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How many foreigners are there in Taiwan? How many of them are from Western countries? And how many are teachers? The statistics may surprise you. According to the National Immigration Agency of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan), as to 31/12/2013 there were 525,109 legally registered foreign residents. The by far largest number of them come from the following countries: Indonesia : Male 40,481; Female 151,859 Philippines : Male 33,688;   Female  53,384 Thailand : Male 52,424; Female 14,341 Vietnam : Male 64,413; Female 57,233 The total number of foreign residents from these countries alone amounts to 467,823. How many foreign residents from English-speaking countries are there? Here I will list off only those countries whose passport holders are usually considered by Taiwanese schools eligible for becoming English teachers without having a professional teacher's degree. These countries are: USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand

After spending two months in Hong Kong, on Saturday I came back to Taipei. Since I had already lived in Taiwan for more than a year, I decided that it was about time to try out something else, and I chose Hong Kong. Some friends of mine asked me why Hong Kong. "There is not much to see," one of them said. "I spent there a day and visited everything. You will get bored", said another. Still, I do not regret  The Feeling of Coming Back To Taipei After living in the bustling, supermodern, vibrant Hong Kong, coming back to Taipei felt like going from a big city to a town. Not that Taipei is small, but it just feels like that when compared to the gigantic cosmopolitan financial centre that is Hong Kong. Interestingly enough, Hong Kong, despite being part of China, feels far away from it. You hardly hear any Mandarin on the street, and, as I explained in my previous post, Hong Kong has a local identity distinct from mainland China's. Until 1997, Hong Kong

Yesterday evening a mainland Chinese tourist travelling to Taiwan with her mother was beaten by several Taiwanese men. The 40-year-old woman had booked a trip for 8 days and 7 nights through a Taiwanese travel agency paying 3900 RMB (about 500 Euros, or 20,000 NTD). She and the other members of the tourist group come from Zhengzhou (鄭州 / 郑州) in China's Henan Province . Yesterday, while she was shopping outside of their hotel in the hot spring area of Zhiben (知本, spelt Chihpen in Taiwan) , about 15km from Taidong , she heard people screaming behind her. At first she didn't pay attention to it, but then 5, 6 men surrounded her. Among them were the bus driver, the tour guide and the group leader she had been travelling with. " They were pointing at their noises, talking in Taiwanese, " said the woman later to journalists. " Then the tour guide came. I asked him what was going on. But he ignored my question. " The men punched and kicked the woman sever

This morning I stumbled upon an interesting article on  lostlaowai . The website reported on something that happened in Chengdu: a Westerner (in Chinese often called 老外, pinyin: lǎowài)  shouted furiously at a bus driver who apparently had not stopped to let him get in. The foreigner had to run after the bus and in the process he got his trousers dirty. When the driver opened the door, the guy stepped in and began to heap on him a flow of angry words in a mix of Chinese, English and another language. Had he expected that, in the era of smartphones, the fit of anger of a Westerner in China would not to go viral within a few hours? If he did expect such a thing, he was wrong. In fact, a passenger shot a video of the screaming laowai and posted it online. The mad laowai became yet another internet sensation, yet another example of a 'crazy foreigner'. The expatriate community criticized him, though not unanimously, for damaging with his behaviour the reputation of Western

We - the Westerners who have had the privilege to stay in Taiwan long enough to know it at least a little bit better than the occasional traveller - are not the first generation of foreigners who have been to this island and have had the chance to discover its treasures. Most of the people who came here long ago did not write down their impressions, feelings and observations, and their memories are now lost to us. Yet some of them did, passing on to future generations their invaluable knowledge and experience. One of these Westerners was Owen Rutter (1889-1944), a British historian, novelist and travel writer, who visited Taiwan in the 1920s, during the Japanese colonial era. In this post I share with you the 7th chapter of Rutter's book Through Formosa , in which he describes Taipei (called Taihoku by the Japanese) and the general development of Taiwan as a colony. This part of the book is interesting for several reasons.  First, it shows us the Taihoku of the 1920s from

When I meet new Taiwanese friends, the question they invariably ask me is: "Why did you choose Taiwan instead of Mainland China?" Sometimes I tell them the truth, sometimes I just say that I am interested in Taiwan. I thought for a few days whether I should publish this post on my blog and tell strangers about my private matters. At last, I decided to share my experiences with you guys. I've always been interested in East Asia. Not for rational reasons, such as future career prospects. My interest was born out of a feeling, which I cannot explain. I think every country has its own aesthetics. When you see the image of a city or a landscape, sometimes you feel fascination, you want to go there. The way people look like, behave and get dressed, the architecture, the nature - there are many reasons why a place might attract you.  As far as I can remember, my interest in East Asia dates back to my teenage years. At that time I had no internet at home, and my access t

"Why should China say no to ' wrong Western values '"? asked an editorial published on the People's Daily , a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) . The editorial was written in defence of the recently announced ban on university textbooks promoting 'Western values'.  According to the paper, Western people misunderstand China. They do not realise that human rights are not universally applicable. Although China protects and values "liberty, democracy, equality and human rights",  the country's history, tradition and customs are different from the West's, and therefore China cannot simply copy the West's multi-party political system or passively adopt its understanding of human rights.  "There is no universal criteria to judge political values," writes the People's Daily . "Therefore, China must assimilate western values within its own political culture. Otherwise, it could ruin the future and fat

Recently I have been criticised by some people because I used the term "Taiwanese nationalism", which to some apparently sounds too negative.  In this post, I will briefly explain what I mean by nationalism and why I am in principle sceptical about it. I am not arguing that nationalism is not a legitimate ideal. But I view nationalism as very problematic; first, because it presupposes a collective identity and the subordination of the individual to the community; second, because the "nation" itself can hardly be defined rationally and objectively. I won't be using any academic material as reference this time; since I want to respond to recent critical comments, I didn't have time to write down any quotations. This post will just be a blueprint, perhaps to use in the future for a more detailed analysis.  The Problem of the Nation On April 2, 2014, the Italian police arrested a group of Venetian separatists who allegedly were plotting to commi

Xiahai Chenghuang Temple (by Solomon203 via Wikimedia Commons ) In February of 2012 a friend of mine took me to a famous Daoist temple in Taipei, Xiahai Chenghuang Temple (霞海城隍廟). I had asked her to show it to me because I wanted to pray to the Chinese God of Love, Yuelao. I am not a spiritual person, but I thought it would be interesting to have a first-hand experience of local religious beliefs.  Though I am not a Christian I was raised in a Christian (Catholic) society, and I have been influenced by it, no matter whether I rationally believe in that religion or not. From the point of view of Christendom, a Chinese temple may remind of an ancient Roman or Greek temple. It is a colourful building with symbols and statues. The sort of images Christians used to reject as "eidola", i.e. depictions of demons made by humans. The Christian God has nothing human. He has no shape and is beyond human rational understanding. He therefore cannot be depicted in sacre