I must apologize for my bitter posts recently, but the situations with the migrant workers facing a lot of racism from the Taiwanese really got to me. It was made worse when I spoke with a member of the association which helps migrant workers in Taiwan. She mentioned to me that after the situation at the train station they received lots of heckling phone calls, emails, letters, and facebook messages.
It just really disgusted me that people can be like that, especially since for as critical as I can be of Taiwan, I defend the Taiwanese a lot. Since almost all business is export/import, they often have to deal with American and European companies. Many times I've been asked to be a go between in business deals and communication and always it's frustrating to see how little the foreign company respects the Taiwanese company, and how low their opinion is of Taiwanese in general. It seems like most of the time I'm trying to educate them on the truth about about Taiwanese and their great qualities and abilities. But after hearing some of the things the Taiwanese said about the migrant workers, I feel almost betrayed by the Taiwanese.
Anyway, I really admire the lady who works for that association. She didn't complain about the abusive messages. In fact she was happy about them, as she said each one of them gave her a chance to respond and interact directly with these people who have the wrong view of migrant workers. So I want to take a page from her and try to be positive and while not excusing Taiwanese racism, try to at least explain it.
Out of all the countries I've been to, and people I've met and interacted with Taiwanese are by far the most racist. But there are quite a few reasons for this. The first is because pretty much everybody in Taiwan is the same, so they really interact with other groups. But this also means that they don't have any concept of what it's like to be racist or hurt others because to be honest in Taiwan there is no such thing as racism. Since everybody is Taiwanese, nobody says anything bad about Taiwanese, and whatever they say that is negative about other groups/races doesn't matter because there is nobody of those groups to hear it and get upset.
Secondly, Taiwanese and by extension Chinese culture has along history of sayings being taken just as fact. And in Taiwan specifically, negative things are considered to be true, while positive things are ignored. I often like to joke that if you tell a Taiwanese person that tomorrow they will win the lottery, they will think you are crazy, but if you tell them tomorrow they will get in a car accident, they will believe you and start to worry or at least get upset. This same way of thinking causes the permeation of racial stereotypes.
One example which shows these two points is the saying here in Taiwan "Indians smell like curry." Almost every person in Taiwan both says this and agrees with this, no matter how well educated they are. I actually did a very unofficial survey about this a few years back and it was quite shocking to see how many people think this. This view of Indians is not an opinion here, it is a fact. It is the same thing to them as saying "the sky is blue." It's a great example of how there are not many Indians here, so there is nobody here to hear this and get upset and feel hurt. And an example of how a negative idea just spreads to be viewed as a truth.
But while this statement is so shocking in it's ignorance that it borders on being funny that so many people can believe this, other stereotypes are not so absurd. There are quite a few beliefs about south east Asians being dangerous. And while I spent a long time futilely trying to find a news story where any Taiwanese person was attacked or harmed by a migrant worker, this negative stereotype has unfortunately spread across the minds of the Taiwanese.
There are some more reasons why Taiwanese are racist. One is that since their are not many foreigners here, most people form all their opinions on other races and cultures from what they see in movies and tv. Yes the west is very guilty of making quite racist and one dimensional tv and movie characters. But also it is very hard for Taiwanese to pick up on sarcasm and subtext. And thinking about it many shows us these methods when trying to deal against racism. One example I can think of is I was watching an American movie with a friend which is all about how bad America is (consumerism, reality shows, gossip, etc.) and half way through it my friend wanted to stop watching cause she was sick of it. I asked her why and she said that she hates movies that are all about how good America is. In her view the movie was saying America is great, and it took me a long time to explain to her how in fact the movie was trying to say how bad America is.
But because of this knowledge and these experiences, there are certain types of movies, tv shows, and even music which make me cringe when I watch them, because I know if they are shown here, people will get a completely wrong idea from them.
Perhaps the final reason for today on a cause of Taiwanese racism is because of their economic success and growth during the time when they were one of the "four east Asian tigers." Leaving many other countries behind really helped them to feel superior, and it's sustained by having migrant workers coming here for jobs and to make more money than in their home countries. But the sad truth is that Taiwan is falling behind other countries. China and Korea are blowing past Taiwan, and even poorer countries like Vietnam are working their way up. I fear that it would take a big fall for Taiwan for people to stop having such a high opinion of themselves. Granted I'm this is what the whole world says about us Americans.
Ok that's a lot to take in. I do want to say that of course this and any other post i write does not speak for all Taiwanese. For the sake of a blog post I often have to generalize, or else I'd have to write a small book on every nuance and different point of view. There are definitely those people who are not racist, whether it be through education, experience, travel, living abroad (although a lot come back even more racist than when they left, obviously we did not make a good impression on them), or just having a good heart. But I think the best thing is just through personal interaction. In Taiwan I've heard some of the nastiest things about black people and even Americans in general, but i think just through personal interaction with me and also my good friend, we have been able to open thousands of people's minds, and those people are able to share their experiences with their friends and family.
But if you look at today's picture, there is still a long way to go. This lovely blackface stereotype is the logo for "Black Man" toothpaste. Yep that's what it's called in Chinese. The shame of it all is that as mentioned before nobody here really has any concept of racism, so they have no idea why this is racist. Another thing that is shocking for Taiwanese is other races getting upset about something even if it isn't about them. Regarding this toothpaste, some white coworkers of mine would often talk about how much it upsets them and the students couldn't grasp why a white person would be upset about it, they had hard enough time understanding why it would be upsetting to a black person. Many people here think if anything it's a compliment. To be honest I think even my friends don't know why it's racist. They just believe it cause i say it, and assume it must be because the name is "Black Man." They have no clue the real reason why it's racist.
But things are turning around, a few years ago this company changed the English name of the product. So it shows they are starting to learn what is offensive. However both the icon and the Chinese name remain the same. So there is still a lot of progress to be made for both this company and for Taiwan in general.
Good luck to all of us!
