27: color and calm in Taiwan's biggest cities

and the importance of personal projects

Earlier this year, I spent a month traveling in a circle around Taiwan. The food, people, landscapes, and cities left a lasting impression on me in so many ways that I would be hard-pressed to fit it all into a post like this. I’ve been narrowing my focus by writing about small parts of that trip and stays in different areas, like my time in Alishan here and my first two weeks here. This week, I took a dive into the thousands of photos made in Taiwan and started looking at color and form, as well as quieter moments, in the sprawl of concrete in larger cities like Taipei and Kaohsiung.

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Sometimes, especially when I’m up to my neck in work, I need to create these little escape hatches of a project to let my brain rest. Most of the time, it’s as simple as culling and curating a pile of images into a smaller pile that feels like each is in conversation with one another. It’s my version of cleaning the entire house when I need to be at my desk getting things done (I do that, too).

Before visiting Taiwan, I read a bunch of accounts from other travelers claiming (almost complaining?) that Taiwanese cities felt run down or shabby. It’s definitely a reality that Taiwan’s urban landscape can feel pretty grey. Add to this the fact that Taipei rarely sees clear, blue skies and gets more than 200 days of rain each year, and it’s easy to understand that perception (during my time there, it rained 25 out of 30 days). I’m always interested in what the masses say about a certain place and what that does to shape an outsider’s perspective (I wrote about this in relation to Athens last year). People are quick to make generalizations, and traveling has taught me that nothing is as simple as that.

So, yes, there’s truth to some of these statements about Taiwanese cities. Function, cost, efficiency, and speed were all clearly prioritized over design in the rapid development of these cities during the post-war years. On top of that, maintenance to many of these buildings has been neglected and the extremely humid climate continues to take a toll. Materials are costly, building owners are often reluctant to make repairs, and the weather is constantly waging a war against everything. Mold is a serious problem and I stayed in a few apartments that felt like they’ve been damp for 50 years. But, amidst all the grey, there’s also so much color. The streets are full of lush gardens, house plants, and the neverending seas of colorful scooters. I found Taipei to be one of the more visually interesting urban areas I’ve ever traveled to with some similarities to Hanoi or Tokyo but still uniquely different. The patchwork of tile, sheet metal, and weather-stained concrete build up like layers on a building. Webs and coils of spaghetti cables dangle all over the place. Somehow, everyone seems to have taken classes in color theory. In short, there’s a lot to look at in these cities.

I’m not an expert in the urban development of Taiwan. There’s so much history just in the last century to dig into and understand some of the reasons these cities actually look this way that I can’t fit it in this post. Much of it, like every story involving colonialism, is painful to read. Before visiting, I read Jessica J. Lee’s beautiful book Two Trees Make a Forest and would highly recommend that to anyone, especially if you’re interested in learning more about Taiwan’s own colonial history through Lee’s retracing of her family’s past. Other books I would recommend before visiting are Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan by Jonathan Manthorpe and Green Island by Shawna Yang Ryan. I read these two after and wished I had picked them up before my time in Taiwan.

Pulling these photos together was fun for me because it gave me a break from work, and because I didn’t really think about there being threads between them. I realized when looking back what my eye is drawn to most in cities and how much I seek out quieter moments in even the most chaotic of places (several of these images are split seconds in extremely busy parts of Taipei). There’s also an immediacy to them that feels just like a note or mental sketch from my time spent walking around these cities, often without any direction and overwhelmed with visual stimulation. My memory of the place is undoubtedly shaped by having stopped to make these photographs. That’s a big part of what I realize I’m interested in exploring through my own writing as I reflect on travels.

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If you find yourself traveling around Taiwan and like photographing architecture or interesting neighborhoods, some of the places I’d recommend checking out are:

• The streets around Beitou Park and the stunning Taipei Public Library, Beitou Branch

• Tao Zhu Yin Yuan, a carbon-absorbing, residential tower in Taipei’s Xinyi District

• Xiangshan Park in Taipei and the residential streets around the base of Elephant Mountain

• Tamsui and Yehliu Harbor for daytrips beyond Taipei’s center

• Hualien Cultural and Creative Industries Park, a former brewery and maze of warehouses converted into a complex of galleries, shops, and restaurants

• Taipingyang Park in Hualien (less about architecture and more about the beautiful coastal linear-type park) with walking paths, sculptures, and views of the ocean

• Pier 2 Art Center in Kaohsiung, an enormous harbor front area repurposed from warehouses that were no longer in use after Kaohsiung’s port area was moved

• Cijin Island just across the harbor from Pier 2 in Kaohsiung

• The entire Anping District in Tainan but especially the side streets around Anping Old Street

• Blueprint Culture & Creative Park in Tainan

• Qingshui Military Dependents’ Village Cultural Park in Taichung

Thanks as always for reading, and for looking at this little roundup of photos from Taiwan.