Made in Taiwan
so i just got back from my week long sojurn to my place where i was made. on a warm july night, about 3 weeks after getting hitched, an attractive couple did the deed and voila, one lucky spermatozoa and one (well there was only one) egg combined, dna was fused, and "i" began.... made in taiwan. oevrall i have to admit it was a fun trip. i guess i had some reservations about spending my "last" spring break there as oppose to hooking up intermidably say in ibiza or something (yeah right) but in general, visiting family and all that was pretty fun. i have to say though, i'm old enough now to realize i am old. haha. the last time i was in taiwan was about five years ago and the last time before than was another 10 or so years... so every trip has been filled with moments of... "oh my god, you're ummm... different". haha... it was funny to see cousins that i knew maybe 15 years ago getting well...old. something about being a fashinoable gay man keeps the self young i must admit. haha, and seeing "first cousins", that is... breeder cousins who have had children (who are now fucking going to college... my parents had lots of sibling spread across almost decades) it was like... shit... i ain't young either. haha. but yes, all in all it was fun visiting various places on the small island...starting out in my birth place in Chia-Yi and visiting my grandma (probably the last time i will see her since she's epxected to kick the bucket soon... sad, but at least i got to see her one "last" time), going to Kao-Shiung seeing my mother's side of the family who are hell lot cooler and socialble, taking a one day respite at a religious retreat of my folks (it wasn't all that bad...i got a lot of reading done!), and finally spending a few days in Taipei staying with more maternal relatives but seeing a lot of my dad's side (who i must admit are kind of boring... like my dad). and of course, ending the whole shebang with a torturous 25 hour trip back to the states, unfortunately unable to sit next to cute men (although there were some on the flight back i noticed) but being able to read a deliciously thatcherite jane austeny book about gay men... haha.... compensation in a way i guess.
.
ok, so since i'm not in a particularly writing mode still suffering from a bit of jet lag... why not a little photo journalism to document the trip and maybe a comment or two?
.
this is pretty cool isn't it? it's the ice sheets somewhere between russia and alaska. hmm, those ancient soon to become native americans must have had good shoes to cross all that ice... nike extreme weather trainers?
.
.
i have never been to a pineapple farm, have you? no... my family doesn't own dole. what was funny about this was that it was in a valley where chinese karoke like folk song were being blasted into the air... truly audible in a five mile radius. surreal.
.
.
a trip to one of the coolest little "urban typologies"... these covered market halls. very mideaval with all that fresh meat being slaughtered and butchered next to fresh vegetable next to motorinos spilling tons of carcinogenic ash into the atmosphere.... delightful. also two exotic fruits i had... a "sik-ya" (i dunno the english name)... and "dragonfruit" (i think this is the english name"... aren't they interesting... both were also very interesting tasting as well.
.
.
MEAT! yummmy shit dude. pig's feet...yum. the second pic is of the traditional "hakka" dish made with with basically a section of pig fat with only a little bit of meat, simmered in more pig fat... sounds very soul doesn't it? it's delicious though. by the way... i'm actually "hakka" although you would never know it... well... really half hakka half minaan (but since chinese are patriarchal, i follow my dad's orientation)... these groups are linguistic and cultural subgroups of the chinese... there are about 7 or 8 main ones i think, and the linguistic differences are sometimes enough...in my opinion... to count as separate languages (although they are all housed under the nomer... chinese... which is technically the Beijing "dialect"...or Mandarin ...although i don't think mandarin is a cultural subgroup in the same way hakka, minaan, cantonese, etc... are) anyways..... i'm hakka... so don't you fakka with me. ha.
.
.
some neat images from the religious "retreat" we went too. i love the pomo architectural quality of the first image... fucking corinithian column...painted RED... next to a relief of a buddhist god.... haha! love it! the temple inside was kind of cool too, by the way, my parents brought me here so that i could get an idea of what they might want for the retreat they are planning on building outside of dallas as well. potentially my first work maybe.... hopefully it won't be as... hmmm... multiethnic as this. but who knows... i have been accused of being tacky before.
.
.
cornucopian images from a chinese buffet... in well... almost china. ironic huh?
.
.
Taipei 101... currently the world's tallest skyscraper... and one of the ugliest unfortunately. and you thought pomo in the previous picture of corinthian buddhist was tacky.... the symbolism of this structure will blow you away... they should of just said it was the whim of the architect instead of trying to play off some silly crap about it symbolizing a stack of 8 (an auspicious chinese number) golden nuggets (an old form of money...also symbolic of financial success in chinese lore) looking somewhat like a pagoda esque tower of tacky reflective glass with silly metal corner finials. ahh... the architect.
.
on another note... aren't my folks a fucking cute hetero couple? and isn't there faggot son just delightful as well?
.
.
i think we ate one of these dudes half an hour later. sorry about all the food pictures... i mean, i did do a lot of eating... family you know the drill.
.
.
finally...some architecture i can actually appreciate. yes.. it's hardly contemporary but at least it's not that BAD pomo shit we saw before (now mind you, some pomo i think is very good). this was the lin family house and gardens.... kind of like the equivalnet of say the hermitage in nashville... big period house with nice gardens. its the gardens which are really fantastic though.... great mix of formalism and informalism. actually very similar in a smaller scale to say french and italian gardens... more italian actually. kind of reminded me of a mix between say villa d'este and hmmm... hadrian's villa. now... this was also a psuedo architectural visit of "i want that in my religious retreat"... this is something i could oblige in.
