I got here in 1988. Stayed at a place called TIYAC, the Taipei International Youth Activity Center–a government-run hostel. It still exists (next to Tai Da), but got converted away from hostelry.
I remember all the discussion about building the MRT, but never believing they’d actually do it. Also when they had Da-An and 228 parks all fenced off to work on them. The traffic was a lot worse then. I even remember before they had the raised freeways.
Back then you could see caged orangutans in the pet shops. And caged women in Wanhua, with gangsters to guard over them and keep them from running away. A lot of them were mountain girls, sold by their fathers. But there were still a few legal prostitutes as well, regulated by the government. It was all a lot less discrete than now.
I remember all the young Westerners who came to learn Chinese, or make their fortunes, or get laid. There was Roman Andrushko, a Ukrainian from Chicago who had a different girlfriend every time I saw him. And Thomas Deneau, a quiet ex-military sort who worked two jobs and studied Chinese. Wonder whatever happened to them? Sorry, I’m reminiscing.
Let’s see…I remember back when Taiwan had diplomatic relations with South Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and I think Israel too. Lee Deng-Hui was new, and well-liked by both KMT people and native Taiwanese. (I guess the latter is still true.) The exchange rate was about NT 25 to the dollar and stable. The stock market just opened here, and people went nuts for it just like the lottery now. New computer companies were everywhere.
ICRT and Taiwanese pop stars were the apex of popular culture here, and young couples would go to “MTV’s” (that rented videos, plus tiny rooms to watch them in) for romantic privacy. There were lots of English-language bookstores, with a huge selection. Cave’s pirated whatever they felt like, there were two more second-hand English bookshops next door and others near the universities.
There was no internet, at least not that I had ever heard of. I sent mail from TIYAC. Coffee shops were just starting, and were nothing like Starbucks. Shr Da was the major school for teaching foreigners, who were mostly white.
Let’s see…big military parades for Double Tenth?
Oh yes, and I remember learning three new characters one day: Tian, An, Men. There were big protests a lot those days, but Tiananmen was different. Crazy stuff. People would release balloons with pamphlets etc. on them from here. Somebody tried to buy a ship that would broadcast pirate radio to the mainland. They almost got to do it, but Taiwan refused to let them refuel.
