I'm new to HA!
I've been reading a few posts here and there and found it very interesting, but didn't really find a post about overseas chinese people that are living in Asian, specifically Taiwan.
Any other overseas chinese living here? No matter where you're from! Come and share your experience living in Taiwan and any fun/interesting things that've happened to you. Or dating experiences with local girls?
Blessings!
Overseas Chinese living in Taiwan
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Re: Overseas Chinese living in Taiwan
Welcome! Hope u can read a bit more. Cus the owner of this forum is an overseas Chinese person and he loves and he often posts all kinds of details about his personal struggles with his life in Taiwan. To make matters worse, he lives in one Taiwan's roughest and most backwater areas - Chiayi County in the south.De wrote:I'm new to HA!
I've been reading a few posts here and there and found it very interesting, but didn't really find a post about overseas chinese people that are living in Asian, specifically Taiwan.
Any other overseas chinese living here? No matter where you're from! Come and share your experience living in Taiwan and any fun/interesting things that've happened to you. Or dating experiences with local girls?
Blessings!
Why don't u post some of your own experiences as an overseas Chinese living in Taiwan. I assume u r male, is that correct? Tell us all more.
I've been reading a few posts and only read negative things about being overseas chinese here in taiwan (most coming from the owner).
I'm not from the US or Canada or any english speaking country, nor from from asian countries, so I'm kinda of a weird specimen here in taiwan. I come from South America. People tell me I look mixed, some tell me I look straight taiwanese... people can never tell at first glance. But I'm full chinese.
The first years were perfect. I was getting the 'foreigner' treatment and more. It was all fun. Maybe it was all due to the fact that I couldn't speak nor understand chinese. I had to use english since people here don't speak spanish (people here don't even find spanish interesting, they think it's indonesian or vietnamese sometimes). People here seem to have some fetish with english.
So when my chinese abilities improved, I had no need to resort to english anymore. And there's more or less where I started to feel the difference in everything.
Ok, I'll leave the negative part for another post.
Living as an overseas chinese here is like a dream. It's so weird. Sometimes you blend so perfectly with local people (as for looks), sometimes you feel totally out of place- since you look like a 'local' but we do things so differently. Sometimes you feel special because of that, sometimes it's just weird.
When I hang out with my other foreign friends it's the same. I often get confused as a local or people just talk to me in chinese and ask about my friends.
There's to much to share. I'll leave it for next time!
I'm not from the US or Canada or any english speaking country, nor from from asian countries, so I'm kinda of a weird specimen here in taiwan. I come from South America. People tell me I look mixed, some tell me I look straight taiwanese... people can never tell at first glance. But I'm full chinese.
The first years were perfect. I was getting the 'foreigner' treatment and more. It was all fun. Maybe it was all due to the fact that I couldn't speak nor understand chinese. I had to use english since people here don't speak spanish (people here don't even find spanish interesting, they think it's indonesian or vietnamese sometimes). People here seem to have some fetish with english.
So when my chinese abilities improved, I had no need to resort to english anymore. And there's more or less where I started to feel the difference in everything.
Ok, I'll leave the negative part for another post.
Living as an overseas chinese here is like a dream. It's so weird. Sometimes you blend so perfectly with local people (as for looks), sometimes you feel totally out of place- since you look like a 'local' but we do things so differently. Sometimes you feel special because of that, sometimes it's just weird.
When I hang out with my other foreign friends it's the same. I often get confused as a local or people just talk to me in chinese and ask about my friends.
There's to much to share. I'll leave it for next time!
Yeah it's weird being an ABC. Everyone assumes you are something you are not, and you feel like Taiwan doesn't really have a place for you, since you don't fit into the local or foreigner category for them. It's really weird and awkward.
I don't see how one could thrive here. The culture is not that interesting or exciting. Unless you have a hot girlfriend here, there's no point.
The only people who are truly open with strangers seems to be the elderly people, not young people and definitely not young women. When I talk about that in Taiwan, it's acknowledged as true, yet not one single website or blog on the internet ever mentions this. Weird.
Do a search for "Taiwan" in the Google search box above to find all the threads about Taiwan here. There are a lot of them.
I'm surprised you didn't say the politically correct thing here, that "Taiwan is great. People are so friendly!" There is an unspoken rule that everyone must say that. Even though it's a very broad statement that is not specific, it's one of those things you are expected to say because it's socially acceptable, thus almost all foreigners say it, especially if they are on TV or being interviewed in an article.
