Talk About Identity Problems...
Weird Chinese food - that's what I had planned to blab about this time. For those paying attention (both of you), my last article discussed the concoction called 'stinky dofu' and promised to reveal more about other vile yet authentic Chinese dishes. However, I simply couldn't bring myself to devote consecutive articles to food. I hadn't the stomach for it, I suppose. More to the point, nightmarish dishes are but a trifling part of my over-all experience living in Taiwan. I'll pick up that thread another time. That's a promise as well as a warning. (Just remember - duck tongues and jellied pig's blood on a stick.)
Significantly, November 17, 2002 marked the start of my fourteenth year in Taiwan. (No. I did not celebrate the occasion.) It was probably for that reason, that I have decided to discuss what I perceive to be a much larger contributing factor to the pervading weirdness which keeps foreigners (me) unsettled after thirteen years of continuous residence.
It's not simply the food that makes this place so unbelievably bizarre. Nor is it the languages. (Mandarin, Taiwanese and two dialects of Hakka, not to mention the half dozen languages spoken by the indigenous people who populated this volcanic splinter off the Asian coastline long before the Chinese came.) As alien as all these are from the Indo-European family of tongues, there are many Westerners who are fluent in one or more of them. (Good for them.)
A major contributing factor to the weirdness of the Taiwan experience is the never-never-land political situation of this place. Consider this: Taiwan is a country which is not a country. The Republic of China (on Taiwan) as opposed to the People's Republic of China (not on Taiwan) is recognized as a legitimate, sovereign nation by only a vest-pocket full of countries. This recognition (by countries along the order of Tonga, Costa Rica and Mali) is principally due to what has been termed 'check-book' diplomacy. The King of Tonga supposedly got new run-ways for his private jets. (It's good to be the king.)
These 'allies for hire' demonstrate loyalty typical to all mercenaries - none. Even the Vatican has switched its allegiance from Taiwan to the god-less PRC. Perhaps the Holy See has been mesmerized by China's immense population, much as GM, Daimler-Chrysler, Coca-cola and a host of other companies since the industrial revolution have dreamed and schemed and obsessed over the thought of the Yang-tze-like volume of cash-flow which could be uncorked should every other Chinese adult purchase a single unit of whatever the commodity on a regular basis. Perhaps the Holy Roman Catholic Church envisions a spiritual marketing plan to save the billion-plus lost souls living within the borders of the People's Republic. (I'm sure the thought of all those renminbi getting tossed into collection baskets wouldn't have swayed the Pontiff's decision to renege on the agreement with Taipei. No way. Not JP2.)
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