Just here for the dog pics? Just scroll all the way down.

Cuteness. It’s the order of the day. A country under constant military alert due to threats from China. The cities themselves are full of changeless, drab concrete buildings that only serve to inspire depression. A long, tedious and work focused life grates on the inhabitants on this island. Cuteness. Let it be the Shepard from these dark and trying forces that seek to bring the island to despair.

Taiwan has taken a lot from Japan’s brief rule. Things like cleanliness, work ethic and some Japanese cuisine are dominant on the island, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to look at their extreme liking to the cutesy and even Chibi things that are so common in Japan.

Take a walk down any street and look at a store front. Half of the stores have little anime miniatures propped in their display window or on their reception desks with no relevance to their wares. Advertising and even public service announcements depict cute little anime characters so frequently that you’d think it’s mandatory.

Stationery stores also seem to be more common. These stores are packed with adorable wittle art supplies that are ready to be extra-adorable works of art with but a few snips of scissors. Postcards are intricate yet affordably priced, and come in such a variety of designs. There’s even collectable tape with patterns and characters plastered on the side for some superfluous reason.

And of course to top off this cuteness culture is the King of the Mountain, the Fred Weasley of troublemakers, and the Master Chief of Spartans. And who is this king of cuteness? They are the wolves of the urban jungle, the sworn foes of the felines, and the loyal compatriots that would lay down their lives for us if we just pick up their poop. Dogs.

Dogs have been hoisted onto the summit of cuteness and are often used as status trophies here. With the stresses of modern life and the immense pressure of raising families, pet ownership in Taiwan has reached an all-time high while birthrates have reached a new low, making Taiwan an aging population where pets are frequent replacements for babies. This results in a ridiculous amount of anthropomorphism of dogs where they’re given everything from strollers to clothes to organic food to diapers, and yeah, it’s as cute as it sounds.

Taipei Dog Convention

All of this obsession with cuteness and pets cumulates into the biannual Taipei Pet Show where dog owners flock to the convention center to bask in pet wares and meet other likeminded owners. And I’m also aware it’s officially the ‘Taipei Pet Show’ but with the vast majority of stalls and owners being dog oriented, it might as well have been a dog convention.

If you’re ever in Taipei at the same time as this show, and whether you like dogs or not, this is a must-see event. Dozens upon dozens of trophy dogs being crammed in strollers and pushed around. Trophy dogs of all shapes and sizes being pushed in specially designed strollers. Some strollers had little fans to make sure the dogs stayed cool in the scorching Taipei heat. Other dogs wore scarves, others diapers, and one even had a pair of sunglasses.

You can walk around, pet all these dogs (owners are very receptive to letting you pet their dogs), ogle at the most profound pet accessories (includes strollers on sale for hundreds of dollars) and wonder at the profitably expensive organic pet food. It’s a baffling, exciting and cute sight that is certainly worth the entry fee of 150 NT ($4.96) for the unique experience.

Anyway, they say a picture is worth some amount of words so here’s a bunch of pictures so I don’t have to write more. I challenged myself to take a picture of every dog in a stroller and… that was a mistake. I ended up walking around with my phone out the whole time. What you see here are only the usable pictures.

Enjoy!

(And before you ask, yes. I’ve never seen so much poop being picked up in my life.)

Stray Observations

• Bored in Taipei? Walk around on a sunny day and look at all the strollers and play this game; ‘baby or dog’.
• There was a concurrent Baby Show going on during the dog convention but there were way less babies in the area than dogs.
• Many areas of Taiwan have government programs to catch, neuter and release stray dogs. The vet will clip the top part of the ear to show they’ve been through this process (spot the ear below).
• There’s a lot of stray dogs in the countryside and many dogs here are smaller trophy dogs, so people can be afraid of midsized dogs or dogs that look like they were strays (see dog below).
• Some Vietnamese immigrants here have been caught stealing and eating dogs. I can’t think of a quicker way to stir up xenophobic sentiment.

Oh and here’s a bonus gallery of my friends’ dogs being equally dressed up.

This dog is the first living entity in Taiwan that I’ve known that has gotten the Covid Vaccine. A dog. Got the Covid Vaccine. During a time when most essential workers are still getting the vaccine in most countries.