Mon, Jan 24, 2011 page8

• [ LETTERS ]

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  Out of place criticism

  Reading Callum McGovern’s letters (Letters, Jan. 9 and Jan. 21, page 8), I wonder if he was living in or talking about the same country I am living in.

  Generalizing one’s own experience is always a dangerous thing. I have been in Taiwan on and off since 1983 and have lived here for the past 15 years. Not once have I experienced racism. My wife is Indonesian and does not speak Chinese or Taiwanese. She loves it here and says people here are very friendly, kind and helpful. We live in Kaohsiung, where the “light-skinned mainland Chinese” are in short supply, which might be part of the explanation. While we are stigmatizing and throwing prejudices around, he talks of politicians, but when were they ever human?

  I have known several foreign workers here in Taiwan. None has any problem with the Taiwanese in general. The harshest, and in that respect the most racist, treatment they ever got was always from their employers.

  Have you seen how workers, even Taiwanese ones, are treated at small companies or even multinationals such as McDonalds. That is not racism; it is exploitation pure and simple.

  Having lived and worked on three continents, I settled in Taiwan because of its people. People here are kind, open-minded, always ready to help. As to their English ability, the first time I came here, 1983, I did not speak a single word of Chinese and to my surprise, wherever I went I found people that spoke English.

  When was it ever the case that one could get by with English in Germany or France? Try to find someone that speaks English in any other place other than a major tourist stop. It’s impossible. Nine years ago I landed at Nurenberg Airport, an international terminal in Germany. Not a single person I spoke to there spoke English.

  I have to disappoint McGovern when he states that English is the most widely spoken language on earth. Wrong! Chinese is. Check your facts. Only about 1 billion people speak English. Only 300 million are native speakers and their numbers are declining. Add Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore to all the Mandarin speakers in China and we easily get 1.33 billion people that speak Chinese as their native tongue.

  GEERT ANTHONIS

  Kaohsiung

  In response to McGovern’s letters, I will cede that as in any society, there is indeed racism in Taiwan, but according to my experience it is relatively rare. Concluding the opposite after seeing Taiwanese staff writing waiguoren on your receipt for identification seems overly dramatic.

  McGovern was apparently spat on, but never in my life did I get even close to this miserable treatment in Taiwan. Generally speaking, I am more embarrassed by the (positive) special treatment people give me.

  In most cases, racism in Taiwan concerns “darker” Asians and blacks. I remember a ridiculous advertisement four years ago asking explicitly for a Caucasian English language teacher. McGovern’s claim that looking at the lawmakers’ ethnic background proves his point is also unfair. The Netherlands and the UK are often cited as some of the most liberal countries on earth, yet very few ethnic minorities have climbed up the social ladder far enough to get top positions in domestic politics there.

  I would like to add that Taiwanese, South Koreans and Japanese are not just being forced to learn English, but display a genuine curiosity toward the Western world.

  J.C. BRON

  Luodong, Yilan County
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