Originally from the USA, Michael has been living in Taichung, Taiwan for several years now. Here, he shares with us not only some of his positive and negative experiences and observations about life in Taiwan, but also a strong commentary on the issue of observing or respecting local customs.	Michael Turton

September 07 2006

-Where were you born?
Cleveland, Ohio, USA

-In which country and city are you living now?
Taichung, Taiwan

-Are you living alone or with your family?
With my family of two kids and wife and a menagerie of dogs, cats, birds, fish, turtles, and various vermin that fluctuate in size.

-How long have you been living in Taiwan?
In Taichung, about 4 years. In Taiwan, since 1989, with breaks.

-What is your age?
43

-When did you come up with the idea of living in Taiwan?
I first decided to move to Taiwan to teach English in 1989. After a stint in the Peace Corps in Kenya, I was traveling in India and met some Canadians who were living in Taiwan. They loved it, and sold me on the idea of going here. I've been involved with Taiwan ever since.

-Was it hard to get a visa or a working permit?
No. It is cumbersome, but the system is bureaucratic, and as long as you have all the proper papers and follow procedure, you can get it with little trouble.

-Was it difficult for you to get medical insurance before you went there or when you first arrived?
No, Taiwan is a civilized nation where health care is available to taxpayers. If you have a legal work permit, health care is automatic.

-How do you make your living in Taiwan? Do you have any type of income generated?
I landed a job as an instructor of English at a university through a friend who worked there. I had certain advantages -- my Chinese is good, and I had taught in a university before, so I was in the system, already certified. I got the invitation while I was in the States, after I had let my friends know that I was coming back to Taiwan.

-Do you speak Chinese and do you think it's important to speak the local language? And do you think it's important to observe or follow local customs?
I think it is very useful. Being illiterate poses all sorts of problems. If this were Europe any educated English speaker could puzzle out meanings and signs, but in China the script is totally inaccessible without study. Navigating street signs, reading package labels, filling out forms -- all impossible without Chinese.

However, people who stay a long time and don't learn Chinese don't necessarily have bad experiences. Taiwanese are very deferential to foreigners, one reason people like living here, and if you don't speak Chinese you trigger that deference automatically. Many expats marry locals and thus acquire a knowledgeable buffer between themselves and the local culture.

Learning Chinese is essentially a decision to cross that buffer and go more deeply into the local culture. It is respected by locals and by long-term expats, nearly all of whom speak Chinese.

I don't know what it means to "observe" or "respect" local customs. I don't like this dichotomy of "respect" for "local customs." It contains an underlying ethnocentric chauvinism, as if other cultures were an exotic homogenous Otherness, pickled in brine for foreigners to easily identify and tiptoe around. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the real world cultural habits are fluid, of indefinite duration, and debated hotly among locals, and foreigners have to navigate in that constantly evolving region between their own ethical responses and these controversies. After all, we live here too.

A friend of mine came to us after 20 years of marriage to a man she didn't love to ask about a divorce. She had been married off to him to bring "good luck" back to the family during the "bad luck" period of 100 days after the death of her grandfather. Should I respect the local custom by advising her not to divorce her husband? In fact negative habits are not respected by anyone, foreign or local. For example, people in my neighborhood, out in the country, frequently burn trash. All of the non-burners in the neighborhood, foreign and local object to this habit and there have been several arguments among the locals. Why should I respect a custom that pollutes the world and fills my house with smoke? Whose "custom" should I respect, the burners or the non-burners?

The whole idea of "respect" also elides crucial moral perspectives. For example, I have zero respect for religious belief, but I respect the right of others to believe as they do, so I don't bother them unless they bother me. I also have zero respect for authoritarian political practice, a common political stance in many cultures, but in that case I do not respect the right of others to hold those views. I actively fight them.

Similarly, I don't "respect" trafficking in women, the interpenetration of organized crime and society, the widespread political corruption, or the lack of safety consciousness, all common in local culture. Who could?

