A Girl Lost in Taipei: September 2011

Moon Festival

Moon festival, one of the most important festivals in Chinese culture is over 3000 years old and goes by many names such as Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Cake festival, Autumn Lantern festival, Lunar Harvest festival and particularly Taiwan it is also called Reunion festival and Bunny Girl ( NO, not the playboy one) Moon festival. Chinese origin people around the world are found celebrating this festival by stuffing their mouths with variety of moon cakes under the eighth full-moon of the year. Needless to say, I did not miss the opportunity to stuff my mouth with delicious cakes as well.

Our box of KeeWah pastry

We have been very lucky to receive boxes of moon cakes and pomelo (see my blog on Exotic Fruits) from friends and colleagues for last few years in Taiwan. First year was difficult as most of the cakes I received had egg, pork and other non-vegetarian items and I could only ogle at pretty boxes but then it was corrected very quickly when a friend ordered special vegetarian moon cakes with stuffing such as mung bean, red bean, taro, dry fruits for us. They are just perfectly sweet in taste (think 30% less sugar than a typical milk sweet from India) and goes very well with oolong tea or red wine. Week before moon festival, office desks are piled with beautifully decorated moon cake boxes showing off the brands of the vendor. Imported ones from Hong Kong are gaining popularity and in this slightly pretentious culture you do see these high-end boxes on top of the piles.

Vegetarian Moon Cakes before I over ate

Now, on the day of the festival, typical Taiwanese family will gather for a barbeque feast under the moon. Motto of the day is to “eat, eat, eat, drink, eat, eat, drink, eat, eat … “according to one of my colleague. By the way, barbequing on this day is very unique to Taiwan which has emerged as a custom only in last twenty years and hence largely attributed to economic development and western influence by the outsiders. During my first year in Taiwan, I saw people on the streets, walkways and parks barbequing in the open, sneakily shouting “Gan-bei” followed by gulping their disposable cups of “pijio”, enjoying moon cakes and sometimes remembering to check out the moon through a thick smoke cloud that forms above their mobile barbeque pit. Friendly as ever, Taiwanese people will never forget to share their food with the passers-by. There are also many moon-roof parties organized these days which tends to demean western styles than traditional Chinese culture. Whatever the setting, its time of the year to celebrate with your loved ones and remember the ones you love under the moon light.

This year we were in Beijing for the Moon Festival. We heard that this year Green movement had taken a strong stand in Taiwan for the sake of the environment, road side barbequing was prohibited but dedicated parks were created for open barbeque so people can still enjoy in the 20 yr old custom. I guess I missed the Taiwanese clean, green Moon Festival this year.

Beijing was on a completely different scale. We tried to stay away from the main areas of Moon Festival celebration to avoid the crowds but our attempt was vain. We literally floated through tempestuous ocean of people throughout the day wherever we went. But as the evening set in many government buildings were beautifully lit, red lanterns decorated popular streets and dragons were seen ready to roar and dance that night. Unfortunately (or not), it was a cloudy night in Beijing with no moon in sight so it was a night best spent in the hotel room with a dim night lamp mimicking the moon ;) After a sumptuous dinner we headed back to the room and hoped to catch festivities on the TV. The most popular coverage seemed to be the continuous live coverage of the world’s biggest tidal bore on the Qingtang River (check out videos and images by google search, its really something) that comes every year during this festival. According to the TV coverage, it was considered one of the natural wonders of the World at one point but I am not sure how true that is in a world outside of China. Thousands of people had camped out and gathered by the river shore to watch this wonder wave under the full-moon light today while I virtually thanked the live Moon coverage for a loving husband and embraced him in the faint moon-light that fell on our bed from the TV.

Current state of Taiwanese Weddings

Our closest friends gave birth to a sweet little baby girl today. We are so excited and as if she was our own we screamed "yay, its a girl!".

