More than skin deep: Taiwanese attitude to foreigners
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| Published on Tuesday, January 1, 2008 |
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By Kenton Chance
TAIPEI, Taiwan: “Beauty does not distinguish between black and white” reads a billboard at a metro station in Taiwan. The words are complemented by the smiling face of a Taiwanese girl, printed in black and white contrast.
“Do you want to run everywhere? Are you not afraid of getting darker?” the dialogue-like message continues.
“Isn’t dark skin beautiful?” comes the reply.
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| Taiwan brings together students from many ethnic group, most of whom come to the island on one scholarship or another. (Photo: Kenton Chance) |
The billboards expose issues that have characterised the Chinese civilisation for years: skin tone and physique as a measure of beauty.
“The majority of Chinese think that only with big eyes, a straight nose, small mouth and delicate white skin is one beautiful,” reads a lesson in “Practical Audio Visual Chinese 2”, a textbook widely used to teach Mandarin to foreigners here.
“This reflects the Chinese standard of beauty,” a cultural note explains. “Chinese do not consider dark skin to be beautiful. Most Chinese women like to keep their skin light, so they often carry parasols under the sun,” the note continues.
And these cultural values contribute to what some foreigners here say is discrimination against them.
Taiwan’s economic success, its diplomatic efforts and social and educational transformations have resulted in an influx of foreigners into the country. These non-natives come from all sections of the globe and represent a multiplicity of ethnic groups.
And some foreigners believe and academics say that expatriates in Taiwan are treated differently because of their ethnic group.
David Hedlund is a sociology instructor at Ming Chuan University (MCU) International College (IC). His students come from about 65 countries all over the world including Africa, the Caribbean, North, South and Central American, Europe, the Pacific Islands and Taiwan.
One of their assignments each year is an essay on the topic “Have you ever been discriminated against in Taiwan?”
Hedlund says most Taiwanese students “can’t imagine any situation that they have been in when they have been discriminated against”. He however says the foreign students consider discrimination against them to be “as plentiful as an expensive floral basket”.
Hedlund further states that “darker” students always say that few persons sit next to them on the metro, bus or train.
“They always point to this as racism,” he says.
The problem is not limited to the use of public transportation as Dr Eva Salazar who teaches Psychology at MCUIC explains. She says foreign students often have to deal with “rejection issues” inside the classroom.
“They have a crush on someone… they make a move and they are rejected simply because of their colour,” she explains.
Many of her students come to Taiwan on scholarships and in many instances represent some of “best” in their home country, she says.
“They are highly confident and capable people and they come here and people reject them simply because of their colour and that’s painful.
“And even in (class) groups, some of the students are not accepted - not because they can’t do the job - but because of their colour,” she further explains.
Dr Salazar, a practicing psychologist, was born in the Philippines and married a Taiwanese 20 years ago. She has developed her own mechanisms to deal with the rejection.
She elaborates: "I am a Chinese-Filipino. If I just say "Filipino", they will look down more on me."
Sociology lecturer Hedlund recognises the biases in Taiwanese’s dating practices, and notes, “You can be an ugly, white guy but still have beautiful Taiwanese girlfriends.”
He however believes that what some foreigners describe as discrimination “is not quite right but certainly not incorrect” since, Taiwanese’s perception of “discrimination” and “racism” are not the same as Westerners’.
“I think to some extent, it is a fear of the unknown. It is not necessarily racism,” he opines.
He suggests that morbid fear of speaking English among some Taiwanese may be the root cause of the situation.
“Taiwanese people are actually scared out of their pants to speak English to you. They will just as soon urinate right there on the spot than speak English with you,” he says.
Hedlund, who has done research on gender, race and social class and how they affect athletes, however notes that feelings are valid, regardless of the cause.
“If you are honestly having this feeling, that feeling is valid. Whether your interpretation of why you are experiencing this feeling is right or wrong that is a different question,” he says.
Hedlund has been living in Taiwan for four years and says that Taiwanese are “generally courteous and helpful”. He however says that, like any other group of people, when faced with “a situation for which they do no have an immediate mechanism,” Taiwanese must “flight or fight”.
“You stay and stick it out or you just run away,” Hedlund says.
Another teacher at MCU, who identifies himself as “Aaron”, says that, while not every foreigner in Taiwan is promiscuous, this opinion among Taiwanese is not unfounded.
“These stereotypes exist because foreigners are doing these things,” explains Aaron, who has been living here for nine years.
He adds: “Many Taiwanese will see one person or two people’s behaviour and kind of blanket it over.”
Jeana Noel and Jamali Jack, students at the National Cheng-Chi University, are Afro-West Indians from the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Noel has been in Taiwan for three years and Jack arrived here 15 months ago.
“I will say that it is a mixed-bag,” Jack says of his experiences in Taiwan.
“The way they behave toward people who they consider to be strange is too obvious: the pointing and the staring and the whispering and so on…. And often times you meet people who are more settled,” Jack explains.
He says that Taiwanese’s reaction to foreigners of different ethnic groups is “more or less” the same, but adds, “With black foreigners, they respond in a more outrageous way.”
