My Youth

Paul and I went back to Taiwan (and Hong Kong) during Christmas/ New Year. This is my first trip back to Taiwan with Paul, a (sometimes irritatingly) proud Hong Kongese, so as childish as it may sound, I felt like I have to show him the best side of Taiwan.

Since we stayed with my brother Alvis, who now lives in this rural part of Taoyuan, I felt like this is no way going to do justice to represent who I am—a modern, chic and metropolitan girl from the East District of Taipei (東區). So I couldn’t wait to show him my ‘turf’ and my equally chic friends back in high school. Soon as we got out of the subway and resurfaced to the ground level at the intersection of 忠孝/敦化, the epitome of chic metropolis back in the days, I couldn’t help but to exhaled with passion: “THIS!! IS MY YOUTH!!” Paul, having lived in Taiwan for two years and also heard quite a lot about the East District, looked around and gushed “Your youth has definitely rusted with age.” Ouch! What a blow! And that was (and probably still is) the best corner of the East District! But the East District, it's as if I'm taking a good look for the first time in years, indeed is aged and definitely needs a face-lift. The bakery 順成蛋糕 has been there for the last 25 years or so. All other stores have come and gone, but it looked the same for as long as my memory goes. I just couldn't remember whether it has aged or it was never that glorious even at its heydays?

And the same goes with much of the places we’ve seen in Taiwan. I did not see any sign of progress. Did Taiwan really have no progress over the last decade? Taiwan's GDP growth has been around 5%, which isn't bad at all. But it's all relative. When your neighbor has been growing more like 10%, suddenly it is worrisome. And I think after all, the infrastructure lies in the hand of the government. Maybe the government has been busy doing all other things?! I don't want to be all political because I think politics is overly quarreled (it's not a debate, there are not much fresh points made) in Taiwan, but all I'm saying is that it was a bit shocking for me to learn that China has caught up so much Paul is saying the rural side pretty much looks the same across the strait now (another blow!!)

I have never been to China so I cannot make that judgment myself. But here’s a reference point. I went to Tijuana Mexico last June for the first time on a business trip. While my colleagues were shocked and disgusted by the backwardness “just across the border”, I couldn’t help but see the resemblance of rural Taiwan—the signboard, the dusty roads, the lack of urban planning, and the windows with iron grating. I tried to keep it to myself because I definitely didn’t want people to get the wrong impression that Taiwan is this backward Third World country and have them mistakenly applaud my achievement of having come such a long way here. I am (proudly) the "rich middle-class Taiwanese" so how could I even think there is any resemblance of the two nations?

At the end of the trip, our big boss asked me what I think of Tijuana, I hesitated a bit but decided to tell him my observation, he chimed in passionately “that’s exactly what I say! It looks very much like rural China.” “No, no, rural Taiwan, I mean”, I thought to myself, “it’s a lot better than China, it HAS to be”

… or is it?

Here’s another reference point. Mum told me when she visited Hong Kong roughly 30 years ago, it wasn’t much different from Taiwan back in the days. Then she went back roughly 15 years ago. She was shocked how HK had progressed. I wasn’t there to see it for myself, but today? I would be kidding myself to compare Taipei to Hong Kong. That is just a ridiculous thought. And very sadly so.

I forgot who I was sharing this finding with. I think many people would have defended Taipei “But have you seen Shin-Yi Development District? Have you seen Taipei 101?” True, it has the tallest building in the world (soon to be past tense though so really what's the point?), surrounded by the most luxurious apartments and department stores. But that is just several blocks in the whole Taipei City, and the glory is not a resemblance of the whole nation’s progress. I wonder how many roads or other infrastructures we could have built or renovated had we used the money we spent on the 101 Building elsewhere.