The Tastes of Apples
The Tastes of Apples is a collection of short stories by the Taiwanese writer Huang Chunming. It depicted the lives of the Taiwanese people who were often poor working class and focused mainly how the economic and cultural change that was brought by the mainlanders and along with the idea of modernity deeply affected them.
This video is from its same-titled film adaptation and presents the cultural, linguistic, and dietary conflicts that these rural villagers had to experience. This short video was shot in a third person perspective and uses mainly close-up and medium distance shots, allowing the audiences to see the facial expressions of the villagers fully. In this video, a villager who is the head of the household was hit by the car of an official named Grey from the American Embassy. This alludes to the Western cultural invasion that Taiwan underwent in the 60s and 70s. Though he got hit, the entire family was allowed to experience material things that they otherwise could not enjoy. This video is filled with sarcastic details and dramatic irony in the actors’ lines and plot development. And there are some of them.
1.
The household moved from their villages to Taipei and the children are now required to speak Mandarin. Mother who only knows her dialect did not understand a word of the police and needed translation.
2.
On their way to the hospital, mother was worried about the health of the husband and how ironic that they came here for a better life and more opportunities but the man of the family ended up in the hospital. However, the child was thrilled and acted pretentiously in the rear window showing off to his classmates that he was in an American car, despite the fact that this same car just hit his father.
3.
The entire family came to the hospital to see the father but was stunned by the luxurious exterior. The children were running and playing. And women were looking around and checking things out in curiosity. None of these scenes matches our conventional idea of visiting the beloved one in the hospital.
4.
The official mentioned that it is actually their luck to get hit by Mr. Grey’s car. He said, if the man was hit by someone else, he may still be laying around on the cold ground of the road without being helped. This is absolutely a logical fallacy but no one could argue with him because sadly what he said could be true.
5.
There are apples in the room. The father asked all kids to grab one and eat. No one had eaten an apple before because it was really pricey at the time. It was sour but nevertheless, they all chose to take large bites and acted as if they loved it just because “these are expensive apples”.
The largest irony of this video is that the family actually was “benefited” by the tragic event, the head of the household hitten by a car. They saw the thing and ate apples they otherwise did not access to. But the question I think should be, who is there to judge whether the “reimbursement” and access to the fancy life actually benefit them? Are they really happy eating a sour but expensive apple? Are they really happy entering a fancy place that they’ve never been to and riding on an American car?
HI MAATAW蘭嶼你好
Maataw Island is the living place for native Taiwan race Tao People. It is a little island on the west Pacific Ocean. Maataw is a beautiful island with unique views because of its special weather. There are six tribes and about five thousand population on this island. It is an island that makes people want to live here forever.
Native people mainly eat sweet potatoes, water taro and flying fish for a living. The whole tribe would go to harvest water taros at the right time. Every family gets its own share of water taros. Fish is the main source of protein on this island. They divide fishes into elder fish, man fish and women fish. Elders get the worst blackfish. Dark green ones are given to men and women gets the best fish. Because women have to do farm work and take care of kids at the same time. So they eat the best in Maataw society. Elders cannot contribute anymore and they get the worst food. People think it is fair to divide food depending on contributions. Flying fish can be eaten by everyone.
Lunch for schools is transported by ships from Taiwan twice per week. However, they would bring enough food for a week if the weather is storming. Island people have changed their meals for better health of their children. The teacher is a very hard job on this island. Because not only do they have to prepare for classes, but also they need to be the lunch secretary which take care of lunches for the whole school. They have to change the lunch meal sometimes if food went bad on the road or the ship did not come in time. It is very hard to plant noodles wheat and rice on this island because of the terrain. But things have changed since several convenient stores came on to the island. Some parents would buy microwave food for their kids in those stores. People who live alone would buy some as well since it is not easy to cook alone.
Although some natives are still missing the days of sweet potatoes, water taros and fishes, but those were the results from the limitation of the island. But time has passed and the island has gotten a lot of development.
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