Blog 6

On September 16^th, we visited Fudong Creative Mark. The tour guide told us more about the tour guide told us more about 乖乖 and it's exciting to me that this seems to be exclusively a Taiwanese phenomenon! It’s fascinating to learn how deeply ingrained this snack is in Taiwanese culture, and I’m sure the company that produces the bags has no complaints about its use. I considered bringing a bag home for fun, but it feels wasteful to bring it home only to not eat it and throw it away once it expires. Austin won a bag of 乖乖 after answering the tour guide’s question and later taped it onto his laptop to ensure it didn’t crash while creating his design project’s render.

The taped 乖乖 in question

Then, we visited a fort that stood as a remnant of Taiwan’s history, a tangible reminder of battles fought on the island. From there, we entered a Japanese-style place to participate in a matcha tea ceremony. As it turns out, we were initially going to do a traditional Taiwanese tea ceremony,  but the venue canceled the reservation a month before the study abroad because the venue was busy with events related to the design festival that had happened. I’m sure Meichun and Kiki were stressed out because of the sudden cancellation, but they did great in ensuring we still had a tea ceremony experience. Back at my first Chinese school, we would do activities such as have Chinese yo-yo days, exchange good-job stickers for real rewards, and Taiwanese tea ceremonies! I loved these tea days as a kid because I would follow the teachers as they led us through the motions of the ceremony, drink lots of tea, and eat many sweets.

A little birdie told me that the matcha we used to perform the Japanese matcha ceremony may not have been the highest quality, as the tea wasn’t very bright and green. Hopefully, the matcha I bought during my trip to Japan is of higher quality!

During the matcha ceremony, we followed a peculiar step: holding the matcha bowl with your right hand underneath and your left hand on the side, then spinning the bowl twice before and after drinking. We searched for why this was done, and we found some information online, but I still don’t fully understand. I’ll have to dig deeper into this later!

As we waited for the other group to finish their paper folding, my classmates and I found a corner of the place with yukatas and accessories. The staff kindly let us try them on, so we all played a bit of dress-up. Although we weren’t able to wear the yukatas properly (since we didn’t want to mess up the belts), the experience of donning these traditional garments was exhilarating. I felt immense joy while we put on these traditional wears and became all giddy by how good everyone looked. Truly one of girlhood’s many gems! The whole experience wasn't planned, but coincidences sometimes are the unexpected highlights of a trip.

Everyone looked so pretty!

The yukata experience reminded me of this one hanfu-enthusiast creator based in Seattle. I've been interested in incorporating hanfu styles into my own fashion style for their comfort, flowy silhouettes, and historical significance. I showed Carolyn some of these styles since I figured she’d be interested.

Our next stop was learning the art of paper ruyi (如意). Despite finding limited information about this craft online—perhaps because English sources don’t cover it—the process itself wasn’t too difficult. Still, the craft had the potential for complexity, as demonstrated when the master effortlessly created intricate leaves from the foil-like material.

Here's what I made!

After the field trip, a few classmates and I followed a recommendation from Meichun to visit a sushi place. I ordered the 三味鮭魚親子丼 (salmon sashimi bowl). It was hands-down one of the best meals I’ve had in Taiwan—it was pure joy. I know I will pull up the photo of this meal every now and then and look at it longingly. Now that we’re at the end of our trip, I know I’ll miss the food and people here dearly. Till next time Taiwan!

The love of my life