Shilin's Fresh Familiarity

July 6, 2008


During preschool, elementary and middle school, my family would visit Taiwan just about every summer for a month a time. Besides games of bi-yen-jing/closed eyes (essentially a more hazardous version of blindman's buff with furniture obstacles) with Celestine and Grace, one of my fondest memories of these trips was marveling at the delicious array of food and sights at Taiwan's unique nightmarkets. I hadn't been to an large nightmarket since my last trip to Taiwan as a sophomore in high school.

So when Celestine and I made our way to Shilin Night Market, one of Taiwan's largest and more famous nightmarkets, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shilin_Night_Market) on Sunday, the experience was a curious mix of memories and feelings, resulting in a fresh familiarity. The perpetual 10 year olds/tomboys in us immediately stopped at the first balloon shooting stall. Wielding our guns with a gravitas inappropriate for the activity, Celestine popped 8/10 balloons while I managed 7/10.



We each earned three points in return. But six points is only enough to redeem a prize in the first row, a sad selection of cheap plastic figurines and Slinkies. We decided that we deserved more after 100 NTD and some serious effort. I petitioned the guy for mercy, complaining that the prizes in the first row were purposely crappy and not worth choosing from. Play some more, he told us. A few steadfast refusals on our part later, he relented and asked us which prize we had set our sights on. As we pointed to the Chinese chess set (8 points!) in the second row, he quickly glanced over at his boss, swiftly plucked it from the gallery and set it in my hands. :D Yay.


Normally unexpected, spontaneous and often random sights, smells, sounds and occurrences are in fact quite common and usual at Taiwan nightmarkets. It's incredible that such a variety of things are present in one place.

Below is a medley of images from Shilin.


Grace's favorite: quail eggs.



Puppies for sale; this one resembles an old man...I love it.

This one makes me miss my Matthew.



An observation worth noting: Virtually all the guys I have seen here with girlfriends carry their purses for them. This man's hands are folded so protectively and obediently over his girl's pink, satin ribboned tote. An endearing habit!