The Difference the Straits Make

I have been keeping track of some differences that i have observed here and wanted to record them for your viewing pleasure and my personal research/analytical purposes.

1.) Language: this is one of the most obvious differences. traditional characters instead of simplified was something i knew i needed to be prepared for. but it is also important to note that the names for things are different as well. this is similar to the difference between, say, England and the US. most of the time this isn't a big issue. you just have to learn how to hold the two in tension. however, there are interesting little differences that tell you something about the development of the two areas. an example: the word for "netizen" in Taiwan (ROC) is wang you whereas in the PRC it is wang min. The word wang refers to the internet, you comes from the word for friend or friendly, whereas min is from the word for people (the same people in the People's Republic of China). It carries a bit more of that socialist/populist undertone.

2.)Hi-chews: i have had these candies in Korea and China, and the flavors in China were rather run of the mill. they have mango, melon, and strawberry yoghurt here. heck yes.

3.)Cramped Streets: now, there is nothing like the population ridiculousness in the mainland, but at least they built wider, broader streets. here, everthings is packed in tight. it looks much more like streets in Japan than anywhere in China. this is something i observed before (when i noticed that Gaoxiong, Dalian and Tokyo had similar feels around certain areas). this may be the influence from Japan, or just bad planning, but buses, cars, motorbikes and pedestrians are all packed closely together.

4.)Convenience: someone asked me the other day if i though it was more convenient to live here than in the mainland. i didn't actually have a good answer. certian things are far more convenient here: imported items are more abundant, much much less red tape, and things are much better organized and ordered. however, the plethora of small shops that crowd mainland streets aren't here. and i have yet to find a veggie market (i shop for fruits and veggies at the grocery store...which works), though there is a truck that drives around. and my apartment actually has only one or two restaurants within 10 minutes walking distance. that would be unheard of in the mainland. if that were so, there would be a guy with a cart. scratch that, six guys with carts.

5.)Bikes: no one here rides a bike for transportation. okay, that is a little bit of an exageration. only a little. there are thousands of motorbikes. but bikes are more of a recreational instrument than they are a means of transport. that means that the little bike repair stands also dont exist. in there stead are full-blown bike shops with bikes costing more than i am willing to pay in order to ride back and forth from school. take all the mainland bike riders and put them on mopeds - that is taiwanese traffic

6.)Recycling: Taiwan is green. WAY green. you recycle everything here. that is totally different from the mainland where you can't even try to recycle if you wanted to. not only do you need to recycle here, but everything is seperated out: food matter, different types of plastics, cardboard, paper, metals, glass, etc. it is the most nerveracking thing ever to take out the trash.

7.) Cost Ratios: there is, naturally, a difference in prices between Taiwan and the mainland. This is to be expected as Taiwan’s economy is more developed and the general level of wealth higher than that of the mainland. The difference in cost that most concerns me, however, is that between items within one country. Example: the cost of potatoes relative to milk relative to cereal in the mainland would be one ration, whereas here is it different. This initially was a little confusing (honestly, it confused me when I moved back to the states this summer) but actually makes sense on a lot of levels. One reason for the varying ratios is national regulations of imported products. In general, imported products here cost less then they do in the mainland. This is primarily because the economy here is more stable and the state doesn’t need to employ protectionist measures against foreign products. Taiwan has plenty of foodstuffs that beat foreign products off the shelves. Another reason is simply that there are Western foods that are produced domestically. I can get pasta made local for a ¼ of what I got it for in the mainland. The other big divergence is in the produce aisle. This is again linked to imports, but in another way. In the mainland, most of their produce are grown local. That and you just don’t get imported produce. Not that I remember. In Taiwan, they don’t grow in the same volume and variety and therefore certain things simply cost more based on their being imported or relative production costs. For example: the last three fruits I bought were apples (I think they were Galas), peaches, and plums. All of them were from California.

