WHEN TAIWANESE gays use the phrase 'King Kong Barbies' to describe muscle-bound men with effeminate personalities, they're showing, perhaps unwittingly, the deeply entrenched relationship Taiwan has with the celebrated US dolls. From 1967 to 1987, millions of them were made in Taipei's suburban Taishan district.
'When I was a child I lived in Taishan,' says Andersen Chen, a graduate student majoring in Italian opera. 'The Barbie factory was not far from our house. The children in my neighbourhood all played with Barbies, but only with defective ones that had failed to pass the company's strict quality controls.
'I think a lot of the children admired them for what they thought were their perfect figures. But they also led them to fantasise about foreigners with different-coloured eyes and hair. All the girls I knew used to play dating games with their Barbie rejects.'
Despite Taiwan's close relationship with Barbie, it's still surprising to discover there's a museum devoted entirely to the dolls. Taishan, in Taipei county, where the museum is situated, proves on first sight an even more unlikely location. First you drive through the unglamorous district of Sanchung, past rows of unimpressive low-rise factories that have all seen better days, until you arrive at the small town centre, a long-time hub of an extensive industrial area.
Finally, you arrive at a four-storey building with a shiny white stone facade that houses the Taishan Doll Museum. On weekdays, it's eerily quiet. But at weekends it attracts 200 to 300 enthusiasts, many with children.
The museum has big expansion plans. Barbie manufacturing may have departed, largely to cheaper labour in Indonesia and on the mainland, but the city government is anxious to commemorate what was once a vibrant local culture.