What is it that makes them flip?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Today whilst going through a junction on a green light with the right of way in my favour, a dickhead 40ish year old bloke decided to turn left 12 feet, yes 12 FEET in front of me even though we both had eye contact with each other and he had actually stopped. But anyway, he decided to make a dash for it.
I narrowly missed the body of his bike by skidding around him, but I hit the tip of his wheel.

Now, to add insult to injury, he shouted at the top of his voice "GAN NI NIAO (Or F*%k your mother) to which I replied something like Beitz le (stupid or idiot).(Incorrect pinyin for both I think), but it’s quite a harmless comment.

He got off his bike and ran towards me and grabbed my shirt. Then he ran into the noodle shop by the side of the road and came out with a 6" knife which he grabbed off the laobans table.

Then he waved it around infront of my face.
Risking an unprofessional disembowlment and pretending not to be scared I stood my ground and tried to make him look like a twat infront of the masses of onlookers which had now gathered round to witness this rare foreigner spectacle. I was trying to call the police and fend off a looney at the same time when somebody from behind me grabbed my f*ck%@g cell phone. This person was completely unrelated to the situation at hand.

Luckily, a member of the crowd saw sense and managed to retrieve my cell phone for me. I am now at the point of losing "my face"and ripping the twats head off.
The laoban called the police, probably concerned about his knife, not the threatened foreigner and eventually the offending penis was dragged by the restaurant owners into the shop where he was sat down and handed a drink.

So I take back all my arguments about how Taiwan is less dangerous than other Western countries in previous threads about crime in Taiwan. This was an unprovoked rage attack involving a blade.

I can’t express how livid I am. I try and be reasonable to everyone and I get treated like this.

So what it is that turns most rational Taiwanese into rampant psychopaths at the flick of a switch? They preach their buddhist morals but as soon as a problem arises they are thrown out of the window.
The worst thing is that I cant do anything about it. Call the Police?

What police?

And while I’m on a rant I’m going to kill two birds with one stone (and incase this gets placed in the flame forum):

Fred Smith, I’ve read your posts and I think you talk bollocks.
You are clearly an idiot.

And I don’t like your avatar.

There. Now I feel better.

2

Hey, he just found out that his only daughter is dating an adoah -or maybe it was the father of gsm’s newly found girlfriend you met…hearing the roumor, looking for a foreigner to challenge…

who knows

3

There is a lot of resentment bubbling beneath the surface here. Knock the pot a little and it spills out. You know all of those people glaring at you everywhere you go. Some of them really do hate your guts.
I was in subway today and ordered my usual seafood delight in Chinese. I have ordered about a thousand six inch haixian delights in this city from about twenty different people. I am pretty sure that my chinese for six inch seafood delight is good enough that especially in context it is pretty understandable. She pretends not to understand me although in fact she already reaching for the seafood scooper. The cashier dude is watching all of this negotiating over which language to use and decides the best way to deal with the situation is to glare at me like I just killed his mother or something and responding to me in English although he understood my Chinese. He must have. I got what I wanted without speaking English. Maybe this doesn’t sound like much but the animosity was enough to throw me off my dinner for sure.

4

I know what you are talking about. What Subway was it? My Chinese is far from perfect but sometimes even for something which is impossible not to understand they will still give you that dopey fucking glare. At first I thought I was just being paranoid, but now I’m certain of it.

Is this animosity towards westerners (trying to) converse in Chinese due to the fact we are speaking Chinese, and not Taiwanese?

5

Mistake #1

Mistake #B

Mistake thrice, all comments are very serious offences.

:no-no:

What, so they could come and beat down another foreigner? :slight_smile: :laughing:

ok, really I have know idea what I’m talking about and all comments were totally useless and have no baring on reality. :smiley:

Just killing time before I go to sleep.

6

Probably because you have the audacity to speak something that’s not English.

7

Probably because you have the audacity to speak something that’s not English.[/quote]

Why can’t they just laugh at the “gringos” for trying to speak the language like me and my kind always do? :smiley: :stuck_out_tongue: :notworthy:

8

Might be my father-in-law… Cut the guy some slack, he’s going through hell right now - wedding ceremony is in two weeks. :laughing:

9

[Deleted]

10

… and this sort of thing hapens EVERYWHERE in the world.

Not to say you shouldnt be upset Dangermouse, and I am not trying to talk up Taiwan into some magical place of love and harmony, but this isnt a local V foreigner issue, its an idiot V relatively innocent bystander type of situation.

