Taiwan hurts my eyes

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

The problem I have with Taiwan is that it is ugly. I seldom hear people say it outright because it sounds nasty, but it’s true. You could say that Taiwan is bustling, exciting and exotic – but not beautiful. To do so would be as ridiculous as calling the ‘Elephant Man’ beautiful when clearly he was not. I am not suggesting that Taiwan lacks any beauty. Obviously there are areas of beauty, even breathtakingly so, but they are exceptions, the way the Joseph Merrick’s soft lily-white hand was an exception to the rest of his body.

Six years have passed since I first came to Taiwan and I am as appalled as ever by the squalor on the island. It is simply incredible how little people care about quality living conditions. I stay in one of the wealthiest districts of Taipei only to take advantage of such basic amenities as sidewalks and parks, and to have the occasional clean or well-designed building to lay my eyes on. I pay a lot for the privilege though, as much as I would to live decently in Tokyo, Paris or London.

The tiniest of apartments around me go for a small fortune. The rent is astronomical. You would expect people who own a home, particularly one so well positioned, to take care of them… but they don’t. With the exception of a few nice new buildings (that won’t stay that way for long anyway) most places are as much a dirty haphazard jumble of cheap bricks and corrugated iron as they are throughout the rest of the country. Why not just paint the walls? Why not tend to a little garden? Why all the junk? Why live in a slum? I want to ask my neighbours these questions because I honestly cannot fathom why they, or anyone would choose to live in such an impoverished way. They’re not poor people after all. What is it that keeps them from turning their attention to the finer things in live like art and beauty?

What makes the matter all the more confounding is that the Taiwanese are perfectly capable of creating things and places of beauty. The whole area around the Taipei 101 building is first class for instance. It is clean, ordered and pretty. It is so unlike the rest of Taiwan. It looks and feels like another country. You can tell the Taiwanese are proud of this area. It features on almost every promotional video of Taiwan, it is the backdrop to the TV news desk, it is the chosen location for countless adverts and
TV programs… If the Taiwanese were really that adverse to beauty and order they wouldn’t make such a big fuss about that area. The fact that they do reveals an aesthetic sensibility after all.

If there is somewhere remotely pleasant to be found on the island, the Taiwanese will flock there en masse. A simple promenade along the river in Bali, Taipei attracts so many people over the weekend you would swear they are there on a pilgrimage. A quaint little house in Yuanshan that once belonged to a rich tea merchant is pretty much a national treasure. Hundreds, and I mean hundreds of tour buses go up to Yangmingshan Park every weekend. The interesting rock formations Yehliu probably attract more visitors on a single day than the Taj Mahal. None of these places are that amazing really, but for the Taiwanese they are as good as it gets. It is sad how easily they are appeased. If they are so staved for beauty, why not create some of it at home. Shops and restaurants in Taiwan have gorgeous interiors, so why not homes? Whatever happened to ‘feng shui’? Is it for business only?

Deep down I think people here are ashamed of the way they live. Television adverts and programmes always take place in the kind of homes that look like shop interiors in areas like that around Taipei 101. The only time you see the ‘real Taiwan’ depicted on TV is on the news. In fact, if it were not for the language used on TV shows and adverts I would not be able to tell it was shot in Taiwan at all. It looks far too neat to be Taiwan. Even the way people dress and speak on television programs are mis-representative. One show for example is about Taiwanese mobsters, which shows them suavely dressed with gelled back hair, smooth manners and smooth tongues - almost James Bond-like. Now, whereas they might make passable yakuza, anyone in Taiwan knows that the gangsters here are nothing like that. A Taiwanese gangster wears plastic flip-flops, no suit, chews betel nut and usually speaks Taiwanese, which is loud and coarse no matter who is speaking it. The image they cut is crude and dangerous, not smooth and sophisticated. How can people watch something so off centre?

Similarly, even though Taiwanese homes are characterised by whitewashed walls, neon lights and cheap furniture, I have yet to see a Taiwanese home on TV that does not look like something out an IKEA catalogue, complete with matching carpets and curtains, a Picasso print on the wall and even an unnecessary fireplace with faux logs burning. It is totally ridiculous. Any show or advert on Taiwanese television seems to have been shot in a dollhouse. It seems that the producers are firmly united in steering well clear of the crumbing, soot-covered cluttered buildings that make up the majority of Taiwanese dwellings.

