Yeah! It’s a little creepy.
This actually prompted me to say something.
[quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]
Instead being so spiteful, you better ask what happened to have caused this much change in attitude/sentiment.
It could prevent you from making posts like this in the future.[/quote]
I asked this in the 4th or 5th post in this thread and was ignored. He shows up every couple of months with something absurd like he just received an epiphany and there isn’t one person that realizes it.
[quote=“Abacus”][quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]
Instead being so spiteful, you better ask what happened to have caused this much change in attitude/sentiment.
It could prevent you from making posts like this in the future.[/quote]
I asked this in the 4th or 5th post in this thread and was ignored. He shows up every couple of months with something absurd like he just received an epiphany and there isn’t one person that realizes it.[/quote]
Correct. And then he buggers off with scant regard or respect for the replies he gets. Quite a lot of posters around here do that. They start a thread and go “blah” and then never bother to reply to the generosity offered. I guess people are just getting a bit pissed with this strange creature and his obscure idiosyncrasies.
If you walk around with your mouth open like a toilet, someone is bound to shit in it. 
[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“Abacus”][quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]
Instead being so spiteful, you better ask what happened to have caused this much change in attitude/sentiment.
It could prevent you from making posts like this in the future.[/quote]
I asked this in the 4th or 5th post in this thread and was ignored. He shows up every couple of months with something absurd like he just received an epiphany and there isn’t one person that realizes it.[/quote]
Correct. And then he buggers off with scant regard or respect for the replies he gets. Quite a lot of posters around here do that. They start a thread and go “blah” and then never bother to reply to the generosity offered. [/quote]
And you know some of them! 
[quote=“archylgp”][quote=“tommy525”]
My point is the TW govt seems to at least aspire to lead its citizenry to have a heart, to promote this.
[/quote]
You mean by being a bunch of money-loving, corrupt, racist big heads??
But like I said before, the Taiwanese aren’t really nice to or mean to white people. They are by and large down right nasty to pretty much everyone else, though…At my company, the Vientnamese workers just arrived. The boss wants them because he can make them not take any days off. (Pretty much his exact words.)[/quote]
How do you go from the Tourist Board of Taiwan promoting the friendliness of most Taiwanese to them being a bunch of money-loving , corrupt , racist big heads? And mind you , there are a lot of such people in any country in the world. And a lot of businesses, big (especially big) and small are full of such people. And yet you expect Taiwan to be different, somehow utopian? ARe you also that naive as Crystaleye?
Your personal experience on taiwan is going to be based on many factors. Your ATTITUDE, your ethnicity (yes unfortunately TWnese are at least mildly racist) , your age , your education, your job in Taiwan, your appearance. You WILL be judged on all of these by the public at large. And although you won’t be treated exactly the same by all you meet, you may be able to gauge a GENERAL reaction to who you are as an amalgamation of the above.
Many decades ago a westerner could easily work for just about any company in Taiwan and be allowed to stay and live on taiwan as long as he had a reason to be on the rock. There was very light control. Even if you overstayed your visa by years your fine was very inconsequential. My American friend overstayed by 4 years and got a NT120 fine !!
But , possibly due in large part to the great influx of workers from the Phillippines, Vietnam, Thailand and other poorer countries coming to work in Taiwan. Most of them being housed in substandard housing, giving no time off and being paid slave wages. The govt was forced to act and enact and enforce laws regarding foreigners working in Taiwan.
They came up with strict rules regarding white collar workers and blue collar workers. Blue collar workers had to be paid the Taiwan minimum wage, had to have one day off a week, had to have proper meals and housing and their working hours per day restricted. ARe there those factories/owners who circumvent these rules? YEs, just as there are others breaking the law in Taiwan.
The plight of the average foreign worker in Taiwan who is from SE Asia is on the whole better now then before there was any regulation. IS their life one to be jealous of? NO, of course not. Could Taiwan do better with them? YES of course they can. They can start by allowing them 2 days off a week like most Taiwanese workers get. They can start by allowing them citizenship after five years (like white collar workers can get).
Do Taiwanese look down on those who are less fortunate then them. Yes , unfortunately , they do. And yes you do get better treatment if you are white, have a higher social standing, dress nicely, have a “proper” job, have a good education (especially from a well known university, as a lot of taiwanese are very well educated).
