.  It was pretty strange. I dropped my commitments for the day, and immediately took her to the clinic that was in the neighborhood on Tuesday morning. The first diagnosis was a doctor who spoke very little English (still much better than my Mandarin), but had a nurse translate for us in the appointment.  He was so apologetic for his English skills that I started to feel badly. She was given a topical treatment, and we were told if there wasn’t improvement by Thursday we should return. I took her back to school assuming it was an allergic reaction. Wednesday, she went to school and by noon, I received a phone call about a fever.  We returned to the same clinic. We saw a different doctor. Her diagnosis was still that the rash and the fever were unrelated. We were prescribed a fever reducer and continued the allergy treatment for the rash. Thursday, we proceeded with this treatment, but Friday, when we woke up with the a spreading rash, we went back to the doctor.  We were diagnosed and re-prescribed an antibiotic. We finally started to see some progress on her health.

    There are so many variables at play in our experience that it is difficult to draw any conclusions.  I’m grateful that all of the appointments were affordable since we do not have health insurance. I believe the incorrect diagnosis was maybe a result of a system where doctors are seeing a high quantity of patients daily, and a result of me not being able to communicate so clearly about Leila’s medical history and symptoms.  

    As a professional mom, I really felt it this week.  I had to put any work on hold and my priority became making sure that my daughter was well. Between naps and doctor’s appointment, I was able to fortunately work from home and am glad this is an option available to me.  The largest limitation was the inability to visit sites, but in other very positive news; Leila became an actual bike rider without training wheels, and she managed to do this with a fever. 

Learning Mandarin

我們家在大安捷運站附近。早上我的女兒去學校上課。我的女兒週末早上常常去踢足球。他早上八點開始上課到九點結束。踢足球很有意思, 但是他不喜歡看比賽。週末早上, 我去台南學建築,房子,和大樓。我和我的女兒坐公共汽車到高鐵. 我在網路上買車票. 在高鐵 , 我們看多本書。高鐵有快，又舒服，跟很好喝咖啡.我們坐計程車到安平古堡去. 計程車很非常貴. 我們參觀安平古堡 . 我們在台南從中午十二點玩到晚上六點。我們每個週末都沒空最近我們忙.我們喜歡參觀台灣 和我們喜歡多照相.

The Matriarch – Taiwanese Architectural History

In my continuation of colonization and migrations impacts on architecture, Leila and  I made a visit to what is now Fort Anping Tainan, Taiwan. The Dutch and the Spanish overlapped in their occupation of Taiwan but eventually the Dutch needed Spanish Formosa (see last weeks blog), and they fought for it. The Dutch let the Spanish know that there was no possibility of co-existence.  Tainan is approximately 310 KM south of Tamsui and located on the South West coast. The Dutch & Spanish occupied different regions of Taiwan at the same time.  In 1642 when the Dutch realized the Spanish location at the northernmost point of Taiwan had prime real estate with access to modern day Northern China, Korea, and Japan, they made it their mission to take Fort Formosa by force. And with the growing Dutch East India Company, the Dutch were willing to fight to grow their business. Taiwan was a targeted location because the Dutch were unsuccessful in establishing trade posts in Mainland China. In 1624, they actually tried, and the Ming Dynasty was too powerful.  And, to give you context, both Tamsui and Tainan both had thriving independent cultures that were self sufficient. The narrative that indigenous cultures need to be saved by colonizers is a myth.  If anything, when the Dutch arrived to Tainan in 1624, they immediately upset the ecological balance with excessive hunting and fishing. Taiwanese people are fairly congenial, I imagine that when the Dutch arrived, they didn’t pull out the swords immediately. The Dutch were ousted by the Qing Dynasty, Koxinga, in 1662. (The Qing Dynasty took over from the Ming Dynasty in 1636) The treaty basically said you can take your personal belongings and your slaves. We will keep the goods you’ve accumulated from trade and the fort, and we aren’t paying you for anything in it. In return, you get to live.

