Friday, April 17, 2009

Photo-happy Taiwanese


I have met a LOT of Taiwanese youth in my work as admissions support. As a result, I am on more cell-phone wallpapers than I have ever been in my entire life. This is such a photo-taking culture. And every person needs their own photo with you- individual poses. Some of the girls came to our mini-shows, and then to our big show both nights, and I've taken photos with each of them individually at least five times.

The incredible part is, they have turned the photos into beautiful gifts for the cast. There was a group of girls from the business college we are working with that made two huge poster-sized collages of all the photos they took of them with cast members, as enormous thank you cards. I also received a lot of individual prints from girls who wrote their emails and facebook name on them for me. They were so welcoming and so excited, and at times more than a little overwhelming. For some of the guys it was almost scary- we called it the boy band effect. I even got to reprise my role as a bodyguard, which I haven't done since working for Camp Snoopy! You can imagine the hilarity of the situation- me, hardly five feet and eye-to-eye with Taiwanese teenage girls, telling them to back up as the All-American handsome guys on my team need a bit of breathing room!

Even for adults there is a photo-happy culture; every high profile meeting ends with a group photo in front of the company sign or in the University president's office.

Its a novelty that sometimes is fun, but other times gets tiring. I have never had my picture taken so much, not even on my wedding day.

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