On a much older blog of mine that I only sporadically updated and hardly ever had pictures, there was one picture I did have for one post. It was a picture of your good friend and mine, Joseph Stalin. A local hamburger restaurant had a photo of Joseph Stalin on the wall. This picture brought up so many questions, but in the end I was 100% sure they just had no idea who he was, and just wanted a bunch of pictures of old cars (he was standing in front of his bullet proof car) on the wall.
At the time I debated telling them that they really can't have that picture on the wall. But of course my Chinese at the time was not good enough to answer the question "Why not?" Granted even now my Chinese is not good enough as I don't know an adjective in Chinese that is horrible enough to describe him. But perhaps it was karma, because less than a year later, that burger restaurant closed.
At a recent revisit to the winning shaved ice shop near my house, I was able to see old Joey Stalin back in action. The owner's husband was wearing the shirt in the picture. You can't see it clearly but it's a shirt with the pictures of communist leaders on it...Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao.
A shirt about communism? No problem, I think we can all agree that communism has a few good ideals, even if it's application on a nationwide scale has been pretty poor to say the least. A shirt with Mao on it? In all but two countries that would be pretty insane, but in China and Taiwan it's....ok. At least for older people in Taiwan who might have been part of that movement or grown up being brainwashed. I can see how in Taiwan for some older Taiwanese it could be a sign of Chinese pride and hopes that one day Taiwan and China reunite. Perhaps there are better ways to express it, but I can see how you might want Mao on your shirt. I mean hey Taiwan has tons of CKS statues, and I think he could Mao a run for his money.
But Stalin? Really? Is there something I don't know? Is there somebody going around Taiwan trying to rehabilitate Stalin's profile? Handing out t-shirts and photos, saying "you know he wasn't that bad. besides it's an accomplishment to be responsible for the deaths of more people than any other human in history." Perhaps I should get on this train of Stalin support which appears to be growing in Taiwan. I'll make a shirt with his picture in 80s style cartoon art and under it say "Yoooooooooo Joe!"
Before we leave, on the subject of dead person PR, Friedrich Engels really needs to hire a better PR firm to get his brand out there. He is the one person on the shirt that I didn't recognize by sight, and even looking him up my reaction was "oh yeah, this guy." For playing such a large part, he is pretty forgettable. Although if they are going to be making shirts with Stalin and Mao, maybe you want to be so forgotten that they don't even put you on the shirt in the first place.
And yes those are a bunch of clocks and watches. This is actually a watch sales and repair store, in which they made part of it a place that sells shaved ice as well. And if you pay very close attention, you can see my bike in the background.
