Gangsters

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
21

Some figures on this:

1995: 3% of ALL government represenatives had gangster backgrounds.

1996: 1/3 of all major corporations had been infiltrated by gangster politicians and “heidao” figures.

Of the 30 major crime groups in and around the cities of Taipei and Kaoshiung, 66.7% of the members have family in politics.

Filthiest Areas

  1. Lienjiang County 2) Kinmen County 3)Penghu County 4) Taitung County 5) Hsin Chu County

The rise of gangsters into politics represents a major difference between the DPP and KMT. The KMT was desperate to cling to power and threw ideology out the window to court every popular local figure to run as KMT. The open door to the KMT treasury attracted gangsters who, following Operation Clean Sweep in 1984, sought protection from politicians and later became politicians themselves to protect their interests.

On the other side, gangsters are well known mediators in local disputes and unlike many politicians, gangsters know their landscape and bring benefits to their constituents. James Soong has been reported to be extremely close to the heidao elements in Taiwan, having used them to expand his power base as Provincial Governor.

On another note, most of the bars and pubs you visit are owned entirely or in part by heidao figures. Gangsters blackmail entertainers to perform at their clubs for free or for a few thousand dollars in exchange for continued employment in the entertainment industry. The gangs keep the ticket sales and fill their clubs.
Singers Frankie (Huo Niao) Kao, Pai Ping Ping (Bai Bing Bing) and Chen Shen have all been assaulted by gangsters for non compliance. Actor/Comedian Zhu Ge Liang is currently in hiding due to an unpaid debt to gangsters.

I suggest reading… Heijin: Organized Crime, Business and Politics in Taiwan, by Ko-lin Chin

22

Thanks for the info, maowang. A lot I didn’t know about.

I found the book on Amazon. Thanks again for the info.

23

Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t suffer the same fate as the American technical writer murdered in Hsinchu…

A couple of years ago, a group of young gangsters moved into the empty house across from mine. Suddenly my sleepy little street became a 24-hour KTV with regualr 4 - 5am arrivals, complete with yowling she-gansters and general noise (trashing scooters, yelling, fist-fights, etc…)

So, one night, after about three near-sleepless ones, I walk outside and band loudly on their door. One red-toothed, tatooed, shaved-headed mutha opens the door, looks at me and goes “Gan-maaaaa?”

I launch into a bad-Mandarin speech about neighbors and noise, and having to work in the morning, etc… The guys all stood up and came outside and made a semi-circle around me - speaking Taiwanese the whole time… One guy screwed up his face and started making violent gestures… also heard “shi ato-ga” a couple of times (‘kill the foreigner’)!

Naturally, I began to have second thoughts. So, I just kind of did the “mei-guan-chi” thing and backed away, smiling.

After some pounding on my door, they finally settled back into a normal level of noise. When I told friends and co-workers, I was universally advised to move house as soon as possible.

But, then one night I went to this weird drug club in Tainan (that’s where all of this went down) with a few Taiwanese friends who were determined to “party” with me and had persuaded me to go out and pop “e” with them. Guess who are all there as we rock up? That’s right. So, I figure this is how it ends - bludgeoned to death in an e-freak dive.

Not to be. One of the guys came over and starts gesturing wildly, my friends are looking mighty scared. Suddenly one of my friends says he wants to know why the f*#k I’m now in their bar. A little voice told me to offer him my “e” and it worked like a charm.

Suddenly, I was their best friend and they even had a little goodbye thing for me when I moved to Taipei.

So kids, the moral of this story remains a mystery, even to me. But, sometimes I wonder if I could add anything to the drug-education programs taught in N. American schools…

They CAN save your life! ha ha

24

FYI si2 a2-tok-a2 means ‘fucking foreigner’ not ‘Kill the foreigner’. The Mandarin cognate is si3 lao3wai4. The Mandarin version is, incidentally, more evidence for my long-held position that lao3wai4 is slightly derogatory.

25

FYI si2 a2-tok-a2 means ‘fucking foreigner’ not ‘Kill the foreigner’. The Mandarin cognate is si3 lao3wai4. The Mandarin version is, incidentally, more evidence for my long-held position that lao3wai4 is slightly derogatory.[/quote]

a2-tok-a2 literal meaning is Pointy Noser or a person who has a pointy nose i.e westerners

si2 I always thought mean “Die!!”

lao3 means old as in old friend (lao3 you). I believe it is meant in an affectionate sense

26

Your only their friend for as long as you are a novelty to them

I would not trust gangsters no matter how friendly you think you are.

27

Well, thankfully the brief friendly period lasted just long enough to grow a brain stem and move on. We didn’t keep in touch. Truly one of the dumbest moments of my life!

Oh, and was anyone else at the infamous 2003 trashing of Passion - the short-lived Kaoshiung club?

One night, quite late, the elevators opened up and 15(?) gangsters came in carrying machetes, throwing anything they could pick up and reduced a nice club into shards of shattered glass, broken tables, busted alcohol bottles and chaos.

My friend and I ran to the elevators and were about to go down, when one of the machete carriers gets in. My friend was quite scared and she says “speak Mandarin to him!” So, I asked him if he wanted a cigarette. His response was “bu jien-kang” “Not healthy!”

