My Taiwan Trip – Jordana Tan

Jordana Tan posted about his trip to Taiwan –

Overall, this USP trip to Taiwan was a very enriching and memorable experience. I was extremely delighted when I was given the opportunity to plan and execute this USP trip, as it was something that I felt would definitely leave an impact on my university life, and would also serve as an excellent learning experience.

Being able to travel out of Singapore to learn more about different cultures and way of lives is an opportunity that not all will have and thus this valuable experience should be deeply treasured. Furthermore, being able to physically be in Taiwan serves as a ‘hands on’ experience which is much more effective than merely reading about them in books or on the internet, since we actually get to actively experience and take in the culture as opposed to passively reading about it.

While in Taiwan, I realized how tourism really plays a major part in their economy. Despite it being January – where most schools and work would have started, I still spotted many tourists from all over the world while I was there. During our visits to the museums, there were so many people that many times we had to queue just to enter the exhibition hall. For example, the National Palace Museum. Being one of Taiwan’s largest art museum and the national museum of the Republic of China, it draws thousands of visitors yearly, and the numbers keep growing over the years. It houses many ancient china artifacts and artwork, and it is heartwarming to see that there are so many people who still appreciates these pieces of art.

In addition, because we were given free time at night to explore Taipei on our own, we visited numerous night markets including Shilin night market, Raohe night market, Shida night market etc. There were many tourists in these places ( not just locals). For example, some of us even saw our schoolmates from Singapore here. With so many tourists visiting the night markets, it is safe to conclude that tourism has indeed a large impact on the economy of Taiwan.

On the topic of night markets, I feel that night markets are important places that all tourists should visit, because it is here that we can actually find out more about the average Taiwanese. Through our countless visits to the night market, I gathered that Taiwanese are generally very polite and helpful. Every time we enter a store, the shop owners would welcome us with open arms and treat each one of us like their valued customer. They would also not hesitate to praise Singapore. Even if eventually we decided not to get anything from their stores, they would still greet us with a wide smile – a rare sight in Singapore shopping centres. Also, whenever we asked for directions on how to get to a particular food stall, the people whom we asked were all very eager to help, one even offered to bring us to the shop itself. I feel that this culture of theirs is really very commendable. It is something that we Singaporeans should learn.

Even though it was established earlier that tourism plays a large (positive) part in the Taiwanese economy, it is no doubt that tourism can act as a double-edged sword. One of the groups who interviewed the shop owners at Yeh Liu shared with us that the owners told them that because over the years, Yeh Liu has gained fame among tourists, and as a result erosion of the Queen’s head has been accelerated. With the constant touching by visitors, the thinnest part of the neck is close to 150cm in diameter already.

One of the themes that we were to focus on during our trip was kilns and pottery. Being able to go to Taiwan and visit museums and kilns is an excellent experience and opportunity for us to deepen our knowledge on kilns. In Singapore, not much emphasis is placed on pottery and it can be said to be a declining industry – even the owner of Thow Kwang Industry Pte Ltd, one of the last few dragon kilns left in Singapore, said that she does not really see a future in this business. However, in Taiwan, there is a considerable amount of people who are genuinely interested in pottery and kilns. We visited the Yingge Museum in Taiwan and learnt a lot about kilns – eg the type of kilns, the purpoe of each type of kilns and even the history of kilns in Taiwan. The fact that the Yingge Museum is still doing well and that there are many tourists who still visit it, shows that the pottery industry in Taiwan is relatively strong. Furthermore, during a session at the National University of the Arts in Taiwan, one of the professors mentioned that one of the reasons why pottery is better accepted in Taiwan is because they are willing to share their art pieces. To quote him, an interested party/ group would show off their art piece in museums/ exhibitions and this will help bring attention to this industry and raise awareness at the same time. This will continue to spread and hence more and more people will be exposed to pottery.

Overall, I felt that this trip was a success and I believe that a yearly overseas trip would greatly benefit the USP students. To improve on it, we could have longer bonding and briefing sessions before the trip itself so that every student can familiarize themselves with the project. This would also enable everyone to be better prepared and ask more questions during sessions with the professors or museum guides.

As the world becomes more and more globalised, it is important that we do not coop ourselves within Singapore and widen our horizons and knowledge by learning about other countries and their rich culture.

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dans180/3797659888/