The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions

Picking up where I left off. I used to posit that Taiwanese people maybe had a rebellious or independent streak. That somehow following your request or instructions to the letter or pretty close would somehow offended their deep rooted pride in doing it their way. While there might be some of that in the mix I’ve come to realize through deeper cultural contact and experience that it is far more likely that that the result I got is that of well intentioned people who come from a culture that doesn’t place the same emphasis on logic or precision in people relations that we do. A culture that any reasonable response is appreciated and encouraged. In fact there are 2 different words used to describe the efforts of others: Gong Lao功勞and Ku Lao苦勞. The former being an acknowledgement on “an accomplished.” The latter being the equivalent of “an attempt.” So my point here is in western society we generally only give praise for a suitable performance while the Chinese are more “face giving” and gracious and will acknowledge effort made.

I was still very much ignorant of this cultural dynamic and wasn’t complimentary of the stewardesses efforts with the warm water that was “better for me.” I did thank her when I got my ice cold ice water a few minutes later and thereafter. This was all small potatoes compared to my second lesson when I got to the airport in Taipei.

After flying for what seemed like forever we finally arrived at the CKS Airport. I didn’t sleep a wink on the plane. Too excited about my new adventure and also had 2 new business friends that ended up introducing me to my first job in Taiwan (we’ll get to that later). First thing I needed to do after getting my luggage was to change some greenbacks into New Taiwan Dollars(NT$). I don’t think that was even possible to due stateside since NT$ not a market currency. I got in line at the bank counter and all of a sudden this older Chinese man nonchalantly walks up and tries to cut in front of me. I had been living in Tucson, AZ for about 11 years so I was a little bit mellower than I was in my straight from Brooklyn days. I did tap him on the back and with a stern look and my thumb rocking backwards I got my point across. My Chinese was still far too rusty and my temper was going a bit so I opted not to try and voice my idea in Mandarin. He caught on and gave a look of feigned surprise while quickly moving to the back of the line. So here it was I learned of the Chinese custom of ignoring rules but not ignoring the enforcement thereof.

Wait until I get going on the traffic… To be continued…

Cultural Conflict Numero Uno

I decided to move to Taiwan back in 1987. I had one friend living in Taiwan that I met in college who was a childhood buddy of one of my college buddies. His name was Crack!  This coincided with the time period when crack cocaine was becoming an epidemic of major proportion.so whenever I mentioned his name it was sure to get a very animated response from the listener.
So without having first contacted Crack-this was in the pre-email, pre-SMS dark ages, and only having 2 contact phone numbers numbers for him (neither of them his) I made my decision to move to Taiwan figuring I’d be able to get a hold of him and probably be able to live with him for awhile at least. Why move and why Taiwan?

I had been wanting to go to Taiwan or China for a long time after finishing my studies. My reason was to gain fluency in Mandarin Chinese which both interested me personally and also offered some potential benefit as a business tool since China has been gradually opening up to the west since the late 70’s and Taiwan at least a  decade or more before that. At that time there were not many non-Chinese American born Mandarin speakers around too. I had a number of University of AZ classmates that had studied and /or taught English in Taiwan. They all reported favorable experiences and encouraged me to consider living in Taiwan for a while. I decided to go to Taiwan as opposed to China because in my mind Taiwan was somewhat further ahead of China at that time in modernization and with martial law having just been lifted back in 1987 it appeared they were further ahead democratically as well.

I pooled my savings and got a one way ticket to Taiwan with the plan to live there for at least 2 years, figuring that I’d need at least that much time to reach a basic level of linguistic proficiency. I’d re-evaluate at the 2 year point and see if I’d stay or what I’d do then. My first cultural conflict experience occurred early on in the flight. I asked the friendly stewardess to please get me a glass of ice water and even added, “with ice in it please.” She smiled and said she’d be right back. Well I was very surprised and a bit miffed when not only didn’t the cup of water not have the requested ice cubes but the water itself was far from ice cold and in fact was warm. I then reminded her of my request and asked her why she didn’t fulfill it. She replied, “In Taiwan we drink warm or hot water because cold water is not good for you.” I quickly responded that while that might be the case in Taiwan or even a correct but unknown medical or health fact to American or other westerner people, Americans are in the habit of drinking cold water often even in the winter months. This was my first contact with a well-intentioned disregard of my request or modifying the execution because the other party thought they were doing something better for me. I came to realize the Chinese were a people of many good intentions but sadly not that good about following instructions.

To be continued…