[quote=“JuliaZ”][quote=“Muzha Man”][quote=“JuliaZ”][quote=“Muzha Man”]
As for your boss if she was speaking English she likely meant 15 years. Taiwanese always mix 15 and 50, or sixteen sixty, etc.[/quote]
Good guess, but I don’t think that’s what happened here. In the next sentence, she said “forty-five years ago, blah blah”. Her English is really good. I’m not saying your suggestion is IMPOSSIBLE, but it’s very unlikely, especially given that she sort of gave me a chronological run down of her career and family life (I’d asked, nicely, and we were in that ‘getting to know each other’ phase). I don’t think most people would tell that kind of story this way: 15, 45, 40, 30, 25, 20, 10, 5 years ago… do you? [/quote]
You’re probably right though many Taiwanese do not tell stories in any kind of order so it’s not inconceivable.
But people have to retire at 65 here or even earlier (don’t know the exact year) so unless she is boss her working close to 70 is pretty weird.[/quote]
She is a pretty big boss (she reports directly to a C-level) but I hope I misheard her. She seriously does not look old enough to have been working fifty years. Anyway, I’m not going to ask her how old she is, so unless she has a big-0 birthday anytime soon when her age might slip, I have to stop thinking about it.[/quote]
Maybe ask her what she plans to do when she retires? You can get a sense of how long she thinks that will be. Baring that, show her your US passport one day and ask if you can see hers. Just curious, Madame Boss. Just curious.
Of course have you thought maybe she is just getting a bit batty?
[quote=“JuliaZ”][quote=“Muzha Man”][quote=“JuliaZ”][quote=“Muzha Man”]
As for your boss if she was speaking English she likely meant 15 years. Taiwanese always mix 15 and 50, or sixteen sixty, etc.[/quote]
Good guess, but I don’t think that’s what happened here. In the next sentence, she said “forty-five years ago, blah blah”. Her English is really good. I’m not saying your suggestion is IMPOSSIBLE, but it’s very unlikely, especially given that she sort of gave me a chronological run down of her career and family life (I’d asked, nicely, and we were in that ‘getting to know each other’ phase). I don’t think most people would tell that kind of story this way: 15, 45, 40, 30, 25, 20, 10, 5 years ago… do you? [/quote]
You’re probably right though many Taiwanese do not tell stories in any kind of order so it’s not inconceivable.
But people have to retire at 65 here or even earlier (don’t know the exact year) so unless she is boss her working close to 70 is pretty weird.[/quote]
She is a pretty big boss (she reports directly to a C-level) but I hope I misheard her. She seriously does not look old enough to have been working fifty years. Anyway, I’m not going to ask her how old she is, so unless she has a big-0 birthday anytime soon when her age might slip, I have to stop thinking about it.[/quote]
Tell her you’ve just read something about the Chinese zodiac, and ask her what her animal is. That would at least narrow it down…
And that is why you are still employed despite having a PhD. [/quote]
For now! Know any universities that are hiring? (Is that how you do that networking thing JuliaZ? )
And that is why you are still employed despite having a PhD. [/quote]
For now! Know any universities that are hiring? (Is that how you do that networking thing JuliaZ? )[/quote]
And that is why you are still employed despite having a PhD. [/quote]
For now! Know any universities that are hiring? (Is that how you do that networking thing JuliaZ? )[/quote]
Send me 100 resumes please.[/quote]
Ahhh, if only if were just the resume, and not the CV, the statement of research goals and accomplishments, the statement of teaching philosophy, and the cover letter, all of which have to be individually tailored for each school…
Back on topic. There’s a professor in my department who doesn’t look especially young, but I was really shocked to learn that she was pushing 80.
I think that perceptions of peoples’ ages also depends a lot on their behavior, and things like haircuts and clothing styles. I don’t think that my mom looks as old as she is, but if she retired, stopped running, let her hair go gray, and walked around in old lady clothes, she’d probably look every bit her age.
So maybe it’s all that Hello Kitty stuff they carry around that makes Taiwanese women impervious to aging
[quote=“antarcticbeech”]There is a particular strain of Taiwanese female that completely avoids exercise, sunlight, the expression of opinion and anything but the most submissive of sexual encounters. I think the intention is to cultivate a kind of pre-rigor mortis timelessness. Their eyebrows, certainly, defy modern carbon dating techniques.
I had a Taiwanese work friend (girl/woman) who told me once that Taiwanese women look younger than western women because Taiwanese women don’t eat ice cream when they have their period…
Usually foreigners who have been around Taiwanese people for a while can guess their ages pretty well. It’s just that a foreigner who is fresh off the boat is definitely going to think the average Taiwanese woman is younger than she is. The women meet enough foreigners who think they’re ten or 15 years younger, they’re going to start thinking either 1. Asian women really do look younger than white women, or 2. all foreigners are hopeless at estimating age.
After living in Asia for several years, I could tell. But my Taiwanese friends would sometimes test me with celebrities, and were shocked when I guessed right - because they said they thought all foreigners thought Taiwanese people looked young.
