Taiwan 3rd Happiest Nation in Asia

http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=188795&ctNode=445

Let the snark remarks begin.

[quote=“PigBloodCake”]http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=188795&ctNode=445

Let the snark remarks begin.[/quote]

I thought Taiwan is not in the UN, so what business does the UN have to conduct studies on Taiwan?

[quote=“PigBloodCake”]http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=188795&ctNode=445

Let the snark remarks begin.[/quote]

It would be interesting to know 1) What questions were posed to the subjects in order to measure their happiness and 2) in what setting.

I first heard about this “World Happiness Report” a couple of years ago, and was surprised to learn that the British were high up on the list. Because of course everyone knows that us Brits are among the most miserable bastards you could wish to meet. But if you go into a British pub at 11pm on a Friday night (just before closing time and the fights start…) and ask the patrons if they are happy, you’ll get a positive reaction. In a similar way, if you ask a group of Taiwanese sitting round a table at a night market enjoying a tasty dish, “how is your life in Taiwan ?”, they might all tell you “Taiwan is great, tasty food and so convenient !”. But the next day everyone goes back to their miserable robotic drudgery …

And added to that are cultural issues on openness; would a Taiwanese person tell a complete stranger that they are unhappy in their life, even if it were for some anonymous survey ? I am not so sure.

Simple way of determining happiness ? Walk along the street and count how many people per thousand you pass that are smiling.

most of them probably don’t realise that their life is simply miserable, what with having nothing to measure it by except the shite that gets pumped over TVBS all day and every day.

In idle moments, I’ve wondered about that. Heard the one about Nigeria being one of the happiest nations on earth? Either Nigerians are really easy to please, or they’re getting good results from those 419 scams.

[quote=“PigBloodCake”]

Let the snark remarks begin.[/quote]

Woo Hoo! We’re number three. Although, to be honest, it wasn’t up against particularly stiff competition :laughing:

So, what about Bhutan? Gross National Happiness and all that?

Of course we are talking about a single demographic here (pretty young ladies on the MRT) but observing on my many MRT rides on my recent visit, my fellow cab denizens were all for the most part either texting on their iphones/androids or yakking it up with their mates onboard. Lots of happy conversation going on , especially in the evenings when peeps are out and about heading for places of entertainment.

Shiny happy (girls) people they were.

[quote=“urodacus”]most of them probably don’t realise that their life is simply miserable, what with having nothing to measure it by except the shite that gets pumped over
TVBS
all day and every day.[/quote]
Every time I see the name of that television station, it makes my day :laughing:

:smiley: haha i actually never noticed it like that TV BS :slight_smile: appro yeah.

[quote=“tommy525”]Of course we are talking about a single demographic here (pretty young ladies on the MRT) but observing on my many MRT rides on my recent visit, my fellow cab denizens were all for the most part either texting on their iphones/androids or yakking it up with their mates onboard. Lots of happy conversation going on , especially in the evenings when peeps are out and about heading for places of entertainment.

Shiny happy (girls) people they were.[/quote]

Some of those girls can turn into demonic entities at the drop of a hat! Appearing happy and being happy are two different things. I’m sure they made YOU happy though.

What? Japan is a happier country than Taiwan? I don’t get it.

[quote=“headhonchoII”][quote=“tommy525”]Of course we are talking about a single demographic here (pretty young ladies on the MRT) but observing on my many MRT rides on my recent visit, my fellow cab denizens were all for the most part either texting on their iphones/androids or yakking it up with their mates onboard. Lots of happy conversation going on , especially in the evenings when peeps are out and about heading for places of entertainment.

Shiny happy (girls) people they were.[/quote]

Some of those girls can turn into demonic entities at the drop of a hat! Appearing happy and being happy are two different things. I’m sure they made YOU happy though.[/quote]

This time Tommy is right. A lot of people in Taiwan feel genuinely happy and I have always felt that the Taiwanese are fairly optimistic people. Of course we are all speaking from life experiences and this can be fairly arbitrary, but I personally seldom ran into very unhappy people.

Taiwan has a good family structure, good food, and a fairly decent climate. I don’t see why they wouldn’t be happy.

[quote=“Rabidpie”][quote=“headhonchoII”][quote=“tommy525”]Of course we are talking about a single demographic here (pretty young ladies on the MRT) but observing on my many MRT rides on my recent visit, my fellow cab denizens were all for the most part either texting on their iphones/androids or yakking it up with their mates onboard. Lots of happy conversation going on , especially in the evenings when peeps are out and about heading for places of entertainment.

Shiny happy (girls) people they were.[/quote]

Some of those girls can turn into demonic entities at the drop of a hat! Appearing happy and being happy are two different things. I’m sure they made YOU happy though.[/quote]

This time Tommy is right. A lot of people in Taiwan feel genuinely happy and I have always felt that the Taiwanese are fairly optimistic people. Of course we are all speaking from life experiences and this can be fairly arbitrary, but I personally seldom ran into very unhappy people.

Taiwan has a good family structure, good food, and a fairly decent climate. I don’t see why they wouldn’t be happy.[/quote]

I suppose sometimes ignorance is bliss. I do feel the unhappier families are those who wouldn’t take it easy, e.g. those who are too strict with military discipline which are usually found in families who came from China after the communist takeover of China, a lot of them are military families so they have rather strict military discipline in the family. I think most TW families aren’t like that though, its just that the confucian emphasis on education makes everyone seem like a robot.

It depends who you ask. In general here if your family have money here you will be happy. If they work for the government they will have an easy life.
If you are poor you will not be, especially in the cities.

Well, considering that most other countries in Asia are either plagued with war, communism, disease, extreme fundamentalism, poverty, famine or Putin, it’s not a huge surprise nor a massive achievement.

Seems to me they forgot to include the population of forumosa in their survey. That explains it. :smiley:

Yeah! Give us back the kindy jobs and we’ll all be happy campers :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

sounds about right. can anyone link me to the full list? I’ve been doin my googlin and can’t seem to find it anywhere.

[quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”][quote=“PigBloodCake”]http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=188795&ctNode=445

Let the snark remarks begin.[/quote]

I thought Taiwan is not in the UN, so what business does the UN have to conduct studies on Taiwan?[/quote]

The entire survey is irrelevant, meaningless and serves no purpose other than to further political gain.