Thank-You Facebook - Taiwan's Tragedy and A Traveler's Piece of Mind

Before dawn on February 6th of this year a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit southern Taiwan. Reports of deaths started coming almost immediately, albeit slowly at first. Then I heard that an apartment building had collapsed. Later, the death toll would come to 117. I was in shock. Here in Wisconsin it was late afternoon. Less than 2 hours after the earthquake hit my phone started blowing up. My friends, thankfully, were checking in.

乾杯 Or Knowing the Mind of Another

Much has been written in English about the drinking culture of Taiwan and other places, but mostly these blogs focus on giving foreigners the surface knowledge they need to survive it. It is not uncommon for people to even lament the necessity of drinking for business, or to look down upon it. As a foreigner I can understand how this ritual can appear chaotic and pointless to the untrained eye, but this quick judgement is far from the reality of the situation. Drinking in Taiwan is about trust and 關係 (guanxi - relationships)...and maybe pride a little.

The Lonely Hearts Narrative Part 2.2

This post is part 2.2 of my series on dating and being a Western woman in Taiwan. The original question was posted here. In this post I will discuss cultural differences in interpersonal relationships. In the introductory post to this series I wrote down the basic narrative of how single white women perceive their status, but there is a problem with this narrative – many of these women haven’t been single the entire time they have been here.

The Lonely Hearts Narrative Part 2.1

I left off my last Lonely Hearts post with the question: Why do expat women get so bitter over yellow fever? The answer to this can be summed up by the phrase “white fever.” No, this isn’t a phrase that I have ever heard anyone use before, however considering the “symptoms” of “yellow fever” (which is a phrase commonly used) the term seems apt. The way I see it there are two causes of this affliction, though both stem from cultural differences:

1. ideas about masculinity

2. expectations within interpersonal relationships

But once again, this post would be too long as one, so after the break I will cover number 1.

The Difference Between Conservatism and Formality

It’s been said by many a newly arrived foreigner in Taiwan that this culture is conservative. Some will continue to see Taiwan in this way for the duration of their stay, but those who stay longer and explore enough quickly learn that “conservative” is not the right word. This I learned sometime ago, but what I struggled with until recently was what was the right word to describe sociality here. I think I have found it: formality.

Thanks to Matt for sparking the formality idea

Silver Linings

As disappointing as it may have been in the moment, not getting research funding just may be the best thing that has happened to me so far. I came to Taiwan while still waiting to hear about my funding applications and began Mandarin classes and interviews.  It was a risk, I knew, but I had nothing to do in WI but forget more Chinese.

The Word of the Day is: TOUCH

I went to Computex today. Unfortunately, it was the last day of the exhibition, and the only day I could attend. (A trip to the hospital clinic and extremely strong sleep inducing side effects prevented me from attending earlier; more on that fun later.)

While the exhibition was in reality only tangentially useful to me, I am glad I made it. The next wave of technology will of course have a direct effect on what games can be made. Based on what I saw at Computex, I expect to see the market flooded with touch games over the next couple of years.

My Second Cold War

This past Wednesday there was a raid drill in Taipei. It began at 2pm while I was still in class. Being a Chinese language class, naturally all of the students were foreigners and none of us knew what was happening when the sirens went off. Our teacher politely explained that it was a raid drill and that we would not be able to leave campus until 2:30pm. When someone asked why they have raid drills, she said “in case we get raided,” and I immediately added, “in case China invades.” My teacher just smiled and nodded her head.

Technically speaking I was alive for the end of the US Cold War, but it ended before I was old enough to be politically conscious of its reality. It has been for me more of a historical event I have read about. The Chinese Civil War is also a historical event I have read about and not a lived reality (of course this would be the case since my parents weren’t even born yet when it started and my family isn’t Chinese). Legally speaking, the Chinese Civil War never ended though, and so technically that would make this a cold war now – if you can call two countries with economic ties at war.

I knew everything in that last paragraph before Wednesday, but on Wednesday a new reality sunk into me. I am living in the center of the capital city of a country whose neighbor has a lot of missiles pointed directly at it.

On Wednesday the bustling city of Taipei shut down. I walked out to the gate of campus and looked upon an empty street. A street that is normally a major thoroughfare and is always packed. There were police at the intersection to ensure that no vehicles or pedestrians were moving about. It was creepy.

Oddly, it was also peaceful. This was the first time I have experienced quiet since moving to Taipei. Although the raid drill did on one level bring a new appreciation to me about the reality of the political situation here, this does not mean it brought any fear. It would not benefit China to invade and it would not benefit Taiwan to voluntarily join them, so from my perspective I don’t foresee an end to the status quo anytime soon.

When Tired is Better

As if speaking a foreign language wasn’t complicated enough, I usually find it especially hard to code switch fluently within one conversation.  On a day to day basis I don’t have too much trouble here in Taipei because my social life is fairly compartmentalized. I speak Chinese all day long outside of my home, and only use English to Skype home with my family in the morning or at night to chat with my American boyfriend. 

