Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

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  • YingGe

    Erin and I had a day trip to the pottery town of YingGe to the south of Taipei. The town was pleasant and worthy of a day trip, but much better were these two photos that made me smile!


    It’s a GOLD scooter! – a 35th Anniversary model, apparently


    Waiting at the platform for the train back to Taipei, it was tempting to try transcending. Luckily, this sign warned me not to!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • 2.01 Years!

    I realised I have been in Taiwan for TWO YEARS … but a few days late, since I got distracted by being in Shanghai.

    Amazing. Two years. I ain’t no rookie any more…

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Formatting

    Blogger is playing silly buggers with my formatting at the moment – probably because I was posting by e-mail last week. So forgive the ugliness. It gives me more reason to upgrade to a better system too.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Back to the Future

    Today, I was finally granted the future I was promised as a child. Today, I rode the Mag Lev.

    Linking the Airport and the city – or at least a parking lot in the middle of nowhere kind of near the city – it covers the 40km run in 7 minutes! Half the time is spent accelerating, and the other half braking. The most efficient way, of course – perhaps the Shanghai taxi drivers understand physics better than I realised.

    The whole experience was however slightly provincial, and rounded off with a very slow, frustrating and badly organised airport. Strange, considering the epic world class proportions of the exterior. Perhaps it is an ideal analogy of my whole China experience so far.


    Anything with red glowing lights gets my vote


    For those of you that are interested, this is a mag-lev track. Where is the dry ice and lasers?


    Fast! But not quite as smooth as I expected


    My plane to Hong Kong, and after back to Taipei and *cough* civilisation

    As an interesting note, the MagLev was constructed using German know-how and is the only commercial example existing in the world, saving the technology from becoming a white elephant. The Germans are now up in arms because the Chinese are planning their own version, but cheaper this time. However, as some observers have pointed out this may be the only way to recoup costs – by supplying key components. That the Chinese copy the system and make it cheaper, could open the door for it in other locations.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Henry Wilkins

    I just got back from a rather marvellous evening – a house party in Henry Wilkins’ apartment in Shanghai. Henry I went to school with so I have known him since he was about 11 years old, and although he denies it he grew up in Bar Hill, home of Tescos. I even bumped into a dutch designer that I met last night at the hoky poky thing, so it is quite clear that I have become pretty au fait with the community here, just in the space of a few days. A nice feeling.


    The view from Henry’s balcony across Shanghai

    So, a school friend in the local viscinity. And another crazy cab ride home to match the crazy journey there with the Chinese Fernando Alonso

    The Dukes of Hazard…



    What a rush!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Chinese Economics

    Today was the first day off I had in a week and a half, so I planned to get up, head to the train station and go and find my self of ‘real’ China.

    Unfortunately, that plan was dashed by the cleaning lady at my door this morning, indicating I had slept through my alarm by two hours. I made it to the station, bought a ticket to Suzhou, but realised that it was too late to make good use of the day. As a result, I took the opportunity to see a little of Shanghai in the day time and it certainly delivered.

    I have to say, this is a town to live in, not to visit. The Bund is marvellous and there are a few other interesting places to go, but it does not have the tourist attraction of Beijing. I went to check out the YeYuen gardens – the old town – and it was very nice but absolutely packed with yellow-hatted Chinese tourists following their respective yellow flags. Package tours take on a new meaning with the Chinese, and I would not be surprised to see more of these headpieces in Europe as their gather more disposable income.

    I had some rather forced conversations with Chinese clearly wanting to sell me something under the pretence of learning English – a ruse I got extremely tired of. The pinnacle came when my will broke and accompanied a pair of Chinese students to a café bar for a coffee. My treat, and I didn’t really mind. I was rather shocked to find they had ordered half the menu and the most expensive Whiskeys on the menu! My heart both dropping and pounding in rage, I had to control myself, pay the bill and get the hell out. I raised a stink but this was clearly not a good idea in the particular location I had chosen. You know, I have traversed Mexico and Central America, Thailand and Taiwan, and I have maintained my street wise all the way. I have never been ripped off by more than is reasonable. But today I lost out on about 100 bloody quid, but I feel like it was a very cheap way to learn a very expensive lesson. Folk lore suggests people coming here, setting up businesses and having the investments pulled out underneath them. So. Lesson learnt. Wounds licked. And a more circumspect approach to the city of sin.

