Stinky tofu, Winter Break, and China from Taiwan

It’s been a while since I last posted, but while I’m still in Taiwan (just over a month :’( ) I will try to add a few more posts about some of the things I’ve done this second half of the year (so many!) and maybe also a few of my own observations on Taiwan itself.

To keep this from becoming a droning list, I’ll try to mix it up a bit and maybe talk about the three trips I went on during winter break a few months ago, interspersed with a few paragraphs on some other topics.

To make up for a notable lack of school days off (and a tendency to replace the necessary national weekday holidays with school on Saturdays…), Taiwan rewards it’s ever hardworking students with a month off school, running from mid January to mid February. Which, it turns out, my classmates dread because it means an intense increase in homework, and few opportunities to see their friends. But for me it meant a long awaited release from monotonous, 7:30 to 5:00 school, everyday, five days a week. Not that I can really complain about school when the only classes I’m allowed or encouraged to participate in are those like music, art, pe, geography, history, and national defense (including the school’s mandatory shooting unit, an interesting discussion for another post). Otherwise I spend my time at school working on my Chinese homework, studying, or reading. I look forward to Tuesday and Thursday mornings, when I attend Chinese classes at the Taipei Culture University. Not only is it a chance to catch up with my fellow exchange students, it’s also an opportunity to be engaged in learning and discussion in a classroom environment, something I crave as I sit and work on my own, stagnant at my desk, hour after hour on the days in between my Chinese classes. So I was excited to finally have a chance to get out, explore, and experience a bit more of this small but vivaciously diverse island.

My first host mom was enthusiastic about arranging activities for Mati and I during the break. While at times I felt frustrated at these limitations on my cherished time off school, I kept in mind my own commitment to always saying yes to opportunities, and in the end I was grateful for her determination to fill our break because the excursions she managed to organize for us, through the pulling of several Rotary and Buddhism class strings, were absolutely unique, not in the least because I got to experience them in a foreign country and language. Furthermore, by making sure I wasn’t spending my weeks off lounging around the same old Taipei neighborhoods, speaking English with my exchange student friends, I truly did get the most out of my 寒假.

A week after the break started, midday on a Monday, Mati and I met each other at Taipei Main Station and bought a ticket for the high speed rail to Tainan, the big city in the south of Taiwan. From the station, we met up with a lady in a bright pink shirt, hopped in her car, and were driven half an hour or so through the well spread, if not particularly impressive, city of Tainan, to the nursing home, supposedly the biggest in Taiwan, where we were to volunteer for the next week. I emphasize the supposed nature of this claim by my host mom because the facility couldn’t have housed more than 30 or 40 seniors. Still, the figure really isn’t too hard to believe considering the centrally essential value of family to Taiwanese people. In a society where so many households extend through several generations, and often hire young women, usually from Indonesia, to care for their most elderly relations (as has been the case in my second two families), it’s almost unthinkable to not eagerly welcome, in fact insist, that one’s parents live at home. As such, most of the residents of the nursing home were particularly old and really needed the consistent, specialized care that the staff at the facility could provide, and I saw families visiting several times while I was volunteering there. Mati and I stayed in one of the rooms in the building, and several times only narrowly avoided hitting the emergency call buttons next to our beds. We volunteered from 9:30 in the morning until 6:30, with a two hour break for lunch. Because the gates to the building locked every evening at 8, and there wasn’t much to see within walking distance of the building, our exciting excursions were mostly to the FamilyMart across the street, where we took full advantage of deals on candy bars and chips throughout the week.

The staff were all very excited to have us for the five days we volunteered, as were the residents who smiled and asked us about ourselves every time we came downstairs in the mornings, even though we couldn’t understand much of their native Taiwanese, and only a few of them spoke Mandarin. We often helped out with crafts, especially decorations in preparation for the Chinese New Year in February. We also massaged the resident’s arms with lotion, talked with them as much as we could, helped a couple of them at meal times, and assisted in their exercise classes. The two ladies we got to know best always sat next to us during our own meals, which we ate a bit later than the others, and talked to us consistently about where we were from, where we studied, and if we liked the food, although mostly in Taiwanese. Another man I talked to throughout the week spoke English, a very rare trait among older Taiwanese people, especially outside of the city. Despite the fact that everytime I met him, our conversation followed a very similar line, his English was astonishingly fluent and his grammar impeccable. One day during our stay, we spent our normal volunteer hours at a separate facility, further into the city. At this other location, seniors who still live with their families can spend their days at the center, eating, talking, exercising, and playing games including bingo with other older men and women. We organized several activities throughout the day, including coordination games, tossing competitions, and, my favorite, bingo. I think that Mati and I may have gotten a bit too involved and competitive about the bingo game, and made sure the two women on either side of us never missed a number, eventually abandoning our own cards to help them, because it was fun and exciting, both for us, and especially for them as they starting racking us the bingos. We got to know these two ladies, as well as several of the other visitors, throughout the day, and had a great time talking, laughing, and connecting with them, despite our differences in almost every aspect of life.