This past week, however, has been a different story.  The hostel where I live became packed with highly social tourists and the common room became a mix of Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, and English.  Some of the people spoke only one language, a few spoke two, and then there was me. I am native to English, my Chinese is not too shabby, and several years ago I studied Japanese.  Now I would not dream of claiming at this point in time that I can speak Japanese, but hearing it triggered my memory and I was able to stumble through some small talk. 

Upon hearing me code switch between three different languages others in the room began looking to me to translate.  I was not a good translator.  As I said, I don’t really speak Japanese and the constant code switching was actually making me forgot how to say things in English. By the end of the night I was exhausted. My head had literally begun to hurt from the effort. 

I walked over to the door of the balcony for some fresh air right when someone new walked in.  Introductions were made as well as inquiries into his language ability.  I normally would have introduced myself, but I was too tired to care at that point.   Then I heard a couple of people trying to explain who I was and claiming that I could translate – giving more credit than was due – and so I cut them off and said, (in Japanese) “I studied Japanese in college but” (in Chinese) “now I study Chinese and so I forgot how to speak Japanese.” During this all the English speakers had that look of confusion on their faces, waiting for translation and so I immediately translated it into English without missing a beat.   

The funny thing is that when I try to seamlessly code switch like that I can’t do it.  I will forget words or mix up the languages.  In this case though, I didn’t even think about it, I just spoke the language appropriate to the person I was directing my comments to. It actually felt natural. 

Perhaps my brain can do better without me  

Technology? 好不好？

It was months ago now, but I will never forget registration at the college where I studied Chinese.  I walked into the main entryway to find a mass of lost foreign students trying to figure out which line (there were sort of some lines forming) they needed to be in to get the information they needed in the native language (or at least some language they could read).

After getting my English language instructions, I went into the auditorium behind this entryway and got into another line to pick up forms I had to fill out, and then another line, and another.  All of the paperwork was done on actual paper and tuition had to be paid in cash only.

I was floored.  In the very country where so many high tech computers and components are made there was no online registration or pay by credit card options. It reminded me of a story my mother once told me about what it was like to register for college classes back in her day.

Fast-forward 9 months to yesterday.  I received an email from my home university back in the US that said, "

Each time a credit card pays *** charges, the credit card companies pass on a usage cost to the university.  This past year *** offered VISA credit cards as another online payment option and changed from charging a percentage on each credit card payment to a fixed $6.00 convenience fee on each transaction…

The email goes on the explain how the university ended up absorbing a large amount of fees due to these changes and so will no longer be accepting VISA.  They will still except other credit cards, but the student will be charged a 2.5% convenience fee.

Wait, what? First, I want my institution to be spending its money on educational things, not on credit cards.  Second, as a broke college student, I want to be spending my money on educational things, not credit cards. At 2.5% added to robber baron tuition hikes every year (tuition gets to rise with inflation these days unlike paychecks) a student could easily be looking at around $200 in fees a year spent on basically nothing. 

As strange as I found Taiwan’s cash based economy when I first arrived here, I have come to appreciate it. Just because we have the technological ability to do something does mean that it is in our best interest to do/use it. I wonder now how much cheaper things would be back home if stores weren’t paying so much out to credit card companies.

I think this fall, when I return to my college in the US, I will go to campus, stand in line, and pay in cash. 

Do Taipei Expats = FFXI? Part 3: Temporality and Social Risk

I think it was the lack of a long history of shared experiences with my FFXI guild that accounted for some of the social patterns that I witnessed there. When guildmates arranged meetings with each other they were essentially making arrangements with strangers or very new acquaintances.  Therefore, there were little to no feelings of obligation or any real accountability to encourage people to follow through. Whereas in my WoW guild, there were both obligatory feelings and accountability that could potentially follow a person through the game and beyond.

In Taipei, the vast majority of foreigners I have met fall into just 1 of 2 categories: Chinese language student or English language teacher. The students are mostly here for 1 semester to a year, and the English teachers often sign one year contracts. On occasion someone will stay longer or talk about settling in Taipei permanently, but most often a foreigner’s time here is expected to be temporary. This expectation is reaffirmed frequently in the way in which people talk about “back home.”

The temporary nature of this community then is not unlike the FFXI guild. The guild, being a very new community, lacked deep interpersonal connections. In Taipei there has been an expat community for years, but any one given foreigner is likely to be a new arrival and is not likely to stay. So not only does a foreigner here lack roots, but it is known (or assumed) that they will not stay here to establish roots. This may then explain the lack of a sense of obligation to others in the community and a lack of accountability.  Whatever bad blood may come between two people, the likelihood that either one or both will leave at anytime reduces the social risk to both.