11

I know, I know, you are right. I don’t think it is just because I am a foreigner. He was just a twat who got more inflamed because I happened to retort to his “Gan ni niao” insult. Hopefully next time, he’ll cross a gangster or my mum when she’s in a bad mood.

In that case, give him my regards. I understand.

12

Don’t give them any chance to collect anything from a shop or the side of the road.

My rule for this is, if I see them running for reinforcments/weapons, they are restrained immediately. When I say restrain, I mean restrain…No hitting, kicking or the like. Get the guy talking, my first question is “Why are you so angry, it’s no big deal” or “Are you ok?” Give the guy a little while to calm down and realize he’s in an untenable situation…

Taking the cell phone is standard operating procedure here. It prevents the calling of reinforcements…

Also remember that by doing nothing you are taking the moral high-ground, but putting yourself at risk from a hyped-up scooteroid that is assuming you won’t respond…Hence the knife waving and postulating.

You handled it as best you could and walked away unharmed…The first time it happened to me, I took a filed off screwdriver right through the earlobe. This was from someone in the crowd who snuck up behind me during a heated verbal exchange with a taxi driver who had just run over my foot.

Once your opponent is armed it’s a whole new ball game…I feel much safer not letting it get to that point…Restrain and talk. Taking the wind out of their sails early gives both of you a chance to calm down and have a discussion of events.

Another option would be to simply follow him on his weapon quest and make your move while he’s reaching for something. If the cell phone comes out…Either take it or run like hell.

If you are not comfortable with this, then the best course of action might be to simply ignore assholes like this in the future. I’m doing my best to follow this course of action…I’m getting too old to wrestle around in the street…

13

I know, I know, you are right. I don’t think it is just because I am a foreigner. He was just a twat who got more inflamed because I happened to retort to his “Gan ni niao” insult. Hopefully next time, he’ll cross a gangster or my mum when she’s in a bad mood.[/quote]

Michaels advice seems sound… and I suppose - just behave the way you would back home. Given the insanity and high levels of raod rage I certainly wouldnt bother doing anything like what you did in Oz, UK and the US, let alone in a very foreign land.

There are morons everywhere.

14

What the hell is wrong with all these bystanders interfering with other people’s business?

15

I for one am not buying into poor innocent titmouse here. The extreme nature of the encounter tells me that some provocation occured. What amounts to that provocation is what is not understood by most of us. The eye contact thing alone is enough to set a Taiwanese person off. Ours is not to reason why, ours is to not make contact or maybe die.

Sure, the reaction may seem extreme. But…

If you spend your entire life accepting, mutely accepting every piece of shit that comes your way simply because you are constantly told “never worry about something if you can’t do anything about it.” So you suck up all the bumps and bruises along the way. You lend a smile to someone’s misfortune and move on thru your daily grind. You open a face savings account due to your stoic diligence to acceptance. Then one day, this adoagh publically humiliates you by staring at you. Doesn’t he know better than to do this? And all that accepting and accepting and accepting comes boiling up and here is a situation where you are clearly in the right because you have lost so much face, you are now in debt and the only way to get it back to to absolutely lose it. It has been this way for thousands of years. Here is thanks to budda, a situation that I can do something about.

or something like that…

titmouse, you’ve been participating in many threads here and you should have some sense of the match to gasoline potential prevelant in the local attitude by now. Why be a match? Simply because you didn’t want to be shown up, or because you wanted to let him know that you understood what he said :bravo: , you nearly got stabbed, or worse, flash-mobbed…

Well, Mr. I can understand chinese, here’s a new one for you:

Pai Sey

repeat over and over…

That alone would have blown out the match and washed the gas away in a sea of smiles.

The “bump of tires” had already happened. The swearing had already happened. Can u do anything to change that? Is getting in a knife fight gonna straighten that rim?

BTB, if you had both been high (on hash) instead of drunk (onpowercuzpowercomesfromknowledgeandyouknowyouarethebaddestmouseintown), you would have been aware of the potential for an accident and been able to take obviating steps to avoid it and even if you still bumped uglies, you would have been too mellow to worry about such trite stuff as name-calling.

16

[quote]If you spend your entire life accepting, mutely accepting every piece of shit that comes your way simply because you are constantly told “never worry about something if you can’t do anything about it.” So you suck up all the bumps and bruises along the way. You lend a smile to someone’s misfortune and move on through your daily grind. You open a face savings account due to your stoic diligence to acceptance. Then one day, this adoagh publically humiliates you by staring at you. Doesn’t he know better than to do this? And all that accepting and accepting and accepting comes boiling up and here is a situation where you are clearly in the right because you have lost so much face, you are now in debt and the only way to get it back to to absolutely lose it. It has been this way for thousands of years. Here is thanks to budda, a situation that I can do something about.
[/quote]

Toe save. I mentoned that we had eye contact because I was riding towards him and he was in a position to turn left. I wasn’t staring at him, I was making sure he was aware of my presence. He wasn’t staring at me, he was watching me coming towards his positon.

