To celebrate the historic election in Taiwan this weekend, I thought I’d show some photos I took in Taipei 25 years ago. I’ve never posted most of these photos and hadn’t looked at them in almost as many years.
The reason I went to Taipei back in the spring of 1991 was simple. I was studying Mandarin in Hong Kong and had no where to speak it. So to practice it, I had two choices for spring break: China or Taiwan. Since I’d braved the freezing temps in Nanjing over Chinese New Year a couple months earlier, I decided to fly to Taipei.
This was way before the subway opened, so I took buses whenever I left the hostel. It was a great way to practice what little Mandarin I had learned so far. Taipei had tall buildings back then, but I hung out in areas that were more spread out. These are from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
Around this area, I remember army trucks filled with soldiers. Martial law had been lifted four years earlier (after declared some 38 years before that). But I could still feel a military presence in Taipei then.
Several years later I would be back in Hong Kong, studying under a handful of professors from Taiwan. In 1996, some of my professors were involved in the first-ever direct presidential election in Taiwan. They returned from Taipei full of excitement and hope from this historic time in Taiwan’s history.
I’m not sure anyone could have predicted back then that twenty years later Taiwan would elect its first female president.
I remember you mentioned that book – sorry I forgot. I can imagine the research to write about that time must be difficult. Just finding information about Taipei from 1991 was not very easy. I can’t imagine the research for a time when the internet didn’t exist – and photographs were rare.
What did you do in San Francisco? I’m in Fremont. I was born here and vowed to not come back, but here I am. Funny what happens when one has a family.
Interesting that your reason for wanting to be in HK was for the handover. I was in Taiwan at the time and I remember it well. In fact I spent a fair amount of time in Hong Kong off and on from 91 – 97, then again from 2005-2013. My last trip to Hong Kong was 2017. My last trip to China was 2013.
Overall I’ve been to HK probably 60 times and to China about as many times. I used to have offices in Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing, and I traveled there about every month / every other month for seven years, in addition to my trips in the 1990s. I’ve been to Taiwan a lot more often. I still have in laws there so we have a reason to go back. In fact we should go more frequently than we do. I hope to live there again in the next few years. I miss Taiwan a lot.
Thanks for the referral offer! I’ll definitely let you know.
Thank you and sorry for the delay in writing back. I don’t know where this month has gone. Wow, you’ve seen some huge changes in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. I didn’t go back to HK after I left in 1998 until 2012, so you saw a lot of it post-Handover before things started to change. In SF, I worked for UCSF in administration. I got great benefits and it was a nice environment. One year I was downtown just north of Market Street and the second year I was on campus on Parnassus Street. I’ve been to Fremont, but 20+ years ago. The Bay Area is really great. I was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and never thought I’d come back, but here I am.
Hi Susan,
If you’d like to take this conversation into email, my personal email is jeffrey.n.ulrich@gmail.com. 🙂
I think it’s very interesting that you and I worked within a couple of blocks of one another when you were living in San Francisco. I was on Montgomery from 1998-2000, and near Market & Embarcadero from 2000-2005. We might have stood in the same line at Peet’s Coffee shop at some point. 🙂
Regarding living back home – I get it. I left Fremont telling myself I’d never come back, yet here I am. Funny how life works.
Jeff
Hi Susan,
Interesting that you and I appear to have been in Taipei at around the same time. I even visited your hostel once to meet some shady guy who lived there and sold hashish (I wasn’t the buyer). 🙂
Thanks for posting these images. I took pictures but I’ve not had time to scan them properly. It’s nice to see what Taipei was like when I first visited.
Regards,
Jeff
Wow! That is so cool you went to the Taipei Hostel! Was that guy from Indiana? It was a sketchy place. But Taipei was still kind of sleepy and I’m glad to have had the chance to see it back then!
Hi Susan,
I only met him once and he was very skittish. He was old – probably my age now, 50. 😛 He was short, had shorter hair, wore glasses and was a little overweight. I went with a couple of guys from my hostel who needed to score. Fun times.
Yeah Taipei was a lot different then. 1991 was my first of many trips. While it was only a little less than a 60 day visitor visa, I can say that the time I spent there truly changed my life.
When I replied to your post I didn’t realize that we have even more in common. I also speak Mandarin Chinese, but I studied at 台北師範大學。 I’ve not written any books yet, however I’m actually starting what might turn into a book now.
My son just finished a bicycling trip across the United States and my wife pushed me to be his “support driver”. I was eating Giordanos Pizza for lunch in Mokena last Saturday afternoon. 🙂
I’m glad to be in touch with you. I find it interesting that we share a considerable amount in common. I’m married to a Taiwanese woman – we’re going to be celebrating 25yrs in March. I read the summary of your book about marrying a Mainland Chinese man. I also spent time in China in 1991 and again in 1995, so I’m pretty familiar with how things were then – much different from now in case you’ve not been back for a while.
Anyway – have a good evening!
Jeff
Wow! That is all so cool. Not about the hostel guy, but he sounds like the dude in the bunk above me when I stayed there. He never mentioned drugs, so maybe it was someone else.
Those are so many similarities! My son has biked around Lake Michigan twice, but not across the country. He’s also half-Chinese and I’m also 50 now! My husband works in Mokena sometimes and we love Giordano’s. Congratulations on your anniversary! I got married in HK the first time around 25 years ago. I have been to Shanghai a couple times in the last 5 years and couldn’t believe all the changes, even though I’ve seen photos of China since the 90s. My older son is supposed to move to Changhua in Taiwan in January, so I hope it will all work out! It was supposed to happen a couple months ago, but COVID made that impossible.
That would be great if you wrote a book. It seems like you have so many great stories.
