One of the things that disappoints me most about Taiwan is the bras. It’s not just the padding, which is bad enough. The worst of it is that the bras are always there, whether padded or not. How often does one see a girl proudly displaying an emancipated pair of braless boobs nestling delightfully beneath her t-shirt, blouse, tank-top, sweater or dress? Almost never, unless she’s with a foreigner. Even in mid-summer, when wearing a bra must be torture, they’re still always there. And often they, or at least their pads, are worn under swimsuits, for goodness sake!
Does anyone agree with me that the bra is one of the ugliest garments ever invented? And isn’t it rather unnecessary for most smaller-breasted Chinese girls, whose boobs are not going to sag to their waists without it? Rather than enhancing the beauty of a Chinese woman’s form (as the ads would have you believe), the ubiquitous bra masks and detracts from its wearer’s allure.
When are Taiwan’s ladies going to learn from their liberated Western sisters and burn their bras? Roll on the day!
My (Taiwanese) boss just came and read what people are writing here.
Of course, the best forum to let your boss read is ‘Pet Peeves in Taiwan’ :?
Her verdict: “Well, if they not like it, they can get out!”
My pet peeve: My terrible boss; I hate you, you horrendous woman-like thing. Please spare me your rudeness, your patronisation, your long hours and your benign racism. I will have your face printed on my toilet paper! Aaaaarrgghhhh!
no 1. pet peeve… Receipts. (they are a curse and make my life a living hell)
no 2. that crappy romantic pop music that people who work in offices listen to. This brings me to…
no. 3. Repeat players. Not only do I have to listen to insufferably cute plastic sentiment, but office girls tend to leave the same 30 minute CD on for 12 hours a day for weeks on end. It’s enough to drive someone to teaching.
no. 4 Co-workers who when they approach you with even the smallest task, do it as though they are tip-toeing around a sleeping lion. “Please, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you possibly have a look at this and get it back to me whenever you have the time…?” What? Do you mean… do my job!? And this, after they know damn well I’ve been surfing the internet for the past three days, dying for some work to tear me away from the sheer boredom. Do they think I’m going to bite their heads off?! Am I the crazy foreigner that must be approached with caution lest I was on a drinking binge for the past 3 months? Damn right I am! Well, actually I’m not but it pays to keep the keep up the front.
Juba, if you can’t beat them… I’ve become a loud and proud belcher myself since being here. Caused quite a stir when I was in Paris checking out the Louvre: (to Taiwanese girlfriend) “Darling, BURP! look at this,”
I swear all heads turned in unison. Oddly enough I didn’t get it at first.
I haven’t gotten to the fart-frankly-don’t-bat-an-eyelid stage though. On that front, erh back, Imy girlfriend was astonished that I’d never heard my mother fart. It used to do my head in as a kid - “sister farts, mother never. Mmm, perhaps it just stops as they get older?”
But the one true pet hate - and I’m so pissed off I aint looking to see if this has been threaded elsewhere - is grimy slimy sleazy motor cycle mechanics. Copped a ripper yesterday in Ban Qiao. (173 Zhongshan Road by memory - just near the FY21) NT$2,600 - new auto clutch, rear suspension - and the scoot was exactly the same as when I spluttered into the shop suggesting a spark plug or a clean out of the carby! Sadly I’d dished out the dosh just before riding of to find out all wasn’t well. While I didn’t get a refund I did stand outside his shop on a very busy intersection screaming out warnings to all would be customers for around an hour, the time he took to get it right. I knew all along I was being done but thought what the hell, as long as its fixed…until I found the original problem was still there. Slimy bastard ended up changing the plug and spraying out the carby (under constant harangueing) and presto. F***er was so thick skinned that he refused to concede that his expensive renditions had achieved absolutely nothing. Which in turn very nearly caused me to thump the sod for good measure.
I must say that in all my time here I’ve only ever been fleeced by mechanics. While I’m on it, here’s the classic. “Nah, can’t put an inner tube in that flat tire, the rims buckled so ya need to replace the whole wheel. How much? NT$1,000.” I find ‘gan nin ya chou jiba’ the only apropriate response. Best to do it wth enough air in the tyre to get you a swift couple of blocks away though.
It goes without saying that the saintly “monkey die boy” Mr. Chen on Roosevelt is totally excluded from my anti-Taiwan ‘think I’ll be a mechanic’ rant!
I HATE the TV stations HERE that ALL have DIFFERENT volumes. ONE is SCREAMING and THE next IS quiet. ANNOYING isn’t IT! :x
Also, people who only shower at night and think it’s fine to stink up the subway in the morning - make that the stinkway.
Now that I think about it, throw in most tv shows, especially those infatuated with eating. Running into a restaurant with a camera and filming people eating or showing someone stuffing their face at a sidewalk vendor, chewing with their mouth open and talking at the same time - this stuff is funny? Commercials could drive you insane too, particularly the one that tries to be hip, showing a bald foreigner and using a dorky Chinese voice that mumbles “the power of design!” aiyo!!!
