Inside and Outside of Jinwanwan – Those Chatters of Love

Store No. 163, with a flat and narrow shop window, is located at the northwest corner on the first floor of Jinwanwan Department Store. The previous vendor who used this space was probably selling clothes. The long-shape wall was pasted with beige wallpaper, and a small retro halogen lamp was hung on the ceiling. When it was opened on Sundays, the lamp was turned on, and the warmish light would pour out through the glass, slightly baking the floor outside the store. 

Here was the place where we stayed the last few months, a comma of this art project. After the constant moving from north to south in the previous two years, "Not Just Love Stories" has entered its middle phase, so we decided to station in a space for a longer time frame as we intended to get to know more about the Southeast Asian communities. Thus, we found Jinwanwan Department Store and rented Store No. 163, forming one part of the numerous stores here in Jinwanwan. The only thing was that we did not sell products but rather exchanged stories. 163 was the base where we conducted the field study in ChungShan. Every Sunday, the project team would bring flowers to Jinwanwan which were used as a small little gifts to initiate the conversations.

“Hi! May I give you a flower?” “Well, we’re doing an art project about love.”

First, it was at every corner of the first and second floors of Jinwanwan. Then, we went to the surrounding. Every Sunday, we would use a different question to start the conservations. However, we always used the same question to end them:

“In your opinion, what is love?”

“Love” sounded like a very cliché topic yet it was indeed an effective password. This word would bring out some very local love words that made people smile. But more often, it took us toward different states of affairs. Weeks passed by, and we kept the collected answers on the shop window of 163. We also left pieces of paper and pens of different colors so that the passersby could scribble a bit. As time passed by, our shop window was constantly filled with words and phrases of different colors. As we were more familiarized with the building and the surrounding, the conversations had become more flexible and gentle. We exchanged flowers with stories, and sometimes we would just gift ourselves to strangers. There were moments when we got a sweet smile after their eyes were brightened up, and others, when we were politely rejected after a course of silence. Also, we would witness a mix of obsession, anger, or sadness in the eyes, as well as sobbing and crying. 

We collected many love stories of years of relationship. Once in the cosmetic shop, the couple who was talking with a lady was newlywed for a year. The shy husband wrote down in Takalog "Ang Pagmamahal ay isang tadhara" (love is destiny), and the wife took over to complement it with the English translation. The enthusiastic older lady who got married for more than a decade and was chatting on the first floor of Jinwanwan with her friends as she was selling things there, with a cheerful tone, described how she finally got married after fighting against her parents. The lady with glowing eyes was enjoying the sunshine with her friends in Taipei Expo Park. She said that she was the drummer of a band. It took her a bit of time to connect her cellphone to the Internet so that she could show me the old pictures of her with six other girl-friends of the band – a band with a domineering name of "Empress". They even had a concert tour in Japan. In fact, she met her guitarist husband who was introduced by the band member. As she smiled, she said that all her kids played some instruments, so they could set up a family band back home in the Philippines.  

More street encounters were the Filipino ladies with marital problems. A long-hair lady was raising funds for her church by selling desserts along the street. As we handed over a rose, she looked very surprised and said merrily that it was the first time that she had ever received a flower. We explained our intention and asked her what love was for her. Her tone was immediately saddened as she said gloomily: “I just wish that I would have never met my husband!” Her husband had several love affairs and is now forming another family in the Philippines. Her children were what she cared about now. The love word that she left on the note for us was: "Love is sacrifice."

A young lady was sitting alone outside the church. As she heard our project topic, she remained silent for a while and then told us that she and her husband were not getting along well. She described him as immature but then said: "maybe someday he would become better." It was like self-consolation. For the moment, she wanted to focus on herself and her children. "You'll be able to take care of others after you take good care of yourself," she told us - or to herself. 

A young man who worked in a factory had a pair of eyes with sunken tenderness. On the shop window, he left some phrases in Takalog: “okay lang na mahilo auto basta gusto sayo lang iikot ang mundo kodd”. We asked him why. He replied: “It’s ok if we got dazzled in love.” After a while, he told us that he had a girlfriend, whom he met after coming to work in Taiwan. She had a family in the Philippines. What about their future? He paused for a while, and then slowly broke the silence with a firm tone: "I love her."

Next to Store No. 163's shop window was a massage shop where customers would wait outside. When they got bored, they would look at our window with curiosity and read the densely packed words. One day, a couple was sitting out of the store, and from time to time, glanced at our window. Therefore, we decided to hand over a flower and invited them to leave their feelings regarding love. The girl took over the pen and paper and said she needed a minute to think. So, we went to the street for some other interviews and when we came back, she handed us a note filled with words. It said: “What I have learned about love is that God will give you the right person at the right moment. Do not look for love, it will come to you. Love comes in different forms. Love for family, love for a friend, and love for god. But other of them, you will experience pain. And pain is inevitable in life whether you like it or not. Pain will teach you a lot. Love is pain. But it's worth it.”

All of them were worthy. All the encounters. Jinwanwan was like an anchor that temporarily held us there so that we had the chance to have some rendezvous as we radiated outwardly. It was only a matter of probably how far this radiation axis could be projected: the shortest distance was to our neighboring store, the Filipino community in the neighborhood, or a bit farther, to their footprints in Taiwan and their hometown. It could go farther, like where? Every week, as we walked by the corridors between the stores that were full of Filipino food, we pondered. Of course, we did have some expectations but knew we should not have presumptions. In some lucky confiding moments, we could temporarily arrive at segments of the life tracks that belonged to the persons who were having conservations with us. Amidst these numerous unfolded tracks, all kinds of emotional complexities were interweaved with each other. We were so lucky to be able to witness their souls. Some surprised us and some others we felt sorry for. Perhaps we could only get to the complex emotional trajectories – slices of time that belong to those moments and pieces of chatter all about love. Even so, those slices were quite heavy. The jubilant or sorrowful rendezvous was gently handed to us. We would always treasure them as gifts.