Taiwan gangsters have figured in a few of my “only in Taiwan” memories actually. But, TNT, agreed.

Regardless of country, if you are going to hang out with gangsters, I think it is asking for trouble.

28

Also, neither of us were correct about the Taiwanese “si” thing.

It means “die”.

So the best translation is “die foreigner”

29

Yes, but here it is an adjective, not a verb. I suppose you could also translate it as ‘Asshole foreigner’. It’s used when someone is pissing you off, and it’s not a compliment.

[quote]

lao3 means old as in old friend (lao3 you). I believe it is meant in an affectionate sense[/quote]

This is a common error. Lao3 does not mean old here. If it does, how would you explain lao3di4? Older younger brother? Not.

I think it means someone at the bottom of the pecking order–like a youngest brother. Its use in Lao3wai4 in similar–someone who is on the periphery and not “one of us.” Lao3wai4 is an insider’s term that is used to describe an outsider. So it’s basically OK when insiders use it to talk about foreigners, but it’s not too polite if used directly in the hearing of a lao3wai4 since it excludes the lao4wai4 from being ‘one of us’.

I really cringe is when I hear foreigners describing themselves as lao3wai4 as in ‘Wo3 zhei4ge lao3wai4 jue2de5…’ This would be like a Taiwanese saying in English “This Chinaman thinks…”

30

I always correct them and say Yong Guo de Wai ( Old meaning used in this case).

31

Y’all may recall the following thread where my handsome arguments on why lao wai is not derogatory won the day :sunglasses: :smiley:
Do you feel offended by the words laowai and adoua?

32

I remember I read from somewhere that SYS got help from “ban-pai’s” either in the form of funding or manpower when he was trying to overthrow the Q’ing government. Guess you can say ROC started out as a big “ban-pai” if this were true.

33

I used to live with a couple of gangster brothers in Taipei. It was their parents’ house. They lived on the third floor, and rented the 3 rooms upstairs. I stayed there far too long, enduring 4-day majiang marathons where “gan ni!” was repeated like a mantra. They’d come home at any hour with a dozen friends and crank up the stereo to 10 on the Richter Scale. My (Chinese) flatmate said no one in the lane dared complain about the noise. These two guys were both in their late teens. One was a
complete bum (who just sat in front of the TV all his life) and the older one was (still at that stage) the nicest, most polite guy you’d care to meet. Their parents were humble farmers from Taizhong, and extremely pleasant people. I always wondered how these two guys got mixed up in the riff-raff trade.

My other encounter with gangsters was while I was a teacher at a branch of one of Taiwan’s biggest English schools. After class one night, I noticed a few scruffy looking young guys hanging around the stairs. More arrived, and within minutes, they were all over the school, coming from every direction like rats escaping a flooded sewer. Then a group of 3 older guys that looked like they’d just left their betel-nut stand walked into the manager’s office. (They were smoking, but the manager strangely
didn’t ask them to put out their cigarettes.) Something had obviously really upset them, and they were waving their arms around in angry gestures and making demands of some kind. The manager took them into a classroom. They were in there for ages, and finally left peacefully with their esteemed entourage. I later learned that one of our students had had a physical altercation with a member of this distinguished brotherhood at some other branch of the school. He had then been transferred to our branch for his safety, but they had somehow found out where he was, and had decided to come along and give him a free lesson of their own. I don’t know how, but the (Taiwanese) manager managed (I guess that’s what a manager does) to dissuade them from their mission. The guy probably owed him his life.

34

I’m going to start a gang in Taiwan called “The Starship”. Who wants to join? :laughing:[/quote]

Can I be communications officer? :sunglasses:

35

rooftop,

Charming anecdote!
FYI

It does not mean “kill the foreigner.” It means, “Blumin’ foreigner” or “Damed foreigner”

36

The only “gangster” I’ve met was a young guy who told me he was a “gangster” just after we met for the first time. I thought that it was unusual that he wanted to point it out to me since gangsters I’ve met before never introduced themselves to me,telling me what their job is.I guess you just know that they’re dodgy people, no questions asked.
Many foreigners say “Oh, this gangster I know is the friendliest,nicest guy you could ever meet…”. I reckon it’s only cuz they’re not used to meeting foreigners and don’t know how else to act.
One sad thing about gangs in Taipei is nice Uni.students joining street gangs, thinking it’s cool.

37

I have seen the gangsters getting into the car on replay 458 times so far…you?

38

I want to teach you a few things about the nice expensive cars you see driving around Taiwan. I have some friends who are good people and work hard and they tell me that they want to buy a

39

Alot of what I wrote above might be common sense to most adults. But if you’d like to teach this to your students or practice your Chinese. Here is the translation a friend of mine wrote because she liked my views.

  1. 雖然我是一個住在台灣的外國人, 但是卻對台灣社會現象有很深的感觸
    我週遭有很多朋友,他們都是努力工作並且奉公守法的好人,他們常常會說他們想買雙B的車. 我聽了之後馬上會奉勸他們萬萬不可.因為,在台灣有很多人開著高級車但行為舉止卻不是很
40

So did you say or do anything, like you said you do in your other posts?