I’ve lived here 13 years and never been beaten. That experience is matched by most of the longtime Fcom posters. I’m not going to scare people off Taiwan because shit happens on occassion. Sorry, but vigilance is not paranoia. I warn, but am not about to terrify.
fair enough.
Most of my friends in the UK have been started on in bars at some point in their life, but as I say we’re talking fists, black eyes, and occassionally the odd broken nose before everyone is gassed and beaten worse by bouncers and pigs.
Could have done with a warning about baseball bats though.
i also suggest you change this:
to:
Or are we getting anywhere near to admitting this is basically just racist attacks?
Which is all assuming it had anything to do with that - I ave no idea.
Which again just makes it easier to say people may be subject to racist attacks in bars.
And I don’t see any point in continuing to call them gangsters, I don’t see what crimes they commit other than beating foreigners to a pulp.
[quote=“steveknlp2”]fair enough.
Most of my friends in the UK have been started on in bars at some point in their life, but as I say we’re talking fists, black eyes, and occassionally the odd broken nose before everyone is gassed and beaten worse by bouncers and pigs.
Could have done with a warning about baseball bats though.[/quote]
Sometimes it’s watermelon knives. Consider yourself lucky.
make sure you put it in the next issue.
Yeah, a warning against the Pig will very likely go in. This is two times too many in only a few years.
It means it’s a good idea to avoid speaking to local girls in pubs here in Taiwan.
No, you should avoid it because it’s a good way to avoid being beaten up in Taiwan regardless of whether or not you’re a dimwitted loser. It’s just common sense here. I expect it’s common sense in a lot of places in the world.
It’s pretty serious when the Lonely Planet guide has to write this:
As Mucha Man said:
I wrote this once but it seems to not have posted. Probably my fault.
Stay away from the “Flying Pig”. The “Pig” should not be confused with the “Flying Pig” I don’t know why Hsinchu is enamored with pigs but so be it. The “Pig” is a very respectable pub and resteraunt between Ambassdor and Ceaser Park. It is owned by Nigel who runs a tight ship. Good food, reasonable drinks and if you get rowdy, Nigel will probably toss your ass but without undue trauma.
The “Flying Pig” has gone to the bottom in the last couple years. Waitress job is to squeeze a 3X bottle shop fee from you for a bottle. She shares, pours hers and ilutes it with beer and joins you. Typical Asian crap. If you over-indulge, there are ample bad elements waiting to take advantage.
Solution: Don’t go there.
Alternatives:
Nigel’s “Pig” but I have to admit, that it is a bit boring.
Pub Row:
Pub row runs off the circle and is the first alley at 90 degrees that runs off the circle if you turn to the left exiting the F’ing Pig.
A safe pub up that way is “Red’s”. Gyver the bartender is a great guy and expect good prices on beer. Bottles are about 2X bottle shop price. Dart board and really helpful service, wireless internet and plug in at tables. This is a really good place but there are others nearby. Melody, the girl that makes hamburgers is near and will deliver to your table. Cheap and good burgers, good and cheap drinks, safe and friendly atmosphere. Why the hell go to the F’ing Pig?
BTW, my friend is a waitress at F’Pig, and I intend to find out what happened. I will let you know of observers point of view.
I think it would be much clearer by just stating foreigners can be subject to racist attacks in bars as whether they talk to girls or not is largely irrelevant.
I mean what you saw is probably true in say, ex mining villages in south wales or northumberland in the uk, or out of the way dumps where youre the only foreigner anywehere, and the nearest police station is 4 miles away, but this was a large, student type bar/club in a city the size of manchester or liverpool.
