I saw a TV program last night.They invited the girls who get maried with Taiwanese.
The host asked them if you heard about Taiwan before you come to Taiwan?
One out of the five girls raise the "no "card.
how about you?
No, my plane broke in half on the way to Japan.
wow,it took a long time to fix it up.
You are still here. 
which airline you planed you take originally? 
I heard that Taiwan was a dirty ugly rock where I could make a bundle of money.
Not ON the money, but close.
:roflmao:
[quote=“douseeme”]wow,it took a long time to fix it up.
You are still here.
which airline you planed you take originally? [/quote]
China Airlines.
Before going to Taiwan in 2000, the only place I had ever heard of Taiwan or noticed the word Taiwan, was from my toys while growing up as a child. Everything in those days read “Made in Taiwan”. Now everything reads “Made in China”.
cdnmagic
I’d never heard of it before.
Got my mate to blindfold me, threw a dart at a world map, and got the private jet to fly me there ASAP.
Turned out to be Taiwan…
yes, I heard about it, found it also on all the cheapest plastic toy soldiers i had but no one told me more. Not where it was, why it was not demolished yet. nothing.
Now I am here buidling up their economy. The circle is round.
I think there was something about it on my plane ticket but before that nope, not a thing.
[quote=“Buttercup”][quote=“douseeme”]wow,it took a long time to fix it up.
You are still here.
which airline you planed you take originally? [/quote]
China Airlines.[/quote]
OMG,again? 
[quote=“cdnmagic”]Before going to Taiwan in 2000, the only place I had ever heard of Taiwan or noticed the word Taiwan, was from my toys while growing up as a child. Everything in those days read “Made in Taiwan”. Now everything reads “Made in China”.
cdnmagic[/quote]
Right.All things are made in China now.
We lose the way to introduce Taiwan to people just in NB and computer.
Before coming to Taiwan, I knew it as a place where things are made.
This is Thailand…right?
My very first awareness of Taiwan came through some Australian soldiers’ magazines from WWII that my gran gave me when I was around six. One had a pictorial and the main theme “Formosa.” At about eight I said something like, “where the fuck is that?” I had atlases and looked it up. I was confused for ages about Formosa, Taiwan and the ROC. Which is which? What is fricking Amoy?
My first encounter with Taiwanese shocked me. I was in China at the end of a six month stint as a Chinese medical intern in a Red Cross Hospital on the outskirts of Hangzhou and was heading up to Shanghai for the weekend. I jumped the first train after work on a Friday. I was knackered and freezing. Mercifully the guard cut me a favour for some small change and got me into a private first class car. It was full of Taiwanese tourists heading back from an outing to Huang Shan and they were loaded up with the biggest pile of kitschest crap I had ever seen. Every single one of them was yelling and jabbering while downing Kaoliang and throwing previously unseen and obscene amounts of US dollars around a mah jong table.
For some reason it dawned on me that the Taiwanese were basically pirates. The clothes they wore were the sleaziest cardigans and they all stank of moth balls. Sort of like present day North Koreans. I spent the whole trip in one of my first protracted and relatively unblemished conversations in Chinese with an undercover railway cop who was guarding the Taiwanese group. For two hours it was all what an ugly people the Taiwanese were, and in every sense of the word. The money shit was was so over the top and in the face of absolutely everyone. A year’s wages for the China folks going in each swift and stupid mah jong round. It was revolting!
It was a real surprise years later that I decided to spend my year out of Chinese studies in Oz in Taichung. Indeed my Russian but China born lecturer at uni scolded me saying “but you’ll only pick up one of those awwwwwfffuuulll southern accents!”
A mate who had lived in Taiwan for years and I’d met while he was in Oz was going to be in Taipei the same year. My first weekend in Taipei I went to a party and met a circle of people that has been ever expanding and unceasingly rewarding ever since. The following week in Taichung I likewise ran into a group that blossomed into the sort of friends with shared experiences and connections only time can offer.
It’s been fantastic!
HG
HGC said…
"It was a real surprise years later that I decided to spend my year out of Chinese studies in Oz in Taichung. Indeed my Russian but China born lecturer at uni scolded me saying “but you’ll only pick up one of those awwwwwfffuuulll southern accents!”
and i say…
i know her. did you go to ANU and was your lecturer a little old lady with a loud voice? Cannot remember her name but i had her for chinese as well at ANU.
That’s the one. Her name’s Dr Dyer.
HG