Feeling Nostalgic

Thanks for posting that, Jackie

A little More Asian

During the past week I did a few very Asian things: (1) I took pictures in a Japanese photo-booth and decorated them (2) I ate weird flavored ice cream…twice (3) I went to cram school.

(1) Photo-booths

I did this once before with my friend JiWon in South Korea and the concept in Taiwan seems mostly the same. You, along with some of your best friends (preferably Asian), go into a small photo booth where you are given 5 chances to strike your best pose. Then, run around the side to the touch-screen computer and choose the best 4 pictures. You have 70 seconds to decorate each picture with fluorescent-colored backgrounds, hearts, stars, and cutsie phrases. When times-up, you then choose how many pictures you want and–voila! A sheet of your photos are spit out of a slot on the side of the photo-booth machine. Price: $200NT and lots of goofy laughs.

Ronja and Patina making us look picture-perfect

(2) Strange ice cream

In general, ice cream is not on the top of most Taiwanese people’s favorite dessert list (if there exists such a thing).

The never-ending menu

Most prefer shaved ice （挫冰） to actual ice cream, which is why, I think, most home-grown Taiwanese ice cream is very watery and leaves a sort of bacterial-soap aftertaste. Don’t get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of shaved ice, but sometimes the summer just calls for a large scoop of mint chocolate cookie dough ice cream and hot fudge sauce on top straight of the Halo Pub tub…whoo…gotta hold my horses. Princeton is only a week away

Anywho, I was very excited to read about Taipei Snow Ice King, a little ruddy-duddy hole-in-the-wall homemade ice cream shop located just outside of Ximending famous for dishing up some very strange flavors. I was so excited, I went twice. First time my friends and I more or less played it safe and tried: sweet corn, almond, guava, and litchi flavors. Next day, my other friends and I were slightly more adventurous and tried: bitter melon, oolong tea, sweet rice wine pudding with longan, and red bean. My favorites were a tie between the sweet rice pudding and the red bean; each was very fresh and tasted so much like the real thing–but better! That was probably my problem with the bitter melon flavor (except it wasn’t better); it tastes fine at first, but the bitter aftertaste hits you full-force. Blech! They have an English menu if you ask and offer 70+ different flavors. Other strange types that we failed to try include: soybean curd, pig’s feet, Taiwan beer, tomato, and mustard.

Carl and Jon and our ice cream

(3) Cram School/Buxiban (補習班).

Cram school is a Taiwanese phenomenon (though China, Korea and Japan can all give them a good run for their money

南陽街

as well). Basically, all students attend extra classes at cram school every day (and sometimes on the weekends and during summer vacations) after the regular school day to “get ahead,” or rather at this point, merely to keep up with fellow students. Just about any and all subjects are taught in the cram schools and an average class size can range from 100-400 students.

My friend Carl took me to Cram School Street, aka Nanyang Jie 南陽街 near Taipei Main Station to check it out. He pointed out the ones he used to attend and even took me and my friend Jon up to see one. His old teacher wasn’t there at the time, so we didn’t stay very long, but it was interesting to see the other side. The place was very utilitarian overall in appearance albeit for a giant list of student names descending down the entire hallway, denoting class ranks and which university they got into. Talk about (unhealthy?) competition. To what extent is it really helping them?

For me it is difficult to imagine such a life spent studying all of the time. Already I am tired of so much schooling. 台灣的學生太用功.

—

In other news, official count-down is one week. Here is what is left on my list of things to do:

Eat/Drink:
At least 3 more new teashops in Maokong
Stinky tofu

Dragon fruit is back is season! Yumm! 火龍果！！

Durian
Hand shaved noodles
Burmese food on Burma street
Beijing duck to-go from that place I heard about near Shida

Go:
Tainan – eat a lot of food and visit a couple of temples
Jade Mountain – hike (if not possible, go to Alishan)

Do:
Surf
Hike Maokong from NCCU
Hot springs in the rain and/or fry an egg on the sidewalk by the springs
Learn how to play mahjongg
Check out the tombs on the mountain by my apartment
Buy a bamboo hat
See a show at the National Theater

Unfortunately, on a limited budget and limited time, I don’t think I will be able to accomplish too much. But that’s okay with me. Just means I will be back sometime in the future

Garbage

One of the most unique things about Taiwan is its garbage.

