So, we were at a couple of hostels in Australia recently and my wife met a couple of Taiwanese people (on two different occasions). Apparently, Taiwanese here have the reputation of not talking to each other and not helping each other on the backpacking/working holiday circuit. Small sample size, but it would be an interesting phenomenon if it were true. Has anyone else noticed/heard of this anywhere else outside of Taiwan?
Sounds a lot like how some Westerners act toward one another while they’re in Taiwan.
exactly what i was gonna say. They want to enjoy their australia experience and not be surrounded by taiwanese (as they are on the wan).
Sure, and I can imagine that some other backpackers would be particularly clueless and clingy (especially Taiwanese princesses who take ten enormous suitcases and then expect guys to carry them everywhere), but it still strikes me as a little rude and strange. I’ll help people and talk to them within reason in a hostel. I find foreigners having their “unique Taiwanese experience” to be annoying too. It just struck me as a little odd because Taiwanese are generally pretty excited to meet other Taiwanese and get to speak Chinese and they’re very much not solitary people.
I have seven Taiwanese friends in Australia now and I follow their ‘adventures’ on facebook. Only one of them, a girl of 25 or so, is avoiding other Taiwanese. The rest all post pics of themselves with other east asians.
I quite admire that particular girl. She is having by far the richest experience: living with Australian families and going camping, fishing, and swimming with them. She has been to both local footy matches and the MCG. And she has just spent June and July - the coldest months - on a farm in friggin Tasmania!!! Awesome pictures of wilderness and ice and animals, pictures of guys jamming, pictures of bongs 
.
One of my Taiwanese friends told me that it is quite difficult to decline invitations directly and very easy to get sucked in to a group. And if one Taiwanese meets another there will be invitations. I think the Taiwanese person who travels alone is a rare animal, although, as a westerner, you’d be disproportionately likely to encounter one.
Australia is flooded with Taiwanese … so, why talk to another Taiwanese every time you meet one …
Australia is hardly flooded with Taiwanese. I understand that people are trying to have their very own, unique cultural experience, but I’m still not sure why they can’t speak to another person in a hostel or help someone needing directions, etc. You don’t have to become best buddies with every person you meet.
I think you are underestimating the power of their collectivist mindset.
Yeah, I guess, but I still can’t really understand being rude to people just because of that. London was overrun by Aussies when I was there, and I certainly avoided certain bars because it wasn’t really my scene to get caught up in all of that (though I also avoid that when in Australia), but if/when I ran into other Australians in London, or Europe generally, so long as they weren’t being complete tossers, I didn’t have a problem with saying hi and having a brief chat in a hostel. I’ve given directions and so on to people of a whole bunch of nationalities both within Australia and abroad if I’ve been in a position to help someone.
[quote=“antarcticbeech”] pictures of bongs .
[/quote]
I don’t think you’re allowed to call them that. Aren’t you supposed to call them “indigenous peoples” or something?
You heard a story from a few people and you now believe it is fact? :loco:
I know and have met plenty of Taiwanese people who have backpacked in australia or are backpacking in australia and their facebook photos are all Taiwanes/Asians. In fact one Taiwanese friend said he learnt more about taiwan cooking in australia because he never had to cook before.
And what is with people thinking that if you are western in taiwan you should be friends or say hello to each other, its just weird. You dont see two asians walking down the street in Australia and greeting each other just because the other is Asian!
Perhaps if you were Asian in Australia in the 60’s where you were a minority and discriminated against, you might have a mentality of trying to seek out and make friends with random Asians, but in this day and age, its just not a thing.
[quote=“pqkdzrwt”]You heard a story from a few people and you now believe it is fact? :loco:
I know and have met plenty of Taiwanese people who have backpacked in australia or are backpacking in australia and their facebook photos are all Taiwanes/Asians. In fact one Taiwanese friend said he learnt more about taiwan cooking in australia because he never had to cook before.
And what is with people thinking that if you are western in taiwan you should be friends or say hello to each other, its just weird. You dont see two asians walking down the street in Australian and greeting each other just because the other is Asian![/quote]
You see, there it is …
[quote=“Belgian Pie”][quote=“pqkdzrwt”]You heard a story from a few people and you now believe it is fact? :loco:
I know and have met plenty of Taiwanese people who have backpacked in australia or are backpacking in Australia and their facebook photos are all Taiwanes/Asians. In fact one Taiwanese friend said he learnt more about taiwan cooking in australia because he never had to cook before.
And what is with people thinking that if you are western in taiwan you should be friends or say hello to each other, its just weird. You dont see two asians walking down the street in Australian and greeting each other just because the other is Asian![/quote]
You see, there it is …[/quote]
There what is? You are you trying to say the following are the same?
- Two random Asians in Australia crossing paths on the way to work or lunch or whatever would not talk to each other because they are asian.
- Two random taiwanese people sitting in a backpackers breakfast hall where no one else speaks their language except the other Taiwanese person, combined with the fact they havent had a proper conversation for the past few days because no one else they have seen all week speaks chinese would not talk to each other because they are Taiwanese.
I think the majority would have no trouble saying hi if the opportunity presents itself. But perhaps those are TAipei-ians who do not have a habit of saying hi to other Taipei-ians (otherwise back at home they would be saying hi ten million times a day).
Maybe they dont like the looks of each other? Not all Taipei-ians automatically like each other too right?
I think ur cross section is too small to form an educated opinion.
Meh. I lived in Brisbane. TW Central.
All the long-term Taiwanese were lovely. All the people just there to study were pretentious stuck-up assholes. (Seriously. I can not think of a SINGLE Taiwanese person who was there just to study who was nice. Chinese students, on the other hand, are really, really friendly.)
There’s a big Asian group thing, though, and the locals are actually quite hard to make friends with in the cities unless your English is flawless. I’ve never met a Taiwanese backpacker, though, so I can’t comment on that!
[quote=“tsukinodeynatsu”]
the locals are actually quite hard to make friends with in the cities unless your English is flawless.[/quote]
I think it takes ‘two to tango’ here. While I was attending university in Melbourne, asia-region international students would complain that locals are too hard to make friends with. Locals, on the other hand would complain that asian international students are too ‘cliquey’ , studying together in groups, speaking their local dialects to each other, etc. Australians seem to have a distaste for this kind of mentality.
You should adopt a completely carefree attitude, dress like you just got out of bed, drop the ‘r’ off the end of all of your words (water ==> wata) to make a lot of local friends.
And ‘wag’ a few classes to go to the beach.
Well, yeah. What the fuck is the point of living in a foreign country , often for three years or so, without making any local friends? Personally, I don’t care what they do. They pay a shitload of money to, effectively, subsidize the education of Australians. But they remain isolated from the locals not because they want to but because of a rather obvious cultural defect: the fear of losing face. Weak, childlike behaviour.
Give a Japanese guy a sandwich with a centimetre of Vegemite on it, tell him it is the national dish, and be entertained as he
pretends to like it.
Having been British in Australia, I can pretty much safely say that it’s not so much about your English ability as about your ability to fit in with the herd. Australians dislike people who think differently to them, moreso than I’ve seen in other cultures (apart from possibly the Deep South). If you’re willing to go along with everything and do a bit of ego stroking, then you’ll be very well accepted regardless of cultural background.
I’m almost inclined to agree with you there.
Agree.