Chinoiserie

This photo was taken at a restaurant near National Taiwan Normal University. The restaurant, as you can see, is decorated like Shanghai from the early 1900's. It is so beautiful. The artwork is all reproductions of advertisements from the period - for cigarettes, milk, etc. The furniture clearly reflects what was a colonial presence in the city at the time with a French concession, Portuguese, American, British, and so on. Black Jazz musicians were brought to the city to play in the clubs.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

7-11 Lions vs. FamilyMart Elephants

Last night Jesse and I attended a Taiwan League baseball game in the neighborhood in the north, Tienmu. It was great fun. Many aspects of the baseball game experience are similar to games in the US. Some aspects are uniquely Chinese. I was most struck by the 'crowd leading.' In the US of course, the jumbotron shows images of the players portraits and what not. It is the same here. However, instead of a DJ type announcer playing music and talking to the entire crowd, there are 'crowd leaders' for each team. This is a group of 10 guys - flag bearers, drummers, trumpet players, and a yell leader who lead the crowd in various cheers and chants for the team. Its loud and participatory, and everyone bangs together these noisemakers. Its totally cool - especially the drums. The yell leader occasionally sounds like a Chinese opera singer, too. Anyway, here is a short video of the whole thing. Enjoy!

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