Alexander Grantham, governor of Hong Kong from 1947 to 1957, pithily observed Orientalists in his chatty memoir Via Ports: From Hong Kong to Hong Kong (1965). “A few Westerners become almost Oriental in their mental make-up,” he wrote. “But whilst they cease to be European, they do not become completely Asian and are neither one thing nor the other. Neither race accepts them; but of this fact, they are pathetically unaware.”
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But whilst they cease to be Asian, they do not become completely European and are neither one thing nor the other. Neither race accepts them; but of this fact, they are pathetically unaware.
Harsh
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Unaware but probably quite happy, and also a lot more fun to have a beer with than Grantham.
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I agree you shouldn’t have posted it.
Why shouldn’t I post this article?
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Disappointed. I was expecting a presentation of profiles like C. W. Nicol:
Check out this YouTuber “莫彩曦Hailey”. She and her husband are American and speak excellent (by Western standards) Taiwanese-Mandarin. They even use slangs commonly used in Taiwan. They’re well immersed in Taiwanese culture and are interesting to watch.
Link to her Youtube channel:
Not sure where he was coming from, but it can be a true enough observation these days. Certain foreigners are happily ignorant to the fact that they are never going to be accepted as Taiwanese. It is what it is, who really gives a stuff?
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A certain foreigner who pitched TV dishes comes to mind.
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Any way I look at it, it’s a weird article. Starting by claiming that Orientalists are white males (the hell did that come from), moving on confusing Orientalists with people who try to assimilate (as in, if you’re an authority on a subject you must want to become the subject). Adding a few unintelligible sentences like
To assume that all Westerners came from mental states characterised by a sense of their own superiority was to combine the scholarly with the mercantile.
Raising missionaries as an exception with no justification at all–they were just different, they were doing it better somehow. And while Wordie (what an appropriate name) starts by claiming that nobody managed to assimilate, he softens at the end with sentences like “few Westerners ever fully integrated” (meaning some must have fully integrated… would have been interesting to raise examples, but nah).
So yeah, overall it feels a bit too much like literary masturbation.
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If someone wants to live in Taiwan, do honest work, contribute to Taiwan, and willing to defend Taiwan. I am happy to call them Taiwanese. But I can’t say everyone else is the same.
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Well they wouldn’t be able to be taiwanese unless they were one of those hermit priests or whatever.
I think the point is, you can live in taiwan for 20 years, speak great chinese and all of that… and people still do the usual “do you want a fork?” “when will you go back home?” deal. If you are in taiwan for the long haul you gotta expect this forever, that’s just how it is.
Anyway foreigners have been integrating in asia for years and years. Whether people want to give you a fork or not, they are still doing it. I do think its true that you are neither here or there after living overseas for an extended period. To a point anyway. I will always be more english. But i can’t accept westernized asian food anymore. I just outright reject it. does nothing for me anymore.
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Ok small tangent, but why do we have such low standards for what is considered excellent Chinese among Westerners? I get it’s a difficult language, but you wouldn’t say someone had excellent English if they spoke at the same level as Hailey. Or maybe you would but I wouldn’t.
There are enough westerners now that speak excellent Chinese. They need to be on YouTube. Maybe the Spanish 阿豆仔 guy would fit into that. But Serpentza and Laowhy86 the most famous YouTubers on China both speak shit Chinese.
I’m probably being too harsh, but there are a lot of westerners that speak Chinese nowadays.
For china their standard is pretty high though. Foreigners learning chinese in taiwan is more of a thing.
I don’t think people actually think it’s good. It’s more like being polite, encouraging, and giving face. But IDK, maybe some people actually think that’s the best a foreigner can do.
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This!
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I think this is just an unavoidable feature of living abroad, and it goes both ways.
I have a good friend back in the states – she is from Japan, now a US citizen. She has been in the US for over seven years now, and while she still has an accent, she speaks more intelligent, robust English than many native speakers. People hear her accent though, and automatically default to, “oh your English is so good!” “How long will you be in the US?” and so on.
While she knows these questions are intended to be nothing more than innocuous, it really has worn thin and serves as a constant reminder that she will probably always be seen as an outsider to a sizable demographic – and this is in the culturally diverse US.
Easy to extrapolate that this phenomenon is only stronger in places where you stick out more from the (by and large) ethnically homogeneous crowd. Becoming at peace with it seems to be the best option, but I can imagine that is difficult at least for a while.
In 5 years here no one ever asked me if I want a fork, can’t remember someone asking me when I will go back home either. The usual is where are you from, how long have you been in Taiwan, do you teach English (at the market just three days ago). And quite often: your Chinese is good (which is not at all btw).
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Good article thanks for posting.
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