Taiwan offers travellers food and festivals, mountains and beaches, temples and museums; still, the first thing that people usually ment...
Taiwan offers travellers food and festivals, mountains and beaches, temples and museums; still, the first thing that people usually mention after visiting the island is the kindness of the people. Taiwan's overall social friendliness can be seen in the island's overall low crime rate, general receptiveness to new ideas, and overall joie de vivre of its citizenry. A western visitor standing around in a train station trying to decipher the train schedule can pretty much take it for granted that some earnest young person (we say young person simply because the older generation is less likely to speak English, and not because Taiwanese kindness knows any particular generation gap) will approach them asking, 'Can I help you?' within a few minutes. 'Friendly' is often used to describe the Taiwanese, often followed by 'relaxed'. The latter is especially true when compared with Taiwan's close neighbours (physically, and to some extent, culturally), Japan, and South Korea, where people there are often described as 'industrious', 'polite', and 'reserved' - but rarely 'relaxed'.
Why is this? It's interesting to compare the national psyche of the three countries. Economically the three have followed roughly similar trajectories (low-tech agrarian to high-tech industrial) to roughly similar demographics featuring largely middle-class populations. Though dissimilar in many ways, the 20th century was filled with periods of trauma for all three nations. South Korea, like Taiwan, bears the scars of foreign colonialism, oppressive dictatorship, military occupation and the always-looming spectre of catastrophic war. The Japanese psyche is scarred by military defeat and occupation. But Taiwan, which endured the shackles of colonialism, decades of brutal martial law and dictatorship, continual low level threat of invasion, and the added ignominy of existing in the strange political limbo of being an officially politically unrecognised entity (by all but a handful of nations), has managed to produce a population of 21-odd million citizens whose disposition could be summed up with the word 'sunny'.
Strange indeed. Or is it? Consider the possibility that the same factors that have brought about Taiwan's unique geopolitical position have also had a great hand in shaping the disposition of its people. Taiwanese people are painfully aware of their island's diplomatic isolation. Though hobbled by (among other factors) imposed nonparticipation in the UN, the Taiwanese government has gone to great lengths to make itself heard on the international stage. Rarely does a week goes by in which the Taiwan government doesn't attempt to join various international agencies. Though generally blocked, there attempts are always big news in Taiwan. Taiwan's lack of 'official' international recognition is a big part of the Taiwanese psyche, so much so that every victory - the occasional recognition by any nation, no matter how small - is cause for national celebration.
This may be part of why Taiwanese people are so genial. By the very act of applying for a visa, or of passing through customs at Taoyuan Airport, a foreign visitor is recognising (in some sense at least) Taiwan's legitimacy to control its own borders.
There's another possible way in which Taiwan's curious diplomatic situation may have helped to shape the disposition of its people. Although the United States does not technically recognise Taiwan as a sovereign nation, it has pledged to come to Taiwan's aid in the event of military conflict. Thus, like Japan and Korea, Taiwan enjoys the 'protection' of the world's most powerful military force. However, unlike either of the other nations, Taiwan has long been free from the obligation of having to quarter American soldiers. Though older people might recall the days when American servicemen were stationed in Taiwan, or patronised brothels in Taipei's Combat Zone while on R&R from Vietnam, for people under 40 those days are forgotten history.
By comparison, nearly every Seoulite has witnessed at least a few incidents involving American soldiers, ranging from minor cultural misunderstandings to fully fledged street brawls between young foreign solders and locals. In Okinawa, as well in other parts of Japan, the presence of American military bases are to the Japanese a source for feelings ranging from mild irritation to fear and anger. Perhaps this anther way in which the curse of Taiwan's political isolation has spit up a gift, and why western visitors to Taiwan don't have to learn to say 'I'm a tourist, not a soldier' in Mandarin.
Perhaps both of these theories are mostly hogwash. Maybe Taiwanese people are friendly because of the weather (hot and wet, and down south usually sunny). Maybe its because Taiwan has been blessed with a mixture of Buddhist philosophy and hefty (though somewhat underestimated) contribution of relaxed Polynesian DNA to the overall gene pool.
Or maybe there is something in the theory of collective national hunger for recognition from the world community, a sentiment that filters down only partly through the lips of people on the street. Perhaps when a Taiwanese person is especially nice to a Western visitor (as often happens), following some random act of kindness with the commonly spoken words, 'Welcome to Taiwan', they're only telling part of the story.
Maybe, what they're really saying is, 'Thank you for realising that we are here.'
Source: Lonely Planet Taiwan
Source: Lonely Planet Taiwan
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