Posts tagged culture

RECENTLY ACQUIRED FACTS RE: CAUSES AND REMEDIES OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONS, PRACTICED AND SUGGESTED BY TAIWANESE GRANDMOTHERS, YOUNG PEOPLE, DOCTORS, AND GENERALLY, MOST TAIWANESE PEOPLE.

1. Pregnant women must not consume soy sauce or chocolate, or their baby will have dark skin. This is suggested to expecting Caucasian couples, and practiced by Taiwanese mothers-to-be, who value whiter skin because it holds a higher status in their family’s mind.

2. Drink copious amounts of white milk to offset the effects described in No. 1.

3. Eating bananas is bad for your bones.

4. Avoid eating ice cubes and drinking cold beverages when you’re sick, especially during the female time of the month. Cold drinks have also been diagnosed as the reason why a heavy smoker was having lung problems and teen girls with menstrual cramps have been observed snatching ice cubes with chopsticks to decontaminate their soda.

Do these points reflect your experiences/beliefs?

These countries, and many more not mentioned here, have mandatory military service. I asked my Taiwanese friend James, a computer engineer specializing in sound chips, about his two years in the army. What did he do? Shot guns, ran around, he said. Was he stationed in any other countries? No, he said, just Taiwan.

In Taiwan, males age 18-36 must serve 16 months either in active duty or a correlated public safety/community service position. Service usually begins at 19, but can be detterred by pursuing education, but not avoided. As the voluntarily-enlisted army increases, the months required by all males is expected to decrease.

The women bowed as I walked forward—two on each side of the shiny tiled aisle, bowing in a staggered pattern, like a collective audience wave at a baseball game.

They dressed similar but better than flight attendants, I noticed: navy blue hats perched slightly to the side; white collared, fitted, striped shirts; navy blue ties; a navy blue knee-length pencil skirt; and classic black stockings and shoes.

This Japanese department store, SOGO, must be closing, I realized—I couldn’t spot another customer. This must be their fair-well polite duty, I considered. Do these 6th floor baby department ladies hate me for staying till close to buy toys for a friend’s baby, I wondered?

I felt embarrassed because one, I had just been bowed to, and two, the bowing ladies’ positioning herded me to the “up” escalator that had been shut down. I hustled down the now-stairs to the 5th floor, rather than walk through the bow-ringer again to reach the moving “down” escalator. But this would be a distant memory soon, overshadowed by escalating awkwardness.

No salespeople in view at the fifth floor, so I decided to go around the corner to ride the “down” escalator for the rest of the journey to ground level—which is where I found all the salespeople.

Again they stood in two parallel lines as extensions of the entrance to the “down” escalator. Just as I entered the “welcome line”, the leader said “She-a She-a Knee” (Polite: “Thank you”), which was the cue for the rest of the employees to bow in unison while chanting another “thank you” together.

Ahhhh! No!!! This epitomized my worst nightmare. And, there was no getting out of it! I wanted to run back up the escalator and dive into clothes rack and hide till they left so I could exit in peace.

Sure enough, at the 4th floor, “goodbye-ers” uniformly bowed and chanted their appreciation again.

I rounded onto the 3rd floor-destined leg of the escalator. I saw them waiting for me again, so I started to rapidly descend rather than ride passively. This time I pre-empted their performance with my own “Thank you”, which they did not acknowledge and that did not sway their perfectly timed bows and chimes of gratitude.

The 2nd floor, I couldn’t believe this was only the 2nd floor. Time ran so slow and the feeling of trapped awkwardness thickened the air.

Nearly bolting, I zoomed through the last gratitude gauntlet and buzzed to the 1st floor street exit.

I needed to share this experience quickly to feel justified in my creeped-out feeling. Brendan met me for burgers at the Japanese chain MOS Burger (which stands for Mountain Ocean Sun, by the way) and he didn’t disappoint: his eyes widened with shock and empathy as I told my tale. Thanks, Brendan! And, thanks SOGO, for this eerie memory.

I incorporate these, and more, bits of trivia into games for junior high and senior high school students, and if they understand the English words, they can correctly answer the majority. How about you?

POST YOUR ANSWERS IN A COMMENT AND I WILL SCORE THEM! GOOD LUCK!!

1. What is the greatest number of times a piece of dry paper can be folded in half?
2. Most lipstick contains what part of a fish?
3. What is the longest word that doesn’t repeat a letter?
4. How many eyelids do camels have?
5. How long can a cockroach live after its head has been cut off?
6. What was Thomas Edison afraid of?
7. Do dolphins sleep with their eyes closed or open?
8. What’s the only bird that can see the color blue?
9. What mammal can’t jump?
10. What bird can swim but not fly?

*source: “Strange but True Facts”

A year ago, I scoured Lonely Planet Taiwan, Rough Guide Taiwan, Culture Clash: Taiwan, and the grand interweb, searching for ways my Western habits might be offensive to the Taiwanese.

But, I found living here a far better tutor.

I’ve noticed certain traditions and gestures remain meaningful, remain adhered to, and I thought they’d be useful to share.

So, if traveling to Taiwan, you can assuredly avoid culture clash induced awkward situations with these tips:

Don’t beckon someone to “come here” with your finger(s) curing upward and toward your face—it’s interpreted as a very crude gesture. Instead, flip it over: face your palm toward the ground, bend your fingers downward toward your legs.

Don’t leave your chopsticks standing straight up in your rice—this display appears at funerals and so, has a morbid connotation.

Use two hands to give and receive gifts, business cards, awards and, if you can, money, although in the haste of the western pace that is infiltrating, this is not always followed at stores.

