Erroneous Taiwan Stereotypes

Catherine over at shu flies had a great post a while back about one of her blogging pet peeves – people who generalize and stereotype about every Taiwanese person based on the actions of a few. This also happens to be one of my pet peeves and something that I, being a foreigner, have to deal with every now and then. That is to say, as a foreigner, it’s easy for me to see a Taiwanese person or a group of Taiwanese people do something and create a stereotype about all Taiwanese people. It’s something that I have to watch myself for.

However, I have an answer.

I have previously blogged on how bad Taiwanese drivers are. This is a prime example of me labeling all Taiwanese as bad drivers, even though it isn’t true. Some Taiwanese are very good drivers. Taxi Drivers, for example, even though they are perhaps the craziest drivers, also tend to be the best – I’ve never seen them crash, they know the best routes through the cities, and if you need to get somewhere fast, follow the cab. Mrs. Expatriate’s father is also a very good driver. But I digress.

It’s easy to drive through Taiwanese traffic a few times and label all Taiwanese drivers as bad. This simply isn’t true. I’ve been thinking about this lately, however, and I believe I’ve come up with a solution that answers pretty much all the “problems” that Expats have with Taiwan.

Population Density.

You see, Taiwan is a small island packed to the gills with people. According to WolframAlpha, Taiwan’s population density is 712 people/km^2 (1844 people/mi^2). This makes it the 16th highest in the world. This means that no matter where you go in Taiwan, you’re going to run into people (OK, most places).

Where I’m from, South Dakota, the population density is 9.9 people/mi^2. Yeah, big difference. If you are from a bigger city, like Manhattan (25,850/km^2), then this is nothing new to you, but it’s still a lot of people.

I guess what I’m taking the long way of saying is that, for most expats, it is a matter of all Taiwanese drivers being bad drivers. It’s simply a matter of having a higher population density and therefore running into bad drivers more often. Taking Catherine’s example, it’s not a matter of Taiwanese women being shallow; it’s merely that you are running into shallow Taiwanese women more often. I’ve met plenty of good Taiwanese drivers and plenty of non-shallow Taiwanese women. However, you simply don’t meet them often enough to people being packed into the island like sardines.

I’ll finish off this post with Catherine’s own quote, which also goes for this blog. Some days in Taiwan are just those kind of days. As foreigners, it’s very easy to cast a wide net over Taiwanese culture and generalize about the people. Therefore, it’s even more important that we are aware of what we are doing and take steps to avoid it. Taiwan is a great place and we should do well to welcome more foreigners here by sharing our great impressions of the island.

I don’t want anyone stumbling upon my blog and leaving with an erroneous impression of Taiwanese culture — and people — just because I had a bad day and needed to vent. I don’t always succeed in this, but I am always conscious of it.

Comments

15 responses to “Erroneous Taiwan Stereotypes”

  1. No way.... Avatar
    No way….

    Sorry but you’re just being culturally correct. I’ve lived here for 5 years and Taiwanese people are some of the worst drivers on the planet. It has little to do with population density and more to do with licensing requirements. The drivers test is in a bloody parking lot…they may as well just hand out licenses in a box of cereal. I see an accident at least once a week and in 5 years here I have seen 3 dead people either in body bags being lifted into the ambulance or rolled over in the street by EMT workers and one woman fetal on the road with her shoes missing. My whole life back home I’ve never seen 1 dead person due to traffic accidents. Standards are non existent here and people really just don’t know what the f they are doing on the road. Even the best ones.

    1. The Expatriate Avatar

      No, I don’t think so. I’ve lived here for 3 years and also seen plenty of accidents. But I’ve also ridden with many very good drivers who obey the laws and traffic regulations.

      I’ve seen the driving tests, the driving schools, etc. There are many cultural factors that come into play, such as people not waiting for the green light (They’ll wait for the other side’s light to turn red), people turning left before the people going straight have gone through, etc. Those certainly are cultural factors, but the fact of the matter is, the population density here is higher than most places back home, hence you will see more horrible drivers more often. You will see more accidents more often.

      So, yes, you see a lot of accidents, but every one of those those accidents, how many days have you gone by not seeing an accident at all? I’ve gone weeks, if not months, without seeing an accident and even gone several days with nobody passing me on the shoulder, cutting in front of me, etc. It’s all a matter of perspective. If you choose to focus on the negativity (“Taiwanese are all horrible drivers!”), that’s what you’ll see.