When women belch and then wave their hand in front of their mouth I always say, “That’s disgusting!” Hopefully, they will belch more stealthily next time.
Women seem to belch more than guys strangely enough.
On the subject of women, why do most women insist on going home to take a dump. I know some public toilets can be quite grotty, and some of them have cameras in them, but not ALL of them! I used to work in a company and one of my female co-workers (Taiwanese) would every once in a while disappear for an hour or two because she had gone hoime to sit on the crapper. I know thiis because she told me!
I haven’t seen anyone post this annoyance yet… maybe you all live in new buildings…
In every building I have ever lived in Taiwan, our water pressure and temperature are weak and inconsistent. I hate it when the water during my showers goes from scalding hot to ice cold in a matter of seconds… Ouch and Brrrr!
My pet peeve in Taiwan are the “ABC’s” who think they should get paid better than the locals when it comes to teaching English. Wake up “Jackie Chan”, it ain’t gonna happen. What the people want is someone who not only speaks English well but also looks like a “real” Westener.
Oh and why I'm dissing Jackie Chan (or is it Ching or Chun???)my other pet peeve is how Taiwanese people adopt all Asians as their own such as Tiger Woods, Jackie Chan, and Coco Lee. I've even met a few locals who think Michael Jordan was from Taiwan.
Another pet peeve are the locals who thought that Taiwan would someday rise and take back the mainland.
Or how about the locals who celebrate their independence from Japan but forget to mention who actually defeated the Japanese during WWII.
But the above actually contradicts my other pet peeve which is that Japan should have been allowed to control Taiwan after WWII. Imagine how nice this country would be if the Japanese still ruled this place. Think Okinawa... I was told (by older Chinese that were around during the occupation) that punishment for breaking Japanese law was swift and final. Hell, if that were true today, I would be supplying the ammo. Yes I support "reunification"! Reunification with Japan!
Another pet peeve is how 99% of all Taiwanese men dress and look like feminine homosexuals yet say they are actually "straight". Whats up with them wearing women's shoes?
My last pet peeve is with mainland China. Everyone knows that there is only one China and the true president of Taiwan is the guy that rules the mainland. So why doesn't he get off his lazy ass and humble these spoiled cocky little Taiwanese brats on this God-for-saken island? If they need a place to stay, I got extra rooms at my place. Please come! The sooner the better.
Those reflexes on the freeway still drive me crazy. when you overtake some slow idiot in the fast lane on the inside, you can just feel the car letting go off ground contact for a split second.
When I lived in Taichung in the late 80s, the sidewalk was considered to be another lane. It was actually sort of fun to drive in those days. It felt like the wild, wild West. I also thought the lines of drivers pissing on the side of the road in broad daylight was kind of funny.
What I hate about Taipei drivers today is the assumption that if you own a car, you own the tight, pedestrian-filled back alleys, pedestrian safety be damned! Extra points of you brush someone (preferably an old lady) with your side view mirror. This kind of behavior back home would earn you a tire iron pressed firmly against your head, or at least your window.
Chinese manners go to hell on buses, trains, and subways. We have all experienced not just apathy toward people in need (e.g. pregnant ladies, children, physically challenged people, old people) here, but blatant, sometimes violent rudeness on public transportation vehicles. In a terribly overcrowded country, a little courtesy and public decorum becomes even more important.
One of the things that really pisses me off here is the propensity of some drivers to attach large metal spikes to the front of their cars. Well, actually on the corners of the front bumpers. Though i haven’t been impaled upon one myself, i would hazard a guess that a fair few others have. Is this the the ultimate display of selfishness or just plain stupidity? A pedestrian hit by a car traveling as slow as walking speed stands to suffer a major injury by falling on these things. It’s all the more insane because these metal spikes look tacky – they don’t enhance the aesthetics of the vehicle in any way.
The spikes (look like little flagpoles) are there so the drivers can judge where the corner of the car is, being unable to see it, or judge where it is like any normal person…
Not as bad as the spotlights that all the truckies fit, facing backwards.
“I can’t stop you overtaking me, but I’m going to make sure you don’t take any pleasure in it…”
It is true, the men do dress a little different here. What I hate is the socks. Thin little socks like booties.
P.S. Does anybody remember the ascot fad of '89-90? Every guy wore an ascot when they went out on the town. You’d go to Kiss, and 80 percent of the men would be wearing them.
And many man here wear nylon socks (as in “nylons”).
Oh yeah … and the combination, nice pants and a mafia-look shirt with 10 NT$ plastic slippers. On the keyring 34 keys or about.
Dirty feet!
Gravel truck drivers: in one hand the mobile phone, in the other hand a cigaret, spitting beetle nut juice and all of this while running a red light.
Steering with the elbows.
apologies if this is here already - can’t be bothered to read through them all.
The uniform Taiwanese pronounciation of the letter N as “un” and the letter F as “effoo”. BTW, my Chinese pronouciation sucks, and my tones are all over the place. However, it still peeves me no end that Taiwanese ppl can’t even say the letters of the freakin’ alphabet properly.
