I think that about 90% of the problems in Taibei stem from one thing: apathy. People don’t care about police corruption, or at least feel powerless to change it. The same goes for political corruption. The same goes for the dehumanizing exam system. And for illegal buildings. And Mercedes parked in front of fire hydrants. And all the myriad forms of sidewalk violations. And many, many, many other problems.
philosophy–>
What is the source of all this apathy? I think it’s Confucianism.
In the debate over universal love vs. family-centered love, Confucianism won out. Mozi said that people should love all people equally; Mencius argued that it’s natural for people to love their parents more than strangers. The amount you should care about someone is inversely proportional to the distance of their relationship to you. You should love your parents more than life itself, but total strangers don’t even come onto the radar screen.
The Confucians won, and 2000 years later Taiwan is stuck with a Confucian system. The system assumes that people should care more about their parents than distant friends, and assumes that people shouldn’t care about complete strangers at all. I think you could argue that Taiwanese family members show more affection for each other than Westerners; though of course it’s hard to prove, I really think it’s true. I know that if I had to choose between a non-dysfunctional Taiwanese family and a non-dysfunctional Western one, I’d probably choose the Taiwanese one. It’s always amazing to see how Taiwanese people maintain their expressionless expressions when there isn’t anyone around who they know, but as soon as they see someone they know, they’re all smiles.
On the other hand, they care about strangers – abandoned dogs, foreigners, the scooter-driver who parked next to your Mercedes, the family living six floors below you – hardly at all. This creates parking problems, dozens of near-accidents a day, etc. Why should you look out for the guy on the scooter when he has no relationship to you? Why shouldn’t you park on someone else’s property, if you have no relationship to them and therefore aren’t responsible to them? As I have said elsewhere, and to paraphrase Monty Python, Confucianism is no basis for a traffic system.
This also explains building codes – why should you care about some schmuck who’s going to live in this building ten years from now, when you can save a few bucks now and pay for dialysis for your mom? I think it also explains sidewalk violations, random pollution, the lack of public trash cans and public toilets, etc.
Confucianism also values harmony over progress, so it’s far better to solve a traffic dispute calmly over tea than by (tsk, tsk) calling in the cops to solve the problem for you. It’s also amazing how bu shang heqi usually means the rich person gets their way. And it’s also unseemly to push for change by protesting or challenging political officials.
I really think these two things – caring about someone based on their relationship to you, and not harming harmony – account for most of the problems we see. Maybe I’m just in the stage of culture shock where I think I know everything. Maybe, but it really seems to explain a lot.
The really interesting question is, where does Confucianism come from? And how did it ‘win’? And, maybe, should Taiwan try to unseat it as the philosophy of choice?
<–philosophy
Sorry, didn’t mean to write a book. I’ve just been thinking about all this a lot lately.