Comments on: Foreigner attitudes towards Taiwanese : Judge less, accept more

By: Chloris

Chloris — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:18:02 +0000

a bit 本位主義 nationalism of their own culture, i think everyone would have if not obvious, would still be subconciously. Superiroties should be eliminated first, then come to break stereotype.

Nodding - Agree to David, Helen, and Fili

By: fiLi

fiLi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:49:10 +0000

David - that would make us very politically correct, but I’m not sure how that would affect our perception. What I find especially interesting is this duality of love and hate some foreigners who’ve been living for long in Taiwan express. Even some of those who have been here for 10-15 years still talk about Taiwan in the same way, bitching about Taiwan and Taiwanese every single chance they get, petty analyzing every single wrong they see, yet they wouldn’t trade Taiwan for anywhere else. It’s a fascinating cultural phenomenon.

By: fiLi

fiLi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:43:40 +0000

Helen - I think it has nothing to do with where you’re from, I think it has to do with trying to let go and overcome stereotypes.

You don’t need to understand something in order to accept it, you just accept it. It’s not that there aren’t cross cultural differences, those will always be there (even here in Israel, with Israelis ), but the way you look at them and experience them will change.

The word ‘tolerate’ might suggest it’s something you have to put up with, I believe ‘acceptance’ would be a better goal. That’s when all those small nasty annoying things you once hated because they’re so different, become magical and fascinating.

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:15:14 +0000

not judging can sometimes be sooo difficult …
I agree with David, a good idea, is to avoid using extreme statements.
we all see things from our perspective through our personal cultural lens. some of the things that may be more easily acceptable from someone from Israel, may not be so easily understandable for someone from Estonia. sometimes leaving and looking at the situation from the distance may change the attitude - the problem might not seem as bad/confusing/challenging.
i find we should try to be tolerant of any culture - be it taiwanese, american, indian, russian, israeli or other …

By: David on Formosa

David on Formosa — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:42:19 +0000

Some more great points here. I think one of the easiest things to do to avoid some of these problems is to avoid making statements that begin with “all” or “always”. Where people do make these statements they should reflect on them. In most cases they will find that it is probably not the case that “all people” do this or that. One of the few generalised statements that can be made is that everyone is different!

The TED video is very interesting. I would be curious to see analysis for other countries though.