Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Funny

  • Goodbye Year of the Pig

    It’s a little bit late to celebrate Chinese New Year, but these pictures have been sitting on my hard drive yearning to be posted. After living in Taipei for so long, it’s rare these days that I get a ‘holy shit!’ moment. But happen they do, and in this case, we had three of us with our jaws on the floor screaming a mixture of expletives, ‘gnarrrly duuude’ (Moshe), ‘crazy scheisse eh! (Georg) and ‘goodness gracious me!’ (yours truly).

    It seems at one of the temples we ride past on our ‘Gas Plant’ ride to the south of the city bids farewell to the year of the Pig with a rather special … what’s the word … not quite sure what it is. It’s one of the craziest things that I have ever seen anyway, and I’ll let the pictures do the talking.


    Sorry for the crap quality – cam phone.


    Yum


    Completely spherical!


    Check out the Mohalk hairdo … I still can’t believe they managed to stretch the skin out like that. And I don’t want to ask how they keep it so perfectly spherical.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Not Made in China

    There is quite a backlash against Chinese produce at the moment, and it is affecting the well-known scare stories like eggs and milk, but also spilling over into other products that I suppose the marketers believe can get some traction with. Hence, batteries; the sticker says “Not Made in China” (非中國： fei zhong guo).


    Made in Singapore, none the less – I didn’t even know they had any factories there.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Beer Flavour Green Tea

    While eating dinner at the local street-side live shrimp vendor next to the brothel and gangster hang out, we went to grab some drinks at the local 7-11 … all I can say, kids, is don’t try this at home. Sweet beer-flavoured tea is positively disgusting.


    Beer Flavor Green Tea – Avoid!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Boring Pie

    It has been a little while I posted anything outside of the Taipei Times, so that must mean that it must be time for … Gratuitous funny packaging shot!

    This is for Taiwanese brand ‘Boring Pie’ spicy rice crackers, which was hilariously funny, right up until someone pointed out the Chinese name ‘無聊派’ means the same thing! Hilarity ensued.

    “Digging into boring pie
    Getting out of boring time”

    The Taiwanese do see eating more as entertainment, and with packaging like this, who can blame them?!


    Boring Pie


    Please whoever checks English – never ever check this packaging.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • The End of the World

    Oh my god. Is this the future? This makes me feel sad.


    Soon, everyone will have an MBA


    Time to take some pictures of reflections to cheer myself up!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • TiT Taipei

    I love Taipei.

    All the building developments in the city have an enormous amount of money thrown at marketing and branding, usually ending up gleefully making impossible promises about the life-changing factors that come along with purchase of your, as an example, ‘Noble City Castle’.

    However, there are times when the English checking team clearly left early for the day, and you end up with such incredible names as this – opposite the Siemens / Nokia building on MinSheng and Fuxing – it must have made their day.


    Town in Town = TiT


    And seen in context … of one of the busiest intersections of the city.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • HK Work Mode

    I need to do some catching up on the old blog, but I always seem to
    find a few minutes to e-mail in a post while I am in HK airport
    (blessed by thy free wifi).

    This time I am sadly working through the wait do the plane, and
    arrival in “Asia’s World City” seems pretty pedestrian this time round.


    Yes, I finally get to ride the infamous Hello Kitty Eva Air Jet. Awesome.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Joke Time

    “Why are people from Taiwan so uptight?

    … it’s because they have a Taipei personality”

    Thanks to Heljen for that one!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • KMT Tablets

    What better for your Taiwanese political stomach problems?!


    “If you have troubles stomaching Taiwanese politics, perhaps you should try KMT tablets!”

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Taiwanese Health & Safety

    Coming home from a blast on the bikes, I needed to pop into Sean’s bike shop after shredding another rear tyre. I am, indeed, that extreme.

    Sean’s, apparently, does the best business in Taipei. As such, he is having a nice refit with a shiny new frontage. Many of the workers in Taiwan don’t stop for Sunday, so it was no surprise to see them hard at work. What was surprising was to see them drilling through a water pipe several times, and then leave the drill perilously close to the stream of water.

    A danger to passers by and to any potential user of the drill, all anyone could do was laugh an embarrassed guffaw when i started snapping away with my camera-phone.


    You are now entering a work area

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…