Wasai---Bear on the beach

In September, my girlfriend and I went to Fulong beach. My girlfriend is very pretty and its normal for people to stop and stare when she's on the street. Upon arriving at the beach, we changed in the bathrooms adjacent to the parking lot and headed toward the water. She was wearing a long skirt and a spaghetti strap top. We were holding hands and crossing the parking lot when a tour bus full of seniors pulled in. The bus was about half unloaded when they noticed us passing. The whole crowd next to the bus was frozen in awe. They stared at us like we were endangered pandas. My girlfriend giggled, she was flattered. She realized that she forgot something in the changing area and walked back in that direction. But, the old people's gaze didn't follow her. The whole crowd was fixated on me. Or, not "me" exactly; it was more like my chest hair. One old man drooled while he fixated on my chest. An old woman blushed and waved at me. When my girlfriend returned she instantly understood and laughed at me. Then she roughly scratched my belly the way you scratch a dog laying on its back. I felt like Chewbacca. The rest of our time at the beach was full of similar experiences. Taiwanese people tend not to be very hairy, which is common in Asia. Body hair is such a non-issue that the normal word for it, "毛 mao2", is the same word used for "animal fur". So, the accepted stereotype of Western people is that we are hairy compared to Asian people. As a person who is hairy, even by Western standards, sometimes I'm left feeling like the bearded lady at a freak show. I don't know whether to charge for a peek, or find a waxing salon.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Michael Garber
(Taipei City, Taiwan--- Pittsburgh, USA)

related video:

40 year old virgin Waxing: Behind the scenes

Wasai-- The friendly and outgoing people of Taiwan

In early April I went to the National Palace Museum. The public transport made it fairly easy to find my way there. There were a few troupes of school kids there too, as is the way of these places. They seemed mighty curious about me. However, kids always whisper and giggle (so do plenty of adults) so I ignored them, telling myself I was being paranoid. After all, I was just a tourist, no-one could possibly find me interesting. I never thought that it could work both ways, that the locals would look at me as an attraction.

I was looking at an exhibit, when I heard this loud sound, of about 20 footsteps rushing up behind me. I ignored it. I then felt 20 pairs of eyes watching me. I staunchly ignored it. I couldn't ignore, however the different forms of greeting, all in English. Well, fractured, incomplete English, but still understandable. I turned to find a virtual army of school children, aged somewhere between 10-15, all staring at me.

My tentative reply of hello was met with a cacophony of answers, such as more greetings, “where are you from”, “what is your name”, “you look cool/cute/awesome/handsome/white”, etc. Kids in Australia were never this bold. I was feeling a little overwhelmed at that point, so I beat a hasty retreat, but not before I answered a few questions. “My names Sean”, “I’m Australian”, “Thank you, thank you, you all speak English well”

An hour later they caught up with me again, as I was walking down the long plaza all traditional important Chinese buildings have at their entrance. I was amazed to see that almost all of these 20 children had cameras. I guess kids are getting richer. They insisted that I take some pictures with them. I was beginning to feel like a tourist attraction, but the novelty of being popular, even to a bunch of kids, hadn’t quite worn off. So, we all gathered together, me in the middle of a big bunch of teenagers, while they swapped camera’s and took photos. It was kind of fun, actually. I think it must be a little like what a movie or music star must feel in front of their fans. There’s nothing like a little hero worship to boost the ego.

This wasn’t the only time. There are several moments when I was just walking down the street in Taipei, and I would get hailed down by a complete stranger. No serious reason, they just wanted to practice their English. Sometimes I got lucky, and I could understand them fine. Other times I stood there with a polite, glassy smile on my face, while the other individual endeavored to make themselves understood.

It was definitely different from being just another white person in Australia. One of the aspects of living in a multicultural society I suppose. Australians never get excited about foreigners in our country, no matter what their race, because we see so many. It’s not a novelty to us. And it probably never will be.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Sean Wise

(Taipei, Taiwan------ Melbourne, Australia)

Wasai--- Who let the dogs out?

