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Wednesday, March 16, 2005
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Thoughts on Taiwan
As I write this entry, I'm sitting in my hotel room in Tainan, Taiwan looking out over the gray and rainy cityscape. I suppose that sounds more glamorous than it really is. The view from my room really isn't all that pretty. Actually, Tainan isn't all that pretty. It is a developing city in a developing country. The streets are dirty, the buildings are run down, and the air is thick and smoggy. To be perfectly honest, sometimes I wish I was anywhere but here. But I'm not anywhere else. For better or worse I'm in Tainan. And fortunately, the city is growing on me. My current stay in Taiwan ends next Friday, but I was given the opportunity to come back in the middle of April. I took it, and I'm actually looking forward to coming back for a few months. I can't reasonably explain why, but I'm excited and I think it is because I like the people. They are extremely friendly. I've put a lot of thought into my feelings about Taiwan. I guess when you're in a land where you don't speak the language and can't understand anything that's on tv, you have a lot of time to think. Lately I've been thinking about how I would describe Taiwan. When I talk to friends and relatives back in the states, everyone wants to know what the countries I've been to are like. In a lot of cases, I'm sure that question is more like the standard "how are you?" It is a polite greeting rather than a genuinely curious inquisition into how you really are. The response is almost always the standard "good," never really addressing how you might actually be. It's like that when I go back to the states and see people I haven't seen for a while. They ask what I've been up to and I briefly explain my most recent experiences. Usually it catches them off guard, so they respond with "Oh, that's nice. What was [fill in the country] like?" I then give them a short one or two word impression of what I thought about that particular country and move on to a conversation that is more interesting to them. I have a canned response for each country...India= fascinating, Japan=great, Thailand=fantastic, Hong Kong=amazing, etc. When probed, I can give them more details and impressions, usually beginning with a few more adjectives that I really believe in and I think adequately describe my feelings for each country. This approach works for every country except for Taiwan, the country I've spent the most time in besides the U.S. I find myself trying to describe Taiwan like a guy trying to describe the ugly girl that he wants his best friend to date because he wants to go out with her hot friend. I try to paint Taiwan in a positive light, so I tell people Taiwan is "nice." I may as well just say "Taiwan has a great personality." There's nothing wrong with Taiwan, it's just not the hot chick that you really want to go out with, it's the hot chick's unattractive friend. Now to be fair, I haven't been to several of the "really beautiful" places in Taiwan. I have seen pictures and can confirm that there are parts of Taiwan that look pretty in pictures. I do really like Kaohsiung and Taipei. I love the fact that it is easy to travel to any other Asian country from Taiwan. Perhaps that should be its slogan, "Taiwan: A great location to leave." Just kidding. Living in Taiwan has been a great experience. The people are really nice and the perspective of a different culture has been fascinating. It's just that compared to other countries, there is just something lacking from Taiwan. I don't know what it is or how to describe it. In some ways, it reminds me of another place that I've spent a lot of time, which actually makes me think of a more appropriate slogan for Taiwan...Taiwan: the Iowa of Asia.
# posted by David Moretz @ 12:58 AM
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