Mod note: the opening posts have been split from “[url=Dearest Taiwan, please learn to queue! Taiwan, please learn to queue![/url]”.
I’ve always thought the Taiwanese temperament very similar to the Italians - if I had to compare with any other nationality. The way they love food and traffic chaos (they do love it, right? they wouldn’t drive that way if they didn’t), their social attitudes (pretty freewheeling except when it comes to parents’ diktats), their sleazy incompetent politicians whom they elect again and again, and their ability to be breathtakingly rude when they feel like it (except the Italians do it with a bit more style). I certainly don’t find much in common here with other Asian cultures, except the visceral need to pour concrete in ugly shapes wherever they see a few square meters of tree-covered land.[/quote]
Go to China. The rudeness there is like the worst of Taiwan x10 and 5x as likely to be encountered on an hourly basis. In South Korea you have shit traffic, queuing, and the racism gets damn hostile at times. In South Korea, as an American, you’ll overhear (usually younger) people talking about how they’d wish South Korea could have North Korea’s nuclear technology so they can take care of the Americans once and for all… Some allies. I knew a group of South Korean exchange students. They were good friends, but I got taken aback when they told me they never thought of white people as human until they got to know me. Japanese have a fascination with foreigners but are xenophobic as well. And about manners, they also have problems queuing in smaller cities outside of Tokyo and Kyoto. The point is, Taiwan is about the politest spot in Asia (Japan a little moreso I think), and Southeast Asia is all MUCH worse than here. Your comparison of Twese with Italians actually applies to most of Asia and least of all to Taiwan if you’re talking about extremes, in my experience.
EDIT: As for politics here, Taiwan’s a democracy, and although some of the politicians are sleazy, I don’t think Ma is much sleazier than Obama and he’s much better than Bush was. Also, Any British politician is just as much a scumbag as most of the Taiwanese politicians. I think in general the local politicians are pretty sincere, and the fact that Taiwan is pretty democratic is more than you can say for China. Also Asian, by the way. And also sharing a lot in culture with the Taiwanese. In fact most SE Asian countries aren’t democracies. In fact, the traffic there is much worse and the politics corrupt (Thailand, Philippines) or just plain broken (Myanmar, North Korea though not SE Asian).
I only mention this because of your last sentence, which seems to imply that you operate under a sad illusion that Taiwanese people are especially, shall we say, “underdeveloped” in manners and social consciousness, when the opposite is true. What IS true is that foreigners in Taiwan tend to feel very possessive of Taiwan in comparison to foreigners in other, larger Asian countries, and they feel like that gives them license to be really critical of it as well. So online, you get this illusion, if you don’t look carefully, that Taiwan is the worst off East Asian country, but I’ve been to Japan, I’ve been to China, and I’ve been to Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines… and let’s just say I’m not just still here in Taiwan for the ladies. Life here is better. PEOPLE here are better. Sometimes I just think these forums have one too many bitchy comment for my liking, so sorry this turned into a rant. The only exception where I’d say society is better elsewhere in Asia is possibly Singapore, and even then they’re far too consumer-driven for my taste (making Taiwan looking like pinko Commies), and you still have some politeness issues there.
Anyway, I hope you like it here more than your isolated comment makes it seem!
Night markets seem to have lines down to a science! The best part about Taiwanese in these situations is their sheer patience. Americans and Canadians, at least, wouldn’t wait in line patiently for 10 minutes for a corn dog, for example, or 30 minutes for a baked potato.