So are you the right kind of lao wai? Are you? I’ve got 2 out of 3 going for me, but molestering is a hard habit to kick.
So as long as you aren’t a Swatch-averse junkie nonce, you’ll be fine? Cracking!
Those are two different problems, but solvable by simply becoming a rock star. First step, learn how to play guitar.
Those are two different problems, but solvable by simply becoming a rock star. First step, learn how to play guitar.[/quote]
I was referring to Ran the Man, not myself.
there are too many blocks for everything. the system with the cultural bureaus is far from transparent. gwan shi,gwan shi. if i had money i would just buy a PA and set up somewhere. easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.
you just go to a park stage and set up. half the time nobody’s using the damn thing anyway. if you hold a concert, they will come.
shi men ding here i come. uh oh. i shouldn’t say that. the people watching forumosa will tell the cultural bureau to tell congress to make a law to crack down on buskers. they’ll close the loop before i get there.
or maybe somebody will “yang shaio gwei” and cause havoc on my life before then.
or maybe the kind of PA i want to buy will be unavailable in Taiwan and NOBODY will special order it for me because “taiwan bu jin ko”.or maybe they can get it but they’ll charge me double what music123.com charges and smirk while they do it. so i’ll go to 123 and they WON’T ship it to Taiwan because of distributor agreements!!! the same distribitrs who WON’T order it for me or who will overcharge me!!! catch fucking 22!!
back to shi men ding:
or maybe i’m NOT wearing clown makeup and bothering people like a white trash drug addict so the cops run me off. then the white trash drug addict in clown makeup comes back and they let him play all night.
oh i’m sorry. i need to be a 5 year old kid squeaking a tai yu song on a violin before they’ll stop and listen. that’s cute enough to warrant attention.
maybe it’ll rain that day. or it will be a mandatory fucking holiday and everybody will be bai bai that day.
anything could happen. taiwan hates me. they want to see me fail.they hate me. that’s the damn truth.
chinese people hate me. wouh bu go lao wai, wouh bu go hwang dzong ren.i’m stuck in the middle. i go back to america and i’ll be a freak. an egg. here i’m a freak too. i’m not tall enough, blonde enough, happy go lucky enough. i don’t have a foriegn accent. i’m nothing.
ni dzong wen hen hao? so fucking what? that just gets you into trouble.
stay foriegn and get whatever you need. the less you speak chinese the better they’ll treat you. you talk that mandarin, they’ll pay you 500Nt an hour. you talk English , they’ll pay you 1000 per hour, and SYD!
ran, people don’t hate you, they just don’t care about you. There’s a big difference.
You need to take care of yourself. You need to be kinder to yourself but also harder on yourself. Figure out what you want and how you are going to get it. If you really can’t work out how, then you either don’t want it enough, or you just can’t have it because it’s not yours. You have to swallow your tears, let it go and move on.
Life is hard. I’m not going to tell you all my stories because it’s so melodramatic and OTT that you’ll think I’m making it up or looking for sympathy but I got over it because I’m tough and I’m not ready to give up and give power to all the people that hurt me.
You are all you have. People, things just disappear, in a heartbeat and you can’t control it. If you are healthy and happy, deep down inside, you can bear almost any loss or frustration because you know you can always start again from nothing and be fine. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Try and develop your work, marriage, environment, hobbies, future plans a little every day. That way, you don’t feel like you’re always back to zero if something goes wrong.
Think about how you relate to others. People don’t hate you; they just don’t care about you. With your relationships, don’t ‘react’ to everything. Put yourself into a third position where you are an observer. What would the neutral observer say? If people are trying to force you to react, according to their stupid shit, then smile and walk away.
Don’t judge people too harshly, either. Some people are simply having bad days or they are coping with their own problems. Sometimes people do really want to hurt you. You trigger something in their past memories, either consciously or subconsciously, or they have bad scripts of their own running. Don’t take it personally.
I think ‘don’t take it personally’ has become my mantra. I don’t mean that as glibly as it sounds.
Maybe you’re ok and you are just ranting. If so, excuse me for speaking out of turn.
Buttercup is wise. Stop taking everything so personally; you’ll feel better. Otherwise, you will just become “a shit magnet”, simply because you expect everything to turn that way.
[quote=“ran the man”]Chinese people hate me. wouh bu go lao wai, wouh bu go hwang dzong ren.I’m stuck in the middle. i go back to America and I’ll be a freak. an egg. here I’m a freak too. I’m not tall enough, blonde enough, happy go lucky enough. I don’t have a foreign accent. I’m nothing.