  2. anon Avatar
    anon

    I’m an American of Taiwanese descent, and I’m guilty of “driving while Asian.” Must be the genes. 😛

  3. Taiwan Power Avatar
    Taiwan Power

    To “No way”
    man, where the fxxk do you live back home? Greenland or North Pole? you never seen 1 dead person due to traffic accident because theres probably no car from your home town…gosh…people die everyday, just the matter of ways and time…I work for Funeral Service in Taiwan and everyday I meet people in their worst times of life. So what? Every second there is people dying somewhere in the world, you just don’t see it.

    “Standards are non existent here”?
    Name a country where EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN obey their country’s law. Jesus…go back home and study some history…and Im very sure you’re going to find out that NO SINGLE country has ever successfully made their citizens follow every single law the country has created. Standards is something different to everyone, if you try to put your standards to someone else, he or she might feel fxxked up because it is not their standards.

    Whom ever you are…don’t comment on other peoples country if you are not familiar with that country and its citizens

  4. C-bo Avatar
    C-bo

    To Taiwan Power

    Well sorry to say…..No way is RIGHT,and I do know your country as I have lived and worked here in Taiwan for 15 yrs.Plus I add to this fact I have lived in most of the big cities here and a lot of small towns.And as is the norm here in Taiwan,I see accidents each and everyday as I do travel a lot both by car and scooter,some minor and some major,plus some fatal as No way pointed out …I had never seen a fatal accident until coming to Taiwan,and I do come from a big city in the UK. And your point YES we do and everybody does have accidents in our home countries but just not on the scale of Taiwan.Example to be given………………………..
    I was shocked to see this sign in Chi-yi it read as follows For the month of January 26 people were killed on Bay-gan Lu
    So here we have ONE road with 26 fatalities.This was 19 more than the whole of my city back home.
    As for people dying every second and not seeing it……this is not the topic here,it’s about Taiwanese being horrible drivers “WHICH THEY ARE” so come on my friend stop living in a bubble and think the roses are fine because they are not.
    Meaning the world over needs to get its act together all we will be all visiting people in your line of work a lot sooner than we need to……….So what are we going to do?????????

  5. A student from Taiwan who is now studying in America. Avatar
    A student from Taiwan who is now studying in America.

    My teacher just gave me an assignment about stereotype and I found this blog while searching. I won’t deny that Taiwan’s traffic is really a mass comparing to other country. I myself am also afraid of the death rate on traffice accidents. As a Taiwaness, of course I won’t be happy to hear people judging my own country but I know some part of that is true and I believe this is not what we hope to happen. I think there are some good parts of Taiwan and I hope people who is now living in Taiwan can also see on the bright side while blaming the terrible traffic.

    1. The Expatriate Avatar

      I agree. I’ll be the first to point out how bad Taiwan’s traffic is or what horrible drivers the people are, but I’ll also be the first to point out how friendly and nice they can be or how much I love getting out into the fresh air of the mountains and enjoying the vistas. There are plenty of great things to love about Taiwan; unfortunately, it seems like most foreigners just choose to concentrate on the negative.

  6. Gw Baker Avatar
    Gw Baker

    Taiwan does not have a long tradition of “driving culture” and ethics such as that which has developed in the West’s long history of automobiles and road rules. Bicycle were the main mode of transportation here up until perhaps less than 20 years ago. Western drivers have a long tradition of driver taining and driving ethics which has infused a different general attitude toward rules of the road.

    There is inadequite driver training here and law enforcment is very lax and almost nonexistant is some parts. Driving rules and standards are enforcable only through the justice system. Clearly the justice system here turns a blind eye in many cases.

    This is an “me first” driving culture that does not generally view itself in terms of a community or social responsibility.

    Obviously there are many Taiwanese who do try to follow the rules but the general tide seems to show a lack of courtesy when it comes to other drivers on the road.

    1. The Expatriate Avatar

      You are dead on. Actually, I have been thinking about this very thing (the lack of driver’s ed, etc) the past week or so and was thinking it was time for another post on this subject since I recently passed my Taiwanese driver’s test.

