idol drama

So last week, I introduced Black & White, one of the few idol dramas set in southern Taiwan, and the idol drama most closely associated with the city of Kaohsiung. This is a continuation of that discussion … starting with certain personal observations.

The Taiwanese Pride/Shame Complex

You all probably know this about the culture of the United States, but I’m going to spell it out to make the contrast with Taiwanese culture clearer.

The society of the United States is very proud. Proud to the point that it is unwilling to accept criticism, especially from outsiders. The United States is #1, regardless of objective evidence. It is difficult for the United States to pick up lessons from other societies. In other words, the United States goes beyond pride into the territory of arrogance.

Even in pockets of the United States such as, oh, San Francisco and Berkeley, which openly criticize “mainstream” American culture, getting people to accept criticism aimed at them is pretty tough. People in San Francisco and Berkeley are just as assured that they are #1 as anyone else in the United States, and I say that as someone born in Berkeley and raised in San Francisco.

Taiwan is different. In this respect, Taiwan is very different.

Taiwanese people are certainly proud of some parts of their society. They are generally proud of the local tea, for example. Many are also proud of how they have preserved “Chinese” culture (though how they define “Chinese” varies from person to person—some are proud of the continued use of traditional characters, whereas others are proud of the preservation of, say, Hakka culture, so one also has to be careful of what someone means when they say “Chinese”). Many are also proud of the beautiful local scenery, such as Yushan, the highest mountain in East Asia.

However, the two things which are most apparently successful to a casual outsider—the technology industry, and the development of democracy —tend to elicit more mixed feelings from the Taiwanese. It’s not that they aren’t proud of their achievements in technology and democracy (they are) but their awareness of the continuing problems in both tempers their attitude. Perhaps this is wise.

But when I bring up many aspects of their society—education, comics (manhua), child care, fashion, once in a while even the food (which mystifies me, as someone who prefers Taiwanese food to “mainstream” American food), Taiwanese people tell me that Taiwan is not [as good] as [some other society, particularly Japan, the United States, western Europe and, sometimes, South Korea or even China].

I think some of this is just being polite. In Taiwan, being boastful is considered rude, and the proper way to respond to praise is to claim that one does not deserve such praise.

On the other hand, Taiwanese often seem to feel they have been abandoned by the world. They aren’t a part of the UN; many people don’t know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand; and when they see media from the outside world (and they see a lot—the movies come from United States, the comics come from Japan, the TV dramas come from South Korea, etc.) they rarely see/hear Taiwan being mentioned. So when some Taiwanese people claim that Taiwan is not such a good place, I think I sometimes do perceive a lack of confidence which goes a bit deeper than common etiquette.

I think that this humility has its positive side. Taiwan the most gender-equal, queer-friendly, and religiously tolerant society in Asia, as well as having one of the lowest levels of inter-ethnic strife among multi-ethnic Asian societies. I think this can largely be attributed to the Taiwanese people’s willingness to admit that their society has problems (I don’t think it can be explained by democracy, since South Korea and Japan are also democracies yet are further behind Taiwan when it comes to gender equality and the treatment of queer people).

But just as having low self-esteem in oneself takes a psychological toll, having low esteem in one’s own society also takes its toll.

And for Taiwanese people who come from less privileged regions (in simplistic terms, anywhere outside of Taipei), the sense of shame seems to go just a little deeper.

Which Kaohsiung Is In the Drama?

The Kaohsiung featured in Black & White is the newly cleaned-up Kaohsiung, beautified by international designers, with trendy cafes, contemporary art, good public transit, and plenty of space for recreation. As the story progresses, the drama also addresses some of the less glamorous aspects of the city, such as homelessness and corruption. ‘

But what I found particularly striking was what was not shown in the drama.

In The Outsiders 2, there is a character from Kaohsiung, and the way they rub in that the character is from Kaohsiung is that all of his dialogue is in Taiwanese. It is part of idol drama logic that everyone from the south speaks Taiwanese. And when I ask (northern) Taiwanese people to describe southern Taiwan, one of the most common things they say is ‘everyone speaks Taiwanese’ or ‘Taiwanese is the main language’ or something along those lines.

Yet, in all of Black & White I don’t recall a single dialogue in Taiwanese.

I’m not saying there was zero Taiwanese in Black & White—most Taiwanese people put some Taiwanese words in their Mandarin speech—and there could have been some dialogue in Taiwanese which I simply missed. But I am confident that more English than Taiwanese was spoken in the drama.

And for a TV series which so prominently features southern Taiwan, that seems wrong.

Or is it?

