Yes. That has happened to me a lot. My job is to find foreigners. So I go up to foreigners and talk to them ALL THE FREAKING TIME.
And at least 1 in 3 will look at me funny and walk away when I say “Hello”
That’s because such behavior is creepy.
I make eye contact with them first. Then I smile and laugh a bit, then wave. When they finally smile back or nod in my direction, I point at their crotch, smiling and laughing. When they look down to check their zipper, I run away.
I’ve experienced it too. My theory is those people are so completely ignorant and provincial, so far removed from ever having met or spoken with an actual foreigner, that they don’t even think of us as human beings. They think of us as a completely different type of creature – maybe like a dog, or an insect, or an amoeba – not human and therefore incapable of seeing, hearing and communicating, and they think of themselves roughly as a scientist studying an odd life form.
you think here is bad?!.. visit China.
[quote=“igorveni”]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?[/quote]
This happened to me twice last night when I was out on the turps…
I did meet a friendly Canadian guy who runs a site ‘english in taiwan’ or something. His mate however ignored my offer of a handshake and proceeded to walk away and sit at a different area of the bar. His attitude was ‘pfft… loser’ and his expression suggested that his friendly mate was crazy for talking to me…
Gee, I guess thats one less person for my Christmas card list 
Another furriner at the bar stared through me whenever i offered a smile or tried to engage him in conversation…
But I guess for every rude fellow whitie here, I have 2 or 3 friendly ones. Its just the luck of the draw I guess…
You’ll get stones thrown at you in China 
Had that happen but I must admit was in 1995. Im guessing shouldnt happen as much in Taipei and the further south you go the more STARE factor you’ll get. Depends on my mood, sometimes I’ll just stare back but really whats the point They are the way they are and nothing will change that, better things in life to worry about.
For general-purpose Taiwanese staring, I like to use “看一次,免費; 繼續看要買票!” (“One look is free; if you want to keep on looking at me, you’ll have to buy a ticket.”) This is for those days when I’m in a less than perfect mood.
You can also try the “當個國際級model真辛苦” (“It’s tough being an international-class model, for sure.”) 
No, Taiwnanese people don’t seem to get the irony, but they usually laugh, at least at the second one. The first one is a split reaction: the ones that realize they were being a bit boorish usually just blush and look away.
If you are really in a jovial mood, you can use the old Taiwanese TV commercial thing: "你在看我嗎？你可以再近一點．．．＂ (“Are you looking at me? You can come in a bit closer…”) This one never fails to get a laugh because people know the reference, but it often results in conversation, which may not be what you’re looking for.
i’ve found there’s a third kind of starer: the smirk starer.
these will acknowledge your nod, but they look like they’re thinking “yeah there’s an ah do gah. i wish i could say the A word but he’d get mad”. you can almost hear him thinking that by the smirk on his face.
I get tired of it some days, and just stare back until they give in and look away, and I win. Hooray for me.
Are you sure it’s a smirk,
and Not A Grimace?
[quote=“pubba”][quote=“igorveni”]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?[/quote]
This happened to me twice last night when I was out on the turps…
I did meet a friendly Canadian guy who runs a site ‘english in taiwan’ or something. His mate however ignored my offer of a handshake and proceeded to walk away and sit at a different area of the bar. His attitude was ‘pfft… loser’ and his expression suggested that his friendly mate was crazy for talking to me…
Gee, I guess thats one less person for my Christmas card list
Another furriner at the bar stared through me whenever i offered a smile or tried to engage him in conversation…
But I guess for every rude fellow whitie here, I have 2 or 3 friendly ones. Its just the luck of the draw I guess…[/quote]
Really? He walked to the other end of the bar? Do people actually do that? So you didn’t say… hey weirdo, there are 3 seats per table?
You’re so on the money. Buggers stare and stare and stare, and start to drool, all the while driving their newly acquired Mercedes CLK320s down the road ar 120 km/h.