I was visiting the National Tsing Hua University campus this past May and was perplexed by the many stray dogs that were walking through campus. Actually, I wasn’t sure if these dogs were strays or had owners. They walked through the cafeterias, begged for food by the tables, slept inside buildings and under any shade found on campus. There were dogs of all types and breeds, mostly mutts. One dog had a limp. However, I noticed they all had a collar on, and seemed to be well-taken care of. The oddest thing is that I only see these dogs within the campus. Rarely do I see them outside the downtown area or market place. Out of my disgust, I asked one of my friends who studied at NTHU about these dogs. She explained that there is a club on campus that takes care of stray dogs. They groom, feed, and vaccinate them so that they aren’t harmful to the campus students. The club even names each one of them. Due to the student’s care, the dogs are mostly well-behaved, quiet, and are very friendly towards people. The entire campus is their home. At my university (U.C. Berkeley), stray dogs stay as strays. No one cares about them, and dares not to go near them. We fear that the dogs have rabies, and make sure not to touch them. If the dog’s not on a leash, it’s bound to go to a city pound or animal shelter where they would stay there until someone adopts them. This was the first time I ever saw a student body taking care of stray dogs, as if they were their own. Now that I’m back on the NTHU campus, I’ve now come to have a certain fondness towards these dogs. If I were a dog, I’d like to live on the NTHU campus.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Caroline Ogasawara (Hsinchu)

===============================================

Happily Strayed

Coming from the US, I'm not accustomed to seeing stray dogs out and about on the streets. Having had so many dogs as pets had helped me to learn that dogs in numbers can be aggressive and dangerous. Seeing them collecting in the vacant lots of abandoned night markets looking for scraps I didn't feel they were dangerous. I wondered why this problem goes unchecked. Is there an animal control officer? Is there a dog pound? Are people encouraged to have their dogs spayed and neutered? I wondered about all these things until I came across a dog pound. Seeing the tiny enclosures the dogs were cramped inside, it dawned on me that the free roaming feral mutts I had grown accustomed to throwing any scraps that I could spare were the lucky ones. The animal situation is a very touchy one for foreigners in Taiwan. Many western countries have a longer tradition of animal rights than they do of human rights. Seeing so many animals running around uncared for, some victims of car accidents that have injured them very seriously, touches us more than stories of human injustice. Sadly, if my own country had the same outlook and care for our human homeless as it does for the homeless pet population, we would be a better country.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Aaron Andrews (Taichung)

related vedio:

Dog abuse against all odds stray dogs

Wasai---Unhealthy health care

Some of you may be familiar with the nightmare of health services in some other countries. Well, not all forms of culture shock are bad! I still can't quite understand or explain the feeling of going into a doctor and paying with the money in my wallet. At home, a credit card, check, or a rich uncle has to accompany you to see every doctor, nurse or dentist. Even today, I'm still waiting for some mystery bill to show up in my mailbox saying I owe 1 million dollars for the 10 doctors visits, 5 dentist visits, and several trips to the Chinese traditional doctor I have had in my years in Taiwan.

I remember when I first started making Taiwanese friends that I thought, "Wow! They LOVE THE DOCTOR!" Everytime they sneeze, cough, or have a stomachache they run to the doctor. Many westerners don't go to the doctor except as a last resort when there is no chance of getting better through the expensive medicine bought in our pharmacies. When we fear this is getting serious, we breakdown and go to see a doctor.

When you grow up with something you just assume that is the right way, and if you don't find any reason to challenge it, you will maintain that idea. I was slow to see that around the world, seeing a doctor is something people do almost every time they don't feel well. It makes sense. Better safe than sorry, for sure, but when that sense of security in your health costs more than you can make with an honest days work, you tend to put off the trip to the dentist a few more months, you can ignore that cough for another week, and the pain in your back and shoulder isn't really as bad as you think. It took me coming to Taiwan to see what was really sick was the health care in my country.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Aaron Andrews (Taichung)

Wasai--- Niggar King

Some Einstein in Zhongli decided to name his store “Nigger King” not long ago. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before some westerner saw it and reported it to the authorities, who called the Zhongli police and suggested they pay the guy a visit. The owner was apparently quite apologetic and promised to change the offensive sign immediately. Oh Happy Day. But what did he change it to?
“Niggar King”