When I lived in rural Sichuan I was astounded at how old my students looked. In Canada, people of East Asian origin typically look younger than white people, so I was subconsciously expecting the same in China. So when I first met my students I thought their ages ranged from about 20 to 45 or so - that they had mature students at their universities just as they did back home. Then I found out their true ages - 17 to 20, max. I was just horrified - they were wizened little dwarfs, some of them, wrinkled, toothless, with bowed backs - how could they be only 18? But they had been working in the fields since they could walk; what I was seeing was not age, but sun-damage, weather-beating, and chronic semi=starvation. To look 45 when you are actually 18…
[quote=“bababa”]Usually foreigners who have been around Taiwanese people for a while can guess their ages pretty well. It’s just that a foreigner who is fresh off the boat is definitely going to think the average Taiwanese woman is younger than she is. The women meet enough foreigners who think they’re ten or 15 years younger, they’re going to start thinking either 1. Asian women really do look younger than white women, or 2. all foreigners are hopeless at estimating age.
After living in Asia for several years, I could tell. But my Taiwanese friends would sometimes test me with celebrities, and were shocked when I guessed right - because they said they thought all foreigners thought Taiwanese people looked young.
When I lived in rural Sichuan I was astounded at how old my students looked. In Canada, people of East Asian origin typically look younger than white people, so I was subconsciously expecting the same in China. So when I first met my students I thought their ages ranged from about 20 to 45 or so - that they had mature students at their universities just as they did back home. Then I found out their true ages - 17 to 20, max. I was just horrified - they were wizened little dwarfs, some of them, wrinkled, toothless, with bowed backs - how could they be only 18? But they had been working in the fields since they could walk; what I was seeing was not age, but sun-damage, weather-beating, and chronic semi=starvation. To look 45 when you are actually 18…[/quote]
And don’t forget the influence of smoking which I read is epidemic in China. If statistics are to be believed, the (vast) majority of men in China smoke, which may explain your experience in China. But also keep in mind that the percentage of females smoking is significantly higher in most western countries compared to Taiwan or even China. That is probably one reasons why many western women look older compared to Taiwanese women of the same age (I believe another reason is simply genetics).
For the last couple of generations, Western women (especially the North American variety) generally have eaten far more processed ready made foods. Convenience orientated food laden with preservatives does not lend itself to ageing gracefully.
That’s the view from Fat City, where obese isn’t going out of style any time soon.
[quote=“TheGingerMan”]For the last couple of generations, Western women (especially the North American variety) generally have eaten far more processed ready made foods. Convenience orientated food laden with preservatives does not lend itself to ageing gracefully.
That’s the view from Fat City, where obese isn’t going out of style any time soon.[/quote]
The same argument could be made for Taiwanese women in the 30-under category. It will be interesting to see how everyone is looking in twenty years or so. I agree with most posters here; in the beginning, everyone seems to look younger, but then you start to be able to differentiate. Oddly, I think that most men here go from looking really young to middle-aged almost overnight. It’s weird, because I don’t remember that being the case with Asian guys in Canada; they genrerally aged gracefully and on more of a “cline”.
Something I find funny about so many of the women here is how their hairstyles instantly defy their ages; if you have a thirty-year-old face and a fifty-year-old hairstyle, chances are, you’re in your fifties.
[quote=“Muzha Man”]
…But people have to retire at 65 here or even earlier (don’t know the exact year) so unless she is boss her working close to 70 is pretty weird…[/quote]
Actually, you don’t have to retire at 65. After 65, if the company wants you to retire, then you have to retire, but if your company is willing, you can keep on working. I am 69 and still working, for example (but will retire at the end of the year).
[quote=“RJF”][quote=“Muzha Man”]
…But people have to retire at 65 here or even earlier (don’t know the exact year) so unless she is boss her working close to 70 is pretty weird…[/quote]
Actually, you don’t have to retire at 65. After 65, if the company wants you to retire, then you have to retire, but if your company is willing, you can keep on working. I am 69 and still working, for example (but will retire at the end of the year).[/quote]
I thought it was compulsory. Thanks for the correction.
I can pick the difference between 20, 21, 22, 23,…, 49, 50, Japanese, Korean, Mainlander, Taiwanese, grown up in a western country, had a foreign boy friend, temple temptress, and I recommend they all use Olay.
Many Taiwan women are in awful marriages and all they have is their looks. Their husbands have women in Taiwan, China, the Philippiones and everywhere in between so they spend money to make themselves look to others how they wish their husband looked at them.
I doubt that “many” Taiwanese men can afford to keep more than one woman. The average income here isn’t good enough to have women in several countries. Hell, I don’t think I could keep a woman on the side in another part of Taiwan, let alone another country, and I earn a lot more than the average Taiwanese guy. It’s such an urban legend that Taiwanese men have seven thousand women on the side in four hundred and fifty three countries on eleven continents.
I tend to agree but they do tend to have little girlfriends on the side (who may or may not be younger then the wife). Never could understand this guy I knew. He was always hanging with some particular woman who was not his wife and plain as the day was long and the one time I met his wife, she was stunning looking. Couldnt understand what was up with that. Something didnt compute. Compatability maybe?
Look at P.Charles and the Diana thing. She was hot, Camila was/ is not.
[/quote]
Anyway, I’m not going to ask her how old she is, so unless she has a big-0 birthday anytime soon when her age might slip, I have to stop thinking about it.[/quote]
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