Greetings from Taipei
I have survived the raging wind and pelting rain of Typhoon Sepat! Actually, being sequestered in a luxury hotel in Taipei meant that I was completely safe, could not even hear the howling wind and suffered no power outage. Unable to leave the hotel, I slept through the worst of the storm. The only thing I have had to suffer was a change to my travel plans. All and all, things are going very well. I have been exceedingly well cared for by friends, friends-of-friends, former students and complete strangers. People speak English surprisingly well and if they don’t, they will still do the best they can to help.
I took two Chinese classes via one of my English students before coming, but I’m hopeless. I can only manage HELLO and THANK YOU. I do seem to recognize some words like, basic numbers, ENGLISH, TNU and names of streets. I can even read two words – the symbol for the Taiwan dollar and the symbol for EXIT. Thankfully, the language issue is not really a probably, in fact, I speak no Chinese and have been getting along better here than I did in France in May and actually, I do speak some French. The Taiwanese are universally impressive with their language skills and their willingness to accommodate English-speaking foreigners. (Although I am aware that things are different when one gets outside the major cities.)
My key contact here is GY – a colleague of mine from graduate school. G has been very helpful in getting me connected with people in the film and theatre community. She has a very formidable position here as a professor of acting at Taiwan National University and she is widely known and well respected in the theatre world of Taipei. Via other channels including my networking from Cannes, I have been able to meet with people who are working in film and have begun to share my film project with them. This is leading to a lot of further networking and excellent advise regarding things I can do to make this short-to-feature international co-production a real possibility.
I had one very helpful and lovely meeting with a very powerful woman in the Taiwanese film world. She works with several organizations and companies (APFF, FPA and MPD among others), JJ came to my hotel late on Friday evening wanting to meet with me before the typhoon hit. She had many great ideas for me, knows just about everyone there is to know in the community and was exceedingly hospitable. The topic of Thornton Wilder’s play, OUR TOWN, came up. This play is highly respected and admired in Taiwan and I was pleased to be able to share with her the fact that I drafted CONTEMPLATING EMILY in the very same room/cottage where Wilder first drafted OUR TOWN at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH. This connection with one of America’s greats was very moving for her and I think helped endear my passionate journey with this project to her.
I have not done much sightseeing yet, but will go to the National Palace Museum this afternoon. I did however visit a small paper-making museum/factory across the street from my hotel. I took the video camera and had a lovely time filming kindergarteners making paper. I also took a yoga class at Space Yoga Center in the An-Ho district. That was a fun adventure. The class was an astanga class taught in English by a Brit.
For those of you who have followed the adventures of my film project, you may know that the protagonist is loosely based on a Taiwanese student I had many years ago at Baurch College in New York. ML and I spoke on the phone yesterday for the first time in eight years. She lives in Taichung and we will see one another on Monday. She knows very little about the project and it will be exciting for me to share with her the journey I have had so far with this story. I am really looking forward to seeing her.
I leave on Monday for Taichung. I will be there for a couple of days and then will continue south to Kaohsiung. Another student of mine from Hunter College has graciously made arrangements for me to stay at a beautiful hotel while there. I am planning to then return to Taipei on Friday and will fly back to New York on Sunday.
More in a few days, Sarah
I took two Chinese classes via one of my English students before coming, but I’m hopeless. I can only manage HELLO and THANK YOU. I do seem to recognize some words like, basic numbers, ENGLISH, TNU and names of streets. I can even read two words – the symbol for the Taiwan dollar and the symbol for EXIT. Thankfully, the language issue is not really a probably, in fact, I speak no Chinese and have been getting along better here than I did in France in May and actually, I do speak some French. The Taiwanese are universally impressive with their language skills and their willingness to accommodate English-speaking foreigners. (Although I am aware that things are different when one gets outside the major cities.)
My key contact here is GY – a colleague of mine from graduate school. G has been very helpful in getting me connected with people in the film and theatre community. She has a very formidable position here as a professor of acting at Taiwan National University and she is widely known and well respected in the theatre world of Taipei. Via other channels including my networking from Cannes, I have been able to meet with people who are working in film and have begun to share my film project with them. This is leading to a lot of further networking and excellent advise regarding things I can do to make this short-to-feature international co-production a real possibility.
I had one very helpful and lovely meeting with a very powerful woman in the Taiwanese film world. She works with several organizations and companies (APFF, FPA and MPD among others), JJ came to my hotel late on Friday evening wanting to meet with me before the typhoon hit. She had many great ideas for me, knows just about everyone there is to know in the community and was exceedingly hospitable. The topic of Thornton Wilder’s play, OUR TOWN, came up. This play is highly respected and admired in Taiwan and I was pleased to be able to share with her the fact that I drafted CONTEMPLATING EMILY in the very same room/cottage where Wilder first drafted OUR TOWN at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH. This connection with one of America’s greats was very moving for her and I think helped endear my passionate journey with this project to her.
I have not done much sightseeing yet, but will go to the National Palace Museum this afternoon. I did however visit a small paper-making museum/factory across the street from my hotel. I took the video camera and had a lovely time filming kindergarteners making paper. I also took a yoga class at Space Yoga Center in the An-Ho district. That was a fun adventure. The class was an astanga class taught in English by a Brit.
For those of you who have followed the adventures of my film project, you may know that the protagonist is loosely based on a Taiwanese student I had many years ago at Baurch College in New York. ML and I spoke on the phone yesterday for the first time in eight years. She lives in Taichung and we will see one another on Monday. She knows very little about the project and it will be exciting for me to share with her the journey I have had so far with this story. I am really looking forward to seeing her.
I leave on Monday for Taichung. I will be there for a couple of days and then will continue south to Kaohsiung. Another student of mine from Hunter College has graciously made arrangements for me to stay at a beautiful hotel while there. I am planning to then return to Taipei on Friday and will fly back to New York on Sunday.
More in a few days, Sarah
posted by Sesame at 5:24 PM
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