So, the site is a bit misleading.  What you see upon arrival is a Fort that has been re-built with Japanese, Chinese, and Western influence. The site is the original site of the Dutch Fort Zeelandia, but the only original area of the fort is semi-circle of bricks located on the East side.  During Japanese rule, Fort Zeelandia was in complete ruins and fully deserted and the Japanese decided to invest in its preservation and beautification. The brick walls surrounding the fort were built by the Japanese, using a Japanese architectural style, in 1896. In 1930, the Japanese built a Western Style exhibit space for cultural remembrance. The scouting deck was built in 1945 to monitor surroundings post-Japanese occupation, and in 1975, the tower rebuilt during the time we will consider Modern Taiwan. This site represents much of what led me to this particular investigation of colonization and migration. On one site, in a city in Tainan,Taiwan, there are five different architectural cultural influences — Japanese, Western, Ming (China), Qing (China), Modern Taiwan, and The Dutch.  How can you have harmony in architecture when the cultural mix of styles is so different? For additional images see link.

The Matriarch – Making Friends

My daughter is an incredibly social person. She is energized from being around people, and is always looking for ways to connect. At her school, she’s acclimated quickly and has started to make friends. She even finds ways to meet people in our neighborhood on the playground. It’s an admirable quality but so far from a personal priority for me. Even if I had time, there is a real sense (from my perspective) that there is a  “family-first”. I’ve spoken with two different moms that had a regularly scheduled weekly dinner with their parents every weekend. The “play date” seems low on the priority list. During holidays, it seems that Taiwanese residents make seeing family a priority. To make up for this shift in social time, I decided to enroll her in some weekend classes where she can meet up with friends. As for me, I grew up in a relatively social isolating place, so the idea of placing my social needs on the back burner has been a part of my modus operandi for quite a while.

Taiwan Life – High Speed Rail

Leila and I took the Taiwan High Speed Rail to Tainan over the weekend and it was glorious.  After her Saturday morning soccer class, we went to the train station and headed South to Tainan. We were home before bedtime.  This trip by car would have taken us 8 hours round trip, but on the Saturday train, we were in Tainan just under two hours. This saved us from an overnight stay, and I was able to make the trip easily on the weekend. A round trip ticket to Tainan is approximately $60.

The Architect  – Spanish Colonization, Fort San Domingo, and Aboriginal Resistance

This week Leila and I traveled 45 minutes North of Taipei to visit Tamsui  where the Spanish Formosa, a former Spanish colony is located. Formosa is a Portuguese name that was given to Taiwan by Portuguese sailors in 1544 meaning “beautiful”.  Tamsui lives up to its name.  There are mountains surrounding the convergence of the Tamsui River and the Tamsui Strait. The native plants and flowers are robust.  The Spanish colonized this area of Taiwan in 1626 in an effort to bolster trade.

Marco Polo popularized the desire to trade in Asia with his accounts, Book of the Marvels of the World. In late 1400’s Spain was aggressively seeking to find a quicker route to China from Europe in search of spices. Christopher Columbus certain that if he sailed West, he would find China a shorter route to China, mistakenly ran into what is present day North America.  This mistake in route delayed the exploration to China for another one hundred years.  The Spanish did not reach China until 1520 when Magellan landed in Cebu in the Philippines.

In 1626, the Spanish arrival in Taiwan was met with immediate rejection by the aboriginal culture.  The original Fort San Domingo built in 1628 was made from wood. Tamsui aboriginals defended the land and burned the first Spanish fort down.  Just as the new Spanish Fort was being constructed, the Dutch threatened a hostile take over and eventually succeeded.  The viceroy of the Philippine commanded the troops to withdraw from Tamsui.  The Dutch renamed the fort, St. Anothony and began to increase trade routes and build the Dutch East India Company.  Spanish Formosa  is now preserved as historic site.

