David Watemeyer writes, “I live in Korea and have made the place my home _ yet I definitely find that Taiwan has the advantage in the consideration, friendliness and help it offers foreigners. The question I ask myself is why, given that the two countries have such similar backgrounds. Do the Taiwanese have a more secure sense of identity than the Koreans? Could it have something to do with Taiwan’s longer period of modern development?”
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21 Comments
Most Koreans don’t have much thought about Taiwan, let alone find it on the map and/or not get it confused with Thailand.
Was reading the comments to the article on the KT site, and heard the usual Korean “their apparent friendliness is really insincere” type response. Well, yeah, but it sure beats a cold stare or a gruff reply. Clearly you can’t form deep, long lasting relationships with the dozens of strangers you meet in a big city on a given day, but at least you can be polite to each other.
There are also other historical differences between Korea and Taiwan which the writer fails to mention. Part of the reason why the Taiwanese have a more favorable view of Japanese colonialism (and have preserved the Japanese Colonial Governor’s building btw, while the Koreans tore their’s down) is related to Taiwan’s desire for autonomy/independence from China. It’s always a bit of a stretch to make connections between political/ economic systems and public manners, but some Koreans make a connection between their poor manners/ lack of trust with strangers and the negative experience under Japanese colonialism.
A bit of an aimless article that trails off before saying anything satisfying.
In my experience (1+ year in ROC, 5+ in ROK), “friendliness” mileage may vary by age, class, rural/urban upbringing and, of course individual, but the people of Taiwan generally seem more chilled and less guarded and naturally prideful than their South Korean counterparts. Both are vibrant and secure democracies, but Korea strikes me as having a more austere, authoritarian culture than Taiwan. At least in their own countries, easy-going Taiwanese tend to make better first impressions on visitors than brusque Koreans, regardless of potential for deeper, lasting friendships.
I find it hard to link discrepancies to their respective stages of development and democratization, which are similar even as they took different forms.
If I had to guess at explanations for differences both superficial and perhaps more significant, I’d offer in no particular order:
-Higher (by about 20%) per capita income in Taiwan, somewhat more evenly spread.
-Better levels of English in Taiwan.
-Lower levels of resentment, naturally felt or officially cultivated, toward colonizer Japan (if not historic protector USA) in Taiwan.
-A measurably freer economy and an arguably more liberal society in Taiwan.
-Taiwan’s multi-ethnic, multi-lingual nature.
-Although Taiwanese nationalism/regionalism vis-a-vis mainland Chinese is strong, perhaps the island’s unfortunately obscure international profile and politically divided society work to diminish the “National Pride” ethos exuded by Korea. As a practical matter, Taiwan can’t host World Cups or engage in other such flagwaving affairs.
-Taiwan’s milder, subtropical climate.
-David Watemayer is just not meeting the right Koreans.
I guess we can’t get into political exuberance/unfriendliness until Taiwan becomes truly independent from the PRC.
Anyway, I’ve only spent a few weeks in Taiwan over two trips, and I’m sure a vacation in Korea for a first-timer would be pleasant, too. But I absolutely found Taiwanese more relaxed and more secure, and less aggressive about pushing themselves and their culture on me. I’m just stereotyping here, but the ingrained ethnocentrism found in many locals can be suffocating and I really enjoyed getting out of that environment during my two trips to Taiwan. Of course I’ve read about the racism found among the Taiwanese and Chinese—interesting, too, how some Taiwanese hold the same stereotypes of Chinese that we hold of Taiwanese—but I guess you’d have to be a resident to pick up on it.
Off topic, but this morning I just watched a Discovery special on Kinmen, a small archipelago in the Taiwan Strait. Some of their residents historically made their money overseas and sent it back to the island to build exotic homes and schools modeled visually on European-controlled port cities like Shanghai and Singapore. It was also bombed continuously for about 20 years during the Chinese civil war, and the island they profiled still has a lot of the anti-aircraft guns, gun towers, anti-landing spikes, etc. left over from that era. It lost a lot of people through an exodus during the depression, the draft in WW2, and the Civil War, and it was under martial law until 1991. Tourism is apparently growing, and efforts are underway to restore a lot of the colonial buildings. The residents they interviewed talked about being secure with their past and moving forward both because of it and in spite of it. The whole time I was watching I couldn’t help but contrast that with South Korea, where nobody can seem to own up to any part of history, let alone tragedies that happened two generations ago. Hell, rarely can you get through any program on Korea without a native invoking the “tragic past” line.
Anyway, Taiwan is nice, and were start up not so time-consuming or relatively expensive, I’d gladly spend a year or two there.
^ Discovery Channel special, that is.
What Discovery Channel does not mention about Zheng Chenggon(鄭成功) who drove
the Dutch away from Taiwan leading to indedendance of Taiwan is that he was born to a Japanese mother in Hirado, Japan. Taiwanese may be more proud than Koreans of themselves since unlike Koreans they had achieved independence all by themselves beating Westners. Taiwanese are more objective about their history than Koreans. The Taiwanese history text books mention beneficial consequences of the Japanese colonial rule as well as shortcomings while the Korean school text books mention nothing but Japanese atrocities. That is why Taiwanese have favorable views towards Japan.
Well Natto, consider that Koreans under the Chosun dynasty had looked down on Japan, as farther from China, and thus less civilized and culturally developed. How humiliating to then be colonized by them. Taiwan, on the other hand, had been a relatively backward, recently populated and incorporated Chinese province - or actually I think it was only part of a Chinese province in the 1800s. Japanese colonialism offered an opportunity to develop, and merely represented a trade of one master for another. Then, the Chinese nationalists massacred thousands upon retaking the island. So, it’s quite understandable that Koreans have a much more negative view of the colonial period.