Another of the activities we participated in on a mostly supervising level was a training exercise conducted for the full time volunteers who are college students. Through a brutal, hour and a half long simulation run by the main caretakers of the facility, the students experienced some of the worst possible caretaking practices, food shoved in their faces, reckless manoeuvring of their wheelchairs, and loud music next to their heads as they tried to sleep on the floor, all while taped to their wheelchairs and blindfolded, and therefore completely unable to resist the unruly behavior. This practice of trying to put the new volunteers into the shoes of the nursing home’s residents, which, the director of the facility told me proudly, was part of a new set of practices developed in Germany, was mainly intended to give these students a better idea of the importance of their every action, and encourage the best practices in their own caring of the residents. Watching from a corner, it was an illuminating, if somewhat disturbing, exercise.

While I can’t gush about the fun and excitement of this experience, it was certainly one of the most unique opportunities I’ve had in Taiwan, and I really valued it for the insights I came away with, not only in the practices of caring for these individuals who do have such an esteemed role in Taiwanese culture, but also into the general traditions of Taiwanese families, and even life in the smaller towns and cities outside Taipei and especially in the south of Taiwan.

During our time there, we did get to spend the two days of the weekend out and about on our own. On Saturday, we took a bus to a slightly more populated part of town, where we toured a fort, explored an old military boat, paddled a swan boat around a moat surrounding the ruins of an old castle, bought and flew kites by the harbor, ate otherworldly ice cream, and visited both a museum of native Taiwanese culture, and a museum about oysters. A spectacular day that finished off with gourmet italian pizza that truly hit the spot. On Sunday, the two of us took and hour long train to the town of Chiayi, where we met up with exchange students from the southern Taiwan district, who had gathered in the morning for a Rotary event. We ate toast and drank milkshakes for brunch with a group of them, then when several of them went back to the city, we spent the afternoon with two friends who stayed behind, wandering through a vibrant and eclectic night market, and then playing pool at a student center, before eating dinner and squeezing onto the busy train back to Tainan.

On to another important subject to confront when considering the essential parts of life in Taiwan: stinky tofu. I’ll just make this a brief description of the unique Taiwanese cuisine so that hopefully you can get a better idea of the popular snack I’ve mentioned several times in the course of my blog. Usually sold at night markets, and coming in several varieties (fried, steamed, grilled, etc.), 臭豆腐 is a fermented form of tofu, made by marinating the tofu in a brine of fermented vegetables and greens, milk, and sometimes meats or seafood. Stinky tofu can range in the strength of its odor, but passing within a couple stands of a cart or shop selling stinky tofu at a night market gives the impression of being near a dumpster or a sewer. It takes a lot of courage to keep walking calmly by these shops, let one to actually venture into one, with the goal of consuming the source of this stench. But the results can be rewarding. As you grab a square of the usually squishy tofu with your chopsticks and bring it closer and closer to your mouth, the reassurances you’ve heard that it tastes as good as it smells bad seem suddenly questionable. But when you finally do get up the gumption to stick the offending block of soy in your mouth before it slips from your chopsticks, the flavor is suddenly warm, sweet, a bit spicy, and harmonized by the earthy soy flavor of the tofu. I can’t say that the stink goes away entirely as you chew the soft tofu flesh, but it somehow compliments the cacophony of flavors that have suddenly joined the scene. I also can’t say I’m one of those who goes around boasting that stinky tofu is my favorite Taiwanese food, but every time I’ve ventured to try the off-putting dish, I come to appreciate it more and more, and when I’m with my vegan and vegetarian friends, who all seem to have fallen in love with the dish, I will accompany them on their frequent night market endeavors for the purpose of buying a warm plate of stinky tofu.

