CONFERENCE IN TAIWAN PROVIDES "EYE-OPENING" CULTURAL EXPERIENCE

Traveling to Taiwan was exactly as I imagined it to be, but somehow being there changed me, and my experience in this country has become engrained as part of my identity. Taiwan is a beautiful country, and Taipei an inviting metropolis that combines amazing historical and cultural places with modern technology. The city is home to lovely art and cultural museums; the National Palace Museum houses an incredible selection of artifacts from historical China, and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum has exhibitions originating from around the world. But it wasn't until I stepped outside of the institutions that I began to understand the energy and liveliness that is so apparent in the residents. It was incredible to stretch myself and my meager Mandarin skills to talk with people, and get a little closer to their way of living. The mélange of corporations and institutions with individual businesses lends to an interesting combination of personal connection and globalization. There are always hundreds of scooters zipping around the roads next to trucks and cars and buses and bicycles. People choose between Starbucks and personal food stands when stopping for breakfast. And in the evenings youth will either go to bars and clubs, or else to night markets where“traditional” food such as candied tomatoes, dumplings, and fried mushrooms are sold.

The students of Soochow University were incredibly welcoming and accommodating. We wouldn't have been able to explore the city nearly as personally without their hospitality and willingness to guide us. Also it was incredible how rapidly they moved beyond simple small talk to discussing important philosophical questions and delving into issues of nationalism and international politics. Because the philosophy students typically study their texts in English, they have incredibly well-developed, complex vocabulary, given how recently they learned English, which is great for discourse. Outside of the intellectual realm, many of the other students were somewhat bashful and shy, though always very friendly. I was living in a tiny room with four other girls. The beds were lofted, so each of us had our elevated bed with a desk and wardrobe underneath, and in the middle was a space about two feet wide and seven feet long to walk in and out. It was quite cozy, but the students seemed to cope with the closeness by respecting each other's needs for quiet to study or just decompress. The dorm was all women and was locked from midnight until 5 a.m. each day. When men visited (only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.) they needed to sign in specially and wear a specific jacket identifying them. The student body in general seemed quite a bit more conservative than Haverford, though this is understandable considering that basically freshmen live on campus, and it is a Protestant university.

The conference was a growing and enlightening experience in its own right as well. Even though Naturalized Epistemology is not what I want to study, it was useful to see how a philosophy conference works, and fascinating to watch and participate in the interactions among philosophers from around the world. The participants were together all day from breakfast until after dinner, and conversations quickly moved beyond introductions to discussions about the days' events, and the different experiences of teaching philosophy internationally. It was so stimulating to participate in discourse with such respected, educated intellectuals. It was also useful to realize that just because these people are successful does not mean that they necessarily have coherent, intelligible arguments. One of the main presenters turned out to be quite close-minded, and unable to recognize the significant holes in his paper. On the other hand, the other presenters were inspiring in their philosophical explorations of human consciousness and experience.

Overall, it was a remarkable experience. It was eye-opening to see and begin to understand another way of living, and it was also personally growth-inducing, to come to terms with some of the minor difficulties we faced as outsiders. One of the other students on the trip mentioned that it was the first time he had been in a position of being a racial minority. I, however, hardly noticed this distinction, because I felt so conscious of my gender. Professor [Danielle] Macbeth was the only woman philosopher at the conference, and I was the only woman student who did not attend Soochow. While there was no overt sexism, I noticed people noticing that I was a woman, which was not something I had experienced before. I don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing though, it was just something else to learn about myself in a new environment, which was a theme of the trip. Noticing the way of life in Taiwan, and how I related to that, was most certainly the highlight of this incredible trip.

—Allyn Gaestel '09