Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Month: October 2004

  • Sun Yat Sen

    Lorenzo and I caught some rays near Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall – one of Taiwan’s most precious national monuments and most ugly of buildings. Lots of kites and families (and not the free single women we hoped for). Still, the ridiculous hedges made us question humanity itself.



    Hideous Taiwanese Fire-Spitting Thunder Donkey of the southern mountains



    Lorenzo arrives in Style (with SYS building behind)



    The very nice grounds of the National Taiwan University (NTU) – and still no girls to be seen



    Later, we went to eat Stinky Tofu with Ji-Ru … it smells like camel sweat, but actually tastes quite good

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • ADSL & Skype

    I now have supa speedy ADSL in the apartment. I’ll be on MSN Messenger and also Skype for free voice calls (user name: jhbiddle). That’s all.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Typhoony

    Lorenzo and I had crept out for a sneaky Sunday night pint (if they served them in pint glasses) and we got the call from Markus that a Typhoon was heading for the island and that work was cancelled. Obviously, this was goood news so we continued to drink until we kind of hung out on a street corner watching things get blown around and seeing scooter drivers crashing. Things like that. Anyway, took some photos.



    It’s raining, it’s pouring

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • One night in Taipei

    I think this sums up Taiwan, Taipei and some of my experiences so far. One crazy night in Taipei.

    T.H., the president of our division, deemed that he would generously give us all in the department a meal out and a night out at Ministry of Sound in recognition of the fact that we have won some IF design awards for our corporate book shelf. Very nice.

    So, we went to Jogoya near Taipei 101 which is an all you can eat sushi place. On the way there I bumped into Tanja and Michael. Walking through Main Station we were marauded by a flock of school girls demanding to talk to us in Chinese for their homework. This was absolutely hilarious and it completely brightened up what was otherwise a bit of a shitty week.

    All you can eat sushi; I think my standards have shifted as the sashimi ain’t really all that good, but the chocolate is exceptional, and worth it for that alone. Henry and Cesare – two designers from our department – had their standard eating face-off (ridiculous quantities of food) and all the Taiwanese got very drunk and rowdy in typical style.

    The time came to head to MOS, so we piled into taxis and cars and promptly all headed in completely different directions to make sure that we all got as lost as possible. Some people arrived relatively directly and phoned us to inform us the queue was about 500m long and stretched around the block. Luckily we had planned ahead and booked a private room. Except, I think everyone believed it was like a restaurant and it would be possible to get a room with two hours notice. Yes, they phoned at 5:00pm, only to find out it was not possible. Well done. You fucked up again.

    Instead, we piled into our cars again (we were still driving as we headed off in the wrong direction down the motorway, and were trailing the main crew) and went to Holiday KTV near to my place in Shilin. Luckily, we managed to get a big enough room, and the Taiwanese set about populating the play list with hundreds of Chinese songs ensuring it was impossible for us to get a look in. I find that rather strange – little sense of team work between our two groups sometimes. Anyway, between us realising that, settling in to drink and leaving two hours before our songs came up we got hammered, and it ended up with Markus and I serenading eachother with a song I can’t quite remember.

    Roman, an industrial designer visiting from Munich, was clearly totally bemused, but I think it gave him a good impression of what we are up against. We want to build a world-class brand and we cannot even organise a simple visit to a night club!



    Elvis has left the building

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • The day the earth moved

    I had my first real earthquake today. I have felt a few tremors up to now, but this was the real deal. It was at lunch time and I was in the cafeteria – underground – and even then it felt like I was on a boat. Side to side but also up and down movement… somewhat akin to a boat docking with a port I suppose. Very strange and serene, more than scary.

    In Taipei, it was 4.0 on the Richter scale, and 7 at its epicentre.

    “Strong Quake Rocks Taiwan” (Reuters)

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Hong Kong 2.0

    My second visit to HK in 3 weeks (what a jet – setter I am) was for business this time. I was over visiting some audio companies and cool human interface sensing technologies. That was okay, but I also went to two trade shows, specialising in Chinese-made tat for gullible consumers. Wood effect rice cookers, paper laminators combined with shredders, and carbon fibre effect fake leather. It exists.

    The less said about that the better, so better to focus upon the good things … more of Hong Kong – a place I really like.

    I did all the tourist stuff with my sis, so this time I went to some more off-beat attractions and local treasures. These include the Mong Kok computer market (read: DVD piracy centre), the flower market and the bird market (plus, of course food and drink).


    A sign that appealed to my geeky side in the underground system


    The Bird Market in the north of Kowloon is really nice and chilled. The old geezers bring their birds here to sing, and it has maybe a similar feeling to an allotment in the UK. They also sell birds, and food (live grasshoppers) and all the cool cages.


    One of the Lau Bans (old men) tending to his shop


    Pictures of the cages


    Lady near the flower market


    Does this sum up Hong Kong… a Chinese lantern, sponsored by Fosters?

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Mogwai in Wulai

    Mogwai, Scottish rock gods, blessed the island of Taiwan with their unique blend of intense riffs and ballistic delivery. I don’t really think the island knew what to expect – we certainly didn’t.

    This was no ordinary location -Wulai. Admitedly, I have now been here a rather large number of times recently, but this is because it is cool and because I like it. When Mogwai came last year they clearly though the same thing and departed a high profile Japanese tour for a low-profile Taiwanese festival in the middle of nowhere.

    The only flat piece of ground in Wulai – between the mountains and the volcanic hot springs – is the local school perched on the edge of the ravine. Mogwai played the local elementary school yard, complete with running track, kids’ toilets and artwork on the walls. It was kind of like some severely mutated parent’s evening. But with rock music.



    Mogwai – Scottish Rockers (they ain’t the bay city rollers)



    First of the inevitible drunk self portraits (beer was a frankly ridiculous 30p a time – cue epic hangover)



    The laser sword is the ultimate symbol of authority in Taiwan – with it you can get anyone to do anything. I had quite some fun bossing people around with my one.



    Myself, Tanja and Michael (at the hip hop gig in the school gym…)



    A well-chosen location, near the hot springs. We have no idea why they like building concrete everywhere. But still they continue, no doubt inspired by China’s 3 Gorges damn.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…