Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Shanghai

  • Chinese Driving

    Taiwanese drivers could never be noted for their skill. It’s erratic and dangerous, but this could not prepare me for the driving here.

    If the Taiwanese drive cars as if they were driving scooters, the Chinese seem to regard safety and regulation in the same was a Cambridge University cyclist would. It’s chaos. Cars reverse back to missed exits on the motor way, silent and deadly electric scooters scythe through lines of pedestrians and taxis behave as if the drivers really badly need the toilet.

    My guess is the horn is also connected to the break pedal, and is always used to greet oncoming traffic with a friendly hoot as buses and taxis career down the middle of the highway straight at each other. I have even been witness to freely flowing traffic break into cheerful symphony as soon as one car makes as much as a hoot.

    And in the middle of all of this are the thousands of bicycles, somehow oblivious to the war between the motorised members of the club. Why there are no dismembered limbs and bleeding wounded by the side of the road I do not understand.

    I never thought I would say this but I feel safer on the roads in Taiwan.


    The taxi drivers are separated from their irate passengers by plexiglass


    Motor scooters are being phased out and replaced with electric vehicles. There are some advantages to Communism.


    The bicycle parking lot at the office. A missed the photo of the cyclists riding along with their umbrellas open. Lovely.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Lunch Time Bell

    At 12:00 sharp the lights go out and the soothing moods of Curtiss Steiger’s saxophone fill the air with mediocrety. Lunchtime has arrived. Am I the only one with a soundtrack? Nobody flinches. One hour of quiet discussion and eating and light returns, once again accompanied by the mind-softening musak.

    And back to work.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Stereotypes

    China is really delivering today.

    An extended day in the office was accompanied by cool spring breeze blowing through. A pleasant, if slow day. What made it special was the sound of Chinese flutes drifting up from the park land below as if organised by some welcoming committee, though my new-found colleagues deny it.

    So, another nocturnal visit to Shanghai, but a nice one. I met Klara once again and we went to Future Perfect which is a very nice renovated restaurant in a side street of a side street. Their food was excellent and it was certainly possible to discern an increased level of quality, perhaps because of the masse of French ex-pats resident in the city.

    Afterwards, Klara suggested that we go to a warehouse party to check out some underground local deejay talent and live electronic music. It was an incredible location, looking out over the city with music wafting out. The surprise moment came when I bumped into my friend Huygn that I met in Sydney – a friend of Nelson in Taipei and someone I had been meaning to look up. An incredible feeling to be bumping into people so quickly and picking up where Nelson left off when he left the place. Amazing – small continent.

    We rounded off the evening at JZ jazz bar. Very Shanghai, or at least my idea of it. An astonishing Sino – French band with soaring vocals, accompanied by delightfully esoteric and fun loving backing musicians. Very memorable, and close to the vision in my head of the old days. Smoky bars. Opium (or at least Whiskey). Jazz. And another night with not quite enough sleep.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Shang to the Hai

    Well, finally after a day of assisting the engineers in the office I was treated to dinner by the head of Design in the French Concession of Shanghai. This is one gorgeous eminantly liveable city, and a step change from the previous night of rain and darkness followed by strange hotel and day staring at concrete.

    Shanghai is astonishing.

    The food was good with my client and I managed to spend the whole one and a half hours talking Chinese (though I was the one drinking the beer). Quite an achievement I think, and I am pretty pleased. Easily my longest Chinese conversation yet, but I am still stumbling when I come across areas of grammar or vocabulary that is beyond my reach.

    He dropped me off to meet Klara and her friends after some considerable searching, though it must be remembered he is Taiwanese. A second meal, some beers, a tour of her apartment and onto downtown. Wow. This is like Taiwan in an alternative future. Did I say ‘astonishing’ already? The vertical scale of New York but more space. And then you hit the Bund which is the main main road in Shanghai by the river. This has been more or less in my imagination for the last few years and here it is. It’s Liverpool … but Birkenhead has been been abducted by Aliens!

    Klara and I went to check out the uber-chic Rouge Bar on the roof of one of the previous embassies. Well-heeled cosomopolitan people ordered Cosmopolitans under the gaze of one of the most ridiculous city views in the world. The feeling is entirely unlike Taipei, or Hong Kong for that matter. The French that apparently make up the greatest proportion of the ex-pat community bringing a certain je ne sais quois to the proceedings. Or maybe it was the cocktails.

    Whatever. I am convinced, and looking forward to finishing work tomorrow to see more!


    Pudong Missile Launch Pad


    Riverpool by night – The Brits got the best camp when dividing up land amongst each of the ‘Concessions’

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Stuck in the Office

    The hotel is strangely serene. Doors stay open, creating a strange mix of private and public space and a white noise of television, hair dryers and conversation – an experience not unlike student halls. Breakfast brought delightful flashbacks to my first days in Taipei and the feeling I was distinctly different from everyone else in the room.

    My first hours of the outside world have seen me sitting in the clients offices staring at screens of numbers or making broken conversation with the engineers – in fact I am here right now. They seem to have it worked out, but communicating my feelings of the design is proving rather difficult. My Chinese is still simply not good enough.

    Interestingly, the designer assigned to me is deathly cynical, especially about the state of design in China – something I was not at all expecting amidst all this bravado and optimism.

    The other people are nice, but the impression is different from Taiwan. There, the mere mention that you are English or a designer is enough to push them over the edge while they try to quash their excitement of being in the presence of a foreigner. Less cute. More cynical. Certainly less warm on first impression. But as a result somehow less alien than the ultra-friendly Taiwan.

    It’s been a rather unconventional introduction to the city, but I can always do the tourist thing some other day. I am hoping to escape my client captors tonight and meet a couple of friends for drinks, but time will tell how successful I am – the head of design here seems intent on showing me a ‘good time’. Words to be avoided in this city of cities of sin.


    The delightful work environment, and my team!


    The funny queuing system for lunch

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • China

    Here I am!

    So far, my impressions are: no 7-11a, big roads, rain, darkness, being told I am starying work at 8:45 tomorrow morning, the strange hotel room with a window in the bathroom looking into the rest of the room, some decreased level of cutness after Taiwan.

    Interesting!


    The view from my hotel room to the streets below and I guess the old worker houses

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…