Church in Taiwan
Imagine walking down a street, for someone not from taiwan, everything is completely strange and weird. Stray dogs roaming the streets, dust covered un-maintained buildings, filled with random pieces of what to an outsider appears to be junk, and about half way down the street is a church. Not just any old church, but what could best be described as a traditional Presbyterian style church. Very ordinary looking by western standards, but completely strange – and well – just weird by asian standards. Inside the building it looks and feels exactly like any western church you would walk into.
The visit to this church was a very weird experience for me. After a week of being in Taiwan, where basically everything seems strange and out of the ordinar – I end up in a building that is strangely uncomfortable, not because it was Taiwanese, but because felt completely out of place. A western style building, in a non western place.
Having recently spent one month in Taiwan, I learnt quite a lot in that time. From cooking, to culture, to politics, and religion. One of the most interesting things was the style of the church music and traditions. For the most part, they are an image of a 1_0's western church. I don't mean to say this to put down the people there, they were very nice people, however I find it alarming because, not only is the culture of the church in Tawan completely alien to a modern day westerner, but it seems doubly foreign in a place like Taiwan. So if you want to know what a western church was like in the 1_0's, head over to Taiwan and visit just about any church.
It is worth noting that in my limited experience it is possible to find some churches which are much more in touch with Taiwanese culture and people.