Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Shilin Night Market

  • Fortune Telling

    A great weekend!

    Amongst other nice things, I met Anita from Hong Kong and her friend. I took the time to take them to Shilin night market where we sampled foods, had portraits cut with scissors and where I was persuaded me to get my fortune told.

    The Hong Kong guys, and their first time in Shilin night market

    Usually, I am quite against these things – astrology, palm reading and so on – but in the spirit of hosting I agreed. The system is uninteligible in its entirety, but there was certainly plenty of mysterious clicking and shouting numbers and important looking magnets. Suitably impressed, I sat back, taking my palms with me, and waited to listen to the outcome.


    The fortune telling system – I won’t pretend I can explain it

    I am fairly sure this is really supposed to be a secret, but if you don’t tell anyone I won’t either…

    The crux of the conclusion is that I am descended from Aliens and it is they that are guiding me through my life. It also explains any particular special powers that I have, such as the ability to read people’s minds’, which will look great on my resumé. Enthralled, I listened to the man speak – though I have to be honest and admit that Anita did the translating. Finally, he recommended that I take a trip to Egypt at some point in the future to reconnect with the beings.


    Their deity / lead priest / boss. A scary child – boy or girl!?


    Anita and I after a few beers at Rich’s studio

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Chilin in Shilin

    I had a quiet weekend (relatively speaking) and saw the Bienniel at the Contemporary Art Museum. I was quite impressed, and I plan to go back to catch the permanent exhibits as well. The building is pretty mental, in a modern Taiwanese mentally modern way. I’ll take some shots and you can judge for yourselves.

    On the way home I swung by Shilin night market and took some shots of the food area. It is an amazing place, truly, and at the heart of Taiwanese culture (ie: food) . My favourites tonight inclide this mini shrimp fishing zone. You may have seen my first shrimp fishing effort… if not, go here.



    As before, the general idea is to tempt the shrimps with tasty morsels of liver and shrimp babies, then you whip ’em out, ram a stick up their back-side, and burn them alive until cooked well.

    Doing a quick zoom in on the background you can see the kid fishing for something a little different … turtles. They each have a paper clip attached to their back (held on with some alarmingly-coloured tape) and the guys ‘fish’ for them with magnets … not quite sure if this is in the spirit of things, or if good old dynamite would be fairer. I will have to ask the guys at work on Monday if people eat the things… after going to Longshan market I know they do quite a bit more.



    Ninja Turtles



    And a quick one of a lady cooking oysters in a sort of Omelette – quite tasty.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • The Bright Lights of Shilin

    View of the incredible Shilin Night Market that is near my house. This place is an incredible cacophony of street food, fashion, music and people. You can never quite be sure of what goods you come away with, as I always seem to get distracted by bright lights and blinking neon.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…