Another tv research and scriptwriting project which I worked on during the last quarter of 2008 - “A Tale of Four Cities”, is currently showing on Channel News Asia, every Saturday 10.30pm.
In each episode, four travelling hosts would visit one of the four cities - Beijing, Hongkong, Taiwan and Macau, to understand the character and soul of each city, and the subtle nuances between them. Architecture, arts, fashion and food are among the eight topics featured in the 8-parter series.
It was fun working on the project, especially the reading-up part, since I have always been a architecture lover. Arts and fashion are also my pet subjects. It almost felt like I was doing something I would have done anyway during my leisure time, except that this round I was paid for it.
Nonetheless, as it was my first time scripting a programme that was to be filmed overseas, the problems surfaced when the writer could not have a chance to visit the locations before writing. Visualisation became much more difficult.
The following is an excerpt from my research work marrying 2 of my favourite topics - Taipei and architecture:
” The lack of good architecture in Taipei is a sentiment shared by many Taiwanese architects. ‘Taiwan Grievous Architecture Award: To Be Demolished” was first held in 2005, it invites members of the public and local architects to nominate ugly buildings that deserve to be demolished. The Chinese name of this competition is ‘Hou Li Dou”, which means tear it down.
The competition announced its latest batch of ‘winners’ in April 2007 and among them were several Taipei buildings. They include Taipei main train station, Taipei 101, Jian Cheng Circle and Imperial Treasure Tower (Di Bao Da Sha).
Taipei is blessed as a unique metropolis surrounded by natural mountains, yet the city’s urban development seems to be a spontaneous form of urbanism and out of sync with conscious urban planning efforts.
Life finds its way in Taipei and urban planning, like many other things in this city, finds its own solutions to satisfy practical needs and commercial demands in a way that may not be predicted by the city’s urban planners.
Taking a look at Taiwan’s history, we may then understand why urban planning has been such a difficult effort on this island.
In 1949, when 2 million Chinese left the mainland after the revolution, they had expected to be united one day and that there would be one China. They had perceived that settlement in Taiwan was not to be permanent. Chinese, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese had occupied this island throughout history but it was the Japanese who established the bones of a civic infrastructure. Architecture as a profession had little place and urban planning even less so. There was no time to plan and it was perceived that there was no need for planning in a place considered to be temporary.
This attitude has persisted, resulting in a low fee structure for design and a lack of clarity and cohesiveness in the urban environment, particularly in that of Taipei. But things have started to improve in recent times.”
