A CRITIQUE OF FOREIGNERS LIVING IN TAIWAN
Great guns! When I first read this I thought it was a parody. Is this guy serious?
One of the most pervading problems I see in Taiwanese society today is the influence of foreigners (Ch. Laowai).
Me too. Take those Han Chinese for instance…look at the way they just shoved the aborigines aside…
This has been a serious problem in both Taiwan and mainland China since the 19th century when Western colonial influences began encroaching on China out of greed and jealousy.
Greed, yes. Jealousy, no. Also, China and Taiwan were part of an empire ruled by…foreigners: the Manchus, who had been there since the 17th century.
It appears your construction of “foreigner” is quite naive, to say the last.
with China unwilling to open it’s doors to foreign imports,
Yes, the foreign emperor of China forbade certain foreign imports. Did he or the British ask the people what they wanted?
Great Britain decided to flood the Chinese market with opium, destablizing the society and government. When the Qing government attempted to end the opium trade, war broke out between China and Britain, ending with a humiliating treaty and China being forced to cede Hong Kong to the British.
Yes, the treaty resembled in many ways the treaties the Ching Dynasty had forced on its dependents, for example, the abusive 1793 articles that codified Ching rule over Tibet, or the various structures set up by the Ching to consolidate their conquest of Mongolia. Must have been tough to be treated in the same high-handed way themselves.
This also paved the way for numerous foreign “concessions” to be set up in China - including Shanghai and Tianjin. In these “settlements,” Chinese were looked down upon and treated like low class citizens in their own country.
Yes, certainly they were treated with the utmost fairness and civility by their own government, whose impartial judicial system, efficient bureaucracy, enlightened social policy and respect for civil rights were light-years ahead of the horrible British Imperial system.
Following the defeat of the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese civil war and their retreat to Taiwan, the West intervened to support the Nationalist government both economically and militarily. This had a very positive effect on Taiwan,
Whoa! I thought us foreigners were a cultural virus!
allowing for rapid modernization and industrialization (in stark contrast to the cultural and economic regression of the mainland under Communist rule). With numerous investment opportunities becoming available in Taiwan, more and more foreigners traveled to Taiwan to do business and settle there. International trade is not a bad thing, and initially the foreigners who came to Taiwan did a great deal of good for the Taiwanese economy and allowed for a relatively healthy interaction between the two cultures.
You know, I’m going to get serious here. Just how many cultures do you think are interacting here? Are there two cultures, one of outsiders and one of Chinese? Or are there several different identifiable cultures on the island, with cross-cutting class and ethnic issues, that interact with hundreds of foreign cultures? Do you think that Japanese and American cultures interact with the local culture in the same way? How can anyone who lives here be this naive?
As time went on, however, the foreign population in Taiwan increased rapidly.
Yes, for example, about 1.5 million mainlanders came over all in a bunch.
Many foreigners found Taiwan to be an excellent place to make money quickly teaching English, and it also became a prime market for more and more foreign investors, Christian missionaries, and other foreigners who had either become disenchanted with life in the West or, sadly, those who merely had a sexual interest in Asians boys or women.
ROTFL. Please explain what is sad about being attracted to Asian women as opposed to others! That last line is so incredibly fucked up it is hard to imagine how you wrote it with a straight face. First, you wrote “boys and women” as if “men” don’t exist, a strange pairing of groups you seem unconsciously to consider identical in status. Second, you seem to imply the incredibly racist position that people should only be attracted to members of their own “race.” Third, you regard it as sad that people should find members of other ethnic groups attractive and seek to fuck them. This is perfectly normal and should be beneath comment.
With the demand for qualified English teachers and “foreign experts” growing rapidly in Taiwan, and the possibilities for making lots of money, thousands and thousands of foreigners have converged on Taiwan.
Yes, for example, thousands of persons of Chinese descent from across Asia, and thousands of mainland Chinese…your construction of “foreigner” is decidedly racist.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of these foreigners can neither speak Chinese nor have any serious interest in Chinese culture.
Yes, it reminds one of the many immigrants to the US who could neither speak English nor had any serious interest in US culture and history.
Also, the vast majority of the island’s citizens could not speak Chinese either. They learn it as a second language in school.
Other than the foreign students and a few long-time residents, they have never made any attempt to learn the language, understand the unique culture, or acclimate themselves to the way of life.
Yes, they are just there to make money, much like the Taiwanese who set up shop in Silicon Valley. Is it your position that people should only travel to a foreign country if they have a genuine interest in it? And how is one to cultivate an interest in Taiwan if they are not allowed to come here unless they have an interest? An interesting catch-22 you’ve proposed here.