Or rather, its garbage collection (although I’m sure you’d find some pretty funky stuff in its garbage too).

First, there is the Maiden Call (9:30pm on the button in my neighborhood):

(I take no credit for the production of that video, but it was masterfully executed )

…Then, the garbage minions duly arrive.

Garbage collection time is social time. People wait around with their bags of trash until the big yellow truck comes, chuck their blue bags in the back of the truck, and then go on their merry ways.

You must separate plastic bottles from other plastic, cardboard, paper, and your old rotting foodstuffs. This is all highly confusing to the wee foreigner even after a year’s time, but the friendly recyclables collection men are always there to help.

The compost bins.

I have to say, as annoying as it is in many ways (ie: the awful tinny music that is everywhere to be heard around the entire island of Taiwan; the mysterious dearth of public trash bins around the city; the fact that I’m roused out of my room on the 6th floor with no elevator at 9:30 at night; the fact that I *ewww* have to touch my trash), the system works and it really makes you conscious of the waste you produce every day. Back home in the US, it is very easy to be blind to all of the crap I throw out–and usually not separated in to the proper bin either; just throw it in the trash bag, put it on the side of the road and–like magic!–it’s gone! The recycling system Taiwan has managed to implement is really remarkable. When there is a trash bin to be found, there is usually a recycling bin right next to it. All of the waste bins on my university’s campus are separated into four different types, with only one actual “trash” bin. Taiwan also charges a small fee for every plastic bag used in grocery stores, convenient stores, etc. In addition, there are also special blue garbage bags I have to purchase in order to be able to throw out my trash (no charge on recyclable products).

I’m not sure if a similar system could work in the US, but small things–like a tax on plastic bags (which some places have already implemented) or a tax on garbage bags (but not recyclables) could perhaps go a long way.

***UPDATE: Taiwan’s garbage made it to the NYTimes!************

A Stunning Trip Through Taiwan

Due to limitations on my basic WordPress blog, I can’t embed and re-share this awesome video on my website. BUT that shouldn’t stop you from clicking on the following link and checking out a really neat short film on traveling in Taiwan:

PassionRepublic Taiwan Trip from Dick Chua on Vimeo.

I especially love the thirty seconds on stinky tofu. I really hope that the day I finally try the stuff goes a little more smoothly…

Taichung puts the “bang” in 棒球

Yesterday I took a trip down to Taichung (2 hours away from Taipei by rail; about 3 hours by bus) and met up with my friend Singing and her older brother who live in the area.

We first went to get some culture and stopped at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts where Singing is interning for the summer. The museum is very modern and is, according to Singing, the only national fine arts museum in Taiwan–all of the others are privately owned. We checked out two exhibits: the first, the 14th Biennial Print Exhibition in the ROC and the second, a new exhibition by a French artist on Hyper-perception. Both featured, in my opinion, very dark and rather mentally twisted themes.

We jaunted next across town to a large night market to pick up dinner and snacks. One large cup of fresh watermelon juice is only $10NT there!!!!!

Finally, we 到了ed:

Baseball field in Taichung

The game featured the Sinon Bulls (the home team) versus the La New Bears (from Kaohsiung). Sadly, it was a shame for the home team; they went down 8-4 in the last inning. Of course, I didn’t really care either way–I had a great time explaining the rules of the game to my German friend and learning baseball terms in Chinese. (Did you know that “ball” and “strike” in Chinese are 壞球 and 好球–literally “bad ball” and “good ball”–haha, that makes more sense to me than the English does!). The best part was getting to observe the crowd. Never have I ever witnessed such a rowdy fan base–for both teams–at a baseball game. They are LOUD. Each team has its own cheering squad and pep band while fans chant, bang together inflatable bats and blow horns.

Check it out:

With a Taiwanese student ID, tickets were only $150NT and we could pretty much sit anywhere we wanted. We watched the game at the older baseball field in Taichung, so the stadium itself wasn’t much to look at–it reminded me more of one of the community college baseball fields back home. The field is part of the National Taiwan College of Physical Education, a school set up only for athletes. There is a newer stadium in another part of the city that is much newer and nicer, but apparently games are rarely played there unless they are really important.

