I am talking specialty coffee guys not chains. But you criticize the Taiwanese for lacking creativity and then suggest they remedy this by creating chains of identikit cafes? 
[/quote]
well i just dont know them or heard of them as they are too special. 
I am talking specialty coffee guys not chains. But you criticize the Taiwanese for lacking creativity and then suggest they remedy this by creating chains of identikit cafes? [/quote]
well i just dont know them or heard of them as they are too special. [/quote]
You can’t have it both ways, dude. In any case, BBC called Taipei’s coffee scene one of the top ten in the world, and no I didn’t write the article. So I guess they aren’t doing too badly.
I am talking specialty coffee guys not chains. But you criticize the Taiwanese for lacking creativity and then suggest they remedy this by creating chains of identikit cafes? [/quote]
well i just dont know them or heard of them as they are too special. [/quote]
You can’t have it both ways, dude. In any case, BBC called Taipei’s coffee scene one of the top ten in the world, and no I didn’t write the article. So I guess they aren’t doing too badly despite you being familiar only with the shittiest examples of coffee making.[/quote]
just saying i dont know any coffee roasters from taiwan besides 85 deg and the big international chains. but i wish taiwan can build a global brand like starbucks. and yea i think their coffee is good. but i also support mom n pop coffeehouses. plenty of them here in san francisco. i know taiwan grows coffee too. but it would be great if they can build a global chain selling their teas.
I agree with you and I think these things are possible but require a change in government support and banking for entrepreneurs and especially agro-businesses. That’s why I think the problems are the structure and culture of big business and government rather than a lack of creativity.
I agree that Taiwan’s economy is too focused on a select few sectors, as other posters have pointed out, but I don’t think it has the infrastructural capability to diversify into just about everything like we have in the US. Geography is a big factor: in a country as huge as the US, you can have one place focused on politics (DC) and another focused on money (Wall Street) and on software (SF Bay area) and on entertainment (LA). College graduates know where to go to pursue a job in a particular field.
The main problem as I see it is manufacturing = everywhere but Taipei, and Taipei = center of every industry but manufacturing. We need a lot more diversity of industry across the country, but it’s probably folly to expect something on the American scale of things.
In some ways the service sector in Taiwan is strong, in China and HK there are so many TW business
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]I agree that Taiwan’s economy is too focused on a select few sectors, as other posters have pointed out, but I don’t think it has the infrastructural capability to diversify into just about everything like we have in the US. Geography is a big factor: in a country as huge as the US, you can have one place focused on politics (DC) and another focused on money (Wall Street) and on software (SF Bay area) and on entertainment (LA). College graduates know where to go to pursue a job in a particular field.
The main problem as I see it is manufacturing = everywhere but Taipei, and Taipei = center of every industry but manufacturing. We need a lot more diversity of industry across the country, but it’s probably folly to expect something on the American scale of things.[/quote]
I think Taiwan has quite a few industries that it already does well in or could really take off with proper support: electronics, machine tools, tourism, agriculture, medical, film and TV, publishing, bicycles, and conferences come to mind immediately. But as a small country it really needs an industrial policy, something it hasn’t had apparently in a decade. It needs to protect the environment and restructure agriculture for example so that this ties in with tourism. But everything is at odds with other things. Agricultural land gets developed, farmers are encouraged to stay dependent on out-of-date technology and techniques which further ruins the land and blights the landscape, tourism suffers so only mass cheap tours are viable. It’s stupid beyond belief sometimes.
I always like the example of Penghu. One of the most beautiful and unique archipelago in Asia, with a world-class venue for windsurfing, and all the gov can think of is casinos. :fume:
Restaurant chains from Taiwan and food companies have done fairly well in China, and there’s a few bubble tea companies from Taiwan that have a chance to go global also. They don’t drive massive revenue or internationalization in Taiwan but they are pretty successful I guess. Pity Taiwanese such as software development, there were a few promising game companies but I guess that industry is very competitive. Local Taiwanese movies are too soppy and local focused and TV productions are just pathetic , worse than stuff out of Thailand etc.