.
.
one thing that i both love and hate about asian cities... density. the balde runner/las vegas thing is so delightful i have to say... blantant commercialism spread unto every service, all with a dusting of smog and dust. delicious... for a tome of theory of urbanism maybe. but to "live" in this grime... give me sanitized suburbia. hmmm... maybe not. but it's fun to have the best of both worlds i guess.
.
.
an "eating hall" where there is again this blade runner/lasvegas approach to eating. hmmm, oh so good to eat "street food"....seriously... some good shit to be had. just keep it in moderation... we "bar hopped" about four or five places... and 20 minutes later... i had the shits. oops.
.
.
.
ok, so since i'm not in a particularly writing mode still suffering from a bit of jet lag... why not a little photo journalism to document the trip and maybe a comment or two?
.
this is pretty cool isn't it? it's the ice sheets somewhere between russia and alaska. hmm, those ancient soon to become native americans must have had good shoes to cross all that ice... nike extreme weather trainers?
.
.
i have never been to a pineapple farm, have you? no... my family doesn't own dole. what was funny about this was that it was in a valley where chinese karoke like folk song were being blasted into the air... truly audible in a five mile radius. surreal.
.
.
a trip to one of the coolest little "urban typologies"... these covered market halls. very mideaval with all that fresh meat being slaughtered and butchered next to fresh vegetable next to motorinos spilling tons of carcinogenic ash into the atmosphere.... delightful. also two exotic fruits i had... a "sik-ya" (i dunno the english name)... and "dragonfruit" (i think this is the english name"... aren't they interesting... both were also very interesting tasting as well.
.
.
MEAT! yummmy shit dude. pig's feet...yum. the second pic is of the traditional "hakka" dish made with with basically a section of pig fat with only a little bit of meat, simmered in more pig fat... sounds very soul doesn't it? it's delicious though. by the way... i'm actually "hakka" although you would never know it... well... really half hakka half minaan (but since chinese are patriarchal, i follow my dad's orientation)... these groups are linguistic and cultural subgroups of the chinese... there are about 7 or 8 main ones i think, and the linguistic differences are sometimes enough...in my opinion... to count as separate languages (although they are all housed under the nomer... chinese... which is technically the Beijing "dialect"...or Mandarin ...although i don't think mandarin is a cultural subgroup in the same way hakka, minaan, cantonese, etc... are) anyways..... i'm hakka... so don't you fakka with me. ha.
.
.
some neat images from the religious "retreat" we went too. i love the pomo architectural quality of the first image... fucking corinithian column...painted RED... next to a relief of a buddhist god.... haha! love it! the temple inside was kind of cool too, by the way, my parents brought me here so that i could get an idea of what they might want for the retreat they are planning on building outside of dallas as well. potentially my first work maybe.... hopefully it won't be as... hmmm... multiethnic as this. but who knows... i have been accused of being tacky before.
.
.
cornucopian images from a chinese buffet... in well... almost china. ironic huh?
.
.
Taipei 101... currently the world's tallest skyscraper... and one of the ugliest unfortunately. and you thought pomo in the previous picture of corinthian buddhist was tacky.... the symbolism of this structure will blow you away... they should of just said it was the whim of the architect instead of trying to play off some silly crap about it symbolizing a stack of 8 (an auspicious chinese number) golden nuggets (an old form of money...also symbolic of financial success in chinese lore) looking somewhat like a pagoda esque tower of tacky reflective glass with silly metal corner finials. ahh... the architect.
.
on another note... aren't my folks a fucking cute hetero couple? and isn't there faggot son just delightful as well?
.
.
i think we ate one of these dudes half an hour later. sorry about all the food pictures... i mean, i did do a lot of eating... family you know the drill.
.
.
finally...some architecture i can actually appreciate. yes.. it's hardly contemporary but at least it's not that BAD pomo shit we saw before (now mind you, some pomo i think is very good). this was the lin family house and gardens.... kind of like the equivalnet of say the hermitage in nashville... big period house with nice gardens. its the gardens which are really fantastic though.... great mix of formalism and informalism. actually very similar in a smaller scale to say french and italian gardens... more italian actually. kind of reminded me of a mix between say villa d'este and hmmm... hadrian's villa. now... this was also a psuedo architectural visit of "i want that in my religious retreat"... this is something i could oblige in.
.
.
one thing that i both love and hate about asian cities... density. the balde runner/las vegas thing is so delightful i have to say... blantant commercialism spread unto every service, all with a dusting of smog and dust. delicious... for a tome of theory of urbanism maybe. but to "live" in this grime... give me sanitized suburbia. hmmm... maybe not. but it's fun to have the best of both worlds i guess.
.
.
an "eating hall" where there is again this blade runner/lasvegas approach to eating. hmmm, oh so good to eat "street food"....seriously... some good shit to be had. just keep it in moderation... we "bar hopped" about four or five places... and 20 minutes later... i had the shits. oops.
.
.
what these trips are ultimately all about anyways.... family.
.
.
posted by faux chink @ 7:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home