What do you consider normal or trashy that the Taiwanese consider high-class/high-status?

Arts & Sciences Culture & History
1

So for example, coming from North America, pickup trucks are just standard fare - in America they sometimes have connotation with rednecks or trashy people. Even in SE Asia, pickups are everywhere (Hilux?!) - but in Taiwan they are considered luxury vehicles because they have to be imported.

I remember that Seinfeld episode that Kramer brought the oranges to the business meeting with the Asians because he heard they were considered a luxury.

What else do we as foreigners consider standard fare or even trashy, that Taiwanese place high societal/cultural value on?

1 Like
2

93689c9195edf5131a9e1b4448a0c93e
93689c9195edf5131a9e1b4448a0c93e485×609 83.2 KB

2 Likes
3

white asparagus, artichokes, fresh figs

4

Pre sliced cheese?

4 Likes
5

This also works the other way around.
I remember Asian dresses becoming popular in the west, but my Asian friends always said they remixed them of waitresses.

6

So you came to Taiwan because you got tired of your $5 bougie ass getting kicked???

7

Yes, I consider clean toilets in the MRT as luxury

9 Likes
8

Eating nothing but takeaway food for a week, a complete luxury but here its just a way of life.

5 Likes
9

Brands splashed across shirts, luxury items, etc. You definitely see this in the US and the West, but perhaps more with a younger crowd? Like even the Mercedez with the HUGE Benz symbol on the front grill I find a bit on the trashy side. Just a simple Benz logo protruding from the hood is much more classy IMO. And the LV bags have the brand covering the whole bag. Yuk.

4 Likes
10

The pickup is a good example .
Maybe golf, where it’s a 'business persons ’ game but where I’m from any middle class person or even working class person could play it .
I can’t think of many examples. The SUV and glam camping obsession is fairly similar in my home country (although Not as many SUVs there due to tax).
Oh yeah…Maybe the weird car clubs， like Skoda club, or Honda club, vw golf club etc. It’s not weird to locals just to me of course. Of course the placement of European flags behind the registration plate to show it’s an import. I guess most of these examples are due to cars being very much a status symbol here.

2 Likes
11

Playboy clothing
Those Ferraro rocher chocolates at the 7 in gift packs
Fridays
Chilis

6 Likes
12

Thats high class for me too. :+1::grin:

4 Likes
13

Bubble tea.
Japanese white toast (100 NT$ a slice)

5 Likes
14

I was about to post this one. Really bizarre. It’s basically like a thick slice of Wonder Bread.

2 Likes
15

also that cream of corn soup that somehow comes with every italian restaurant set

6 Likes
16

Ftfy

3 Likes
17

McDonald’s, or used to be. Not high-class exactly, but still a cut above what it is back home. Clean, air-conditioned, clean restrooms.

2 Likes
18

Service jobs at restaurants, shops etc. You wear a uniform, it’s air-conditioned, out of the sun, cleaner than construction work or factories.

19

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking - American fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC, along with Starbucks. That’s mostly based on my time living in China and Thailand though, and I wasn’t sure if it’s the same here (mostly because I’ve almost entirely stopped going to those places). Oh, and Walmart too (for China).

1 Like
20

Car racing.

I have a second cousin in Taiwan who was an engineer for a Motorola contractor who was a huge fan. I told him only uneducated people watch that stuff. He said, “What I watch is F1, not the one in America.” Okay…all the same to me.

In reverse, talking about food is considered elitist in the USA, but everyone does it all the time in Taiwan.