Yeah it’s worse because western countries BEND OVER backwards for millions of refugees and economic immigrants.
Taiwan, China and Japan basically dont even take in refugees . Korea is freaking out right now over a few hundred people from Yemen.
Myanmar kills it’s own minorities . China jails a million at least . Malaysia openly discriminates against it’s minorities.
Western countries in general treat foreigners and minorities amazingly well.
in some cases, they even invaded to foreign countries, and killed many people or forced people to move to their countries.
To clarify, I’m not saying Asian societies are not or less racist. Just saying they are as racist as western societies.
It’s not a right for anyone to just move to Taiwan, people of Taiwan have the right to choose who we want. And in no way should we open up for “refugees” like the EU which has failed miserably. Should Táiwān let more foreigners from the West, yes do I believe so. I think it would greatly benefit the country. But I will not be supporting any “refugees” in coming here. No one even supports us why should we carry any of the burdens of the migrants. The Islamic world is a burden on the west and more and more the east. They haven’t done shit in any way to contribute beside sitting on oil.
I think Taiwan is a special situation certainly doesn’t owe many countries anything, it should take in some Trump refugees though !
same, i think letting in refugees willy nilly has proven to be a bad idea at this point. on the flip side, being overly protectionist doesn’t help either. taiwans current state can attest to that.
I agree with you mostly there, but consider:
“Most __________ are racist”
Its a generalization, and its kind of hypocritical because that is how racism works: by broadly applying negative characteristics to a wide swathe of people.
I agree that the paradise thing is a delusion. Every country I have lived in has had problems. Do any of the frustrations come from having overly high ‘paradise’ expectations?
In the long run I’d like to see all borders coming down.
I think it’s a matter of proportions. The number of Westerners is so low that Taiwanese ignorance produces curiosity. Our presence is a novelty. If the numbers were around 10-15%, I believe the ignorance would manifest in overt racism in many more people.
People are good and bad everywhere, but I have seen issues in Taiwan when it comes to the policy adopted by the police, the media and the general public that reflect a strong nationalism and racism in the island and which is a danger to all of you. I explain them below:
-I saw how useless the police was when I brought audio/video recordings of a guy threatening me and my wife with the help of 3 other people. I have no doubt that if it would have been the other way around (4 foreigners threatening a taiwanese couple in their business) the police would have agressively pursue the issue and it would have come out all over the news.
-I saw how useless and corrupted covering tracks and evidences were the police in the fisher men´s issue and how the media acted on the same manner, but I have no doubt that if 4 foreigners attack with heavy weaponry a single Taiwanese it all would have reverted as it would have done in the point explained above.
-On a third issue which happened in Donghe, Taitung, I had several Taiwanese being offended because I surfed in their spot several days and that meant less waves for them. One of them flat 3 tires out of my car. The following day after this he came with several friends and threw me an object. I said enough is enough and attacked the guy with my hands. As soon as I connected a good punch into this guy face his friend attacked me from behind and I ended fighting with 2. I connected with 3 good punches the one who flatted my tires and submitted him on the floor with a neck choke, but as soon as I did this all of his friends starting screaming in Chinese (telling his friend to attack me once again) so his friend went to pick a rock and made a gesture to throw to me. I faced him and he placed it down. Everything was recorded by one of his friends and they took a copy to the police. The guy I knocked down did not want to press charges, but I had police visiting and calling my home for 3 weeks and from 4 different police stations. It came in the news, but the video was edited and cut to right before I connected the first good punch which immediately made his friend attack me from behind. It is quite obvious that the video was edited because in the video it can only be seen my back and right side, but they use a picture taken from a cut part of the before edited video to show me from the front and with a clear view of my face. The video was edited to leave all embarrassing moments to the Taiwanese.
In all these 3 cases I saw a clear help and prejudice that clearly did not favor me and acted against me, because I am a foreigner. These episodes would have been very different in a non racist society as it happened with the banana peel issue. If the banana peel issue would have happened in a western country it would have been widely criticized by politicians and by other media outlets, as well as the public, as to why they make such a stupid new (for being a foreigner) and why the public was so angry. Here they kept silence and this is really worrisome for all of you leaving here.
I post my reply here.
If that were done by 4 foreigners, it must get more attention, because it is much rare incident.
If the offenders and victim were Taiwanese, I don’t think it got more attention than your case, unless the victims had some connection.
You are using the western society template to try and match it with an East Asian society. Your standards (which might be subjective) would not match in other countries in the region as well. Taiwan is not Spain and it probably never will be, the development and history of the Taiwanese society is completely different. Although we tend to mock the infamous “5000 year of Chinese history” claims, the fact is that the culture is different and different cultures produce different legal systems with different values. It is an insider/outsider culture and as a foreigner you are a complete outsider without access to the relationships that could make this place work better for you.
You will probably reply that I make excuses for Taiwan and explain how you are on a different level and that’s fine if that’s your perception of reality.
You are avoiding reality. Truth is that police and media are prejudice against foreigners, a danger therefore to them and there is no excuse for it.
I totally agree! I just don’t think there is anything special about it and the level of prejudice is the same as many other places around the world.
I live in the US and Spain for many years. There it is not the same, so you are not telling the truth. Prejudice and racism is persecuted by the Law, by the media, by large parts of society. Not here.
Exactly, you are comparing Taiwan to places it can not be compared to. Apples and oranges. Compare Taiwan with China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam and see which one you like. Do you think there is less prejudice against foreigners there?
In the country where being black can be a reason to be shoot by police, is there less prejudice and racism?
There is less prejudice in Singapore amongst Asian nations – because rules are forced fed to the population. Not a fan of their regime. However, the point in Taiwan, is that the South is a lawless place full of DPP peasants and nasty rule breakers. You want law and order – you move to Taipei. Simple as that.
Just as if you let Spain become decentralised, you would have the Basques, the Catalans, etc. running wild. Criticize Franco and remove his statues, but he knew how to maintain order throughout based on centralism.
No, so I would be criticizing those racist societies as well if I was to live there. Again, racism and prejudice is not exempt from criticism. Cant you see this?
mate, you are not totally wrong theres truth to it. but you don’t seem to get how you are making things worse with your confrontational attitude. you already know taiwanese fight in a group but you started a fight with them and then complained about it afterwards?
That country, the US, attacks as it can racism with Laws. The media attacks racism and so large groups of masses, politicians, etc… It even fought a civil war against slavery. I lived there as an immigrant and I tell you, its civil rights are way above what you find in Taiwan.
Still, there are always going to be bad apples everywhere, but I tell you that there are many black officers in the police force, I dont see any foreign officer here.
Good point Nacho, how many immigrants have been able to get public service positions in Taiwan, very very few. Even in the city governments , almost non existent.
I don’t make excuses for racism either, apples and oranges bullshit. Racism is racism. The media here is pig fucking ignorant and social media is worse if you read the comments in Chinese ! (Facebook being an echo chamber doesn’t help ).
The only thing I agree with though is that you can’t confront people all the time you’ve got to learn to mostly ignore it (mostly my strategy ) or even how to accept people can be ignorant and racist and then educate them through interaction. Most people aren’t RACIST racist and there’s plenty of friendly folks too so irs better not to focus on it…I mean you can get on with your life fine as long as not getting into these full on confrontations which you are unlikely to win.
You got to play the game by local rules …It a stupid shitty game (pai sai pai sai…) but it’s their sandpit (but if somebody invades your property you have the right to throw them and report them to the police immediately ) .