This guy now plays for Kaohsiung, but he did make a short stint in the US for the LA Dodgers*

Home team in the dug-out

After the game we still had a short hour to check out a little more of the night market. I asked Singing if there was any food specific to Taichung to try and she took us here:

Popular dessert place

To eat this：

Shaved dried plum juice flavored ice with sweet baked beans and mystery flavored ice cream

The combination of salty, sweet and sour was a little too strange for my tastebuds. Though I am happy to have tried it, I think I’ll stick with my “normal” shaved ice next time.

Thanks, Singing, for showing us around! Next time, baseball game in the USA!! I will miss you

The Essential Mental Packing List for Study Abroad Students in Taiwan

Your flight is a week away and you are super excited to start your study abroad in Taiwan. Your suitcase is already filled with cotton t-shirts, sneakers, a supply of deodorant, a toothbrush, a Chinese-English dictionary, your passport and visa, and of course a good stash of quality dark chocolate.

But what about your mental suitcase?

Before you embark on any relatively long-term project abroad you need to be prepared for new customs, new thought patterns, new tastes, new language, new beliefs, new sounds–new everything. Basically, you need to be prepared for culture shock.

One major point to note:

• Culture shock does not come in one shape and size. We all come from our own different cultural backgrounds, so naturally our experiences among new cultures will also be different. Therefore, some of the following coping mechanisms might work for you while others might not. Also, some of what you experience in Taiwan may be very stressful to you, but may be wholly insignificant to your friend.

And now, a short mental checklist (to be edited and updated periodically):

Rain or shine, time to break out the umbrella.

• Taiwan’s weather is mad-eye MOODY. (Please excuse the really bad HP allusion).

Spend one day in Taipei and you may experience blue sunny skies, sweltering humidity, torrential downpours and cold damp temperatures. If this does not eventually affect your mood, you are not human. Also, weather forecasts are useless; my rough guestimation is that they are correct maybe 10% of the time.

o How to Cope: Learn from the locals—always carry an umbrella (they sell them everywhere here for $100NT). They protect you not only from the rain, but also from the brutal sun. I would also recommend always having a plan B. You may plan an amazing five day trip to the Kending complete with hiking, sandy beaches and surfing for yourself and your best friend who has traveled all the way from the U.S. to visit you. Then it rains. It pours. It downright monsoons. (Believe me, it happened). This is where an alternate itinerary (like visiting the hot springs and checking out the local aboriginal culture) comes in handy so you won’t be too disappointed. Also, pack appropriate clothing and allergy medications before you arrive.

• Not everyone in Taiwan speaks English. Big surprise this one, I know. But I’ve also come across a handful of foreigners who continually bemoan the fact that they cannot understand the locals and the locals cannot understand them. If you weren’t already aware, the official language in Taiwan is Mandarin Chinese, though many people also speak Hoklo (or “Taiwanese”) and other indigenous languages. Sometimes you may experience being in a supposedly English-taught class and the professor will begin to speak in Chinese. Don’t panic. Understand that there are some local students in class that might not fully understand a concept or idea unless explained in their own language. However, if this becomes a problem (ie: the professor persists in repeatedly speaking Chinese for long lengths of times), then talk with the professor privately about your concern and if it still does not change, speak to a representative in your school’s international office (at NCCU, the OIC)

o How to Cope: Study a little Mandarin before you arrive. This doesn’t have to be much—just enough to learn about the four tones and maybe a little about the history of the language. Learning a few basic phrases, such as how to properly say ‘hello’, ‘thank you’, ‘this one’ and ‘I want/I don’t want’ wouldn’t hurt either. You will most likely learn a lot more once you get here and there are plenty of friendly people willing to help, but you will feel a lot more comfortable if you have some background in the language beforehand.

• Wearing surgical masks. Many people in Taiwan, as well as throughout East Asia, wear surgical masks. (They even come in fancy colors and patterns now!).

Masks are sexy here!

Coming from the West, we are often suspicious of people who cover their faces; it implants a spatial separation we are generally uncomfortable with, and also may suggest sickness or disease (as my Dad remarked, it reminds him of  those old doomsday sci-Fi flicks about the plague). However, people here sincerely believe  wearing a mask will either protect them from getting sick, or will prevent them from spreading germs. Whatever the validity of the claim may be, remember the context. East Asia’s recent experience with SARS and H1N1 scares has prompted many to prepare for the worst.  Moreover, with so many people living in one place, the Taiwanese are very wary of the potential of one virus.