One ABC girl emailed me saying that she felt weird in Taiwan too, in that people expected her to be a certain way, but she wasn't that way, and that Taiwanese guys didn't like it when she flirted with them. For some reason, many ABC's feel like they can't be themselves here.
Check out this thread about loneliness and alienation in Taiwan:
viewtopic.php?t=13779
I don't see how one could thrive here. The culture is not that interesting or exciting. Unless you have a hot girlfriend here, there's no point.
The only people who are truly open with strangers seems to be the elderly people, not young people and definitely not young women. When I talk about that in Taiwan, it's acknowledged as true, yet not one single website or blog on the internet ever mentions this. Weird.
Do a search for "Taiwan" in the Google search box above to find all the threads about Taiwan here. There are a lot of them.
I'm surprised you didn't say the politically correct thing here, that "Taiwan is great. People are so friendly!" There is an unspoken rule that everyone must say that. Even though it's a very broad statement that is not specific, it's one of those things you are expected to say because it's socially acceptable, thus almost all foreigners say it, especially if they are on TV or being interviewed in an article.
One ABC girl emailed me saying that she felt weird in Taiwan too, in that people expected her to be a certain way, but she wasn't that way, and that Taiwanese guys didn't like it when she flirted with them. For some reason, many ABC's feel like they can't be themselves here.
Check out this thread about loneliness and alienation in Taiwan:
viewtopic.php?t=13779
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I don't really see how ABC have to struggle as much as other overseas chinese, since taiwanese have some kind of weird fetish with english. With people who speak native english.
I have nothing against my fellow american-born chinese friends, but I think to be able to speak native english, no matter if you look asian or not, you have advantages.
I would like to listen to more overseas chinese experiences in Taiwan or other asian country. Especially from exotic countries, like latin america or europe.
I have nothing against my fellow american-born chinese friends, but I think to be able to speak native english, no matter if you look asian or not, you have advantages.
I would like to listen to more overseas chinese experiences in Taiwan or other asian country. Especially from exotic countries, like latin america or europe.
Check out these emails from two ABC's I posted, expressing their feelings of alienation in Taiwan:
viewtopic.php?p=96282#96282
viewtopic.php?p=96282#96282
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!
Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!
"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
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"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
(posted in wrong thread lol)
The thing of being asian-looking but coming from a different country... I've come to my own conclusions:
-If they, at first, don't know you're not from here, they will talk to you, but after the imminent different accent and the way you act, you can clearly see a difference in the way they treat you. Usually: 1. they get afraid/shy, or 2. they suddenly are more interested.
-The above happens because they expect you to behave in a certain way (to behave like them, like a local), but you don't. It is very hard for local people, especially the young ones, to comprehend the existence of chinese people coming from other countries, especially countries that are not America.
-They will expect you to have perfect chinese, or at least perfect chinese listening/comprehension.
-They will think you are stupid, since you look like a local, but don't respond like one. Just because you are not able to speak the way you look, they will think you are dumb.
-It is almost impossible to maintain a normal conversation with local young taiwanese. But this time, I'm not blaming them, I'm blaming the language barrier. It's like a taiwanese going to America and have to start hanging out with only americans. Very hard. Hard, but unlike going to America or other country, it is especially hard, almost impossible to join the local crowd.
-Adding to the above- the only time you can chat properly with young taiwanese, is when you talk about yourself and your culture. But that's about it. It will always be a chinese class when talking to young locals.
These are just my conclusions. Feel free to comment!!!!
The thing of being asian-looking but coming from a different country... I've come to my own conclusions:
-If they, at first, don't know you're not from here, they will talk to you, but after the imminent different accent and the way you act, you can clearly see a difference in the way they treat you. Usually: 1. they get afraid/shy, or 2. they suddenly are more interested.
-The above happens because they expect you to behave in a certain way (to behave like them, like a local), but you don't. It is very hard for local people, especially the young ones, to comprehend the existence of chinese people coming from other countries, especially countries that are not America.
-They will expect you to have perfect chinese, or at least perfect chinese listening/comprehension.
-They will think you are stupid, since you look like a local, but don't respond like one. Just because you are not able to speak the way you look, they will think you are dumb.
-It is almost impossible to maintain a normal conversation with local young taiwanese. But this time, I'm not blaming them, I'm blaming the language barrier. It's like a taiwanese going to America and have to start hanging out with only americans. Very hard. Hard, but unlike going to America or other country, it is especially hard, almost impossible to join the local crowd.
-Adding to the above- the only time you can chat properly with young taiwanese, is when you talk about yourself and your culture. But that's about it. It will always be a chinese class when talking to young locals.
These are just my conclusions. Feel free to comment!!!!
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