Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Taiwan

Wulai Weekender

First cla ssic Lars situation: Three taxis, three couples, three kids, looking for a restaurant in a car repair area.

BAM. Gone as soon as you realise it started, weekends with the old Taipei crew are always a riot of food, laughter, cheap beer, good whisky and trips to the sweaty parts of the island. This time was no different. Well, except for the new addition of children to the mix.

Ostensibly here for the bike show, Anke was meeting with her Taiwanese employer here in Taiwan; an electric bike technology organisation. Lars popped over with her, providing baby sitting services for Linnéa, and new addition Luc. With the addition of Edgar, we suddenly had a trio of little critters running around and demanding the attention of our weary digital cameras.

Mere minutes in, I was already in a taxi, picking up Yuyin and racing across the city in search of a Gongbao Chicken recommendation from Mattieu. Dispite noisy disapproval from the cab driver, as he claimed there was ‘nothing there’, the flotilla of taxis made their way across Taipei. Circling around the area once, I took control of the situation, and pointed us back in the opposite direction to the reliable (but still delicious) ‘rechao’ on Leli Rd. Sorry to be a party pooper!

Reminds me of a photo I took of Linéa a couple of years ago.

Cute as a button.

I admire Lars’ new camera.

Luc is kind of a chilled out hippie baby.

Green with pride

Looking to the stars with Lars.

Real focus of the weekend was returning to Wulai, of course. Beloved for it’s completely crazy and lovely public hot springs, fabulous landscape, and easy access to Taipei, I make it up there with some regularity. Through what can only be described as mistakes of planning, I managed to find ourselves a pretty awesome hotel, with a huge mega room (naturally complete with KTV) for the two families and myself to crash. While I feared for the worst regarding sleep, Michael took care of it with a bottle of two of good whisky. Out like a light.

Garnished with smoked chicken, and washed down with a dip in the hot springs, it was one of those classic weekends that can’t really be summed up. Awesome.

Edgar is like a mini version of Michael, but with a better sense of humour.

Our excellent hotel, Melody Villa – prepare for crazy flash and music onslaught. Are they all from one web designer?

Peepo

Colours of Wulai

In the rush to leave the restaurant, we almost forgot Linéa.

Absolutely no bungee jumping allowed.

The hot springs were no different from usual; lovely organised chaos. The only mistake we made this time was bringing food in (‘hey we know what we are doing!’) which inevitably resulted in coffee filling one of the pools, and bits of waffle floating around for everyone to enjoy.

Yeahhhh.

I have about a thousand of these shots, as I was playing with my new waterproof (and ugly) camera.

Sugar and spice and all things nice.

If the kids were superstars already in Taipei, nothing prepared us for Wulai. Never alone, without comments about their skin or eyelids, you knew they were around due to loud screams of ‘hao ke’ai o!‘ (how cute!) echoing around the valleys. Luc and Edgar, while a mere five days apart, are built rather differently; Edgar like a little German Budda, and Luc like a tiny hippie cherub.

Chilled out Luc.

Never anything less than fascinated and smiling Edgar.

Checking out the waterproof camera.

Man time.

No trip to Taiwan would be complete without a visit to a nightmarket. While not really quite a nightmarket, Wulai’s old street sufficed, and provided us with some tasty treats for later on the evening.

Wulai old street.

Racing car start.

Luc doing some window shopping

Views up one of the side streets to buckets filled with eggs.

Convenience store.

See you next year I hope!

2011/03/20
Gaomei Wetlands

Yuyin and I enjoyed the long weekend by heading down to Taichung for a friend’s wedding. It was awesome to meet some of her university buddies, and they let me know they liked me by proceeding to get me nice and drunk. In 100% recovery mode, we headed out to Gaomei wetlands on the coast; a protected area of marshlands and salt flats.

While some of the local guys were not entirely convinced – “what are they actually protecting, here?” – I had a happy time looking out the flat lands and thinking of home, and The Fens. A nice day out, even with a dickie stomach and funny head.

Dawn of the Triffids

Family day out

Groundwork

Chairs not allowed

Jump!

