{"id":35,"date":"2007-03-16T21:50:43","date_gmt":"2007-03-17T02:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/?p=35"},"modified":"2007-03-16T21:50:43","modified_gmt":"2007-03-17T02:50:43","slug":"dispatch-2-taipei-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/?p=35","title":{"rendered":"Dispatch #2: Taipei, Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Greetings from vibrant, lively, fast-paced and cosmopolitan Taipei, Taiwan. The temperature is in the low 70\u2019s; this is a good time to visit Taipei before it gets too hot. When I first traveled to Taipei it was in late April when the temperatures climbed to the mid-80\u2019s before 9:00 am and by mid-day pedestrians and commuters were sparse until early evening. The only other place I\u2019d experienced such intense heat and humidity was in the city-state of Singapore.<\/p>\n

One bi-product of the subtropical climate in Taipei is an abundance of \u201cexotic\u201d fruits and vegetables on display in outdoor markets. I gleefully took snapshots of brightly colored and multi-textured papayas, melons and citrus and greens of which I don\u2019t know the names. Ironically, the US remains the top exporter of certain fruits like apples, peaches, table grapes, cherries, plums \"untitled52.jpg\"and oranges to Taiwan. In my opinion peeling an apple doesn\u2019t compare to the sensual experience of eating a succulent litchi or pineapple with a lover. Subliminal messages of \u201ceat me\u201d; \u201csuck it\u201d and \u201ctaste me\u201d drip with every juicy bite of jackfruit, papaya and mango. Can I get a witness?<\/p>\n

The early morning is not only a good time to venture outdoors for food shopping but one will also see groups of elderly people wearing matching t-shirts participating in Chinese fitness and meditation activities in the parks. The climate and mid-day shower storms are another factor in making this a 24-hour city. It\u2019s just too hot or wet to be taking a leisurely stroll outdoors.<\/p>\n

I so enjoy this city. If you haven\u2019t a clue about the vibe here think pleasure seeking Manhattan cosmonauts on steroids minus the threat of crime and considerably less expensive. Taipei is a late night city with jammed packed open-air night markets, clubs, and restaurants that serve traditional and creative fusion dishes. The soundtrack for Taipei is hip-hop and R & B streaming from audio systems on the sidewalks, in stores, in the subway and other public venues just about everywhere in the central metro districts. The locals might not be able to tell you what the songs are about or who the artists are but they do LOVE them some Black music!<\/p>\n

\"untitled1.jpg\"Taipei is a city that brings the best of East Asian and Western cultures\u2014a convergence of influences from Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, Berlin, and Mainland China. It\u2019s Friday night and folks are fixing to get dey groove on. Earlier this evening I ventured out to join the school kids, office workers, and shoppers here in the central business district. I made a beeline to Artland Book Co. a fabulous resource for anyone interested in design arts, whether it is interior design, architecture, photography, graphic arts, illustration, jewelry, fashion, or product design. Last year, I purchased Japanese interior design magazines and architectural books (for small spaces) to help me pull together a color scheme for my apartment.
\n
\n\"untitled6.jpg\"<\/a>This evening I browsed the erotica section at Artland Books and got lucky with two German published titles and an intriguing Japanese published title. \u201cErotic Websites 100% Loaded<\/a>\u201d is a 697-page compilation of erotic themed websites including over 900 images and an index of URL\u2019s. \u201cErotica Universalis Volume II<\/a>\u201d is a 765-page history of erotic literature. I find it curious that the cover illustrations of the books I purchased were less explicit than (what I presume to be) the original artwork that appears on the publisher\u2019s websites. Perhaps this was a small concession to allow the books to be sold.<\/p>\n

The Japanese title \u201cCosplay 100: Baroque & Lolita\u201d promises to be an informative read. I am looking forward to reading this book because it\u2019s always been somewhat of a mystery to me why some Korean, Japanese and apparently Taiwanese youngsters get such a big thrill out of costume play<\/a>. I am familiar with sexual play that may encompass fetish and fantasy gear and all that, but I haven\u2019t quite figured out the preoccupation with dressing up like manga\/anime characters and \u201cHello Kitty\u201d–though from the book cover photographs these subjects do not appear to be trying to project \u201ccute,\u201d \u201cinnocent,\u201d or \u201ccuddly\u201d.<\/p>\n

During my visit to Taipei last year my curiosity was piqued when I encountered a group of women in the burrows of Shilin Night Market<\/a> all decked out in their stilettos, thigh high hose, immaculate make up, and fierce sensual attitude for days. In a word, these women were HOT! I wasn\u2019t sure if they were \u201cpros\u201d or just sexually confident women shopping for fetish gear and accessories in a section of the market I stumbled upon.<\/p>\n

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Shinlin market is a bustling sprawling market with vendors selling all manner of clothes, food, toys, household items and what not. I don\u2019t even try to approach it in any organized fashion because many of the narrow side streets are unmarked and there are literally hundreds of vendors. All I can hope for is to find the type of vendors grouped by merchandise in a particular section. Saturday evening I will go in search of the Lolita and schoolgirl fetish gear merchants and hope to see the gurls. Prior to heading over to the market I will attempt to locate the lesbian bar The Jailhouse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I return to the states I will share my photographs and impressions of \u201cHomo Hill\u201d in Seoul and offer my impressions of what it\u2019s like to be received as an African American woman in these cities.<\/p>\n

Upcoming up in April: Spain & Portugal<\/p>\n

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Greetings from vibrant, lively, fast-paced and cosmopolitan Taipei, Taiwan. The temperature is in the low 70\u2019s; this is a good time to visit Taipei before it gets too hot. When I first traveled to Taipei it was in late April when the temperatures climbed to the mid-80\u2019s before 9:00 am and by mid-day pedestrians and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dispatches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1c8Xx-z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kuma2.net\/skyeview\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}