I was just a visitor in Kaohsiung, so I didn’t get to observe the city in a deep way. I did notice that people in my age group would usually talk to each other in Mandarin—even if they had spent their entire lives in Kaohsiung, and they weren’t talking to me (I don’t speak Taiwanese). I needed interpretation into Taiwanese only once during my entire trip … and generally, I heard a lot more Mandarin than Taiwanese spoken (this may reflect the fact that I was mostly hanging around people in my own age group. When observing older people, I heard a lot more Taiwanese).

This is a picture I took in Kaohsiung. I don’t remember what language they were speaking in, but they look like the kind of people who would speak in Taiwanese.

This drama is clearly aimed at the younger generation, as opposed to dramas such as Fated to Love You which are made for a wider age range. As such, I have to say that the choice of using Mandarin almost exclusively was appropriate.

Yet there is a broader issue at hand.

Sure, in Kaohsiung, I saw the shiny new stuff, including the cleaned-up Love river, the MRT system, the renewed harbor-side area, the parks, other recreation areas, etc. But I also saw some of the interesting old stuff. I stayed in Fengshan, an older area, and visited Cijin Island, a historic district, and the Zuoying district, which, aside from the shiny new HSR station, has the highest number of temples per squre kilometer of anywhere in Taiwan. These are all tourist draws (even Fengshan gets some tourist action because of the night market) … yet I don’t recall seeing any of it reflected in Black & White.

This is a picture I took in the Cijin district.

Indeed, it seems that Black & White doesn’t show any aspect of Kaohsiung which is older than the Tuntex Sky Tower (completed in 1997). No historic districts, no Taiwanese language, no sign of heavy industry (Kaohsiung was once the center of heavy industry in Taiwan).

This is a picture I took in the Zuoying district.

Again, I must stress that I was just a visitor in Kaohsiung, I am not deeply familiar with the city, and that my thoughts are based on what I saw and heard. I’m sure I missed a lot.

To me, Black & White‘s depiction of Kaohsiung seems shallow. While it thoroughly explores the new Kaohsiung, it shows almost nothing of the old Kaohsiung. And since, as a causal visitor, I still managed to see some of the old Kaohsiung (and not necessarily on purpose), the makers of Black & White must have made an effort not to show any of that. And that absense sticks out to me.

It’s almost as if they are trying to hide the old Kaohsiung.

The Effect on the City … and the People

So far, I have been talking about how the city has influenced the drama. But how has the drama influenced the city?

Based on my observation, quite a bit.

While more people have seen Fated to Love You, I have seen Taiwanese people express much more enthusiasm for Black & White. And I think it’s because it’s helped fill in a hole in their psyche.

I don’t want to spoil the story but, so I’ll just say that, even though Pizi and Yingxiong are now star cops in the Kaohsiung police force, they had previously suffered neglect. Their confident exteriors cover up psychological wounds which haven’t fully healed. This can be interpreted as a metaphor for Taiwan as a whole, and southern Taiwan more specifically. Taiwan now has shiny tall buildings, sophisticated electronics manufacturing, and is a cultural exporter (Ang Lee is the best known cultural export in the United States, but there are many others who are well known, in one way or another, in many Asian countries). Yet in spite of all of the smartphones, DSL lines, and other high tech, many places still don’t have a modern sewer system. This kind of juxtaposition feeds into the pride/shame complex I have observed in Taiwanese people.

I think, by validating their experiences, this drama resonates with Taiwanese people who had to leave their hometowns for economic reasons, as well as the people who stayed behind and directly suffered from this neglect. In other words, it resonates with the majority of the (younger) Taiwanese population.

And the city itself has taken the drama and run with it. I could see Black & White paraphernalia all over the place, including stuff produced directly by the city government.

Availability in English

The DVD set has English subtitles, and is available for sale at YesAsia.com (among other places). It’s a bit pricey, but then again, it is cheaper than a round-trip full-fare high-speed train ticket between Taipei and Zuoying.

Conclusion

I travelled to Kaohsiung with friends who live in Taipei, but who have family ties to Kaohsiung. When they got their Kaohsiung transit cards, they were excited to see that all transit cards had a Black & White theme. They visited some places specifically because some scene from Black & White had been filmed there (whereas I generally had to see the interesting old traditional stuff on my own). Being with them shaped the way I viewed the city … and the way I view this drama.

Indeed, I think the fact that, not only was their city featured in an idol drama, but in one of the highest-quality idol dramas every made, means more to the people of Kaohsiung than all of trendy cafes and public art spaces.

This drama has helped lower the shame and increase the pride Taiwanese people feel towards their society and, by extension, themselves. And that is why it is important.

