Besides clubs like Room 18 and Plush (which are the only answers anyone seems to give me to this question) where are the best places in Taipei to meet ABCs??
Restaurants, bars, neighborhoods, organizations?
Todd
There’s a bar called VS on Fu Hsing S Road just up from the Ho Ping E Rd intersection which I’m told is frequented by ABCs. It’s about a year old and there are always plenty of non-Taiwanese hanging around outside but I’ve not actually been inside which is shameless since I live around the corner.
I’d be happy to do a little unvestigative reporting if you’ll pick up my bar tab though!
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Originally posted by Todd Horvitz: Besides clubs like Room 18 and Plush (which are the only answers anyone seems to give me to this question) where are the best places in Taipei to meet ABCs??
I think you can pick up some of the places from reading Christine’s blog. That girl gets around.
Not exactly hangouts, but you’ll definitely find some ABCs here:
CAPT - Chinese American Professionals in Taiwan. You can find out more on the web.
Shida Mandarin Training Center
and last, but not least, Oriented social hours!
Just curious… why are you looking?
it’s love boat time again. they’re everywhere.
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Originally posted by Urbanjet:I think you can pick up some of the places from reading Christine’s blog. That girl gets around.
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She posts a zillion pics of herself in her website. Guess it’s easier to get a date this way rather than cruise the bar scene.
Whatever you do, try to avoid bars, restaurants, etc., that have American-born Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and American-born non-Chinese Asians! You won’t find any treasured ABCs at WAPT (White American Professionals in Taiwan) meetings either.
The real joke is that a lot of CAPT members aren’t even American–a lot are Taiwanese women who might have studied once in the States and are hoping to hook up with a, well, American, passport and all.
quote[quote] I think you can pick up some of the places from reading Christine's blog. That girl gets around. [/quote]The Internet – publishing for the unpublishable.
Why would an ABC want to “hang” with other ABCs?
Where do the people with size 9 shoes hang out? What about people who have a dog, or women with big feet?
The question baffles me.
Try Jian4 Tan2 (劍潭 aka Youth Activities Center (青年活動中心
aka Love Boat.
All quite young though. But I don’t know how old you are and what your motives are.
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Originally posted by wolf_reinhold: Why would an ABC want to "hang" with other ABCs? Where do the people with size 9 shoes hang out? What about people who have a dog, or women with big feet? The question baffles me.
Not sure if Todd Horvitz is an ABC. Possible but not sure.
Why? THe same reason why Tienmu “ghetto” exist.
No, not ABC (but I’d probably avoid a lot more flames if I just lied). I know loads of locals, several Europeans, and no ABCs in Taiwan. Living in California, I knew lots.
A lot (but not all) ABCs speak some Chinese … in addition to English. I love speaking Chinese, but I cannot always express myself in it. I miss having someone to speak English with!
As for Plush, I just don’t like the crowd that hangs out there… too snobby and into money.
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Originally posted by Todd Horvitz: A lot (but not all) ABCs speak some Chinese ... in addition to English. I love speaking Chinese, but I cannot always express myself in it. I miss having someone to speak English with!
A lot (but not all) foreigners speak some Chinese as well.
Some even speak better than most ABCs. And some Taiwanese even speak Chinese like a foreigner (not you, of course, Paogao).
I’ve always found those Taiwanese who deliberately speak with a fake foreign accent to be both insulting and pretentious.
On occasion people, usually taxi drivers, etc., will ask me if I am a Huaqiao, even though I don’t look the part. I take it to be a polite way of saying I need to work on my Chinese.
I can’t stand the fake foreign accent crap, either. I get that all the time–you’re standing in line buying a subway ticket and the people next to you start talking with a foreign accent. F-----g rude.
I don’t get it - why would they speak in a foreign accent? And what kind of accent would they speak with?
There’s two types, in general. One is the “Hey, look at me I’m speaking like a funny foreigner” joker type, the same people who dub over the Mandarin/Taiwanese of foreigners in commercials like that medicine one (“Bye-bye, Bye-bye, 感冒頭痛回不來…”).
The other type are the fashionable Taiwanese who want to give people around them the impression that they are so cool they have risen above the ability to speak such a low-level, unfashionable language such as Chinese. The same kind of people who love to say “I just got back from abroad, don’t ya know, and…” Occasionally they will be caught speaking fluent Chinese, much to their embarrassment.
Add type number 3: The obnoxious type who speaks Mandarin to you in nothing but fourth tones (which is a not-so-sly dig at f.o.b. foreigners who tend to speak that way). It is the equivalent of a redneck addressing an Oriental person with “Ah, so sollee honourable fatha, no tickee, no shirtee…”
My fave is people who are non-native (English) speakers who see fit to swear in Enlgish and “Oh my god” all the time…
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Originally posted by Poagao: On occasion people, usually taxi drivers, etc., will ask me if I am a Huaqiao, even though I don't look the part. I take it to be a polite way of saying I need to work on my Chinese.
I get the same questions and I’m M.I.T. Funny thing is that they don’t ask me that in Mainland China. They just assume that I’m from another (southern) province on Mainland. The Da Lu friends I have describe it as “flat tongue”.