Coming Home to Taiwan

In December of 2024, I took a family trip back home to Taiwan. Normally, I would load myself up with cameras, but this time, the only film camera I brought was my Contax T2 to keep it simple. I had no major agenda beyond wandering, reflecting and soaking up as much as I could from my motherland. While I shared some photos and thoughts on Instagram, I wanted to make sure these memories live on here.

TAIPEI

I never thought of myself as a city girl but I just hadn’t found the right one: Taipei. Despite 11 years passing since my previous visit, the feelings of comfort were palpable the moment I stepped outside. A true sense of belonging in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. I’ve never been so homesick for somewhere else before. I dream about the alleyways, the side streets lined with scooters and lush tropical green growing wildly between tiled sidewalks, the air conditioner cluttered building facades, the entryways with mail slots and house slippers resting next to plastic buckets. The unassuming and welcoming atmosphere of people who look like me moving about daily life. May my photographs be a love letter to a city where I feel safe and seen.

Some of my iPhone snaps from my Taipei wanderings:

JIUFEN

While visiting Taipei, we took a side trip to spend 24 hours in Jiufen 九份, a small seaside mountain town not too far from where I was born 43 years ago. While the tiny tourist packed Jishan Street alleyways and stairwells that inspired Miyazaki’s Spirited Away charmed me immensely, it’s the mile walk back to our homestay that my daydreams keep coming back to. The road lined with small home shops away from the action reminded me of Pingtung, my mother’s hometown in Southern Taiwan. A place where I spent stifling hot and humid childhood summers wandering the streets visiting family friends and watching my uncle catch fish at the beach.