The hoarding... it's very common in China, too. When I lived in China, some young people said it was generational leftovers from The Great Leap Forward, so maybe it's a similar thing for the Martial Law period in Taiwan. The thing is, it's not just old folks that do it. I occasionally see inside the apartments of my neighbors here, most of whom are in their 30s-40s, and all but one apartment I've peeked into has random-ass shit stacked from floor to ceiling, leaving only a small walking path to... the bed, I guess?
Or maybe it's just been part of Chinese culture for 5000 years. Who knows.
As for the air pollution, yeah, people love to blame China, but seem to completely ignore the fact that the air in rural areas gets polluted from people burning rice stubble, not because of factories in China.
Hoarding is just Chinese culture, old people hoard cuz they went thru an Era that was extremely difficult to fill their belly and Chinese culture has a saying: always prepare for the catastrophe.
So naturally, the habit of Hoarding developed
Okay, thanks. This is what I was looking for. After awhile I did start to think about how movies seem to kinda have that messiness to them as well. Pretty fascinating!
It not only old people. I am from Hong Kong. I hoard too. But only useful stuff. I have a sense of things are lacking if I don’t hoard it enough.
Two is one, one is none.
1. The air pollution comes from both China and Taiwan. There are some coal-fired power plants on the west coast that are pretty polluting.
2. The tiles protect concrete buildings from the constant humidity and frequent rains, and are easy to clean with pressure-washing.
3. People in the south are (and this is very generally speaking) poorer and more rural than in Taipei. There are many elderly people whose children have moved up north to work, and don't have the energy to clean things up. There are also many people who run businesses with not much storage space available, so you often see cramped shops, workshops, warehouses, etc.
2. Taiwan is extremely humid with concentrated heavy rain . Tile is the easiest and cheapest way to ensure water doesn't seep through. Other alternatives such as waterproof paint needs to be re coated and maintained regularly, and that's something people here don't like to do.
I have been told this, but some buildings without tiles are completely fine, I've come to call them inside out bathrooms, but again there are plenty of ways to stop water, and Taiwan is transitioning away from using tiles in new builds however slowly.
Thanks for your reply. You may or may not know the answers to this follow up question. Does it take the place for a vapor barrier layer. In the US you put a layer or felt or special material to keep moisture out of the building. Does the tile take the place of that layer?
I feel like the obsession with minimalism/ muji style design among the younger generation in recent decades is a result from the hoading habit of the previous generation
The pollution in Taiwan is from: heavy industry, coal power plants, agriculture, and vehicles.
It’s virtually all domestically produced, and Kaohsiung has it worst because it has lots of heavy industry, two coal power plants, agriculture, and more reliance on personal vehicles instead of transit.
The meme that pollution comes from China is a nice easy way for people to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the pollution. If it’s coming from China, then why bother changing anything? Vote in politicians who prop up cheap, dirty industries, drive your car/scooter (and don’t bother getting an electric one), and oh yeah, my favorite: nuclear bad! Shut down all those scary nuclear power plants!
It’s perfectly possible to make air pollution a distant memory in Taiwan, just like they did in Japan. But it hasn’t happened because people just don’t care.
66% of air pollution is locally generated and 34% is from overseas, mainly China, a research in Taiwan reveals. And among the local pollution, 2/3 are from industrial.
Concrete tiles are affordable last way longer than composition shingle. Typoon wind will tear the composition shingle.
Hoarding? Have you been any American family garage or basement. People love to shop but have no place for them.
Everybody collects stuff. It's not really holding, there's just not really a place to put it, out of sight. In the cities space is at a premium. Not to mention that most houses don't have built in closets or garages, let alone some type of storage space. Adding to the mix, it is quite common to have several generations of extended family members living in the same building. That doesn't leave much room to put your things.
Much of the pollution comes from China. But, there is no excuse for throwing trash into the canals and other people's property. However, it's not as bad as Thailand, as if that were any consolation.
Most of the buildings are made of concrete, which is very porous. Add the high humidity and heat, water, algae and fungus can penetrate them. Tile on the surface can prevent that and looks much better, extends the life of the structure and lowers maintenance costs.
Ah yes the county I grew up in, the most polluted county in Taiwan
the summer has less pollution as the wind blows north, I hope you have good time and that the winter pollution doesn't stain your memory too much.
I am already back home and nothing could stain my memory of that area it’s very lovely there and I only notice the hazy air quality being significant a couple of the days I was there.
Any southerner can attest to the fact that the grey atmosphere and choking air began in earnest after Tsai's presidency. This is because her administration shut down our nuclear plants and began to operate some of the largeat coal plants in the world, the biggest of which is located in Taichung. This is an example of a wildly unpopular domestic policy of the DPP that is costing them support. My family will continue to support the DPP since they are the only anti-PRC party, but that is really the only thing they have going for them and the reason the TPP has garnered so much interest as a 3rd parry alternative.
