I find it pretty disturbing that I see so much of men belting, pushing, shoving, whacking and generally threatening women in a violent manner so openly in Taiwan.
I just watched a husband on one of the Taiwan variety shows on TV, about to ‘dot’ his wife!! I’m not sure why, buy he was pretty pissed off. This follows up an another incident I witnessed today, where I saw a boyfriend about to go fisties with his girlfriend, in of all places (not saying there is an accepted place either), out the front of our local 711.
I just can’t believe how often I see this kind of crap on TV, making viewers believe that it’s commonplace and acceptable.
Why is it better if they smack them off camera or in teh home??. :shock: … I was in France for a while and in Ireland too I saw this… so lets not say it is home grown to Taiwan
I see the same thing on TV here all the time, and its always some guy who hits the girl or who is choking her on the bed and then some mother or mother-in-law comes charging in and crying over them begging to stop. Makes me sick.
When I first came to Taiwan I lived in Kaohsiung and in the first month I was in a bar and someone started attacking a woman at the bar. Taking her by the hair and bashing her head into the bar. After the first thud I asked the bartender what the f%$, but she told me “mei guan xi” and that everything was all right. Next came a hard slap to her face which almost made me come unglued right there. At this point they both left the bar and I felt a little better, hoping the girl was going home. But no, suddenly outside I see the girl thrown to the ground and being kicked. I slammed my fist down on the bar, yelled at the bar tender to call the cops now, and went outside. I am not a small man, and when angry I can appear quite menacing. I went over and told the person that if you touch her again they would have to hit me. This had an effect as the person got ready to strike again but thought twice about it and then left on his scooter. I went back in the bar absolutely fuming and completely disgusted with every individual in the bar. This place was full with a lot of people, all Taiwanese, and they could easily have easily stopped this but they didn’t. I wouldn’t have traded the lot of them for a bucket of piss at that point. I paid my bill and left with a very bitter taste in my mouth. As I was walking home I was visibly shaking because the event bothered me that much, because I had never experienced anything like that in the states. At that time the girl I had helped came up and told me thank you, which made me feel better. I apologized to her for my outburst, but told her that where I come from that behaviour is completely unacceptable, and that no matter how long I am in Asia or Taiwan I could never stand by and watch that happen. She smiled and thanked me again, but I felt really bad her. Bad that she couldn’t defend herself, bad that maybe she felt too ashamed to defend herself, and bad for all the people that took it in stride while she was getting kicked in the street.
Yeah, I was an ugly foreigner that night, and you know what, I would be again if the situation happenned again. Even if the guy came back with 20 of his buddies on scooters later and beat me down hard at least I could still hold my head high.
I guess I should start another thread on drinking in Taiwan and the crazy things you have done while drunk.
What about the women smacking the men? Several days ago in Tien-Mu I saw a woman out on the street screaming at the top of her lungs at her husband. He just stood there with a hangdog expression while she slapped him repeatedly with everyone with 50 meters watching.
Btw, I agree with you. This is a problem everywhere, not just Taiwan, but it’s not going to stop until people everywhere say that it is totally unacceptable. I hope folks don’t take my post out of context or that I am trying to say that the West is any better.
TNT wrote [quote]Why is it better if they smack them off camera or in teh home??.[/quote]
I wrote [quote](not saying there is an accepted place either)[/quote]
TNT wrote [quote]I was in France for a while and in Ireland too I saw this… so lets not say it is home grown to Taiwan [/quote]
I never did. But perhaps I should ask the mods to move this topic to the ‘Living in Ireland’ thread.
Ai-yo… You guys just don’t understand Chinese women. Sometimes they want you to smack 'em. Remember the movie Taipan, where Richard Chamberlain discovers Joan Chen dressing up like a western harlot, in the misguided hope that she could attend the ball? She said
“Meimei love you terrifical bad, but has brought you dishonour. Taipan must beat Meimei, or she will have no face in the household.”
So even though Taipan didn’t want to beat her, cultural constraints compelled him to do so. Now do you understand?
The violence here in general, man against woman, woman against man, man against man, legislative yuan member against legislative yuan member…no wonder I can’t convince my 4th grade boys to not draw people being killed as the artwork for their book covers.
Like the one doing the hitting has lost face, but the one being hit is gaining face by not reacting and gets the moral high ground after?
Not a justification, but thats what my impression was
I had two friends (gf-bf) who would hit each other HARD and once she asked me how to stop it, I just told her to stop hitting him back and let him know it hurts and is something you wont accept.
I have only seen a man actually violently hit a woman once in my life. Back before I was in IT I worked as a mate on commercial fishing boat. We came in after catching sea bass and I had to take all the guts out to a dumpster. It was a trendy night spot and I came across this girl crying with her frat boy partner. He actually full fisted this poor girl in the face for god know what. I flipped and knocked him out.
I can’t stand scum who do stuff like that. Its not a chivalrous, rather I hate people beating on those who can’t protect themselves. If somebody decides to act like a big tough thug, they need to be reminded that there is always somebody out there bigger and tougher than they pretend to be.
