Sebastian and Taipei 101

When Taipei 101 was built, I thought it was ugly. It was this phallic thing that ruined the relatively smooth, mountainous, and not-so-modern skyline of Taipei. I thought the building simply embodies the desire of trans/national capitalists and their unrealistic dream to make Taipei into a global city like New York, Tokyo or Hong Kong. Taipei is a city, but it's not and never will be like New York, Tokyo or Shanghai because of its scale and local conditions. And "not being able to be a global city" is not necessarily a bad thing.

When I was pregnant with Sebastian, Taipei 101 suddenly became closer to my everyday life. The summer was scorching and sunny almost everyday, which makes the landmark quite visible when I got around the city by cab. Da-wei and I made several trips to PageOne the bookstore to get pregnancy and child-rearing books. Whenever I went for my pre-natal checkup at Chungshan Hospital, I saw it at the end of the Xinyi Rd. One night a week for five weeks, I attended a pre-delivery class at Taishin Bank's building. Its restroom has an excellent and unobstructed view of Taipei 101. During my post-partum recovery at the hospital, my room had another excellent view of the building. In fact, I could see it when I lay on the bed.

I recorded the color of the building light every night. I carried Sebastian to the window to see it. Someday I'll take him to the building to check it out.