I think most of the Taiwanese couples these days are probably screaming with similar excitement as well when they give birth to a daughter instead of a son. There may be a reason for this excitement which lies deep within the centuries old marriage tradition and effects of today's modernization instead of the pretty twinkling eyes of the new born. Unlike most part of the world, when a Taiwanese couple gets married, groom and his family has to pay a huge dowry to the girls parents and this is all but the crux of the stress for the boy and his parents at the time of marriage.

Most of the lavish wedding expenses including pre-wedding photographs, dinners, gifts (could include apartments, appliances, cars, furniture etc) and imported wedding cookies for the girls extended family are to be paid by the groom. All the terms and conditions regarding expenses are negotiated before the marriage is actually finalized. Needless to say, parents take over the wedding negotiations from the couple even if it was supposed to be a cute love marriage. These days Taiwanese women are well educated, self earning and independent which makes weddings even more expensive then they ever were. Brides parents want to recover the cost of raising their well-educated daughters and such attitudes sometimes just crashes the spirit of the marriage or worse, a man's will to get married.

Traditionally, boys have been preferred over girls across most part of the developing countries in Asia for centuries now. In last few decades, sex-selective abortion was on the rise and has given rise to uneven boy to girl ratio which is now 110 males for 100 females in Taiwan. This clearly means there are less females available for marriage. Also, more and more women these days are choosing to be single or delay marriage to focus on career and hence by the time they are ready for marriage, they are either too expensive or little too old to find the right partner. Ironically, divorce rates in the country are extremely high (close to 40%) too and it is also influencing to-be groom's wedding decision as they are getting penny wise and do not want to waste money on extravagant weddings which may end up in a divorce. All these independent trends and more which are not listed here have eventually led the country to earn a record breaking lowest fertility rate in the world. (0.9 children per child bearing female. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan#Vital_statistics).

All the data above is enough for me to believe that there is also a rise in mail-order brides in Taiwan. It is very common to see a man in Taiwan going through marriage brokers to find brides from countries like Mainland China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam where brides get married mainly to get financial help to support their families back home while the men gets a life companion for a much smaller amount than a Taiwanese wife.

'Old Culture + Modernization = Disaster?', I wondered as I sipped on my cup of oolong tea.

Just Jhakaas

There are perfect looking people everywhere I look. Let me rephrase that to, I see perfect looking women everywhere in Taipei. They are so perfect and so many in number that you can actually look through men in this city. Mannequin like bodies are dolled up with expensive shoes, matching dresses and bags. I wonder sometimes if the shoes came first or the dress. Glowing white skin like butter, expensive makeup finished with heavy mascara or fake eyelashes. Perfectly cut and styled hair with just right amount of colour successfully accentuates these model like creatures.

Lets say even if you had all the time, money and skill for style and fashion, can someone please explain how do you get the inspiration, will and perseverance to doll up day after day after day.

Btw, you all look just jhakaas (great) :)

Johnny, May and the others

From the peak of the ZhongZheng Mountain

ZhongZeng mountains and surroundings looked gorgeous from the peak that Sunday morning. Cool, crisp breeze carrying scent of the mountain dew was refreshing after our little hiking adventure. Now, Taiwan Government has done a fantastic job by making covered wooden decks and benches for people to rest and enjoy the views at many such popular outdoor spots. So we sat there on a bench, gulping our waters, dabbing our sweat and watching a big group of giggling septuagenarians in heavily clad hiking gears with a marvellous mountain backdrop.

It may be Sunday morning for the rest of the world but it was definitely a peak hour for camera shutters. Frequent "Yi Er San.. tien" ( 1, 2, 3 ... smile) sound was followed by the evident mechanical click sounds. In one corner, I even spotted a young couple celebrating some occasion with a bottle of wine and clicking zillion pictures. After several photos and loud conversations, the oldies left and carried on with the next phase of their hiking trip. We were finally left alone with our friends, young lovers in the corner and the beautiful views. We sat there eating some crackers to load up on carbs, we even took some pictures ourselves and got engrossed talking about our next plan of action for the day. Just about that time, few more people made it to the peak. One of them was Johnny.

