From China, With Love

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Methersgate
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Posted (edited)

I also like Taiwan. (Well, I really love Hong Kong, but the girls are not pretty there!)

 

One thing about Taiwan today is that the place has "made it" - it is a prosperous and self confident place, now.

 

One should be aware of three "fault lines" which run through Taiwan society:

 

1. The "Aboriginals".  Ethnically Malayo-Polynesian, same as the majority of Filipinos. They are maybe 3%, at the bottom of society, men work as security guards, girls tend to be entertainers (and you can put inverted commas round that, but do Google the singer A-Mei!).

2. The "Native Taiwanese" (not the same as (1). The Hokkien speakers who arrived between say 1600 and 1945, They speak Hokkien, vote DPP and secretly "favour independence". Some big companies, like Evergreen/Eva Air  and Formosa Plastics, are 100% Native Taiwanese and you wont hear Mandarin spoken in their offices. Most unusually, the Native Taiwanese absolutely love the Japanese; they are for sure the only Chinese people who do! This is because Japan colonised Taiwan in 1885 and, it being Japan's first colony, they treated the place like the Americans treated the Filipinos, building roads, schools, railways etc and generally being nice to people.

 

3, The Mainlanders. The people who arrived in a hurry with Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-Ling and their defeated Kuomintang ("KMT")  army in 1949 and ran the place until Chiang's son Chiang ChingKuo decided to try democracy in the late 1980's. Unsurprisingly they vote KMT. They will be found in the Government, the Arned Forces and the State owned Enterprises and they speak Mandarin.

There is resentment between the groups because the Aboriginals are at the bottom of the heap, the Native Taiwanese were sat at the back of the class at school and not allowed to go to the good universities or get good jobs in Government for many years, and the Mainlanders worry about the others taking over their privileges. 

Edited by Methersgate
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Jake
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I also like Taiwan. (Well, I really love Hong Kong, but the girls are not pretty there!)

 

One thing about Taiwan today is that the place has "made it" - it is a prosperous and self confident place, now.

 

One should be aware of three "fault lines" which run through Taiwan society:

 

1. The "Aboriginals".  Ethnically Malayo-Polynesian, same as the majority of Filipinos. They are maybe 3%, at the bottom of society, men work as security guards, girls tend to be entertainers (and you can put inverted commas round that, but do Google the singer A-Mei.

2. The "Native Taiwanese" (not the same as (1). The Hokkien speakers who arrived between say 1600 and 1945, They speak Hokkien, vote DPP and secretly "favour independence". Some big companies, like Evergreen/Eva Air  and Formosa Plastics, are 100% Native Taiwanese and you wont hear Mandarin spoken in their offices. Most unusually, the Native Taiwanese absolutely love the Japanese; they are for sure the only Chinese people who do! This is because Japan colonised Taiwan in 1885 and, it being Japan's first colony, they treated the place like the Americans treated the Filipinos, building roads, schools, railways etc and generally being nice to people.

 

3, The Mainlanders. The people who arrived in a hurry with Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-Ling and their defeated army in 1949 and ran the place until Chiang's son Chiang ChingKuo decided to try democracy in the late 1980's. They will be found in the Government, the Arned Forces and the State owned Enterprises and they speak Mandarin.

Triple LIKE Andrew!  I don't think I could get this information reading textbooks about anthropology and

political science of this industrious country of Taiwan.  The 3 distinct fault lines of Aboriginals, the native

Taiwanese and the Mainlanders denote a certain level of animosity between these groups.    

 

It somewhat parallels the stupid notion of highlanders vs the lowlanders of northern Europe,  Or Mandarin

vs Cantonese or someone being labelled a Basiya (provincial mentality vs metro Manila).  I'm beginning

to think the Asians (including India, Pakistan) are the ancient racists prior to western civilization.  I hope

that I am wrong.......

 

Respectfully -- Jake

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Methersgate
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Wow! Thanks, Jake. 

To save Googling for A-Mei:

 

amei2.jpg

 

Aboriginal Taiwanese and possibly the most popular female vocalist in all East Asia.

(You can keep Rihanna!).

Edited by Methersgate
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Jake
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How did you know that I would be googling at A-Mei -- she is gorgeous!

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Methersgate
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I love Hong Kong! And so does everybody else, apart from 1.2 billion other Chinese people, who think the Hong Kongers are uppity spoiled brats, always complaining, and who suspect that the people of Hong Kong are not really Chinese anyway, having been infected with Britishness.

 

The Taiwanese, whom the people of the People's Republic like much better than the Hong Kongers,* have a particularly rude expression for the people of the Special Administrative Region of Xiangang - they call them "the overseas Chinese on Hong Kong",which is really rude, because it implies that they dont really belong there and they are "overseas-Chinese", which in Confucian terms means not proper Chinese, because by emigrating they by definition abandoned the sacred task of maintaining their ancestors' graves.

 

Which incidentally accounts for my favourite road sign, "To Permanent Cemetery" (!)

Yes, most people in HK are zombies! Actually, land is so expensive that most people are buried for seven years, then their bones are dug up and put in a pot and either sent back to their ancestral village or re-interred somewhere overlooking the sea (feng shui and all that) in HK.  

* Because the Cultural Revolution missed Taiwan, of course, so Taiwanese culture was preserved more perfectly than on the Mainland.
 

But the rest of us love Hong Kong

Read all about it!

http://gwulo.com/ACBs-history-of-hong-kong

 

Edited by Methersgate
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Old55
Posted
Posted (edited)

I also like Taiwan. (Well, I really love Hong Kong, but the girls are not pretty there!)

