Wrong place at the wrong time = time to leave?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
41

Speaking from experience, I don’t think that’s true. I think that once you rev up and they do too, they’ll go the extra mile where we wouldn’t. I’ve known quite a few incidents in Taiwan that involved foreigners that had been started by a woman. Quite literally actually, either in her defence (Foreign BF/Local BF) or because she had a bunch of insecure male friends who wanted to make it a point of “these are our girls”. Come to think of it, this sort of thing happens worldwide but my point being that the Asian way to scrap is to make sure that they have zero chance of losing. 10 on 1? 5 on 1 with knives? Cooling out then following you home just to beat your ass 10 on 1?

I’m not sayin that Canada is any better in this regard because it is going to hell in a handbasket and fast but I do remember in most cases that I’ve found myself in a fight that it was toe to toe and all of my friends squared off too. NOT going to happen here.

Anyway, keep your head up and don’t let fear creep into you. Road rage passes. I doubt this dude will be comming for you.

42

For what its worth, I sympathize with your situation and I am glad that you posted the same. I’m obviously glad that you and your GF and Truant all escaped serious harm in your respective incidents.

I sometimes hate it here. Just fucking hate it. And its usually because of the absolutely terrible driving and then quick-to-angry-defense that the locals throw up when called on their poor and dangerous driving.

It drives me absolutely bonkers when some asshole who cares only for himself barrels down my narrow lane at an insanely unsafe speed… and it pisses me off to no end when one of these dickheads takes offense when I reprimand him for putting me, my wife, my boy, my dogs and all of my neighbors at risk due to his terrible driving and total lack of consideration for others.

Some dumbfuck in-a-stupid-hurry taxi driver ran a red light and hit my wife a few months ago as she crossed the street at the crosswalk. He was all apologetic, according to my wife, who fortunately was not seriously injured. But you can just bet that the motherfucker would have been deeply offended had he only nearly hit my wife (rather than actually hitting her dead on) and had I been there and had I cursed his poor driving. Jagoffs. Absolute fucking jagoffs.

43

I am a little bit worried aboiut myself.

I let people know how I feel about their driving every couple of days. Flick them off, hit the horn or yell at them.

A couple of times the people have stopped and I have gotten in their face yelling and they took off.

Several years ago I was on my bike at night in Taichung. Some asswad came barreling down an alley in a truck and turned right cutting me off while I was going down a main road. My gf at the time was on the back and I flicked them off.

They chased me for a few blocks and cut me off. I took off my helmet and stood up on my bike and started yelling obsenities at them. (There were two big guys in the truck). I think I scared them. They weren’t expecting a forigener. I am not huge 180cm 77kg but big enough to be a presence.

They kept yelling at me and I at them. My gf told me to shut up but I wouldn’t have any part of it. One of the guys was reaching into his glove box for something when a friend of mine (A guy named Roman. Bodybuilder with a tatoo on his forhead) pulled up on his bike. He asked the guys if they had a problem and they took off.

To this day I wonder what they were going to pull on me and if he hadn’t come along what would have happened.

I agree with what everyone is saying about how so many Taiwanese won’t take responsiblilty for their actions especially when driving.

I need to try and keep my anger in check. It’s very difficult for me sometimes while driving though.

I got jumped by 6 or 7 guys in a club (Spin) because i was in a mosh pit and bumped one of them the wrong way. The guys were such cowards. After kicking me in for a minute or two I jumped up and looked at them all yelling and motioning for them to bring it on. Some little girl with green hair pulled me back and yelled at them and they left me alone. She told me that she is connected and that if I wanted to that she would send someone after them. I said no. (She was sooooo cute)

So chalk up 2 incidents for me. I suppose both weren’t random acts but as far as the the mosh pit incident goes I was just trying to have fun with some guys at a club.

44

I’ve been hit here twice. Once, while I was crossing an intersection, a car realised too late that he needed to turn left, so he suddenly turned left next to me, forcing my scooter to go left too, to prevent us from hitting each other. (BMW, 50 cc scooter…u do the math)…I started moving out of the way, then decided to just break, because if I turned more left, I would almost be on a highway, and be late for school.

He realised that I wasn’t going to be bullied around, so braked too…and 4 scooters slammed into his behind. He jumped out and dragged me off my scooter hitting me repeatedly. Many people came running out of Starbucks going on about the stupid waiguo etc…ganging up against me. The ambulance arrived…while I moved to the side and just sat on the sidewalk, holding my ARC and drivers license in my hand like a fan:) The cops came, screamed at the cop for 15 minutes…more people joined talking about the stupid foreigner that stopped in the middle of the street.