8.) Individual Meals: there is certainly no lack of individual meals in China, but they are by no means the norm. most restaurants serve family style, complete with lazy susan. That is not the case in Taiwan. Or, at least it isn’t the case where I live. The vast majority of restaurants serve individual meals that are actually rather well balanced. You get your main dish and a few sides (always veggies – counting tofu as a veggie…even though it is technically a bean…) on rice or noodles. Often they come in box – many people eat on the go here. The boxes are similar to the bento box type meal one would find in Japan (again, the Japanese influence). I have never seen anything like that in the mainland. If you get an individual meal it is either gai zhao fan (a dish on rice, which is a word they don’t even use here – they take out the zhao in Taiwan) or a bowl of noodles/wontons. Or streetside fried rice. Which is freakin awesome and I miss it terribly. I haven’t yet been to a restaurant with a family style meal, save the one trip to hot pot.

9.) Open Criticism: it is rather well known that there are certain things that one simply ought not say in certain company, certain situations, and certainly never on line where Yahoo or Skype will sell you out. However, anything goes in Taiwan. One of my first weeks in class, a teacher ranted about how corrupt and stupid the former President is (he is currently caught in a rather hilarious money laundering scandal). That was new for me. And there have been periodic rallies against the current President and his policies vis-à-vis China.

10.) Young Parents: Every day or so this happens to me. I am walking down some street and I see some girl and I think to myself, “self, she seems about your age.” And then her four year old comes running around the corner. There are far more of these young couples with children than I would ever have seen in the mainland. I guess this is related to two things: (1) because of the one child policy, families that can have children wait till they can best care for that one child. I mean, if you only get one shot (in theory) then you should be prepared. (2) Mainlanders, on average (and I am basing this mainly on the cities where I have lived…it may be different in rural regions) get married later. Most students I would talk to were almost certain they would wait till they were at least 30 before getting married. Some even would say as late as 35. This is based on their expectations concerning their prospects. At least, for the guys that is the case. Most Chinese men believe (and are likely correct in doing so) that they need a good job, apartment, and a car before they are a viable marriage prospect. Based on likely incomes out of college, this usually will average out to their reaching the age of 35 before accomplishing all these tasks. Taiwan simply doesn’t have this problem.

11.) Internal Tension: life here in Taiwan is quite a bit more relaxed than any place I lived in the mainland, save a few really chill coastal cities. People are a bit more friendly toward each other and generally more obliging. I have a few theories on why. There is a bit more of that ingrained respect for others that comes from Confucian and Buddhist belief systems, both of which are far more alive in Taiwan than in the mainland. Also, the reality of scarcity in the mainland always made things more tense. There are only so many seats, only so many people can get to the counter before lunch, etc. Additionally, the lack of certainty about the cost of things would always add a bit of that tension in the mainland. If you are a wai di ren (some one from outside the area) and especially if you a lao wai (a foreigner, non-Chinese – mostly white) you can be pretty sure you are getting jacked on the price of that jacket and those socks. Lastly, I think there is a lot to say for how deeply the Cultural Revolution damaged people’s trust of one another.

12.) External Tension: For myself, one of the hardest things to navigate while in the mainland was how to speak honestly about things in the mainland that concerned me without stepping on the toes of the person to whom I was speaking. Sometimes this was near impossible, especially if the listener was of the fen qing (angry youth) variety. Criticism was never taken lightly, and sadly (though in some ways inevitably) China bashing is rather rampant. Taiwan has been another experience. Things are rather orderly and people are at terms with themselves and their nation. I mean, I could point out that it is kind of weird that Taiwanese parliamentarians occasionally beat each other up, but they could point out that they have done a better job figuring out health care. Essentially, the point is that Taiwan has a self confidence in relation to the rest of the world. China’s relationship with the world is much more tortured. This is especially true in regards to the West and Japan. There is a lot of history behind this and many ways to explain it. I won’t go into that. Someone else will write that book (or, likely has…). The point though is that it is there.