To diverge back to the topic of my winter break, my first host mom had again gone above and beyond in arranging for another travel opportunity for Mati and I. A friend of hers who owned and operated an organic farm in the west of Taiwan had invited us for the exclusive opportunity to live on his farm for a few days. Revolutionary in the field of organic farming, my host mom informed me, the farm often attracted visitors from agriculture associations in the US and Europe. Situated in an area that had, only decades ago, been ravished of its natural resources and fertile soil by the intense use of pesticides, the employees of this small farm were working hard to replenish the soil of nutrients by using the best fertilizers and planting practices. Some of their crops included cabbage and various other types of lettuce, corn, edible flowers, and even rice fields which actually acted as part of an advanced, natural water filtration system. We spent three days living in a small room at the farm, helping plant and fertilize crops, eating fresh passion fruits straight from the vine, and enjoying dinners composed entirely of the farms produce. One day we also ventured into the tiny nearby town for some fun: a huge amusement park. The park was only a bit bigger than Oaks park in Portland, but contained a huge virtual reality theme park, a kid focused area, and a water park, along with several huge, absolutely terrifying rides. We only had a couple of hours at the park, but the nearly empty grounds meant non-existent lines, and we managed to experience each of the biggest rides. These must have been some of the scariest attractions I’ve ever ridden, including one that shot us several stories into the sky, before dropping us again, another that spun us upside down over and over, and the first roller coaster we tried, which dropped us face first at least five stories straight down the side of the mountain which the park sat on. It was a fun trip, but by the time the park closed we were exhausted, nauseous, and ready to head back to our beds at the farm. First, we stopped in the tiny town of 斗六 for dinner, a visit to the main square to see the dozens of plastic dogs set up there in preparation for the Chinese New Year, and to meet and take photos with the mayor who happened to be at the park.

Our three days at the farm were some of the happiest of my exchange because they gave me a chance to escape the congestion of the big city, enjoy the warm weather and fresh air of more southern Taiwan, and relax in the outdoors and disengage from the stress and constant energy of Taipei.

Something that fascinated me since before coming to Taiwan, and which I’m sure is at the top of most people’s minds when they hear the name, is the question surrounding Taiwan’s relationship with China. It’s a sensitive subject to bring up with Taiwanese people, so I haven’t had too many conversations on the topic, but I’ll recount a bit of the history of the tensions, the political standpoint, the impressions I’ve gotten in Taiwan, and the opinions I have heard on occasion from Taiwanese friends and acquaintances.

In 1949, after Nationalists in China lost the civil war against the Communists, all the major leaders and party members, in particular Chang Kai Shek, fled to the small of island of Taiwan, off the coast of China. There they established Taipei as the capital city of the new, self stated, country of Taiwan, a movement that was especially active since the early 1950s. Since then there have been many conflicts between Taiwan and China, notably the short conflict over the small islands of Kinmen (where two of my friends live, in visible distance of China’s coast) and Matsu in 1955 which the US was involved in. Because of China’s communist government and developing, if later failed, relationship with the Soviet Union during the cold war, the United States became an ally of Taiwan as they fought for the global conquering of capitalism over communism, even on this small Pacific Island. Of course, China has always refused to recognize Taiwan as its own country, mostly for symbolic reasons in that Taiwan and its many national treasures have always been a part of the identity of China, and also that, modernly, if they were to grant independence to Taiwan it would create a precedent for the independence of other autonomous or contested regions such as Tibet or Hong Kong. Unfortunately for Taiwan, when China became a desirable economic partner to have relationships with after the cultural revolution, it became essential to most major powers and even smaller countries to maintain strong political relationships, which meant refusing, along with China, to recognize Taiwan as its own country. This indicated the fading out of the United States’s once strong alliance with Taiwan. With the recent change of policy in the Dominican Republic, there are now only 17 countries that have official relationships with Taiwan, mostly smaller islands in Oceania and the Caribbean, as well as most of Central America, Paraguay, Vatican City, and Swaziland. While the Taiwanese government maintains its own statement of complete independence and control over this island nation, it’s been fascinating to see first hand the complexities in the views of the people of Taiwan on this issue.