The cop finally made his way to me…I handed him my insurance card, ARC, drivers license and explained to him in Chinese what happened…that I’ve lived here for 6 yrs, drive the same road every morning, and see this thing happening a lot. He looked at the scene…looked at me, asked if my scooter got hit, I said no. He said I was free to go.

Another time (when my hair was shaved on 1) a guy came up to me at a club, he sortof tried to kiss me and I pushed him away. His friend saw me push him from behind…came over , and hit me. I always imagine what to do in a fight, but seriously I went FLYING through the air and landed on a bunch of tables. (luckily I was dating the bargirl) All the workers of the club ran to us, carried me outside, and took the guy to another corner. Turns out the club owners belonged to a gang that wasn’t as strong as the guy who hit me, but when the guy heard that I was a girl, he came over and bowed down in front of me.

I was so upset…thought I would be able to defend myself, but really, in comparison to that guy I was like a feather.

45

Maybe this is a matter of perspective. Like where you are from. I know I feel much safer here than I do at home. But then again, at home I wouldn’t walk to 7-11 alone after dark. Hell, at home I get nervous walking to my car alone.

46

Yes Ratbrain, that was the very incident to which I refer, so you know what I mean about unprovoked.
I think tho, that in that case when they looked at my face from the front and saw I was a foreigner, it put enough weirdness into the equation for them to think twice…and you guys being there too.
I dunno tho, I am in the process of getting new full face helmet. I am not sure if it would help or not to hide my foreign face - I guess it looks pretty damn intimidating to have a black or silver finish visor.

47

Do you by any chance happen to be South-African? Yeah, if I were to go back home, I wouldn’t even dare owning a scooter.(woman, stopping at red light in an isolated area…nooo way)

It’s like when people tell me that Hsimen is dangerous…wow…the only danger there is that I may come out with a punky mullet and put little blue lights all around my scooter!!!

48

What are Taiwanese gun laws like? Is it worth learning to use a pistol and simply shooting your way out of a situation?

49

You actually met a Taiwanese person who knew the real purpose for using a turn signal? Now that is shocking (and I’m actually being serious).

50

I agree…a Taiwanese upset about an indicator?! It must be a late Aprils Fools joke!

51

Canada seems pretty wild too…wimp.com/canadianfights/

52

[quote]For what its worth, I sympathize with your situation and I am glad that you posted the same. I’m obviously glad that you and your GF and Truant all escaped serious harm in your respective incidents.

I sometimes hate it here. Just fucking hate it. And its usually because of the absolutely terrible driving and then quick-to-angry-defense that the locals throw up when called on their poor and dangerous driving…[/quote]

Thanks for your supportive post, Tigerman. I can definitely relate to the way you feel. Sometimes I can’t stand it here. Recently, I’ve been feeling that way alot.

I’m feeling a lot better about things tonight. One of my neighbours dropped by and invited me to go to the golf practice range. We went to a range in nearby Buxin where you pay one price for two hours of all you can hit golf balls. I must have hit over 200 golf balls and actually got something of a workout insodoing. I feel a bit sore in a good way. I’ve decided to try and put this incident behind me. I managed to get away and only had to replace a windshield. I found a cheap one for only 2600nt, so it didn’t break the bank. The time it would take to pursue the pond scum would cost me more than I could hope to recover from them. And this is Taiwan, after all, I don’t hold out much hope for a successful prosecution. Most friends, Taiwanese and international, tend to agree that I may be better off moving on and forgetting this incident as soon as possible. Part of me hates to do that–the part of me that values law and order-- but I think its better for my well being to let it go and move on. I think I’ll go to the range again tomorrow and join some of my neighbours for an early bird round on a local course before work on Tuesday. Whether I’ll ultimately stay in Taiwan is still a live issue, dependent on some other factors. But I’ll say this–to bring this back to a theme Truant raised in his original post: experiencing what I went through certainly does make you ask yourself how much you’re willing to take before packing it in and leaving.

53

It is…but shhhhh keep that down…I’m beginning to like the title of a “Stupid Canadian”. Keep thinking of us as dumb backward people, who are lazy and smoke ‘da herb’ all day. Keep far away from CanaDUH (plz).

http://www.canada4life.ca/videos.php?video=8

http://www.canada4life.ca/videos.php?video=11

http://www.canada4life.ca/videos.php?video=7

http://www.canada4life.ca/videos.php?video=5

54

I love Canadians and Americans! Or I love the fact that you guys are basically born with a video camera in the hand!!! Where would sites like wimp or psfights be without you!

Nothing nicer than watching a guy hitting his head repeatedly against a ceiling-fan covered in barbed-wire…good end to my weekend!

55

[quote=“Battery9”]I love Canadians and Americans! Or I love the fact that you guys are basically born with a video camera in the hand!!! Where would sites like wimp or psfights be without you!

