My “social media posts?” I’ve only made a couple about Taiwan’s politics as responses to everyone who says Taiwan is the great victim. I’ve also made a few about work conditions that I’m baffled by. The work environment here is also terrible. The problem is that there’s a generational and a cultural clash between young people in Taiwan and the old generation that’s holding them back. I’ve had a dandy time. It’s just that I think when all one does is study (the #1 reason I came to Taiwan), one isn’t really aware of the underlying forces. Once you talk to people about stuff and go out of your self-imposed tunnel vision, you start to realize how screwed up things are. Even on the human rights front, Taiwan is lacking in some areas compared to China (and I’m not trying to paint China in a particularly good light here).
That’s not what my foreign classmates at NTNU said when they lived in China.
But it doesn’t. Do you come up to every Chinese-looking person and say 你好 to them? How do you even come to assume that just because they’re Chinese-looking that they’re not simply Canadian or American? Looks don’t define your identity. You’re claiming they do. That’s really weird. I can just imagine you coming up to black people and asking them about Africa because, hey, they are black. Being black is an association with Africa!
And you’re ignorant to this, obviously, because you’ve never been in the shoes of third culture people. That’s like saying, “America has no racism because look! How many people do you see denying black people jobs?”
If you’re really a Canadian, I’m surprised how “pinholed” and narrow your view of the world is. Next you’ll be telling me that homeless people don’t exist because you don’t see them, and that the only people that can’t be racist are blacks and that BLM is a charity organization.
How do you assume that I’m triggered? If something annoys me, and I don’t agree with it, it must mean I’m triggered? Quite the leap. It’s one of the reasons I gave up my green card in the US. I really didn’t like it. It doesn’t “trigger” me to discuss the US. It’s just a place I’ll never return to if I am to give an example.
They may be confused as foreigners, but my children won’t have an issue because they’re so young that they’ll have no problem with the language, as I’ll be teaching them and make sure they know their history/culture.
When I was in Australia recently with my German immigrant buddy who used to live in Taiwan we would run across people from China and Taiwan and speak to them in Chinese. After all they speak it in Australia where Chinese is the second most spoken language in the country. I speak to people in Taiwan in Chinese who are not “Chinese” as well.
I doubt anyone on this forum assumes another nationality from how they look. After all many of the first forum members were people who were westerners who renounce US Australian UK citizenship to get ROC citizenship back in the 90’s.
It does happen that sometimes a stranger will ask if I am American but most people will ask where I was born. Happens sometimes no big deal. I just reply that like President Ma I am an immigrant born overseas.
No, because birth location doesn’t mean anything. If a person is born to Americans in another country, that person doesn’t automatically become that country’s person, and that person has no incentive or imperative to learn the local culture/language.
My wife and I both agree that moving away from Taiwanese/Chinese culture is ideal for all of us. There is too much baggage/insistence on doing things a certain way, and the family here has hurt us enough with their fortune telling.
We’re taking a different stance: we will teach Russian and simplified Chinese to the children, but not the history or the culture. And we won’t insist that they study hard on either language. When we move back to the EU, we will focus on the children learning the local culture and language.
That’s Australia. Try doing that in the US in a place like Florida or Manhattan. You’ll quickly realize most don’t know a lick of Chinese. It’s like that politician “Andrew Yang.” Why, oh, why does no one in Taiwan care about Andrew Yang? Oh, wait! I know: because he doesn’t have any ties to Taiwan other than his parents who are Taiwanese, and he doesn’t speak any Chinese AFAIK.
The number of people willing to renounce their Australian citizenship for something like Taiwanese (as it was required back in the day) must have been exceedingly small. So small that it’s better to assume everyone you see who speaks English is American.
What, FB? And what identity? I have three different names in three different passports. My FB name is also not my real name (nowhere close actually because I have very few friends that I care about, and I’m not a fan of FB’s way of selling personal/private information).
Maybe not on THIS forum, but in the US I heard non-stop how I don’t look American. In Taiwan, everyone assumes I’m American. Or so was the case in the past. It seems that times have changed from 10+ years ago.
Whoopity do. You are not the only one with multiple nationalities each using a different name and having a different FB name. My FB name is from my first name given to me by a village elder and my wife’s tribal family name. I cannot mention what name you used on FB as not allowed to on this forum. Just saying you have been on FB mentioning your issues in Taiwan is all. Many do. If you really look at how many close friends most people have it is very few.
It wasn’t a point of bragging. Don’t know why you think that. It was a point of not letting any government or person know my identity elsewhere. Just like when Taiwan asks me what other citizenships I have. The answer is zero and none of your business. The more information I give, the more scrutiny and other crap I will attract.
That’s cool, I guess? I don’t know what that has to do with anything because this isn’t a contest.
Even if you do say what it is, I change my FB name on a regular basis (every 60-120 days typically). I also delete all my posts on FB after some time. So, I don’t know what the benefit here is of mentioning what you saw on FB.
Yeah…so? Lol. I have almost no friends in Taiwan. I didn’t come to Taiwan to make friends. I came here to study. But people somehow are interpreting this as a permanent stay or something. It’s not. There was such a consideration, but having lived in many places, and now having understood how Taiwan works better, I’ve decided that it’s out of the question because there are greener pastures for my particular needs. And it’s a lot easier to ask in many places because you get more of an audience and maybe someone else has or had an issue I have/had.
Lot’s of people do that. It’s all good fun. Allows one to put money away in other places for a rainy day. I never said it had anything to do about bragging. You are on a forum where lots of people have multiple citizenships and identities.
Maybe. As long as it’s not my name, I don’t care. I still behave online. I just don’t want people (bots/analytics) to build up a psychological profile of me.
I don’t know. I don’t make assumptions about people on here, lol…
Believe it or not, I’ve had many females cling to me. I’ve refused most of them. Most of them also were willing to throw themselves into my arms and get married immediately (including my wife). I haven’t led a stable life in my early 20s to late 20s because I travelled (and still do until I go to my end point) between countries, and I didn’t want to drag anyone into a relationship. What was homework help (it was a requirement by NTNU to find a study buddy) turned into a relationship. After discussing commitments and my life, my pre-wife girlfriend decided that she could handle the need to potentially separate for long periods of time or to move around as needed. She was also the one who was constantly pushing for kids (to be fair, I’ve always wanted kids myself).
They do ask on the ARC form to declare another citizenship. I skip that field.
I see. Then you wouldn’t know that they ask this question now. I once tried to open a bank account, saying I have three passports, and they said they needed to talk to their manager. Afterwards, they said they need every single name and nationality I’ve ever used, and if I’ve ever been a US citizen or resident, I need to give that information as well. Then they said that my account needs to be specially approved by the branch manager to be opened, assuming I pass all their requirements. And I needed to make several declarations about foreign bank accounts and where my income is from in Taiwan.
Utter nonsense, really.
Maybe it’s a perspective thing once again? I’ve had my wife’s relatives talk about how great China is. They’re Taiwanese btw, and they’re on that compatriot visa thing. Once at a lunch, they wouldn’t shut up about how their last 20 years in China were the best of their life. They mentioned the scenery and how efficient the government is and how nice the people in the area where they live are.
Nothing every truly goes away.