Actually that’s a feature I like about Taiwan. I can dress like a bum and I generally don’t stick out. Of course I live in countrysides of places that are not Taipei, so I get away with it.
Taipei women in general are really concerned about their clothes and looks, it’s rare to see poorly dressed women. I visited Korea and people let me know visually that they thought I dressed poorly.
Taipei residents generally don’t actually see you or interact with you but if you do interact soon as the ice is broken they are generally ok
But the ice can be pretty thick
Really lol
Did they look you up and down first.
Score cards. Marks out of ten.
Let’s call a spade a spade here.
Taiwanese are kind of polite (even then patchy ) but not particularly friendly to neighbours and strangers.
Often ask intrusive questions but not able to introduce themselves or work their way into a conversation .
Compared to Irish people’s conversation skills it’s like a guy hammering out rhythms with a bunch of rocks versus a classically trained violinist.
And the drivers, who are 99 per cent Taiwanese. So much ignorance.
I think Taipei sets a reasonable standard for one’s appearance/presentation. Not slovenly but not as high maintenance as someplace like Tokyo. When I visited Tokyo I made a point to dress nicely so I could blend in a little better with the locals. Just for fun, when in Rome and so on. And I actually managed to fool some shopkeepers into thinking I was a regular citizen. But I did miss one key detail — glasses. I realized too late that almost none of the women wore their glasses out. But I’ll be damned if I’m gonna wear contact lenses every single day so I just resigned myself to looking a bit less than local.
Seeing all the ladies out dressed to the nines, stiletto heels with a full face of meticulously applied makeup every single day…how exhausting their lives must be. Meanwhile all the men looked damn ridiculous. Anime haircuts and ill-fitting suits.
Were the guys holding hands with their blow-up doll girlfriend?
As far as politeness in Taiwan, I think it is spades above the US, at least the areas I have been to (CA and TX).
In those places, if you were to bump into someone by accident, or because the other guy is being a douche (like staring at their phones like an idiot), you can expect violence or at the very minimum, very mean words. In Taiwan at least they generally say sorry and acknowledge that they’ve been staring at their phones like an idiot.
The white collar types all looked utterly haggard. I imagine they don’t ever have the time to date on their schedule so I wouldn’t begrudge them a blow-up doll girlfriend.
I’m curious to know why you had such a different experience than me and have such negative views of the US. It can’t be because you’re asian and a immigrant, I am too.
I found Texans to be genuinely delightful. Like friendly to the point of annoying to a grumpy kiwi like me.
…And young. Young people are given a lot of leeway for screwing up. Fortunately for me too when I was a young un, my incarcerations were overnighters only 
.
I have been to Taipei only a few times, and for never more than a couple of weeks per trip, however I have a different perception.
I lived in Singapore, did several projects in Hong Kong and Mainland China, been around SEA quite a bit, and I was very surprised about the Taiwanese.
I thought they were very polite and helpful.
I had several interactions: asking directions, recommendations on where to eat, which clubs to go to, help from the airport, and all the time they were really polite and willing to go the extra mile to help.
But maybe I was lucky! (This in Taipei)
I think FOB westerners get very special treatment. Stand on the corner of tunhua and chunghsiao looking confusedly at a map and you will be besieged with helpful people.
Taiwanese are far better than Mainland Chinese, I know when I first visited Taiwan I expected the same rudeness.
I was utterly happy with them at Heathrow airport, queing, polite, no pushing and shoving, no trying to get 50kg bags as hand luggage.
One thing is the same the slow walking, no peripheral vision, never looking behind and pulling scooters out from parking into the road without looking.
This may be because of the basis of comparison. Singapore, Hong Kong and China are three of the rudest places in the world.
Haha, I completely agree.
That is why I was surprised, because I did not have anywhere which could be comparable.
Singaporeans are not rude per se, but I guess the heavy racism, snitching mentality and a few other cons made me reconsider them quite a bit.
I found Singaporeans to be quite rude, especially Chinese Singaporeans middle-aged and up. I was pretty surprised the first time I went because it was much different than the impression I got from Singaporeans I’d met in the U.S. I guess people act different in their own country? My experience with Indian and Malay Singaporeans was a lot better though.
Chinese Singaporeans around 50 onwards are probably the rudest group I would say.
I find the youngsters quite OK, apart from the uneducated 阿明 (ah-beng) who have seen too many gangsters movies and they forgot they live in Singapore. They are rude but harmless, and unless they have a knife they do not dare to attack. But this is another story.
People from 20-40/45 I do not have any major issues.
Older tend to get more rude, but this happens anywhere I guess.
However I find some are not rude per se and in the “brightness” but are very rude and invadent with their prejudices, racisms and questions.
If you live in Singapore, as a white person, you get tons of: "Your job is given to you because you are white "
“You guys get 20.000SGD and contribute to nothing” (I wish I was getting that much, reality is I do not even have an expat package)
Random taxi drivers asking “Wow, you live here, how much per month?”
“For you ang moh no problem lah, all 5 digits income liao”
Etc…
This is something that most Singaporeans would agree with.