Next Week: Fluffy Fluff Fluff

This was the hardest post yet for this column. Sara K. simply must write something very fluffy for next week (otherwise, she would have to go on hiatus). She is also afraid that she has grossly misinterpreted Taiwanese culture, and that this post will haunt her forever. On the other hand, if she never said anything at all due to fear of exposing her misinterpretations, she would never blog. On a completely different note, she saw monkeys today. Wild monkeys. In the wild. That happens once in a while in Taiwan.

If you asked me what the most important idol dramas ever made are, I would answer Meteor Garden (adapted from Hana Yori Dango) and Black & White. Meteor Garden, of course, as the first idol drama ever made, defined the entire genre, and was extremely influential not only in Taiwan, but also Japan, South Korea, China, the Philipines, Thailand, and beyond. However, while Black & White has not had Meteor Garden‘s international reach, its effect on Taiwan itself, based on my subjective observation, has been deeper. Most of this post is about this effect, rather than reviewing the drama itself.

Quick Story Overview

Kaohsiung Police Department’s top two crime solvers are Chen Zaitian (nicknamed Pǐzi – “Ruffian”) and Wu Yingxiong (Yīngxióng means “Hero”). Pizi goes around wearing snazzy white suits, hanging out at trendy cafes, sleeping with women, and working the sleaze circuit in ordet to ferret out clues. On the other hand, Yingxiong, who usually is wearing black, is brave, has a very strong sense of justice, personally sets out to right wrongs and, well, he generally acts like a hero. Unfortunately, he’s not very patient or subtle.

The Kaohsiung Police Department assigns these two to work on a case together. Oh dear.

Actually, this description makes this story sound a bit like something else I’ve discussed in this column. I guess there are no new plots.

About the Main Actors

The main actors, of course, are Vic Chou as Chen Zaitian, and Mark Chao as Wu Yingxiong.

Vic Chou as Chen Zaitian (Pizi) and Mark Chao as Wu Yingxiong

Vic Chou is one of the top idol drama actors ever. He debuted in Meteor Garden as Huazelei (Hanazawa Rui). However, he didn’t really show his full potential until he was cast as Ling (Rei) in Mars. I think his popularity is justified, and I have a lot of respect for him as an actor. While he needs a good script to show his talent (most actors do), his performances in both Mars and Black & White are excellent.

Mark Chao, on the other hand, is better known as a singer than as an actor. This is the only time he has ever appeared in a TV drama … yet he won the Golden Bell Award (the Taiwanese equivalent of the Emmy Award) for Best Leading Actor. His other notable acting performance is as Wenzi (the main character) in the blockbuster film Monga. When I say Monga was a blockbuster, I mean that it was the #1 film in the Taiwanese box office during its run in theaters … and it ran in theaters at the same time as James Cameron’s Avatar. Mark Chao also sings the opening song for Black & White.

But, while Vic Chou and Mark Chao are both celebrities and play the main characters, neither is the true star of the drama. The true star, of course, is Kaohsiung.

The City

Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s second-largest city, Taiwan’s largest port, and the largest city in southern Taiwan. Over the last ten years, Kaohsiung has gone through a great transformation.

In older accounts, Kaohsiung is called an ugly, highly-polluted, boring hellhole where the tap water is laced with heavy metals (including lead and arsenic), and which should be avoided unless one must be there for economic reasons. However, nowadays people are always telling me about how nice Kaohsiung is.

What changed? Mostly, government policy.

For a long time, Kaohsiung, aside from some key business interests, had been neglected by the government, which is one reasons why the city had such severe problems.

Then a funny thing called democracy appeared in Taiwan. In fact, most historians say that the ‘Kaohsiung Incident’ was a turning point for the Taiwanese democracy movement. It is worth noting that Kaohsiung suffered more under authoritarian rule than Taipei did, so it was not a coincidence the human rights activists were organizing there.

Of course, governmental reform took decades – Taiwan didn’t have its first free and fair presidential election until 1996. And even then, it took time to shift policies. But shift they did (to what extent, of course, is a subject of heated debate).

The major changes to Kaohsiung happened under the leadership of Mayor Frank Hsieh, and continued under Kaohsiung’s current mayor, Chen Chu (Chen Chu was one of the “Kaohsiung Eight,” and is the only woman to have ever been mayor of a major Taiwanese city). The government reduced pollution, improved the sewage system, built an MRT system, created many parks and recreation areas, hired international designers to beautify the city, and otherwise turned Kaohsiung into a much more livable place.

