[quote=“NYT”] …many Taiwanese openly complain about the mainlanders’ seeming unfamiliarity with the notion of the indoor voice, a collective disdain for the single-file line and their insistence on asking complete strangers their incomes.
[…]
a volunteer at Taroko National Park, said she spent much of her time picking up the touring mainlanders’ cigarette butts or shouting at those who heeded nature’s call in full public view. “They think they know better and just don’t like following the rules,” she said with exasperation. “They just aren’t very civilized.”[/quote]
If those views are widely held, and make a difference, I hope they throw open the gates. This place might change for the better.
[quote=“NYT”] …many Taiwanese openly complain about the mainlanders’ seeming unfamiliarity with the notion of the indoor voice, a collective disdain for the single-file line and their insistence on asking complete strangers their incomes.
[…]
a volunteer at Taroko National Park, said she spent much of her time picking up the touring mainlanders’ cigarette butts or shouting at those who heeded nature’s call in full public view. “They think they know better and just don’t like following the rules,” she said with exasperation. “They just aren’t very civilized.”[/quote]
If those views are widely held, and make a difference, I hope they throw open the gates. This place might change for the better.[/quote]
It’s a question of degree though isn’t it? Taiwanese are somewhat more civilised than Mainlanders even if some still engage in the above behavior. I just got back from Bangkok where the invasion is in full swing. In the airport they’re instantly identifiable because it always seems like there’s one guy shouting his head off to no one in particular when he’s just having a conversation with Old Wang who’s 50 meters away in another store.
A little OT, but reminds me a little of when I asked a tour guide in Huangshan a simple question on where was the toilet, and she answered me through her bullhorn.
It’s really easily to pick out Mainlanders from Taiwanese…usually just by their appearance alone. ESPECIALLY when they are dressed “formal”. Mainlanders always wear suits that look a little worn and are slightly too large for them, and the women are a disaster with poofy stuff everywhere and permed out hair.
I went on a Caribbean cruise with my family this past CNY (and my Taiwanese friend tagged along). Total Hell. All those Mainlanders on their “big trip to America” pushing people on and off the elevators of a CRUISE SHIP, cutting lines, being loud everywhere. Americans don’t take that shit and started pushing them down the stairs, hitting them on the elevator when they pushed on, tripping them when they pushed by. They actually made an announcement to be more respectful towards the Chinese guests, but guess who’s job it was to talk to the Chinese…MINE! All their Chinese staff had gone home for CNY, so nobody was there to tell the Mainlanders to stop being obnoxious. By the third day all the staff knew of that “American kid who goes to school in China with his friend” and kept grabbing me left and right to translate stuff for the Chinese. I constantly had to explain to them “if you want to see the show, you have to reserve tickets, you can’t just push in! Ok, well I know there isn’t a Chinese translation on the cruise ship, you’re in the United States. Asians make up only 8%, and most of them can speak English.” I accepted lots of free drinks as payment and a room upgrade, and I got casino comps for getting the Chinese to sign up for the player’s club on the ship (along with repeatedly telling them to stop cheating). My Taiwanese friend was just angry all week because the Chinese kept bothering him to translate English for them, with their typical “zhe shaaaaaaa!!!”
Back on topic a little bit, my friend told me the presence of Mainlanders ruined his cruise because they “are stupid and not polite”, and their “suzhi chao di”.
Best part was that by around the 4th day, you could see printed out sheets of paper with signs in Chinese saying “No smoking indoors” or “Don’t be loud” or “No spitting” being put up all over the place. My dad kept telling people “ni hen bu limao!”. My dad yelling that at the Mainlanders made it totally worth it for me.
That is exactly how me and everyone I know would react.
We just DON’T put up with it.
Actually, Chinese or not… I was in Target yesterday buying some luggage locks and some middle-aged white dude PUSHES me away from them, blocks them all, and I’m standing behind him in the aisle like WHA?! WHAT?!?!!
I was so flabbergasted, I looked around to make sure I’m not like being tricked on Candid Camera or something. So I tapped him on his shoulder and went “Excuse me. But your fat ass just pushed me. Did you realize that? Cause I’m making you aware now.” And he moved aside.
I need to learn how to say this in Chinese.
I was taking photographs recently in KHH at a well know tourist spot, and there was a hoard of mainland tourists there too. I climbed over a barrier to get a better shot of the view and got really close to what can only be described as a precipice. When I had got the shot I wanted I turned around and was faced with about 20 or 30 mainlanders who had copied me and also climbed over the barrier - I had no idea they were there. It was like turning around and being faced with a flock of inquisitive sheep. I nearly fell over the edge.
