Last night I got a call from a friend of mine at about 1:45 a.m. He asked me if I could help him. It seems that he (non-Taiwanese) and his Taiwanese girlfriend had broken up a few weeks ago, and she has decided to stake out his place, throwing things at his windows to get his attention and being a general nuisance. He decided to escape, but she blocked in his bike, so he couldn't go anywhere. He fortunately had his cell phone, so gave me a call to ask if he could crash at my place. This immediately made me recall earlier conversations (all with foreigners) who describe similar antics. According to these stories, some (I emphasize some) women, upon breaking up with their boyfriends, will do such things as chain themselves to the door of their ex-lover's apartment or house. According to my sources, there is a certain intensity of pursuit in the way women approach relationships here. Now, mind you, I am only reporting what others have told me--some of them with firsthand knowledge. I cannot verify the reality of this except in this one incident with my friend. But it doesn't seem inconsistent with a lot of things here in terms of the frantic dedication to action. There is really no blasé here.
I heard a story recently about a Taiwanese who emigrated to New York's Chinatown and liked it a lot because it was much quieter than Taiwan. Ok, this is dead on. This place moves at all hours of the day at a zippy pace. Earlier I mentioned these ceremonies where plays are performed from moblie trucks that blare Chinese opera. The other day, one started in my neighborhood at 6 a.m.! And last month as I went to school, I ran into a full brass band performing on a closed off street before 9 in the morning. Where I think it is different from New York, for example... How to put this? I think New York swirls and pulses from nodes. Taiwan shoots at random vector trajectories. The energy in New York is like a room full of Latin dancers. The energy is Taiwan is like a giant box of superballs dumped on the floor. It sounds like chaos, but there is a great element of fluidity to the whole scene. Now of course you may differ with my analogy of NYC, but it is really just for comparison value.
So my friend decided it is best that he move from his apartment, and he told me I should take it. I wouldn't mind moving from this disctrict, as we are packed like sardines here. We'll see.
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