Wow, he spent all that money to change a letter. Legally speaking, there’s not much the police can do, as there simply aren’t many laws here dealing with such issues. That’s why we get stores here with English names like this, “Motherfucker” (a clothing shop in an alley off Dunhua South Road) “Darkie toothpaste” “Hitler Cafe” etc. In general it’s not malicious behavior; they simply don’t see what the big deal is. For most shop owners it’s enough to have any English, even garbled nonsense, just to the majority of their customers see them as hip and trendy even though they don’t care what the English actually says, and they tend to be baffled when they’re told the signs are offensive. Though Western “offensensitivity” seems to have no bounds in some cases, it would be disingenuous to suggest that the Taiwanese cannot be racist, however. Just ask a worker from any Southeast Asian nation.
In any case, the Zhongli police apparently made another visited to the owner and suggested that “Niggar King” isn’t quite what they had in mind when they told him to change the sign. The Chinese name, by the way is “Hei ren wang” or “King of The Black People”. Looks like the owner’s going to have to shell out to change more than a letter this time.
Maybe “Nagger King”?


original post by Pogao http://poagao.org/pjournal/

photo (nigger king): The Real Taiwan
photo (niggar king): Pogao


related posts:
http://www.therealtaiwan.com/niggar-king/933


related video:

Wasai--- Swastika 2

Several days ago, I was shocked to spot a T-shirt with big Nazi Swastika on it. The T-shirt was located in a T-shirt store in Wu Fen Pu. In America, the Swastika symbol is synonymous with Hitler’s Nazi regime and genocide of the Jews. The Swastika reminded me of a serial killer and known as Nazi follower Charles Manson. Someone wearing this type of T-shirt in the United States might be associated withthe Nazis, Charles Manson, or hate in general. Therefore, it was shocking for me to see that this shirt. Swastika is a symbol notorious for “white power,” and against any other race. Anyone purchasing this shirt, in my opinion, would be regarded as supporting this type of attitude.

The major reason is the significance of a Nazi Swastika in both cultures. Because the US is a melting pot of various ethnic cultures, such a symbol of hate would not be tolerated. It would not be tolerated on someone of Caucasian descent or of any other descent for the implied associations. However, in Taiwan, whose population is made up of predominately Chinese, the symbol may not hold such association. Thus, the hate association means little or nothing. This is not to say that Taiwanese are ignorant or insensitive, it just may not be part of their culture. Therefore, to Taiwanese, there is no such negative affiliation with a Swastika. Maybe that’s why this shirt would sell in Wu Fen Pu but you would see it nowhere near Melrose Ave in Hollywood.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Eugene Yu (Taipei)

Wasai--- Making a name for yourself in Taiwan

Years ago, as an English teacher in Indiana, I learned to quickly memorize the names of students from four points of the globe. I couldn't pronounce them worth beans, but I could remember a basketful of Chinese names like nobody's business. Then, I had my first Taiwanese students. A joke going around the teacher's room at that time was, "My name is Bing-wang Flung, but you can call me Bob" referred to the Taiwanese fashion of adopting a Western name to make it easier to make friends with Westerners.

The trend can be traced back to te British colonial period in Hong Kong and the arrival of Christian missionaries. Some names, then, came from the Bible, such as Matthew James, Luke, Ringo. . . while others come from a dictionary. Some are chosen because they just sound cool.

Here is a list of some of the students that passed through our school this summer:There was, Silence, a quiet college student with a beautiful sounding name. Equal, a pudgy second grader; Clear, a bright-eyed young girl, and Juice a young college student who sat next to a girl named Apple.

One session, there was a girl named coconut who came back the next session named Mistubishi, and returned for a third shot of English with the name Computer.

I've given placement tests to Adonis, Neptune, Shiva, Orange, and Shagya (Oh be-Have). There were Yo-Yo, Ya-Ya, and Shoo. Shopping, Siting, Sing and Sting.

No idear where these came from: Sard, Bluce, Pevis, Junith, Chims, and Torocee.

There was Tangent, whom I never met, and Nomad who didn't stay around for too long. Septum was another one who deviated from the norm.

It could be worse. There was a noodle shop downtown called King Wang.

