A friend back in America requested some Taiwanese souvenirs. Things that she collects like t-shirts and key chains from various spots around the world. Innocent enough request, but hard in practice. Because to Taiwan's credit there really aren't any places that sell touristy stuff. In all my time here i have never seen a store that sells "I heart TW" t-shirts and the like.
I first went to an old underground shopping mall next to a subway station, which I thought I remembered seeing some touristy stuff before. A foreigner friend also said this is where she got some stuff for her family before. While I was there i did find three shops that had key chains (more on that tomorrow) but not t-shirts. So i thought it would be smart to go to the main train station, surely there must be some touristy items there. Alas there were none but the girl at the information booth did say that there are some in one area of the city that has a lot of clothing shops.
Armed with no specific address, just "somewhere in that area" i went over to that district. After walking around for awhile I did find a shop that had 2 t-shirts. Since the selection wasn't so great, I decided to ask the shop owner if there were any other shops in the area that sells these kind of shirts. He said no. I asked if he knew of any other area in taipei or any other shop in the whole city that sells these kind of shirts. He said no. Determined to get a yes out of him i asked "so you are the only shop in the whole city that sells these kind of shirts?" He said yes.
Not wanting to fall for Taiwan's lovely view of customer service, I decided to keep walking and try my luck. I found another store which had some t-shirts and found one I liked, but curiosity got the better of me and i just had to ask....."do you know any other shops in Taiwan that sell this kind of shirt?" Of course his answer was that he was anointed by heaven to be the one person in all of Taiwan to bless us with touristy t-shirts. Or something like that, you know my chinese listening still needs a lot of work.
Too bad he lied, cause i really liked that shirt. Then again maybe he had no idea that the next alley over there was a shop selling the same stuff. Either way I was determined not to give my money to such...uh....i'll go with "talented" salesmen. On I went to the next alley where there was yet another shop with the needed t-shirts. They had quite the selection, I chose the one above because I like what it says, but I must admit the colors could have been better. But my other other choice was instead of black, a bright yellow which could only be described as "the Sun." So to protect the eyes of humans everywhere, I went with the black color.
Since I bought it, you know that the clerk didn't lie. So what did she say when I asked if there are any other stores in the area that sell these t-shirts? "I don't know." YAY! we have a winner. I was still kind of perturbed that she didn't know, but something about her made me think that she....well....isn't the type of person who knows much about anything. So I went with the ignorant lady above the evil guys. Probably the first time in history that not knowing something, got them the sale.
As for the shirt. Well the big letter word says "crazy" and the smaller vertical words say "taiwan." Ha sounds like it's saying Taiwan is crazy, but really it means "crazy about taiwan." The reason I chose this shirt is because it reminds me of all the western t-shirts with english writing on them which just say the complete opposite of what anybody here would want them to say. Either that or young children and senior citizens are into some extremely uh...kinky things that I had no idea about. Yet they wear the shirts cause they never take the time to actually read them. I appreciate this cause it always gives me a chuckle when I'm out. One of the tamer ones that still makes me smile was maybe an 80 year old woman whose shirt said "die hard hip-hop head." Or perhaps she is just the coolest 80 year old woman in the world and I didn't take the time to talk to her.
So I got this shirt cause I can't help but hope that somebody wears this in America and happens to pass by somebody who speaks chinese and just sees the big "CRAZY" on the front and has a chuckle then says to their friend "hey that person's shirt says she is crazy!"
