I’m starting this under learning Chinese because all the articles are in Chinese.
UDN has been conducting interviews with foreigners living in Taiwan (apparently for more than half a year now as the number of articles on their site indicates) and I just discovered it. A very interesting read, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the interviewees are forumosans.
Thanks for the link - interesting stuff.
Yeah, and several of them give you the distinct sense of deja vu and then you realize it’s the same rants about the local traffic and pollution you read here. At least they are now in Chinese and the views of laowai can get across to the locals.
This girl was pre-selected to give favorable answers. The gist of what she says is that overall she thinks TW and it’s people are pretty good. I have never been there but could make an uneducated guess that someone from Swaziland will think moving to Taiwan is a step up. Ask anyone from a third world country in Africa and they will respond as she did. Any port in a storm is better than being at sea.
She says people here do not discriminate, but most people who have been here even a few months and looked for a job have been asked(by phone or email), ‘are you black’ or (at carleton) ‘do you look western?’ (same type of question). She is from Swaziland and it looks like she is standing in front of Shida. I’d guess she has a scholarship (and has needed to look for a job) by virtue of her being from one of the 24 countries that recognizes TW.
TWese want to know what foreigners think of them because TWese society is insecure about its treatment of foreigners (the views foreigners have of TW).
The story points up how in many ways TWese press and Chinese press are similar; there is an element of propagada in both.
Maybe someone can find a similar story from Mainland. As the Olympics are nearly here, there should be many.
I saw a different piece of news today that would stun most Chinese and Taiwanese. For Chinese and TWese who bash USA, this would be a bitter pill to swallow. e.g. I was at MOS burger the other day eating lunch and some TWese woman comes over to tell me what USA should be doing for TW. Sun Yat Sen, the country’s father, was American. … An American citizen, with an American passport.
The latest article is about this 38-year-old American who opted to run a theater troupe and teach in Taiwan instead of teaching in the US. He said he is earning US$40,000 less than what he was making at his teaching job in America, and that there are more important things in life than making money. The poster who was complaining about Taiwan’s appallingly low salaries should read it.
mag.udn.com/mag/people/storypage … _ID=140078
I’m surprised this guy’s shop in Shida nightmarket hasn’t been mentioned here (If it has, I must have missed it). This American expat John who’s a former engineer runs the Dancing Cow ice cream shop in the night market and business is apparently pretty good. The “dark beer” flavor sounds like a winner. Has anybody been or tried it?
I was approached to do one of these interviews…they pay these people to give them. I asked if I could say whatever I wanted, and was told to stay positive and only complain about traffic and pollution and stuff like that, which explains why each article has that sense of deja vu. I told them I would do it if I could say whatever I wanted, and they said nevermind 
Good for you, sy31, for not selling out to one week of fame. I was hoping some of those who did the interview would chime in here. But I’m afraid your post has effectively silenced those who were “on the take.” 
Well, I’m not sure why I didn’t sell out…they were offering me something like NT3,000 for one or two hours. My biggest fear in doing the interview, which I made clear, was that they would use only the pieces of my interview that gave the impression they wanted to give. I actually have a lot of very nice things to say about Taiwan. I also have a lot of “not so nice” things to say. For example, I think MOST people here are extremely friendly and helpful and there is almost no chance of being a victim of violent crime, etc. On the other hand, I see a lot of very inconsiderate and selfish people here as well. For example, when I’m on the bus and I see people immediately close their eyes and fake sleeping when they see an old person. Or, as it happened today, I was trying to get off the bus and a large group of people stood in the doorway staring at me wondering why I wasn’t getting off of the bus…they had no clue they were in the way! Those things are daily annoyances, and I doubt they would have aired that part.
I would have loved to have told my story, but only my whole story, and not the pieces that make Taiwanese people have a warm fuzzy. I want them to have the warm fuzzy, but I also wanted to let them know that I think some people here totally suck. I didn’t need their 3k that bad!