Why is it that so many Taiwanese people seem to, be “AFRAID”. What I mean is I just came back recently for a visit. I now live/work in Italy 
. I liked Taiwan (Italy’s more fun) but I noticed that when I said I live in Italy now.(Rome) I got this response. Dangerous! Or that my sister works in Morrocco. Dangerous. Or that one of my former students (a 25 year old grad student!!!) wants to travel to Budapest with 3 of her girlfriends and not w/the dreaded travel group. Her mom said NOOO! Dangerous. I heard all of this in a week. What is it here, why the hell are they so afraid of everything. I forgot about this since moving to 
Italy. Any Ideas?? I know others have heard this. Ridculous. No wonder many of the people in Taiwan don’t have any “REAL” experiences!
I think Asians are more often targeted by pickpockets and stuff like that over there. I know alot of Taiwanese who told me they had been victims. Maybe alot of the time they just aren’t very streetwise.
Anyway, they come back and tell those stories to all of their friends.
[quote=“Hongda”]I think Asians are more often targeted by pickpockets and stuff like that over there. I know alot of Taiwanese who told me they had been victims. Maybe alot of the time they just aren’t very streetwise.
Anyway, they come back and tell those stories to all of their friends.[/quote]
I’ve never heard about that.
Maybe not being able to speak english is part of the problem. A lot of Taiwanese join groups when they travel so they can have a guide who speaks Chinese.
But I do agree with you that a lot of Taiwanese are scared of a lot of things. Like speaking english, dogs and the water.
And the Sun.
And the Sun.[/quote]
And me 
My theory is that it’s a parent thing. You’ve no doubt noticed that many Taiwanese have 11 pm curfews well into their 20’s or other rules imposed on them by their parents. Why do they stay instead of move out? One friend of mine answered, “We have a maid, and my parents have made me scared to go out of the house.” Since children are one’s social security it seems to be in the interest of parents to keep their children comfortable in the house and mortally afraid of going out, moving away and especially traveling overseas. Thus children are indoctrinated from very young to be afraid of everything that would result in them being away from their parents, though riding in vehicles with no seatbelts or on scooters with no helmets is apparently okay.
I guess that would put a stop to them studying abroad though and alot do.
I think my guess on places like Italy is correct because they never say something like “Canada is dangerous”.It’s just a few certain countries…including China where in fact they are often robbed and sometimes murdered.
However there are many other fears. Another one is being afraid of the dark.
I had to share a hotel room with some Taiwanese on a business trip and the manager left the light on when he got in his bed. I asked him why and he said ,…“ummm in case I need water at night” then I pointed out that’s what the bedside light was for and he started getting nervous. Finally to save him face I suggested he leave the bathroom light on with the door cracked open.
On another trip we had 3 of us in a room. That same manager told another Taiwanese guy in Chinese that I don’t like the light left on at night; as if I was strange. They discussed this problem for a few minutes and decided to leave the curtains open instead.We were directly across from a very well lit up building.
In another situation I went with a Taiwanese family on a trip. Again I shared a room with a Taiwanese guy. He’d puposely come in after I was asleep and then pretend to accidentally leave the light on. I’d get up and turn it off and a few minutes later he’d go into the bathroom and leave it on again. This would go on all night.
There also seems to be fear of old houses. And I have heard there are alot of ghosts living in hotels. Maybe this is the reason for leaving on lights in hotels.
I guess that would put a stop to them studying abroad though and alot do.
I think my guess on places like Italy is correct because they never say something like “Canada is dangerous”.It’s just a few certain countries…including China where in fact they are often robbed and sometimes murdered.
However there are many other fears. Another one is being afraid of the dark.
I had to share a hotel room with some Taiwanese on a business trip and the manager left the light on when he got in his bed. I asked him why and he said ,…“ummm in case I need water at night” then I pointed out that’s what the bedside light was for and he started getting nervous. Finally to save him face I suggested he leave the bathroom light on with the door cracked open.
On another trip we had 3 of us in a room. That same manager told another Taiwanese guy in Chinese that I don’t like the light left on at night; as if I was strange. They discussed this problem for a few minutes and decided to leave the curtains open instead.We were directly across from a very well lit up building.
In another situation I went with a Taiwanese family on a trip. Again I shared a room with a Taiwanese guy. He’d puposely come in after I was asleep and then pretend to accidentally leave the light on. I’d get up and turn it off and a few minutes later he’d go into the bathroom and leave it on again. This would go on all night.
There also seems to be fear of old houses. And I have heard there are alot of ghosts living in hotels. Maybe this is the reason for leaving on lights in hotels.[/quote]
I dont mean to stray too far from the OP post, but…
Leaving on lights is common, especially after a close loved one passes away. They feel the light helps the deceased to find their way back home, or find their way to family who can comfort them. This is normally done during the funeral process but also can carry on after; some people continue to do this months and even years after someone dies.
There’s certainly a lot of fear of ghosts here, for one thing. I’ve never seen any populace more afraid of ghosts than the Taiwanese. They take it very seriously, to an extent that it often has profound effects on their daily life.
People seem very gullible too, believing what parents, bosses, teachers, the media and other authorities say at face value instead of applying healthy skepticism. So if some guru on TV says “Eating instant noodles will give you cancer”, they’ll believe it.