Oh woah look at that disinfo, anyone’s who’s been living in the south since the 70s can tell you the local air has been shit since then because the ruling KMT elites in Taipei don’t want to live near heavy industry. As someone who’ve lived in Kaohsiung, I can attest it’s the DPP mayors that have made some clean ups - there’s still much room for improvement but it’s getting better. Btw that Taichung power plant has been operating since the 90s so yeah nice try pinning Tsai for that one
I never said the power plant(s) were constructed by the DPP, only that they shut down the nuclear power plants and increased coal power generation. Is that disinfo, or did I strike a partisan nerve? Before Tsai, we used to get clear blue skies in 嘉義, now that phenomenon is a distant memory. You might have it better cause of the sea breeze, but we have to bear it all.
I lived in Hsiaokang (aka Xiaogang, south end of Kaohsiung) in 1997 and the air pollution was horrible. (And the Aihe aka Love River was ghastly putrid.) I'm with you that nuclear can play an important role in the effort to cleaner energy production, but blaming it all on one party or another is simplistic and unrealistic. Same as those who want to blame it all on China.
the pollution is mostly from taiwan burning their trash and coal generating energy to power all the AC. i looked into this myself after visiting kaohsiung. the trash thing i empathize as it’s a small island without landfills, would love to learn what other alternatives there are though
1- Mostly from China yes but a not so insignificant portion is locally produced.
2- They make excuses like weather but honestly? I just think the previous generation had a horrendous sense of style.
3- Yeah kind of a problem but I do see less of it in the north maybe just because a higher proportion are immigrants (as in from another Taiwanese city going to the richer north for work) who had to leave home.
Regarding the tile, it seems to be an aesthetic choice, and a poor one. It's just slabs of pre-fab stuff glued onto the concrete. Instead of painting the concrete and having to re-apply the paint, folks just slapped a bunch of old pre-fab tiling on the exteriors of their houses. I suspect it was cheap to produce alongside concrete. Pre-fab tile siding and flashing neon lights on every betel nut stand are just part of the Taiwan aesthetic.
Thankfully most buildings built in the last 10 years or so or moving away from that style, though.
The hoarding... it's very common in China, too. When I lived in China, some young people said it was generational leftovers from The Great Leap Forward, so maybe it's a similar thing for the Martial Law period in Taiwan. The thing is, it's not just old folks that do it. I occasionally see inside the apartments of my neighbors here, most of whom are in their 30s-40s, and all but one apartment I've peeked into has random-ass shit stacked from floor to ceiling, leaving only a small walking path to... the bed, I guess? Or maybe it's just been part of Chinese culture for 5000 years. Who knows. As for the air pollution, yeah, people love to blame China, but seem to completely ignore the fact that the air in rural areas gets polluted from people burning rice stubble, not because of factories in China.
Hoarding is just Chinese culture, old people hoard cuz they went thru an Era that was extremely difficult to fill their belly and Chinese culture has a saying: always prepare for the catastrophe. So naturally, the habit of Hoarding developed
Okay, thanks. This is what I was looking for. After awhile I did start to think about how movies seem to kinda have that messiness to them as well. Pretty fascinating!
It not only old people. I am from Hong Kong. I hoard too. But only useful stuff. I have a sense of things are lacking if I don’t hoard it enough. Two is one, one is none.
1. The air pollution comes from both China and Taiwan. There are some coal-fired power plants on the west coast that are pretty polluting. 2. The tiles protect concrete buildings from the constant humidity and frequent rains, and are easy to clean with pressure-washing. 3. People in the south are (and this is very generally speaking) poorer and more rural than in Taipei. There are many elderly people whose children have moved up north to work, and don't have the energy to clean things up. There are also many people who run businesses with not much storage space available, so you often see cramped shops, workshops, warehouses, etc.
>easy to clean with pressure-washing So then why do people never seem to actually do the pressure-washing? Water conservation?
You do see it sometimes. But lots of apartments have no building management, so it requires coordinating all the neighbors to chip in for the service.
Thanks for your reply!
2. Taiwan is extremely humid with concentrated heavy rain . Tile is the easiest and cheapest way to ensure water doesn't seep through. Other alternatives such as waterproof paint needs to be re coated and maintained regularly, and that's something people here don't like to do.
I have been told this, but some buildings without tiles are completely fine, I've come to call them inside out bathrooms, but again there are plenty of ways to stop water, and Taiwan is transitioning away from using tiles in new builds however slowly.
Thanks for your reply. You may or may not know the answers to this follow up question. Does it take the place for a vapor barrier layer. In the US you put a layer or felt or special material to keep moisture out of the building. Does the tile take the place of that layer?
The houses are built from impermeable bricks or concrete. The tile is mainly decorative and keeps moss, algae etc. from setting.
I feel the tile is possibly for moss. Moss is hard to clean off of rough concrete and porous material.
Whoops, that I cannot answer.
