First Days in Taiwan!

Dear reader,

Welcome to my first travel blog! To introduce myself quickly, I’m Kayla, a current senior studying industrial design at the University of Washington. I am writing to you from Taipei, Taiwan where I’m studying abroad for the next few weeks. Through this blog, I hope to chronicle my adventures, thoughts, and experiences as I learn more about Taiwanese culture, meet new people, experience new things, and renew my passion for design. 

It’s only been three days since this study abroad program started, but I feel like I’ve already gotten to experience so much. On the first day here our study abroad group had dinner at a local restaurant near our hotel. Over a 7-8 course meal, served family style, we got to know each other more and talked about the things we were most excited about seeing or experiencing on the trip. That night our group also went to check out the Shilin night market and while I didn’t buy anything then, our group went back the next day and I got some grape tanghulu (green grapes in a hard sugar coating), and watermelon juice—I think these are some of the best things I’ve gotten to eat so far. 

Now to get into the bulk of the adventure, the next two days were packed with field trips. On day two we visited Taiwan Design Research Institute (TRDI), the Trash Kitchen, and the National Palace Museum. At TDRI we were given a presentation by their Vice President who told us all about the institute and shared projects that they worked on, mostly for the government, since they get a lot of government funding. I thought it was interesting how involved the government was in uplifting design and how they recognized the importance of design to build spaces that foster a strong sense of community. 

On day three (today) we toured Dihua Street and met with and worked with students from SCU and had a lecture from one of their professors, Shikai Tseng, who talked to us about some of his projects and shared some design insight with us. He emphasized the importance of personality, being yourself, and integrating your story and your culture into the things you design, as it gives them life or heart. He also said another thing around this idea that even if your design is only for one person it’s still impactful. I think this was something that I needed to hear. Sometimes I wonder if the things we make as designers actually make a difference or make the world a better place, so it’s good to know that even if the design is made for only a few, it’s still making a difference all the same. Today we also got to work with the SCU students and go shopping for materials for our current design projects. We visited stores on Taiyuan Road and got some inspiration for our design hack while eating lunch at the local breakfast place, where there was this device to hold plastic trash from straws and utensils and keep them from blowing away. I’ve never seen a device like that before, but I feel like they would be useful if they had them in more restaurants and the US. Additionally, it was fun to explore the shops on Taiyuan Road, since we don’t have, or at least I haven’t seen, material-specific shops like in Seattle. One shop we visited was entirely dedicated to fake flowers and plants, which while niche was really cool to look at! 

Tonight, after classes our group explored Dihua Street and stopped at a tea shop and Kuo’s astral bookshop before heading to the night market nearby. The bookshop was interesting, similar to the other shops, it went very far back but was rather narrow in comparison, which our tour guide explained to us as a tax cut on someone's property because, during a certain period, they calculated the tax based upon the width of someone's property. I thought it was an interesting design workaround that the architects came up with to allow people to live comfortably while also saving some money. 

In other reflections so far, this trip has also allowed me to put the limited Mandarin I learned in middle school to use. It’s been kind of nice. I didn’t realize how much Mandarin I learned until now, and while my vocabulary is very limited, it’s a lot more than I expected myself to remember, which has been a nice surprise. 

As of right now, I’m most excited about seeing the pottery museum, which we’re going to tomorrow, and also working more with the SCU students on our design sprint projects where we’re hacking a cultural artifact to turn it into something new. 

I have had quite the adventure so far and it’s only been 3 days. I can’t wait to see what the next two weeks have in store. I’m sure they’ll be insightful and nothing short of wonderful. Below you can see some of my favorite pictures from this week!

Shilin night market 

Statue of a dog made of clay from the National Palace Museum. It wasn't part of the guided tour, but I thought it had some interesting textures and I liked the proportions of its figure

Sunglasses from the trash kitchen made of recycled plastic. We got to watch them make a pair!

Manhole cover. there are different ones all over the place and each area seems to have a different design. I've been collecting pictures of different ones because I really like the designs!

That’s all for now, see you soon. 

All my love,

Kayla