So I guess you would find it acceptable if someone came here just to learn calligraphy (but not for any other reason) or just to study Chinese or get a PhD, but no other reason.
Many Taiwanese boys and women have naively entered into romantic relationships or friendships with foreigners, only to be severely disappointed and taken advantage of.
Imagine people being disadvantaged and disappointed in a romantic relationship. That never happens in one’s home country. All of the Taiwanese-Taiwanese relationships that I know of are little universes of perfect contentment, and Taiwanese, as we all know, certainly never take advantage of each other.
The foreigners bring with them their ego-centric attitude that all things Western are superior, including their language, way of life, Christianity (one of the greatest evils of the past 2,000 years), as well as a deluge of Western societal problems.
Yes, thankfully the Chinese are completely free of this attitude about their own culture.
For all of its advancements in technology, democracy, and individual freedom, the concept of “the West” carries with it a multitude of problems - violence,
Agreed. Certainly prior to the advent of foreigners in Taiwan, there was never any history of clan on clan violence, never any gangsters, or brutal judicial punishments, or private and village-level armies, and the Ching Dynasty ruled with the utmost forebearance, abstaining from punitive expeditions against the misguided aborigines who opposed its enlightened rule.
the disintegration of the family (a hallmark of traditional Confucian culture in Taiwan and China), egotism, hedonism, and a belief that the individual is more important than the society as a whole (again, quite contradictory to the traditional Chinese way of life).
Yes, one never sees Chinese people behaving in self-centered ways. Chinese always obey the law, and always set social interest about their own. That is why in Taiwan people always obey traffic regulations, never dump waste illegally, pay all their taxes, and never use public land for private structures.
foreigners in Taiwan hasn’t helped the situation, and have given the local population the impression that foreigners are only interested in sex, money, and beer.
And what’s wrong with that…
And certainly no Taiwanese are just interested in sex, money, and beer.
For those who are here for other reasons, such as seriously studying Chinese, doing legitimate business, etc., it makes it all the more difficult for us to gain respect and trust.
Yes, if not for us dastardly laowai, the Chinese would be as good at trusting foreigners as they are at trusting each other.
With the mass migration of all of these foreigners to Taiwan in the past 10 years or so, the market has become flooded with unqualified and less than “moral” English teachers who care more about their salaries and sex drives than they do their students (although this is not to say that there are not any good ones, because there are!).
What are you saying? That people should not care about the salary they make? And what are the “qualifications” necessary to teach in a bushiban?
The influx of foreigners has also made it difficult to develop sincere friendships with many Taiwanese who have had negative experiences with foreigners.
Yes, if it wasn’t for us nasty foreigners who love Asian women, the Taiwanese would all be sincere in their relationships with us, just like they are with each other.
It is sad that so many Westerners think that just because they are from the West that they can do whatever they want, behave irresponsibly, and will be respected simply because of their nationality.
Hmmm… do you think that this belief of foreigners might be related to an actual behavior of Chinese…say, the habit of deference to foreigners? Naw. Probably not.
because they can’t find jobs, boyfriends/girlfriends, or respect in their own country.
No doubt. That is probably why lots of foreigners go to the US or Australia.
They come here and suddenly feel like gods, and take advantage of their new found popularity. If you are this type of person, then Taiwan is not the place for you.
Mail me a ticket and I am gone. I am just here to make money and fuck Asian women. Did it occur to you that those behaviors are not incompatible with integrity and sincerity?
Also, do you think Taiwanese men have only sincere interest in “Chinese” culture, or do they like to make money and fuck Asian women too?
In traditional Chinese culture, the focus is on the good of the society as a whole, not the good of the individual as in the West.
Great irony, then, given the complete lack of civic culture in Chinese society, and the richness of civic culture in the west.
perhaps it is already too late. Materialism and selfishness have already become quite deeply entrenched in modern Taiwanese society.
Yes, Taiwanese were never materialist and selfish until the horrible westerners taught them.
qualified and sincere about helping the advancement of Taiwan and Chinese culture
This sentence is meaningless drivel. (1) What is “Chinese culture?” (2) What is “advancing” it? (3) Who defines this? (4) Why Chinese culture and not Taiwanese culture, or Hakka culture, or Pingpu culture? (5) What is the benefit of “advancing” Chinese culture? (6) What is excluded from this definition?
Really a great essay. Too funny for words to express…
Vorkosigan