Sorry, you are wrong. There are certain pubs that cater to the “beat the fuck out of anybody that is not us.” F’Pig is one of them. You know others near your home. I have been in more than 35 countires and I can tell you that there is a certain mentality that sees this beating crap as a hobby. “Hey, let’s go to the pub and kick some poor blokes ass”. You know it and I know I have seen it. It happens here, so avoid it with this kind of forum. One the other hand, since you don’t seem to see a problem, go hang out at the F’Pig and have a few drinks. Your reply would be appreciated.[quote=“steveknlp2”]I think it would be much clearer by just stating foreigners can be subject to racist attacks in bars as whether they talk to girls or not is largely irrelevant.
I mean what you saw is probably true in say, ex mining villages in south wales or northumberland in the uk, or out of the way dumps where youre the only foreigner anywehere, and the nearest police station is 4 miles away, but this was a large, student type bar/club in a city the size of manchester or liverpool.[/quote]
no, I would condemn it in south wales as well.
but I wouldn’t bang on here going ‘well tough shit, this is wales, you talked to a welsh bird you should expect to be attacked’
instead i would say ‘thats fucking bullshit and those people are more than likely racist cunts’
[quote=“steveknlp2”]I think it would be much clearer by just stating foreigners can be subject to racist attacks in bars as whether they talk to girls or not is largely irrelevant.
I mean what you saw is probably true in say, ex mining villages in south wales or northumberland in the uk, or out of the way dumps where youre the only foreigner anywehere, and the nearest police station is 4 miles away, but this was a large, student type bar/club in a city the size of manchester or liverpool.[/quote]
Compared to other places in Xinzhu, Flying Pigs is pretty dark, has a pool table (always with two or more girls that have too much make up). I think it pretty much stinks and shouldn’t be in any guide. I think its the atmosphere that matters, there are a couple of bars/pubs in Xinzhu that don’t have this touch. And I don’t think you’d be beaten up by anyone cause the clientele is different. Strangely the booze is cheaper too. Personally I have no interest in getting to those kind of places anymore anyways. There’s a global downturn for respect and interesting people, so no reason to go. 
Time to get that banana back. You’re finally beginning to see the light. Go to a place like the Flying Pig and they’re likely monobrowed thugs, too. A whole barful of Begbies who really hate whities and don’t really need an excuse to panel them.
And we must have lived in different Newcastles, I guess – someone I know got beaten there for talking to the wrong girl. He got stabbed four times and set on fire. More than 25 years ago now, and South Shields, not actual Newcastle, though, so maybe its changed?
And you know what? The cops knew exactly who was responsible, their form, their addresses, the whole lot. And the victim wanted to press charges and he tried really hard to get them. No-one was ever prosecuted. But the bloke DID get nearly 1,000 quid (around NT$49,000 by exchange rates in those days) in victim comp. Big deal.
no im sure youre right.
shields is the ghetto.
haha
[quote=“steveknlp2”]Or are we getting anywhere near to admitting this is basically just racist attacks?
Which is all assuming it had anything to do with that - I ave no idea.
Which again just makes it easier to say people may be subject to racist attacks in bars.
And I don’t see any point in continuing to call them gangsters, I don’t see what crimes they commit other than beating foreigners to a pulp.[/quote]
I think that’s exactly what it is; a racist attack, and unfortunately Taiwan’s government still has a long way to go in terms of making Taiwan waiguoren-friendly in those situations. A lot of Taiwanese guys see foreign guys as a threat, often for good reasons. In the “gangsta-class” category, the men tend to treat their women like crap, have dubious jobs (if any), chew binlang and just be icky in general. (I’m female; please excuse the generalisation) If you were that icky, you’d probably be threatened when your only possible chance of romance was gravitating toward a foreign-born, educated person with a really easy job and lots of money!
The main reason nothing is usually done in these attacks is Guanxi, as a lot of us have already said. Usually, the police know exactly who these guys are, and just don’t care enough to do anything. Unfortunately, these gangsta-punks have multiple “uncles” with a LOT of pull in the police department and the judicial department (sort of like the Sicilian Mafia in New York and elsewhere not too long ago). That’s why I was surprised that these individuals (I hesitate to say “people”) were put in jail; it usually just gets swept under the rug. Yeah, it’s wrong, especially from a western perspective, but it’s the way things are and we sometimes need to make adjustments in order to save our skins.