Anyway, it gave me chuckle.
It was part of their package. On that cruise the biggest groups came from Henan, Shanxi, and Guangdong. I was talking to some of the Shanxi people (because I could understand them clearly) and they told me their package was from Shanxi → Beijing → LAX, visit Cali and Vegas, fly to NY, northeast tour (visit Harvard…:-/),fly to Florida, cruise, Miami → Houston → Beijing → Henan. They told me all together their package was 4 weeks for…60,000RMB a person (around $9,400) :roflmao: They were all coal bosses, I’m sure.
I don’t know what the other groups paid or had in their itinerary because, frankly, I didn’t care to talk to them and listen to how everything is “so cheap”, then watch them wave around USD. I did find it amusing that the discount notices they printed out for the Chinese signs were different (as in less) than the English, and the English ones were written like “Thirty Percent Off!”, not “30% off”, and the Chinese said “8折”.
Their visas were ok because this cruise went to only Haiti (no visas for most anyone, who the hell would illegally immigrate there?) and Mexico (which is visa-free for cruise passengers staying less than 24 hours).
[quote=“mike029”] I did find it amusing that the discount notices they printed out for the Chinese signs were different (as in less) than the English, and the English ones were written like “Thirty Percent Off!”, not “30% off”, and the Chinese said “8折”.
[/quote]
As much as I dislike and am disdainful of Chinese tourists, this is downright racial discrimination. :no-no:
[quote=“Incubus”][quote=“mike029”] I did find it amusing that the discount notices they printed out for the Chinese signs were different (as in less) than the English, and the English ones were written like “Thirty Percent Off!”, not “30% off”, and the Chinese said “8折”.
[/quote]
As much as I dislike and am disdainful of Chinese tourists, this is downright racial discrimination. :no-no:[/quote]
Bollocks, they’re fair game. In Kanchanaburi, the ground zero of Chinese tourists in Thailand, the locals double the already inflated farang prices for T-shirts, jade knick-knacks etc. when the Chinese turn up. It’s not racist its just good business. You ask for whatever price the market will bear. Back in their own country those Chinese would do the same thing to “local” tourists from other locales.
It’s true a lot of mainland tourists act in brusque ways that are extremely noticeable.
This obliviousness even among foreigners in foreign countries is interesting though because
it seems like this goes against the concept of face and presenting a good image externally
and acting differently in the personal space?
To be honest, their behavior and obliviousness may not change in the same way that
Taiwanese don’t care when foreigners criticize their ways and behaviors that are backwards
or unseemly.
Why would mainlanders who are much less well-off and educated care what others say if Taiwanese don’t?
[quote=“nenki”]To be honest, their behavior and obliviousness may not change in the same way that
Taiwanese don’t care when foreigners criticize their ways and behaviors that are backwards
or unseemly.[/quote]
You’re right, that’s because TAIWANESE PEOPLE ARE CHINESE PEOPLE THAT HATE CHINESE PEOPLE THAT COME FROM ANYWHERE BESIDES TAIWAN. I can’t believe how nobody is ever willing to accept that. Every time someone here is all “Why do Taiwanese people do ____ the same as a Mainlander? How can they do that?!”, it’s because they are all Chinese! This 5000 years of history and culture I hear about every day hasn’t changed that much in the sixty years or so this island has been autonomous. Taiwan isn’t this magic place that half foreigners here make it out to be. Compared to Mainland, it is marginally better, but we still don’t get treated equally (for better or worse) because of racism from a selfish, homogeneous society that is xenophobic and too concerned with face to ever admit when something is wrong to improve it for the future or not repeat the same mistake. Everything you do is mafan for another person, and guanxi is preferred over true ability or skill assessment. Also, the ‘democracy’ here makes no sense, and people have this odd sense of what ‘freedom’ is, and they think it’s part of their ‘freedom’ to sue their neighbors constantly and video tape people on the MRT to put on the news. Oh, and they hate Mainland. Why? They just do…and those Mainlanders are just so rude!
[quote=“Random Taiwanese People”]…many Taiwanese openly complain about the mainlanders’ seeming unfamiliarity with the notion of the indoor voice, a collective disdain for the single-file line and their insistence on asking complete strangers their incomes…
[/quote]
if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black then I don’t know what is…
