And a comparison of foreigners in Taiwan with foreigners in Korea
For quite a while I've been following English language blogs in Taiwan and Korea, because I'm very interested in both countries and I want to be up to date on what's going on in each country. Regarding Taiwan, my primary source of information is my girlfriend, who is born here and so I think I'm very well informed about stuff that goes on in the media, even if I'm not fluent in Chinese. In addition to that, I like to read other foreign blogs to get another perspective on things. As for Korea, my primary source are few popular foreign bloggers such as the Metropolitician, James Turnbull, Roboseyo and some others. I can't really be 100% sure that the reality they see in Korea would be my reality, but I know they back up their claims with solid arguments, they don't just write stuff without giving it some serious thought. But as much as I want to talk about foreign bloggers in South Korea and Taiwan, I would like to touch on the general idea of being a blogger in a foreign country. What has triggered this post was the recent "Blackout Korea blog scandal", that's upsetting local netizens as well as foreign bloggers in South Korea. Let me briefly explain what happened.
1 The Blackout Korea blog scandal 2011
A 20-something foreign English teacher started a blog in 2009, named it
Blackout Korea,...
...where he and other foreigners submit photos of excessively drunk Koreans sleeping it off on the streets (later pics of foreign binge drinkers were posted, too). Most photos are accompanied with one or more silly foreigners posing alongside the drunk (read passed out) person. You can be sure that the very moment the first photo was published the blog became a ticking bomb waiting to explode. And that's exactly what happened in recent days. It was discovered by Korean netizens and some
media and as Koreans are, they weren't happy about it. If you want to check the blog out, go to:
blackoutkorea.blogspot.com. I fear it will soon disappear from the web, so be quick.
A Korean blogger started a counter-blog named
Who Teaches English in Korea (
englishteachersout.blogspot.com), where he's using the photos from Blackout Korea (even though there's no evidence that the people appearing in them were English teachers) and comparing them with the infamous Abu Ghraib photos of American soldiers humiliating Iraqi prisoners. Of course this was a ridiculous thing to do, but it shows how careful one has to be about what they put online. All that upset
the Metropolitician, who wrote a post encouraging his followers to comment on that blog. And that's what they're doing and the dance continues.
2 The South Korean online community
This is how things look on the surface to someone like me, who does not know a lot about the Korean foreign and local online community: There's a small, but vocal group of expat bloggers, who constantly complain about the country and its people and don't care how it comes across. They vent, they rant and use offensive language, oftentimes purposely, because they want to provoke Koreans for whatever reason. On the other hand there's a vocal group of Korean netizens who reject every criticism of their nation from a foreigner, even if it's constructive and well-argued. Not only are they spewing threats to those who dare to say anything "bad" about Korea, some even go as far as to gather information of a particular foreigner and try to harm them in real life. And then there's a significant part of the South Korean media, that
seems to be biased towards foreigners. These 3 fractions are usually the ones, that are the loudest. Many times they start nontroversies, fabricate the truth and reinforce stereotypes. They're the ones that operate with ideas like "English teachers are losers in their own country, dangerous sexual predators, troublemakers" and on the other hand "Koreans are stupid,
rude, overly proud and aggressive". Apart from these three fringe groups, there's the silent majority of foreign and local blogs, websites and forums, who keep it decent and non-confrontational and seem to get along fairly well. Of course
their stories of peace, love and harmony won't spark as much interest as a scandal involving inconsiderate foreigners, drunk Koreans and unflattering photos (
these comments are telling). All this is of course not only typical for Korea, but can be observed in many other countries.
I think, if you're generally not a trouble seeker, you won't find any in Taiwan. Things here are on much smaller scale compared to South Korea, because foreign (read Western) residents are still a very small minority. Hence the English speaking online community remains relatively small and is mostly overlooked by Taiwanese netizens and media. That has it's good and bad sides. If any, it's the political blogs that gained some recognition such as
The View from Taiwan. All other domains are fully dominated by Taiwanese bloggers, who are probably one of the most passionate in the world. In comparison with Koreans, Taiwanese seem to be more forgiving to foreigners, who point the finger at some of the flaws of their country. That may partly lay in the fact, that the Taiwanese society is relatively young, greatly divided and still seeking its identity, while Koreans, who throughout history suffered attacks and invasions from China and Japan, had to stick together in order to preserve their language and culture and therefore formed a strong national identity and a strong sensibility to all "attacks" from the outside (or outsiders). With that said, there are always boundaries one should not overstep, when blogging about Taiwan and Taiwanese people. You will hardly find any drunk people sleeping on the streets in Taiwan, so that topic would not fill a blog. I guess the number one reason for Taiwanese to get upset are politics, which is common in many other countries, but I've never seen a democratic nation so greatly divided by political convictions as Taiwan is. Yet, despite all these divisions, the country functions better than many other so called "harmonious" countries out there. That's certainly fascinating and I would surely have a lot to say about it, but I won't. I won't touch Taiwanese politics on my blog other than what I said here in this post. If others do that, it's their choice. I rather stick to fun stuff like food and travel. I would only make an exception, if something really bad happens and I want to share my view from inside. Back to Taiwan's media. As a foreigner you need to be more careful outside the virtual world. Small
irrelevant things tend to be reported and sensationalized and there's always someone with a camera at hand, who can take a photo of a "silly" laowai doing something funny or bad or just embarrassing. Not sure how often it happens, but I think my freckled face must have landed on a Taiwanese blog or two... I just hope they didn't write anything mischievous about me.