One thing about Taiwan today is that the place has "made it" - it is a prosperous and self confident place, now.

One should be aware of three "fault lines" which run through Taiwan society:

1. The "Aboriginals". Ethnically Malayo-Polynesian, same as the majority of Filipinos. They are maybe 3%, at the bottom of society, men work as security guards, girls tend to be entertainers (and you can put inverted commas round that, but do Google the singer A-Mei!).

2. The "Native Taiwanese" (not the same as (1). The Hokkien speakers who arrived between say 1600 and 1945, They speak Hokkien, vote DPP and secretly "favour independence". Some big companies, like Evergreen/Eva Air and Formosa Plastics, are 100% Native Taiwanese and you wont hear Mandarin spoken in their offices. Most unusually, the Native Taiwanese absolutely love the Japanese; they are for sure the only Chinese people who do! This is because Japan colonised Taiwan in 1885 and, it being Japan's first colony, they treated the place like the Americans treated the Filipinos, building roads, schools, railways etc and generally being nice to people.

3, The Mainlanders. The people who arrived in a hurry with Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-Ling and their defeated Kuomintang ("KMT") army in 1949 and ran the place until Chiang's son Chiang ChingKuo decided to try democracy in the late 1980's. Unsurprisingly they vote KMT. They will be found in the Government, the Arned Forces and the State owned Enterprises and they speak Mandarin.

There is resentment between the groups because the Aboriginals are at the bottom of the heap, the Native Taiwanese were sat at the back of the class at school and not allowed to go to the good universities or get good jobs in Government for many years, and the Mainlanders worry about the others taking over their privileges.

This was exactly my experience. Very well stated!

After a time I was able to recognise Taiwanese and would greet them in Taiwanese not Mandarin. My GF was Taiwanese had a slightly darker complexion that she disliked same as many Filipinas do.

I plan to visit again someday I know things are very changed the past forty years.

I'll try to post some pictures of those times.

Edited by Old55
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Britster
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post-40-0-73147200-1300503648.jpg
Forum get together March 18 2011 013.JPG - Size 130.71KB
 
This was a Photo posted by  Buddy of my Step-daughter Ana-Katrina, my wife Salome (Sha-Sha) and my son Paul who was on a Cebu Pacific Flight that afternoon to Hong Kong (which is why we had to leave that Philippines-Expats - Forum get together March 18 2011 early.
 
Jack (LordBlacknail) suggested to Jake, that I be invited to add some information and experiences, from my 2 years of Living and working in China.

 
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Jake
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Hey Terry,

 

OK boys and girls, I have almost forgotten about Terry's (Not so Old China Hand) living aboard a Chinese junk.

And of all places, in the sights and sounds of Hong Kong Harbor.  Talk about a sensory overload for the faint of

heart.  One must need a sense of adventure that also deals with the forces of nature over water.  Personally,

I don't think I have the gonads to pursue that type of lifestyle.  But I would die trying......he, he.

 

What I'm trying to say is that Terry is the first person I have met (through this forum) that can talk about living

aboard a vessel.  And with an exclamation mark, an unusual non western lifestyle that he apparently enjoys so

much.  So many questions......where do I begin?

 

Can we talk about the harbor itself and its densely packed waterborne communities.  Is there a harbor master

(so to speak) besides harbor police or coast guard?  I mean someone or some group decides where you park

or do you pay extra for the best pierside or best anchorage?  Tell us about your neighbors and the many decks

you need to cross to get to the pier finally?  What's your daily routine like?

 

The photo below was my selection depicting Terry as carefree adventurer but devoted to his passion of sailing

through the exotic playgrounds:

 

post-686-0-35864300-1405898325_thumb.jpg

Can you blame him?  Respectfully -- Jake

Edited by Jake
spil chek
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not so old china hand
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OK boys and girls, I have almost forgotten about Terry's (Not so Old China Hand) living aboard a Chinese junk. And of all places, in the sights and sounds of Hong Kong Harbor. Talk about a sensory overload for the faint of heart.

I think live-aboard life should be a separate thread. At the moment I have quite a good link so I will try to start one.

 

On the point above my answer to people who asked "What about the smell?" I would reply quite honestly "Smell what smell." The nose becomes selective quite quickly.

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not so old china hand
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jake wrote

"Can we talk about the harbor itself and its densely packed waterborne communities.  Is there a harbor master

(so to speak) besides harbor police or coast guard?  I mean someone or some group decides where you park

or do you pay extra for the best pierside or best anchorage?  Tell us about your neighbors and the many decks

you need to cross to get to the pier finally?  What's your daily routine like?"

Vessels in Hong Kong waters are controlled by the Marine Department (MarDep). MarDep controls traffic through HK waters rather like air traffic controllers. Victoria Harbour (often erroneously refered to as "Hong Kong Harbour") must be one of the busiest harbours in the world.

MarDep is also in charge of licencing local vessels and local seafarers and (AFAIK) for allocating moorings in the harbour and typhoon shelters. My junk was in a block of Government moorings in Causeway Bay typhoon shelter that were alocated to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, which then sub-let the moorings to members.

 

Enforcement is handled by the Marine Division of the Hong Kong Police Force (alas no longer Royal). Prior to the hand-over in 1997 some enforcement activities where undertaken by the Royal Navy, for whom Hong Kong was one of the last permanent overseas stations, During the 1980s and 1990s one of their major missions was combatting smugglers. Reports in the local papers at that time did indeed read like something from the pages of Clancy or Clavel.

Edited by not so old china hand
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