Category — Taiwan

Here are some amazing pictures of an abandoned housing complex called San Zhi outside of Taipei, Taiwan.

It was apparently built in the early 1980s as a series of vacation homes marketed towards affluent Taipei residents seeking to get out of the city.

The speculation about why the site was abandoned varies, with the most interesting being that a series of fatal accidents occurred during construction, causing locals to believe the site was haunted, and therefore instigating the developer’s decision to stop construction (and also putting a stop to any future redevelopment).

Technorati Tags: abandoned housing complex, San Zhi, Taipei, Taiwan

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Square watermelons carved with the Olympic logo are displayed during a news conference by the Chinese Agricultural Association (CAEA) in Taipei, China, on October 17, 2007.

CAEA said on Wednesday that supermarkets in China and Taiwan have ordered around 50,000 square watermelons, which cost about 200 TWD ($6) each to produce.

Via Activate.us

Technorati Tags: China, Olympics, square watermelons, Taiwan

For their Spring/Summer collection 2007, Italian design firm Alessi collaborated with the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and created The Chin Family, a collection of East Asian inspired kitchen utensils.

Technorati Tags: Alessi, kitchen utensils, National Palace Museum in Taiwan, products, The Chin Family

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Here’s a nicely composed shot of the Lunar Eclipse as seen from Taipei. The different positions were combined with PhotoShop.

From Flickr via Neatorama

Technorati Tags: Lunar Eclipse, photography, Taipei, Taiwan

Alice Wang has an excellent portfolio of conceptual product design work on her website. She often uses products to illustrate various human behaviours, social taboos and social trends. Her products question why people do what they do and how it will evolve over time leading onto other possible behaviours.

A couple of project highlights below:

Pet Plus
A project aiming to explore how people treat their pets as human surrogates.

Technorati Tags: Alice Wang, Peer Pressure, Pet Plus, Royal College of Art

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The Taipei Toy Festival, (in Taiwan, surprise surprise) will be held between 5th - 8th July. It will be held at the Mira - Living Mall, in Taipei.

Technorati Tags: designer toys, events, Taiwan, toys, vinyl toys

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I think I’m over half a year late with this one, but the jet has only just appeared in this month’s Wallpaper magazine (Annual Design Awards 2007) listed for Best Livery.

Hello Kitty is a girl’s institution, so no gushy coo-ing from me, but the branding is nice perpetuating through to the meals, menus, toiletries and other ephemera offered with a flight.

EVA Kitty / EVA Air website

More photos …

Technorati Tags: culture, design, Hello Kitty, Taiwan

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There’s a feature in the current issue of Chinatown - The Magazine, about Ching-He Huang, a Taiwanese-Born entrepreneur who’s healthy soft drinks range and fresh, delicious foods are creating a stir (fry - haha). With stockists such as Harrods, Selfridges and Whistlestop, a TV series and a new book, she’s poised to become the best thing since sliced bread. Hm..

Ching-He’s website
Fuge Ltd website (her company)

Technorati Tags: Ching-He Huang, cuisine, Taiwan