• Noise. Forget the stereotype of the quiet little Asian man. Taiwanese people are LOUD–and all the more so when they share a big meal together. Want evidence? Simply mozy on over to any restaurant, bar or cafe in Taipei. More significant, however, is noise tolerance in general. Be prepared to encounter high levels of noise due to traffic, the garbage man jingle, trucks blaring advertisements for political candidates, construction at 8AM, neighbors arguing and fireworks.

o How to Cope: Pack some earplugs just in case and your own mp3 player. Find a quiet spot in the city and visit it at least once a week.

• I’d like some food with my oil, please. One of the most difficult quirks about Taiwan that I’ve had to adjust to is the liberal amount of oil they use in cooking. You can readily find most anything in some fried form–deep-fried, stir-fried, pan-fried–you name it, they fry it. Most vegetable dishes are also fried and, I’ve found, usually drowning in oil to the point where all nutritional content has disappeared. Be prepared to have to adjust to local flavors–it may be difficult to find the foods you are used to eating, especially for those with certain dietary restrictions. But before you write off Taiwanese cuisine as a whole, make sure you try as many different types of foods here as possible: night market snacks, different regional and aboriginal cuisines (including from mainland China), as well as Taiwan’s international food scene.

o How to Cope: Bring some spices and local foodstuffs from home that don’t go bad. Buy fresh vegetables and other produce and cook your own food. This is always the best method to eat healthier, and more critically, to eat exactly what you want to eat. True, this is also difficult for students who live in the dormitories where cooking is forbidden, but students can still purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, wash them and eat them raw. You can also ask for your food to be prepared with less oil when you order. Of course, obviously not *everything* is fried or cooking with oil. Look for steamed, boiled or grilled options (you usually won’t find baked/roasted/broiled because most people don’t use ovens).

• Smile for the Camera. No use beating a dead horse. Refer to my recent post for a fuller explanation.

o How to Cope: Taking a word of advice from good friend Daniel, when and if this happens, kindly decline and explain to the person who is asking that you are a resident of Taiwan and that not all foreigners like to have their picture taken.

• Food is not served all at once. When you go to a Western-style restaurant with a group of friends, be prepared to wait a while for your food. Often your friend’s meal will come out and you will have to wait up to twenty more minutes or more for your own to follow. This is mostly due to the tradition of family-style eating. If you go to a Taiwanese style restaurant or eat in someone’s home, all of the food will be put on plates in the center of the table and you will be expected to share and serve yourself. Thus, dishes typically do not come out all at once because everyone can begin eating once the first dish is served. For some reason, this has translated over to almost all of the restaurants in Taiwan.

o How to Cope: Inform the waiter that you would like all of the dishes to be served at the same time (this sometimes does and sometimes does not work). I would better suggest, however, that you do like the locals and eat once your meal is served. Don’t worry about “being polite”–that Western custom simply does not apply here. Also, I would recommend telling the waiter that your want your drink first or served with the main meal; often, drinks are otherwise served last, like dessert. Bon appetit!

And finally, the two universal coping mechanisms: (1) Learn how to practice cultural relativity—the ability to put yourself in someone else’s cultural “shoes”. What does this entail? Trying to think about the reason *why* people behave the way they do here. What is the value behind the action? What does this person believe? For example, before you accuse someone for being stupid to put shrimp in your “vegetarian” stir-fry, put yourself in their cultural mindset. Many Taiwanese do not consider fish or shellfish to be meat. Learn from these experiences. This time, politely inform them that you also cannot eat shellfish and can they please make a new dish. Next time, make sure you make it clear exactly what foods you cannot eat when ordering and again politely ask them to repeat it back to you to make sure the order is correct.

Cultural relativity means that an observer cannot condemn any practice in which culture engages. In other words, cultural relatively does not allow us to judge another culture, even when its practices are inhumane. Cultural respect requires us to be aware that our own ways are not the only ways, but it allows us to judge others when warranted.

"Don't let ignorance be an excuse."

(2) Learn to develop empathy. This is hardly a conscious act, but it should be an obligation. Cultural empathy refers to the ability to accurately understand the experiences of people from diverse cultures and to convey that understanding responsively. When you are empathetic, you are able to develop an emotional and psychological bond with another person or social group. Ultimately, you become “other”-oriented and THAT is an invaluable life skill.

