Day 13: Taipei — An Introduction to Asian Modernity

“It’s far from the best looking city on Earth, but it’s a deceptively wonderful one. I can’t claim to be an expert on Taipei. but it’s a place that runs deep.” — Anthony Bourdain

I cannot overstate how vastly different of a city Taipei is from my previous two destinations (Saigon and Bangkok). Those places are like the wild west compared to what I find myself in now. The traffic patterns make sense here, and people actually obey the road signs; there is a sense of social order that I haven’t encountered yet on my journey.

One would think a return to a bit of familiar Western normalcy might be comforting, and I admit, it has been, but some aspects are a bit uncomfortable as well.

For example, advertisements: They are synonymous with capitalism, and we have our fair share of them in the Western World, however, it is taken to another level here. Every street seems to be plastered with them: glowing posters, giant screens, flashing lights, catchy jingles, people in costume, and just about anything else that can used to capture one’s attention. Think Times Square level of sensory bombardment but permeating into a vast swath of streets.

There seems to be no regulation of this plethora of ads, many depicting thin women blatantly photoshopped to perfection, promoting clothes or beauty products. I don’t know the statistics on the rate of body dysmorphia among adolescents and teens here, but it has to be uncomfortably high. It leads me to ponder the full implications of allowing this level of unfiltered corporate propaganda to run wild within a society.

However, despite the dystopian level of product placement, Taipei is pretty awesome. As I imagine will be true of Seoul and Tokyo, convenience is unmatched. Transportation is a breeze; the city’s metro system is cheap, efficient, and impressively robust. Corner stores like 7-Eleven and FamilyMart can be found on almost every street, and are open 24-7. The food options are plentiful and run late into the night as well.

It’s a city built so dense that one could likely find everything needed for survival within the same block as their hotel. The Taiwanese have made use of every square inch of space that they have. Their capital seems to be presently existing in the future, and will surely serve as a preamble for my next destinations.

I am finding that comparing Asian modernity to Western modernity is next to useless. While both societies do favor one another in some ways, there are also many fundamental differences between the two. It’s intriguing how the mix of democratization and technological innovation can produce such vastly different realities between countries. While there are many reasons for this, I think it can be largely attributed to differing values and cultural identities. The varying degrees of individualism and collectivism are partly responsible for how societies evolve.

The core principles of Confucianism are still very much present here, but Western capitalism has rooted itself firmly within.

Thus, Taipei, and all developed democratic cities for that matter, are a product of human innovation and core values. A city’s identity is constructed by how a majority of the population interprets the world and what they deem important, which influences the prioritization of certain societal attributes, ultimately shaping modern-day reality for its inhabitants.