Some taiwanese families wash their trash as well. My wife has always done this, to make life easier for the people who sort it out. It’s not a very widespread habit, though.
How about indigenous Formosans are hard as fuck and haven’t been mollycuddled in the same way urbanized Han Chinese have? Remember, in order to produce two generations of engineers to feed the science parks the MOE kindly cancelled all substantive physical education classes here (well, with the exception of “walk around the track in big fluffy pink romper suits”).
Didn’t Japan pay that back when they donated their time and tech to help the burn victims from that festival accident last year, or the year before?
I thought it was to keep bugs away. That is my wife’s excuse. Or maybe its the rules?
No idea, for my wife it’s just kindness towards people who sort the recyclable trash and have to do it by hand. We always rinse glass bottles, cartons, plastic food containers etc etc before throwing them out.
I think it is Japanese custom, as they did the same in Brazil stadium, which has professional cleaners. It is their way to contribute and say thanks. Most FB comments of their actions were quite positive.
They have activities every year to thank Taiwan’s assistance in their time of need. And if Taiwan sneezes, they are there with a handkerchief.
If you couldn’t see the parade, here’s a linkie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDhgxY7gtrk
Tommy, hope you can see it.
Are you saying that the Japanese athletes felt like they had dirtied the place and felt the need to cleanup to avoid shame?
In an ideal world, kids of any ethnicity living anywhere in Taiwan would get to choose to pursue academics or athletics based on their own will, instead of getting forced down a particular path based on their ethnicity or residence.
In my opinion it has more to do with this than simple benevolence. This and “義理” (obligation) are major motivators in Japanese society.
I must be looking at it through American eyes. Someone doing something like that in the USA would most likely mean you think the place is dirty and you are taking action into your own hands.
Thanks for your explanation.
Yeah, I don’t know it for a fact but I’m guessing there’s scouts wandering round Hualien/Taitung looking for good-sized physical specimens.
That’s interesting. In Korean, that word can also mean obligation, but it’s a special kind of obligation- loyalty between guys. And it’s pronounced in a peculiar way (the first character is not pronounced the way it should be).
I think the situation sucks all around. I mean for some aborgines, sports is definitely the smart path to take as they are just huge guys and naturally learn just about any sport. And then for some Taiwanese, I guess academics is the obvious path to take. But I imagine there are many that are forced into a direction that’s not suitable. And then this is compounded by the fact that there’s no middle ground, such as, for example, a high focus on academics with a good level of focus also sports. It’s just all the way one way or the other. I’ve seen this also in Korea with Taekwondo athletes. After their life as a competitor is over, there’s not much they can do.
Except that it didn’t? Who else was following this Universiade other than the locals?
I’m being negative nancy here but when you have a camera rolling in front of the guy of course he would give you a positive response. What else could he have said? It sucked and I can’t wait to go home?
I’m not saying that it was terrible or anything, I just feel that people got a tad carried away. It wasn’t the Olympics or the World Cup or anything after all. (not that I particularly enjoy the Olympics or the World Cup because I do not)
You’re probably right in that the event doesn’t generate column inches in overseas media. However the successful hosting of what is the second largest multi-sports event in the world can only be good for Taiwan. The impressions carried away by the athletes were overwhelmingly positive, they basically loved the place.
Perhaps they did like it here, I still wouldn’t buy into those compliments too much. I suspect most athletes enjoyed the cities they have competed in unless the organisation has failed on an epic scale.
Also, someone was “arrested” by some men in black for holding up a banner that has the word Taiwan written on it during the closing ceremony. It’s honestly pretty pathetic.
YES i can see it. thanks. I will watch it when i have a spot of time.
glad the games worked out really well on the whole. I think it was a POSITIVE all around for the rock.
too bad they didn’t ask all the athletes who wanted to to parade down a stretch of road or something.
i mean other then Taiwan team
In related news, some athletes are still with us:
The parents of the thousands of athletes and their families!
I mean, yes, it all seems too good to be true right? You haven’t heard too much negativity about Universiade from reporters asking the athletes, but doesn’t that mean something? Of all things reporters are looking for is gossip, but it seems like they didn’t find too much of it.
The athletes are kids/students, a lot of them aren’t being sponsored by Company X and Company Y to be here and say nice things. So, I like to think their responses to reporters’ questions are genuine.
Yeah, but think about it, this is Taiwan. You just expect something to go wrong, but in terms of Universiade, it didn’t! That’s probably one of the reasons why people were so into it. On top of that, tickets were cheap, a lot of the venues were easy access and it was a chance to root on the home team…at home!
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