And everywhere he goes, Golo shows himself being welcomed and taken out. His fellow cartoonists take him to a pub and teach him to say "Kan Pei" (乾杯). He goes to a hot spring where he's told to observe the others and just do what they do. He thinks of himself as a crab being boiled alive, learns so stay still as an aid to enduring the heat, and finally learns to enjoy the pleasures of an automatic massage chair.
Education, and its importance for Taiwanese, is also featured, as is the presence of women in virtually all occupations. Annette Lu gets a mention in this context, and a drawing.
Not everything of Taiwan is here, of course, but there's a lot. Golo's fellow contributors take the opportunity to remark on the orderly lines waiting for trains in the subway contrasted with the frequent chaos -- roads being dug up, motorbikes parked on the pavements -- above ground. One of them ponders on the question that when there are 100 reasons to detest Taipei, why does he loves it so much?
What is most appealing is that Golo's view of Taiwan and the Taiwanese so often accords with one's own. The place has all sorts of disadvantages -- geographical, political and historical -- and yet it's an undeniably attractive place to be. He doesn't specifically ask why this should be so, but beneath the jokes this is the question he is all the time trying to answer.
There is an implicit reply, too. This is that, precisely because of all the uncertainties, the Taiwanese live from day to day. They live for the moment, just as so many wise men have always advised, and as a result are happy. The problems, possible and actual, themselves give rise to the advantages.
There's an infectious innocence about this book. Almost everyone, I imagine, will read it at a sitting, and when they get up they will, if they're anything like me, look on Taipei with ever so slightly different eyes. The artist is very easily surprised and just as easily charmed. In this he is, in a way, the perfect visitor.
For eight years Golo has been living in Egypt, mostly in Cairo but with a "winter house" in a village close to the Tombs of the Pharaohs in the south. He is currently working on a book illustrating the life of this village, and in addition he contributes to newspapers in both Cairo and Paris. Egypt is lucky to have him, and if he portrays the life there with anything approaching the wit and affection he bestows on Taipei, his hosts will have every reason to be grateful.
Information:
Made in Taiwan
By Golo
259 pages
Les Editions Du Pigeonnier
RSS