  7. Finley Avatar
    Finley

    Although nobody else seems to, I have to agree with “NoWay”. First off, when we say “all X are bad”, it’s shorthand for this:

    1) Population X has a spread of behaviour about some average M.
    2) The low end of the tail (6-sigma down from the average) is atrocious, an affront to man and nature.
    3) The top end of the tail is quite reasonable (those are the ‘good drivers’ you find, now and then, in Taiwan).
    4) The average, and 3-sigma either side of the average, compared to a benchmark sample of other populations, is significantly worse than one would expect.

    But if we said it that way, our listeners would be asleep before we got to Number 3, right? So we just say “all X are bad”. Yes, it’s a generalisation. We don’t literally mean (in this case) that every single Taiwanese person is genetically incapable of driving. Simply that some unacceptably-high fraction are a menace on the roads. And the reason they are a menace on the roads is neatly illustrated by TaiwanPower. I’ve lived here for ten years and noticed this:

    1) If you criticise Taiwanese driving, however tactfully, most Taiwanese present will not hear you talking about a particular behaviour that can be corrected, but an ad hominem attack on the entire culture and status of the Han people, it’s history, and their mothers, fathers, and pets – even if you try to stress that, generally, Taiwan is a wonderful place (which it is, IMHO).

    2) Taiwanese people are hopeless at debate and formal logic (there we go – another generalisation). This is because the education system here is deliberately designed to destroy any latent skills people might have in that area. So TaiwanPower reasons that, because the law is not respected 100% of the time in other countries, it is acceptable and inevitable that Taiwanese people should not respect driving laws … which makes no sense on several different levels.

    Essentially, TaiwanPower is saying that driving is inherently dangerous, people are going to get killed, so, duh, live with it; what ya gonna do? I’ve heard the same basic statement many times from different people. Here’s the deal, Taiwan:

    -Yes, driving is inherently dangerous, just like operating a lathe, an aircraft, or a firearm.
    -Therefore, you need to be trained how to do it properly, otherwise ‘inherently’ becomes ‘actually’ on a frequent basis.
    -Some people will simply never be able to do it very well, and they should therefore not be allowed to.
    -Those who are allowed to do it should be continually reminded that >80% of accidents are due to human error and are (theoretically) preventable.
    -The corollary is that, when an accident occurs, it’s because somebody made a mistake. It is somebody’s fault.
    -Other countries have reduced such mistakes to an acceptably low value and all Taiwan needs to do is copy what they did.

    If Taiwan deliberately chooses, as a culture, not to do this, then Taiwanese people are jointly responsible for the intentional killing of innocent people. That is not an acceptable part of any culture I know of.

  8. driver Avatar
    driver

    I have driven cars in both Taiwan and USA. I have also ridden motorcycles in both countries.

    It is a different set of rules while driving in Taiwan.
    Remember that Taiwan roads, especially the local streets are designed for motorcycle(scooters) and walking pedestrians in mind. The streets are much narrower, and full of people.
    I find myself driving slower while in Taiwan. But I feel more aggressive riding a motorcycle here.
    In the USA when I ride a motorcycle I tend to be on the highest alert. Motorcycles is much rarer than cars in the US – many accidents happen because the drivers do not see or unaware of the presence of nearby motorcyclists.

    It is just a different way of driving, different set of rules to follow.
    for example – Taiwanese drivers are excellent at parking in tight small spaces.

  9. Combine Dave Avatar
    Combine Dave

    I’d have to agree that Taiwan drivers (similarly to Chinese drivers) are spectacularly bad drivers.

    The argument that it’s due to population density is largely superficial; there are many other parts of the world where drivers do obey the rules and do have similarly or higher population density than the cities in Taiwan. Even rural villages in Taiwan will have a similarly bad driving culture without the huge populations. It’s a difference in driving culture not population that has resulted in this.

    If you’re from the USA than you might look at obvious differences for an explanation but I believe in this case you are mistaken.

    Look at say for example cities in Korea or Japan. – Just consider the population of Toyko compared to the paltry 2 million in Taipei, Taiwan. Japanese drivers are often the model of politeness and orderliness. Alternatively look at driver behaviour in London, New York or Berlin?

    The main issue here is not population or even the weakness of the driving test rather it’s culture. If you drive in Taiwan and you follow the driving culture they use (scooters will come at you the wrong way down motorways, cars will ignore red lights and pedestrian crossing) than you’ll have no problems.

    It’s not really possible to impose a driving norm developed in the US (or elsewhere with a long yesterday) to a late industrilising country like Taiwan where the car is the urban tiger 😀

    In this way driving in Taiwan is more comparable (although much better) than driving in Indonesia, Vietnam or China.

