Youtuber addresses Korean critic of Taiwan

Yeah, Americans are weird :slight_smile:

Koreans still put other East Asians at the top of the hierarchy though. Japanese put them beneath Westerners.

The guy is gay or doesnā€™t prefer Asian girls then (nothing wrong with either though)

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Sounds like heā€™s talking about pop culture, which is not really that important.

But to the extent that itā€™s important, Taiwan should really look inward on this. Aboriginal music and dance can really knock any Asian ā€œmusicā€ out of the water.

Korean pop music is mediocre trash (although itā€™s done wonders for Asian men).

All reports from people who have been to both places (including from Koreans) say Taiwan is cleaner than Korea.

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Americans over British. The number of times I was asked if I was american, with enthusiasm, only to be greeted with a sigh of disappointment and no further conversation effort after the confession that I am from the UK.

Too fucken right nā€™all though! Bloody brits :cowboy_hat_face:

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hahaha itā€™s funny.

Iā€™m from Korea. I will answer those critics.

  1. Very backwards.
  • Actually many Korean people think that Taiwan is backwards because they donā€™t know about Taiwan well and they donā€™t know about economics. But if Korean people visit Taiwan, they are surprised that costs of foods, activities, and living are almost same as Korea. Sometimes higher. However, this is not only Korean problem of looking down on other countries, but also most of countries in the world are same. Even Taiwanese looks down on other countries and Korea.
  1. People dry their clothes by hanging them on a string like some village.
  • We also do this. Especially, you can see this on rooftops in small buildings in Korea. However, nowadays, there are many apartments without public rooftops in Korea, so that we cannot use a string for drying clothes. In my home, there is a rooftop and people use strings for it.
  1. Women are ugly.
  • In my opinion, women in Korea and Taiwan are just same. A different thing is that women in Korea are very professional of makeup. And many Korean people receive the plastic surgery.
  1. Some other things. Iā€™m sure he mentioned ugly buildings.
  • To be frank, buildings in Taiwan are old and ugly. Iā€™m not talking about traditional buildings, Iā€™m talking about just ordinary buildings. I asked my Taiwanese friends why most of buildings in Taiwan are too old and ugly but prices of houses are very high. They also agreed with it. They said, even though houses are very old, house owner donā€™t want to re-build their buildings because they will have high disadvantage from the government. Therefore, house owners just remodel interior, no rebuilding. And buildings in Korea are not old, but they are ugly. To make more money, people just construct high apartments without any design.

That kind of Youtubers are always encouraging confusion between countries.
I would like to say to people in the world, Donā€™t be controlled by others online, just go out and meet people and have a conversation. Sometimes go abroad and share your culture.

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  • Very backwards

Say What? Leading the charge in the fight against Covid, a health care system that rivals any in the world, Good infrastructure. By and large a democratic, open society politically and culturally. By what metric is TW backwards?

  • People dry their clothes by hanging them on a string like some village [they do this in Poland too, BTW].

Sounds like TW are smart enough not to purchase an expensive gas powered dryer when they can dry their clothes in the hot sun for free year round.

  • Women are ugly.

This is patently false and not even worth addressing

  • Some other things. Iā€™m sure he mentioned ugly buildings.

True, but as other posters mentioned this but Korea has some of the most drab ugly looking buildings in the world.

At least Koreans paint their crap.

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The Taiwanese government disincentivizes people to remodel their houses? They should be doing the opposite.

The main difference AFAIK that might lead a Korean to think TW is backwards is Taiwan has a lot of open sewers and the plumbing/septic tank situation is a bit second world in places. Korea you donā€™t walk down the street and catch a whiff of the nastiness, but thatā€™s usual in TW.

Korea is also cleaner and less full of clutter generally.

Besides that, sounds like some boneheaded nationalism and/or sour grapes to me.

Iā€™ve heard from multiple sources that Taiwan is cleaner.

Depends where, but I didnā€™t find that to be the case and Iā€™ve been to most major cities there.

Korea tends to be cleaner and more well organized.

This is a dumb argument, because it depends on the city, the particular districts and their socioeconomic status, etc. They can also be clean and dirty in different ways. Korea has a lot of cluttered alleys with rats scurrying in dark corners. So does Taiwan. Both have serious air quality problems, both have industrial waste problems, etc. The only thing Iā€™ll say is plumbing is a bit better in Korea. But neither should be boasting about cleanliness.

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These are the sources. Two of them are Korean themselves.

https://youtu.be/_35jWVL1Q1I?t=322
https://youtu.be/iUOKEdK6b3g?t=41

Youā€™ve clearly never had to dodge pools of vomit at 6am from the previous nightā€™s debauchery.

Korea can be hella gross, especially in high traffic places. Iā€™ve lived in both for extended periods of time, and Taiwan has Korea beat hands down as far as cleanliness goes.

Ironic, considering that most Koreans think the Chinese are dirty and in their minds, Chineseļ¼Taiwan.

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I have, but in Tokyo :slight_smile: . Does Itaewon get messy?

Is that a joke? Itaewon is one of the dirtiest areas in Seoul (itā€™s also a fun and culturally diverse area, but itā€™s hella gross on a Sunday morning).

Not a joke, it was a question. I visited there during the week and it didnā€™t strike me as that messy given that itā€™s a heavily foot trafficked area in a huge city. Maybe it gets messy. Thatā€™s why I asked.

I lived in Korea from late 2007 to early 2014. During the first few years I was still in my 20s and partied hard there as many expats did. Back then it was fun, but seedy. I understand Itaewon has changed in recent years and is a bit cleaned up, but I havenā€™t been back since I lived there.

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Hey buddy! Iā€™m from Norcal too.

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