We started our travel day by making our way to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts and the museum itself is spacious and thoughtfully curated, with both traditional and contemporary works that really stick with you. One of my favorite parts was a darkened room filled with projectors showing footprints and slow movements. It was Tsai Ming-Liang’s “Walking Meditation” piece, which created such a tranquil and introspective atmosphere. The way the projectors cast each footstep as if in slow motion felt deeply meditative, reminding me how often we forget to simply be present.
Another powerful work I saw was Xie Deging’s (Hsieh Teh-Ching) “One-Year Performance 1978-1979 (Cage Piece)”. This piece was so intense and it documented the artist living inside a wooden cage for an entire year. No talking, no reading, no distractions. Just time passing, marked with one tally per day and the dates etched on the wall. It was such a raw and moving meditation on solitude, time, and human limits. The fact that he gave this piece to his old teacher as a gesture of gratitude just made it all the more meaningful. It made me think a lot about what we do with our time, and how much of life is about enduring structure even when we think we’re free but we aren’t. Another piece I liked was Daniel Lee’s (Li Xiaojing) self-portraits, part of his “Portraits of All Beings” series. The pieces are digital prints where he morphs his own features with those of apes and other animals, using evolutionary theory as a base. The result is these haunting, humanish figures that explore identity in the age of technology. He talked about how tech changes our bodies and lives and our brains growing with knowledge, our eyes narrowing from screen use, yet our ears remaining the same because listening always matters. It was eerie and poetic and I originally though it was an evolution piece in a physical way so the explanation was cool.
After the museum, we checked into our hotel and relaxed for a bit our feet definitely needed the break. But by evening, we were ready for something more lively. I headed to one of Kaohsiung’s famous night markets, and it will never get old I was just as excited as the first time I went in Taipei. When we got there, we were hit with a wave of oil, grilled meats, sweet dough, and spices. Neon signs were everywhere and vendors called out in sing-song voices although we had no idea what they were saying, the whole place was filled with energy as always. We started with scallion pancakes, hot off the griddle crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside it was a safe choice, they are always so good. Then we grabbed some grilled squid on skewers which was the second time I tried it and I didn’t like it but at least now I know for sure. To squishy and fishy for me.
We also tried bao buns filled with braised pork belly they were fluffy and slightly sweet and in the same vendor we tried a cup of sugarcane juice, freshly pressed on the spot, icy cold and naturally sweet because it was so hot outside. I got a passion fruit green tea with boba, because you can’t go to a Taiwanese night market and not get bubble tea. For dessert, we shared a bowl of mango shaved ice, topped with condensed milk and tiny mochi cubes. The mango was so fresh and juicy, and the ice was like snow I will definatly be getting it again. We wandered the market for a while longer playing carnival games, browsing quirky trinkets and phone cases. We left full and happy and went back to the hotel to go to sleep.