Going back home becomes akin to logging off. At anytime a player can log off and walk away from their computer if they are having a problem. This is not to say that this is how people in my FFXI guild always dealt with their problems, but the possibility existed and was sometimes used. Many of the expats I have met keep just enough money set aside to buy a plane ticket home, thus always having the option to leave. This in turn further supports the temporality of the community. 

Do Taipei Expats = FFXI? Part 2: Foundations and Expectations

The first MMO I ever played was FFXI, and being the newbie that I was, I joined with a social guild that had no hardcore aspirations. Even though this guild was social in nature, people still preferred to team up with guildmates rather than join pugs, and so I would occasionally make plans to be online at a certain time to group with guildmates for whatever particular goal we were all after (usually simple grinding).

I quickly learned, however, that just because someone says they will be online doesn’t mean that they will be. In fact, the act of making plans seemed only marginally more useful than randomly logging on and hoping there would be people available.

This was very different from my next guild experience in WoW, where I joined with a long established group of people (the group was centered on a website and collectively moved from game to game).

In this guild, when someone said they were going to be somewhere it was safe to assume that they would be there. If something unexpected came up to prevent someone’s presence, the group would be informed through one of the various communication channels the guild had available.

Given the differences in these two guilds, I believe that was the deeper level of shared experiences (i.e. the longer history) of the WoW guild that led them to be more socially (and emotionally) interconnected and accountable to each other. This is not to say that the FFXI guild did not have shared experiences, but this particular social group was very young and thus had not yet had enough time to establish strong bonds.

This is not unlike the culture of the Taipei expats that I have met. Granted, I have different expectations of different people, established over time as I get to know them; but it is often the case that if I have plans with someone, the chance of them following through is only marginally better maybe.

On a Lighter Note...

I think this blog needs more pictures. Here is a couple from the temple at my favorite night market ShiLin 士林. The lanterns have been put out and lit up for the Lunar New Year.

I didn't leave Taipei for New Year's which turns out to have been a mistake. Everything shut down and to top it off it was cold and raining the entire week. Oh well, live and learn. 新年快樂!

Gamer Shame Follow-Up

So as you can see, no one plays video games in Taipei. No wait, only children play video games in Taipei...I think that is the story...yep, video games are only for kids.


This phenomenon is not indicative of Taiwan. There is a nice post about Gamer Shame/Pride from Terra Nova (a great game blog for anyone who is not familiar with it).

Embodying Taipei

It has been a little over 3 months now since I first arrived in Taipei. As I look down lost in thought I notice that my bare feet are calloused.

May calves are covered in scars. The mosquitoes have been feasting, and though I know I should not scratch the bites, I find myself mindlessly doing so while watching tv or caught up in conversation. I have scratched the skin raw and round little patches now mark the spots between fresh bites. (Fresh bites which are only left alone at this moment because both of my hands are occupied on my keyboard.)

A little higher up, just below my knee, is a long reddish brown line a little over an inch long and maybe a quarter inch thick. This is how I learned to be careful while using a shower with exposed hot water pipes.

At the waist my clothes just do not fit the same. There is not a scale available for me to use, but the loose fit of the clothes I brought from home tells me all I need to know. I do not know how this one happened. I feel like my days here revolve around food.

Continuing upwards I used to have a long mane of brown hair. I have always preferred long hair, but the heat of August in Taipei had driven me to chop off my locks. I went from soft and flowing to something reminiscent of Aeon Flux.

"I'm not Afraid of Death Anymore."

When I first came to Taipei I met an awesome American girl who would yell "DEATH!" every time a scooter or cab was approaching us. This happened frequently as it were, as the traffic in Taipei is freaking scary - and the cabs and scooters are the worst. After sometime all of the foreigners coming through the hostel began to refer to cabs and scooters as "death."

Last week, I was walking through the middle of a smaller street (smaller by Taipei standards) with this girl when 2 scooters came towards us and swerved around us. Meanwhile, we had stopped (still in the middle of the street) to watch as 2 other scooters came within inches of hitting each other right in front of us.

Neither of us even flinched. My friend turned to me after the scene was finished and said, "You know that you have acclimated when the scooters and cabs no longer phase you. I am not afraid of death anymore."

I was Supposed to Start this in August?!?

I have been in Taipei since the end of August, and although I promised everyone back home to blog and update Facebook regularly...here is my first blog post.

It literally took me 5 weeks to get adjusted to the point that I could even begin to focus on anything other than getting by. Of course this wasn't all just due to culture shock (though there was that too). Jet-lag, extreme heat, the break up of a 6 year relationship, and people back home wanting more attention than I was capable of giving all came into play. The Internet in the hostel was temperamental (its fixed now :) the academic culture of perfection, and the time consuming element of trying to communicate in a language I am not fluent in also contributed.

That being said, I have no complaints. I love Taipei and I am glad I decided to come here. I'd stay forever, but I think finishing my PhD may require me returning to Milwaukee at some point ...