Taiwan, a violent place?

Dear forummers on Forumosa,

I have been interested in Taiwan for a while now and so have been browsing through the forum a bit. I have found many posts about road rage (people being pushed off the road after flipping the bird), attacks with baseball bats. Beerbottles smashing on heads. I am getting the feeling Taiwan is a pretty violent place. Now is it, or is it just because ive been reading the wrong posts? I know you have violence everywhere in the world. But lets face it, there are some places that are more violent than others. Liberia for example is a lot more violent than Germany. Of course we are now taking two extremes but you get the point. So overall do YOU as a person that lives in Taiwan personally perceive Taiwan as a violent country or not?

Thanks for your information in advance!!

You gotta be kidding. For the most part this place is as violent as a kindergarten.

I am not joking, from reading this forum i got the idea it might be quite violent, especially because of all the accounts of road rage and traffic related violence. Thank you for your view by the way! It`s one in the opposite direction this forum takes most of the time :slight_smile:

Whenever anyone asks me why I love Taiwan, I always throw in the lack of violence. On the whole, it’s a super-safe place to live. Yes, there is road rage, but you just have to learn to keep your cool when driving.

Compared to what? Like say an average hood in the US where drug deals happen around every corner, drive by shootings, gang related violence, or even just gangsters who robs or attacks you just because they didn’t like the way you look…

Violence can occur anywhere, but the odds of it happening to you are far lower in Taiwan than in most places in the world.

nah its pretty safe. the roads are an issue because people drive like a video game.

there are gangsters and stuff tho, so u dont wanna mess people around or anything.

Taiwan feels like the safest place I have ever lived by far. People are super chill and non-threatening. I haven’t personally seen any road rage… but I’m a cyclist, so what do I know.

[quote=“crazyguymanhorse”]Dear forummers on Forumosa,

I have been interested in Taiwan for a while now and so have been browsing through the forum a bit. I have found many posts about road rage (people being pushed off the road after flipping the bird), attacks with baseball bats. Beerbottles smashing on heads. I am getting the feeling Taiwan is a pretty violent place. Now is it, or is it just because ive been reading the wrong posts? I know you have violence everywhere in the world. But lets face it, there are some places that are more violent than others. Liberia for example is a lot more violent than Germany. Of course we are now taking two extremes but you get the point. So overall do YOU as a person that lives in Taiwan personally perceive Taiwan as a violent country or not?

Thanks for your information in advance!![/quote]

I have only once been attacked here, and it was a drunk driver who rammed my car. I got a payment for that.

Taiwan is very safe. If you look for trouble they will find you, if not, you will be OK.

There’s no such thing as an average hood in the US.

I have no doubt that you can find bad neighborhoods in Taiwan if you look hard enough. I haven’t looked hard enough.

It’s safe. There are some exceptions, and I think road rage triggers road rage in others… but the bottom line, if you don’t look for trouble you not likely to find it.

I guess you didn’t see this thread yet: forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtop … 8&t=125544

People write about violent things in forums (and report them on TV, in the newspaper, on the radio and elsewhere on the internet) because they are interesting. People usually don’t write about nothing happening. Therefore, reading any expat forum from anywhere in the world, I imagine it would be pretty easy to get the idea that whatever place they were writing about was fairly violent.

Taiwan’s really safe. I have, however, had more violent incidents happen to me here than I ever did in the states (3 incidents in 5 years vs. 0 incidents in 27 years).
I chalk this up to cultural misunderstandings and people’s relative cruelty to animals in this country (which inspired uncharacteristic angry behavior in myself).

Sometimes yes there’s violence, and sometimes there’s not. And sometimes the violence is slow:

hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php? … 0674049307

Guy

There are for sure people out there that attract violence for some reason. Maybe it’s the way they look or talk? Anyways, stay away from late night bars frequented by beetel nut chewing, prison cut, tattooed drunk men.
If for some reason the above described person is involved in a traffic accident … well, keep cool. Same goes for gravel truck drivers, taxi drivers …
At one time I ccommented on a young hot head’s parking skill, he got out pulling a baseball bat … I calmly continued on my way while he was calling for backup … the cowered would not have attacked me untill his friends showed up I guess.
I got a taxi driver coming onto me with a wrench while walking my dogs, I hit his car with my fist as he was speeding by almost running me over. Just continued walking, he couldn’t leave his cab unattended in the middle of the road, so he gave up chasing me.
Long time ago I had a drunk on a scooter riding through the mornig crowd at our local market, until he hit me, I pushed him, he throw one in my face, I was ready to smack him one in the face … but my wife jumped in and told me not to … it was one of those tattooed, prison cut guys.She knew.

But otherwise nothing mentionable happened in my 18 years in Taiwan. Taiwan is a safe place when you know what and who to avoid.

Responses to dumb posts were sent from my Nexus 7, I hate Apple BTW, with Tapatalk 8

Taiwan is non-violent, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous for other reasons a lot related to roads and traffic, gangsters mostly all only against each other, lack of safety awareness, education, and enforcement; and psycho-girlfriends.

Affluence tends to insulate people from the lower levels of criminality. Most of us on this forum are expats who, according to the rules for being allowed to get a work visa, are earning at least 150% of the median wage. You can probably draw some inferences from that.

A lot of violence would be family related, not stranger perpetrated. Bigger problems are poor driving, poor safety systems in general.

Lived here 5 years now, first arrived in 2004. I’d say it’s not violent. Yes, you did read too many of the violence threads. People here generally avoid confrontation, they usually back down when faced with anger, they’re soft. Not so in Europe. Of course if you’re walking around with some latent anger you’re bound to find confrontation somewhere. BUT, like others already said, the big exception is traffic.

Traffic to me here feels like violence. When crossing the road, even at a pedestrian crossing, cars will come at you at a speed as if saying “if you don’t run now, I’m simply going to run you over”. And I believe they will. Now that’s violence.

Traffic is so much better in Taipei though. I live in Zhongli city where traffic is quite bad and I imagine every other smaller town in Taiwan is like this. I certainly know Hsinchu is just as bad.

Agree. Taiwan is safe except if you have to cross the road.

If you really have to cross the road, just find a chicken.