On Wednesday, January 8th, we went to a glue factory. They make different types of glue for different applications such as bikes, engines, 3D printers, and other technology. We first got a lesson and tour by the engineers in the building. Then we went to the factory and saw how the different glues were made and stored. I thought this part was interesting because they used lots of human workers instead of automated machines. I believe this is different from the United States because they try to automate everything to cut costs and reduce human error. In the factory the workers were using scales to measure quantities which I thought was susceptible to human errors. There also did not seem to be many safety measures in place for the employees. For example many didn’t wear masks even when working around chemicals all day. I also asked our tour guide about the environmental standards that the factory had to maintain and if there was a regulating body that made sure they were meeting those requirements. She said that there is an independent agency that comes every 3 to 5 years sometimes randomly and other times planned in advance. I thought this was strange because they could easily get away with harmful pollution for many years before being caught. The next day we visited an indigenous tribe in the mountains of Yu Shun. They differentiated themselves from the rest of Taiwan through their traditional dress and culture. We went to a show of traditional singing and dancing that reminded me of the traditional Native American songs I would hear from the Haudenosaunee people growing up in Syracuse New York.
