When I first took this picture my intent was to talk about one of the detriments to living with family. Because Taiwanese culture is living with your family until you are married and usually still after that, most people are not very independent and simply lack the skills necessary to live on their own. This is shown in many ways, but one is an absolute inability to do even the smallest of home repair.
Even something as simple as cleaning out a clogged drain is beyond the scope of most people's abilities. And because living with family has been going on for decades, most knowledge was not passed down, so you have some people in their 50s who have no idea how to repair anything. Meaning in most situations, no matter how small, people will call a plumber or general home maintenance person to come and do things around the house. No joke, when a light bulb goes out, most Taiwanese will call somebody to come put in a new light bulb.
Because of this, there are tons of handyman jobs in Taiwan. However because of their outright necessity, they are not paid very well. I remember when I was a kid in america and first found out how much plumber's made an hour, i realized how good a job it is. However here in Taiwan they don't make much. Its a unique situation where there is just so much demand that it doesn't allow the suppliers in this case to charge a lot. If you need a handyman every few days, you aren't going to keep using them if they cost a lot.
Also in taiwan trade schools are extremely common place. Before entering high school there is a big test and depending on your score you can either go to high school, or you go to a vocational school which is essentially the same as a high school but you also study two extra years with a focus on a specific trade. Then when graduating you can get a job, or go to university for two years and graduate with a university degree. Because this is a normal path for a large amount of the student population, there is a great number of handymen and the like in Taiwan.
Thankfully there will always be demand the biggest problem in Taiwan housing is the plumbing. The pipes are not only old but very poor quality and there is always something wrong with them. Leaks are common, while sometimes water will just stop flowing all together. These means that handymen always have a job, but it also means that at least once a month if not more, every Taiwanese person has some type of water problem. This is usually worse with remodeled homes which go through the process of remodeling things but never replace the pipes, so the change in layout and housing materials just makes it even harder to get to the pipes in the wall.
All this means two things for me. 1. I am a very good handyman. Not merely because I am an adult human being, but because of my lack of chinese skills, i can't really call up and deal with repair person. So out of necessity I have to be able to solve problems on my own. Which is what I did with putting a new stopper in the toilet. (ok ok, i would have, i at least identified the problem, but i had no clue where to get the stopper). and 2. Like most people in Taiwan, I always have containers or pots with water just laying around in case the water turns off or looses pressure in my apartment.