Restaurant chains from Taiwan are being held back by using ingredients that are literally only a degree better than using dog shit.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]
I really don’t think this is a problem with the workforce but the working culture. Management is inflexible and will not delegate decision making so of course people aren’t creative. If you look around at small businesses you see lots of creativity and innovation. In just ten years for example Taiwanese roasters and baristas have made a name for themselves worldwide. In Coffee Reviews top 200 coffees of the world, at east half a dozen come from Taiwanese companies.[/quote]
Some of the best coffee I’ve ever had is here in Hsinchu. Great business.
Restaurant chains from Taiwan are being held back by using ingredients that are literally only a degree better than using dog shit.[/quote]
I don’t think it’s been holding them back in Taiwan and China 
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[quote=“kelake”][quote=“Muzha Man”]
I really don’t think this is a problem with the workforce but the working culture. Management is inflexible and will not delegate decision making so of course people aren’t creative. If you look around at small businesses you see lots of creativity and innovation. In just ten years for example Taiwanese roasters and baristas have made a name for themselves worldwide. In Coffee Reviews top 200 coffees of the world, at east half a dozen come from Taiwanese companies.[/quote]
Some of the best coffee I’ve ever had is here in Hsinchu. Great business.[/quote]
Coffee is massive in Taiwan, it’s everywhere now. A lot of coffee equipment is made in Taiwan too, pity no chains have come out of here but then a chain is a chain I suppose.
They’ve already built unnecessary concrete eyesore harbors on almost every island.
The OP’s question is an excellent one, and there have been some very insightful answers. A number of factors contributing to the situation have been identified, and I believe many of them could be grouped under “human capital.” I wouldn’t want to repeat anything that’s already been said. Here’s a new take:
Would you (or would you not) say that yet another answer to the question is now being provided by the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong? Whereas the protest there is amazingly peaceful, polite and with an omnipresent spirit of civility, here, on the other hand, in a democratic environment that should be more conducive towards any form of debate, all kinds of disagreements end up with the inevitable flying shoes and chairs, or at the very least, books.
Both places are culturally similar, and the older generations seem very much alike but there appears to be a big difference between the younger (and perhaps even sine middle-aged) people here and there. Could this be explained by the lower social capital in Taiwan? Opportunities are lost and transactional costs increased because people anticipate others behaving in an anti-social way, and pre-emptively adjust their actions to match what they think is coming anyway?
If I’m making too much of a stretch here, let me know. 
the protest in hk was not that peaceful. the protesters fought with police. and they showed police beating up a protester in a back alley. that didnt happen with the sunflower protests in taiwan. and how often do they throw shoes and stuff in taiwan congress? once in a blue moon.
Really? The police didn’t beat up any protesters during the sunflower sit in?
The physical altercations in the legislature have died down quite a bit. That’s actually a very interesting observation and I wonder what causes it. Anyway, there were several incidents of violence during the Sunflower movement, but nothing as extreme as the police crackdown on the OC protesters, who have almost entirely been non-violent themselves.
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]
The physical altercations in the legislature have died down quite a bit. That’s actually a very interesting observation and I wonder what causes it. Anyway, there were several incidents of violence during the Sunflower movement, but nothing as extreme as the police crackdown on the OC protesters, who have almost entirely been non-violent themselves.[/quote]
what is an ‘oc’ protester? well from my observations watching the news i thought the hk protest was a bit more rowdier than the Taipei protest. and hk cops beat up that protester secretly in a dark alley whom they thought threw or did something to them that pissed them off. but both protests were waaaaay less violent than protests that occur in the west namely the u.s. and europe.
Occupy Central.
It is of great pity that only a few countries in the world still uphold the tradition of having a jolly old-fashioned parliamentary brawl every once in a while. Russia, for one, has mellowed out. And Korea, which could once broaden the canon through some world-class girl-on-girl-on-girl action, is now a shade of her former self. Et tu, Taiwan?
Still, keeping up with the days of yore, a student recently decided to articulate his dissatisfaction with the usual suspect by flinging a book at him - and this was the incident I was referring to.