![]() So, he had the idea that his device might have needed a talisman,” she says. ![]() “It apparently all started with this graduate student who was working on his thesis and his computer kept crashing. But that all changed when the crisps, whose name means ‘behave’ or ‘be good’ in both Mandarin and Taiwanese, caught the eye of a graduate student. Back then, there was nothing like that on the market,” says Irene Liao, who is Spencer’s daughter and the firm’s current general manager. “Kuai Kuai were specifically created to be sold to children. The Kuai Kuai company was established in 1968 by Liao Jing Gang and his son Spencer, a team who needed to find a way to keep their main business, a pharmaceutical importing and manufacturing company, busy during slow periods, so they began making snacks and confectionery. No one is entirely sure exactly when or how the green bags of Kuai Kuai crisps became seen as symbolic tech whisperers whose mere presence could keep electronics in line. They place bags of this humble snack, known as ‘Kuai Kuai’ (or 'Guai Guai'), on or around vital machines in many of the island’s laboratories, banks and even hospitals to ensure the machines continue to do their jobs.īut how did this savoury product end up assuming near-mythical protective properties and, in a technologically advanced society that supplies most of the world’s semiconductors, why exactly do people buy into it? Interviewees told the Taipei Times that they see these crisps as amulets – or good luck charms – that, if used properly, will ensure that technology behaves well and doesn’t break down. Many of the island’s machines – from cash machines to radio transmission towers – seem to rely on the presence of green bags of puffy, coconut-flavoured corn crisps to stay in tip-top condition. They are the perfect mid-morning pick-me-up, the moreish side to a light sandwich lunch, or the fuel that keeps us going when meetings run past mealtimes.īut in Taiwan, one particular brand of crisps does more than keep hunger pangs at bay. Crisps have a sacred role in office culture.
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