English teacher's here are not only supposed to teach English but also to teach western culture as well. I must admit though the longer you are away, the harder this can be. I'm grateful that living abroad I am blissfully ignorant of many of the latest happenings in pop culture back home. While Taiwanese try so desperately to keep up to date with the latest trends, I'm happy to be well behind the curve. For example it wasn't until three weeks ago that I found out that Tyler Perry, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift were three different people and what their jobs are.
The only things that I do keep up with from back home are the specific things I'm interested in, as well as politics. Politics mainly to remind me why I'm so happy to not live in america. However sometimes I feel that just to be a better teacher it's worth getting up to date on somethings and will waste a day filling my head with western garbage. sigh...
One day I was in a shopping mall and had some time to kill so i decided to check out the toy store. I was curious to see what toys kids these days play with. Most of the store was toys based on Japanese cartoons. As you can see most of the toys were models of Mechs.
These models come in pieces just like model airplanes and kids have to put them together and then display them on their shelves. These are immensely popular in Taiwan, with there being a few stores just for these models. I can't help but think that these toys also display Taiwanese sensibility. That is by design Taiwan is a culture that requires and produces people who can do what they are told and just follow procedures. They tend to frown on and discourage creativity and imagination. The toys echo this by being ones which require rigorous assembly and then are admired, rather than toys that are played with using imagination.