2011/02/27
Finding an Industrial Design Job in Asia

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 (it seems ridiculous to write that now), I lacked any connections or experience in the region. What I did have was a resume that I had been building since leaving high-school that packed a solid range of work experience and internships in some well-known companies. Crucially, a design education that included engineering and management training gave me the advantage of providing something a little different. All this provided a good foundation to start the search.

Leaving Europe. The night before, I had a pain in my stomach unlike anything I had ever felt before … but since the cost of changing my ticket to come home was only €25, I tricked myself into leaving anyway; and almost seven years later, here I am.

Working remotely, it was difficult to get a grasp of the ‘landscape’ of the design industry. I naturally applied through the variety of HR web portals that larger companies maintain, but was not surprised when I did not hear anything back. I browsed design company web sites, pestered my lecturers for alumni contact information, targeted conferences and design festivals looking for speakers and sponsors, and even pored through design award books looking for names. Anything that could give me the crucial ‘@’, that allowed me to crack the e-mail code was considered.

After months of freelancing, interviewing in the UK, and more than a little frustration, I finally hit pay-dirt when an innocuous ad for Asus Computers’ design team in Taipei popped up on Coroflot.com. Phone interviews were followed by a face-to-face in Germany, and before I knew it, I had an offer. I finally hit the ground on May 14th 2004; a solid ten months after graduating. Do not underestimate the power of resourcefulness, patience and perseverance (and even a little cunning).

My first few weeks on the ground were at first a little perplexing.

I struck it lucky with that advert, but a cross-section of my international friends in the region reveals a similar picture; get stuck in with research, and don’t give up. Nothing beats getting your feet on the ground out here, so book that plane ticket (ask your school to see if there are travel or research bursaries). No-one is going to begrudge a meeting with you if you have flown half-way round the world, and it’s likely that if you do meet with other designers out here, your spirit of adventure will likely mean they are more open to help you. You’ll be surprised.

18 months on Asus’ design team was followed by almost three years in design studio, DEM. And this bring me today, working for Dell on the notebook design team, deeply ingrained in the Taiwanese ‘industrial organism’, and a full paid-up member of the Asian Industrial Design Community. More about that next time.

Taking trains to visit vendors in China.

2011/01/14
HiRecruit 2010

The Taiwanese government’s HiRecruit campaign aims to attract professional talent to the island. This year, they asked me to talk about what brought me here, and why other people should do the same thing. Check out the video below:

Obviously what I really cared about was that I looked good on the bike … 🙂

2010/11/30
Taichung Escape

Since we will both be travelling a fair bit in the near future, Nikki and I decided to make a break for the border and head down for a weekend away in Taichung – Taiwan’s second city. The bigger spaces, cleaner air, better weather and more relaxed pace makes for a good get-away location. That, and being able to sample some of the crazy hotels that the hotel is famous for.

Browsing the shops in the nightmarkets of Taichung is never anything less than a visual overload – and a pleasure. Hello Kitty kitsch is so stunningly ubiquitous as to slowly become invisible. Miffy stuff, however, seems to have fallen completely out of favour. Ah, the whims of the Taiwanese cute collector.

An Aladdin’s Cave of cuteness

I wish I had bought this sleeping mask now … it would be perfect for the flight back!

Doggy and kitty fashion by the boatload

High-speed Takoyaki restaurant, with its own custom oil sucker-upper … pretty sure they shouldn’t need that much oil, but I guess that’s how they come here.

I am constantly amused by the legs descending from the sky in Taiwanese night markets.

Nikki in the Museum of Fine Arts – Taichung

Watching the clouds, skies, and kites on the grass … people don’t lie on the grass much in Taiwan!

Reflecting on things #1

Reflecting on things #2

Waiting for the HSR back to Taipei.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

2010/11/28
It’s Election Time, Bitches!

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 next? LCD screens all over it? I should not joke.

2010/11/14
Taipei Biennial 2010

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 doorstep. It didn’t pull any punches in illustrating the number of trees killed as a result of the construction work outside. Anyway, some quick images:

Building site for the Flora Expo next to the Art Museum.

Preparation for the Flora expo proceeding as planned.

Aggressive wall murals at the Biennial

Map of the damaged or destroyed trees that made way for the Floral Expo.

