Jolie, you need you move away from Nang Gang into a nicer neighborhood.
In any case, let’s go through your list, point by point:
A filthy place: the mountains and trails in Mucha are very clean, as are the grounds at Jenda university (no cars unless they have a special permit.) Taroko Gorge is gorgeous. Everytime I go there I hike to a special spot where I swim in a natural pool formed by a 50 foot waterfall. It is pure heaven!
A creative black hole: Cloud Gate, Wu Bai, Ang Lee, me! You can’t knock the museums here. Nor the wealth of visiting exhibitions. I’ve gotten a good education in Impressionist art since I’ve been here. The superstars of Beijing Opera make there way here often. There are more film festivals than you can shake a dead cat at.
No style: You’d have to have your eyes and heart shut tight not to believe it will and is getting better as the nation becomes more used to wealth. Besides, what young city does have good architecture? I come from vancouver, one of the most liveable cities in the world, and yet it too has no architecture to speak of. People complain of the lack of things to do there (other than outdoor activities), the lack of a cultural life, of etc. etc. etc. We had an NBA team for a while and all the players did was bitch about how shitty it was to live in Vancouver. It was like a hardship posting to them.
No history: have you ever read a book or a even a magazine? The future of peace in Asia (if not the world) may rely on the peaceful settlement of the dispute between Taiwan and China.
No legacy: the first Chinese democracy. Maybe the only nation that has successfully tranformed from a dictatorship to full democracy without revolution or major bloodshed. To $10,000 from $100 US a year per capita income in a generation. The freest people in Asia. My wife’s mother was first married off to be the mistress (the little wife) of a wealthy businessman. Her daughter elopes with a foreigner. Now that’s progress!
No beauty: just the girls (and some of the guys).
Nothing to do: You can’t knock the museums here. Nor the wealth of visiting exhibitions. I’ve gotten a good education in Impressionist art since I’ve been here. The superstars of Beijing Opera make there way here often. There are more film festivals than you can shake a dead cat at. Bars and clubs and restaurants are everywhere.
No great food to speak of: If nothing else there is the fruit and the tea.
Hmmmm, as I suspected, an IT geek. Yes, you’d be in good company here in Taipei, and the equally socially inept “English teachers”.
A bit rich you asking me if I’ve jumped out of a window, don’t you think? Staunch defender of Taiwan’s aesthetics, and you haven’t even been here. Sorry, but that just seems like plain ignorance to me.
IT geek? Hell, I wish!! Then I wouldn’t have to waste time calling Dell up and being kept on hold whenever I have a computer glitch.
I was simply referring to your previous question, which was:
Ask yourself “Is this a beautiful view?”
5A. If answer is “no”, then cool,
5B. If answer is “yes”, then jump from window - there is no hope for you.
I just thought maybe your answer was 5B. Guess I was wrong, huh?
This topic is so overdone (sigh), but I didn’t defend Taiwan’s architecture in general, just the ones I liked. I’ve never been to Egypt either, but I saw the pics and know the Pyramids are marvelous and beautiful; I’ve never been to Australia, but know the Sydney Opera House is just spectacular, and I’ve never been to China and India but know the Great Wall and Taj Mahal are…well, you get the jist, don’t you? Call me ignorant then.
Woow, very well articulated, Mucha Man. And very informational. Have you thought about working for the Tourism Bureau? One thing tho: I believe Taiwan’s per capita income is more like $13,000+, depending on which source you look at: CIA, Economist, etc.
Its a scary thought that you are teaching the youth of today.
Dude I’m not a teacher; my company imported me for more professionally advantageous and profitable reasons.
I was just pointing out a matters that you ignored; flexible employment opportunities for one. You have obviously taken a lot of things in life for granted; and look at life from a half-empty-glass perspective.
quote[quote]If your only criteria for staying are those listed above, I can see why this place is paradise. [/quote]
Your failure to refute those criteria indicates that you cannot refute them. Your rebuttal is awfully lame.
quote:Not lived in SE Asia?? Spent most of my life in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore. Places with beauty, culture, great food AND nice people.
