Another Kiwi steps up and takes a swing at comparing life in Aotearoa New Zealand (especially the South Island) with life in Taiwan (notably Kaohsiung). He seems to quite like it here.
Guy
That blog also claims that Tainan is the food capital of Taiwan. I was right!
I am okay with almost all of that post, with the partial exception of this:
âTwo days ago, at a busy food court in Kaohsiung, a parent and child were unintentionally blocking our path. Instead of asking them to move, I followed my partner as we backtracked to take the long way around. This kind of donât-bother-other-people approach works for me. In New Zealand, it would be bizarre. We wouldnât walk 50 meters out of our way just to avoid asking someone to moveâbut in Taiwan itâs the default technique.
Iâve been told that the most important thing in Taiwan is not inconveniencing other people. Itâs a mindset some foreigners find oppressive, but Iâm OK with it.â
I do not think that avoiding inconveniencing others is a particularly important social norm in Taiwan. I think avoiding confrontation is, but even more than that, the key social norm is to overlook others inconveniencing you. The department store example is interesting. From my experience, I donât think most people will go out of their way to avoid someone taking up public walking space, I think most people will just squeeze through, either with or without a perfunctory ä¸ĺĽ˝ćć. And while I acknowledge space can be limited here, and I donât know exactly what the situation was like in this particular anecdote, the story literally hinges on someone, uh, blocking a walking path and inconveniencing others. Many people will just stand in public spaces and expect others to walk around them. And this selfish behavior, which is merely annoying when walking, turns deadly when driving.
Though I realize that the author probably doesnât post here, so I shouldnât expect a response. And certainly the post mentions many positives of Taiwan that I do agree with.
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I donât disagree with any of that.
The example I see all the time is not so much in a department store food court (the example cited) but on bike lanes, where people will walk, dawdle, stand, etc, fully confident that they know what is in front of them, but with stunning lack of awareness of whatâs coming behind them!
After several decades here, I still cannot figure out the socialization process that has led to this attitude and approach.
Guy
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Yep, itâs flabbergasting. I have long wondered if it might even be intentional to some degree, because otherwise it doesnât make any sense at all. Iâve attempted to (nicely) ask Taiwanese why stuff like this happens, but Iâve never got a satisfying answer.
Had a late night brainstorm with the wife about this. A couple hypothesis we thought up (other than education related) were about face morphology as well as prevalence of glasses and bad eyesight. Glasses create blinds spots.
The face thing we tried out for fun with a group of friends for shits n grins. Basically the curvature of the front of the face. Flatter faces compared to say my big nosed version. My eyes have a wider view than many of them. Fun midnight games at night.
Taiwanese famously have tunnel vision. Both literally with vision and seemingly also with logic 