Right when I am actually prepared and think I know what to expect I am completely wrong. This past Friday was Fulbright’s Thanksgiving Dinner and workshop in Taipei. It matched up perfectly with Kaohsiung’s Pride Parade. Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan, after Taipei, and it is located on the west side of the country. Kaohsiung is one of the counties I can technically travel to over a weekend because it only takes 3.5 hours to get to, the equivalent of taking a shorter train to Taipei. What is even better is the west coast’s access to the high speed rail, a train that turns a possible 3.5-4 hour train ride down the west coast of Taiwan into a train ride that is at the most 1.5 hours. Needless to say I took the Fulbright dinner as a great opportunity to attend yet another pride parade and finally see Kaohsiung by taking a 9:40 pm train the day of the workshop to Kaohsiung.
The train was a little much. After a half day spent in a career panel with a Fordham Law professor specializing in Chinese property law, an international investor, and a foreign service officer – all of whom were men- I was pretty spent. I do have to say sitting through a presentation on the connections between teaching English and gardening by a South Carolina English Teacher named Bubba was probably the highlight. I took away some good points about giving my students all the care they need, but also the room to grow. The Fulbright Director on the other side didn’t seem to think it was as helpful as I was to find it, taken Bubba is the kind of man who doesn’t mean to be funny, but is. His teaching career started by teaching English to immigrants while he was a gardener and in return he was learning Tai Chi. Regardless of how he started or his motivation to go abroad to continue teaching (to learn Tai Chi in China), he is a teacher that has impacted many refugees in the US seeking to assimilate to our culture and abroad and that is what we all hope to do. The Fulbright Director on the other hand began his comment after the presentation with “I don’t mean to be rude” – which is how every rude statement starts. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I think we were all treated with the best comedic standup routine Taipei will see tonight.” I was embarrassed for the director. It wasn’t as bad as the director asking the career panelists if we were paying them for their presentations in front of everyone. That was another cringe-worthy moment of the night.
With most of the speeches done for the day I finished my Fulbright obligations by walking to the Grand Sheraton Hotel in Taipei for our Thanksgiving feast. I didn’t have super high expectations for thanksgiving food. It’s my favorite holiday back home and I got to say I am already missing the food and fall flavors. The hotel did their best. There was a salad buffet for days and dishes of fish, prawns, French fries, potato salad (that was more egg than potato), fried chicken, pumpkin soup, chicken soup, eggplant, veggies, bread, and … one small turkey. Before they opened the buffet to everyone they had the ceremonial cutting of the turkey by the Fulbright Director. I though they were going to bring another one out or that it was in one of the dishes in the buffets already. I was mistaken. The turkey was the size of the turkey my family of five buys for thanksgiving back home, but this turkey was meant to serve 130 guests. Don’t worry the hotel had enough gravy and cranberries to smother the two bites of turkey each person was allotted till the turkey was all gone. Although the turkey was a hard loss and I think I would’ve rather had none than so little, the real dish I missed was just mashed potatoes. I thought for sure they would have that or at the very least mashed sweet potatoes. Alas, mashed potatoes were missing from the table. I did eat fries with hopes that would suffice, but it just doesn’t fill the gap of mashed potatoes, butter, and gravy.
The feast ended with Fulbright bringing out a well-known singer and jazz band to sing mainly Disney songs. What started off and applauding after every song while we ate, talked, and more importantly drank from the open wine bar, ended in a conga line of ETAs and professors around the ballroom. AIT, the Taiwan equivalent to an American embassy, took that as their time to take their leave. That was when I had the most fun; all the ETAs, their coordinators, and the visiting professors on research grants all dancing and singing along to Disney songs and other songs such as “Shallows” by Lady Gaga.
I headed straight to the train station following the feast at 9:00pm to catch my train to Kaohsiung and meet up with Sean. Getting to our hotel around midnight we decided to give ourselves a late start the next day which was much needed. I rarely get to sleep in, usually waking around 6:30am every day. The parade didn’t start till 1:30 so we planned to arrive early for interviews around 11:30. We showed up to the Kaohsiung cultural center, the base of the event, and knew that this event would be different from Taipei’s and Chicago’s. Taipei’s pride event was packed with colorfully dressed supports and community members.