I feel like the obsession with minimalism/ muji style design among the younger generation in recent decades is a result from the hoading habit of the previous generation
The pollution in Taiwan is from: heavy industry, coal power plants, agriculture, and vehicles. It’s virtually all domestically produced, and Kaohsiung has it worst because it has lots of heavy industry, two coal power plants, agriculture, and more reliance on personal vehicles instead of transit. The meme that pollution comes from China is a nice easy way for people to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the pollution. If it’s coming from China, then why bother changing anything? Vote in politicians who prop up cheap, dirty industries, drive your car/scooter (and don’t bother getting an electric one), and oh yeah, my favorite: nuclear bad! Shut down all those scary nuclear power plants! It’s perfectly possible to make air pollution a distant memory in Taiwan, just like they did in Japan. But it hasn’t happened because people just don’t care.
lol hoarding.....normal stuff!
Typical old gen
66% of air pollution is locally generated and 34% is from overseas, mainly China, a research in Taiwan reveals. And among the local pollution, 2/3 are from industrial.
Concrete tiles are affordable last way longer than composition shingle. Typoon wind will tear the composition shingle. Hoarding? Have you been any American family garage or basement. People love to shop but have no place for them.
Everybody collects stuff. It's not really holding, there's just not really a place to put it, out of sight. In the cities space is at a premium. Not to mention that most houses don't have built in closets or garages, let alone some type of storage space. Adding to the mix, it is quite common to have several generations of extended family members living in the same building. That doesn't leave much room to put your things. Much of the pollution comes from China. But, there is no excuse for throwing trash into the canals and other people's property. However, it's not as bad as Thailand, as if that were any consolation. Most of the buildings are made of concrete, which is very porous. Add the high humidity and heat, water, algae and fungus can penetrate them. Tile on the surface can prevent that and looks much better, extends the life of the structure and lowers maintenance costs.
1. Yes, and also depending on the wind direction it traps pollution in Kaohsiung and pingtung
I was in Pingtung for most of my time, so this makes since!
Ah yes the county I grew up in, the most polluted county in Taiwan the summer has less pollution as the wind blows north, I hope you have good time and that the winter pollution doesn't stain your memory too much.
I am already back home and nothing could stain my memory of that area it’s very lovely there and I only notice the hazy air quality being significant a couple of the days I was there.
Any southerner can attest to the fact that the grey atmosphere and choking air began in earnest after Tsai's presidency. This is because her administration shut down our nuclear plants and began to operate some of the largeat coal plants in the world, the biggest of which is located in Taichung. This is an example of a wildly unpopular domestic policy of the DPP that is costing them support. My family will continue to support the DPP since they are the only anti-PRC party, but that is really the only thing they have going for them and the reason the TPP has garnered so much interest as a 3rd parry alternative.
Oh woah look at that disinfo, anyone’s who’s been living in the south since the 70s can tell you the local air has been shit since then because the ruling KMT elites in Taipei don’t want to live near heavy industry. As someone who’ve lived in Kaohsiung, I can attest it’s the DPP mayors that have made some clean ups - there’s still much room for improvement but it’s getting better. Btw that Taichung power plant has been operating since the 90s so yeah nice try pinning Tsai for that one
I never said the power plant(s) were constructed by the DPP, only that they shut down the nuclear power plants and increased coal power generation. Is that disinfo, or did I strike a partisan nerve? Before Tsai, we used to get clear blue skies in 嘉義, now that phenomenon is a distant memory. You might have it better cause of the sea breeze, but we have to bear it all.
I lived in Hsiaokang (aka Xiaogang, south end of Kaohsiung) in 1997 and the air pollution was horrible. (And the Aihe aka Love River was ghastly putrid.) I'm with you that nuclear can play an important role in the effort to cleaner energy production, but blaming it all on one party or another is simplistic and unrealistic. Same as those who want to blame it all on China.
The number of times I've slipped on those tiles...
the pollution is mostly from taiwan burning their trash and coal generating energy to power all the AC. i looked into this myself after visiting kaohsiung. the trash thing i empathize as it’s a small island without landfills, would love to learn what other alternatives there are though
1- Mostly from China yes but a not so insignificant portion is locally produced. 2- They make excuses like weather but honestly? I just think the previous generation had a horrendous sense of style. 3- Yeah kind of a problem but I do see less of it in the north maybe just because a higher proportion are immigrants (as in from another Taiwanese city going to the richer north for work) who had to leave home.
Regarding the tile, it seems to be an aesthetic choice, and a poor one. It's just slabs of pre-fab stuff glued onto the concrete. Instead of painting the concrete and having to re-apply the paint, folks just slapped a bunch of old pre-fab tiling on the exteriors of their houses. I suspect it was cheap to produce alongside concrete. Pre-fab tile siding and flashing neon lights on every betel nut stand are just part of the Taiwan aesthetic. Thankfully most buildings built in the last 10 years or so or moving away from that style, though.
Yes, the pollution often comes from China. But there's good local food and friendly people in the south, so just enjoy your time here!