Paul Batt

http://battaiwan.blogspot.com/search/label/Culture

photo: http://blog.xuite.net/kenjidou/kenjidou/5531887

For Expats
For Taiwanese

Wasai--- Taiwan, as I see it. (2)

Here are the things I love about Taiwan, mostly because we don’t have them in Canada.
Tour buses with happy people singing Karaoke. Night market food stands where you can get a steak for $100NT. Taiwanese Chewing Gum (betel nut) beauties are so pretty! They are an authentic Taiwanese folk art. They are like Harley-Davidson choppers, not for everyone’s taste, but what eye-candies!

I like school uniforms. They make all the students elegant and the uniform doesn’t show who is rich and who is poor. Classrooms with windows on both sides make a lot of sense. I feel at home in post offices where they have writing desks, glue, twine and tape, all for free. In Canada we have to buy a roll. My thanks for the doctors who stay open until 10-11PM and charge little because they work fast. In Canada, you can’t find a doctor on Friday afternoon. They are out on golf courses all weekends. I enjoy theme parks with Monkey, Piggy and Monk Tang, logs and bamboo made from concrete, rock gardens with koi fish, Taiwanese Opera at temples, cheap rooms at some temples in the country.

Funeral processions delight me with their strange music, as well as when one temple god “visits” another with a huge retinue of costumed attendants and giant “generals”, their huge arms swinging, drums banging, flutes wailing, and one stringed instruments make the hair stand up on my neck. With pleasure, of course.

But, aside from the general warm welcome we get from the Taiwanese population, one group of people stand out above the rest: the tolerant Taiwanese policemen.
One dark night, I was coming out of a one-way alley in Taipei, the wrong way. Just as my luck would have it, a policeman was standing there as I made my turn, pulling drivers over at random. He motioned for me to stop, not at random, for certain. My chest tightened. I’m getting a ticket for sure, I thought. He looked at my papers. He looked the bike over. I had a Taiwanese 150cc Kwan Yang, modified to look like a Harley chopper. Lots of chrome, high handlebars, extended forks, double pipes…”Nice bike!” he said in English, and let me go.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Ivan Marinov (Hsinchu)

For Expats
For Taiwanese

Wasai--- Taiwan, as i see it. (1)

I am not going to complain about the traffic; enough foreigners do that already. I like Taiwanese traffic. There are a lot of vehicles, motor scooters, buses, and trucks; there are lots of people, little space. In Canada traffic is orderly. There is no merit in that, we have the space and the police give out a lot of tickets.

I do mind scooters with their motors running, especially in front of a store where the sidewalk is covered. Don’t the owners know about carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide? It hurts everybody’s lungs!

I don’t like people spitting. And I absolutely hate garbage in the water. These things drive me up the (angry) wall. Nobody spits in Canada. Even “bad boys” turn off their motors when they go into a store. It’s highly illegal to leave a vehicle unattended with the motor running! Even insane Canadians don’t throw garbage into the water where the fish live. We like fishing too much. Litter, I can understand. In Canada, the good people always pick up after the bad people. In Taiwan, I’ve seen groups of students or church groups like Tzu Ji pick up litter. And Taiwan is a lot cleaner than before.

I have mixed feelings about dogs on scooters. It looks dangerous but everyone is used to it. But putting dogs in tiny cages would be against the law in Canada.







I love Taiwanese temples, but why do people have to light a handful of incense at a time? Lighting only one is enough for God or Buddha. But the incense sellers make a lot more money this way, don’t you think? Maybe they invented the custom. At the expense of the air quality, I should think.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Ivan Marinov (Hsinchu)

For Expats
For Taiwanese

Wasai---Chinese Kong Fu

One of my first fears of living in Taiwan as a foreigner was shet if something really serious should happen and I have t go to the hospital—communication will be a problem and god-only-knows what they might do to me. After a few years, sure enough my worst fear was realized. A back injury was really getting to be serious, my toes were going numb and it getting harder and harder to walk around. I knew it was getting serious when it was getting too painful to sit down. I only had two choices now—to live the rest of my life lying downed or go see a doctor. First I went to a highly recommended Western medical practitioner and she insisted that it was very serious and I would require surgery if I ever wanted to keep my legs. With nothing to lose I sent to a Chinese Gong Fu to mater. He told me it would take three massage treatments but that I would be okay after that. He didn’t tell me the treatments were more like torture and that he provided no anesthesia! During each massage I literally screamed in pain “hun tong, hun tong!” but he also didn’t tell me that every time I cried out he just went at me even harder to get all the pain out of me.