Before coming to Taiwan, considering the governmental stances on the subject, I assumed that Taiwanese people would be hardliners for Taiwanese independence, and have a general predisposition against China. However, the situation is much more complex than that, largely because, due to it’s obvious proximity, many Taiwanese people have family or friends in China, or at least conduct business there. My first host mom was constantly traveling to China for multi day conferences or business meetings. She had strong relationships and often friendships with business partners across the Taiwan Strait, and she spoke of China and Chinese people with respect, recognizing the differences in Taiwanese and Chinese societies. This doesn’t mean that she’s not necessarily with the 70 percent of Taiwanese people who consider Taiwan already an independent state, but the bitterness I might have expected to exist is hard to come by. This doesn’t mean there are no negative sentiments towards Chinese people. One of my friends who is an exchange student from America comes from a Chinese family and speaks nearly perfect Mandarin in a Chinese accent. She has recounted many experiences to me when, upon hearing her accent, she got cold, or even blatantly rude reactions from people such as waiters or shop owners. It’s also important to remember though, that just because the Taiwanese government feels one way, does not necessarily reflect the feelings of the people. In fact, in the two years since she was elected, approval of the independence determined President, Tsai Yingwen, has dropped significantly mainly surrounding the two issues of wages and rising prices, and the manner of conducting relations with China. Just as in any country, people complain constantly about the government, convinced that they have not made the promised renovations of the plumbing system despite announcements that it’s now perfectly ok to flush toilet paper, or that parking is too expensive (it costs about three dollars to park for several hours, which would be pretty cheap in the US). My overall conclusion based on the impressions I’ve gotten from Taiwanese people is that, just like the residents of most countries, they’re much more concerned with the smaller, more internal policy matters than what might seem like such a pressing tension from the outside, but has really been their status quo for almost 50 years. Furthermore, it’s generally an awkward questions that most people tend to avoid. Interestingly, I had a conversation with two boys in my class at school, and they told me that, while we were visiting a school in Singapore, they talked to a boy studying there who is from China. They tentatively brought up the issue (I think mostly because they thought it would be funny to have that conversation between Chinese and Taiwanese teenagers). In the end, there was no certain conclusion reached because both sides did have their own fortified opinions on the subject, but they were all very polite, and it sounds like the Chinese boy was also understanding of,and even a bit sympathetic to, my classmates’ side of the story. I know this isn’t the most conclusive recounting of perspectives on this subject because it is such a touchy one, but I hope it lends to a bit of insight into the issue from an individual citizen’s point of view, and if I do learn anything else while I’m here on exchange I will be sure to mention it in my next post.

Finally, it would be ridiculous, in discussing the Taiwanese winter break, to leave out what is arguably the most prominent celebration of Chinese culture, and the central event of the month long 寒假: Chinese New Year. At the time, I was living with my second host family, which consisted of my host mom and dad, and my 15 year old host brother and 12 year old host sister, as well as my host dad’s mom who lives with us. For Chinese New Year it’s traditional for a family to spend the first night with the paternal grandparents and the second with the maternal, always at the grandparent’s family home. Because my host dad’s mother lives with us and we see her everyday, we took a train to Hualien to live with my host mom’s family for the five days of the holiday. Located on the outskirts of the city of Hualien, the main center of human inhabitants of the huge, sprawling, and nature filled county of Hualien, my host grandparents house is a large, three story, square building, consisting of the kitchen, dining room, and their business, a hair salon, on the first floor, and extensive rooms and beds on the second and third floors. The need for so much sleeping space became clear as, over the first few days of the Chinese New Year, family after family pulled up to the join the evermore noisy, eclectic, but most of all warm and loving cross generational gathering. I think that my host mom has either two or three siblings, but it was hard to keep track of who was who as aunts and uncles, siblings, their children, and sometime their children’s children, moved into the house. There was a constant rotation of families throughout the week, because many of the families also spent some of the holiday with the other side of their respective families. I met cousins ranging from three to in their twenties, all eager to meet me, and i had an especially fun time with the younger cousins, one four year old girl in particular, who, unlike the other kids, was brave enough to talk to me and we had fun playing outside throughout the week. All the older family members were eager to meet me, and I found myself talking about where I was from, where I studied, how we celebrated holidays in the US, and why I had chosen to come to Taiwan over and over again. It was gratifying when, every time a new acquaintance realized I could speak Chinese, they continuously complimented my speaking, impressed at even the most basic of conversations I could fluently hold.

When learning about the Chinese New Year in the US, we’re always taught about the symbolic foods eaten and traditions practiced by the Chinese (and Taiwanese) for this essential holiday. But what I learned from being such an involved part of the celebration was that the true spirit and entity of the holiday is that of family and being together, with no obligations for a blissful week. The food my host grandma prepared everyday was traditional Taiwanese fare, and I saw none of the thousand year noodles , rice cakes, or tangerines I was assured I should expect. Instead, every night after dinner we gathered in the family room upstairs together to play board games, watch tv, and eat xiaolongbao, picked up by my host uncle on his scooter from the stand down the street. Everyday we went out as a huge, rambunctious family, whether it be on a hike through a national park, a boat ride on a lake, or a quick walk to the neighborhood douhua shop (more on these and more adventures later). There was, of course, the excitement on the first night as each of the kids (including me) respectfully thanked their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and parents for the influx of shiny red envelopes presented to them. Inside of each envelope was 200 NT, about 10 US dollars, enough for lots of bubble teas, toys, and other treats for the exuberant kids. We also received special Chinese New Year lottery tickets, which we all gathered around to scratch off, hoping for at least a couple hundred extra NT. This week in Hualien was by far the best experience of my entire exchange for the simple fact that I finally felt like I was part of a family again. It’s been so long since I sat around, laughing, chatting, and playing with so many generations of a family, and it reminded me in so many ways of gathering with extended family back home to celebrate a holiday or simply get together. This entire experience allowed me to finally truly breakthrough the stereotype, often supported by the tough expectations of Taiwanese students from their parents, as well as the minimal family time, that family relationships are cold, strained and generally lacking. The truth is that, behind the facade of pressure and lack of contact, Taiwanese parents simply want the best for their kids, and when they do have the time to step back from life, often by leaving their busy city lives for a week in the countryside towns of their childhood homes, family is revealed as the true center of their lives around which all purpose and ambition revolves, and they take full advantage of the time to relax, smile, and connect with every generation of their family.