There’s also a high degree of trendiness: one person learns of some “dangerous” thing, and the next day all his friends, relatives and co-workers will know, spreading through the populace like wildfire. Suddenly it becomes common knowledge that X is dangerous.
And there’s the parental factor, as mentioned above, where kids are indoctrinated into obeying their parents to such a degree that they’ll heed their parents’ rules even if living independently overseas.
Yet despite this fear, there’s still crazy driving, people digging clams in polluted ponds for dinner, kids setting off firecrackers unsupervised and with their parents’ blessing, peope going to the seaside during typhoons and so on.
[quote=“derek1978”][I dont mean to stray too far from the OP post, but… Leaving on lights is common, especially after a close loved one passes away. They feel the light helps the deceased to find their way back home, or find their way to family who can comfort them. This is normally done during the funeral process but also can carry on after; some people continue to do this months and even years after someone dies.[/quote]
Nice theory but these people were all Christians and often snubbed Taiwanese customs such as that.
Fear of different food is another one…although it’s now trendy to try something different.
I remember asking Taiwanese if they liked “Tacos” for example and always got “No” for an answer even though they never tried it or even knew what it was.
Now with my wife I have to just about hold her down and force feed her something new. Then she usually says, “It tastes good!”.
During my travel experiences with Taiwanese I found they often ran straight for the nearest Chinese restaurant as soon as they got off the plane.
Plus a diet of Apple Daily, Body Parts News, and Foreigners Are All Perverted Rapists television reinforces that nicely.
The outside: have you ever noticed that even large picture windows too high to see much into, that look out on magnificent views are all covered with boxes or laundry or something?
[quote=“Hongda”]
During my travel experiences with Taiwanese I found they often ran straight for the nearest Chinese restaurant as soon as they got off the plane.[/quote]
I traveled with a Taiwanese package tour (an experience in itself!) to Vietnam. I was expecting that, in Vietnam, with its world-renowned cuisine, we would be eating Vietnamese food. Wrong. Every meal was at a Chinese restaurant.
We had to sneak away from the group to actually eat real Vietnamese food.
Again, it was the fear factor - fear of unfamiliar food, and fear of eating at some “unsanitary local place where you might catch a disease”.
Everyone knows Chinese food is the best in the world.
[quote]
…
We had to sneak away from the group to actually eat real Vietnamese food.
Again, it was the fear factor - fear of unfamiliar food, and fear of eating at some “unsanitary local place where you might catch a disease”.[/quote]
A VERY real thing to be afraid of. I lived in Vietnam 18 months and reckon on average got food poisoning once a month. Even the 5 star restaurants are not immune from this. I only got hospitalised 3 times but one of those was after eating at Camargue (Vascos) which is very upmarket.
On the plus side I eat everything in Taiwan and have not had a problem in 11 months (touch wood).
[quote=“Edgar Allen”]
On the plus side I eat everything in Taiwan and have not had a problem in 11 months (touch wood).[/quote]
20 years ago you wouldn’t have been able to say that. 
[quote=“Edgar Allen”]A VERY real thing to be afraid of. I lived in Vietnam 18 months and reckon on average got food poisoning once a month. .
On the plus side I eat everything in Taiwan and have not had a problem in 11 months (touch wood).[/quote]
But it’s not the reason they aren’t eating there. And why would a Chinese restaurant in Vietnam be any different than one serving Vietnamese dishes?
My experiences were in developed Western countries where there was no worry of food poisoning.
"20 years ago you wouldn’t have been able to say that. "
20 years ago Taiwan had a very high rate of hepatitis. You’d commonly see them butchering up tubs of meat right on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant and then rinsing the dirty dishes and chopsticks off in a couple more tubs.
The government encouraged the use of disposable chopsticks and dishes and the hepatitis rate dropped alot.
Now the government is encouraging the use of reusable dishes to help the environment and I bet the rate of hepatitis goes up again.
[quote=“Hongda”]
20 years ago Taiwan had a very high rate of hepatitis. You’d commonly see them butchering up tubs of meat right on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant and then rinsing the dirty dishes and chopsticks off in a couple more tubs.
The government encouraged the use of disposable chopsticks and dishes and the hepatitis rate dropped alot.
Now the government is encouraging the use of reusable dishes to help the environment and I bet the rate of hepatitis goes up again.[/quote]
20 years ago almost all shops turned off their refrigerators and freezers at around 9PM (to save electricity)…they’d turn them on again the next morning. In addition, the refrigerators were usually kept at temperatures higher than in the West.
This practice resulted in food poisoning and was not limited to streetside stands. Large “famous” restaurants and hotels had their share of food poisonings also. Over 30 people died in one case in a seafood restaurant in Taipei.
Another goodie…in the early 80s there were several cases here where the suppliers of cooking oil to the night market food stalls were mixing used transmission and hydraulic fluid with cooking oil. Quite a few people died, were blinded or suffered severe nerve damage.
Where have those days gone so fast? :s .It seems like only yesterday I was strolling along the beach one early morning to run across a bunch of old ladies with bamboo baskets ,in their gum boots and straw hats butchering dead diseased pigs on the shore which had been dumped out at sea and washed back up in the night.