Around the World in 330 Days: Brian's Fulbright Journey in China and Elsewhere: Days 256-258: Taipei

Thursday I gave my first lecture in Taipei. After a quick (carby) breakfast at the Via, we took a cab to NTNU, where a couple students met us. Iping had a box lunch ready for us, chicken and rice. My lecture began at 12:30, and Brena gave me a nice introduction, listing all my qualifications. The lecture, "Gender Trouble in a World of Alternative Facts: Transgender Identity in Contemorary American Literature and Culture," went well. About 30 people attended, I ended it pretty much on time, and the audience seemed engaged and asked questions. I had some grad students ask quesetions afterwards, and a few people asked me for my card. Brena took us for a meal at this place on campus called "The Second Floor." We went with two graduate students, one of whom was named White. She's very excited about the possibility of organizing a gender studies conference in the future, and I was grateful for her enthusiasm. I love it when others get excited about things I care about! We chatted several hours and then went back to the hotel. Then we rested a bit and explore Ximending some more. We just had sandwiches at KFC for dinner, and we also decided to explore the gay section near The Red House, too. Lots of gay stores around there, mostly selling underwear, porn, and rainbow items. There are several gay bars in the area--outdoors--with people shouting "Welcome!" Such a contrast from the gay life we know in Shanghai. We ended up at this one "fetish" bar called "Commander." There really wasn't that much to it--just some chains hanging from the ceiling. I had a bloody mary; Kerry had a vodka and coke. We did enjoy the area very much; it's a fun district to be in. Since I'm dealing with a sinus infection, though, I did have to wear a mask to prevent me from inhaling all the cigarette smoke.

Thursday Taipei pics:

Poster of my first lecture.

During my first lecture, talking about Kate Bornstein.

Me and Kerry with some NTNU students, after the lecture.

Another pic with students. White, on the right, wants to organize a gender studies conference.

Huge burger (with fish and beef) at the 2nd Floor.

One of many GLBT friendly stores in Taipei.

The rainbow flag is all over Taipei, as Kerry demonstrates.

Friday, pretty much the same drill: up at 9 am to go give another talk. This time, though, we met Iping, and two students, Herbert and Annie, at The Second Floor for lunch. I had a chicken cordon bleu burger. Iping left around 2 pm, and Kerry and I stayed and gave Herbert some feedback on a novel he's writing. He seemed to pay close attention to our suggestions. We had just read over the first couple chapters that morning. The novel has potential, but he does have some grammar issues and problems with passive description. We left the restaurant around 3:15 for my second talk. There were about 15 students from Iping's class there. I gave a shorter version of my Thursday lecture and then showed the students a clip from the film The Celluloid Closet, the one with Shirley McLaine and Susie Bright talking about The Children's Hour. I feel this clip is a good example of the discrimination and invisibility that persisted in the GLBT community that still exists today. Once I showed the clip, the floor was open to questions. Iping started things off, though, by asking a lot of questions about Caitlyn Jenner and the letters in GLBT--perhaps to give the students some context? I'm not sure. But eventually the students warmed up a bit and asked some really good questions. Kerry even got involved in the act and answered some of their questions as well! It was cool. For dinner, Kerry and I walked around Ximending. First we bought some t-shirts at the OMA--mostly as gifts, the clothing store near our hotel, where t-shirts are about $100 NTD (or $3 USD each). We intended to try out an Italian place, couldn't find it, then thought we'd go to Subway, and couldn't find THAT either, and then concluded that the map that the Via gave us of the area was pretty useless. So we ended back up at the Japanese place we went to the first night: I didn't have salmon, but I had some of their chicken, as well as some of their great hamburger skewers. I also had a shake....blue with curacao liqueur. Quite tasty.

Friday Taipei pics:

Before my second lecture for Iping's class.

Lunchtime, 2nd floor: Herbert, Annie, and Iping in the pic.

This restaurant cracks me up--they serve food on toilet lids and customers sit on toilets here. Kerry refused to go.

Shakes at the Japanese restaurant.

Saturday not much happened other than the fact that we went to a beautiful temple in the morning before we left, called the Tian Hou Temple. It's kind of hidden away in the Ximending area, but it was colorful and spectacularly beautiful, albeit small. Apparently, I learned later that it's a sea goddess temple. Lovely! We left the Via at about 12:30 and made it to the airport, only to discover that our flight was not leaving until 6 pm, not 3:30 as we thought. Great....... So we had lunch, sat around, and then there was more delay, so they gave us a food voucher for $250 NTD (about $8). We went to Starbucks with it and had tea and quiche. The plane didn't actually take off until about 6:50 pm. But it was a nice plane, with in-flight entertainment. Even though they served us only rice for dinner, it had egg in it and was nicely seasoned. I like how the Chinese flights almost ALWAYS provide a full meal; this NEVER happens in America. The cab ride home was long but could have been worse; we really didn't eat anything when we got home because we had been noshing all day, and I still didn't feel all that great. I'm still fighting a sinus infection, as of this writing. But at least we are "home."

Saturday pics from the temple we went to: