[quote=“igorveni”][quote=“shifty”]Let’s see… if I worked 80 plus hours a week and had spent the first 20 years of my life being constantly hammered scholastically by an overbearing and face obsessed mother, only to graduate into the real world and get an office job at a shit company run by a door knob with no qualifications other than the fact that he lives by the motto “cha bu duo” and then have the extreme good fortune to be forced into a marriage that my mother approves of rather than one I desire, ultimately leading to my daily rage filled drive to and from work, which lets me escape from my harpie of a new wife and the shrew of a mother, who I actually still live with at 39 years old, and who is now making the lives of my own children a hellish existence of 12 hour school days and constant berating to get better test scores… if this was my life how much passion would I have left? How much passion was I ever allowed to have?
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You have just summarized the life of probably more than half the population of adult Taiwanese. Very sad, but very true.
To say that “Taiwanese people don’t have passion” would be a false statement and could be corrected by stating “A large majority of adult Taiwanese just don’t know what passion is.”[/quote]
I like Igor’s take on this. Still, I see a lot of hope in the younger generation that haven’t grown up in poverty and felt the need to work 70-hour weeks. I also see some retired guys out there that seem to have their hobbies/passions.
I think you could bring your Italian friend to a baseball game, or Cloud Gate dance performance and show them some of the best of Taiwan’s passion.
At my local park there is an old guy that brings different musical instruments and plays them well. He lets the kids have a go and rides around the neighborhood on his bicycle with a broad smile on his face.
Down the block is another guy in his 60s that I had assumed was a dullard. Then he invited me and the kids into his apartment. He has over a thousand planes, most of which he built himself. He goes out to the riverside park in the mornings and flies his radio-controlled jobbies. He gave my kids free wooden windups after we’d had tea and a little chat. Passion and obsession are close at times.
Go to Da -An park any Sunday; check out Bubble Guy. Near the sandbox in the playground, this guy organizes games and bubble-blowing for the youngsters.
Think about how many more people NOW (than say . . . 20 years ago) are into dance, swimming, yoga, travel, bicycling . . .
OK
I get frustrated when I ask people what their hobbies are. When they say, “Music”, I’ll ask what kind. “Jazz.” OK do you have a favorite group, musician singer . . . ? “Dou Keyi.”
Really? It doesn’t matter if it’s Kenny G or Miles Davis?
Other people tell me they like reading books. Really? Who’s your favorite author?/What’s the best book you’ve ever read? “GEE I never thought about it.” Really? YOU told ME that this was your hobby/passion in life and NOW you’re telling me you can’t think of ONE book? (Maybe it turns out they read business magazines)
One thing to remember is that the “westerners” in Taiwan are not a cross-section of the population back home. In the US, maybe a third of the adult population has a University degree and perhaps that many have ever been abroad.
I’m not saying that we are the “crem de la crem.” We’re not! But I’m guessing 98% of us have a bachelor’s degree and are outgoing enough to have made it half way around the globe. We tend to remember the more memorable folks back home and forget about all the boring people. It’s selective memory. You are just forgetting most of the people that you SHOULD not waste memory on. I remember the go-getters and weirdos. If you don’t believe me, (I’m sure you do.) take a look at your old high school class list. Who had you forgotten? What were THEIR passions? How exciting would it be to invite your friend out for a weekend with THOSE people?