Wow – that is indeed interesting! My daughter is 24 and works as a Storm Water Inspector for the City of San Jose. My son turned 21 and graduated from university in May, worked an internship for a wall street hedge fund and was extended a full time offer. He decided to bike to work – that was the gist of his trip. Of course he’s going to be working from our home in California – just as he did for his internship. He starts full time on 10/19. He hopes to be able to move to NYC sometime in 2021.
How old are your kids? What will your son do in Changhua? I spent some tine in Changhua when I lived in Taiwan from 94-97. My inlaws still live in Hsinchuang (or current Romanization – Xinzhuang). We are hoping to go back this next CNY as a family. We’ve not been back all together for several years. It gets hard when kids are in JHS and older. Used to go every year….
Did you studied Mandarin or Cantonese while in HK? Are you still writing? Does your son have plans to do a longer cycling trip? My son is talking with his triathlon friends about a cycling trip across Europe when they graduate next May. He graduated in 3 years, hence the earlier trip across the US.
Small world – and all of this from a random Google search for Taipei 1991 pictures! Nice to know you!
I used to live in San Francisco after leaving Hong Kong in 1998, so know San Jose well. You must be so proud of your daughter! Congratulations to your son! My oldest son is 22 and he also graduated in May. That is amazing about your son biking to work and seeing the country along the way. Congratulations to him, too! NYC is really great and I’m sure things will be better next year. My 22 year old son was at NYU and loved living in the city. My two other kids are 13 and 11. Jake will be teaching English in Changhua through the Fulbright program. Originally he was assigned Hualien, which was super exciting, but then he was switched to Changhua. It will be easier to get to from Taipei. I didn’t know Taiwan used pinyin now. I hope you can get back there for CNY. I also hope to be able to visit Jake next year. It will be my first time back in Taiwan since that time in 1991! I studied Mandarin in HK, which was weird because no one spoke it back in 90-91. I am writing and review books for an Asian book review site and am also working on a biography of a Midwestern woman who moved to Shanghai in 1929 and became central to the arts scene there. I hope your son can get to Europe next year.
Right, that’s why I was wondering about the language you studied. I spent a lot of time in HK from 93-97 and most folks there didn’t speak ANY Mandarin. It was only around the late-2000s that Mandarin became more widely spoken – as more tourists from the Mainland came across the border to shop and play.
I’m curious – why did you choose HK for Mandarin study and not Beijing or Taipei? I chose Taipei because I also wanted to work – and there was a lot more money to be earned in Taipei than China. Also it was a lot more free in Taipei. At that time in China, as I’m guessing you’re aware, the secret police always followed you around. Also, using FEC was still a thing then and holding RMB was a no-no. As was going into shops that were not for foreigners. I never had an issue personally doing either one. Speaking a Mandarin went a long way toward avoiding issues with the law back then. 🙂
Taiwan started using Pinyin a few years ago I think. Before it was a hodge-podge of Wade Giles / Yale / whatever some bureaucrats nephew thought the spelling should be. Now at least English naming is more standardized now, which is nice.
I’m happy for your son and that sounds like a great opportunity! Hualien is much more rural – or at least it was when I was last there about ten years ago. I can’t imagine much has changed in that regard though. Changhua will indeed give him much better access to Taipei, which is good for someone his age I think. It’s more exciting and there’s a lot more to do.
I think it’s great that you’re able to make a living as a writer and reviewer. I own a computer software company, but have been trying to figure out what my next act should be. I’ve been seriously considering writing. I’ve been told that I have some interesting stories to tell, so that may be something I make a goal once I either sell my business or get out of day to day operations. For the past couple of months I’ve been writing every day, so I’m getting back into the habit. Just need to keep it up.
Are you working on a new book?
I wanted to be in Hong Kong and had to choose Mandarin or Cantonese. Although I wanted to be able to practice Chinese on the streets, I figured Mandarin would be more longterm since I could study it back in the US when I moved back and before I went to Hong Kong. So I did, but it was impossible to practice it there, which I knew would happen. So I went to China for CNY and Taipei for spring break that year. Now I volunteer with senior citizens in Chicago’s Chinatown and get to use both (the little Cantonese I picked up living in HK for 5 years in total). So it was Hong Kong I was interested in because of the looming handover.
I remember FEC! I used those in 1988 when I went to China for a couple weeks just after high school graduation. The fen coins felt like plastic. It was there in 1991, but then when I went back to China in 94-95, it was gone. I remember using Mandarin in Hong Kong when I made a call to China in 1991. I had to go through an operator in China who didn’t know English, so that was a huge achievement at the time!
Yes, the romanization was such a hodgepodge, but so fascinating. My Mandarin classes in Hong Kong in 1990-91 used Yale romanization, which seemed to make less sense than Wade-Giles. It seems like so antiquated now! That’s so interesting Taiwan has moved to pinyin. Kaohsiung is still not Gaoxiong, though, so I wonder if and when that will happen.
Yeah, Hualien seemed much more rural. He was all set for lots of hiking, but Changhua does seem nice and also near some nice rural areas. He’s never been to Taiwan, but studied in Shanghai last year for his junior year abroad and then did a summer program in Guilin, so his Mandarin has really improved. I think he and I are at the same level now, but his vocabulary is probably a lot better than mine.
Well, I didn’t I can make a living writing! I’m home with the younger kids and write when they’re at school. If you do have a manuscript at some point, I know of a publisher that publishes English books about Taiwan. I am writing a book about this woman from Illinois who moves to Shanghai in 1929 and brings Chinese and western artists together. It’s going to be a long process!
Great photos. Taiwan’s on my long list of places to visit.
Current events in HK have got to give Taiwan people pause about any union with the mainland. Two systems? Not exactly.