Foreigner perception in Taiwan : westerners and Taiwanese girls | Fili’s World

10 Jan, 2008 in Taiwan by Fili

Foreigner perception in Taiwan : westerners and Taiwanese girls

Is a somewhat sensitive issue. Although nothing close to what I’ve seen in Thailand, there are some sensitivities in Taiwan, even at the rural city of Tainan. I’ve had a few triggers that brought this issue up this week. The last of them was this very peculiar post on Tainan Bulletin, the leading expat-foreigner board in Tainan :

for Taiwnaese Girl - WATCH OUT! A CHEATER IN TAINAN & KAOHSIUNG…

I am Taiwnaese, I met this guy two months ago. He is from
-Fili: origin removed-. He pretends a good guy
to be with girls and give girls expection about future with him. He
got 4 girlfriends in the same time. They think he will marry them. He
is easy to jealous and makes girls feel guilty to believe how much he
love them. He pretend he just only you to make you think you are in
an exclusive rellationship. Actually not, he plays around and he is a
hunter!
He has financial problem also he is a drunker. He need girls to
take care him, so he lies every girl who had sex with him and try to
control them. He is a really good cheater. Taiwanese girls watch out
this guy!
His goal is any kind of girl from 15-40 years old also fat or thin
accepted by him; any kind!!! He got a 15 years old girlfriend before,
the girl was the student in his cram school. Don’t believe him if he
said how much he loved his ex-girlfriend; because he never stays in
an exculsive relationship.
Maybe someone prefer to open relationship, but they will not cheat
girls that i only love you, i will marry you, etc. It is necessary to
have honest in a relationship, right? Taiwanese Grils are not pawns!!!
He was born in 1966; but when he wants to hunt young girl, he will
tell them that he is just 30’s. He has black hair and brown eyes. He
is about 174 cm and 85 kg. He likes to go to Armory in Tainan for
drinking and hunting; but he will tell you his favoriate food is
Ginger Duck Hotpot. He acts that he is a local guy than you are. He
says he loves Tainan and tells you he will stay here for a long
time. Girls are easy to believe him because he pretends very nice.
He plays with kids, see girls family, etc. he is an amaeing cheater!
Other pravicy information, i can’t type here in public. But if you
want to know, i will tell you in pravicy. Unfortunately, I didn’t
catch his pics because I didn’t think he is a cheater…I assumed I
will stay with him in a exclusive relationship for a long time.
Just for Taiwanese girls, watch out this guy. I don’t hope any girl
be hurt by this guy again!
By the way, there is website:
http://blog.pixnet.net/erica1227/post/3777328 for Taiwanese girls
reference. If you want to date with forigners, some difference of
culture between east and west have to be noticed.
Wish everybody gets happiness!

DMOG. If you skipped it - please note a link to a Chinese ‘guide’ for Taiwanese girls on dating foreigners. Earlier this month, I mentioned a whole board in Chinese built for the frustrated Taiwanese girls.

These kind of posts scare me a little. It kind of reminds me of the Haravak sex-blog scandal in Israel , or maybe a little of the Sex and Shanghai get-back-at-the-sex-exploiting-foreigner China gig. This post resulted in a few replies with some more details including the guy’s name. Now, without knowing anything about what went on in that relationship or having ever met this Taiwanese girl or the lad, this is troubling - on many levels. This goes to the essence of the Taiwanese girls - Foreigner boys sensitivity and the perception of foreigners here in Tainan-Taiwan.

Looking at 15-20 apartments before finding the one I’m in, I’ve had the occasional apartment owner ask me personal questions indirectly through the friend or the agent about my dating and girls related life. For the first apartment I took for a trial month (and gave up on), ran by a very sweet couple, my friend was asked quite bluntly whether I was planning on having a different girl in there every night. When I wondered why the hell they would ask him some like that about me, my friend told me that they’re a bit worried because foreigners have a bad reputation in Tainan. Do they now?

I was in a travel agency this week to make a VISA for my winter break, when I came across Xpat magazine’s first issue from 2005. Fascinated, I sat down and read the whole thing. In there, was a humorous sad story about the difficulties for foreigners of finding a good apartment in Taipei, because of the foreigner reputation of hosting wild org-ies and loud sex parties. The story described an owner who insisted that the boys commit to never ever bringing any girl into their apartment for the whole duration of their stay.

