Taichung & a very Gentle Hostel

The two charter buses we took during this program had screens and microphones for karaoke—two more buses with karaoke than I've ever been on before. While we were taking one of these buses to Nantao this weekend, we all had a laugh as our professor and program director, Meichun, was talking through the mic with the echo effect on. In Nantao our first stop was at the Yoshan Tea Museum and tasting room. Here, we were guided through Taiwan's rich history of tea and where each type of tea came from in the country. We also learned how the tea leaves were packaged for shipping and storage, and even got to go through this process ourselves (on a much smaller scale). The wonderful guide was very informative and to the point. After we all got the chance to try some of their tea ourselves we got back on the bus and travelled to a bamboo workshop. The company we visited here was called Feel Good, and they specialized in anything that preserved the natural cylindrical shape of the bamboo (oh, and toothbrushes with natural horse hair). It was really interesting to see their process, and I don't mean this in a negative way, but crazy to see how simple it was. The majority of their work involved sanding down the pieces to smooth them out and rounding the edges. Simple doesn't mean easy though. They applied thick coats of paint to some, rasterized a design or logo on others, or had a combination of both. I really admired the simplicity and the beauty of the bamboo. The fact that it's bamboo is one of the first things you notice about the cup, which I know in your head you're probably like "Well duh it's a bamboo cup", but surprisingly, I think some designs miss the mark on this. The volume or weight of other features or materials overwhelm the one meant to stand out. I think Feel Good really succeded in amplifying the bamboo's beauty, and it was refreshing to see. After we visited their factory, we stopped by Feel Good's storefront to see more of their finished sell-able items.

 After visiting their storefront we visited a historical woodshop, Chen's Wood, where we got to explore the handmade goods and talk to the owners. I noticed walking around there was a small wooden thimble-shaped sculpture that was holding binder clips. I flipped it over and saw paper clips inside, all being held by magnets. A project we had in sophomore year was to make a wooden, magnetic paperclip holder as a part of our projects, now I'm wondering if that idea was inspired by Chen's Wood.

It was especially comforting to discover the old master's son was an industrial designer and would give his father sketches of his ideas to make out of wood. I remember when I was a kid I would always have these crazy ideas I wanted my Dad to make, and we'd spend hours in the garage trying our best to do so. It's pretty awesome having that and was extremely heartwarming to see someone else have that experience all the way on this side of the world. Once we poked around, it was a rain-drenched ride back to Taichung where we stayed at Star Hostel. I don't even think I can say Hostel, it was like a futuristic commune or a really community-focused hotel. Either way, it was like no Hostel I had ever heard of. the inside was very reminiscent of the interior of a greenhouse with lots of plants and greenery. This greatly offset the amount of concrete around us on the floors, walls, and stairs, which you almost don't notice because of all the plants and inviting atmosphere. Unfortunately, we only spent one night in Taichung, but our group of seniors made the most of it making sure to get the most traditional food we could find: burgers. As in, traditional for us. The most ironic part, however, was not getting hamburgers with American cheese on them in another country, but the fact that the restaurant interior was straight out of a scene in Mama Mia. After our Greek-themed-Taiwanese-American cheeseburgers, we headed back to the Hostel for a little bit of work before our visit to the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute (NTCRI). Once arriving at the NTCRI, the first thing all of us geeked out on was correct orthographic drawings. Despite the amazing craftsmanship in front of us, we all stood with our jaws on the floor in front of the most perfect orthographic drawings we had ever seen, which for some reason, despite Meichun's countless efforts, we just can't seem to get right on the first try. Aside from the drawings, the NTCRI had some chairs and lamps that were definitely in the top 5 list of objects I have seen so far within this program. Once our bellies were full with lunch from an incredibly soul-filled restaurant that sourced their ingredients from local farmers, (top 5 lunches I've had by the way), we were on our way to our second bamboo workshop.

Here we visited a bamboo master our professor Meichun has known for a long time and his workshop. Here we made woven bamboo jars. This activity was a difficult period. The translation team tried their best to communicate his directions to the group in English, but there were things quite literally lost in translation. I think everyone at some point needed help from either the bamboo craftsman or one of the members of his family walking around helping us. I thought this was kind of funny as most of us are industrial design majors. I think we are kind of craft-inclined and very visual people, so the fact that not one of us figured out how to start the weave on our own was silly, but also telling of how complex this actually was. Eventually, after many tries of starting our beginning circle at the bottom of the vase, and much assistance from the bamboo master, one of the students on the translation team told me he kept telling me my "circle was running away". I wish I could have told him my starting circle would have won gold in the Olympics for track then. After getting the hang of the beginning weaving, came the weaving of the bamboo around the actual jar. This made much more sense to me. It was almost like braiding so it came pretty easily. This didn't go very fast however, many of us took over an hour probably to finish weaving around our jars. During this time a few of us sitting at my table all made incredible use of our time and discussed how to say "Spongebob Squarepants" in the languages we know/are learning. If you're curious its: 海绵宝宝 (Hǎimián bǎobǎo) in Mandarin, Spongebob Schwammkopf in German,  Bob Esponja Pantalones Cuadrados in Spanish, and Bob l'eponge in french. 

Once we finished our weaving we took a small tour of his bamboo workshop. Through seeing the two different bamboo workshops, it was very interesting to see the scope of how this material could be used, and how different their processes were. The first bamboo workshop at Feel Good was more simple and there was perfection and set formula to their craft. During our second visit, there was also perfection in his craft, but I thought it to be a little more imaginative. Like he was literally making a giant T-Rex out of bamboo. The differences are impressive and go to show how versatile a material like bamboo can be. Post our weaving, we hopped back on the nap-mobile, I mean the bus, and headed back to Tainan. The next day (today) was an all-day work session with the NCKU students. Our group was feeling a bit stagnant mid-day but by the end, we finally had a direction we felt confident in. The day ended with a heavy rainstorm, and after the storm, I saw some pretty awesome cloud shapes, like this hippo, an ox, and a gorilla showing off his wicked diving skills. Until next blog!