TAIWAN | “Tea in the Park”

TAIWAN | “Tea in the Park”

A journey through Taiwan to open up new realms of tea and calligraphy

At PAPERSKY3Taiwan is the special feature, and2019This is the first overseas special since the Oregon special feature in 2019. This time, the focus was on Taiwan's tea culture. Tea itself, and tea time, has a mysterious power that brings people together. It creates conversations, share ideas, spending comfortable and quality time, and has a positive impact on communication with one's inner self. Taiwan has a culture of drinking tea in parks since ancient times. It introduces the tea culture, both old and new, and the film is based on calligraphy.8He is a Taiwanese artist. In addition, guests on the trip welcomed Shinjo Daichiro from Japan, who pursue traditional calligraphy with modern expressions, and joined the people who opened up new realms of tea and calligraphy.Tea in the Park"That time should show us Taiwan, which we didn't know about yet.

Daichiro Shinjo

1992Born in Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture in 2019. Artist. After graduating from Shizuoka University of Culture and Arts, he began his full-scale activities with his first solo exhibition, "Surprise," in 2017. With Zen and Okinawa's spiritual culture, it jumps over old fashioned calligraphy, and is light and contemporary with physicality and spatiality that is not bound by form.Pursuing expression.

Taiwan Love & Tea

Taiwan has always been a second home and a place I love dearly for its heartful people, rich and diversified culture, stunning nature and of course it’s amazing gastronomic culture. This is Papersky’s third Taiwan issue! The first, featured chef Masayo Funakoshi and Taiwanese ‘Cooking’ (2015). The next spotlighted outdoor brand, Yamatomichi’s, Akira Natsume as we hiked & biked our hearts out while exploring the islands dynamic outdoor field with a ‘Hike & Bike’ trip (2019). This issue our theme is ‘Tea in the Park’ and our guest is young artist-calligrapher Daichiro Shinjo. Join us for a walk around Taipei as we sip tea under Banyan, Cypress and Rain Trees in the city’s local parks while enjoying conversations with Taiwanese artists. But first I would like to share a true story as to how this issue came to light.

While working on a Papersky Store pop up shop in Taipei I had the good fortune to catch a bit of Corona. I know most people would be bummed out or even terrified to catch Corona in a home away from home. But in Taiwan my friends as well as the Taiwanese government took great care of me. My hospital, hotel and food expenses were covered, and I was fortunate to be able to stay an extra five days in a country I love. The slow time, kind care and great Taiwanese food gave me time to think about what made Taiwan such a special place. I came up with these key words: PARKS, ART & CALIGRAPHY and TEA.

Then with my Corona down time I begin to think through how I may be able to put these Key Words together to create a Papersky feature story. The answer came to me while looking out the window of my room. I saw in the park a stunningly beautiful Banyan trees. I thought to myself, with a remaining three more days of isolation, what I would like to do once I left my room. I imagined myself taking a trip to a local Tea Stand and with tea and some black Taiwanese peanuts in hand heading to the park and sitting on a bench. I continued to daydream – and thought who I would like to have sit next to me on the bench. I wanted to ask my imaginary friend about the current state of Taiwan, Tea, Plants, Art and the Future. I thought if the person was an artist, they would be able to shed some light on these topics that to me were so TAIWANESE. And thus our 'Tea in the Park’ edition was born, and a daydream once again brought to life.