Taiwanese love lines. They LOVE them. Lines are the greatest happiness in Taiwan. Family first, bf/gf second, lines third. And yes i'm not exaggerating, but I really wish I was. Whenever Taiwanese see a line, they will just step into the line. Most of the time they won't even know what the line is for.
I had a friend who didn't believe this, but on his trip here we tested it out. At a local park there was a gigantic line of people, and we along with a taiwanese friend went around asking random people why they were in line, and out of the twelve or so that we asked, zero of them knew what they were in line for, they just saw a line and got in.
I know this doesn't personally affect me at all, but for some reason it does annoy me. It just seems to not only be dangerous but clearly illustrate what is "wrong" with the Taiwanese way of thinking. I know as a foreigner I can't always look at things from a western point of view, but i like to think that my thoughts are based on taking the ideals from the west and then discerning which I agree with and which i don't. And now that I am here I do the same, to try and take everything I know and extrapolate what I feel is right or wrong. I know that i'm overreacting but seeing people blindly line up, just annoys me to no end.
This is a picture of what happened last night. I went to a local restaurant to get some food, and while there they ran out of rice, so we had to wait for the new rice to be finish being cooked. Since we had to wait, we were standing in a line, which of course caused other people to walk by and have a look on their face like "oh there is a line, i should stand in it." So at one point the line was huge, not because the place is any good, just because they are inefficient and ran out of rice. but because of this mistake, they ended up getting more customers.
Then again knowing this way of thinking, can be good for businesses. It's why some places make sure to only have a few tables, so people will always have to wait. I also know some places which have paid people to stand in line, just so they will attract customers. It's a dirty yet clever practice, but it seems like they should add another thing to the mix. Don't cook so much food, so you run out faster and then the waiting will make a line form. Dangerous thinking indeed.
