TB - Taipei Trip 2015
The very last time I set my foot on the North Hemisphere was right at the end of 2015. I visited Taipei with my ticket of the play I Hate Therefore I Marry by Edward Lam Dance Theater Company. With this opportunity, I wandered the city of Taipei for a week.
The only plan I made for the trip was to see the play. Enjoyed the uncertainty and spontaneity that Taipei offered, I sometimes felt I am still deriving in the streets there, falling asleep while listening to the noises of the city.
Due to the political separation from the mainland and the influence of Taiwan’s pop culture over the younger generations in the PRC, Taipei is a place we often hear and see but hardly get to smell its scents close-by.
One hot summer afternoon in Canberra about a year after my Taipei trip, I was reading a short stories collection the Taipei Characters by the contemporary Chinese novelist Kenneth Hsien-yung Pai. The stories lead readers into the lives and minds of those who were residents in Taipei but live with memories as heavy as their whole lives to spare the rest of their time reflecting the past.
The irony is that for those who took Taipei as home for eternity, none of them have their most precious memories created there but still able to seek salvation Taipei. As if they reborn but still with the same skins to live in Taipei as a local as well as a foreigner.
Then why not I just took myself as a “local” for that week in Taipei since I have been living in Canberra since 18. I am a local to a foreign land as well as a foreigner to my hometown.
Japanese style little restaurant
Painted sign
Breakfast store serving beef noodles
Exhibition of Detective Conan
Original copy of Human Head Balloon by Junji Ito
Paper Museum by Takashi Ohta
Buddy!!!!
Kid’s activity room in Puppet Museum....
Last meal in Bolero Cafe
See you soon, Taipei ;)
