THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ASIA

1. People often wear masks

Actual masks, like the ones doctors wear, not the mask of sociability that hides the true self or whatever (although without Oprah here something tells me that there is quite a bit less fretting over self-realization). You can buy them in all kinds of colors and patterns at many shops and stalls.


When someone has a cold or anything else possibly contagious, they wear a mask out to work, to school, to market... People also wear them while riding scooters, and lady drivers also wear detachable sleeves over their arms to protect them from the sun and from exhaust. I'm skeptical as to whether this prevents transmission of anything or just makes people feel a little more comfortable living in close quarters. I'm no more comfortable though, as it is difficult enough to understand people when their voices are not muffled by a thick layer of cotton. And I know I shouldn't say this so lightly, but doesn't a face mask emblazoned with Hello Kitty (or, dear god, Spongeboat Squarepants, or just this) reek of cheerful fascism?

2. Racist toothpaste is widely available


The characters 黑人 (above the caricature) mean 'black person' and the name 'Darlie' was changed from the original 'Darkie'. How this company has survived I cannot imagine, but it is probably the best selling toothpaste in most of Asia.

3. There is fruit of inconceivable deliciousness


Mangoes, melons, pineapples, lychees, peaches, dragonfruits, tomatoes (and also the not so tasty bitter melon) and that's just in this cart. I eat a small mango almost every morning with my breakfast and it is never anything but sweet, ripe perfection. They have some seriously premium fruit too. A gift box of 6 gigantic, flawless apples goes for $30 (U.S.) in my local grocery store.

Am I playing pop anthropology tour guide to evade discussing my humdrum existence? Quite possibly, but I have been up to a few things in the last weeks: museums and restaurants and hanging out with ex-cons. It is more my frustration at not making the progress I would like to make in Chinese that has kept me from doing much epic blogging.

Of course the sure cure for low spirits is stuffing your face, so the night before last Carrie and I went to a vegetarian buffet of remarkable tastiness and refused to leave until empty plates were stacked in towers around us.


Carrie with our first course (after the salad), including: taro cake, red bean bun, green onion crepe, dumpling, green beans, exotic mushrooms, and fried sweet potato.


Me with the first course. I photoshopped out the anticipatory drool.


My second plate full, which included lotus root, black beans, okra with chili sauce, edamame in sesame oil, bamboo shoots, and tofu skin rolls.


Our shared dessert: pineapple, matcha green tea ice cream, red bean pastry, green tea and coffee flavored jellies, watermelon juice and some kind of spirulina drink, and some other things I don't know how to describe.

There was more eating and socializing last night when I went to the seaside town of 淡水 (Danshui) with Fiona and E-Train to walk along the boardwalk smelling the fresh ocean air and sampling local edibles. Here is Fiona with a cup of caramelized red and white taro and sweet potato. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I still liked it.


We all taxed our respective language skills in talking for hours about cultural differences in parenting, about history, about animal costumes, and about filial piety. I like being out of the university setting and having fairly basic, yet very profound conversations about the kinds of topics that so interest me. I enjoy theory, but I also think that if you strip socio-cultural anthropology of most of its big words it becomes very accessible and even intuitive for just about anyone with a brain. As scintillating as was the conversation, yesterday evening's language highlight must have been Fiona using her electronic dictionary to find, and then pronounce aloud, the word 'constipation'.

After hanging out in the harbor for a good long while, we drove to the top of 阳明山(Yangmingshan), the highest mountain in Taipei County. There was a wonderful cool breeze and the city looked vast yet tiny below us. This sign was posted on the viewing platform:


I searched in vain for white ducks and calligraphy brushes, but in the end had no choice but to respect this particular prohibition.