After three treatments one day I happened to sit down at my desk, and exactly what the little man said came true—all the pain and numbness that had been turning me into a cripple had simply disappeared. I still wonder about the differences between Western and Chinese medicine but now my suspicions have switched allegiances.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Tim Allen (Hsinchu)

For Expats
For Taiwanese

Wasai--- Chinese Medicine

For some foreigners in Taiwan there is an adjustment period for a few years as their immune system adjusts to the new environment and a new set of pathogens. For me this adjust period brought me a few bouts with the stomach flu and indigestion. The advice the doctor gave me seemed a little strange—don’t drink any cold water. And that’s only the beginning of the strange medical practices that are very common in Chinese culture. I used to think all that herbology and bizarre treatments were very strange until I met Mr. Ling. When I first met him Mr. Ling had gone nearly bald—only a few scraps of hair in odd places around his head. However, a few years later he had a grown a beautiful thick growth of jet black hair and would even let you run your fingers through it to make sure it was real. All this was due to a concoction of Chinese herbology he had been taking. I am no expert but I know that, even with Rogaine, by Western medical standards that is impossible!



Now every time I hear of some Chinese medical practice that seems very strange to me I remember Mr. Ling and wonder. Maybe they know something that don’t teach at Harvard medical school.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Tim Allen (Hsinchu)

For Expats
For Taiwanese

Wasai---Push my buttons

Going up to the Panoramic View Restaurant, located on the top floor of my hotel, I get into the elevator, push the ROOF button, and wait. There is a man inside the elevator. He gives me a dirty look, and pushes the CLOSE DOOR button. I have the feeling he is teaching me a lesson. Going down to the ground floor, I push the LOBBY button, and the same thing happens, a few women inside push the CLOSE DOOR button for me. We don’t do that back home. It feels redundant. If I push a floor button I know the door would close, and I would go. No need to push another button. But in Taiwan, the CLOSE DOOR button is the most worn-out button in the elevator.

Submitted to Wasai Taiawn by:Tad Isreal (Hsinchu)

Dont forget to push the button

For Expats
For Taiwanese

Wasai---Meaningless English words

When I was fresh from the states I was surprised by how much is written in English here in Taiwan. As a native English speaker I often got a laugh from some of it, especially if I just didn’t get it. It was funny to me because there are many native English speakers in the immediate area, and any of them could have given the author of these English things a hand to fix those little problems. But instead they often just figure it out on their own, and are left with a concoction of words that falls a little short.
It’s true that I get a kick out of the English maladies because they are often silly, but I also was amused because it got me wondering what a Taiwanese student visiting America would think about the Chinese writings we have in America. It is often popular for Americans to use Chinese on a number of things because the characters just look so cool. For example, many of my friends who can’t speak a word of Chinese have tattoos on their bodies written in Chinese characters. They like them because the Chinese written langue is beautiful and intricate. But sometimes I wonder just what does their body art really mean. I have been told by some of my Chinese friends in America that often they see tattoos with bizarre or meaningless phrases. And when they had first got that tattoo I’m sure there were quite a few Chinese people in the area they could have asked. But perhaps in the states no one they know will ever really know what that tattoo really means, and they probably just don’t care. And likewise, I suppose few foreigners will read these signs in Taiwan, and most really don’t care either if the spelling is off.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Ryan Barber (Hsinchu)

For Expats
For Taiwanese

Wasai---the "Swastika"

In the West the swastika is associated with war and unimaginable inhumanity. Usually the only places we see it now are in history books or used by hate groups. The swastika is so closely associated with evil that the emotional revulsion many Westerners have when seeing it is
difficult to overcome.

So for Westerners, who are not familiar with Buddhism, seeing this "backwards swastika" comes as a shock. Even after we learn that the figure we see at Buddhist temples is a religious symbol that has been used for a thousand years it can still be hard to disassociate it from the negative feelings.

Submitted to Wasai Taiwan by: Peggie Scott (Hsinchu)

For Expats
For Taiwanese