What are Kaohsiung people like, generally?

I think they just served beatings.

In your face?

Youā€™re really intent on running this into the ground. Kind of like a United plane with mechanical failure.

Kaoshiung?

seems like this thread has derailed but to answer the original question, for some reason all the hottest Taiwanese dudes I know hail from Kaohsiung. I do not know why. Maybe the gene pool there is just better. But they are fine as hell :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Well, Iā€™m a guy so I wonā€™t be checking for men :slight_smile:

I do wonder though - is this a place where expat guys can form deep, meaningful friendships with the local people? Or is there some sort of resentment about from nationalists about foreigners coming to Taiwan and taking jobs, causing trouble, etc?

Most Taiwanese people are not like that toward foreigners, unless of course you just act like an absolute ass in front of or toward them. They are, however, a little shy on the whole.

It can be hard to have close relationships with Taiwanese people, for a whole host of reasons, but not because they donā€™t like you. Language, background, culture, work, family, hobbiesā€¦

But immigrants say similar about countries around the world.

thereā€™s a bit of negativity, assuming foreigners are back home losers, perverts, stereotypes and stuff like that. the biggest thing is foreigners will always be treated as outsiders. whether you think thats good or bad depends on you. learning chinese will bring you a lot closer to taiwanese people.

meeting other foreigners would be a lot easier in taipei. but winter is coming up and taipei in winter is like the most miserable place on earth.

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Some also try waaaaay too hard to be your friend. Maybe itā€™s innocent, maybe theyā€™re romantically interested in you, and maybe theyā€™re trying to practice their English. In any event, it has the opposite effect of driving me away.

Itā€™s very similar in the PI where everyone wants to know where you are from or why you are in their country or if you are married. Or how they immediately recommend you to check out x bar or x club when you never expressed interest in that.

These are profiling questions that put you in the ā€˜loser back homeā€™ box and ā€˜Iā€™m better than youā€™ category. I shy away from those types of interactions now. And just hope TW/KH people actā€¦normally.

I donā€™t think Taiwanese people do that. Well, some do, but usually itā€™s like I saidā€¦ they really want a Western friend because they think Western people are cool for some reason, theyā€™re gay and are feeling you out to see if youā€™re ā€œgameā€, or they want a free language exchange partner.

Some people do that, and certainly the media. But largely, I think thatā€™s our own insecurity coming out and us assuming thatā€™s what they think. I donā€™t get the sense from most Taiwanese I interact with that they think Iā€™m a loser (or perv). Maybe in Taipei people are more judgmental. :man_shrugging:

That ę­Ŗ國äŗŗ music video gave me the impression a lot of people hold that kind of opinion without necessarily voicing it or anything

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I donā€™t watch dumb music videos, so Iā€™ll take your word for it.

Basically it perpetuates those stereotypes, has almost 40m views, 80% likes v dislikes and most comments are in support of it.

Never saw it before but just gave it another dislike just now.

its a thing, i donā€™t know how much of a thing it is but its definitely a thing. iā€™ve heard ā€˜you must get many girls, taiwanese girls love foreignersā€™ and things like that too many times for it not to be a thing. yea because i just click my fingers and taiwanese girls jump into bed with meā€¦ i wish it was that easy.
if i hear this sort of thing i wont be bothered by it iā€™ll just bring up points about the dodgy things taiwanese people do and we can move on to the next subject.

I imagine that will almost certainly shut things down. This may be the way you like it.

Another way to handle these sorts of comments is to laugh and say, ā€œNah, thatā€™s not me, Iā€™m not so special.ā€ Usually folks will brighten up at that point, itā€™s broken the ice. Then you can move on to other subjects.

Guy

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if you said that comment they will still think the same about getting loads of girls, they will just think you donā€™t want to share the details. talking from experience. not sure why i should entertain such stereotypes.

i think as foreigners we need to grow a backbone and point out the hypocrisy. donā€™t be that banana throwing guy who just kissed ass instead of bringing up the super obvious hypocrisy.

and it shuts things down not because i like it, because they donā€™t wanna gossip like that about their own.

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