The tremendous vitality of Taiwan’s consumer culture – a verve that can be tasted right away in any downtown city street or small town night market – is based on the endless suffering of numberless small producers in competition with one another. When one bites into that luscious shewarma or scallion pancake, one might as well be tasting the grogginess in the heads of the lean people bent over the hot grill. One might as well be biting into their flesh, a bite they allow for a price.
The baked potatoes that appeared a couple of years back at the Jiangong Lu night market have disappeared, as have the “snow bubble” drinks S and I used to crave (especially black plum). Sushi has filtered down from high end restaurants to night market stands, and in the small town night market of Yuanli I saw an Indian man and his Taiwanese wife selling samosas. S and I speculate on producing Mexican tacos, highlighting the guacamole. There is a never ending struggle to introduce tiny new advantages into the game of minute accumulation. It is a ceaseless pecking at the dust for coins. The products are indeed delicious. But that fact does not make the system “good.” It is eating up the earth in cement and noxious gases, and it eats up the bodies of the wraiths frying turnip cake for scooter-commuters early every morning. Every bite offers a bit of escape. But every escape involves a nasty return: and repeat!
2 comments:
I like these four pieces.
I agree that the system isn't a good one, but I have a different idea about the vendors.In this over systemized society,for those who won't have any chance to work in a company, isn't it better for them to get a way to support themselves.It's crule but real.
yes, you are right. that was one aspect i left out of these pieces: that there is a sort of freedom in working on one's own. if one is going to suffer, why suffer under the rule of a boss or corporation?
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