If this Watemeyer guy thinks the two countries have similar backgrounds, he needs a go back to the books. Less than even a millennia, Taiwan was much more sparsely populated than the current population. Also, the natives of the island were looked down on by mainland Chinese, and if you’ve ever been to rural China and seen what “looked down” on means (ie. daily beat downs), Japanese occupation was much more favorable visible.
As for the differences; Taiwan’s mass immigration had a high concentration of intellectuals (it’s said that all the top scientists left with them) and not only that, the government exiles pretty much had taken all they could that was of worth; a few dozen billion dollars of the nation’s loot (though, arguably theirs in the first place). So a ton of cash, the cream of the crop of the local populace, and a modern infrastructure based on trade ports…it’s a good mix.
As for S. Korea, they had a land in pieces due to war, a high uneducated populace (can’t go to school in war), loans and donations (4/5 of the best schools were started by missionaries) from the USA and co…oh and for all the trouble the Japanese caused, another loan. Previous infrastructure, though modern, most of it was useless without the north or in shambles (North actually had the better goods, new Japanese power plants and such). To get continued funds, SoKo also merc’ed their soldiers to Vietnam. I’d imagine some Koreans having grown up to be more aggressive.
I totally agree. I wish I had found my rut there instead of finding it in Korea.
People here are not aware how Taiwanese have a mini complex going against Korea, especially recently after Korea surpassed Taiwan for the first time in GNP per capita. This news shocked Taiwan to the core. This supposed ‘bad’ economic news will probably bring down their current Chen government.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/New.....2003314468
http://michaelturton.blogspot......l-win.html
http://toshuo.com/2007/economy.....2000-2006/
Grass is always greener on the other side.
The issue raised by that (lame) little KT essay was comparative friendliness toward outsiders. Although off-topic, the CIA and IMF figures I checked for 2006 had Taiwan at about $30K and South Korea at $25K. (I would think, though, that Korea’s higher trade barriers and high food prices would diminish comparative per capita GDP when calculated by PPP.)
Korea has way hotter women than Taiwan — plastic surgery or not, I’d say.
I have spent very little time in Korea, but even before my (Taiwanese) girlfriend and I took a trip there last summer I had a pretty negative view of the country through talking to Korean friends and reading Korean blogs. I was amazed at how our Korean and Japanese friends were taken aback by how warm and open Taiwanese people are. A Korean friend of mine was almost in tears talking about how nice it was to walk down the street with her French boyfriend and not get stared at.
I’ve lived in Taiwan for over a year now, and I’ve never had anyone treat me with anything but kindness. It’s not paradise, of course. There are lots of things I complain about in Taiwan, but it’s never anything to do with an ill-spirited, condescending Taiwanese person.
As was mentioned, S. Korea is much talked about in Taiwan and oft-used as a comparison when talking about the economy, but that really has very little to do with the people treat foreigners.
Also, I beg to differ about the girls. I saw much fewer attractive girls in Korea.
Robert
The Only Redhead in Taiwan
Wrong, America has the hottest girls in my opinion. I also have fat fetish.
Cute, Ledtim. I would say that the US and Canada DO have the hottest girls on the planet. If you do not have a reading comprehension problem like some of our posters, you will not interpret that statement as meaning that all or even most American or Canadian women are hot. It simply means that the hottest women (and men) are found here; no matter what your taste, preference, or fetish, we got it.
Slim, those CIA stats were already calculated in PPP. In actual per capita income GNI, S.Korea surpassed Taiwan in 2004, and the gap has been increased since to $3000. This is mostly due to the fact that the Korean won gained rapid strength, while Taiwan dollar became weaker.
I’m not sure I would say Koreans are less friendly. More protectionist? Definitely (as any foreigner trying to start a business here would attest).
It’s not normal, for example, to charge a minimum of $1000 ($700+$300 bribe) for an emissions test on foreign car imports. This test is rarely passed the first time, so an emissions test which would cost $19 in the US would end up costing $2-3000 in Korea.
Korea’s protectionism seems to extend to people as well. In what other country would random strangers glare at you if you were seen simply talking to a native of the opposite sex? This doesn’t really surprise me, after all it is Korea, not Taiwan, that has been known historically as the “hermit country.”
I think you mean nominal GDP. But let’s please remember that this is off topic and I am not by any stretch entitled or qualified to play, nor interested in playing, Taiwanese (small n) nationalist to anyone’s Korean nationalist. I’m honestly very happy on many levels that both countries are doing so well.
# 13,
Talking to my buddies who have been to Taipei and Tokyo as well as Seoul (and linking them with my casual observations in Koreatown, Monterey Park and Torrance here in Southern California), the concensus that I’ve gathered in the female “hottness” department is that Korea generally has a higher mean and a greater standard deviation, meaning that Korean women are not only generally hotter but there are also more of them…
That being said, the hottest girl I’ve seen in my life, regardless of race or whether or not I’ve seen her from two dimensions or three is a 5-8, C-Cup Cantonese girl I met in college.
South Korea and Taiwan should be forming a trade relationship with each other and their neighbors. I read about the history of both countries under Japanese colonial rule and most of the people in the regions faced similiar situtations during the period.
However, I would like to see that Taiwan and South Korea have more relationships with God and Jesus Christ, and they will be prosperious in all their ways.
God Bless Japan and Taiwan :).
Happy pre-Valentine Day :).