Asian Addiction

It was the summer of 199... 8? 9? Whatever. I went to Taiwan on a student exchange program. My intentions were good, I wanted to learn the language, immerse myself in a different culture and see the world. Only later did I hear that the trip was infamously known as the "Love Boat"... a 6 week opportunity for horny teenagers to indulge in all their sexual fantasies without the fear of mom and/or dad walking in and impeding the copious amounts of copulation going on.

Whatever the case, what happens in Taiwan stays in Taiwan. Needless to say a lot of stuff happened that will provide me plenty of memories to last a long, long time. What really struck me, was that no matter where the people came from, Asians will be Asians. In the age right before digital cameras came along (or were in the everyman's price range), everyone was packing. Film canisters were everywhere, we had all scoped out the cheapest, fastest best developing places. The fact that I had to think about what those containers were called and how film become pictures tells me that indeed, the traditional 35mm camera is very passe.

I brought 6 rolls of 24 exposure film for my 6 week trip. That's.. 144 pictures. After the first week people were running around with multiple albums in hand stuffed full of pictures to show their new friends. I couldn't understand how anyone could take so many pictures! By the end of the trip people were going home with cases of pictures while I had my 6 rolls of memories to bring back to Canada.

Everywhere I go I see Asians toting cameras around and clicking at any and everything. I've seen a busload of tourists run after squirrels taking pictures and countless group pictures being taken with ever multiplying cameras appearing with every click. I've had to suffer through countless torture sessions looking at the vacation pictures of friends who took 8000 pictures when 20 would have sufficed. It's nice that you had fun, but it was your vacation. Your pictures really don't mean anything to me, just like mine won't tickle your soul either. The context just isn't there for me. And if every picture contains a stock shot of you and your honey posing in front of whatever interesting there is in the background that you've just obliterated, tedium soon turns into thoughts of putting a bullet in someone's head. I'm not too picky about where that bullet goes...

What do people do with so many pictures? Mr. Stinky and I rarely print our pictures and when we do, after a week or so it gets tossed in a random corner or shelf. Would taking 144 pictures versus 1444 really mean anything to anyone after time passes and you forget who that bunch of people in your pictures are anyway? Where are my Taiwan pictures? In a box. Somewhere. When was the last time I looked through them? Sometime awhile ago. Besides a few fond memories, would I really care about what all those people from around the world are doing right now? Probably not.

Perhaps I was short-changed a few Asian genes while hanging out in my mother's womb. I don't seem to be Asian enough in many respects. I should've shot out of there with a camera in one hand and chopsticks in the other, smelling of mothballs and driving a Japanese economy car. Instead I might have introduced myself to the world while driving a pickup truck with my cursing finger extended and a big ol' sneer they hoped was a smile on my face.

I may be pissed off at something... what that is isn't quite clear to me at the moment.