And there are plenty of sailboats in Singapore, I believe.
Foreigners account for something like 1/3rd of the working population and foreign born residents are about 50% of the total population.
Singapore cannot be compared to Taiwan, nor can HK. Also yachting does tend to go with concentrations of wealth in the big cities, financial centred, offshore tax havens…aswell as coastal places with a sailing heritage.
I guess that buying a mega yacht doesn’t really make you a sailor.
Look at how many people can swim here, especially older folks. It also seems quite a challenging thing to get into if you are older. You need people to literally show you the ropes. If they fall in the water they could die. It’s not complicated to understand their lack of interest in sailing, among the older richer folks. There are not many rich young people in Taiwan, as in self made get up and go big earners.
Ooohhh he’s writing in CAPITALS. I’M SKEERED.
Sorry. I read, “entire culture”, as including potentially Chinese cultures. It was an easier and more extreme example.
But do you really think that Taiwan is not about conspicuous consumption? 
Really? Possibly not in yachts though …
And what’s the average savings rate have to do with conspicuous consumptions? In Singapore, for example, the per capita spend on luxury goods and high end dinning and other discretionary spend is one of the worlds highest. It also happens to have one of the highest savings rates, but that’s because the country’s Central Provident Fund forces people to save…I don’t see any culture there…I see gubmint policy.
At risk of talking about China again; China also has a high savings rate, on an aggregate level, but that’s mostly due to a real or perceived lack of a safety net and the savings are very unequally distributed. Ask one of the “ants” how much they save a month.
So I really don’t know what you’re on about, other than some lame BS comment where you think that culturally somehow Taiwanese don’t like to splash. I’ll remind my friend that the next time he whips out his 20kTWD a catty special tea, puts it in his 200k teapot set, (not his best), while we sit on 3-400k driftwood table and chair set in in carefully manicured garden. Seems to me just a different means.
A fair comment but how do you explain all the surfers / windsurfers / kitesurfers you see in Taiwan? Plenty of old guys in the water too.
That’s a fairly recent phenomenon, some of the older guys took up those sports recently too of course. It may be hard to believe for some people newish to the island but just 12 years ago surfers were few and far between. My buddy was a big-time surfer from NZ and he never saw other surfers on the beaches and bays he went to (close to Hualien so maybe not a big surprise…honeymoon bay was starting to develop a surfing scene just then).
My impression of Taiwan over the years is that there is a subset of the population that is really active and into exercise, hiking and biking in particular, but most people are not into exercise at all, they drive and scoot everywhere, especially the typical laoban who has usually got high blood pressure and shot liver and kidneys from years of hard work and hard socialising. You need quite a lot of money to get into boating and sailing properly (as opposed to surfing and windsurfing and swimming) and of course, as mentioned many times already, the infrastructure and culture is not there to support it.
And if you can’t swim…and are not into exercise…what’s the point eh?
There are all big generalisations so don’t shoot me! 
More than half of the people I know that windsurf or kite and are local are aged 40-60.
But maybe the total population of kiters/windsurf is less than 1000. We have an aging issue. Many of the young are not athletically inclined enough to get over the learning curve.
When I walked past the sailing club in Bali last week (New Taipei Bali, not the country!) that was the first time I’ve seen sailboats here. Growing up on a small island on the west coast of Canada, the sailing clubs I’m used to are quite large and extensive. People would jump at a chance to help crew a boat, whether on a round-island race or a weekend excursion. I think I saw three boats at the club in Bali. Definitely a cultural thing - who will crew your boat here?!
I’ve come to a realization about why there aren’t many sail boats, in addition to the fact that KMT’s tight control caused Taiwan to lose its sailing traditions, the most important factor for the lack of leisure boating is… there aren’t that many days when you would feel leisurely on a boat in a year.
I remember back in the Bay Area, there’s cool breeze on a boat even on a rare hot summer day. You can just soak up the sun without feeling too hot. Here though, being on the sea means there’s no shades, and when the sea is calm enough to feel “leisurely,” the sun and humidity would take any fun out of it. Of course you can then put the boat into a higher speed to get the wind chill, but then it isn’t very leisurely…
When winter comes, the wave conditions usually is pretty rough to be leisurely. So that leave the spring and fall. There’s Typhoons in the fall (also a issue during the summer), which leaves spring time, which feels like summer time out on the sea…
Taiwan sucks if you are into anything that requires a boat. Why? Most Taiwanese have no understanding of leisure and would rather sit inside and drink until they puke and call that recreation. 
But there’s an annual yacht festival, described in press release style at the China Post. Surely that makes the place great for sailing.
(In all seriousness, that event may be worth attending. I have no idea.)
One of my Taiwanese friends does a lot of sailing in Taiwan, and the club he’s sailing with has just gottne permission from some prestigious British sailing association to open a branch of the association in Taiwan. Apparently it will make sailing more popular here.
I lived the boating culture in the Southern Gulf Islands of BC for several years. Sailboats, power boats, etc require several years of experience to master. Throw in typhoons, climate, swimming skills and water safety culture differences. Also, boats require constant upkeep and money to maintain. Power boats and sailboats are notorious bad investments, money black holes, people do it for the love of it. They rot and fall apart immediately after purchase. Many in the West live in their boats and have no other means of existence, wharf rats we call them lovingly. Taiwan might grow it’s boating culture over the years with some type of consumer/hobbyist mix.
[quote=“hansioux”]I’ve come to a realization about why there aren’t many sail boats, in addition to the fact that KMT’s tight control caused Taiwan to lose its sailing traditions, the most important factor for the lack of leisure boating is… there aren’t that many days when you would feel leisurely on a boat in a year.
I remember back in the Bay Area, there’s cool breeze on a boat even on a rare hot summer day. You can just soak up the sun without feeling too hot. Here though, being on the sea means there’s no shades, and when the sea is calm enough to feel “leisurely,” the sun and humidity would take any fun out of it. Of course you can then put the boat into a higher speed to get the wind chill, but then it isn’t very leisurely…
When winter comes, the wave conditions usually is pretty rough to be leisurely. So that leave the spring and fall. There’s Typhoons in the fall (also a issue during the summer), which leaves spring time, which feels like summer time out on the sea…[/quote]
Nah, even when it’s godawful hot on land, it’s breezy out at sea. Enough to make a difference, unless you’re running downwind. In which case, just come about. Unless you’re racing. No racing in taiwan AFAIK, apart from the end of an annual Okinawa to Keelung race.
I sail weekly in Okinawa, and the weather is the same. Typhoons are no problem: just don’t leave port (and tie the boat up well). Wavy days are fun too, unless you’re a noob with seasickness of course. Even the nasty chop outside Keelung and Bali can be fun sailing: keep alert! (Lerts make good pets.)
That would be me alright.