My Experience with a Nut Job in Gongguan, Taipei

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
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Just want to share this experience with everyone. As Gongguan is a place many of us might visit, I think it will be good for all to know.

So, I was at Gongguan last night and walking into Eslite bookstore with my wife. I felt a shove in my back as I walk into the store. As the shove was pretty hard, I stopped, turned around and gave a long hard stare at the guy who did this to me. I mean who shoves people at a wide entrance when there is no obvious crowd or emergency?

A stare at the guy and I had a bad feeling. The guy does not look right, in my opinion.
I believe we all have a bit of experience with disturbed individuals and this guy ticked all the boxes for me.

He looks back at me and start to become defensive, and I calmly told him he pushed me. And right away, he started to swear and insult me with a very strong and insulting language. I will spare you guys the details of the lines he used.

I actually had a few seconds to decide how to react, as the swearing involves my family. But considering my wife was with me, and the guy is obvious disturbed, I decided to walk away. But the event does not end there. The guy followed me bit in the store with his foul languages. And that is the point where I decide to approach a store staff. The idea is to get one of the staff to witness what he is saying and ask for their help to remove the individual from my side or out of the store. The point to note here is that the guy, though swearing, is not shouting. He kept his volume enough for me to hear, and at the same time, kept a bit of distance (a few steps away) from me. I suspect he have experiences with similar situation and know that if I reacted, I am the one who is going to look bad on CCTV and have minimal witness to hear what he said.

Somehow, the guy knew better not to pursue his act for too long and was gone before I was able to locate a staff and get him to witness his action and words. And in the end, I was able to walk away from the event with no further disturbances.

The reason why I want to share is to highlight:

  • Taipei do have its share of nut jobs (like any cities around the world) even though it is one of the nicer cities I have been to.
  • Best way to deal with these nut jobs is to stay calm and avoid reacting to their provocations. It is more ideal to get help from store staff or local authorities, depending where you are. Taiwan usually have helpful staff and obvious police presence.
  • Even though I consider some individuals to be nut jobs, with most been harmless and staying out of peoples way, some of them are obviously pretty smart and experienced with aftermath of any provocations.
  • Acquire a neutral witness, other than friends and family that are with you, to see and hear what you experienced. In case things have to escalate into the hands of the police.
  • Remember, per my understanding of TW law, the first person who lay hands on the other bear the most fault in any incident. Never be the first to react violently.

Ok, that is all I have to share. Stay safe guys and gals.

2 Likes
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Thanks for sharing @Tommy_Lee

I’m sure many of us had similar run ins, but the outcome has been a bit different.

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Sounds like he was trying to provoke a violent reaction in order to get some money. I’ve seen videos of people jumping on cars to claim compensation.

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thats pretty rough. theres a surprisingly high number of nut jobs here. i try to stay far away from the unpredictable looking ones. most are harmless though. i had one guy yelling at me before than i was spanish… in a friendly enough way luckily.

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Good advice. You don’t want to be the next foreigner losing it on social media and the local news circus.

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I had another weird guy spitting at me in the underground mall where they sell toys right next to Taipei Main Station. I was not sure if he was just acting weird or targeting me. He followed me from one end of the mall all the way into the station, spitting at me all the way. So I was pretty sure at one point, it was at me. I walked up to the police station in the Taipei Main, but the guy was smart enough to disappear at that point. This is a pretty disgusting case.

Somehow, I feel like I am a magnet for weirdos. That is 2 incidences in 2 years.

I would say Taipei have a normal rate of nut jobs. But when you really run into one, it really take a lot of self-restraint to prevent oneself from reacting to the incident.

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2 out of 730 is a lot?

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Well, yes. At least, I think so.
I mean disturbed individuals is only a small portion of the total population.
Though coming across any of them is not rare.
But having them actively engaging you and perform some kind of provocation, that is not common.
Considering that most people actively avoid them in the first place.
And having 2 incidents over 2 years, I consider that a lot.

A study suggested that by 2006, there are 91,000 certified mental disability individuals in Taiwan. Against total population of 23 million, that is about 0.3% of the total TW population.

Having 2 incidents over 2 years, that is like 0.2% probability of having an incident with any of the identified mentally disabled individuals.

I am not exactly sure the meaning of comparing these 2 statics, but I think any similar experiences is one too many for anyone. :slight_smile: