Hello, from Taipei, Taiwan! 

Every day, I have been challenging myself to bring my camera out with me, with only its smallest lens, and take some photos of anything that catches my attention. Being an interloper in any community means that you’re uniquely bringing in a new perspective and new eye to the physical and cultural world around you, but it is really up to each interloper to define how they want to nurture and develop their eyesight. 

My daily photography challenge is something that I hope to be able to return to the community around me when I leave Taipei, and to show them the beauty that I saw in what they might now consider banal. I mean, I hate it when people go to my hometown of Astoria, Queens (which is seemingly unavoidable now that it now houses the #1 matcha spot in New York City…) and post about it on social media, but I hope that, if my project is coupled with really learning my community, then it will bear greater meaning. My photography challenges me to constantly return to my surrounding community, and do more than just find the art in their composition as subjects, but to attempt to highlight them as people as well. 

One day, I was leaving the library and was headed back home when I was struck by the amount of people walking outside in the middle of the street, largely in their pajamas. In New York City, any crowd like that, dressed in that way, usually means that something bad has happened. I pulled out my camera and followed the crowd, just to see what might be going on. At the end of the street, I found the light that the metaphorical moths were moving towards: the garbage truck. 

In Taipei, garbage trucks do not make door to door stops, like they do in New York City. Rather, they wait at the end of the street and blare classical music to alert residents to go outside and drop off their trash. As I stood there, taking photos, I felt a little bit silly making such a big fuss out of something so normal in their day to day routines, but enjoyed feeling clued into this trivial matter. 

At Lightbox, I have really had the chance to learn more about Taiwanese culture. One prime example of this is the mini lesson that I just received on Guai Guai (乖乖) chips. The Cheeto-like corn puff chips sit as a staple on Taiwanese supermarket snack shelves but, more surprisingly, computer hard drives, factory machinery, and servers as well. While chatting with my supervisors late one night at the library, they told me the legend of the 乖乖 chips and slowly uncovered the bags hiding behind Lightbox’s telephone, on top of our wifi routers, and besides our projector. 

乖乖 directly translates to “obedient,” but is better thought of as a parent chiding a child to be good or to behave. No one really knows how it started, but 乖乖 chips, with wishes written on the bag’s exterior, became a common sight in workplaces and factories, with major corporations buying thousands and thousands of bags to prepare for the launches of major projects. One awesome line from the Wikipedia page reads: 

“For instance, in May 2017 during the collection of consolidated income taxes, the Ministry of Finance in Taiwan tried to place Kuai Kuai to save the overwhelmed operational systems due to overload access.[26] However, they bought the yellow-colored bags, drawing criticism from netizens in Taiwan.” (forgot to mention: the color of the bag also matters)

My reason for sharing this random superstition is that this is largely how I have been interacting with the community. While my supervisors and I mainly speak in Mandarin, they don’t weaken their language just because my own Mandarin is a bit flawed, rather, they take the time to chat with me and clue me in on things that they believe are truly Taiwanese. Even with my two other co-interns from Taipei: they ask me about the price of pizza in New York City and if everyone is really a “matcha-holic” and I ask them about what PE classes they have to take in school and what bubble tea spots are actually worth it. We gush over the same photobooks during our weekend shifts, mixing Mandarin and English but letting our shared love for photography speak its own language. 

During my two weeks in Taipei so far, I have come to realize that having to pause a conversation for 20 seconds to pull out Pleco (an awesome Chinese language app) to translate a word (top words of the week are: “Mosquito” and “Pretentious”) does not ruin an entire interaction, nor does it add any difficulty on either side of the conversation. Will do more of this!

Still lots of exploring this week! I averaged 14,000 steps this week, hit 6 museums, and gained a new love for shaved ice.