Nothing nicer than watching a guy hitting his head repeatedly against a ceiling-fan covered in barbed-wire…good end to my weekend![/quote]

HEHE you’re making my groin quiver…

56

:threadjacked:

http://www.canada4life.ca/videos.php?video=3

http://www.canada4life.ca/videos.php?video=4

and of course…everyones all time fav:

http://www.canada4life.ca/videos.php?video=1

http://www.canada4life.ca/videos.php?video=2

Thank you for your patience…feel free to temp it all.

57

Based on anecdotal experience (three out of nine adult members of my immediate Taiwanese family have been attacked or pursued in road rage incidents, as have several of my friends), road violence is quite common here. Bad guys usually carry some sort of weapon in their cars. If you drive, you might want to have something on hand for self-defense.

Based on personal experience, and on the experience of a few friends who have been attacked or witnessed an attack, violence in Taiwan is more common than you’d think, but beneath the surface, such that you think you’re immune to it. Check out Michael Turton’s website for corroboration from a veteran.

One thing that puts a foreigner at a disadvantage here is a lack of understanding of the rules of confrontation and violent attack. We often don’t know how or why an altercation may occur.

The fights I got in back home (unfortunately, not limited to my school years) were all prefaced by some sort of initial confrontation, and were always one on one. Bystanders usually pulled us apart after a minute or so. Here, you usually don’t understand when you might become a target. Nor do you understand the reasons and circumstances leading up the attack. When it comes, it comes swiftly, and the target is usually outnumbered. Onlookers may watch in anger or disgust, but rarely intercede. You are on your own.

BTW, a group of bad guys won’t attack you one at a time like in a Bruce Lee movie. They’ll swarm, which will probably neutralize whatever you are trying to do to defend yourself.

I don’t advocate living your life in fear here in Taiwan. The truth is, most people in Taiwan are non-violent. But plenty of violence exists, and you should realize that you probably don’t understand the rules. Take the necessary precautions, stay alert. Don’t live in fear.

Fear wins, everything good loses.

58

[quote=“Tomas”]Based on anecdotal experience (three out of nine adult members of my immediate Taiwanese family have been attacked or pursued in road rage incidents, as have several of my friends), road violence is quite common here. Bad guys usually carry some sort of weapon in their cars. If you drive, you might want to have something on hand for self-defense.

Based on personal experience, and on the experience of a few friends who have been attacked or witnessed an attack, violence in Taiwan is more common than you’d think, but beneath the surface, such that you think you’re immune to it. Check out Michael Turton’s website for corroboration from a veteran.

One thing that puts a foreigner at a disadvantage here is a lack of understanding of the rules of confrontation and violent attack. We often don’t know how or why an altercation may occur.

The fights I got in back home (unfortunately, not limited to my school years) were all prefaced by some sort of initial confrontation, and were always one on one. Bystanders usually pulled us apart after a minute or so. Here, you usually don’t understand when you might become a target. Nor do you understand the reasons and circumstances leading up the attack. When it comes, it comes swiftly, and the target is usually outnumbered. Onlookers may watch in anger or disgust, but rarely intercede. You are on your own.

BTW, a group of bad guys won’t attack you one at a time like in a Bruce Lee movie. They’ll swarm, which will probably neutralize whatever you are trying to do to defend yourself.

I don’t advocate living your life in fear here in Taiwan. The truth is, most people in Taiwan are non-violent. But plenty of violence exists, and you should realize that you probably don’t understand the rules. Take the necessary precautions, stay alert. Don’t live in fear.

Fear wins, everything good loses.[/quote]

Very nicely put…

59

[quote=“Tomas”] When it comes, it comes swiftly, and the target is usually outnumbered. Onlookers may watch in anger or disgust, but rarely intercede. You are on your own.

BTW, a group of bad guys won’t attack you one at a time like in a Bruce Lee movie. [color=blue]They’ll swarm[/color], which will probably neutralize whatever you are trying to do to defend yourself.
[/quote]

The good part must be that they’d have trouble hurting you without knives while they swarm. They’d get in the way of each others work. I’d be guessing you’d probably cop the worst injuries when they backed off and laid the boots and bats in.

We definitely need a booklet for those coming to Taiwan including the section on being attacked. I’d put this chapter just after the section on being stalked by crazy Taiwanese females.

Follow up with earthquakes, typhoons, tropical disease and then finish up with the ballistic missiles aimed at us.

I guess we can put it in the wiki under “You’d be a fool to come come to Taiwan”.

60

Before even thinking of stepping out ala Matrix, it might pay to remember the sword wielding scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Awful tales and very sorry to hear them. Sadly they’re not all that uncommon. For every real life gangster there seems to be 10 gangster wannabes. Farkwits all of 'em.

HG