Its NOT an Utopia in Taiwan. Did YOU think so? Could it become an Utopia? NO, sorry it cant. CAn it even approach an Utopia? NO< sorry there too.
Does it have any good points ? IT could be workable for some foreigners short term, others long term, everyone? NO. sorry.
[quote=“Tomas”]Absolutely…fucking…schooled.
What a basket case. LOL.[/quote]
May be so. But why laugh?
Just surprised, that’s all.
[quote=“Super Hans”][quote=“Tomas”]Absolutely…fucking…schooled.
What a basket case. LOL.[/quote]
May be so. But why laugh?
Just surprised, that’s all.[/quote]
Because I dont think the OP possesses anything close to good intentions. You come on a website and publicly lambaste an entire race and what, I’m not allowed to feel irritated, and happy when this punk gets owned? my comment above still stands. The Internet is a nasty place where people post racist rants and get away with it. I’m just like anyone else. I like to see a little justice served where it’s due.
When I read that I remembered an incident a couple of years ago where a really old lady was crossing a busy road in Nankan (3 lanes either direction) on her hands and knees! There were massive trucks bearing down on her, and the drivers just angrily leaned on their air horns. The scooters just kept weaving around her on either side so she could neither finish crossing nor retreat to the central divider. This poor woman was just cowering there completely overwhelmed by what was happening. Eventually a cop sauntered over and tried to help the woman cross, but she was catatonic and refused to budge from the foetal position she was in.
I wondered for a long time afterward whether she was a cripple, had collapsed on the road, or had been hit by a vehicle. It doesn’t matter of course. What mattered was total lack of humanity of all those around her. A glorious 3rd world moment by any measure 
That is horrible, Monkey. I’ve never seen anything as bad as that in Nankan, but I’d definitely have helped her if I’d been there. Who wouldn’t?
Tens, hundreds, thousands. I’ve seen too many clips of accidents /incidents in TW where people indeed gave an eye but no helping hand.
I won’t say it is worse or better overseas but when conscience touches humanity -help - care -support, I tend sometimes to think Taiwan won’t fit in a Top 10
This not caring , not helping is relatively new phenomenon. Certainly not something I witness when I was living on Taiwan. It is a failure of the govt to properly educate people in what to do when encountering a victim of a traffic accident. What to do , what not to do. All important.
And the laws must not make good samaritans into scapegoats.
Some of the things iv read bout are indeed heartless.
I think its really a matter of perception. When i was growing up americans would all tell you how cold people were and there were lits if examples to back it up. After 911 americans started thinking they are brave and magnanomous and have lots of examples to prove it. In taiwan i look at what happens after big disasters: lots if neighborly love and donations from all over.
When I read that I remembered an incident a couple of years ago where a really old lady was crossing a busy road in Nankan (3 lanes either direction) on her hands and knees! There were massive trucks bearing down on her, and the drivers just angrily leaned on their air horns. The scooters just kept weaving around her on either side so she could neither finish crossing nor retreat to the central divider. This poor woman was just cowering there completely overwhelmed by what was happening. Eventually a cop sauntered over and tried to help the woman cross, but she was catatonic and refused to budge from the foetal position she was in.
I wondered for a long time afterward whether she was a cripple, had collapsed on the road, or had been hit by a vehicle. It doesn’t matter of course. What mattered was total lack of humanity of all those around her. A glorious 3rd world moment by any measure [/quote]
So why didn’t you help her? Or stay make sure that she was okay?
by being critical of the OP I’m not saying that Taiwanese are generous or caring. It’s easy to point out a culture’s less admirable traits while ignoring their positives. It’s also easy to ignore your own culture’s weaknesses.
No one denies this mass-effect behavior when a nation is facing a state of calamity. In worst times, people stick together to help each other out. Here, in the US and the most in the poorest countries.
When it comes to individuals helping another it’s sometimes sadly another story but not to be blamed to a Nation
There are still heroes out there. My wife referred to a local factory worker who’s conscience towards the status of Taiwanese orphans is translated in only keeping 30% of his salary , giving away 70% and selling garbage on Sundays to make some extra income for the orphanage.
Respect 
You are talking about something different - that hive mentality the Chinese have when the local lizhang gets on his bullhorn and asks all the obasans to form an army and do something. It is something special, to be sure, but it’s not spontaneous compassion.