Noel’s experiences are “pretty much the same” as Jack’s, but says her hair is “the other dimension”.
“They always have questions or want to touch. …It is difficult to understand how something as common as a black person in a developed city could be such a novelty to people that every time they see it, it evokes this reaction as if they have never seen this before,” she says.
However, Jack, who is a member of his school’s basketball team, says he has noticed some “discrimination” in referees who do not call fouls committed against him. He says that a referee excused the problem, explaining that he believes Jack can play through it.
“While that might be true, rules are rules, and it should not matter who the person is,” Jack says.
Noel, on the other hand, has to think “really hard because those experiences have been so few and far in between”. She further says, “The overwhelming positive reaction and attitudes of people have been such that I don’t remember bad experiences.” She however mentions an incident in which a vendor pulled away from her a hat that she and some of her friends were looking at while shopping at a night market.
And while Taiwanese do use skin tone and physique as a measure of beauty, MCUIC student Jerry Chen says that this may merely be fashion.
“Like one thousand years ago, the Chinese people think that if you are kind of chubby then that’s beautiful. But these days, they think that as skinny as possible and the people will say you are beautiful, you have a good shape.
“And the skin also, if you are white they will say you have beautiful skin. If you get sunburn or the colour is darker, they think it is not as beautiful as the white one. I think it is because of what some people think - what is fashionable,” he explains.
He further says that as a child, his parent never discussed racial issues with him and before spending a year in Canada what he knew about foreigners came from movies.
Back then, Jerry had believed that Caucasians “must be smug and strong and kind of selfish because they don’t care about rules … And [people of African descent] must be good at sports.
“I learnt from the Social [Studies] class that before they [Caucasians and African Americans] were kind of against each other and black people where kind of trouble makers… But after I have been to Canada I think that people are people,” he explains.
The results of a questionnaire survey for this report suggest that, while Taiwanese have their own standard of beauty, they do not judge others by these standards.
Of the 10 male and 10 female Taiwanese undergraduate students 18 to 25 at MCU who completed the questionnaire, 75% have travelled outside the country.
Seventy percent of the respondents say Caucasians and people of African descent in Taiwan are “just another person”; 30% say people of African descent here are “good” or “mostly good”; 25% say that Caucasians here are “good” or “mostly” good with 5% or one student saying that Caucasians here are “bad”.
The results were the same for the questions, “Will you marry a ‘white’ person?” and “Will you marry a ‘black’ person?” with 50% saying “yes”; 40% saying “no” with the remaining 10% undecided. The vast majority, 85% of respondents, said “all” skin types are “most beautiful,” while 15% chose Asian skin.
A similar survey of foreign students here shows that 65% have been in Taiwan for less than one year, 30% came here between one and two years ago and 5% have been here for more than five years.
These students come from North, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Pacific islands, Europe, South East Asia and India.
They identify themselves with the following ethnic groups: Caucasians (10%); Latin American (30%); African Descent (40%); Pacific Islanders, Asians, Indians and Overseas Chinese 5% each.
Half of the respondents say they have been discriminated against in Taiwan. Of those who say they have been discriminated against, 40% are of African descent, 30% are Latin American, with Caucasians, Indians, and Pacific Islanders accounting for 10% each.
Among the specific acts of “discrimination”, respondents mentioned a girlfriend’s teacher who asked if she was still dating “the white potato”.
“And don’t forget the killer looks and stares to death of old people in the morning market,” wrote the Caucasian male.
“Stores refuse to give me service because I am a wai guo ren (foreigner),” commented one male student who is of African descent. Another male student from that same ethnic group says, “On the buses, train, metro, etc, Taiwanese point, laugh, do not say excuse me; refer to me as hei ren (black people).”
That same respondent further says, “Some people have issues with me having a scholarship from their government. Some services, incentives offered to students in my university, as long as you hold a scholarship, you are barred from receiving [them] even if you qualify.”
“I think [that] in Taiwan it is more about the skin. People are friendly, but every now and then, you come across people who like white people…. I only felt the discrimination thing once, but it is not worth mentioning,” says an Indian student.
“I feel Taiwanese are not as open to Latin Americans as other ethnicities. Some discriminate [against] you just because your native language is not English,” wrote one female Latin American student.
However, the discussion with MCU student Jerry Chen and the finding of the survey of Taiwanese students suggest that, while Taiwanese might be indifferent to a foreigner’s ethnicity, they are not too willing to have intimate relationships with them.
Taiwanese are generally considered children until they get married, no matter their age. While Chen’s parents do not object to his Japanese girlfriend, they might not be too pleased if he decides to marry her.
Taiwanese parents, he says, want their children to have happy marriages and “they might think it is difficult to marry with a foreigner”. The 20-year-old Chen however describes his parents as “quite open,” and believes they will not try to prevent him from marrying a foreigner if he so decides.
He further emphasizes that people can see things from different perspectives when the roles are reversed.
“Now, I am speaking as a student. But if one day, as a father, you ask me if I will allow my daughter to marry a foreigner, I might have a different answer,” he says. | | | | Reads : 385 | | | |
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