Taichung is a city where ladies like to be pampered and hang around in coffee shops. At least that’s what we’ve been told – but we can't confirm it, as all the women we met during our short stay seem to be very hard working. What we learnt, though, is that Taichung is a place quite far from Taipei – maybe not physically, but mentally. We got a warm welcome from Gideon Loewy and Chia-Ling Liao at Scandinavian Designers, our hosts for the day.
Their studio is nicely located on the first floor, keeping track of all street activity. After a look at what they’re up to in their office, we went over to Chaoyang University of Technology (CYUT) for a presentation to Gideon’s students in industrial design. Some of them will soon show their work at the young designers’ exhibition in Taipei, so we hope they got our message. If not, here’s a short repetition: find out who you are and what you’re good at, and then promote yourself so people around you and future employers can remember you, find you, and understand what you can do for them.
Post-presentation activities: a chat with the professors at the design department, a walk through the night market to try out the local grilled shrimps, an extensive ABBA sing-along session in the car with Gideon and Chia-Ling’s son Benjamin, and a late night discussion with his parents who were kind enough to let us stay at their place over the night. Whew, another intense day of nomadic life in Taiwan.