When I walked past this on the way in, I just thought it was a Bali-style bust of a religious figure. Coming out of the exhibition, I was pleasantly surprised to see a stack of Yellow Pages! It’s these little surprises that I appreciate, even if they are slightly gimmicky.

This room had a set of rotating discs, and alternated having lights on or off, creating shadows and glowing … impossible to sum up in a photo. Anyway.

I was extremely taken with this infinite picture frame.

Double hat. Tres chic.

Hanging at an angle.

2010/10/02
New Rig

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 Industrial Design as a career. I don’t quite remember the turn of events, but somehow I was lucky enough to be bought that very bike – an 18 speed Holdsworth Montana, featuring first-generation Shimano Deore XT shifters and a mud-sucking U-Brake. Clearly, it attracted my Dad too, as he picked up a trashed Saracen Tufftrax frame and built up his own bike.

And so the riding started. Dad and I jaunted off along local lanes, up into the French Alps and all the way to the home of mountain biking in Marin, California.

I upgraded that bike as far as I could, but managed to save up enough money at age 16 to buy myself an Orange Clockwork – featuring 21 speeds from Shimano XT II, Zoom components and tasty Dia-Comp cantilever brakes. That bike, finished in matte black with orange decals was my love affair for endless summers, and was the steed of choice for Britain’s amateur cross-country racers. Indeed, I still ride that bike when I return to the UK – it might even be appreciating in value, based on it’s retro parts.

Then University happened, and while I did ride when I was home, I decided other things took priority while studying. It’s a shame, as there is no doubt that more riding in Scotland would have been fantastic, but you can’t have it all.

It was landing in Taiwan that ignited the flame again. Home of global, high-end bike production, it was inevitable that I would buy something for exploring the hills. I ended up with a Giant NRS, finished in matte black again, and furnished with all the components that I could afford. Most of the guys I was riding with had various descriptions of NRS, and serious skill-building commenced. The rocks and roots and slippery, off-camber cornering call for a certain style of riding, and the NRS gave me a good start – and trip to hospital with a broken wrist. 80mm of travel initially did not fit with my philosophical ‘ideal’ of completely rigid bikes, but the terrain called for shock absorption – and starting off on rigid bikes probably helped my skills, vision and ability to pick lines.

But 80mm was not enough. When the opportunity came along to pick up a Giant Trance 0 at cost (direct from the R&D Director of Giant, no less), I jumped at the offer. Decked in XTR and XT, and with a 100mm Fox fork it provided a great platform for more adventurous riding, and I soon upgraded the fork to an adjustable 100-140 Fox Talas unit. Serious fun.

But the market for 4″ trail bikes was being usurped by competitors, finding a ‘sweet spot’ of 5″ bikes; companies like Santa Cruz refining bikes that really can ‘do it all’.

And this is what I just bought myself.

The arc of my story just delivered 140mm front and back. Full XTR. Fox Talas. 26.5 lb. This baby is going to form the basis of the next few years of entertainment for myself. It’s the bike way above my abilities, if the Trance wasn’t already. It’s had several excursions into the hills and mountains, and getting better every ride. What I am really looking forward to, though, is a weekend of mountain biking in HK in August … still some time to tune and fettle before I leave!

Yum!

2010/07/20
Taipei Plastic Surgery

Tasteful plastic surgery adverts on display in Taipei … Plastic surgery is fun!

2010/07/17
Maokong Gondola

Nikki and I made a run for the city limits, and opted to test-out the newly restarted Maokong Gondola up into the hills. I had attempted twice before to use the service, but prior to the landslide that began to undermine one of the pylons the crowds were simply too big. Now? Well, no-one wants to ride it, which is fine in my book as the queues are close to zero.

Taipei is closer to nature than pretty much any other city that I can think of, and it’s nice to have access that does not involve hour-long climbs on the mountain bike. A lovely way to spend a late afternoon, and fantastic to go and throw some hot water on some tea leaves and soak in the lovely sunset. Wonderful.

Widescreen.

Shooting into the sky.

Pensive, while pouring tea.

Our sunshine account is running into the red.

Lovely Bugatti blue seats on the underground back to the city centre.

2010/07/17