Like China, Taiwan has many little shops with narrow frontages and
crowded interiors that stretch back into a mysterious gloom.
Each seems to specialise in but a few items. This particular
shop did strings and ropes and basket work. My colleagues,
Gilah Leder and Stephen Lerman, and I were provided
with a tour of Kaohsiung by an expatriate American, Brady Jack,
who has lived in Taiwan for a long time and is currently a
post-doctoral fellow in science education at the local university.