Taiwan is a Country – Here’s My Analysis
The ROC, Republic of China, also known as Taiwan is most definitely an independent country. While they speak Chinese and worship Chinese deities in Chinese temples, that’s about as far as the similarities go. I haven’t been everywhere in Taiwan, not even close – but I’ve seen enough of it to definitely say that this is not China. At least not yet. I feel confident that eventually it will be a part of China, but if I’m honest about that, so will a lot of other places. And I’m not convinced that’s a terrible thing for humanity.
There are key things that set Taiwan apart – the language, the ethnic indigenous groups, the food, the culture – but there are places in China where those things are just as different as Taiwan is. What truly sets Taiwan apart are the people and their mentality. This was the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage, it’s a country absolutely obsessed with manga and anime and cute kawaii culture – but in its own way. And that’s a funny phrase because I think Taiwan is sort of in its own way when it comes to a lot of other things as well. Including being a nation of its own.
My sense is that if Taiwan could choose a country to belong to – it would choose Japan. This is ironic since Taiwan belonged to Japan for half a century. It has a much longer history with China – not to mention the mass migration of the losing side of the Chinese Civil War coming here in 1949. I have friends who tell me that it’s fairly common knowledge (true? – I don’t know but common, certainly) that in the months before his death, Chaing Kai Shek and Mao Zedong were in talks to bring Taiwan and China together as one. That seems unlikely to me, but common knowledge is common knowledge.
Ironically, the main party pushing for unification is the KMT, which was Kuomintang – the side that fought against the PRC in the Chinese civil war. The other side is the Democratic Progressive Party which is heavily independence oriented. They currently have the president. Now there is the TPP or Taiwan People’s Party, as well. This is more of a nationalist party that I’ve been told sort of aligns with strongman politics. So essentially you have blue, green, and white which tend to be roughly equivalent to American traditional Republican, traditional Democrat, and maybe a sort of Trumpian politics of personality. So, that can be a bit confusing.
In Hawaii, I had a neighbor who was kind of a big deal in the Taiwan military. He was a cool guy. Tough as nails, fighter jet pilot, loved drinking shots of hard liquor kind of guy – and never got wobbly. In a sense, he was very Chinese in that I’ve met quite a few Chinese friends through the years who kind of fit that profile. Cool, hard as nails, hard drinking, hard playing guys with a great sense of fairness. I sort of thought most Taiwanese men would be like him.
There may be a bunch hiding on bases or in late night hidden bars but in general the Taiwanese guys I have met this trip tend towards slightly heavy and out of shape, bubble tea loving, anime nerds. I think that stereotype must be totally wrong, but there it is. There are a lot of those guys. They have fuzzy characters hanging from their backpacks. They are weebs. So I can’t help but wonder how those guys will hold up in a war situation – or if they will even manage to breed. Taiwan has the lowest birth rate of any country in Asia.
I would hope they would manage to breed because in general, Taiwanese women are beautiful and cool. Easy to look at, smart, funny, erudite – and I see so many of these great chicks on the arms of these bubble tea shaped weebs – which makes me happy for them. Happy for both because the bubble tea nerds are great nice guys and the women are…well, like I said. It’s nice to see nerds winning this way. Taiwan is one of the Asian countries that has a significantly higher number of women than men. I hope that never changes.
Taiwan is wonderful on a wide variety of levels. There are many things I love about it – including the people, the mountains, the rivers, the cities. The thing is though (and that’s where you know something is coming) there is a sickness to Taiwan, just as there is a sickness to my own country. In fact, the sickness might actually be my country’s culture of greed and consumption. The United States of America has infected Taiwan in ways that somehow, Japan was able to avoid, that South Korea was able to avoid. Taiwan didn’t avoid it.
The first place I noticed it was in the general cheery Midwest neighbor attitude of Taiwanese. The “Hello”’s and “Bye-Bye”’s are unlike anything else in Asia. It most reminds me of a sort of Ned Flanders Simpson’s Springfield kind of vibe. I think it is genuine but it is also a bit off-putting to me. My grandfather once characterized the people of the USA to me like this “New Yorkers will scowl at you but jump to help you if you are in trouble, Californians will flatter you and then ignore you if you are in trouble, people from the South will help you even if they hate you, people from the mid-West will smile and be cheerful to your face and stab you in the back at the first opportunity.” It may not be true, but I’ve found some truth to it and so when I say Taiwanese remind me of Mid-Westerners – it’s with a bit of caution.
If I’m honest, the food here didn’t make that big of an impression. I think there is a reason I’ve never seen a Taiwanese restaurant anywhere in the world. It’s not terrible but it’s also not memorable to me. It’s not made me excited to try more. I can’t think of something that is completely unique like Sri Lankan sambal, Malay curry, Indonesian nasi goreng, Japanese ramen, or Korean kimchi. The beef noodle soup is delicious and the Xiao long bao are yummy – but they just didn’t hit me like those other national dishes. Sorry not sorry.
The weather in August is hot and humid. Air conditioning is available everywhere but what would really make a difference would be a water culture of beaches, swimming in lakes, and swimming in rivers – of which there are plenty. It just doesn’t exist. If I were to guess why Taiwan hasn’t made it onto the radar of the world as a Top 10 travel destination it would be that and the lack of a bar/pub culture that people can easily fall into. Maybe that’s a good thing – Taiwan is a super cool travel destination and it’s not overrun with tourists.
If they wanted it to be and they hired me to run the campaign, I would construct swimming/diving/water recreation areas in every city, hire Australian bar designers to build rooftop and waterside bars/pubs that opened at 2pm in every city/town, and fine tune the national dish into something that has more visual appeal than beef noodles – I mean they look good but maybe it’s the name – Bull Noodles sounds better – 牛麵 Niú miàn and talk about the manliness of them or something. They’re not hiring for that position though and apparently, they don’t need to increase tourism. I don’t think that’s a sector Taiwan is particularly interested in.
And let’s talk about that for a moment, business. The Taiwanese work mentality is fairly sick. They work or study long long hours non-stop and in terms of vacation and time off – there seems to be no such thing as work life balance. I met multiple Taiwanese and foreigners working in Taiwan who referred to the Taiwan work mentality as ‘slavery’. I haven’t experienced it but in reading about it, it seems to be not far off the mark with companies emphasizing ‘diligence’ and having practices like making workers work ‘make up days’ on weekends after they get time off from national public holidays.
There is also a focus on conspicuous consumption that echoes the global sickness of the USA.
Before I came here, my Taiwanese friend said “If you come to Taiwan, you will never want to leave.” Was she right? Unfortunately, no. I’m ready to go – but keep in mind, I’m not ‘living’ here. I’m doing an exhausting place to place exploration this go round. I’m tired.
A month and some change isn’t enough to really give an accurate picture of Taiwan and I freely admit that my impressions are likely flawed if not completely wrong – they are simply my impressions. And let me also express this — Am I a bit of a hypocrite? Certainly. I’ve been here posting pictures of food and beautiful places, traveling from place to place and really living my privilege even as I express criticism of a culture I am privileged to be able to visit and spend time in. I note both the obesity and the beauty and admire the makeup and the plastic surgery while noting a vacuous tendency. Why? Because I’m indignified…otherwise I wouldn’t even be aware of my contradictions – or at the least wouldn’t point them out. All of that being said – will I come back to Taiwan?
Almost certainly. It’s a beautiful country filled with friendly people and some astounding landscapes. There is a lot that I haven’t explored and would like to. I’m grateful that I’ve had the chance to spend this amount of time here.