Don’t give white flowers or a watch as a gift, they both symbolize death.

Be prepared that basically without exception, if a Taiwanese person invites you to an event or meal, they will insist on paying and most likely will get their way no matter how much you try to beat them to the check. In turn, it would be culturally sensitive of you to pick up the tab if you are the invitee, but on this rule the Taiwanese are flexible and understanding of the cultural differences.

Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Taoyuan, Taiwan

Andy is the charming boy deliberately commandeering this photo to draw attention, albeit negative, from his smart and sassy female classmates. To his right is Mandy, his arch-nemesis, perhaps only for the reason their names differ by one letter. To Mandy’s right is Fiona, who happened to arrive donning a pen-made mustache above her lip. I didn’t ask. In the back row, Selina, wearing red, flashes the double peace signs close to her face, the go-to pose all Taiwanese children seem to know from birth. Then moving to the left, it’s the rest of the adorable crew: Alice, Winnie and Ella.

I can tell you pretty confidently that Andy, Mandy, and Alice received their names from help of a kind school secretary or English-literate parent, chosen from a standard list handed out on their first day of English class. Fiona is named after Fiona from Shrek and Winnie after Winnie the Pooh and Ella after some cartoon or movie heroine—this I can just as confidently assure you.

Children—and adults who come into the two-name game later in life—obtain their English identity in one of four ways in Taiwan:

Least entertaining: The name is selected from the standard name list of all the good Irish Marys, Johns, Billys, Brandons and Kathys.

Always Cute: The name is plucked from a favorite fictional character; I’ve encountered an Aragorn, Engine (like the little one that could), and Fruit-bear (I can only guess he - yes HE - likes those gummy snacks?)

Room for weird: The name is a certain English word they have an affinity for. For example, I have multiple girls named Candy, Bunny, Kitty, Cherry—which is easy to see because, what’s a child’s favorite thing? Candy! After that? Cherries and bunnies and kitties!!! But as a Westerner, who has only encountered those names when reading about GOP rendezvous, its strange at first.

Random obscurity: A new English name is provided by the English teacher, as a result of having multiple children with the same name in one class. I have witnessed this amount to a christening of a Dragon, Money, Rain, Knight and King.

A story of horror and of Taiwanese betel nut chewers


My story began at this Mintsu Loo taxi stand
Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Jhongli, Taiwan

He embodied the tell-tale signs, eyes hard shut, face haggard, lips and teeth red, which I noticed as his ajar mouth loudly exhaled and inhaled—he was crashing from a betel nut high, in necessary sound sleep.

But I needed to be somewhere 10 minutes away, in the next 15 minutes. I suspected danger, but feared being late.

Cabbie, you were my only hope.

He made the first left turn exaggeratedly wide; then, on a sharp right turn, we swerved inches away from a truck on our left. That’s when I leaned forward and watched his face: His eyes were fluttering! And, the ratio time open to time closed was 1:2!

Phew! He stopped at the red light and I exclaimed, “Hey!” He looked at me in the rear-view mirror. “You!” I nearly shouted as I closed my eyes, put my hands together like a prayer and cocked my head to the side, universally symbolizing sleep. He understood; he nervously laughed.

He made a big effort on the straight-away that followed, most likely because my disapproving stare was deadlocked on his eyes. I was ready to leap into the front and grab the wheel in the worst case scenario.

AyYayYai! We headed into a T-collision with two scooters but before impact I shouted “HAO!”, meaning, “OK”, his signal to pull over and let me the h-e-double hockey sticks-OUT!

I boiled with the frustration of not being able to yell at him in a tongue he’d understand. Instead I sort of threw the money at his out-stretched palm. The powerlessness of the ride shook me as I walked the rest of the way to school.

Cabbies here stay alert by alternately puffing cigarettes and chewing betel nut, which is consumed in a similar fashion to tobacco chew—gnawed on for awhile, and then spit out the window, creating a blood-red splash wherever it lands, like in the photo below.


Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Jhongli, Taiwan

In Taiwan, Areca nut is wrapped in a betel leaf, like this, packaged in baggies or boxes printed with photos of seductive women, and sold by the “Betel Nut Beauties”, otherwise known as lingerie-clad ladies who perch on bar stools facing floor-to-ceiling glass windows, shrouded in the glow of the green and pink neon LED signs advertising their wares. Below, a typical betel nut stand:


Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Jhongli, Taiwan

Fur Elise, blasted from blown speakers of Taiwanese garbage trucks, is your cue as a home or business owner to scurry to the street with the day’s trash and recycling in tow.

The trucks generally appear to be the same type used in America, but here, they travel slow enough for each resident to wind up and swiiiing their heavy bags into the gaping bin.

Taiwanese and expatriates alike learn to enjoy the nightly classical siren, audible through all walls and windows.


Free Various Beethoven - Fur Elise MP3 | Cell phone ringtones at EZ-Tracks.com

Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Kenting, Taiwan

A Taiwanese bride climbs the hill to Elanubi Lighthouse in southern Taiwan—it’s time to vogue.

Culture dictates that brides and grooms hire a company to conduct a photo shoot at major scenic spots, complete with lights, sun-reflectors and costume changes! She’s gorgeous in green now, but later she’ll change into a purple gown, or a bright orange silk, or any color the palette can create, and there’ll be another headpiece of matching style.

But here’s the deal-sealer: it’s all RENTED!

There’s no spending a few grand on a one-time wear. For near the same price as a white wedding dress in the States, a Taiwanese bride gets FIVE different-colored, different-styled dresses, plus the gowns and tuxes for her wedding party.

I’d like to take a page out Taiwan’s book when it comes to weddings—green is my color, not white!