Proletariat Chips - tickling Taiwanese taste-buds
Posted Wednesday, December 06, 2006, 7:00 PM by Lonely Planet
Joshua Samuel Brown is on the road researching Lanyu (or Orchard Island) for the Taiwan guide...
"I found this revolutionary era artwork adorning, of all things, chip bags at a 7-11 shop in Penghu. I haven't seen this brand anywhere else in Taiwan, and can't imagine that the overtly communist Chinese style would be a big seller amongst the betel-nut chewing 'us-or-them-independence-or-die' crowd. My friend Catwalk tells me that this kind of art wasn't unusual in Taiwan in the 1950s, but I like to think that the chip company is using this archipelago halfway between Taiwan and the Mainland as a petri dish for this lovely bit of cross-strait artistic, commercial cross-pollination."
Makes your regulation chips' packaging look kind of, well, regular.
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Culinary culture
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3 Comments:
Um, these chips are available all over Taiwan, not just in Penghu. They are certianly available in 7-Elevens in Taipei--I know because I bought them there.
I agree that the artwork on them is nice, but I think you're reading too much into this.
The correct source is movie posters from the 1940s and 1950s. http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?p=667133#667133
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And I do hope that the new Taiwan Guide will refrain from the kind of stereotyping that you indulge in with characterizations like
"betel-nut chewing 'us-or-them-independence-or-die' crowd."
Also, please think carefully about uncritically using terms like "the Mainland" as if Taiwan and China were in fact part of the same country. As I'm sure you are aware, this is Beijing's preferred terminology. Why echo it in a quality publication like LP?
Feiren,
You seem to lack any kinda of humor. Having lived in Taiwan for 16 years married to a Taiwanese, I think the majority of people here view the reunification as only a matter of time. Half of my inlaws already working on the 'Mainland'.
As for your referal to quality publication, I seem to remember traveling with LP guides back in the early 80's that in those days contained politically incorrect cartoons. Quality is what people like Joshua Brown was trying to bring to his blog, now excuse me while I spit out my betel juice.
I would go into it further but I have a Mahjong game to play with some policemen and a guy from the local Mafia. Lighten up if you intend to contribute to blogs, Taiwanese people have deeper and richer humor than you display.
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