Good morning from Taiwan!
Good morning!
We’re starting the day with some breakfast here.
Looks really good.
We’re very hungry.
We’re going to share.
We got a few things.
Dumplings with soy sauce.
Smells delicious.
As well as turnip cake.
Also smells delicious.
Also with sauce.
Can you tell he’s smelling these for the first time?
Yes, wish we had ‘smell-o-vision’.
We also got a steamed pork bun. -Oh can’t smell that.
It’s in a bag so I can’t smell it.
And to drink, we both got milk tea.
Can never resist an opportunity to have more milk tea. -Never ever.
And we’ve got a big day ahead so we’re going to enjoy our breakfast.
We were just sitting here with our breakfast and this other person who was dining here
went to his car, came back, with this.
Put it on our table as a gift
and it’s a box of yams.
So nice!
Which he just gifted us.
It’s very heavy.
How cute is this!
And he just gave it to us.
It’s local and it’s very special.
He just gave us a big box of yams.
Very fitting for the sweet potato island.
Yes!
What a sweet gesture of the sweet potato.
And then because these are raw yams, the people at the restaurant here,
In another act of kindness, brought us this plate of cooked yams
so that we could smell and taste what it’s like when you cook what’s in the box.
So...
So, so nice.
What an incredible way to start our day. -That’s a great start.
I’ve got my cooked yams and my box of raw yams.
Both incredibly kind.
I’m going to just sit my arm on this box of yams.
I love how the milk tea has different pictures on top
and Marc, I hope you don’t mind,
I’m going to take the one where a guy is hanging from the monkey bars by his legs
because that is the energy that I want to bring to this day.
Just like that.
This is the most satisfying part.
That sound.
Bon appétit. -And I already shook it.
Thank you.
I feel like when I’m not in Taiwan, I often dream of having dumplings in Taiwan
and now I’m having dumplings in Taiwan.
For breakfast.
I’m going to try the turnip cake here.
Oh that’s delicious.
It’s very mild so it took a second.
I love the texture.
And the sauce that they put in just sort of seeps into it...the flavour.
It’s very squidgy.
Looks fun to eat.
It is.
And I just noticed,
the typhoon rains are coming down again.
There’s a typhoon right now.
We’re nice and covered but it’s interesting to experience a typhoon.
With a side of dumpling.
My favourite kind of typhoon. -Yes.
We’re all bundled up because we stopped by the Yehliu Geopark
to get a glimpse of this typhoon
and the waves are so rough.
We were actually supposed to visit the geopark today and the weather is so bad that it’s closed.
But we didn’t want to miss the chance to see the waves that are the cause of this park being closed.
The waves are definitely looking rough — it’s very, very windy.
There’s rain coming up onto the shore knocking things around.
The water is blowing every direction.
My hat almost went flying off.
But it’s really interesting to see this.
Yeah.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a typhoon before.
Not like this.
No.
And as long as you’re safely here on the shore, it actually looks quite spectacular.
We’re sitting in the van and it’s rainy out
and when we got back inside, I thought, ‘Oh wow, the back seats are heated.
I didn’t realize that.
I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced that in a van before'.
Then I realized…
I was sitting on top of my yams.
Seat warmers.
Because they’re still warm.
Is there anything yams can’t do?
And I’ve…I’ve partially crushed one because I was sitting on it.
That’s a good hack though.
I mean if you’re ever really cold, get cozy with some yams.
We’ve come to the Juming Museum because Ju Ming is a very well known, well loved artist in Taiwan.
His work has been seen all over the world — New York, Paris, London.
And this museum is really his largest artwork to date.
He bought the land himself here in Taiwan.
He wanted to have a place for his art.
He donated more than 2000 pieces from his personal collection
and he designed everything here from the architecture,
to the landscaping, even the plumbing and wiring so,
every detail here is just as Juming wants it to be.
It took over 12 years to finish the construction to fully execute Juming’s vision.
It finally opened in 1999
and since then, it’s been a place for people in Taiwan to come and enjoy Juming and share in his vision.
I know I’m looking at art but I can’t help but feel as if I’m inspecting the troops as well.
Juming’s son is also an artist and you can see his work here at the museum.
I personally love his zipper series here.
And there’s a pond that looks like it’s being unzipped to reveal the water.
There’s this pyramid-like structure that’s being zipped
and then a rock that’s being zipped open as well.
And the idea is to show a device — the zipper — made by humans to pull the earth apart
and open up space in the most unimaginable of places.
The rock, for example, suggests that there’s a softness to the rock
a nd if we can just open the zipper, we can find that softness within.
Technically there’s not a seat for me at this particular table
but I’m just going to pretend because I…
oh my god that’s a big bee.
Okay!
You stay away from me.
It’s like a small bird.
This is such a great example of one of Juming’s best known series,
the Living World Series.
He’s been working on this series for 20+ years.
He continues to, to this day
and it shows images of everyday life, real people, scenes from life,
and he says that it brings him a lot of joy to observe life, find the moments of beauty,
and then bring them to life through his art.
Because of the typhoon, I feel like as we’re walking around,
the weather just imbues everything with a sense of mood.
Yeah true. -Which really feels fitting here.
It does.
The military, the navy, and the airforce figure heavily into the Living World Series.
And nowhere can you see that better than this massive navy ship
with a big airplane beside it
and all of the servicemen sculpted in between.
One of the most popular spots to come within the grounds of the museum
is here to this place where you get a chance to see Juming’s Tai Chi Series.
These sculptures are made out of copper and some of them are absolutely enormous.
And they all show different movements of tai chi,
or they evoke the energy that you feel as you go through the tai chi movements.
The chi itself — the energy.
Typhoon!
We’ve certainly been experiencing all forms of weather today.
Yes!
The sun, not so much.
It’s a minor character today, the sun.
Definitely interesting touring a sculpture museum during a typhoon.
Yes.
It’s make for challenging circumstances. -Absolutely.
But nonetheless, I have just loved spending time here.
Yeah.
You really get the feeling of this being a place to see one person’s life work.
And knowing the hands-on…
Typhoon!
Literally holding onto our hats!
Okay.
Anyway.
Of course, seeing all of the pieces and the art itself is incredible but...
for me I think the greatest part of being here is knowing that this is the vision of Juming
down to every last detail
and in a way you get the chance to step into another person’s mind for a moment and kind of occupy that space
because this is the vision that was in his mind that came out over the course of years of building this to what it is.
Yeah for sure.
Yeah this place just totally caught us by surprise.
And what a wonderful surprise. -What a surprise.
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