There was no animosity at this point until he decided to pull right infront of me at the last minute.

Even then I let it lie.

and then he said “Gan Ni Niao.”

I think I’m within my rights to be fucking angry.

I didn’t stare at him, Toe save. I was merely looking at him to make sure he had seen me.

Why the insult?

17

[quote=“Toe Save”]Well, Mr. I can understand Chinese, here’s a new one for you: Paisei. repeat over and over…

That alone would have blown out the match and washed the gas away in a sea of smiles.[/quote]
I disagree. The man was a bully. Bullies should not be pandered to - it just encourages them to be even greater jerks in the future. Saying this, I should also ad a caveat: Be aware of your situation and the possible repercussions - if the fallout is too brutal, then back off. Live to fight another day, so to speak… :braveheart:

18

Mostly because I play with everyone’s handles…

And partly because I still don’t believe you to be completely innocent. I drove around this town for 2 years. So many bumps and close calls, I can’t even remember half of them. I have always laughed it off, and thanked my stars I wasn’t hurt, or worse, my DCT, my RFL, my PP wasn’t.

I have had Saturday morning suits try and taunt me into a reaction by pointing and laughing saying “adoahhh, hahahaha”…Gave them no heed and drove off at the light change. If I had countered with something like “Xiao Didi”, I would have been in a fight for my life and possible getting the LOML hurt in the process.

I have even had a horrifying moment when a taxi driver took umbrage with the inter-racial make-up of piglet and kept trying to knock us off the bike. I am a fairly athletic guy, outweighing most dudes here by 30-35 kgs, and I can go nuts…

(once got jumped in my cab in Whistler by 7 yahoos cuz I wouldn’t pick them up (7 is too many) and they chased me to the light, kicked out my tailight, pulled me from my cab, hit me upside the head with a beer bottle and then I let loose…I got a few shots in before getting hold of a guy and shaking him off balance…(first thing you learn in hockey fighting school)…managed to get him stuffed under the steering column and whaled on him while 3 or 4 guys whaled on me…then I ragdolled this guy around, backing my assailants off. I figure my eyes must have done a Platoon Tom Berenger cuz none of them wanted to step in first…then my buds arrived…and we chased them off into the cops arms…)

So I can take care of myself…but here, now, older, wiser, I saw an opening and took off. That’s as valiant as I care to be.

But by all means mighty mouse…keep your pride…don’t let anyone insult you…

19

[quote=“Maoman”][quote=“Toe Save”]Well, Mr. I can understand Chinese, here’s a new one for you: Paisei. repeat over and over…

That alone would have blown out the match and washed the gas away in a sea of smiles.[/quote]
I disagree. The man was a bully. Bullies should not be pandered to - it just encourages them to be even greater jerks in the future. Saying this, I should also ad a caveat: Be aware of your situation and the possible repercussions - if the fallout is too brutal, then back off. Live to fight another day, so to speak… :braveheart:[/quote]

In my estimation, even more reason to Paisei him. I teach English, not Common Sense. I am not offering a masters’ course in How to Curb Your Anti-Social Behaviour. (or am I? :laughing: )

I am here for a good time. I hope to be here for a long time. Paisei gets the ball rolling towards communication. Sure, you are not sorry or shameful, but simply uttering it gives you so much face that the randiest of scooter monkeys cannot top it, especially if others hear you say it.

I asked my class yesterday what was more important, honesty or saving face…it was unanimous.

Let me put it in a political context. China is the bully. China cannot afford to lose face. Nor can Taiwan. And Taiwan has been staring into China’s eyes for over 50 years now. The knives are drawn and the crowd is reaching for their cell phones. If Taiwan wants to win this game of face, they could choose to disarm, and declare neutrality. And Independance. China cannot attack an unarmed country. They would lose every ounce of face they ever had.

Or Taiwan could fight. And China has way more big brothers.

Face:

It is the most important thing on the Chinese mind. It is more important than money, or family.

Face:

Don’t play the player…play the game.

20

Ooh, that face thing again - I don’t play that game anymore. Which doesn’t mean I’ve lost my manners, I just don’t like the bullshit involved. Call 'em as I see 'em, that’s my motto.

Click here for the original discussion on Taiwanese “face”.