
Taiwan is a fascinating place to live, partly just to experience the dynamic, vital culture to be found here. Taiwan seems to be a place of sharp contrast between a firmly-entrenched traditional culture and the ever-oncoming wave of the modern world. The country’s history is an amazing story, and over the last fifty or sixty years especially, the Taiwanese people have shown themselves to be incredibly resourceful and innovative. Taiwan emerged from the war-torn first half of the twentieth century in a somewhat disadvantaged position, but in only five or six decades, with a tremendous display of energy, enthusiasm, and entrepreneurial spirit, the people of Taiwan pushed the country’s economy beyond what one might have thought possible. Taiwan’s exponential economic expansion began in the manufacturing sector, with simple products made for export. Over the years, this unstoppable upward sweep expanded to more technologically-intensive production, including electrical goods and chemicals. The outcome of this progression has been that today, Taiwan is one of the world’s leading exporters of computer parts, placing this island country in an important position in our contemporary global economy. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs Website, in 2005 Taiwan held over 5,100 US patents, the fourth-highest number in the world after the US, Japan and Germany.
What’s interesting to me is to contrast all this technological and economic growth with the importance of religion and traditional culture in people’s lives. The influence of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism is a palpable, inescapable everyday fact of life here. Recently I visited a Daoist temple, located south of Jhongjheng Road on Hebei Road, not far from the O8 KMRT station (Wu Kuai Cuo Station). The temple was celebrating the birthday of one of the gods, who oversees craftsmen and their work. To honor this god’s birthday, a table was laid with incense, fruit, flowers and candles.
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