The sheer bitterness of some people here never ceases to amaze me.
Itās a by-product of being wretched. 
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Dude, you need to import more shiny pants. Is the AFWFWNSP doing nothing? As per usual.
(Aid for wretched foreigners who need shiny pants.)
Comes from being frail humans, afraid, lost in a mysterious, dark culture.
Nah, unfortunately, I signed away all my benefits when I accepted nomination as the King of frigging China (in exile).
In my case my nomination as Emperor of Egypt was no good. Seems I was involved in some kind of pyramid scheme.
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BASTARDS!! After all that time you spent learning how to walk like that and everything!
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Iām shocked by the reactions of ironlady and Tempo Gain, whose opinions I ordinarily respect. You donāt have to have perfect Chinese to be aware when someone is being rude. The OP is clearly an eloquent and thoughtful person, thatās instantly recognizable from his posts. Iām sure he knows the difference between good-natured banter and bitter xenophobia. In fact, heās said as much, since heās stated that he has also encountered the former. The people in question are clearly suffering from the latter, and the OP has every right to be offended. I certainly would be.
I donāt have much faith in the notion that smiles and laughs have ādifferent meaningsā in this context. People are basically the same everywhere, and itās easy to sense hatred and rudeness. We all know when weāre being made fun of or mocked. 
And if you are being mocked or made fun of at a restaurant, you should not go back. No matter how good it is.
Iād take my biz elsewhere.
Or lump it if you have to deal with the equivalent of Seinfeldās soup nazi.
I would like to thank you all for your advice and support during this most difficult time. Forumosa is my only source of solace in an otherwise wretched existence. The bitterness we shall deal with later. Friday morning I found a street vendeur selling purple rice flecked with pineapples and apples. I bought 3 boxes.
Now I must heal.
I disagree. There are many, many instances I can think of when Iāve started to get offended and caught myself realizing that I was misinterpreting the situation (and probably plenty of others where I simply didnāt catch myself in time). Smiles in Taiwan often indicate embarrassment or simply not knowing quite what to do. Itās an expression of awkwardness on the part of the smiler, not mocking aimed at the customer. Body language, humor, facial expressions, the way a person listening to someone speak indicate that āyes, Iām listeningā ā all of these vary hugely from culture to culture.
And sorry ā but Iāve dealt with so, so many people who spoken Chinese āpretty wellā in their own estimation, and had no freaking clue what was really going on. (Disclaimer: this is not to say that I always have a clue what is going on. But that doesnāt make my observation of people taking things totally the wrong way due to their lack of facility with the language any less valid.) When someone opens a post with āI didnāt understand everything they said, but I KNOW thatā¦ā (or words to that effect), well, how much credibility can you really give to their interpretation?
Life is much more pleasant when you make a conscious effort to impute the best possible interpretation on the actions of other people. This goes double or triple when there is a different culture involved.
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Yes, life is undoubtedly more pleasant for you when you convince yourself into believing that the person who is abusing you is, in fact, being nice to you. Life is more pleasant for them as well, because you are affirming their abusive behaviour by accepting it.
Iron Lady, thank you for your precis of the incident. I feel obliged to provide context to the community. While I admit my day to day existence is as wretched as the next guys, Iincidents of such severity only occur every 6-12 months. As Gao Bohan notes, I am a thoughtful and eloquent person. Have you not noticed how i pepper my posts with french words?. I can assure you i am well versed in the day to day shy smiles, giggles, light hearted gossip and awkward ness that so characterises the life of the Taiwanese-Anglais interaction.
I realise I only have 20 minutes before you hit the panic button, and Tempo Gain leaps out of bed to delete this post, but I want you to know that I tried.
Your relentless apologism only serves to increase my bitterness.
Respectfully,
HHC, Empath.
He is seriously depressed and his outward mannerisms and demeanor likely show that he is. The restaurant workers have likely noticed this and are commenting on this forlorn person that comes and eats the same thing everyday, with pity.
Itās true! Who am I kidding? My sallow complexion, shuffling gait and stoop tell the whole story. Now I must rest.
My bile ducts are overflowing.
Remember, you donāt know what you are experiencing. You should thank these internet heroes for telling you what you are actually experiencing and for telling you how to behave.
Irony, much?
You need to listen to āEverybody Hurtsā on loop. Beautiful words that just ā¦ heal, yāknow?
Peter Buck plays better guitar than me sniffā¦ Now I feel wretched all over again.
I wake up to this song every day.
At least Golum had a ring. What do I have?
You could like sh*t on someone while smiling making them believe itās all good ā¦ poop! Nothing wrong with it, 