[/quote]
I’ve been called an egg, but in a good way. Many of my Taiwanese friends feel kind of sheepish that I know more about Taiwanese and Chinese history than them, and that I know weird things about the composition of characters etc…
They seem more impressed than hateful. Hateful never crossed my mind. I should get a T-shirt: Front - Chinese people dig me! Back - With a big picture of a guy sporting a silly grin and giving a thumbs up and a speech bubble; “你好!”
We can get one for you too. 
There ya go with your romanization again. :s 
Try to learn a recognized romanization system, preferably hanyu, and use it here to write your romanized Chinese. Failing in that, write in characters. If that’s not possible, simply stick to English. I have no doubt that your own spoken Chinese ability is substantial but, seriously, you are virtually unreadable when you try to write Chinese words in your own improvised phonetic un-system.
Stimpy wrote: [quote]There ya go with your romanization again. :s
Try to learn a recognized romanization system, preferably hanyu, and use it here to write your romanized Chinese. Failing in that, write in characters. If that’s not possible, simply stick to English. I have no doubt that your own spoken Chinese ability is substantial but, seriously, you are virtually unreadable when you try to write Chinese words in your own improvised phonetic un-system.[/quote]
I think it’s Ran The Man’s Free Jazz Romanization.
You know, Ran, that there is your problem. You always try to do things your own way. You can’t. No one can. The only way anything ever gets done in this world is with compromise. You can’t get what you want. You just find something comparable to what you want and settle for it. It’s just like your pinyin. You do it your way. So no one has a clue what you are talking about. If you wrote with a form of pinyin people recognized it would drive your point down better. This is an example of how life is. Even if you hate the rules, you must admit they are there. And you must play by them at least marginally. If you don’t play by them at all, you cannot expect the game to work for you.
YEAH WELL thats just what you think
thanks guys. and especially buttercups! you can tell me your stories anytime.i love listening.
There ya go with your romanization again. :s
Try to learn a recognized romanization system, preferably hanyu, and use it here to write your romanized Chinese. Failing in that, write in characters. If that’s not possible, simply stick to English. I have no doubt that your own spoken Chinese ability is substantial but, seriously, you are virtually unreadable when you try to write Chinese words in your own improvised phonetic un-system.[/quote]
Better still, write in English. Proper English. That is the language this site operates in. If you must use Chinese, of whatever flavour, add a translation. Stop assuming that everyone knows what you’re talking about, and stop not caring. If you don’t care enough to address people in language they understand then why should they give a shit about you?
Now, here’s an idea: Why don’t you start a new thread proposing an afternoon forumosa BBQ down by the river somewhere in Taipei one Saturday? It’s been suggested before but nobody ever got it together. Make it your mission in life to gather an audience of happy smiley people you can play to. Invite other musicians.
Nobody will nix it because it’s your project. There has been a lot of enthusiasm for it in the past, but nobody cared enough to make it happen. You care. Make it happen. And ask people to invite their friends of all nationalities.
If it’s a free gig then nobody can complain or put you in jail, can they? There’s nothing to stop you passing the hat round afterwards, or having a collection for charity.
10:1 your reply will be a reason why it won’t work. Rain, cops, apathy, cancer, your wife, shingles, time, whatever, there will always be a reason. Life’s all about doing it anyway, reasons or no.
I’ll even rent you my signature line for free to publicise it.
BBQ la! Wo yiding yao lai. Loretta hen fan; ni bu ying gai ting ta de hua. ke neng ta ‘hao peng you’ lai le. Wo dai SAUSAGE gei ta.
Actually a very good point. Needless language switching makes discussion inaccessible to some (especially when the writer doesn’t write the language properly) and seems to conflict with the site’s intent: to be an English language discussion forum for expats and their friends.
Hey. Nice pinyin.
Buttercup’s going to give Ran the sausage? I’ll be a-wanting to see that.
Just discussed this with the little yellow flower over moderately-sized Bacardis. She agrees that she’s a very naughty girl, and also told me an interesting story about, well, I’d better not say in case Ranjamin gets jealous.
So, Mr Man, are we going to have a barbie? Some of those kiwi guys are always talking about doing some Maori cooking thing, and Sandman’s got a lovely eukaleli. (However you spell it.)
There’s no way anyone can object to people BBQing in a public place in Taiwan, and if they complain about your singing we’ll just tell 'em it’s karaoke.
Just discussed this with the little yellow flower over moderately-sized Bacardis. She agrees that she’s a very naughty girl, and also told me an interesting story about, well, I’d better not say in case Ranjamin gets jealous.[/quote]
No, this is where pinyin falls down. I meant ‘她‘，not ‘他‘．
That’s a boring story. Nobody’s going to be interested how I got the 3-5 day DHL service instead of the 24 hour.
I meant the one about the Guatemalan hunchback. 
And stop pretending. You didn’t even get the DHL service.