For readers in the Kaohsiung area looking to fill their apartments with stuff they really don't need but feel they should have anyway, a visit to 2005 Taiwan Design Expo (台灣設計傳覽會) is in order.
The expo runs until Oct. 30 at the city's Wei Wu Military Camp
Co-sponsored by the Kaohsiung County Government this year's event focuses on everyday household products under the theme "Discover the New Home in Asia." Divided into five categories, the expo introduces a smorgasbord of new designs ranging from furniture to kitchen utensils and children's playthings.
PHOTO: GAVIN PHIPPS, TAIPEI TIMES
Those looking to spend their hard-earned cash on stuff that looks nice but that one can live without or, as the official English language guide puts it: "[to] learn creative esthetics of living up your life and building a [perfect] home."
From innovative and, admittedly, quite comfortable bamboo and wickerwork furniture, to two-person bathtubs, the expo features just about every conceivable form of product design. Some of the objects are already on the market, some of them are manufactured to order and others are, well, simply so batty that it makes you wonder why anybody would get paid to design them let alone why anybody would possibly want to buy them.
Visitors can wonder through the long disused military base's barracks and take in the contents of over a dozen specially designed pavilions.
"The Future Pavilion" predictably enough features futuristic designs for furniture and household objects, many of which look like they've come straight off the 1960s sci-fi TV series Space 1999.
The most interesting of the pavilions is the one dedicated to international design. The wide array of oddball household objects on display here includes ergonomic oven gloves that resemble flippers, a tubular cognac bottle that looks like it belongs on the International Space Station, gaudy 1970s-styled plastic tea pots and tea sets that wouldn't look out of place on an episode of the Brady Bunch.
The most inane of the lot, however, is the French-designed wedding dress that doubles as all-purpose sportswear and allows any modern bride the freedom to go for a quick jog before saying "I do."
The wildest pavilions are the "The Green" and "Home Forest" pavilions, which are filled with over-the-top bamboo structures designed to transform living spaces into urban
jungle-like environments.
Along with showcasing the oddball human aspects of modern design the expo also features a special area dedicated to pets. Here visitors can see outrageous designs for "pet houses" for dogs, cats and even hamsters. It's pretty inane, but it does make for an interesting and certainly mind opening visit.
Performance notes:
What: Taiwan Design Expo 2005
Where: Wei Wu Military Camp, Nanking Rd, Fangshan City, Kaohsiung County
When: Until Oct. 30.
The Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association’s 2021 road safety guidelines pretty much says it all. “Taiwan’s drivers are inclined to prioritize vehicles over pedestrians. Be aware that their driving manners are often not as good. Even when it’s a green light, watch carefully for cars at all times when crossing the crosswalk. Be alert of cars that try to quickly turn right in front of pedestrians. Even if you’re on the sidewalk, you must still watch for scooters.” Japanese student Shun Komatsu referenced these advisories last month in a widely shared post on the News Lens, where he praised everything here besides the
Among the Amis people around Chenggong Township (成功) in Taitung County there is a story of a place called Malaulau, ma being a prefix and laulau, meaning “withered.” In fact, that is the old name for Chenggong in Hoklo (more commonly known as Taiwanese): “Malaulau” (麻荖漏) is taken from the Amis word. What does that name refer to? In Amis oral histories, it is the place where a massive wave struck Chenggong, killing many people. The wave was quite localized and Amis communities to the north have no legends of that event. The east coast south of Yilan has good protection
Chris Findler says that the introduction of neural machine translation software has reduced the demand for human translators. “I am pessimistic about the future of traditional translation jobs,” says Findler, a lecturer of translation and interpretation at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). Online translators such as DeepL Translator, Yandex and Babylon offer accurate translations in dozens of languages, which means that a human translator may no longer be necessary for some jobs. Machine translation software’s growing influence is irreversible. Translation software can utilize artificial neural networks and large databases in order to accurately predict sequences of words and provide nuanced expressions
More than two decades after journalist Craig Addison coined the term “Silicon Shield,” the concept remains as relevant as ever, if not even more. The idea that global — including Chinese — reliance on Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has been a major deterrent of war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is still frequently espoused today, especially as tensions continue to soar. On Monday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) declared during in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would render the company’s factories “non-operable” and would create “great
RSS