I won’t go into too much detail, but the other aspect that made my time in Hualien so enjoyable was the opportunities we had, several times every day, to adventure to a new part of the beautiful county. These places included the gorgeous Taroko Gorge National Park, a green swath of forests that includes extensive hiking trails, a river, suspension bridges, an underground walking tunnel, and even monkeys, of which we saw a few on our walk. We also went to a famous lake, surrounded by mountains, where we ate a seafood lunch, biked around the lake, and I rode a peddle boat for an hour with my younger host sister, the two of us pedaling as fast as fast as possible to move the boat imperceptible inches across the water, only making to the other side after 30 minutes of hard work. Another day we walked around the famous flower fields of Hualien, surrounded by exuberant colors of a brilliant variety. We also toured a sugar factory and ate creamy ice cream there, explored an old railroad and the abandoned houses where the Japanese families who worked there used to live, visited a farm where we saw peacocks, tiny warthogs, and fed horses, among other animals. We feed ducks at pond, dipped our toys in the chilly pacific at the beach, and enjoyed snacks at a huge night market, especially decorated for the Chinese New Year. These are just an excerpt of the daily family outings I enjoyed throughout the week, each accompanied by up to a dozen family members, and made so much more memorable for the conversations, jokes, and exuberant, joyful memories shared with them.

The photos here are a bit out of order, but I hope they give a general summary of all the incredible things I did over the winter break.

Participating in a exercise class with the seniors at the nursing home

The nursing home is the big beige building with brightly colored window ledges

A temple in Tainan

The ceiling of the temple

Traditional outfits at a museum in Tainan

Boats at the harbor in Anping, Tainan

An egret in the harbor

My Italian friend Mati in Tainan

A statue in Anping

A flag on an old boat from the Taiwanese Navy which we toured

Pedaling on a swan boat through a moat around the "golden castle" fort

Boats and a black swan in the moat

The swan was crazy, violent, and continuously following our boat around

A stand at the night market in Anping

In the oyster museum in Anping

A decorated wall in the streets of Anping

A crane in Hualien

The boats we rode around the famous lake in Hualien

This lake was beautiful and clear, surrounded by mountains and full of colorful boats

flowers in Hualien

Animals made of corn husk fibers at a stand in Hualien

An old petrified piece of a log installed at the old railroad tracks in Hualien

Eating passion fruit fresh off the vine (well the ground) at the farm in Douliu

Mati and I touring the flower fields at the farm

Weeding in the fields at the farm

Delicious s'mores and Thai tea ice cream in Anping

Walking around the farm

A lake that is part of the water filtration system at the farm

flowers at the farm

A distant view of the ferris wheel at the amusement park in Douliu

In the small town of Douliu, visiting the central square where statues of dogs were installed for the Chinese New Year. We also met the mayor of the town at the plaza

Delicious, creamy ice cream (strawberry and peanut) on top of a passion fruit slushy

traditional 紅包(red envelopes) and lottery tickets from my host relatives at Chinese New Year

Fried congyoubing at a stand on the beach in Hualien

a delcious, oily, green onion pancake

With my host family, my host mom's younger brother, and his son on the beach in Hualien

Some kind of small pigs native to Taiwan and peacocks lived together in a pen at a small farm in Hualien

A monkey glimpsed playing near the trail at the Taroko Gorge National Park

Old Japanese homes at the sugar cane refinery in Hualien, which now can be reserved as hotel rooms

the old, rusting, sugar cane refinery in Hualien county

A shirt a stranger was wearing at the night market in Hualien. A reminder of something I forgot to mention earlier: Taiwanese people's love of Donald Trump, but more as comedic figure than politically. In fact, many Taiwanese people didn't seem to know much about Trump's political actions (besides having had controversial relationships with Taiwan), but they were almost always surprised when I responded to their questions about Trump that he wasn't exactly my favorite president, and were quick to ask why I would feel that way.