She used to live in Taiwan. Was a bar girl or something, I think. Before my time here, though.
I remember when I arrived the one store that was repeatedly told to me was about some lady in Taipei who had her arm cut off by kids for the jade. :raspberry:
The male variant of this is the guy who got his hand cut off for the Rolex on his wrist. Although gangsters on scooters with machetes were more common 10-12 years ago, when I heard the story for the first time.
I heard one about yangminshan - a ghost story! Three friends scoot up the mountain one night and then park their scooters and rest/admire the night sky or whatever.
Later, they drive back to taipei together. The next day, the mother of one of the guys calls the other two - her son is missing.
A search by police reveals that he is dead, exactly at the spot where the friends rested the night before.
So who, or what, rode back with them that night?
Sounds like murder to me.
The 2 friends killed the third, then came up with a ghost story to keep them out of jail.
I don’t know if this is STILL true, but back in the 80s, it certainly was. Now, with health insurance, things might be better…? We used to look both ways REALLY carefully back then, though…('course there wasn’t any cute little crosswalk in front of Shita back then, either).
There is a myth that the Taipei Times was started by Lin Rong-san of the Liberty Times.
Nothing further from the truth…
In fact, the project of the paper was not even offered to the Liberty Times first.
Yup, these are true. Lots of scandals in the mid 90s about these. Saw all these incidents on the news.
One of the sea-sand concrete scandals had to do with the Mucha Line of the MRT - the pillars holding up the tracks had sea sand in them.
I read in the paper once about a Taiwanese woman who had her finger cut off in Thailand by robbers who wanted her diamond ring.
Urban legends I’ve seen spread by Taiwanese:
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Don’t eat pao-mian - it causes cancer. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this warning when I made myself the occasional pao-mian in the presence of Taiwanese people! (Sure, if you eat nothing but pao-mian all your life it can’t be that good for you, but do you HAVE to tell me this every single time I fix myself some pao-mian?)
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The English ending -ese (as in Chinese or Japanese) is a derogatory ending. Therefore, people from Taiwan should call themselves “Taiwaners”, like people in Hong Kong are called “Hong Kongers”. (I’ve seen this one repeatedly on the newsgroup tw.bbs.lang.english. It is patently false.)
Who was it offered to first?
It’s a she, and she’s Japanese. One of her essays is featured in the book ‘The Independent Reader’ - a textbook for foreigners by SMC publishing (at Caves Bookstore).
Her full name is 新井一二三
Yea, all you have to do is look at some of the pictures from the last ‘big quake’ to verify that that is indeed not an urban legend.
How about the one that if you don’t wear a hat in the rain all your hair will fall out? I always figured if that were true, all the dogs, squirrels, and zoo animals would be hairless.
That happens here. A woman in my neighborhood had her entire hand chopped off a couple years ago because she held on to her purse as it was getting snatched.
funny, never heard that, there’s an active military base by yuanshan which I could never figure out, would explain it.
there are vaults for art objects behind the museum.[/quote]
The museum is right beside the army headquarters and they are all backed by hills. They built the vaults for storage of objects if it looked like the HQ would get bombed. It may also be possible that they are close because as a kind of hostage/.
The wonderful thing about urban legends is that they always happen to a woman in your neighbourhood, a friend of your friend or some people your grandmother personally new during the war.
They all just have to be true…
Well, in fact I didn’t SEE it happen, but it did happen (as legend goes) about a block from our house, was reported in all the papers, including description of bike, time, weapon, etc. etc. I was here at the time. I think it was… 1998 or 99. So, sure, it may have been made up to sell papers. Happens every day.
And I do know one person who really, actually did have her pursed snatched in same area, though fortunately she has all her fingers. In fact, I’ve known three women who have had their purses yanked from them by motorcyclist, one a waiguoren. She held on and was simply dragged about 25 feet. And I DID see the cuts and bruises that time.
The all time best urban legend is the one about the ghost that visits you in your sleep. It feels like it’s pressing against your body and you can’t move. You’re awake, but you can’t scream. I’ve talked with many students who have had this experience personally. That ghost really gets around.
And how about that old guy on the bicycle with the squeaky brakes? I mean, he’s everywhere. I swear he must be supernatural. He never sleeps and just… appears. Creepy.
I think Taiwanese mothers should tell their daughters very early that:
If you see a mugger with a machete, just let him have that purse…
But, coming from an ex-soviet country, I’m ready to believe anything that has something to do with the creative mind of house builders.
I recently heard an explanation to this - it had something to with sleeping cycles and that sort of stuff. Can’t remember much, I think my son was crying at the same time…
This has happened to me. Scared the crap out of me at the time, but I later read that it is not that rare. And, certainly not confined to Taiwan or Taiwanese people.
Seems part of the brain awakes and can perceive the environment. But, part remains asleep (perhaps the part controling motor functions?) so the mind, not sure how to process this unfamiliar situation perceives it as a kind of paralysis.
This is stressful of course, and then I guess creative imagination kicks in and makes it into a ghost story.
I was pretty convinced I’d been sat on or otherwise pressed by a ghostly visitor until I read that explanation.
Whoo-wee!