Don’t let your ignorance be an excuse. Being mentally prepared will enable you and the others around you to have a smoother and more enjoyable experience abroad.

For those who are already here, perhaps take some time to reevaluate your own attitudes and behaviors. I know I could definitely benefit from an attitude readjustment every so often as well. Nobody likes a complainer and it is all to easy to fall into the trap of being negative about everything. It’s not *that* bad and, if it is, then go home. Nobody is forcing you to be here.

Also, for those who are already here, what are some other cultural quirks you have encountered in Taiwan and how did you learn to cope?

For those who are now mentally packing, don’t let any of this alarm you. You are about to embark on an exciting journey full of wonderful and surprising experiences that only Taiwan can uniquely supply. Be proud of taking the leap and being adventurous–you will not regret it!

See you on the other side.

Yellow Fever, Foreign Moons 黃色戀情‧外國月亮比較圓

A Modest Proposal and Why I Hate the Phrase “外國人”. Better to call us “monkeys”.

For Preventing the Foreigners in Taiwan from being a Burden to the Locals and Country, and Making them Beneficial to the Public.

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great city or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the parks, the noodle shop doors, crowded with foreigners, followed by three, four, or six other waiguoren, all in jeans and flip-flops and minding their own business. These foreign devils, instead of being able to stay inside their apartments and dorm rooms for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ their time in strolling and sight-seeing and enjoying sustenance with their friends and family: who as they find they like it here decide to look for work, or leave their dear native countries to study Chinese, or marry young Taiwanese girls.

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of foreigners in the malls, or on the MRT, or on the buses, or at the banks, and frequently at the bars, is in the present deplorable state of the Republic a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these waiguoren sound, useful members of the democracy, would deserve so well of the public as to have his or her 7-11 replica toy created for a preserver of the nation.

But my intention is very far from being confine to provide only for the expats in Taiwan; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of waiguoren who are located throughout Greater China and there known mostly as laowai.

As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many months upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true, a foreigner fresh off the boat may make a fool of him or herself for a lunar year, with little awareness; at most not being able to say anything more in Chinese than “謝謝“, which the locals may certainly understand, or find amusing, by the foreigners’ feeble attempts; but even after they improve in the language I propose to continue to provide for them in such a manner that they shall contribute to national education, and partly to the curiosity and amusement of many thousands.

There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those who do not have their digital camera or phone at the ready from missing a quality photo-op. Alas! Too frequent among us! Sacrificing the potential Facebook-worthy photograph, which would move tears and awe in the most worldly Taiwanese senior high schooler or family member.

I shall now therefore humble propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing Taiwanese of my acquaintance in Taipei, that a healthy foreigner with half-decent or “exotic” features is at any time a most interesting, strange and desirable subject to stare at and admire, whether white, black, blond-haired, brunette, fat, skinny, young, or old; and I make no doubt that the fascination equally extends to Latinos, Americans, Europeans, Arabs, Indians or Africans.

I do therefore humbly offer it public consideration that of the hundred upon thousands of foreigners currently located in Taiwan and Greater China, twenty thousand may be reserved for permanent exhibition in the local zoo, whereof one-fourth only to be American; which is actually a greater percentage of the actual total foreign population that exists here; and my reason is, that most Taiwanese automatically assume foreigners are from America anyway. That the rest of the foreign population be relegated to rotating exhibits; these should display the foreigners doing funny things, like reading a Chinese newspaper, eating stinky tofu, or listening to K-Pop music. A foreign child will attract even more local Taiwanese people to the exhibit because they are usually “很可愛!”. An entire foreign family will also garner a reasonable amount of interest, and given a golden retriever puppy will be a very popular display indeed.

I have reckoned upon a medium that a foreigner zoo such as this will garner 100,000 visitors, and in a lunar year, if tolerably promoted through the TV news, Facebook, and annoying television commercials featuring Super Junior, increaseth to 1 million visitors.

I grant this endeavor will be somewhat tricky, and therefore very proper for Taiwanese junior high school students, who, as they have already determined special interest in these foreigners and are most “好開心!” to take pictures with them, seem to have the best title to the creation and arrangement of the exhibition.