While walking through Tamsui, you can see evidence of European architecture.  If you compare the Spanish architecture to the Vernacular architecture of the Lin Family Mansion and Garden it is quite different.  Spanish Formosa is uniquely situated in Tamsui as a neighborhood that is a confined area, but stands out from the context of Taiwan.  The Spanish and Dutch occupied these areas as colonizers and the British leased the site from 1868-1972 as a consulate and ambassadors residence.   In each instance, the European nations transferred a style of architecture directly to Taiwan without adapting for context.  The visual evidence of colonization is strong as the architecture presents a strong contrast to the architecture of Taiwan.  You can see more photo documentation of the neighborhood from our visit.

 

The Matriarch – You can protest & complain, but you must also vote.

The process of voting absentee from Taipei for the United States election has not been so convenient in Taipei.  There are a few steps before you can return your ballot and it requires in the state of New York at a minimum of two – three international mailings per election.  This means a post-office visit, locating a printer,  navigating a printer/computer that may be set up with settings in Mandarin, and paying for international shipping.  The computer and printer in my office is set up on A4 paper and the ballot will not print as required by New York State. So, I’ve had to locate another printer on campus to print the ballots with the appropriately sized paper.  There are two separate mailings required for federal and state, and the federal ballot was only made accessible since October 4.  I’m a highly motivated voter, but I imagine, with the level of inconvenience, that many people will not participate in the process from abroad. I’ve mailed my ballot, but it took several steps.

I’m also embarrassed and disappointed to say that I missed the primary because it aligned with my recent arrival, and I couldn’t manage to make all of the above happen in the first week that I arrived.  Voting in general should be easier. Many nights after working a full day and picking up Leila from school, I’ve had to run into the local elementary to vote in the pouring rain before making her dinner.  I’ve also woken up an hour before work and tried this process in reverse.  I’ve run into more than a few people, who have decided to avoid participating in this cumbersome process because (they  live in a state where the election, “really” doesn’t matter”), or they think a specific candidate will already win.  Or, they are still waiting for a ballot to be mailed since every state has its own process.  With elections being so close, every vote does count and the absentee turnout has the power to predict some of these close elections.

Life in Taipei – Culture of  Niceness

My Taipei observation this week is about the people. There have been several incidents of genuine and authentic niceness that have  stood out on my visit.   Taiwanese locals have join goodness to Leila and I at most every opportunity.  We’ve been lost and looked at a map too long, and a stranger will walk up, declare that they speak English and offer to help.  I’m in the process of learning Mandarin, and most people are very patient as I make attempts with my broken grammar and unfortunate pronunciations as I try to figure out the language. Even when I first arrived, most people were apologetic if their English wasn’t strong enough, if they couldn’t help me in a situation, where we couldn’t communicate. (I recognize that people in the United States would not offer the same courtesy for tourist or visitors.) 

Taipei is a city of of over 2.5 million people, but in my neighborhood, there are local businesses and the people who work there, who interact with Leila and I daily that give you a sense that you are from a small town.  Every week, Leila and I purchase fruit from the same fruit stand near our corner.  As we were dumping our trash one evening, we placed our weekly fruit order, and let the group from the fruit stand know that we’d be returning to pick up the fruit on our way back home.  Leila and I ended up getting sidetracked and found an art store and lost track of time.  When we returned home, she had already left for the day, but gave the noodle stand on the corner to give the fruit to us when we had returned.  We stopped by the next day to give her the money for the fruit, but again, this doesn’t really happen in New York.  This is not an isolated incident.  I left my pen at the Family Mart on National Taiwan Universities campus, when I returned the next day, the cashier gave it to me.  I didn’t even realize I even left it. And, if you need an umbrella, there is a stand in the subway station with a group of umbrella that says, “please take one.” 

There is an element of congeniality in everyday interactions. Even if Leila is playing with a child’s toy on the playground and is enjoying it, the Taiwanese parent insists that she take it.  The people here seem to be working very hard to make sure that we feel welcome and this has been a pleasant surprise.  Before we departed for Taipei, the most common prediction that I heard about our future journey is that the food would be good and the people are very nice.  Even with having this expectation, the actual experience has far exceeded my expectations on both accounts.  

