Taiwan Beginnings

Taiwan is not China.

That's not a political statement, so I hope my friends in Beijing don't see it as such.

It's a culture statement, a lifestyle statement. It was one of the first things that Vince, one of our program directors, told us in his introduction to Taiwan.

Taiwan's history is inexorably intertwined with that of the mainland. They share a common tongue, and it was a Chinese territory for hundreds of years.

But just hours after arriving in my new hometown of Tainan, on the island's southwest coast, it was clear to me that this was a different place than those I saw last spring.

Beijing's citizens thought, for thousands of years, that they lived at the literal center of the universe. In some ways, there's still that attitude. Beijing's big, it's bold, and it's proud. Being there feels like being in the belly of the Chinese beast. Tainan's not like that.

Shanghai's rapid ascendancy into the list of the world's greatest cities lends it an attitude of promise, of 'the next big thing.' Shanghai's people move at a speed much like that of the city's growth: frantic. Tainan's not like that.

Things here seem much more casual. The dress code is definitely much more laid back than any Chinese city I've seen. The tones in the language are a little less harsh, a bit less pronounced. There's an amazing food culture here, but it's less about big, formal restaurants and impressive meals, and more about mouthwatering street food sold from the vendors that clog virtually all of this city's major arteries.

Tainan is the fifth largest city in this island nation. In writing this blog, I'll from here on refer to Taiwan as a country just for ease of use, but it is not officially that. If you don't know about Taiwan's history and its political status, a brief crash course: When Mao Zedong and his Communist army took over Beijing, and therefore mainland China, in 1949, the former government, called the KuoMinTang (KMT) fled to Taiwan, a part of China off the coast. There, they fortified the island and held it. The KMT and its leader Chiang Kai-Shek ruled the island and continued to officially claim that they were the sole righteous governing body of all of China. Likewise, Mao ruled all of the mainland but claimed he also ruled the island of Taiwan, which was simply a "rebelling province." This is still the status quo for both sides: China is officially known as the People's Republic of China, while Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China. So while Taiwan is a 'sovereign nation' with its own government, passports, currency, and flag, it is only recognized as an official "country" by 26 of the world's nations. The US is not one of them. When the US naturalized relations with Mao's Beijing government in the 70's, we officially agreed to recognize Beijing as the true government of the mainland AND Taiwan. While there is therefore no American embassy on the island, the US and Taiwanese governments interact in much the same way as all other nations. Still, the issue of Taiwan's political status is very sensitive on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Okay. Sorry for that history lesson. It's critical to understanding the unique identity of Taiwan though, I think. It's also worth noting that Taiwan was a Japanese territory for the majority of the first half of the 20th century, ending with Japan's loss in 1945; massive Japanese influences remain on the island, and some even look back upon those colonial times with nostalgia.

I arrived with 3 of my fellow English teachers on Thursday night, landing in the capital of Taipei, then connecting to the second largest city, Kaohsiung (Gow-shung). We were picked up by a program van driver and in an hour reached our hometown of Tainan. During this first week we've lived at the program office. Our group is called World Passport, and this is its one and only site; the office has 4 stories, the 3rd and 4th floors essentially functioning as dormitories although we sleep on mattress pads on the floor. There's an awesome staff that works in the office, mostly Taiwanese kids about our age that help to set up our teaching engagements.

Literally every street in this city is FULL of vertical signs that hang off the sides of buildings, advertising the restaurants and shops below. Between the hours of 7 and 10, looking down a long street looks like the inside of a pinball machine seen from the ball's perspective. It's wild.

Taiwan, and especially Tainan, are famous for street food. You can get any type of Asian food on almost any street, from safe bets like dumplings and fried rice, to some pretty freaking weird stuff. Tonight we're headed to one of the island's most famous "night markets," where I'm told I'll see the weirdest foods I've ever seen, so stay tuned.

On our first day we mostly spent time getting to know our fellow teachers: 11 of us, all originally from the US although 5 attended high school in Taiwan. It's been a really fun crew so far. On Friday we went towards the city center, where we saw what seemed like thousands of just-released-from-summer-school high school girls in their uniforms, cramming into a giant arcade. It was pretty ridiculous the way these little Asian girls attacked the pop-a-shots and DanceDanceRevolution games... it seems that's the thing to do after school on a hot summer day. We got cool Taiwanese teas and, to hide from the blazing midday heat, saw a movie. We came back to the office and took naps, then woke up around 10 to head to a small local club for some team bonding and icebreaking. It was fantastic; since being away from Asia, I've missed being looked at like a celebrity in bars and clubs.

On Friday we did a photo scavenger hunt with fellow teachers... stay tuned for some shots from that, which were pretty... interesting. In the afternoon I went with friends Orit, Kate, and Krista to the city center where we toured some of the island's oldest temples and saw Tainan's famous old Dutch fort from when they controlled the island in the 1600's. We tried some awesome street food: pancakes filled with red bean, about the size and shape of a hockey puck, and Taiwan's famous "Coffin Cake" (see the Andrew Zimmern episode in Taiwan), essentially an oversized piece of toast, hollowed out, and filled with a creamy mixture of vegetables and shrimp. Delicious.

Today, Saturday, was our teaching orientation, where we met our T.A.s, taught practice lessons, and learned about the program's goals. I was glad to learn that we won't be teaching nitty-gritty English subjects like grammar and punctuation, but will essentially be working to build the kids' confidence in speaking English via fun games and activities. It is, after all, a summer camp.

I'll be in the city of Chiayi this week for my first assignment, along with the majority of the other teachers in our group. I'll have a group of about 20 high schoolers, every day, from about 8-4pm. I'll report back on how it goes! We'll be staying in dormitories, I'm told.

Thanks for checking out the blog. I know I don't have too many hilarious or strange stories to tell yet, but please stay tuned. It's gonna get weird.