Job Discussion Forums

rupert shellgame · Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 109

I just don't understand the Chinese tolerance for repetition and habit, in pretty much every aspect of life.

Dr_Zoidberg · Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:56 am Post subject:

It's all they have.

creztor · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 476

This made me laugh, thanks. I guess it is a good thing, otherwise how would you manage to get workers to do 12 hour shifts and work overtime without pay?

rupert shellgame · Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 109

I just don't know how much more of this place I can stand. And I know I am not the only one.

Shimokitazawa · Joined: 16 Aug 2009 Posts: 458 Location: Saigon, Vietnam

time for a change.

I always find leaving for 6 months - 2 years helps. Hop over to Japan or Korea. You'll get annoyed there also but at least it'll be different for a year or 2 and then you can come back to Taiwan and start all over again.

Mind you, you'll have to leave again at some point for the same reasons.

rupert shellgame · Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 109

I know that I will miss a great deal about this place when I leave. The cheap and good food, my scooter (but not anyone else's), not having to worry about money, not having to worry about healthcare (I'm American, healthcare only for the worthy). I won't miss this inane mind-numbing job or the sad robot-slaves I work with, or the buxiban racket as a whole. I won't miss Taiwanese culture's mass negative hallucination (ie. if we all ignore it, it ain't really there). I don't think I'll miss the kids, other than their general sweetness, cuz they don't learn to communicate; they learn to take tests. I certainly won't miss this country which seems more like an industrial site containing within itself many smaller industrial sites, and ugly grey dormitories in which live the workers. This place is 1984 to me. Or The Wall from Pink Floyd

America is effed up beyond description. Part of the reason I left. But I'll take that over this.

Korea or Japan? I dunno, I think I need to get as far away from this mindless confucianism as I possibly can.

creztor · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 476

Rupert, you have a way with words and that sums up Taiwan perfectly! I know how you feel. Shimo has a good point about changing things up, but like he said it eventually all turns out to be the same. Good luck with whatever you pursue.

rupert shellgame · Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 109

Thanks, Creztor. Really, part of me feels bad for saying this stuff because many people (westerners or Taiwanese) are happy here. But the good money and good food just doesn't over ride the institutionalized authoritarianism here, or the pollution, or, or, or, you name it.

Really, I think the Taiwanese are fine people. One thing I have learned here is that meekness can be nurtured, as I think it is here, a little too much actually. Whereas in America - maybe the whole west - it seems that we are led to think that what we are is what we are by nature. Maybe the Taiwanese think the same. Few cultures would survive if they didn't claim to be natural, and not nurtural. Maybe that's why when I get irrate at work the women all act like frightened deer. This is an abberation of nature, this large, unnatural man, who is upset again. Later at the family meeting around the television: "Yeah, he was crazy! All I could catch was 'robots' and a few English cuss words; he even said 'dick', he he he he he he." But what I actually said was "riDICulous!"

Maybe I should just blog all of this. After I leave. I have been in contact with the Taiwanese guy who wrote an article just ripping Taiwan to shreds (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/02/05/2003222357). Pretty harsh actually. He mentions a German reporter who said Taiwanese live in a "pig pen." And he apparently was deported over it.

zipper · Joined: 14 Dec 2009 Posts: 237

I have noticed that today's generation of people in developed countries such as Asia and the West share a lot in common such as apathy, selfishness, and existentialism. What I find very interesting is the Korean cyborg mentality.

The Asian country that stands out most for me as still having a generation of humble people is Thailand. But I am sure that the diseases of change is changing that society as well.

Do what I have been doing for the last 20 years. Live here and there for a couple years at a time, it helps break up the boredom. Razz

Dr_Zoidberg · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:18 am Post subject:

zipper · Joined: 14 Dec 2009 Posts: 237

creztor · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 476

zipper, put on those man pants Wink

I know you have them there somewhere...

zipper · Joined: 14 Dec 2009 Posts: 237

Dr_Zoidberg · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:48 pm Post subject:

zipper · Joined: 14 Dec 2009 Posts: 237