Let him know my parents love it! 
I moved back to the uk after 22-23 years in Taiwan. Currently in my 4th year back and it’s tough. Very tough. There’s almost nothing I like here apart from my house, the garden , the peace and quiet , the space and the climate. But those things make it worthwhile and I’ll miss them dearly when I return to Taiwan, as we plan to do in the future.
So my house is like a little enclave where I can exist almost regardless of where I am. I don’t watch the news or British Telly, I have very little idea what is going on. I work from home etc…
I don’t think you should come back without a firm plan though. It’s easy to spiral downhill if there’s no specific plan or aim.
You say you can live with your folks, but will you be happy to do so? Will that restrict your lifestyle?
Can you change your lifestyle in Taiwan before making such a big decision to move back home? I moved out of central Taipei and lived by the sea for 6 years and had a totally different lifestyle where I’d walk our dog on the beach everyday and watch the sunset over the ocean most evenings. It was a totally different life but on the same island.
Perhaps work out what you need and want and what makes you happy/ unhappy and then think how you can achieve that without necessarily specifying a geographical location.
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TWN is a speshal place.
But can turn to hell without a speshal sum1…
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I realize it’s not an option for most people but the only thing that works for me is to live a nomad lifestyle. It used to be 9 months Taiwan and 3 months Japan and I was perfectly happy with that. Due to circumstances beyond my control I also now spend a few months per year in the U.S. suburbs and it’s actually not bad in small doses.
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I wouldn’t begin to consider moving back to the UK before my monthly passive income is 3k+ pounds minimum. It’s shockingly expensive here.
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You’d be saving even less here, even if you’re living for free you’re still costing your parents, and your life will effectively die as soon as you arrive here.
There is no upper age to come back to the UK, but 40+ probably isn’t a good age to come back and live with your parents, not without at least a job already lined up. You’re massively taking for granted what you already have by the sounds of it. No one in the UK has any savings, you will not be saving money by moving back here and that’s not really a good enough reason to invalidate your life in Taiwan.
Think you need to think it through a bit more. Unless there’s more to the story, which is fair enough, but I can only react to what you give me.
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I’ve posted about this before, but I just moved back to the UK this year after 15 years teaching in Taiwan and at the age of 40. I prepped for it though. I saved aggressively through the years of teaching, which allowed me to take 3 years out to go back to uni to do a degree in Computer Science, and on returning, I was able to land a developer role for an edtech company. So far, no regrets. I believe you make your own luck to some extent, but I have definitely fallen on my feet. I also have a Taiwanese wife and two kids in tow, so that influences things somewhat.
While I miss aspects to Taiwan, I think a lot of the doom and gloom around the UK is fairly overblown. Things I’ve enjoyed include proper gigs and festivals, much more options around playing and watching sport, the UK countryside, cheap and good variety of produce at supermarkets and paid time off. Things I haven’t include bills and house prices, dickheads on electric scooters and public transport. No where is perfect, but I’m happy with my choice so far.
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Yes, forgot to mention supermarkets, concerts and sports. All in the plus column.
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Having spent the last two weeks on Vancouver Island, the UK is like way cheaper for food. There is no Aldi in British Columbia. Like I said before, BC is California real estate combined with Arkansas salaries and Cuban health care. 
This is why Alberta appears to be in its prime, though, eh?
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I left at the age of 33 after the big 9-21 earthquake. Well, to be precise, my wife and I (Taiwanese) left after the 10-22 aftershock because we didn’t want to stick around for what might happen on 11-23! I’d been teaching for six years, and loved everything about my life in the smaller southern city of Chiayi except for the, erm, teaching.
I’d been casting around for motivation to quit the island, with no small urging on the part of my wife, who could tell I was treading water while finding it difficult to overcome the procrastination and, frankly, fear of the unknown. So the earthquake forced my hand in this.
And I’m glad it did. I could see myself having gotten stuck otherwise. We ripped the bandage off, moved to the city in Ontario where I grew up, and slowly made our way. Thought about teaching high school, but some supply teaching put paid to that idea.
Ended up doing translation between Chinese and English, my wife and I. Our timing was perfect for the window of opportunity afforded to those wishing to strike out as freelancers, making use of computers and the internet for writing and doing research. We did well at first, and even purchased a charming old Victorian house in an artsy town two hours outside of Toronto premised on what I naively expected would be a growing industry. But we got body-slammed by 2008, then American manufacturing in China sputtered, and finally, machine translations have become so good that we humans are mostly only needed to edit them.
We’re treading water now, and there are times when I contemplate attempting some other kind of work, but I’m not quite there yet. The main thing, though, is that we have never regretted coming back to Canada (well, for her it was coming here and becoming a citizen). We’re really happy here: family, friends, neighbours, the peaceful quiet, the pleasant environment, Toronto down the road for big city atmosphere, Quebec not that far, etc. Most of all: these are my people. The jokes, the banter, the cultural references, the reserved Canadian character, I feel at home here, and so does my wife. And she absolutely loves winter, too, funnily enough. Those Hallmark movie-like scenes where the big fluffy snowflakes fill the air as you crunch along the sidewalk? Magical. As are a hundred other things about life here.
There is also no shortage of Chinese-speakers in southern Ontario, as you can well imagine. A short drive to Waterloo or a longer one to Toronto will have me speaking Chinese to my heart’s content whenever I like.
Sure, we miss things about Taiwan, but there’s honestly no comparison for us where we’d rather be. Naturally, this is our own anecdotal experience, horses for courses and all that.
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Great post. We left in 2008. I had worked for Taiwan’s government, and with HTC during its prime years and closely with leadership.
For experience in my 20s, Taiwan was stellar.