Note: replace ‘Mercedes Benz CLK320’ with rickshaw/bicycle/motorbike taxi/electric bicycle etc. MB’s are only for the nouveau riche (ie. factory owners). But all the above still do their best to achieve top speeds whilst totally disregarding other road/sidewalk users…
Interesting stuff.
Anyways, I get my kicks by staring/ogling all the cute girls…
Yeah I was too drunk to care about it until I thought things over today… Its probably the rudest experience that I have encountered yet. Blank stares, looking away, even changing direction I can kind of understand…
But to actually make eye contact, look me up and down and then leave his friend to stand talking to me while he sat elsewhere… wow…
Maybe he was gay and was jealous that his partner was talking to such a hunky guy? 
Hmm… no… Just an ignoramus I think…
Its been 3 weeks since I have spoken english to another person, so I was gurning at any furriner that walked into my orbit… To be fair, his friendly mate more than made up for his rudeness. He gave me his contact details and has offered to help me find work/scooter/employment in Taichung city
It’s part of the Taiwan experience. it’s not common in Taipei, where people are used to foreigners, but it occasionally does happen here. Even in the boonies in Taiwan, the staring pales in comparison to China. And China doesn’t even hold a candle to India in this department, so I understand.
I personally don’t pay any attention to the starers.
Yeah I was too drunk to care about it until I thought things over today… Its probably the rudest experience that I have encountered yet. Blank stares, looking away, even changing direction I can kind of understand…
But to actually make eye contact, look me up and down and then leave his friend to stand talking to me while he sat elsewhere… wow…
Maybe he was gay and was jealous that his partner was talking to such a hunky guy?
Hmm… no… Just an ignoramus I think…
Its been 3 weeks since I have spoken english to another person, so I was gurning at any furriner that walked into my orbit… To be fair, his friendly mate more than made up for his rudeness. He gave me his contact details and has offered to help me find work/scooter/employment in Taichung city[/quote]
You’ll meet lots of rude foreigner’s here. F’em. Us Aussies are thick skinned enough right? For the most part, what I’ve seen is that most foreigners are quite eccentric… and eccentrics, IMHO are the most interesting people you’ll meet.
Im hoping that is right TyCoon, I have always been drawn to the ‘weirdos’ in the crowd… I just dig people with different viewpoints/personalities I guess
So going ‘against the grain’ makes one a ‘weirdo’. Well sign me up…
The “nod” is all that I require to be happy living here in 昭明. The Taiwan nod and the Vermont nod are actually the same, so it’s not hard for me to understand when I’m being acknowleged as a neighbor and, more importantly, as a ＨＵＭＡＮ ＢＥＩＮＧ.
I live out in the pigshit country between Kaohsiung and Pingdong city, so I experience the deep and hard stare every day, sometimes 3 or 4 times per day.
Thanks JD Smith for giving me a new response to try out, and believe me, I’ve tried everything. Mother Theresa’s remarks are spot-on as well: The hard stare is a situation in which the offending party doesn’t even acknowledge “ado” as a member of the human race, and that’s a very frustrating thing to work with IMHO. Satisfying myself in English (for my own benefit) is sometimes the only thing that makes up for the de-humanizing deep-stare treatment． Ａｓ ａ ｒｅｓｕｌｔ， I often resort to saying things that I could never get away with ｓａｙｉｎｇ in an English－ｏｎｌｙ environment. I’d make a sailor blush with some of the English I use ｉｎ ｐｕｂｌｉｃ these days.
[quote=“pubba”]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…
[/quote]
Unfortunately, this happens to me even here back home in Canada. Canada has a lot of immigrants from greater China. I do not need some rat-faced old peasant staring at me with contempt in the supermarket. Or commenting in Chinese about all the foreigners - read “white people”. Or walking past my house commenting in Chinese about the “foreigners” - read “me” - when I’m outside on the front lawn playing with my niece and nephew.