Kaohsiung was more understated. People were proud of their identity, but they seemed to feel more apprehensive in sharing that on film. We learned from the Taipei pride parade and reorganized our questions relying more on surface level questions such as why are you here?, What does pride mean to you?, What does it mean that your country has multiple public pride events?, and what do you think of this year’s legalization of gay marriage?
I felt prepared in interviewing people this time around having practice all the questions to the point where I didn’t need a cheat-sheet to read off of. However, being a foreigner in Kaohsiung isn’t as common as Taipei so the community typically declined to speak with us. Of the interviews we did get most were cut short because the person looked uncomfortable and I am not one to make feel pressured to talk about something. We were about to put the microphone away when Sean saw an older man in the crowd. He pointed him out and suggested we interview one last person, an older person to try and get a different perspective. Upon closer inspection I realized I knew this person through all my research on the topic of Taiwanese gay marriage, this was Rainbow man. Rainbow man is a maybe 70-year-old man who fought like no other in the legal battle for gay marriage and gay rights. He is known for showing up to gay pride events in everything rainbow and made headlines the day gay marriage was legalized by officiating multiple ceremonies. In other words, Rainbow man is a celebrity and god in the Taiwanese gay community. I thought we hit a gold mine. We were going to get an interview with THE RAINBOW MAN for my documentary. It could bring legitimacy to my claims and include a famous face in my short video.
I got a little in front of myself day dreaming of the conversation I could have with him. I had not known he was attending the Kaohsiung parade; therefore, I did not prepare specific questions for someone of such experience and impact in this topic at all. We joined the growing crowd around him, most wanting pictures with the famous man and others just wanting to thank him for helping them. I felt like I shouldn’t even be in the group surrounding him being a foreigner that identifies as an ally. Waiting in line I decided I would ask him some questions on how he feels now that gay marriage was legalized and what he wants people to know about Taiwan’s relationship with its gay community. These were questions I had already prepared for potential interviews at the parade, but none of these held a candle to the questions I had in my head I would’ve wanted to ask him.
It was finally our turn. After a tearful hug with a young woman he turned to us and not wanting to take up more time than I should looking at the large line waiting to take pictures before the parade began, I explained I was making a small documentary and if I could ask 3 questions. If I was thinking straight or prepared, I would’ve explained that the audience of my documentary probably wouldn’t be educated on the topic of gay marriage in Taiwan and because of my foreign audience could he take the time to introduce himself. Instead, I sounded like a bumbling fool asking this man who means so much to the community to say his name for the camera and then asking my questions. I didn’t even get through my questions. It was pointless. He looked at me like I was nuts as to why I was asking him of all people what he thought of the legalization of gay marriage, he was the reason it passed. I thanked him for his time and before I left he asked me if I knew who he was. I said we did, but in answering I said “我們認識你， 你是Rainbow man.” Yes, I used part English in responding. No English articles I had read gave him name in something other than characters, instead choosing to refer to him as Rainbow man. Although my Chinese vocabulary has gotten better saying rainbow wasn’t at the top of my “need to know Chinese words” because it doesn’t come up that much. Of course, Rainbow man didn’t fully understand and went on to explain to me that he is the reason it was legalized and although I understood all of which he said, I couldn’t respond on the spot. I nodded and didn’t bother getting a signed release knowing that my footage of the interview would never see the light of day.
