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26/08/2004: "TAIPEI CITY"
English is not spoken much in Taiwan, but advertising by major corporations does use a mix of some English and mostly Chinese characters text.
Western models, feature provokingly on giant billboards (not shown here) with images that would cause debate in the Australian media.
Hamburger menus are different from Australia due to strong competition from small family business cafe's. Coca Cola and Pepsi advertising is almost non-existent, but for how long?
"Taipei is a boisterous and expensive city, and it lets you know it. About 6 million people live in and around Taiwan's capital, lured by the excitement of a bustling city on the move. And for the most part, they're not disappointed.
Real estate is virtually unobtainable - Taipei residents have long dispensed with the dream of home-ownership - and the government is encouraging businesses to set up elsewhere in Taiwan. Despite this, the notion still prevails that to make it big in Taiwan, you have to set up in the heart of the capital - even if the air is perpetually toxic.
Taiwan's capital is packed full of people, cars and smog - a real hotbed of renao, or liveliness. It's not a relaxing stopover, but the Chinese food is excellent, the people are friendly and there are some top-notch sights". (newsletter@TaiwanHo.com)
Politics
The year 2000 marked a turning point for politics and government in Taiwan, as the KMT lost its monopoly over the island it had enjoyed since its arrival in 1949. And of course the KMT's removal to Taiwan in the first place was due to its failure to effectively govern China.
In a series of articles published this summer on Taiwan Ho!, Jerry Keating examines the history of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT). In the first article Keating describes how the KMT had in its first fifty years lost the hearts and minds of the Chinese people.
In the second, we learn how in its next fifty years the KMT would come to lose the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese.
The third article examines more closely the Kaohsiung Incident, the birth of Taiwan's modern democracy movement, and sheds some light on the author's initial experiences in Taiwan.
The story continues to be written, as the KMT, despite its authoritarian roots as an "alien regime" in Taiwan, still manages to draw support from a large segment of the population. Only time will tell if it can reform itself in a multi- or dual-party system. newsletter@tainwanho.com Sept 2005
