Tag: Taipei
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How to pack your life into boxes, in 12 easy steps: Voila!
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I have had some of the best days of my 20s up in the hills around Taipei – the days spent up there rooted in my memory. That’s why I was so delighted that, after six years of pestering, Ken finally decided to come up to Taipei for a round of mountain biking. Sadly, I managed…
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Cloudgate (雲門舞集) are an institution in Taiwan; and one of its most treasured cultural exports. Combining traditional Asian and Chinese motifs, they combine them in extraordinary ways, mixing digital media, human-scale calligraphy, old folk tales and contemporary dance. It’s always a challenge to get seats for their performances in Taiwan, since they are so often on…
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Our friend Dave, who is an engineer at Microsoft in Seattle, paid us a visit last week. Reports had been circulating that he had assembled his own Sous Vide; a device that enables highly-accurate temperature control for cooking, in the manner of Heston Blumenthal. By first vacuuming the food into sealed bags, then immersing it…
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I had deep reservations with the Taipei Flora Expo, even before getting the tickets. China gets the Olympics; Taiwan gets the Deaflympics and World Games. Shanghai gets the World Expo; Taipei makes a ‘Flora Expo’ for itself. I don’t see anything more than a cynical distraction from real issues, and a vote-grabbing exercise; ‘lipstick on a…
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Leaving design school, it can be really tough to pick a career direction; let alone find a job. Believing ‘change brings opportunity’, after graduating in 2003 I decided to head east and cut my teeth in Asia. Now all I needed was a job, and a destination. Since I had never been to Asia before…
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It’s time to vote, people! Yes, leave your reason and logic at the door; it’s election-time in Taiwan. What does that mean? Tanks. Tanks and LEDs! Cruisin’ for a bruisin’. Underlighting. But wait a second! Haven’t we seen these before? 2004? 2006? Shilin, 2004 This seems … familiar … except updated with LEDs. What…
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Misgivings about the limited arts scene in Taiwan always evaporate when the Biennial sets up shop; the curators are clearly highly adept at collecting a thought-provoking selection of work. This year’s, while seemingly smaller than in the past, none-the-less tackled some spicy political subjects, not least directly criticising the Flora Expo being held on its…
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I love mountain biking. It’s ‘my sport’. At 13 years old, I remember looking with fascination at my neighbour’s bike when I went round to feed the cats – a guy called Paul. Mountain biking seemed glamorous and Californian, and the shiny metal and the expensive parts no doubt contributed to my eventual selection of…
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Tasteful plastic surgery adverts on display in Taipei … Plastic surgery is fun!