Little tree

In my visit to the Taiwan Folk Village near Changhua, near which was our hotel, I saw this little tree (or is it bush?) with very curious leaves

It was similar to the ones I used to see during my childhood in Catalonia, but I was surprised by the orientation of the leaves and branches, they seemed to be almost perfectly vertical. I had never seen that and, in my bottomless ignorance, I wondered if it was not the result of some special care (being in Asia, I end up imagining things). Somebody told me then that they grew naturally that way. I need some help from biologists.