One very upsetting thing about Taiwanese is that they a rather racist. I’ve gone into great depth about this before, about what their common racist beliefs are and horrific treatment of other races and nationalities here in Taiwan. So I’ll just sum it up by saying even the nicest person in Taiwan will say that “Indians smell bad.” There are many beliefs that they have for different races and nationalities, but I enjoy this one so much for how completely absurd it is. The most interesting thing about racism in Taiwan is that they don’t think that these thoughts are racist. Even when explaining racism, they think that their beliefs about different races/religions/nationalities are not racist. So what are they? The response is usually “it’s just a fact. It’s the way it is.”
I often think about why in their eyes, they don’t feel that they are bigots. I’ve long thought that one reason is because everybody in Taiwan is completely the same, so when you have that gigantic majority, as well as so little interaction with other groups, it’s easy to get swept up in ignorant thoughts about other groups. However more and more I’ve come to realize that one big reason is because in Taiwan there is no racism against Taiwanese. Or more specifically, there is nothing bad that you could say about Taiwanese that would make them feel hurt or get upset.
Allow me to explain. If we are in America and I said “British are stupid.” People would probably laugh, and assume that I’m just being silly. But if in America I said “Taiwanese are stupid.” People would most likely cringe and say that I’m a bigot. But let’s look at why this is. Mainly it’s because those people themselves are bigots, albeit subconsciously. That in their heart they think that British people are high quality and beyond reproach, while they feel that Taiwanese are lower level so it’s bad to say anything bad about them. Granted I’m oversimplifying this greatly, and there are all sorts of reasons, historical factors, etc which contribute to racism. However we can’t deny that some times what we view as bigotry and what we don’t, is based on our internal beliefs about different groups of people.
This is all to say that in Taiwan because Taiwanese feel that they are the top quality of people in the world and that Taiwan is the best country in the world, they don’t take offense about anything said against them, because they don’t take it seriously. So taking our example above, if I said “British people are stupid.” Well they response from Taiwanese would just be “why?” (mainly because of all the popular sayings in Taiwan about other groups that are regarded as “fact”, this is not one of them, so they wouldn’t inherently agree). But if in Taiwan I said “Taiwanese are stupid.” They would just laugh it off as a joke. And even if I tried to sell it like I really meant it, they wouldn’t get upset, as they have an impenetrable armor around them that they are the best.
On the one hand, this is fantastic. My dream is that one day every group will have this feeling about themselves so that nothing can affect them. Although I know that this is only because they are a country of just themselves. Taiwanese in Taiwan are super strong, but a Taiwanese person living in America faces a much different situation. Actually when teaching, one series of classes I like to do is about western stereotypes of Asians, and how that subconsciously affects western teachers and businesspeople, in their interactions with Taiwanese students and businesspeople. Trying to help Taiwanese understand what westerns could be thinking and how to deal with that when in a business or classroom setting (a nice way to say that most Western companies treat Taiwanese companies like children). But even with the articles, research, and firsthand accounts, it’s hard for many Taiwanese to grasp how other country’s people could look down on them or have negative thoughts about them. If anything, I appreciate Jeremy Lin and how the stories of his struggles with racism have kind of shed some light on this issue.
So what does this mean for you? Well it means that you can feel free to say any racist horrible thing about Taiwanese people (only those living in Taiwan) that you want, because trust me, they won’t care or give it any thought at all. Best of all if anybody gets upset you can just say “you’re the racist for thinking that that it’s rude to say that.” And if they still are upset, you can just say “no no, it’s ok, some foreigner who lives in Taiwan, but isn’t Taiwanese and hardly speaks the language, said it’s ok for me to say this.” I’m sure that will stop you from being fired.
All joking aside, while most anybody who reads this blog is an intelligent human being, since this post is so much about stereotypes, I just want to reiterate that of course because this is a blog and not a book, I have to generalize to keep things short and to the point. That of course not all Taiwanese are the same, nor have the same beliefs. That being said, you would be shocked to see just how similarly people think and act in Taiwan, a nation where pretty much everybody is almost creepily like each other, because the culture, education, etc is almost identical for all people both growing up and in their day to day lives.
And to further illustrate this point, I can only go off of anecdotal evidence, but EVERY Taiwanese person I have ever met, has said that “Indians smell bad.” These are Taiwaense from all walks of life, educational backgrounds, all types of careers, even people who do volunteer/charity work, or those who have traveled around the world. That’s not to say there aren’t people who don’t think this, but I have not met them, not to mention this is considered a “fact” in Taiwan, equal to the sky being blue. But of course so much of this blog is based on “my Taiwan” meaning the Taiwan I see, the people I interact with, the things I’ve researched (in English). And while I’ve been here for almost a decade and have yet to meet a person with as much a passion for learning about Taiwan, or as deep a knowledge about Taiwan as I have; I still have a lot more to learn, and hopefully my ever improving Chinese ability will allow me to do that. And while I still shudder a bit whenever I write “Taiwanese are…” or “Most Taiwanese….” I am speaking from a place where I think I have enough knowledge, experience, or done enough research to make that comment. But of course not all people here are the same, and that even though I have gotten to know thousands of people and through their stories gotten to hear about many more, there are still millions of people in Taiwan I have never met.
Whew, that was a long post with a lot of butt covering just to get to today’s picture and telling a funny story. It’s watermelon season, meaning that huge watermelons are being sold for prices that might as well be free. This reminded me of my experience when I first arrived in Taiwan. Whenever I hung out with Taiwanese all they suggested we eat is fried chicken and watermelon. Every time it was “let’s have some fried chicken, and for dessert I know a good place for watermelon.” Every time this happened I would stare at them to try and tell if they were being racist, or trying to be funny, but I could never tell. It wasn’t until I finally asked somebody and found out that they had no idea about that stereotype, and that in fact Taiwanese are head over heels about both fried chicken and watermelon. It also didn’t help that when I first arrived people would normally take me to the place they take all new foreigners, the night market, which is pretty much the place that is popular for fried chicken and watermelon.
