Personally I think Taipei 101 is seriously cool, and don’t know how anyone who has seen it (or Clifford’s picture at the top of the page) could fail to be impressed…but each to their own of course.
(Btw Clifford, did you check out the view of it from the top floor of the NTU physics building? It’s especially good at night when it is all lit up.)
……….

“…or are not “true locals” as I got from one commenter.”

No you didn’t. That’s definitely not what I said or meant. Sorry if the stuff i wrote in that thread was annoying though.

Everyone: thanks!

-cvj

Ie among the hipper than thou crowd. Y’all really should read John Le Carre’s latest book, _Absolute Friends_, which apart from being a cracking good spy novel with a disturbingly accurate take on the current world political situation, in his standard low-key understated way skewers this sort of student thinking and how it’s usually driven more by some sort of immature psychodynamics of rebelling against daddy than by any sort of informed consideration of the situation.

For what it’s worth I’m with Clifford on this one.

Yes, it is so much harder to convey dissent in writing but – to reassure you – your comment in the infamous scooter poster was much appreciated.

Anyway. I was thinking about national pride. I side with Clifford here, I often find the lack of national pride in Britain (compared to the US) very disheartening. Especially since national pride has been subjugated by revolting organizations like the BNP, hence why liberals (like myself) would never ever wear anything with a Union Jack on it. But this *tends* to result in the British being very negative about any British achievement.

And it isn’t the same in the US. Let consider Vegas. As it happens, I run a lab here in wonderful Southern California and my students *love* Vegas. I wouldn’t even know how to tell them that some people consider they should be ashamed of it. I don’t think they mistake it for high culture, they love it because it is a great place (albeit the most artificial place on earth that requires questionable water reallocation) to go for a really fun weekend (I can second this). Now this isn’t to say that all American students love Vegas, just my students (and perhaps Sean too) aren’t embarrassed by this direction their culture went in. And I like that.

Some of us though, like me, think that having fun is having an argument (bad genes? hard time in the formative years?).

Because, as you’ve indicated in another thread, you like to ‘let it all hang out’, some us may feel that we have permission to be a little more aggressive on your threads than on others’.

I have to say it, though, Taipei 101 may be a technological wonder, but aesthetically it’s… interesting.

And my friends know not to disagree or I will kick their asses.

I guess the problem is that when people see a post they agree with, they just nod calmly at your vast wisdom. But if you said to your friends that [for example] the hotels in Las Vegas were really cool and not at all tacky, would they politely agree or would they roast the hell out of you? Of course it is presumptuous of me to put myself in that category, but maybe that’s the point –you are the victim of your own success!

Anyway please accept my sincere apologies and please rest assured that I will be a lot more careful in future and PLEASE don’t give up on blogging!

Mark: Yes, you are crass.

-cvj

Please don’t waste any of your valuable time on wondering why you bother. The answer is that you bother for the people who know how to conduct themselves and have a constructive nuanced conversation (you know, like telling people they can go screw themselves ).

By the way; I like the building, and if that makes me crass – tough!

Also, thank you for exposing us to some lovely pictures of things that we – at least I – hadn’t seen before. I’m glad you enjoyed the place – good for you!

That’s also interesting to read. I just spoke of a building in that post, not the whole of Taipei. But what’s wrong with saying that I thought something was wonderful? The world is so full of people criticising things and finding things wrong with everything. It’s just too easy. Everybody is whining. I come from a country where it is the national sport. I’m *sick* of it. I choose to try to find a little good stuff in everything…it’s there if you choose to see it. Forgive me for that.

Oh, and when I do point out something negative in a post…that’s when I get a chorus telling me what an insensitive bastard I am. I remind you of the scooter post.

I can’t win. Ok. Time to stop depressing myself with blogging (it’s supposed to be fun, right?) and go have some fun times out on the town. It’s Friday night, after all.

Bye.

-cvj

I guess I can see that not all people like some new building, and that there might be some nationalistic dross associated with it…I just don’t get what it has to do with being Asian. I find it excruciatingly silly that they are going to call the new World Trade Center building in New York the “Freedom Tower” and that it is going to be 1776 feet tall. How ridiculously nationalistic is that? I don’t think it was an Asian idea to do that, was it?

Thanks for your reply. I like discussion, and I like disagreement…. but I guess that what is getting a bit hurtful is that it seems now that I put a lot of time into preparing various posts on this blog these days, and even though people read them (or at least click on them), if I get any comment at all it is now more than likely to be either someone making a negative remark, triumphantly screaming a spelling correction, accusing me of insulting some group or other, or saying some ill-thought-out remark that shows that they never even read the post.

Nobody seems to want to bother to just say “hey, I like that too” (well, it’s rare now). A bit of sweet and sour is nice…. not all one or the other, or near-total silence.

I’m beginning to wonder why I bother at all.

Cheers,

-cvj

Anyway, in Asia [at least among students and people like that] these huge buildings are regarded in much the same way that an American student would regard that pseudo-Venice hotel in Las Vegas. People are trying too hard to prove that they are just as good as anyone else, and the result is embarrassing. Maybe you need to be here and hear the kind of nationalistic rubbish that gets broadcast each time some new giant building gets put up, frequently on the ruins of some much nicer old low-rise housing. Just trying to present a local view — a *lot* of people here would be *very* surprised to hear that Taipei is as wonderful as all that!

Anyway, apologies all round if anyone felt hurt, not my intention at all.

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, this site is dedicated to the polite free exchange of ideas, but I find often it dismaying how rude people feel they can be in their comments to posts even on this blog.

If someone waxed lyrical about Taipei 101 at a dinner party would you really tell them flat out to their face that you think it is a grotesque embarrassment? Well maybe you would, but the result would likely be embarrassed silence from everyone else around the table on your behalf.

…a lot of Asians find this kind of architectural megalomania deeply embarrassing…

I am surprised by this statement (although I live to be wrong and I am not Asian). Why is it considered embarrassing to be competing to be the best at something?

And would you consider all skyscrapers as hideous/a form of architectural megalomania?

I personally love many skyscrapers both for their beauty (my favourite is the Chrysler building in NY – also although I have not seen Taipei 101 in person, Clifford’s picture of it in this post indicates that it falls very far short of being described as “grotesque”) and practicality (a means of housing many people in a relatively small footprint).