Filmmaker Valerie Soe shares her experience of tracing Taiwan’s history through the eyes of thousands of hormone-heightened college kids.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/10/27
By: David Green
Credit: Valerie Soe
Have you heard of the Taiwan Love Boat?
Launched in 1967 by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (OCAC) and the China Youth Corps, the program has run for almost half a century and is one of the longest-running summer camps in the world, hosting anywhere from a few hundred to more than a thousand Chinese and Taiwanese diaspora college kids each year.
The aim was to educate participants on the customs, culture, history and language of Taiwan, and strengthen interpersonal links between Taiwan and the rest of the world,.
But for the teenage and 20-somethings involved, the Love Boat provided space to indulge in a more romantic form of ‘cultural exploration.’
YouTube clips of past trips present a heady mix of cultural weirdness, drunken antics, and even a slave auction, but dodgy behavior aside, Love Boat alumni invariably treasure fond memories of their time aboard Taiwan’s most infamous land cruise.
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