Foreigner perception in Taiwan : westerners and Taiwanese girls Now, I have to say, that although some of the foreigners I meet here are players, to be fair - some of the Taiwanese I met here are players too. For example, on my second week here, I went into a place to get something to eat and soon became friends with the young lady making the food. We sat down and talked alot, her husband joined in after a while, and so in the evening when she went to take care of the children he invited me out for a beer with his friends. I wasn’t sure that was a good idea since my Chinese was still too basic and his English non-existent but thought it would be fun. I was taken to a love-motel to pick up one friend and was then joined by another Taiwanese guy working in security, I think. After about 5 minutes of chitchatting, the guy from the love motel tells me that the sexy girl working with him who saw me for a split second thought I was gorgeous and offer me her number. I politely say “thank you, no” and explained that I was taken at the time. He stared at me for 3 seconds, then bursted out laughing, saying - “yeah, yeah, okay, then…”. I said - “really, don’t want to, can’t, won’t”. Refusing to understand the Taiwanese guy went into telling me about his exciting life juggling between two soon-to-be-very-miserable girls. He seemed a little disappointed with himself at the time, as he usually does this with at least 4 local girls. “It’s difficult life”, he insisted of sharing with me, “a lot of lying and hiding, but it’s worth it for the great sex!”. Whatever, man. The other two Taiwanese nodded passionately through the whole speech, laughing their ass off at those girls.

Anyways, my point is, you’ve got all types in all cultures. Making this a general rule about foreigners in Taiwan creates a big stereotype problem. Why make this about cultural differences in dating like this is what all foreigners do, and why - in any case - post this on the Internet, and in the expat forums of all places. In Israel - you can get sued/arrested for something like that, if the person described decides to press charges.

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16 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

MJ Klein | January 10th, 2008 at 11:09 am #

from the description of his antics, he could be from anywhere - even very likely Taiwanese. the fact that he is a foreigner is irrelevant. but i’m sure the complainers don’t see it that way.

MJ Klein’s last blog post..The Movie Hotel
Todd | January 10th, 2008 at 11:32 am #

Almost every friend invite I have gotten from a Taiwanese girl on Facebook starts out the following: “I think I met you at a club.” I don’t know if this is just a generic pick up line that Taiwanese girls use because they think, oh he’s a foreigner, so he must club often or there is someone who looks like me walking around town. It’s really annoying, I usually respond with, “No, I can guarantee you haven’t because I have never been to a club in Taipei.” The most likely response after that is, “Oh my god, you are so different than the foreigners here.” No, I actually am like many other foreigners here, it’s just you made generalizations based on your limited experience with those you choose to interact with.

Todd’s last blog post..Jhongsing Resident Artist Program
Winnie | January 10th, 2008 at 11:35 pm #

It’s true that there are similair kinds of people in all cultures. Besides, I also think girls should take the responsibility. It’s known that most Taiwanese girls are fascienated by “western-looking” guys and fall in “blind” love very soon which I cannot say if it is true love. Girls should “think” instead of listening only to what they like to hear no mater from Taiwanese men or foreign men. It’s not easy for them, anyway! As for foreign men who develop relationship with Taiwanese girls, it is because international relationship is rare after all as a whole in this culture although the ratio has been increasing. It’s easy to catch attention and be criticized if and especially when something wrong happens to the relationship in which most of the cases men dump women(I’m not sure about this.:P) Bad news always spreads qhickly and widdely. To make the matters worse, few people think deeply about an incident from different perspectives. In the long run, it’s believed that this is all foreign men’s faults. That’s probably why foreign men have got bad reputation, at least, here.
John | January 10th, 2008 at 11:49 pm #

I’ve had landlords not allow any females back to the room before. Needless to say, I never stayed for long. Talk about a weird penalty for foreigners in Taiwan. Landlords taking it upon themselves to protect the women of Taiwan. Seems so right wing…

John’s last blog post..6 legs and 2 heads
天天北极-Carrie | January 11th, 2008 at 12:23 am #

I can see that this perception is quite popular.

Such discrimination towards foreigners is, I think, partly from the general peacockery among Asian girls. The fact is – since there aren’t many foreigners in Taiwan, many girls just rushing to date them as if dating a foreigner would make themselves more attractive in front of friends. That’s why foreigners always get much more attention from the local girls.
On the contrary, local guys don’t have such privilege. Unless they’re really super handsome that few girls could resist, they need to pay more to be a player.

Besides, foreigners are “intruders” in some locals’ eyes (well, not my opinion). I heard it from others:
A local guy juggling between local girls – that’s a personal problem
A foreigner juggling between local girls – that’s an ethnical problem
Considering such national feeling, it’s hard to blame public for being prejudicial, hehe…

Also some foreigners really act so awful to make locals got enough reasons to generalize. My friends and I had met some really bad foreigners thinking girls in China are easy to cheat. Even though I don’t generalize, I always pay more attention to those foreigners trying to hit on me. Not discrimination, but protection.

