Part and Parcel

Friends,

I had two needles stuck in me this month! The first was in a gymnasium, which I think was a first from me, though I have repressed most gymnasium-related childhood memories, so I can’t say for certain. My first vaccine shot was in a typical part of the hospital, was not very organized, and took about 2 hours. Second time they’d relocated into a nearby gym, were a well-oiled machine, and took less than an hour.

Still not as convenient as getting it in a CVS, but you know. One of the very few complaints I have about Taiwan’s healthcare system is that here I have to see a doctor to get a flu shot and in the US I could get it while grocery shopping.

Hey, look at me, a foreigner complaining about how Taiwan handles things. On Twitter this is practically a(n extra)national pastime sport. It’s a very interesting conundrum because these are people who extol Taiwan’s virtues in relation to the international stage, but react negatively to pretty much every domestic decision announced in some way or another. Not that there is a shortage of questionable decisions. If you look at some of the lockdown measures imposed here, it’s like the officials haven’t been keeping up with the science. There’s a huge, huge focus on fomite transmission and shutting down outdoor gathering spaces (even completely closing beaches), both of which have been shown to be exceedingly rare vectors ( 1 , 2 ), especially compared with indoor office settings which were allowed to remain open. This includes playgrounds being roped off and reports of police asking people to leave parks so they can take a photo of the empty park and then immediately letting them return. There’s been both very little support so far (though that seems to be changing soon) for people and businesses economically affected beyond a few narrow strips of industry, and there’s been some truly awful and discriminatory treatment of foreign workers during the lockdown. There’s been a complex disinformation campaign about vaccine purchasing and which vaccines to use (or not use), and a disconnect between the central and local governments over some measures. The government seems set on distributing information through poorly organized and hard to use images on social media as opposed to solid websites.

And yet.

And yet Taiwan seems to be one of the only places on Earth that has managed to contain the pandemic without mass vaccinations or a completely authoritarian lockdown. Of course, there are factors that help, like being an island, but overall, relative to other countries, Taiwan has been a resounding success story. This absolutely does not excuse leaving people reliant on lockdown-affected industries to flounder or exploiting its marginalized foreign workers, but take the example of spraying disinfectant on a public park. Maybe roping off the playground or spraying disinfectant doesn’t have a direct impact on the virus. Maybe the spraying itself is part of elaborate photo ops for local politicians. But to look at individual things in isolation is folly, I think. Isn’t it within the realm of possibility that seeing that yellow tape every day and seeing the disinfectant being sprayed outside and on the news contributed to people near that park taking the virus a little more seriously? After all, one of the big criticisms of western response has been to be inconsistent and overly particulate about who should wear masks, and when, and where. Not enough consideration for an emotional need for consistency and simplicity, whereas in Taiwan up until very recently it’s been “if you leave the house, wear a mask.” Maybe there’s a line between the useless UV lights that were in our classrooms here pre-pandemic and Taiwan’s success during the pandemic — a very shaky, thin, illogical line, but a line nonetheless. It’s all linked, part and parcel.

Or maybe it’s all just being a small island. And public healthcare. And Shiba Inus . Who am I to say?

Further reading:

• Need a Taiwanese cooking video in your life? Of course you do. This shows the making of a common cold salad-type appetizer/side (well, two actually, usually the cucumbers and wood-ear mushrooms are separate but here she combines them). I love this dish and we’ve started making it at home a lot, though we usually skip the tofu skin (mostly because there’s probably tofu in the main dish).
• Su Lee covered Bo Burnham , wow. Worlds are colliding, Jerry.
• I don’t watch a ton of TV, but I love the trend of writers binge-watching an entire show and putting comments as they watch on Twitter, even if I haven’t seen the show. Here’s Saeed Jones on Mare of Easttown (scroll to the end then read up) and Brandon Taylor on Mad Men .
• Here’s a thread about misogynistic reactions to Korea’s Olympic medaling archer An San . It describes a more and more organized group of men shutting down anything remotely connected to anti-sexism, which scarily echoes things like GamerGate.
• August is Women in Translation month. Way back in 2017, I made a list of 31 stories and books I thought you should check out . Looking back, I’m pretty happy with that list, though I’d replace Han Kang’s The Vegetarian with Human Acts . This year, I’m planning on reading Clarice Lispector, Olga Tokarczuk, and the newest Minae Mizumura translation. The best one I’ve read this year was Yōko Ogawa’s THE MEMORY POLICE.
• Finally, we’re a little down and right from the middle of this gorgeous picture of Taipei . I’ve been seeing more of the city lately — as lockdown has ended and our vaccinations have taken hold, we’ve started going for more and more walks. If you’d like to see what a stretch of my favorite walk looks like, start here and head west. You’ll pass giant cemeteries on both sides, then as you get around a couple of bends of the hill, you’ll be hit with a view of Taipei 101. Highly recommend it.

Here in Taiwan, the Olympics are finishing up their dichotomous swing. On the one hand there’s a ton of pride; Taiwan’s team has shattered its previous medal record — twelve to 2000/2004’s five. On the other hand, Taiwan is forced to compete as “Chinese Taipei” and unable to use its flag at the ceremony. There’s also concern about the Olympics as an industrial complex overall as well as the accompanying Covid surge that’s hitting Japan now.

One cool thing to watch as an outsider is the popularity of Taiwan’s badminton star Tai Tzu-Ying . You can’t throw a digital or literal rock without hitting an UberEats advertisement featuring her (she’s replaced formerly ubiquitous face Jam Hsiao as the person I see everywhere ), and it’s just pretty cool to see everyone rally around the country’s star for a sport that is barely a blip in people’s thoughts most of the time. People on social media report that there’s been a surge in sales of badminton stuff and anecdata of random badminton family game sightings. And, wow, there are so many awful things about the Olympics and the capitalism scene that is/will driving part of this, but I’m not sure how you can’t see such a pure demonstration of inspiration and not feel a little better about things.

For a few moments, at least.

Pictures of Taiwan’s Olympic athletes easily viewable through the president’s IG account .

Until next time,

-g