Why does Taiwan have so many weird foreigners?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
21

Kinda allways feel like this.

I mean now really someone can explain me straight, what is there for white guy in taiwan ?

  • apartments are shitty
  • bosses are crazy and conservative
  • on family level there is a lot of politics. You must take a lot of bla bla, would never ever happened at home. But u know we are taiwanese, our culture, oh our face bla bla
    -Food is usually low quality with all those food scandals
  • Except labour, everything is expensive. Western food, cars, electronics, clothes brands, proper furniture, even flight tickets taiwan - europe are like double price comparing to europe - taiwan way tickets. . And taipei is allways like at least 20 % more than other asian cities. Even taipei mrt is not cheap… Ok local gas is cheap, ok utilities are cheap…
  • either low salary or no life balance at all, usually
  • hard to make friends with locals, they are shy, akward, poor english, work whole day, and spend weekends with mummy ( but thank god is crowded, so you can meet a lot of cool people)
    -air pollution

Let say you are hardworking, smart, inteligent, in shape with good degree. And out of nowhere you decide to come to taiwan? You must be a bit weird in the first place. I could make more money elswhere, but i was in taiwan. Probably am a bit weird. I mean in the end, taiwan is not “very likeable” by western standards. So you just must be a bit different with different priorities, to come to rock in the first place. Back in the west you can be seen as weirdo indeed

And you must be a hell of weirdo to stay. Or you can be just laid back guy, who likes warm weather, cheap stuff, and convience. Might get a luck wit job. Might get smoking hot wife. No all jobs are crap indeed,and happy, good , sexy wife = good life.

But sure yea, is such a high density of people, you will see extremes more often.Both negative and positive

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22

I think the sudden absence of ordinary social restrictions has an influence on some people who are on the odder side of the spectrum, perhaps pushing them out towards the outer boundaries if they are not inclined or able to reel themselves back in a bit.

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23

I don’t you’d be amused for very long either if you were having a wide birth. :hushed:

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24

Question 1: How many foreigners did you meet back home?

I didn’t meet foreigners until I came to Taiwan and people started pointing at me and using that word.

“I have met many cool foreigners here but I have many that are very weird.”

Question 2: How come you didn’t start a thread titled: “Why are there so many cool foreigners in Taiwan?”

Are you an oddball?

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26

Are you trying to tell me that the people where you come from aren’t weird? I think people are just weird in general. It’s, like, a feature of the human condition or something. Or maybe it’s just because I’m from Berkeley…

27

I’ve also lived in China and Singapore and they had their share of weird foreigners too. I believe there are several reasons for the weirdness:
-There are fewer established social norms (even for foreigners it’s not like one culture reigns–there are folks from US, UK, South Africa, continental Europe, Latin America, etc., with many subcultures)
-There are fewer penalties for behaving weirdly (I live in downtown Taipei and there are several parks/public areas where foreigner dudes hang out and drink; this wouldn’t fly back home or among downtown Taipeirs, but it’s just part of the culture for the foreigners) [basically what tempogain said more succinctly]
-There may be other people enabling your weirdness (so I actually love hanging out with a beer in the park, but would never do this alone and only do it here)
-Foreigners are sometimes treated with deference and there’s less pressure to “fit in” (or it’s harder to do)
-There is apparently some demographic weirdness (more foreigner men than women in many communities, probably fewer families, less extended family)
-There’s high mobility but also probably some subset that are basically stuck here

A lot of communities “back home” have some of these traits, but they’re more pronounced here.

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28

Much of this could be said of San Francisco.

Edit: I see that Dr. Milker is a Berkelean, whose university life has included a guy who went without clothes for nearly his whole four years.

Er, I find myself subject to numerous social restrictions. And that is why I wear clothes. Yes, tourists–or young people on their own for the first time–may well experience a sense of freedom, but that could happen anywhere.

29

I didn’t want this thread to die without acknowledging your quote from “Freaks.” Well done.

(And if anyone thinks that quote is originally from South Park, well then, I guess I’m a bit older than you).

30

You saw it in 1932?

31

:grin: It wasn’t even a typo. Just me being a fuckwit.

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“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVQ3-Xe_suY

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33

I meant what Teach said pretty much. Mental illness happens everywhere too. Here you’ve got an environment where for every foreigner who’s here, family and friends–people who will watch out for you and care about your behavior–are suddenly stripped away. People on the street won’t take any notice of all kinds of behavior that would raise eyebrows and maybe more at home.

34

Define “better.” Each country has its pros and cons. People come here to work for many reasons. Some people come here because they love Chinese culture, but don’t care for mainland China… some people come here because they’re married to a Taiwanese national (such is my case). If you want to make a heirachy of Asian countries, that’s your prerogative. But I’m certainly not buying into it.

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35

drinking beer in the park may not be legal back home, depending on which country you are from but that does not make it weird.

seriously, if you think thats weird you need to get out more. after 12 o clock. you will see some weird stuff.

36

As a weird guy I need to say something here. Why am I weird? well, what I was taught at home was different from what I found on the street. For many years I wanted not to give a shit about social conventions and rules, I just wanted to follow what I believed to be right and fair, trying to not to mind about what people could think about me. I guess it was a mistake but whatever :smiley: The thing is that my interests, my sense of humor, my opinions and many other things differ greatly from the common guy’s all those things. I also always though that most people were idiots, probably me being one of the biggest. That makes social things a bit complicated for me, and I tend to talk to much and say too many things that, as I’m saying them, I realize how out of place they are :smiley:

Why did I come here? because of a woman who I thought was very compatible with me, and because I was hungry for seeing new things, more countries. I knew it was probably an error, but a nice one. I wanted to go back at some point, much earlier than now.

Why am I still here? I like many things here, but I also hate many others. I’m too lazy for taking all the steps that are required for going back, but I’m slowly working on it. I’m also trying to figure out if I go back with ex #1 or perhaps ex #2. Neither is perfect, but I can’t stop having feelings for either. Yeah, I tend to make things too complicated.

Anyway, as @the_bear said (in the thread linked above), everybody could be weird. Indeed, I always thought I was “different” and with the time I felt that maybe some people were right and I was weird (but nicely weird, as some remarked :smiley: ), but… I couldn’t find many people who were not considered weird or disliked by many others. I was always confused about how much people criticize each other. As I said, not many people are accepted by everyone else. Sure, there are people who are definitively fucked up, and most of people will agree that they are so, but most of people will also be seen as weird, stupid, wrong, bad, etc… by many others.

If you do well in life, you don’t care much about critics. It’s when things are fucked up that you start to lose self confidence, care too much about what others say, and become a weirdo/loser/outsider/whatever. Does Taiwan offer more tolerance to those who have a greater “deviation” from the norm? yeah, maybe… or maybe not. You, as a foreigner, are already exotic here. Some people can benefit from it, some could struggle even more.

But remember, whoever you are, even if you see many weirdos around… maybe you are the greatest weirdo/asshole/idiot to people around you.

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37

To paraphrase the asshole saying: If you meet a weirdo in the morning he’s probably a weirdo. If you think you’re meeting weirdos all day…

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38

Another twist on that is “the grumpier you are, the more assholes you’ll meet.”

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39

Go live in South Africa and you will know why there are so many of us here, Taiwan is awesome.

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40

haha no there are plenty of weird people where I am from. There is no doubt about it.

I guess what I am trying to say is that, I feel if I meet another foreigner here, they are more likely to be odd than if I met just a random person back home. The ratios are more skewed.

I acknowledge that some of this may be cultural differences and differences in humour.

41

The weirder you are, the more weirdos you’ll meet?

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