I don’t know if people are staring at me or not. I don’t take any notice.
The only times I’ve noticed are when I’m actively taking an interest in one of those adorable little kiddies you see on the MRT who look at you with wide eyes and a cute smile, and wave. 
Being 6’3" makes me a stare target. I am also above the whole crowd so can watch them watching me.
I just don’t bother looking around me now. I just get on with whatever is happening.
Also, I never think of people’s height tall or short unless they are taller than me. Then I can’t help but stare a little. Damn!
Children openly staring, pointing and saying in Chinese “foreigner, very tall” still pisses me off. I tell them in Chinese they are a “Taiwan person who is very short”.
One friend has a great solution for staring pointing kids. He tells them in perfect Chinese
“if their parents were rich enough then they would send the child to a english classes and the child would not be so suprised to see a foreigner”
The parents go from smiling at their cute kids to whisking them quickly away.
Oh I’m sorry it’s all my fault, I’ll just have to stop going around purposely checking to see whether the local yokels are staring or not.
If you don’t know whether they’re looking or not this, logically, cannot be because you don’t take any notice can it? ‘Not taking any notice’ implies that you know it’s happening but you just ignore it. If you ‘don’t know’ this is simply because you have very little awareness of the world around you.
Oh I’m sorry it’s all my fault, I’ll just have to stop going around purposely checking to see whether the local yokels are staring or not.
If you don’t know whether they’re looking or not this, logically, cannot be because you don’t take any notice can it? ‘Not taking any notice’ implies that you know it’s happening but you just ignore it. If you ‘don’t know’ this is simply because you have very little awareness of the world around you.[/quote]
Actually it’s not your fault because you notice them. It’s your fault because you allow it to bother you. You do have control over your own emotions don’t you?
The stares don’t bother me because I don’t care. And yes, I am aware of them.
[quote=“Vannyel”]Actually it’s not your fault because you notice them. It’s your fault because you allow it to bother you. You do have control over your own emotions don’t you?
The stares don’t bother me because I don’t care. And yes, I am aware of them.[/quote]
I agree with Vannyel.
It bothers me (intellectually, not emotionally) because there are large numbers of stupid people here and since I too live in Taiwan I have to deal with them and their ignorance on a daily basis. Go on, tell me I should leave then. With Fortigurn and Vannyel on the case I shall make a graceful exit at this point in proceedings.
Oh I’m sorry it’s all my fault, I’ll just have to stop going around purposely checking to see whether the local yokels are staring or not.[/quote]
Eh? Who said anything was your fault?
No, if I don’t know whether or not they’re looking at me it’s because I don’t take any notice of whether or not anyone is looking at me. I wouldn’t know unless I was looking at them, and I don’t.
How do you draw this conclusion? It’s simply because I don’t go looking at everyone around me. I look where I’m going, I look at street signs, I look at the MRT, and I read my book and use my PDA. What’s the issue? 
Do you object to stupid people looking at you, or just anyone? I’m interested in the means by which you detect large numbers of stupid people.
I found that difficult enough even in my own country without using blanket generalisations and offensively patronising attitudes. I’d love to know how I could do it legitimately. 
[quote=“Fortigurn”]I’m interested in the means by which you detect large numbers of stupid people.
I found that difficult enough even in my own country without using blanket generalisations and offensively patronising attitudes. I’d love to know how I could do it legitimately. 
[/quote]
I suppose it may depend on how low yeti sets the bar when it comes to defining stupid people. If one defines a stupid person broadly enough (say, as “a person of below average intelligence”) then presumably one could conclude with a fair degree of confidence that there are indeed “large numbers” of them in any given location (several million in Taipei county, for instance).
Instantly indentifying which were which just by looking at them on the street? Well, there I would share Fortigurn’s skepticism/curiosity. (Although to be fair, I’m not sure yeti claimed to be able to do that.)
