CEDRIC'S BUSINESS SCHOOL

NOTES FROM TAIWAN #11

CEDRIC'S BUSINESS SCHOOL

June 10th, 2008

I grew up, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, in the untamed back-country of Montana. I was reared by a pack of wolves until I was twelve, at which point I fought and defeated their alpha male, claiming pack dominance. We lived happy lives, my wolf children and I, for many years, prowling under those big mountain skies. I have wrestled bears, slain mountain lions, and survived -30 degree nights in nothing but a loincloth. I have lived for years on nothing but tree bark and squirrel meat. I am a mountain man.

At least that's the general picture people get when I tell them where I'm from. In reality, my origin state is a charming, quite place, home to friendly people, simple lives, and the most star-filled night skies you've ever seen. And actual air. My god, I've forgotten what breathing air is like.

Upon arriving in LA three years ago, my lungs had no choice but to forge themselves into iron-clad steam engines capable of drawing oxygen from even the most smog-filled breaths. Within several weeks, my body had trained itself to thrive in the harsh, polluted, Venus-like atmosphere of good ole South Central. I had become a battle ax.

But only after living in Taipei have I known what it is like to really become a creature of cockroach-like fortitude. The air is a little hard to breath, to say the least. It's still taking some getting used to. Every hot, humid breath is like standing over a boiling pot of water and taking a big whiff. I've never lived for an extended period of time in a really humid place. I feel like gills might be more useful than lungs at this point.

Lack of breathing ability aside, life in Taiwan continues to be magical, beautiful, heavenly, in my second week. I checked the numbers of my lottery ticket in the paper today (no dice), and headed to work, where I have been getting slammed like a skinny white guy in prison. I arrived at my internship a week ago thinking that I would do a few tasks for the company, maybe learn a few things, and get lots of facebook/blogging time in. No sir (as you can see by the fact that I've been writing about things OVER A MONTH LATER AHHHHH!!!). I have assumed the workload of a full time employee, and I don't exactly know what I'm doing. From editing every piece of English documentation the company produces to working on the event video to managing the company's emails to producing event budgets and schedules to anything else Cedric asks me to do, I have been a busy busy boy. I have definitely been learning a lot, and I regularly get some pretty helpful lessons from Cedric about small business management and event coordination and the like. I choose to call my company not by it's actual name of Infine Art & Culture Exchange, but rather a more appropriate title: Cedric's Business School. Every chance he gets, Cedric loves to talk to me (and the two girls) about anything related to the business.

Today I received another task. I'm not sure how this happened, but I think Cedric is under the impression that I am a full fledged graphic designer and animator. I did put that I was moderately experienced in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but I don't think I ever professed to be a designer. Our conversation at the meeting went a little like this:

CEDRIC:

"Okay everybody, for the logo design, Jeffrey will be in charge, since he is a design and animation major, right Jeffrey?"

JEFFREY:

"Uhhh, well not exactly..."

CEDRIC:

"Okay, great! So let me know when you have the first draft done!"

Somehow I, with practically no graphic design experience, had been tasked with designing the logo for the 2008 Taiwan European Film Festival which our company coordinates. Granted it's not the biggest film festival in the world, but with thousands of attendees last year, not to mention the festival being a representation for European culture to the Taiwanese audience, I was a little intimidated. So I sat down and started sketching ideas. The logo had to contain:

1) the text "2008 Taiwan European film festival" in both English and Chinese

2) an image that contained representations of a lighthouse, a film roll, and the stars of the European union in an image that conveyed European film and culture

3) the logo had convey all of the above in a 1" X 2" square and be readable from 15 feet away

Right.

So I spent the rest of the day drawing, quickly realizing that my minimal drawing talent had been reduced to practically nil in my 7 year hiatus from drawing. My lighthouse/film-roll depictions instead looked like giant phallic monstrosities that seemed more at home in a sex toy catalogue than on the poster advertising a film festival. I left the office a little disheartened, but happy by the fact that I had spent a whole day of work drawing doodles. I felt like a kid again.

Several times on the bus ride home, I saw on several adults get up out of their seats to let the boarding elderly folk sit down. It seems like such an obvious thing to do, but I rarely see such respect for elders in the states. No words, no "Thank you" or "You're Welcomes" were exchanged. They just did without needing to be thanked, because that's what everyone does here. I really admire a culture that treats its elderly with respect , instead of dealing with them by marginalizing them. Even teenagers, with a "fuck you world" expression permanently plastered on their faces, will offer their seat without a moment's hesitation. It is amazing to see this kindness and respect in all members of Taiwanese society. More importantly, it is amazing that the people treat each other with a kindness that is unrewarded and unheralded. That is, they don't need to be thanked, admired, or appreciated in order to do something nice for someone. They just do it.

Since the USC girls had dinner with their offices this night, the men grabbed dinner at a nearby buffet and contemplated spending the rest of the night at Hooters (not even the East is safe from that delightfully tacky yet unrefined American contribution to world culture) as part of our cultural exploration of Taiwan. After learning how expensive it was, we decided otherwise, and spent an uneventful night at the hotel. Maybe next time.