The exhibitions will be popular throughout the year, but visitors will be more plentiful on the weekends, and maybe a day before and after; for we are told by many an old taitai that the children must do their go to school, go to buxiban, practice their musical instrument, and  do at least six hours of extra homework per day before they are allowed out into regular society. And therefore the zoo will have one other collateral advantage: by being an extra lesson in world cultures for the students of the ROC. They can thus readily observe how the foreigners behave in their native states.

I have already computed the charge for entry into the zoo (in whose worth I reckon all costs of keeping the foreigners happy, labor costs, and perceived value by the Taiwanese customer after factoring in potential government subsidies) to be about $60NT per person, a complimentary foreigner cell-phone charm included; and I believe no student would repine to give $40NT for entry for the entertainment of taking photographs of foreigners, which as I have said, would be a good opportunity for the student to learn about different peoples, when he or she hath only some exaggerated or romanticized vision of foreigners from the TV.

As to our city of Taipei, one area may be designated for this purpose in the most convenient part of it. The current Taipei Zoo for animals is one such  reasonable place since it is already equipped with the necessary facilities.

I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as well as of the highest importance.

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of foreigners crowding our city, with whom our nightmarkets are yearly overrun, being the principal tourist destinations of the nation as well as home to our most delicious foods.

Secondly, the less educated citizens will have an opportunity to learn from these foreigners. Special learning workshops can also be set up in the zoo for this purpose, or better yet, giant tour group programs can be provided for our citizens’ comfort.

Thirdly, Whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand foreigners or more, from all over the world, cannot be computed at less than $60 per annum, the nation’s stock will be thereby increased five million NT per annum, beside the profit of millions of new photographs of foreigners uploaded and shared on the Internet.

Fourthly, the returning visitors, beside the gain in popularity and admiration of their unique photographs by their fellows, will be rid of the charge of full entry if they use their 悠遊卡.

Fifthly, this would also relieve some burden on the foreigners themselves; where they might have been once ambushed by the determined Taiwanese high-schooler or parent wanting the foreigner to speak to his or her child in English, they no longer have to worry about being randomly and unexpectedly bothered. Instead, photographs and free short English lessons will be assumed at any time. Of course, the foreigner need not make the “peace” sign when a photo is taken and will be given two hours off duty per day…

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our international reputation, providing for our students, relieving the wearied 7-11 worker, and giving some disturbed personal pleasure to the greater populace.

Ok, clearly I am really bored and really do not feel like writing my art history paper. My point is, anyway, (if you decided to just skim through that or were bored after the first two sentences) that this fascination with taking photos of and with foreigners in Taiwan is a major problem. But I’m not naive: Before I embarked on my journey to the Far East, I expected incessant stares and strange looks from the locals in China and other countries in Asia. I knew it came with the territory–if you don’t grow up around or interact often with people who don’t look like you, naturally you would be curious. It’s not the US where (at least in my hometown) anyone–Asian, European, Latin American– has the opportunity to at least blend in and become “American” no matter what they look like. In China, the influx of foreigners (while decently large now) is still quite recent. That’s ok with me.

I adjusted quickly to the perpetual staring in Jiangyin every day on my walk to work, no matter how many times I walked past the same people. It was easy to simply respond with a friendly ‘hello!’ or occasional ‘ni hao!’ when they shouted excitedly “Hello! How are you?!” when I went to buy groceries or to the bank. I even allowed my picture to be taken with the proud father who was so excited to have his little daughter photographed with such a “漂亮的美國女生”.

OK.

Then I went to Shanghai. Big city, full of foreigners everywhere you turned–I blended in well. (Except, of course, during that one incident in the Oriental Pearl Tower when the old Chinese tourist tried to position his camera so that I appeared in the background of his family’s photograph. That was weird). For the most part, nobody gave me a second glance. Same in South Korea. I really like those South Koreans. No biggie.

Flash forward to nine months in Taipei.

I don’t want to think about how many random cameras I’m on in this country. Some of my readers who are friends with me on Facebook might have noticed my recent freak-out online the other day after one “can-I-take-a-picture-with-you?” incident too many. Apologies for the shouting, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how disturbing this fascination with taking pictures of foreigners is.