    1. The Expatriate Avatar

      It’s been several years since I wrote the article, and in that time I’ve had a lot of time and experience to think about this. After all that time, I’m in agreement with you – it’s a cultural difference. Thanks for your thoughts!

  10. Taxi LAX Avatar

    I got this web site from my pal who told me concerning this website and now this time I am
    browsing this site and reading very informative posts at this place.

  11. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Sorry, but they really are generally poor drivers. You mention the taxi drivers as an example. So why is it that nearly every time there’s something slowing traffic down, a near accident, or an accident, there’s almost always a taxi driver involved? They’re not good drivers, they’re dangerous, careless and self-centered drivers who push their way through, don’t obey the rules, take risks, run red lights, and put everyone else in danger.

    The reason they are so bad is because they’re never taught how to actually drive. The test is a glorified go-kart track that has absolutely nothing to do with driving skills. When they take the test or are preparing for the test, they’re not taught how to successfully operate a vehicle in normal traffic patters, but are rather taught to turn the wheel a certain number of times, back up a specific distance, turn the wheel back a specific number of times and then stop so that they can do exactly what is needed to pass the test; not actually learn how to drive.

    Examples of bad habits that you will see from a large percentage of drivers:

    1. No respect for traffic lights.

    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve nearly been hit by people who are simply too selfish to wait an extra 10 seconds for their light to turn green. Instead they either blow right through the light thinking that somehow honking their horn to let others know they’re about to put everyone’s life in danger makes it ok, or they creep..creeeep…..creeeeeeep through the intersection until they have successfully blocked enough of the traffic they jus have to go anyway.

    2. No respect for speed limits.

    They either all drive 20km over the speed limit until they get to a traffic camera and then dangerously slam on their breaks, or they drive 10km below the speed limit on the freeway causing everyone else who just wants to get where their going to constantly break and go around them.

    3. Turn signals don’t exist.

    Driving around I’m consistently honking my horn at people who think it’s my job to slow down so they can change lanes in front of me without a signal. Also, the concept of slowing down to get behind you before changing lanes for a turn or an on-ramp doesn’t exist. They must be first, and therefore accelerate and push you out of the way no matter if there is room or not. One should not expect them to think about other drivers or anything like that.

    4. Parking / stopping in the middle of the street with hazard lights on.

    Busy street with lots of traffic and people trying to get places? Heck, we can’t let that stop someone from stopping in the middle of the street so they can go in to 7-11 for a coffee. Why, who cares if they’re blocking all the traffic, their hazard lights are on so that makes it ok.

    Also, you want to use a cross walk or try to push your baby in a stroller up the ramp onto a sidewalk? Forget that, some doofus in a BMW is parked across it. So, screw that.

    5. Left turns

    Again, you want to just drive peacefully in your lane? Nope, some guy wanting to turn left has to stick his car halfway into your lane and halfway in their own lane because they can’t be satisfied with holding up the traffic behind them while they turn left (a perfectly normal thing to do even in North America), no they have to make sure they’re pushing their way through and blocking both lanes so that the oncoming traffic has to swerve dangerously into the next lane over to avoid a head on collision.

    Additionally, the left turn train. Is there enough room in a break in traffic for one car to make it? Well then! There must be enough room for the 14 other cars behind them to turn too. It doesn’t matter if there’s a light or oncoming traffic, or pedestrians. No, the rule of the road in Taiwan is think only of yourself, don’t think about others, and never forget that the world revolves around you.

    Thirdly, the “green light-left turn-stomp on the accelerator and make sure you’re first off the line” move. As soon as the light turns red, it’s not right to wait and see what the oncoming traffic is doing, or see if it’s even safe; no, a driver must accelerate as quickly as possible to make the left turn before any of the oncoming traffic can move through the intersection. Why, it makes perfect sense that those 15 extra seconds you save are more important than putting some sod’s life in danger with your stupid driving.

    These are just 5 examples of poor driving skills in Taiwan. Japan, Hong Kong, Chicago, NY, LA and other densely populated places don’t have these problems. Additionally, these are all things that happen in Nantou county as well as in Taipei so density has nothing to do with it. They’re horrible drivers because there is no training, the police force is a joke and does nothing, and the Asian driving culture is extremely selfish in a dog eat dog way.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *