Within the last week of the trip we had an exhibition to show the experiences we have had while in Taiwan. 

Mine focused on Leisure in Taipei.

A picture of the whole group, our GVSU professor and affiliate professors from NTNU!



Here is my reflective piece about the experience:

I can’t exactly pinpoint the moment I fell in love with Taiwan.  Perhaps it was the first morning I woke up in Taipei, when we still lived on the tenth floor.  The cloudless sky revealed a cityscape, with a perfect backdrop of mountains.  Or maybe it was the Shida night market, the smell of food that was still foreign to me, the crowds of people calmly meandering through neon-lit streets.  Often I think it could have been the culture class at the National Palace Museum.  Submerged in antiquity, fierce bronzes and calligraphy so perfect, it showed human dexterity at it’s finest.  Then again it could have been at Longshan Temple, engulfed in incense, where city grit and religious conviction collide. It is all of this and none of it that made me fall in love. The reason why 我愛臺灣 is best explained through it’s cultural and religious ideals. 

What struck me as invaluably unique about the Daoist and Buddhist temples is the lack of distinction between them.  In America we associate houses of worship only with their religious sect.  This is a Protestant church, that one is Roman Catholic, a few miles away is a synagogue only for Orthodox Jews.  In Taiwan there are simply temples that are “mainly Daoist” or “in the Confucian school of thought.”  Daoism and Buddhism even go so far as to share deities, ever-important ones such as Avalokiteshrava, or Guan Yin, the goddess of Mercy.   All the religions emphasize similar themes: ancestor worship, harmony with nature, spirits and deities.  Many Taiwanese do not distinguish themselves as being one of the three, but more religiously pluralistic.

An aspect that I find to be imperative is the innate sense of community and emphasis on family.  These are exhibited in things so simple just as riding the MRT.  If anyone sees an older person, a person in need, or a parent with children they willingly give up their seat.  Their politeness runs so deep that the individual who needs the seat will at first reject their offer, prompting the other’s insistence.  The concept of ancestor worship further strengthens the familial connection.  During the new year they burn paper money to symbolically insure their comfort in the heavens.  Young people exhibit no qualms in holding their parents or grandparent’s hand when window shopping down the street. 

While I have been here I have found a part of humanity that is missing, or disguised in American society.  I appreciate individualism and the right to practice separate religions, we are taught to value this since childhood.  Yet, at the end of the day I find the fuss about religion and the competitiveness of individuals to be tedious.  There is an interconnection between people, their communities, families and beliefs, that is what has truly shifted my perspective.  Before I could never fathom that in Taiwan, I feel at home.