If it’s any condolence (and I’m sure it’s not), when Taiwanese guys piss them off, they deal with it the same way.
I realize that I probably sounded a bit snotty in my first post; my friend (your namesake) put a lot on the line and was feeling kind of bummed and under-appreciated, and maybe it wasn’t the best time to bring that up. You were a newbie here, and nobody expects to get his ass (or rather, head and arms) kicked for simply talking to a girl unless they’ve been told otherwise. How are your injuries healing? (That should have been my first question, before launching into attack mode. Sorry about that.)
well I can see how he might have been a bit annoyed I just up and left but I had:
-
No money
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No legal right to stay after aug 15
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No flight out after aug 24
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no job
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WOULD have had no home if i hadnt come back
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no response from the police after the initial visit.
do you have his email address?
mine is
I put the post up cos I had no idea theyd let poeople go. the last I heard from them was the beginnig of august. after that i mainly looked into trying to sue the local hsinchu government or police. if i had a spare 60k NTD I would.
Good luck with that… You’d have better luck finding a virgin in a brothel.
This posts kinda reminds me of a chat that I had with Monster a while back. He expressed the opinion that foreigners just don’t stick together enough over here. He had a good point. Had this happened where I come from a large crowd would go to the place where this assualt happened and give the “good” folks there a new definition for the term “assualt with intent to do grievious bodily harm.”
And despite this being an outright racist attack, there’s something seriously wrong with your head, culture or both if you think you and your limp wristed friends are in any way manly to attack a single individual. This incident just further illustrates that there is no justice on this rock and that it truly is vestige of criminally insane fucked up individuals with a police force not even remotely worthy of the name.
The only ray of light in all this is that people like this are luckily a relatively small minority and that in general Taiwanese are good people who keep themselves to themselves. Pity about things like this because unfortunately it doesn’t refelect well on the island and it’s populace, especially when the government and the police do little to nothing to stop these kinds of incidents or punish the guilty parties when it does happen. In almost any other country these guys would be doing hard time for a very long while, and rightly so.
Small consolation for the victim in this case.
I believe something like that happened after a guy got tasered at Luxy.
I believe something like that happened after a guy got tasered at Luxy.[/quote]
Who tasered him and why? Do you know the details?
I believe something like that happened after a guy got tasered at Luxy.[/quote]
Who tasered him and why? Do you know the details?[/quote]
This is probably a different incident than the one I was involved in at Luxy some 3 and a bit years ago. I was in the room that is now the “white room” dancing when I saw a foreigner thrown up against the bar by a bunch of the security. I was friendly with the security at the time yet I saw one of them whip out his asp and raise it above his head. I jumped the tables and ran over with a couple of my friends in tow. It was just a reaction. I couldn’t help it…I just went to that dudes aid. I was pretty pissed off when the doorman, in the middle of the club, whiped out the asp and had it over his head while pressing the guy over the bar top. Pussy.
Anyway, Josefus is more in tune than I am now. He’d know which incident exactly.
I was notorious for not letting things go. I always ran in like an idiot when it came to foreigners. Roxy was cool with me doing so cept for the first incident where “I” got tasered in the face. That ended happily when the doormen and I at Roxy became pretty good friends. Carnegies, Plush, Roxy Vibe and Luxy; I had tried to help in all four places only to look like a complete idiot and a utter nutter.
Ah well…I’m an idiot. I learned the hard way many times over and some of those incidents I learned severely that my help wasn’t welcomed at all. Being a doorman for many years, I have yet to shake that side of me. Thank God I haven’t been killed yet.
My new, yet calmer legacy has sprouted in Willy’s, Hangout, and The Armory down in Tainan. Say a prayer for me.