Well, one thing is that you can say two people are going out, which means they’re in a relationship, but they don’t actually “go out” per se. I’ve always thought the process back home was more like you just sort of hang out and do stuff together, and eventually it reaches a point where you both just realize you’re a couple. It’s definitely not the same as here, with the whole "gaobai (告白) thing.
Didn’t American Universities have a tradition called “pinning”. I think it was pretty much reserved for the fratboy types, whereby you gave your fraternity pin to the object of your desire and thereby had some sense of possesion over her.
Sounds lovely.
But we are talking about Fratboys now.
Oh that’s what pinning means… 
Actually, assuming that the frat boy only gives out one pin at a time, I don’t see anything wrong with this idea. In these circumstances, the receiver of the pin could presumably also be seen to have “ownership” over the frat boy. Like holding the deed to a house, or the keys to a car.
If we’re going on stereotypes, though, I suppose the mental picture most people have of this ritual is not very similar to mine. I suspect many are picturing the frat boys ordering those pins in bulk… $15.99 per box of 24. 
Miaka, I think being an Asian also might have helped your situation here.
I find that I had many more dates back home maybe because there were more black women…
No, really, hear me out. In Taiwan, there is such a stigma on dark skin being perceived as ugly. All you need to do is glance at a shelf at Watson’s or Cosmed to figure that out. In America, the number of men who date big black women isn’t all that great. Now take that number and divide it by 500,000 and that’s about how much worse my chances of being remotely attractive to men has become by being here. You learn to give up the chase after a while. Back home, where about 30 percent of my hometown was black, you’d find men both black and of other races who, being among black women would be used to being around them and not see them as being oddities. Here, however, black women are already rare and then there are stigmas attached, local as well as some that people may carry with them from back home where they may not have come from such integrated towns as the ones I grew up in so they are not used to being around black women. It makes it harder for them to approach us and therefore even harder to be interested in dating us and we all have heard the number of praises sung in favor of Taiwanese women. In terms of numbers, Taiwanese rank highest where black women rank lowest. From my experience, their attractiveness to men here is directly proportional.
I’ve found it easier in Taiwan, but I’ve never really had a problem before either. Not that I’m necessarily good looking - maybe I just have low standards…lol
The one problem I’ve encountered here though is that I’m getting “prison love”. i.e. The loving (partner) I get is not the loving I want, and the loving I want (partner) is not what I’m getting. The one girl I fell absolutely crazy in love with just wants to be friends, and to top it all off she finished her studies last year and moved to work and live with her sister in Taipei. Bummer.
I think most of the time when you are looking you always ended up NOT getting what you are looking for. Like shopping, you window shop when you are bored and thats when you buy @hit load of stuff.
I do go out but I will never date the guys I met at the bars or clubs because I think both parties are more for just one night stand. Hands-off coworkers and I don’t know, it’s just sooo hard for me now. Most of my friends are married so less girlfriend time. I commute a long way to work so usually I stayed home on weeknights to relax. Yet, on weekend, I get lazy and it just doesn’t motiviate me to do anything.
Well beside the point, when you get older, your social group tend to get smaller as well. Your selection of men/women gets smaller and smaller each year. If a men can get a younger girl when would they want to date someone in their 30s??
I am tired of dating but you need to date to get to a relationship. Yikes!!