Anyway, the Israelis I have met so far are quite good. And you, Fili, really earn my respect… you are quite a NICE guy. By the way, are you religious?
owshawng | January 11th, 2008 at 10:37 am #

news flash. guys lie to women all over the world.

owshawng’s last blog post..Golden Trout Pan Fried in Cast Iron
jon holmes | June 23rd, 2008 at 11:22 am #

Newsflash-Asian girls lie to guys from all over the world!
Check out uncyclopedia.org for a laugh on this “Asian chicks”
OuisamChang | August 5th, 2008 at 8:05 am #

Kia ora:

haha yes Taiwanaise girls, with their innocent face, make any foreinger in love i had it with one time : haha long time.& all them they can offer you their friendship For 1st time,i saw it again when i was In Bali,girls there are so cute & sexy but not honest… but they are crazy.dream about Western cultur.lol
Timilsina,Prem | September 22nd, 2008 at 8:09 pm #

I have been living in Taiwan since last 3 years. I have my own kind of life .I am a married man with my Taiwanese wife and we have one lovely daughter.I sometimes feel quite upset because I find myself in odd position by not getting place to express something about my professional life and career.As I understand, many east Asian people are living in Taiwan but it is rare to see people here in my city of Kaohsiung from south Asian nations.It is nice to have this oppertunity to write something in this website.I have a fear that people will missense and wrongly understand our true motive. It is human nature to love company of people from same community and enjoy their own traditional values and culture . We are all living in different era where we have to accustom different environment, I understand this. In my experience here, I like to express my view that we better be more introspective and thoughtful and show wisdom rather than being superfast in knowing someone or something but missing their delicate psychological and cultural sensitivities.We all love our private life and that is something unique to everyone. No any technology or other method disrespect our deeper values. To Err is Human. It is mankind who has capacity to highly imagine,analyse and understand and make other feel safer and well protected.
Thank you
22/9/08
Anonymous | September 24th, 2008 at 12:43 am #

Well..this is interesting article…Honesly, there are also many Taiwanese girls like me who have the 1st impression about the male-foreigners in TWN that if he is good, why he wants to stay in Taiwan? Does he kinda nowhere to go in his country, so he choose to settle down in Taiwan?? Of course, it’s too arbitrary to judge this, cuz after I chat with a few guys and understand why they were here…I know they just want to experience more…But for the most forigners who I dont know…i don’t think them in a positive way…
Fili | September 24th, 2008 at 1:36 pm #

Anonymous - that’s such a common Taiwanese statement. A bit sad, I must say, and I just don’t get it. And what’s with the Taiwanese fascination with America. What’s so great about the US that 99% of the Taiwanese I know want to go there? the tendency to put yourself and your country down is not an attractive Taiwanese feature. Israelis do that about their country sometimes but atleast they don’t put themselves down (okay, I’ll add, “as much”). How come mainland Chinese, Hongkongese, Chinese Singaporeans are so proud of the countries, but Taiwanese aren’t?
Anonymous | September 24th, 2008 at 2:04 pm #

It’s a complex feeling…hard to explain.. ppl who live in TWN are not united to against China to fight for our country’s identity…we are so split in the awareness of a country….maybe it’s the reason why I dont really proud of my country..also….UK and USA, at least they are still 1 or 2 the strongest coutries across the world..
Fili | September 24th, 2008 at 8:58 pm #

Anonymous - I understand the confusion/frustration. “UK and USA, at least are still 1 or 2 the strongest countries across the world” is a very general statement that means very little. I don’t even understand what “strongest” means and why it’s important to you.
Jean | September 24th, 2008 at 9:19 pm #

…Influential is another way to put it…yes, it doesnt mean anything to me…maybe mentally feel that if you want to pursue sth in somewhere else much more developed…USA and UK always has the cutting edge stuff for you to see and learn…I think that’s a general thought…sure…you stil need to choose the right city to stay, not just as long as USA is good….I also think Japan is a cool country in Asia,but Japanese after all is not the world language…
Fili | September 25th, 2008 at 11:31 am #

Jean - I understand, although I might see some things a bit differently. It’s been a while since the USA and the UK have been (sole) cutting edge on anything, especially when it comes to the “modern technologies”. In general, we can maybe say that every place has its advantages and disadvantages, and that we choose to emphasize different aspects based on our personal perception.

I can see how your perception of the US and UK is very positive, while your perception of Taiwan is quite negative. It would be interesting to see how your got to perceive things that way, as it would to see how I got to perceive it in a different way.
Jean | September 25th, 2008 at 11:46 am #

OK!I hope this can convince you why my perception abt TWN is negative. My parents are real heavy green, and the KMT reign over TWN till since I was born till 2000, so my parents kept talking to me how bad our government is, how unreasonable things and policies they set up and did to Taiwanese…seems that it has great influence on me that I hv no confidence at all on BLUE government…honestly…I dont know if my parents is 100% right…but it indeed influences me…Maybe my attitute toward TWN is bad!!!

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