Coming back to Canada was a great decision for my stepkids. They’ve married well, become professionals in engineering and medical fields, and have real estate in BC. It also gave me Canadian gov experience during mid career. Worth it after Taiwan.
For myself, I lasted about 8 years before the Middle East and Europe (France, Saudi and the UK beckoned). Visit BC from time to time for family reasons, but I find Canada to be a lot more boring than Taiwan and Europe. It’s a nature paradise to some extents, but quite insular on so many levels. Glad I left Taiwan to Canada to allow kids to set up shop, but found it professionally limiting for myself after nearly a decade. It’s ground zero for woke, the West Coast is so overpriced, and even my wife said “people here are waiting to die.” In summary, glad I left Taiwan when I did to extend citizenship to wider family members, to allow them to be educate/work professionally in Canada etc., but then chose Europe over North America for myself, wife and younger family members.
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Unless you are someone who has made it to senior levels, I think that age is getting younger all the time, you can have issues over 40 these days. Especially with all the gen y and gen z in the workforce and their great expectations! But then governments in countries with ageing populations want you to work until you’re 150….
Am in late 40s and always applying internationally just to test the waters. Government still hires in 40s and 50s but private sector seems a lot less enamored with older folks..noticed a big difference in 20s vs 40s for private sector. And when I’ve gotten interviews it has usually been public sector handling within private sector entities. Very hard to make any jump from public to private when public sector pensions are as high as 30 percent.
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Good for you wanting to better your life. Taiwan no doubt was a great place for you ten years ago but it is time to move on…
perhaps for a soft landing you could go into an online field or retrain whilst in taiwan ROC?
I’m not familiar with what is up and coming in the UK. Another option would be going to another Asian country or commonwealth.
Or the states?
I want to add that to help you get back on your feet too you can teach English online for a while until a better thing comes up
Thanks for all the replies and insights everyone! It’s given me plenty of extra food for thought.
Do you mind elaborating on what you’re finding tough? As in, cost of living or culturally? You listed quite a few of the things that I actually really miss and want to get back to! One of the things I dislike most is apartment living and the lack of a garden.
Yeah, I think we can make it work. A bit nervous that at some point I might end up as a carer… but hopefully that isn’t too near in the future. I’m sure they’d want someone else to do it anyway, as I’d suck at it. They aren’t getting any younger though and I’m becoming more aware of how much time with my family I’ve missed over the last 20 years. In terms of my lifestyle… I don’t really know what you mean. To be honest, in Taiwan the only things I do are go to work and run (I love running). It would actually make my particular lifestyle more enjoyable to be back home for climate and places to run.
You’re right though that maybe a different island location might be a better fit for me. I’ve really only ever lived in Taipei and know virtually nothing about the rest of the island other than short trips.
I’d certainly agree that it isn’t ideal. But not following this road would mean never leaving. Even if I went with my experience and decided to teach (which I definitely won’t be doing in the UK), I would require more training/ qualifications. Lining up a job before going back would be next to impossible for a teacher leaving the profession. It is easy to take life for granted when you’ve been in it so long and “grass is greener” syndrome is definitely a thing, but I do feel like I need to make some kind of inroad into a career that I actually want. On top of that, I will have to retire one day and doing that in Taiwan is not what I want either.
Yes, yes and yes!
This too. I’m OK with solitude mostly, but having been here for around half my life, it’s pretty clear that I’ll never really be accepted here as much more than “just an English teacher”. Maybe it’s just me, but I often feel like an item - like a piece of furniture or something. Maybe I just need more friends.
Sounds like you were here in some other capacity than buxiban teacher, which I think is great. Getting professional development while living it up in the 'Wan makes for a much smoother transition back I would guess. As a teacher, enjoying your party years in Taiwan fits nicely, but post-30 you do see how far you won’t be going. Just stuck in a comfortable soup, slowly cooking… I should have followed your lead when I was younger!
Thanks for that! I will certainly consider it! And thanks for the encouragement! Is online tutoring a reasonable income generator? I honestly don’t know much about it, but my imagination leads me to believe you get maybe 2 quid an hour or something horrible!
Many old timers, even if they were government, high tech etc. or other professional fields, taught at some point in the 1980s or 90s, even if part time. I did for MBA and journalism courses part-time at a university in Taipei. Enjoyed it for 4 hours a week lol.
It was sobering drinking with an old timer (here since 70s) and watching some of the people in their 50s and 60s early in the 2000s. As employment opps dried up, they seemed in limbo (not the dude I was drinking with but many).
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Do you have Taiwanese ID? As with that it is easy just to come back if you don’t like it.
My friend who is in his late 40s went back, lived with his mom for six months , couldn’t find work and is now on universal credit living in a bedsit. His bedsit is actually as large as a Taiwan apartment. He then got depression and is now on sickness benefit. If you can afford to buy a house in the UK at 40 or somehow get council housing it might be worth it.Unless you are a great entrepreneur like Andrew
it might be a struggle. You have an advantage of being able to live with your parents that would help. Remember you are almost not qualified for any assistance until you have lived there three months.
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I have an APRC. I’d have to check, but I think after 6 months of not being here it expires (is that right?).
I certainly hope to avoid the position your friend is in and hope things turn around for him. It would be even more scary to find yourself in that situation in Taiwan I would think. Not sure what government help for the sick looks like, but my expectations aren’t high.
No doubt, if I didn’t have parents with a good-size house, I wouldn’t even think about it.
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You can keep it going just inform them first that you are going home to be with family for a year or so. I think you need to stop your NHI or you’ll get charged if you decide to come back. I think just knowing that you could come back if needed is a great help mentally when you hit reverse culture shock. Also collect written job references , references from landlords. Even if they are in Chinese you cam get them translated. The point of my posts is not to be negative , but remind you to have a plan B if all goes wrong.
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