The fruit stand next door had to close early before we returned from dumping the trash. She gave the noodle guy our fruit so that when we returned we’d have it.  No one asked for money. It’s the honor system. We’ll get it tomorrow. And, if you need an umbrella, there is a stand that says, oh it’s raining and you forgot your umbrella, just take one of these.

 

The Architect – What are the impacts of colonization & migration on Taiwanese architecture?

When I was in high school, I took a World History class in hopes to get a broader perspective of history.  I was one of two African American students in the class. When we reached the Chapter on Africa, the teacher completely skipped it and moved on to the “Middle East”.  We requested a meeting with the teacher to ask why she would skip an entire continent. She was polite, but conveniently said that she skipped it because the Chapter was outdated.  It likely was, since the entire book was outdated, but it was difficult to understand how she could teach a world history class and leave out part of the world. Unfortunately, architectural history and art history have also been taught with a very limited lens and scope.  For the pre-requisite for the Master of Architecture degree, I had to take two Art History courses and while in graduate school, I had to take an additional two Architectural History and Theory courses. Most courses would make mention of Egypt, then Greece, Italy, and the remainder of Europe. Colonization and migration impacts culture, social systems, and architectural space. I am a contextualist, and I seek to understand the context for which spaces are created.  In visiting Treasure Hill and Toad Mountain, I became increasingly aware that I needed a better understanding of the architectural history and spatial and social forces of Taiwan

The city of Taipei has a unique tapestry of architectural styles, and throughout Taiwan, there are a variety of building representations.  My sense is that diverse cultural variables have impacted the look and feel of the city. This was of particular note as I was walking through Treasure Hill and Toad Mountain and noticing very stylized spatial conditions. What guided the decision making? The cultural context from where they migrated or the current context in which they lived?

Taiwanese indigenous cultures date back to 3000 BC and there are currently over 800,000 indigenous people living in Taiwan currently.  In 1628, the Spanish built a fort in Northern Taiwan that was eventually taken over by the Dutch in 1642. In the 18th Century the Han Chinese migrated to Taiwan and Hakka’s from the Fuijan and Guangdong province of China.  (Separately, the Fujian province is known for a very particular style of Chinese vernacular architecture.) In 1662, the Dutch were driven out by the Ming Dynasty, and the former was defeated by the Qing Dynasty in 1682. In 1895 after, the Qing Dynasty turned over Taiwan to Japan. In 1945, the Republic of China ceded Japan.  This is a condensed view of history to illustrate the vast potential for cultural impact. Even in the layers of colonization, cultures such as China, Japan, and migrants from China also contribute to the aesthetic.

From the  collage below, you can see that within one neighborhood there are a variety of styles.  In the coming weeks, I’ll be featuring a building from each period of occupation. This week’s spatial exploration was built during the Qing Dynasty.  I toured the “Lin Mansion & Garden” located in New Taipei City, Taiwan. The style is characterized as Fujianese style.  This style can be characterized with red roof tiles, brick walls, and centralized courtyards.  The Lin Family migrated from Zhangzhou, Fujian province in mainland China in 1784. The family built wealth through rice trading, and eventually real estate. The estate currently is partially open to the public for tours and viewing.  Rather than walk you through with extensive descriptions, I’ll let you view the photos below.  Since Leila is my co-researcher on weekends, and her attention span has a a time limit; we only toured the exterior. I’ll be returning for the interior perspectives in a follow-up visit.

The Matriarch + Life in Taipei – Moon Festival 

On September 24, Taiwan celebrated the Moon Festival and Leila enjoyed a day home from school.  The city was quiet. Most of our friends had left to celebrate with extended family since it is a very family centered holiday.  Just after Moon Festival, we were invited by a Taiwanese Family for a moon cake making event at Kuo Yuan Ye Museum of Cake and Pastry. The family that extended the invitation also has a daughter very close to Leila’s age, so they immediately became best friends. The moon cake is a rich pastry with a red bean paste inserted inside.  If you have the main two ingredients, it is pretty easy to assemble the cakes. While the cakes were baking, the venue had an interactive museum-like tour that was followed by an area where the children could play games.