Really, the whole idea of "respect" of "local cultures" is trivial -- it amounts to the kind of respect we give, and should give, any host. I doubt many people who live in a foreign country long-term think even for a minute about "respecting local customs" -- we think in terms of offense-giving to the other humans we live with, and the likely consequences -- because they are not "local customs" any more -- we live in them, and they are our customs now. The idea of "respecting local customs" implies that we are somehow distant from or distinct from "local customs."

But of course, we interact with them every day, and have to choose how and when they are to be respected. Just as the locals do. And the rules that govern that interaction are fluid, changeable, and ad hoc. Just as they are for the locals.

Too, to live in a foreign culture is to constantly engage in cultural critique, and to be perceived as engaging in it, and to engage in it even when you are not intending to. If I drink coffee, have cold foods for breakfast, and eat with forks, am I not proposing an alternative lifestyle that is a comment on local habit of drinking soybean milk, eating hot foods for breakfast, and using chopsticks? If I drive within the law, am I not implicitly commenting on local driving habits? If my kids go to bed at 8:30 instead of midnight like the locals, isn't that a comment on local child-rearing practices? My wife bought vegetables just this morning. "Oh! You cook!" remarked the vendor. "I thought you guys lived that foreigner lifestyle." To be foreign is to be different, and to be different is always to be a threat, a critique, a possibility, a potential, that locals compare themselves to whether you like it or not.

You can't "respect" local customs in a way that is somehow different from anything you might do at home, with the people you live with every day. Our own countries offer the same cultural diversity that Taiwan does, and we have to find a way to navigate it too. The only difference is that in a country that is foreign to you, you become more conscious of culture gaps than you might be in your home country. But the solutions are the same: all you can do is treat people with respect and forbearance, and hope you are treated the same way. There's a reason that the Golden Rule is found all over the world...

-Do you miss home and family sometimes?
No, I don't miss the US, except the efficiency of everything. I don't miss not having health insurance! I was bored stiff there too. After living on our
Crazed Island, the US gets pretty dull. My family and I communicate by email and phones, so no problem.

Recreational activities are the same as anywhere in the world. There are family gatherings, dinners out, card games, travel, camping, hiking....I pursue my hobbies of wargaming and photography here as well. The main difference is the vastly circumscribed possibilities for the kids -- no little league, no soccer, etc. Taiwan is not good for kids, and the lack of team sports. In Taiwan there are plenty of local recreations, like fishing in artificial ponds, and KTV, that are not common at home.

-Do you have other plans for the future?
Yes, I plan to finish a PHD here and then travel as a teacher.

-What about housing, have you bought, or are you renting a home? How much do you pay for it?
We rent. Our 5 bdr/2 bath house rents for $NT10,000 a month, with a yard. About US $300. In Taipei that same sum will get you a cramped 2 BDR apartment.

-What is the cost of living in Taiwan?
Difficult to say for our family of four, probably US$1200 a month.

-What do you think about the Taiwanese people?
Foreigners are treated well, so long as they remain in their foreigner box. It's when we try to move out, to participate, that we encounter suddenly increased friction.

-What are the positive and negative aspects of living in Taiwan?
Positives are many. Great food, access to many services, proximity to great travel destinations, interesting politics, cheap housing, easy income teaching English leaving time for other things, tolerance for non-Christian religious views, etc.

Negatives are mostly living standards -- pollution, bureaucracy, lack of concern for the needs of others, lack of respect for the law, etc.

-Do you have any tips for our readers about living in Taiwan?
Yes, I have a whole website devoted to that topic:
Michael Turton's Teaching English in Taiwan Web Pages.

-Do you have any favorite Web sites or blogs about Taiwan?
In addition to my own blog, The View from Taiwan, and the website above, the expat forum at Forumosa.com is a great forum for things Taiwanese. Also good is the family forum at ParentPages.net. For different takes on expat life, What's Up in Taiwan podcast has podcasted interviews with local expats.