After that interview I didn’t bother getting any more. Sean tried to cheer me up with a rainbow sundae, but all I could think of was what I should’ve said instead and know how to say. I could’ve easily said “以前我不知道你去Kaohsiung的同志遊行，所以我沒有問題我要問你” – before I didn’t know you would be at the Kaohsiung pride parade, so I didn’t prepare any questions to ask you personally. That would’ve been a better way to begin the interview or really just saying sorry my Chinese isn’t good, I am American. After he asked if I knew who he was I literally could’ve said you are the reason Taiwan legalized gay marriage. I knew all that vocab by working with Sean to translate the questions, but no I chocked and was left humiliated. On the other hand, regardless of my inability to speak Chinese well, I still don’t fully think I deserved the amount of hatred Rainbow man had towards me when he asked if I knew who he was. I am a foreigner trying to document a large change and I did do my research. I would’ve thought an older man who fought so hard for gay rights would’ve been more accepting and kinder towards someone at the pride parade there to celebrate love. I decided against downloading my footage that day because I didn’t want to see the wasted time that I dedicated to coming to Kaohsiung for the event instead of spending the weekend with my Fulbright friends traipsing around Taipei. I think that was the hardest part, was feeling like attending the event was a waste of time. At the very least I hope I got good b-roll of the event.
Leaving the pride parade after the last of the floats and marchers past us we headed to the hotel for a much-needed nap. Waking up at 6:00pm to the sounds a crazy church gathering next door we decided to head out and see some of the sites in Kaohsiung, mainly Lotus pond. The reason we even got the hotel that we did was because of the close vicinity to Lotus Pond, a large lake surrounded by multiple intricate temples. The most famous of the temples is called the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. Its two twin temples that you enter through the mouth of either the dragon or the tiger. It is said to bring you good luck to enter through the mouth of the dragon and leave through the mouth of the tiger. Although at night this temple closes and you can’t enter the animals’ mouths, we had a small photoshoot with the temples glowing with lights. We visited four more temples around the lake at night and agreed that the next day would be spent looking at the temples during the day.
Having spent so much time looking at the temples and messing about most of the restaurants were closed at that point. I would say I was sad, but it left one clear option for dinner which sadly I was all for, McDonalds. Yes, I was hoping to go to McDonald’s and get a cheeseburger. At home, I would never go there, but here it is one of the places I know that when I order a hamburger, I will get what I think a hamburger is. For clarification, in Taiwan it is common to use hamburger/ 漢堡包 for any type of sandwich that utilizes a hamburger bun. Ordering hamburgers and fries at McDonald’s was kind of funny just because we were getting so many looks from the other people in the restaurant. What foreigners go to another country only to eat McDonalds? This girl when she is in desperate need of some Western food to change up all the rice and noodles she has been eating. The night culminated in eating McDonald’s in the hotel and watching an Amazon Prime show called The Boys which is recommend.
We got up bright and early on Sunday to beat the crowds to Lotus Pond. Our plan did make it so we could get shots of the temples in the daylight on my camera without other tourists in the pictures, but we what we didn’t take into account was the smog. Kaohsiung is home to a lot of Taiwan’s industry leaving a smog covering over the lake. No matter what I did I couldn’t change the settings on my camera to make it look less exposed because the sky was literally white. Sean was annoyed that he forgot face masks because he would’ve insisted, we both wear some that morning. This city has been the only time I have witnessed the smog so common in pictures on the news of Asian countries, mainly China, as the population battles air pollution. Kaohsiung has not been my favorite place to visit so far and I don’t even think it makes the list. I plan on going back solely to get a picture that doesn’t look over exposed and to go to the Buddha museum which is supposed to be unparalleled, but hard to get to. Other than that, I have no reason to come back.
The one large plus of such a big city is that one of their train stations is connected to a mall, the first “mall” I’ve been to here. When you arrive an hour and a half early for a train it’s a great place to get an edible meal (a pan fried chicken with no breading – unheard of here- and rice with broccoli – yes a green vegetable that’s not cabbage!). We also came across possibly the last Toys R Us in the world selling all the nerf guns you would ever want. I finally had the opportunity to get Starbucks at the train station only to find out that Taiwan’s Starbucks doesn’t have Chai tea lattes so there goes any reason to go to Starbucks in the future. By the time I boarded my train, I was ready to get home and be done with Kaohsiung.
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