People tend to go with the prevailing mood, the larger the group, the easier it is to follow along. Two stories from recent memory spring to mind. A young girl (19 or so)was trying to take the night bus home in Leeds last year. The fare was £5 and the girl had £4.80. It was about 2am in November. Nobody on the bus would give her the 20p. Nobody. The bus driver also wouldn’t waive the 20p. She asked if he would wait while she went to the cash machine, he refused and left her alone. That was the last bus. Long story short the girl was physically assaulted walking home. That nasty conclusion is to some extent irrelevant here from the point of view that it is a consequence, when it is the initial behaviour we are interested in. Once one person refused to help the group were able to feel justified in their decision to ignore her. Story two, a man in his 60’s had come out of the bank in some rough part of Manchester a week or so ago with £2000 in bank notes to pay for his car tax or something. Anyway, crossing the street the old boy tripped and fell and the money went everywhere. Everywhere. There were loads of people milling about including gangs of teens. Anyway, one guy picked up some of the money and handed it back and everyone started following suit. By the end the guy had been given back all bar £20. People who had the chance to just sod off with a couple of hundred quid handed it back, whilst others left a girl in the middle of the night for the sake of 20p.
If cyrstaleye deserves a pounding is not for me to say. To understand why people would recommend the post in their droves is quite easy to understand. Northcoast surfers post wasn’t particularly cruel ( I did like the diagnostic element to it), and rather showed us all that part of our lives is here on the net forever!
I had a lot of sympathy for allowing crystaleye his point of view until I saw he started with a view first and tried to justify it later, plus the old line of let the commies invade appeared, don’t like that one myself.
I doubt there is anything racist in the OP -just someone talking about his experience in Taiwan. IMO people here share a lot of things, like in every other place in the world.
think about “Americans” or “Germans” or “Koreans” or “Canadians” and --bang, you have a racist statement if you go with the criteria people use here. You have something on your mind, even if you have never been in these countries. According to that when Tommy talks about beautiful Taiwanese he is a racist.It seems that crystaleye has lived in Taiwan for a couple of yours so he clearly has a real idea about what he is writing about.
I think it is appalling how folks feel entitled to pour criticism on the OP often without really talking about what he writing about.
IMO It is not a over-generalization to say the “Taiwanese in general” seem to have a pretty “self-praising” picture about themselves and are not shy to shower you with it and ask you to confirm.
How many times did I feel "uh this kind of self praising (we are so nice to foreigners, don’t you think so?) is actually kind of “not nice” at all - a thousand times I guess.
Most foreigners in Taiwan live a strictly regulated life, with almost no rights, with no saying on their own matter, they are exploited and live a often slave-like existence with an expiration date. I would not say they actually live here. Who here on this board acknowledges that this is a stark contrast to the mantra-like self-proclaimed friendliness of the local populace towards people from abroad?
You are talking about something different - that hive mentality the Chinese have when the local lizhang gets on his bullhorn and asks all the obasans to form an army and do something. It is something special, to be sure, but it’s not spontaneous compassion.[/quote]
Yes it is.
[quote=“touduke”]I doubt there is anything racist in the OP -just someone talking about his experience in Taiwan. IMO people here share a lot of things, like in every other place in the world.
think about “Americans” or “Germans” or “Koreans” or “Canadians” and --bang, you have a racist statement if you go with the criteria people use here. You have something on your mind, even if you have never been in these countries. According to that when Tommy talks about beautiful Taiwanese he is a racist.It seems that crystaleye has lived in Taiwan for a couple of yours so he clearly has a real idea about what he is writing about.
I think it is appalling how folks feel entitled to pour criticism on the OP often without really talking about what he writing about.
IMO It is not a over-generalization to say the “Taiwanese in general” seem to have a pretty “self-praising” picture about themselves and are not shy to shower you with it and ask you to confirm.
How many times did I feel "uh this kind of self praising (we are so nice to foreigners, don’t you think so?) is actually kind of “not nice” at all - a thousand times I guess.
Most foreigners in Taiwan live a strictly regulated life, with almost no rights, with no saying on their own matter, they are exploited and live a often slave-like existence with an expiration date. I would not say they actually live here. Who here on this board acknowledges that this is a stark contrast to the mantra-like self-proclaimed friendliness of the local populace towards people from abroad?[/quote]
I’ve never heard anyone deny it. But is the entire society complicit? Seems most have no say. It is appalling the way se asian laborers are treated but i consider this an anachromism rather than an indication of where taiwan is and more omportantly where it is going.