My qualities are marketable enough such that I will not have to resort to teaching wherever I go next. (I admire and greatly respect teachers - however, travellers who come here with no qualifications and “teach english” are not teachers. There are other words for them.)
You say your marketable enough to not be a teacher – but still not enough to get yourself unstuck. If you actually had what it took to get out of the environment you hated, you wouldn’t be whining the way you are.
If those are the places that you enjoyed, why not stay in those places? If they were so perfect, what compelled you to leave?
quote[quote]For a country - oops - I mean province - that has NO interest whatsoever in FOOTBALL (not soccer you idiots)[/quote]Let me do some amatuer detective work here. 1) Jolie is a man, as I have yet to find a woman who wreaks of parralelled arrogance. And 2) judging by the obove quote, that rules out New Zealand, Canada, America, Australia and South Africa. So the winner is …
ENGLAND…BTW BAD LUCK ABOUT YOUR SOCCER TEAM, CRICKET TEAM, RUGBY UNION TEAM AND TIM HENMAN.
Jolie,
First, I lived in Ho Chi Minh City for a year in 1996 and have traveled between there and Hanoi. When you compare beaches in Vietnam favorably with here you sully your argument. Vung Tau? Nhatrang? You must be joking. Vung Tau is frightening and Nhatrang, although not bad, is no paradise.
Having said that, I have lived here for 17 years and I would agree with you mostly. There are some nice trails and some reasonably unspoiled places here and there
You are ALL losers! I have a dual processor machine running BeOS and the best bar in the world (outside of Bangkok of course!) is Group Therapy in Five Points, Columbia, SC. http://www.grouptherapybar.com/
If you don’t believe me, ask Rikka, the former Mormon missionary who last it with 2 “ladies” from Buffalo Town in 1986…one who’s (whose???) name was “Madonna”. So there!
quote:Originally posted by Jolie:
no great food to speak of (how can you compare Taiwanese with Thai, Malay, Indian??).
Taiwan has never been an easy country to love (esp for foreigners). Naturally, there are disgruntle residents who thinks they are too good for Taiwan.
However, don’t knock on the food. You are not the arbiter of taste for everyone. Just because you have a preference for SE Asian taste shouldn’t discredit other Asian cuisine all together. I like Taiwanese cooking for its emphasis on fresh ingredients and light-flavoring. I like Thai/Malay/Indian food for different reasons (creative usage of spices, etc).
What I consider to be bad food are those mutation food (i.e. sweet and sour pork, Cajun food at TGIF, TEX-MEX, etc) where the original receipts have been changed for local consumption and loose their original flavor in the name of serving larger customer base. This type of food do well amongst people who can only digest what is familar to them. I pity them for missing the ability to appreciate food (or country) for its original flavor.
I don’t like cheese, but I don’t go around telling others that cheese sucks. I only wish I have an appreciation for it. And, no, you cannot explain/teach someone how to appreciate cheese, so I’m not going to explain to you why you should like Taiwan.
All this talk about “culture.” It seems to me we are comparing Taiwanese, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. cultures against Western culture.
So Jolie, are you dissatisfied with local Chinese/Taiwanese culture or is Taipei just not like Los Angeles with the different ethnic neighborhoods that you can drive to?
New York and S.F. have the same mixture of Hispanic, Italian, Korean, Russian, Chinese, etc. neighborhoods.
How about London, Paris, Tokyo? Does Taipei just not cut it as an international city?
Has there already been a great online debate over living in these great cities of the world and how their “cultures” differ.
What I primarily like about Taiwan is that it’s freer than the West on every level, from the most personal level to the most impersonal, business level.
Interactions between people are simpler and more human than in the U.S.: fewer games, posturing and jockeying to be the center of attention. It’s much easier to build a business and thrive here than it is in the U.S. with its confiscatory taxes, legal lottery mentality and anti-business political culture.