    That feels better now! Now I prepare to head out one last time to meet Henry from my High School. Amazing to see him and my oldest friend in Asia. At the same time, I have lost out by days once again as my friend Gerhard (previously of Panasonic in Japan, and hailing from Germania – where else?) arrives to set up a design company on Monday (!) and Anke & Lars move their life here via India on Thursday. It seems like a bit of a German conspiracy, what with missing out on Michael & Tanja’s farewell bash last weekend!

    Shower and change. A wiser man steps out into the night.


    Bamboo sticks out into the street, providing drying space for clothes. Just thread them on and poke ’em out!


    The pond at YuYuen gardens – the ‘Old City’


    A door


    A phone recharging machine on Nanjing Street. Maybe I am the only one that found it interesting.


    The animation exhibition in MOCA – The Museum of Contemporary Art – in People’s Square.


    Spinning LED installation – quite cool – reminded me of a guy from my old time at ideo in London


    Bruce Lee Fried Chicken. I’m Not Joking. Actually they take his Chinese name ‘Lee Xiao Long’, or ‘Little Dragon’ Lee

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Design Speed Dating

    I just returned from a great evening meeting many creative types at a series of speeches as part of a “Pecha Kucha” – Japanese for Chit Chat. You get 20 seconds per slide, and 20 slides and it is really strict. We had speakers from fields as diverse as architecture (Shanghai is full of ‘em) design, photography and fashion and it made for a really stimulating evening. At long last, it felt like a gallery opening in London surrounded by people faintly cooler than you. But still, everyone maintains there is no scene here, and the nearest beach is three hours away. By aeroplane.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Taiwanese Ex-Pats

    I already wrote a little about the different behaviour of the Taiwanese in the office, but I was lucky enough last night to be invited out for dinner once again by some of the China operation’s directors last night for a meal. The restaurant was in the west of the city where there are extensive communities of HongKongese, Japanese, Korean and Japanese. The whole thing was shiny and neon’d, interspersed with Japanese titty bars, Karaoke and stores full of overpriced food. And all the time, there were ramshackle houses built next to the fountains, full of tiny rooms. Who for? The maids? Workers?

    Once into conversation, It felt like I was looking at myself amongst my foreigner friends in Taiwan bitching about the taxis, social protocol, level of professionality, work environment, food and a million other things. This is what we do too, semingly as some sort of natural reaction to a new environment. I hate doing it – it feels like I am talking behind my friends’ backs – but somehow this is the release valve that we need to vent steam.

    So there I was last night, listening to the Taiwanese Ex-Pats talk about life in China – their body language once again more confident as they watched the girls bring in food and leaned back on their chairs. Half of me felt horribly superior, as I imagined all the locations that the British have settlements. The other felt some kind of minor pride for Taiwan – this is their little empire right inside China. Of course, there are other major Taiwanese communities, and I guess most of them are in the USA. I wonder if they talk about the US in the same way. Probably.
    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • 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…

  • Taiwan & China

    Taiwan and China, along with their neighbours Japan and Korea, have a turbulent history. I did not know what to expect when I arrived here, working for a Taiwanese design house, for a Taiwanese company, with Taiwanese bosses, but work colleagues here from China.

    Certainly, the first day was a little strained, and by day two I was getting the impression that they resented their Taiwanese bosses to some degree. Talk to locals here and more often than not if they work for a large technology company their seniors are from the rogue province. As a result, the feeling on the street is that Taiwanese are arseholes. Even meeting foreigners on Saturday they had heard the same thing.

    I am clearly not Taiwanese, but with the project being imposed by HQ in Taipei I was surely seen as ‘one of them’. I have to say that, over the course of these days my views have changed as I get to know the team here better. Like I believe I said before (I can’t check this post because of the restrictions) the initial impression was a little cold, but now they are offering the odd bad cup of coffee or biscuit. Rather like working in old Newmarket!

    I am used to dealing with Taiwanese now, so the two occasions that I met with Taiwanese directors here were doubly interesting. Their interaction with their Chinese ‘underlings’ was akin to seeing an American barge into an English pub and order a Philly Steak. Suddenly they become assertive and decisive. It left me chuckling after the head of ID warned me that the Chinese do not speak their minds ‘like the Taiwanese’. Hilarious.
    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…