Taiwan diaries: Rare snapshot into a country which in many ways is a place like no other

ET Magazine’s intrepid writer spent a week there as an invitee of the Taiwanese government provides some rare snapshots.

By Malini Goyal, ET Bureau | Updated: Aug 23, 2015, 09.41 PM IST

(ILLUSTRATIONS: ANIRBAN BORA)

The Republic of China - not to be confused with mainland China — is in many ways a country like no other. ET Magazine’s intrepid writer who spent a week there as an invitee of the Taiwanese government provides some rare snapshots.
Democracy, Students, Protests

What is a democracy without protests, strikes and sit-ins by the students? Hundreds of Taiwanese students were on the streets doing a week-long sit-in in front of the ministry of education to protest revision of their history textbooks. The new textbooks for high school have been tweaked to unduly highlight the role of China in Taiwan and has a pro-China flavour. Students were demanding a thorough review of the new curriculum. As background, China considers Taiwan as its 23rd province and denies it the sovereign status. Taiwan is currently ruled by the China-friendly Kuomintang party.
You Bike, I Bike, Everybody Bikes

Taipei is a city of cyclists. They are everywhere — downtown, in tourist locations and even around office complexes. Everybody — from the old to the young, women to children, tourists to office goers — use bicycles. It helps keep pollution levels low. Visibly, it also keeps people fitter, with not too many obese people seen on the roads.

Taiwan has a well-oiled and convenient system to encourage cycling. YouBike, or Taipei Biking System, is a public bicycle sharing service run by the Taipei City Department of Transportation in a tie-up with a local manufacturer. With payments that can be done by smart cards, it has 196 rental stations, 6,046 bikes and in 2014 it saw 22 million bicycle rentals. Wish India's Capital city Delhi could learn a lesson or two.

Typhooned

Taiwan is a country of typhoons (also called cyclones or hurricanes) and earthquakes. And we got a flavour during the trip, the last two days of which were typhooned. The boat ride over the 'Love River' in the port city Kaohsiung, which faces Taiwan Strait, had to be cancelled. Typhoon Soudelor, the year's most intense cyclone, was arriving in Taiwan. Newspapers reported that people were stocking up on food. The entire city had shut down including the high-speed trains. Scooters, bicycles and signages were strewn all over the roads. Typically, typhoons hit Taiwan during the summer months (July-Sept) and it gets four to five of them every year. Early this week, newspapers reported that twin typhoons Goni and Atsani were headed towards Taiwan.

Junket Gambit

Taiwan, a country diplomatically isolated, is doing its best to remain connected with the world. Inviting journalists from different parts of the world is an important part of this strategy. Every year, some 250 odd journalists are invited from across the world — the EU, the US, south-east Asia, south Asia and Africa. In a well-structured programme of the government, journalists are exposed to different parts of the Taiwanese economy, business, society and the government. In 1996, when Taiwan-China tensions peaked amid the presidential elections in the island country, some 700 journalists were invited, recalls a government official, to help the world understand Taiwan better.

The entire programme of inviting journalists to Taiwan was earlier part of the economic ministry. But a few years back, realising its importance in building and managing global relationships, it is now being handled by the ministry of foreign affairs.

Democracy, Elections, Women

Taiwan will have elections in January next year. And it looks like it could be an allwomen affair as the two main parties have announced women as their candidates who will be contesting against each other for the president’s post. While this aligns well with the trend in Asia where many women have been elected as national leaders, Taiwan is a little different. Unlike other democracies like India, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines and Bangladesh, the two women candidates in Taiwan do not come from political families. They have no father, husband or brother to propel them into the political hot seat.

Kiss & Ride

As you exit high-speed train stations, there is a signage that is hard to miss: ‘Kiss & Ride’. Of course we were curious what this was. The cab driver, not fully conversant in English, could not give us a satisfactory answer. So we made some intelligent guesses. This is for those coming to drop loved ones in their cars — kiss, say good bye and ride away without much ado. But then, as someone joked, could it also mean a kiss could get you a free ride?

World's Fastest Ageing Nation?

Japan may be the world's capital of old people, but guess what: Taiwan could overtake Japan as the world's fastest ageing country this decade, according to experts. The working age population (15-64 years) is shrinking rapidly as marriage rates are falling across the board, women marry late and couples are increasingly having fewer or no children. The residents put the blame on the rising cost of living, changing lifestyles and shifting attitude towards marriage as an institution.

But ageing Taiwan is trying its best to keep its seniors engaged. Seniors working as volunteers is a common sight everywhere — at museums, cultural centres, tourist destinations and the like. At Songshan Cultural and Creative Park — where an old tobacco factory has been beautifully refurbished to build a creative hub — some 1,000 volunteers work. One such volunteer is William Wang, 75. He speaks fluent English by Taiwan’s standards. He was an engineer with British Pharmaceutical Ltd (BPL) long back. And yes he has an India story. He travelled to Bengaluru once when he was working with BPL.

High-speed Trains

Taiwan's high-speed train is the country's lifeline in many ways. Built in 2007 at a cost of $18 billion, it was one of the world's largest privately funded rail construction projects. Connecting the capital city of Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung, the train has a peak speed of 300 km/hour. In 2012, it carried over 44 crore passengers at an occupancy rate of 55%. Despite falling short of its ridership targets, the trains have been fairly successful and have outcompeted flights, so much so that a large number of flights between Taipei and western cities have been discontinued since their launch. Traffic on expressways, long-distance bus companies and conventional rail too have seen a dip. That may be some food for thought for critics of Narendra Modi’s bullet train project.

Art & Entrepreneurs

Taiwanese entrepreneurs know how to make money. And they also know well how to give back. Take for example the Chimei Museum, built by Hsu Wen-Lung, promoter of the privately held Chi Mei Corporation, who donated his personal collection of art to fulfil a childhood dream. Spread over 30,000 sq ft floor area, the museum is located in the sprawling Tainan Metropolitan Park. Inspired by Western aesthetics, it is surmounted by a huge dome with Greek columns and is divided into five categories: western art, musical instruments, natural history, arms & armour and antiquities and artifacts.

Similarly, the Green Magic School, part of the National Cheng Kung University, in Tainan city has been sponsored by Delta Electronics. The three-storey, 4,800 sq meter, zero carbon building has been built with green materials with 65% energy saving and 50% water saving and serves as the university's conference centre.

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