Political freedoms – despite holdovers from the KMT past – are greater here in Taiwan’s young democracy than in the U.S. or Britain’s senile ‘democracies’ with their political correctness hardening of the arteries.
I’d weep for you all, really, but it’d be a waste of tears.
Please, stay on. If everyone had my taste, Taiwan would be a desert wasteland.
And what is with this nation bashing that is going here - I see anti Israeli, Australian, Canadian, English comments. Well done people, so very culturally adept.
And lastly, don’t be so stupid, what man would call himself Jolie. Hah.
I am out of here in a few months to a better posting (did my time and onto better things) but it won’t be a moment too soon.
“Nuke it from space Ripley, it’s the only way to be sure”
The only true control we have as human beings is the control of our responses to a given situation.
I learned that in taiwan, and I’ve been a happy camper ever since, despite the dust and heat and filthy streets and loudmouth complainingg foreigners. And when I take my wife and son back to the states in 10 years, I’m pretty sure, I’ll be happy there too, despite the selfish, arrogant, know it all mentalities i am sure to encounter.
Zorro, I’m interested to hear more, because it seems like I live in a different Taiwan than you do. I only deal with Taiwanese businesses as a vendor, and we’ve learned from experience that every time you deal with Taiwanese, you must have everything in VERY clear writing, or else the Taiwan client find every opportunity to milk you and use you (well, about 80% of the time or so), yet we never ran into such problems with any of our foreign clients.
I’m not saying who’s better than who, so relax guys. I’m just relaying my experience. Perhaps this lack of morals (and the posturing and such Zorro mentioned) happens to be more prevalent in the industry I work in; I don’t know.
Personally, I greatly enjoy living in Taiwan; Taiwan is changing every day, which is great, and I’ve made many excellent friends. And someone else mentioned above… if you get tired of it, get out of the city once in a while!!
LittleIron, it seems that what you’re dealing with is just the Chinese way of doing business. I wish I can find you that interesting article I read about Singaporean businessmen in China. I think it was either in Businessweek or Strait Times. It talked about how the Taiwanese are constantly outmaneuvering the Singaporeans in business deals there because they tend to be much shrewder and haggle over prices and resort to bribery while the Singaporeans are taught to strictly follow the rules.
This is a good point. Assuming Jolie and hubby are here working on the packaged expat lifestyle I would be a very disappointed employer. Employees simply cannot function at 100% nor be totally efficient if they are as unhappy as this… so your respective companies must be spending a lot of money on your unhappiness?
Jolie - I seriously wish you all the best on your next posting and that you find happiness and satisfation, but please, there is no need to be so ferociously bitter towards those of us who do want to be here. Its all about choices. SOme of us are really quite happy with ours.
“When you are in the chamber - use the big boy voice, Ok?” Dr Evil
quote[quote] And lastly, don’t be so stupid, what man would call himself Jolie. Hah. [/quote]Somebody that was trying to disguise themself, after all you’ve been less than upfront about yourself.
Maybe you are a woman, if I could call you that, but my point is that I’ve actually never come accross a woman with such a negetive outlook on everything, that’s usually left for the one’s who lost all their money on the lotto.
If you don’t like the country, get out of it, rather than spreading your negetivity around this place.
With such pesemism, I bet your husband rolls over every time you open your mouth. Did you ever wonder why?
To 3q, btw I also want to rebut one of your comments, she is defenately not an Aussie. As you know, if we carry chips on our shoulder’s, they’re generally not the size the twin towers.
That’s what I was thinking 3q. I work for an organisation here in Taipei that promotes and encourages academic, education, arts and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and the country we represent. From the perspective of my work, which is all about friendship and exchanges between two countries, I find it amazing that a company would invest their resources employing someone with such a mentality. I find it quite worrying.
But, like 3q, I wish you luck Jolie. I hope your next posting brings you more happiness. It’s a shame you have been miserable here for 2 whole years.