Twenty years ago I visited Taipei. I was there because I’d been invited to give a talk at a technical conference.
While I was in Taipei I visited the national museum, which was breathtaking, and a former student of mine also took me on a tour of street vendors. On the way there, he told me about something called “stinky tofu”, which was considered a delicacy by his countrymen.
When we got to the place where all the street vendors were, I was overwhelmed by the powerful aroma of the stinky tofu. In particular, it smelled to me as though a thousand people had removed their shoes at the same moment on a particularly hot summer day.
As politely as I could, I asked if we could leave the area. Fortunately, my former student was very understanding.
I know for sure that this was twenty years ago, because exactly twenty years ago today, on March 19, 2004, during my visit to Taipei, the President of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian, was shot — just one day before the presidential election. There was a great uproar, with huge crowds filling the streets, and thousands of people watching the continual TV news updates that seemed to be blaring from every storefront.
I remember the events of that day very well. But mostly I remember the stinky tofu.