Don’t the Taiwanese don’t feel insulted by such an assiduous aversion to showing anything but a make believe or highly limited view of their lifestyle on TV? Does it not give an indication of what life could be like? Does it not prompt them spruce up their homes a bit and keep them tidy? It’s not that difficult for goodness sake. It doesn’t require a political revolution or something dramatic. It just requires a bit of self-pride. A man’s home is supposed to be his castle…I find it hard to respect a nation of people who have the means to live well but chose not to. It is like a group of people who don’t eat apples, even though they know how wonderful they taste and have the money to buy as many as they like. Instead they pretend to do so in adverts and on TV and flock to any place that has a few dangling from a tree. It is just ridiculous.

2

It is ugly.

Oddly enough, given the great emphasis of doing things together, there seems to be little notion of ‘common space’ or ‘collective good’.

The inside of one’s home is one thing, a building, or city, is something else entirely. I think it requires something entirely other than “a bit of self-pride”; less self-regard and more willingness to invest in the collective good would be my guess.

3

The goggles, they do nothing!

4

Sirakwai-

great post. I’m going on six years here and have often thought about the same things you wrote about… thanks for beating me to articulation! :bravo:

5

Sirakwai:

I certainly agree about architecture and the exteriors. However, traditional Taiwanese architecture can be quite pleasant to look at-if you look at the detailed brickwork, stome work, the planting of large trees, etc. someone clearly cared about how the outside of their home looked. So there is no inherent lack of appreciation for beauty etc.

Many people, especially in Taipei, live in houses with beautifully designed interiors. You are definitely overstating on this point. These people really care about what their houses look like inside.

The scenic spots you list are also not good examples. It’s very easy to go to beautiful place with few people around even here in Taipei. Try Fushan or Tonghou xi near Wulai. Hike from Fushan to Lalashan. Try hiking Wuliaojian in Sanxia or the Huangdidian in Shiding. The bike train in Pinglin. Find swimming holes near Heilongtan. Hike the Caoling trail near Fulong.

6

Taiwan the island is beautiful. its the cities that are ugly

7

Why should they take care of things and maintain them, build nice houses … ? As soon as Taiwan is reunited with China they all move over there …

8

My understanding of it all, via a Taiwanese person’s pov on it all, is that creating an attractive home warrants unwanted attention. Which can lead to kidnapping and so on.

I knew someone who worked for one of the richest women in Taiwan. She took my by the woman’s home. Outside it was drab but you could get an idea of what lay behind. What really got me was the amount of security built around the place.

I find Taiwan a bit easier on the soul and eyes after living in Japan. Japan may be clean and orderly with interesting things to view, but it’s people on top of people, and every inch of it is concrete in the city. Here, I live 2 minutes from a park with plenty of green. Japan, the parks had more concrete than grass. :loco:

9

sdf

10

waaah, my glass is half empty, poor me.

life is what you make it.

beauty exists all around. look closer.

i find taiwan and taipei city extremely beautiful.

but then again, my glass is half full.

jm

11

Never spent much time in HKG or China have you?

It gets worse.

12

Ha ha ha!

Is Lanzhou grey officially a colour yet?

HG

13

I disagree, at least with the China portion. Most of the new buildings being built in the last years in the big and middle-sized cities in China (and there are many) are modern and ‘pleasant’ looking’, usually set up with nice landscaping, pavements, underground parking, etc. The old villages on on the countryside have their special flair. Of course there are some ugly building from communism aera, but it’s much easier to find nice spots in the city then in Taiwan.

When I lived in Taiwan, I always had the feeling I need to get ‘out’ to get some pleasure for my eyes. Most of the usual working days the only eye-pleasuring things are a nice car once in a while (if you’re into it), maybe a nice tree, but certainly not the buildings. Living in China I never have this feeling.

14

Don’t forget the tottie. There is plenty of eye candy walking Taiwan’s streets, and unlike HK at least.

HG

15

I disagree, at least with the China portion. Most of the new buildings being built in the last years in the big and middle-sized cities in China (and there are many) are modern and ‘pleasant’ looking’, usually set up with nice landscaping, pavements, underground parking, etc. The old villages on on the countryside have their special flair. Of course there are some ugly building from communism aera, but it’s much easier to find nice spots in the city then in Taiwan.[/quote]

[…]

I’ve been through a lot of areas in rural China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Hebei, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu) and I can tell you that with a very few touristy exceptions, they were all orders of magnitude dirtier, uglier, and more polluted than the worst I’ve seen in Taiwan. The only decent places are when you get FAR away from civilization, like the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, which is mind-blowing, but anything that’s a five day bus ride from Chengdu would be. The other villages that had any sort of charm (Dali in Yunnan, Fenghuang in Hunan, Xijiang in Guizhou) were like Jiufen here in Taiwan, pleasant but too touristy.