First of all, the label of “外國人” (waiguoren) or literally “outside-country person” already poses a separation between “us” and “them”. While it is a very appropriate term for an Eastern culture to employ (generally they are characterized by in-group/out-group social constructions), the real problem in this increasingly globalized world is that this concept is still taught from an early age. While most early Taiwanese people will utter this term softly when talking with friends in the presence of foreigners, young Taiwanese children do not hesitate to stop, point, and shout excitedly “waiguoren!!” It’s like the perverse delight kids in the US get out of saying “punch-buggy-no-punch-backs” and then punch their friend when they spot a VW Beetle. A six year old boy said this to me this past weekend when I was entering the National Theater in Taipei to collect some information. He was standing with his large extended family in front of the concert hall and immediately upon shouting as such, I looked at him as they all turned to look at me. I gave him a raised-eyebrow look and wry smile. He went beet red. His entire family started laughing. In that moment I laughed too, but how could this little boy who is barely old enough to know anything about the ways of the world and things like racism and prejudice, be already so attune to the idea of “outsiders”? If a six year old already considers me something strange or alien, how can I ever be accepted into such a society? No matter how long I live here, no matter how fluent I become in the language, no matter how knowledgeable I am about the nation’s pop-culture, politics, or customs, I will never be a Taiwanese.

Secondly, Taipei isn’t exactly lacking in foreigners. They’re everywhere–schools, office buildings, restaurants, parks, night markets, KTV, the laundro-mat–anywhere you would expect to find a Taiwanese person, you can at one point find a “waiguoren”. Even when I am not on campus, a day doesn’t go by in which I don’t see at least ten other random foreigners. Basically, I don’t understand why  a picture of a foreigner should be considered such a prize if we’re so common.

Thirdly, what do they do with these pictures of us? True, in many instances I am asked for my picture by students as proof that they talked to a foreigner for their English homework (which is a whole other issue in and of itself). But otherwise, what is the goal? To show their friends and family that they are worldly enough to have been a place with a foreigner? To remember what a foreigner looks like (you could just turn on the TV…)? Is it a fad? Some game I’m simply not aware of? Seriously…WHY?

Maybe it’s something like the explanation for why Asian people hold up two fingers whenever they take a picture: Why *don’t* you do that? It’s what you are supposed to do when you take a picture (duhhh).

Sigh. Whatever the cultural explanation is eludes me.

>>>My awareness was certainly heightened two weeks ago when my family came to visit. On our last full day together we decided to take a trip to the Taipei Zoo. As my brother and I sat outside the panda house waiting for our parents, we were attacked by a group of six or seven junior high girls exiting the exhibit and who of course asked to take a picture with us. What followed was a short photo shoot with each girl rotating so they could each be in the picture. I swear, they were infinitely more excited to get a snapshot of us than any of the sleepy pandas in the building. Their high-pitched squeals of “我好開心ooo!” as they skipped away haunted me as my family and I moved on to the next animal exhibit: the monkey exhibit.

All of this taken together, I guess my only plea is for people here to realize that people from other countries do not generally appreciate having their picture taken. Nor is it an accepted practice for us to take pictures of tourists who come to our countries. In fact, I could never in my wildest imagination think of actually doing that. Also, we don’t want to help you with your English homework (unless we’re being paid to do so). Sorry.

Am I severely out of line for saying this? Please correct me if I am. I would enjoy some peace of mind.

Really? Again, attacked in Danshui. All I wanted to do was enjoy my Froyo and watch the sunset.

Living in a Modern City

How do I know it’s modern?

I never have to wait more than four minutes for a metro.

Riding the Brown Line and arriving at Taipei Zoo station

Beat that, Washington DC!

Safety first

At least as far as I’ve heard, there have never been any criminal “incidents” on the MRT. The Taipei metro system is plenty safe in my book, but these signs are still comforting. New York City, are you seeing this?

Taiwan HSR 從高雄到台北. Somebody awesome is also sitting in the window

The high speed rail is, of course, the highlight of Taiwan’s transportation system. A trip from Taipei to Kaohsiung takes less than two hours with scenic views of the rolling countryside to be enjoyed. The seats are super comfortable and the interior of each car is spotless. You can book tickets online for a 15-35% discount.

WAKE UP AMERICA! These tiny Asian countries are making you look like a dinosaur when it comes to public transportation.