Of course, it wasn’t only the government that was neglecting Kaohsiung. It was also the cultural media. The vast majority of Mandarin-language dramas are filmed in northern Taiwan – either in Taipei itself, or, if they want to have a more rustic feel and/or reduce filming costs, neighboring areas such as Taoyuan or Yilan county (I do not know enough about Taiwanese (Hokkien) language dramas to comment on them, but most younger people in Taiwan don’t watch them anyway). I think this type of cultural neglect has a psychological effect on people.

North vs. South

Like almost every inhabited place on Earth, Taiwan has regional divisions, and the big one is north vs. south. In Taiwan, the north is definitely richer, more powerful, more economically robust, better infrastructure, etc. It is telling that when many people think of Taiwan, they think of Taipei, Taiwan’s northernmost major city. And Taipei also happens to be the capital (political power).

Northern Taiwan is also the center of ‘Chinese’ culture in Taiwan. When I say “Chinese,” I mean the culture of the people who moved from China to Taiwan in the middle of the 20th century. For example, Mandarin is spoken more in northern Taiwan (ex-Yilan) than anywhere else in Taiwan. Likewise, Taiwanese/Hokkien is less spoken in northern Taiwan (again, ex-Yilan) than anywhere else in Taiwan.

However, southern Taiwan is the center of Taiwanese/Hoklo culture (note: some people prefer to refer to it as “Taiwanese” culture because they consider it to be the true heritage of Taiwanese society, whereas other people prefer to refer to it as “Hoklo” to emphasize that it is only one of Taiwan’s traditions, and that the other cultural traditions are just as ‘Taiwanese’ as the Hoklo one – I am trying to be neutral, so I will use both terms). In particular, Tainan, Taiwan’s oldest city and former capital, is considered the heart of traditional Taiwanese/Hoklo culture.

A further wrinkle is that many residents of nothern Taiwan are originally from southern Taiwan. Due to the better economic and educational opportunities, many people from other regions of Taiwan move to the north, but still have family and cultural connections to their native region. And many have moved from Kaohsiung to the north (especially Taipei). The reverse is a lot less common. Thus many people in northern Taiwan actually identify with the south on some level.

While Kaohsiung does not carry the historical and cultural weight of Tainan, it is also a symbol of the south, and for many Taiwanese people, arguably a majority of Taiwanese people, the south is their ‘native’ land.

Kaohsiung’s Own Idol Drama

Black & White is not the first idol drama set in Kaohsiung. For example, Prince Turns into Frog, another popular idol drama, is also set in Kaohsiung. However, in Prince Turns into Frog, the setting seemed incidentle – though they occasionally included shots of Kaohsiung’s landmarks, it could have just as easily been filmed in northern Taiwan.

That most certainly is not the case of Black & White. It has Kaohsiung all over it. The opening song features Kaohsiung prominently; the ending song also features the city prominently. The first episode features Formosa Boulevard Station, Kaohsiung’s most notable MRT station. There are some scenes in the Yuansu Yujhu fashion area, which is Kaohsiung’s equivalent of Taipei’s Ximending and Tokyo’s Harajuku. The climax of the story takes place in the middle of Kaohsiung’s most famous feature, it’s harbor. The city is clearly featured in every single episode. I have seen no other idol drama which puts as much emphasis on place as Black & White.

In fact, I wonder if the MRT system was featured so prominently in the drama to encourage people to ride it. I know that it has been a disappointment due to the low ridership. People (both Taiwanese and foreign) have told me that the Kaohsiung MRT ‘sucks’, but I found it very useful. If I had spent more time in Kaohsiung, I might have figured out why it ‘sucks’, but for now it seems to me that the problem lies in people’s attitudes rather than the MRT system itself (granted, there are also claims of corruption in the construction of the MRT system, which is a totally different issue).

This has very high production values for a idol drama. I don’t just mean the special effects and cinematography; the producers pulled in top acting talent (see above), got really good writers on the project, and had a very clear commitment to quality across the board.

It’s as if Black & White tried to compensate for decades of media neglect in one fell swoop.

So, What’s Next

This is one of those posts which ended up being a bit long, so I’ve broken it into two parts. Normally, I try to post two-parters in the same week … but this week I’m really busy, so part two will be posted next week. In part two, I discuss, among other things, how the drama depicts the city, how the city depicts the drama, how to get this drama in English (hint: it can be done legally), and some personal observations.

See you next week…

Sara K. spend a couple years living in Oakland, California. When she thinks of Oakland, she thinks of the majestic cranes at the port (when she was a kid, she thought they were dinosaurs). So when she sees the cranes of any port city, she always feels a tinge of childhood wonder, as will as a light, wispy, fleeting sense of home.