As for the cities, all that modern stuff in Shanghai is absolutely garish. Pudong is like a nightmarish version of an American suburb, with a hundred times the air pollution and traffic congestion.

16

It might be just the broader roads with pavements, no scooters, less trash, less concrete, rosty sheet metal, but yes, I do think China’s cities are less ugly then Taiwan cities - with or without drugs.

17

I’ll agree with you that there are broader sidewalks, and that it’s fairly rare to have to walk into the street because some fool parked their car or scooter in front of a store. But there is definitely way more concrete, way more trash, way more white bathroom tile construction, and way less green space in the mainland.

I’m really curious as to which area of China you really think is prettier than Taiwan.

The only green space I’ve ever seen in the mainland were on a few college campuses and perhaps in front of the headquarters of some large company headquarters, and you definitely couldn’t walk on those (and for good reason, since if they allowed people to walk on those, it’d be trampled upon by millions of people.) Contrast that with where I live now, which is five minutes from Luodong Sports Park, which has large expanses of grass. It is completely open and free to the public. I could easily toss a frisbee with some friends and play fetch with a dog.

18

HG, I’m making a porn film and YOU are just made for the lead role. :smiley:

Three reasons Taipei looks like a shithole: (1) The place is a newly industrializing country. It’s not developed nor is it developing, but somewhere between these two. That means its got a way to go in the economic stakes before it reaches the material status of an advanced economy - particularly with regards to aesthetic (sp?) infrastructure like parks - and it shows. (2) The zoning is all fucked up. You can build a tannery next to an elementary school if you want, and people do. The zoning issue is, in turn, a governance problem related to corruption at the local level. Construction companies throw a fortune at sleazy local polies to get their latest eyesore approved. There goes the neighborhood. (3) Taxation encourages people to run down their properties. Ever wonder why you see an old beat-up and abandoned concrete box (read: “house”) in the middle of an expensive and heavily populated area in Taipei? Answer: There is no tax penalty on undeveloped/underdeveloped sites. Smart local govts in the West gear taxation to encourage people to keep their property looking good and the utilization rate up.

It aint kulcha. Just economics and politics.

19

[quote]Shiner wrote:
It might be just the broader roads with pavements, no scooters, less trash, less concrete, rosty sheet metal, but yes, I do think China’s cities are less ugly then Taiwan cities - with or without drugs.

I’ll agree with you that there are broader sidewalks, and that it’s fairly rare to have to walk into the street because some fool parked their car or scooter in front of a store. But there is definitely way more concrete, way more trash, way more white bathroom tile construction, and way less green space in the mainland.

I’m really curious as to which area of China you really think is prettier than Taiwan.

The only green space I’ve ever seen in the mainland were on a few college campuses and perhaps in front of the headquarters of some large company headquarters, and you definitely couldn’t walk on those (and for good reason, since if they allowed people to walk on those, it’d be trampled upon by millions of people.) Contrast that with where I live now, which is five minutes from Luodong Sports Park, which has large expanses of grass. It is completely open and free to the public. I could easily toss a frisbee with some friends and play fetch with a dog.[/quote]

Xiamen, more or less opposite Taiwan, on the mainland east coast, is really quite attractive, by Chinese and Taiwanese standards. Loads and loads of green space, parks, rivers, canals, a beach, an island reachable by ferry, where there is no motorised transport allowed. I walked through a park alongside the canal for near on two hours, and saw only a handful of people and cars.

Pity the salaries are still not on par with Taiwan’s…

20

Taiwan is beautiful, as long as its a place where nobody lives and nobody visits. Taiwanese don’t really have much Mei-Gan and so find it very difficult to design with flare. I have had countless people comment on how amazing I am for being able to pick out a simple colour scheme and paint the interior of my appartment BY MYSELF! In fact I do now believe somewhat that an average westerner, after an hour in B&Q can summon more artistic tallent than an average Taiwan art student with a lifetime of interior design experience. Taiwan is disgusting as far as cleanliness goes, and it is mind boggling to me as to why on earth people choose to live this way. I get sick of people telling me how they love such and such a country abroad for it’s cleanliness and appearance. Why the hell shouldn’t Taiwan be the same then? They have the means, the labor, the budget, are they just too lazy?