Young couple was celebrating with some wine and champagne up in the mountains

Johnny was dressed in white Tshirt, grey shorts, a hat, a good pair of hiking shoes, a walking stick and a Nike back pack. He stood out from the rest of the group that climbed up the deck with him like some spicy hot oil in an Indian curry. He was definitely pouring more sweat and not carrying a camera like the rest. He stood by the fence of the deck, stretched out, soaked the view, closed his eyes and took a deep puff of the crisp air. Then he took out his towel, water bottle and settled near our benches where there were open spots. His handsome glowing face was very clear now as he had moved his towel from his face. I noticed a little grey on the sides of his hat and I said to myself, he is definitely forty five plus and a pretty healthy one. We exchanged a visual greeting while he was drinking his water and instantly after that we broke into a conversation. We discovered that he has been hiking up this particular mountain from the base ( few miles before the spot where we started our hike) every weekend for last 6 years. And he was Fifty Eight years old only and not forty five. He said that, for him and many of the oldies in Taiwan, a healthy lifestyle is a priority over everything else. His passion for hiking and a happy healthy life was very evident. He passionately gave us tips about nearby trails and a big encouragement about trying to stay fit. He was not happy that we were so young and opting for such small trails.

While we were talking to dear Johnny, another small group of retired friends came by and settled near the adjoining benches. They had brought several bags of fresh cut fruits with them. As usual, we exchanged a gentle visual "nihao" with them and the very next minute they placed two bags of fruits in our hands. Wow! I mean seriously, wow! They gave us disposable forks and napkins too! I have to say that these were the most amazing watermelon, guava and dragon fruit that I have had on top of the mountain after a hike. Fruits and the company that we were gifted was super delicious. Johnny and we enjoyed these gifted fruits, we took pictures with the group so we can remember how nice Taiwanese people are and continued chatting while cleaning our mouths constantly from the juicy fruits.

Nicest strangers in the world are in Taiwan.

More people were pouring in and they looked genuinely tired from the hike. We offered our seats to them, bid good byes to our stranger friends and we started to walk towards the young bamboo dotted trail. Johnny was with us. We chatted more with Johnny on our way down and we noticed that he was genuinely a happy person who constantly advised us to live up every single day and enjoy every moment in life. He was not preachy like some Masters here in Taiwan but a super friendly person. He finally told us that he is a cancer survivor and after his recovery he has not looked back. Life only gets better he said. His spirits and enthusiasm were high but definitely carried a patronizing attitude. I was quiet for rest of the hike, I even slowed down a little and let them pass ahead of me. I could not tell if I was spell bound by his beauty or his story that made him so beautiful.

Johnny leading the way

Once we reached the base of the mountain he said now I want you to meet the most beautiful person in my life, my wife. He shouted towards the rest pavilion, "Hello May, please come here" and then he winked at us and said "now you are about to meet a movie star". And indeed, a very beautiful woman with a glowing skin like butter with a big hat, stylish sun glasses, comfortable tshirt, shorts and sports shoes walked towards us. She was simply gorgeous! Johnny and May looked at each other passionately which was no less love than what I had witnessed on the mountain top with that young couple in midst of a celebration. May looked at us and politely said "Hello" in a very American like accent. She later told us that she was actually Korean by birth ( May be studies in US? who knows? ). We took pictures with this gorgeous young couple as well and bid our farewells as our stomachs were now calling aloud for some food. Johnny nagged us again to live it up as we walked towards our cars, my heart filled up and I just smiled without looking back.

With Johnny and May

As we drove down the winding roads, my mind was in a constant debate of whether it was the mountains, the dew filled breeze, the sweet fruits, their political and cultural history or some other unknown factor that made people in Taiwan so beautiful at heart? Just about then I saw a Taiwan tourism's sign board that said ' TAiWAN: Touch your heart!', I smiled and I said "I just did".