You have to deal with them (I am supposing you’re saying it’s the stupid people that are staring you are dealing with)? What you stop and talk to them.
Of course I would never presume to tell you that you should leave - if you enjoy living a miserable, wretched life worrying about something you can do absolutely nothing about - then by all means that is your choice. I just think it’s more productive in some aspects to change the one thing that you have control over - yourself (obviously your perception).
I think it was Buzz Aldrin who said, “The act of observation changes that which is observed.” Sometimes the staring is hostile and it can ruin my good mood. Being stared at bothers me. I realise I’m ‘exotic’ so a few seconds is okay, but not more.
One thing I have learned is that I can out-stare any Taiwanese person. (tip - after your staring victory, mumble some swear words and you shake your head in disgust)
I also hate people who try to read what I’m reading or try to strike up a ‘let’s practice english at every opportunity’ conversation.
{Monoxide has a point - I just about understand the Chinese in this thread but some other posts contain incomprehensible stuff and even Chinese characters! Can people bright enough to master the tones include a little translation in brackets for people who don’t know Chinese? Xiexie (nice one)}
Stupid people can be really kind and nice.
Yeti. Change the things you can change. You can’t change the fact that they are going to stare. You can change your reaction. I suggest you don’t blank out other posters. Blank out the lookers.
I wish I had discovered forumosa early on. I took the staring thing far to seriously in my early days here and could have done with more comments and idea’s to work with.
I second that.
has you had this happen to you? down here it’s like this:
1.TW person stares at you, you smile and nod at them, they smile and nod back. (these are usually nice people who were suprised to see a foriegner).
2.TW person stares at you and refuses to nod back at you. you turn away and the person is still staring. you nod again, but the person refuses to nod back. you turn around a minute later and he’s still staring. you ask the person in chinese," have we met?" and they still refuse to acknowledge you.
the reason why this bothers me is i’m NOT the kind of person to be somebody’s show and i’m not the kind of person who looks at the ground. if you wanna look at me,fine. just don’t be so obvious. basic manners.
but i think i have the answer. maybe walk over to the person and introduce yourself, offer a handshake. if they refuse that just walk away. if they’re still staring when you walk back to your place…i don’t know what to do. i can’t just ignore the guy. should i fight? should i yell? should i go about my business? it’s a big conflict in my mind.
this has happened about 5 times down here. i think ignoring it totally would be a personal victory over self. but i feel conflicted. maybe just let it go. be zen about the whole thing. forgiving. but it’s hard.
No. I agree. If you are going to freaking stare at least have the courtesy to a) be discreet, or b) if you aren’t discreet, be polite.
“Kan she ma kan?!” works for me.
Not very polite, but so is staring. :s
I have noticed this a lot. Most of the time I nod and smile, and offer a friendly ‘Nin hao!’ but sometimes older folks just continue to stare blankly, or even sometimes with a bit of contempt on their face…
I figure its just part of the Taiwan experience…
99% of people look happy when I greet them and it usually becomes a short convo…
One thing I have noticed is that the local county night markets can be very unfriendly. On a few occasions I have been jostled, leered at and even had people pushed into me… Weird…
A long time ago I had a book with little cartoonies about cultural differences in it (maybe it was hartzell’s book)
Foreign guy smiling at a Chinese gal, who looks shy.
Guy thinks: Why doesn’t she smile back at me?
Gal thinks: Why does he keep staring at me?
Go and get a beer for chrissakes, and calm the hell down.
They are rude b*satards. Don’t let them get you down.
Stress creates endorphins, but not the good ones. They actually turn to fat and clog up yer tubes. Stress will kill you. That man looking at you in the street is killing you, if you let him. That crappy guitar, it’s slowly killing you.
De-stress. Find comfort in beer.
A guy look at me, I smile and say “hi”, he looks the other and walk by me.
Not a Taiwanese but a foreigner and it happened more than once.
What point are you trying to make? That some people on this island are rude? So?