Just posted to my site: extended excerpts from Formosan Odyssey: Taiwan, Past and Present, by John Ross. Check it out.
I just am 2 chapters shy of finishing this book. I highly recommend it!
After living here 3 years, often Taiwan still seems a bit of a mystery to me. John Ross has done a great job in this book, both in terms of historical content and general readability (is that even a word?).
Thanks for sharing parts of it (and your other selections as well) with us.
Kristy 
Excerpt from the excerpt posted on Cranky’s site.
“It is after all a polluted, crowded little island full of factories churning out computers and pirated CDs, a country where environmental consciousness is so low that the first national park was established only in 1984 (and even that has a nuclear reactor in it!).”
With comments like that, I would never buy his book. In fact if that is what he thinks of Taiwan, why is he still here? Is he a loser with nowhere else to go?
So, Hobart has someone challenged your perception of Taiwan? How mortifying.
Everyone is entitled to his opinion and you are, of course, entitled to yours. But choosing to read or to be exposed to ideas that only support one’s own assumptions is akin to burying one’s head in the sand. Isn’t it?
[quote=“Hobart”]Excerpt from the excerpt posted on Cranky’s site.
“It is after all a polluted, crowded little island full of factories churning out computers and pirated CDs, a country where environmental consciousness is so low that the first national park was established only in 1984 (and even that has a nuclear reactor in it!).”
With comments like that, I would never buy his book. In fact if that is what he thinks of Taiwan, why is he still here? Is he a loser with nowhere else to go?[/quote]
Yes. Taiwan is not polluted. Taiwan is not crowded. Taiwan is not an island. Taiwan is not full of factories. Taiwan manufactures neither computers nor pirated CDs. Taiwan has one of the highest environmental consciousnesses in the world. Taiwan had national parks before 1984. Taiwan does not have a nuclear reactor in its first national park.
I’ll wait until I read the whole book before I jump to assumptions. And especially before I post them on a public forum.
It’s about the guys attitude. He seems too much of a fricken WAIGUOREN to understand or appreciate Taiwan enough to write about it.
Maybe the F.O.B. beer swilling 45 loving punks with their hats on backwards, would love this book. But from what I read anyone that has been here a long time and has some Taiwanese friends would understand and appreciate Taiwan a lot more than this guy.
However, now I am curious to read it, so I can see if I am right, but NT$350 for a self published book is robbery. Why should I reward this guy for his insults. If I want to know his opinion of Taiwan I can just go to 45 or 99 on the weekend and listen to the FOB and short timers conversations or read the posts here.