PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 6 –Grounding belonging in leisure spaceas well as Taiwanese prints and landscape posters that are used as decoration inrestaurants. In this case, Taiwanese restaurants are also turned into a transnational space,as the sights and sounds of home are reproduced. These reproductions bring Alex, asenior engineer in his early 30s, who has been living in the Tai gan living quarters(Suzhou) for three years, a sense of familiarity and allows him to feel connected tohome:Yuhui: Is this kind of [Taiwanese] restaurant popular here?Alex: I think so, otherwise, there won‘t be so many Taiwanese restaurants in this area. I amnot joking; if you ask [all the] Taiwanese [people here] to raise their hands now,more than half will do that [laugh]…Yuhui: How do you feel here?Alex: It is comfortable ‗cos everything is so familiar here. I assume you have alreadyvisited such restaurants and you should know that there are some basic elements,such as Taiwanese pop music is played although some of it is outdated, Taiwaneseaccent Mandarin or Taiwanese dialect is spoken here which makes me feel veryfriendly…Yuhui: [pointed to the map of Taiwan on the wall] It is very interesting to have a map ofTaiwan here.Alex: [laugh] Yes, it is common. I think it was brought from Taiwan. They also providenewspapers, books and magazines from Taiwan. ... [it feels good to be] surroundedby stuff from Taiwan.As the excerpt shows, the soundscape made up by Taiwanese pop music and Taiwaneseaccent Mandarin is important for Taiwanese expatriates to feel being at home whenhaving food in Taiwanese restaurants, as these sounds are able to create an atmosphere214