...there are of course limits to everything. I just don't get people, who come to East Asian countries to live and work and behave like they are back home and even want to apply the same standards to the country they have moved to. Coming from a small less known country like
Slovenia, I can relate to Taiwan's situation well. And the small yet unique Slovenian culture helps me understand Koreans and Korea. Well, to a certain extent. I feel that, if you're a blogger, you're putting yourself out there and people will judge you. It's impossible to please everybody, when writing a blog, of course, but there can be a difference in tone and manner. So many bloggers just keep on criticizing without even offering any ideas, how they could make it better. They don't take an effort to try and figure out why something is different than in their world and just bash and trash continuously. I usually unfollow these blogs instantly, I don't want to waste my time by reading someone's personal frustrations all the time. And there are a few blogs about Taiwan, who hate everything about the life here (I wonder, what keeps them here). I always tell my girlfriend, that foreigners see reality with different eyes. I can spot every dirty spot or every weird thing someone does, while walking to the MRT station, but my girlfriend would not see a thing. It was interesting to see the reversed situation last year, when she visited Slovenia and Europe for the first time. She saw so many things I haven't noticed before and caught every person staring at her. It was like seeing my own country with completely different eyes. That's of course great and very insightful, but it's totally lame, if you use it for ridiculing people, making fun of traditions or mocking the way of life, just because you have some personal issues with that. You're not doing anyone any favors by behaving this way. In relation to Taiwan, I've found this odd blog post from 2008, written by a female English teacher nicknamed
imaniou:
Cranky Laowai... having an "I hate Taiwan" night (rated R version)
"As I mentioned before, I lost my cellphone in a taxi two weeks ago. I finally broke down and bought a new one tonight for $2500 NT (a little over $80 USD) at the Tong Hua St. Night Market after dinner. As I rounded to climb the pedestrian overpass, I saw two high school kids copping a smoke on the steps, completely blocking the path save a narrow space between them. When I got close, they started saying something about the "heiren" (black person, literally). As if those two shits had any room to talk. After a surreal night last night, bad service at dinner (I'm not even sure why I bother thinking the waiters will do their jobs despite smiling politely and looking into their eyes to say thank you every time they do what they are paid to do...which rarely happens) and only a few hours of sleep, I was in bitch mode and not to be trifled with. As I passed, I "accidentally" kicked the shit monster on the right's box of milk tea down the filthy stairs into a mucky puddle below and pai sei'd him (the untouchable word for absolving fault in Taiwanese). Gosh. If he hadn't been sitting there making it hard to maneuver around him, it probably would have never happened.
"Ni kan, hei ren" must have been the theme at the night market as every tai ke scumkin made it a point to turn, point, whisper, and stare as I walked by in search of a phone. I stopped into one store to be violently ignored before I muttered "fuck this" and walked out. I stepped into another store where the two dribbling xiao jies giggled and pointed. I waved the money I had planned to spend there, put it back in my pocket, and said that it was no wonder they had no customers. Then I cranked my MP4 player up and moved along. From the toothless hag selling polyester beaded clothes on the street to the betel-nut chomping creep in the stained wifebeater dribbling red betel nut saliva into the greasy sausages he was grilling, I was a source of entertainment. And then I realized why the street was so dead. Most of the decent people in this country wouldn't touch this place with a 20-foot pole and a gallon of disinfectant. Now Taiwan in general is a filthy, repulsive place to walk with dog shit, blood red betel nut spit and chewed up pulp, litter, human waste, and prolific cockroaches everywhere you look whether you are in the city, in a small town, or even in the national parks. The Japanese tried to civilize the originals (the ones that most of the taikes are comprised of) and CKS's people tried slaughtering them and both groups tried to get them to drop their culture and assimilate to their conquerors. And yet they still persisted to spread all over the country, bringing their ignorance and taike-ism with them even into the cities. The bid for the UN is laughable at best and pathetically oblivious at worst and voiced the loudest by those who would discard a half cup of milk tea into a bush, make their kid piss next to the slide at the playground, and not even blink when dumping the dog they bought because it's no longer tiny and its bad behavior is no longer cute. Even the Philippines does not treat every inch of its country as a public toilet/dump/temporary home the way the Taiwanese treat their land and still have the audacity to think not only are they better than the rest of the world, but that they deserve a place in deciding what happens to it when they can't even get people to stop dumping their domestic garbage into (or rather, on and around) street litter bins.
Buildings are filthy, covered in dirt when they are covered with tiles that are easy to clean off if someone actually cared enough to clean them. Wires hang all over them, off them, across rooftops weaving in and out of windows and air conditioner holes. The little bit of green on the ground is crabgrass and weeds, but mostly algae growing on congealing puddles of dead land where people couldn't be arsed with walking on the actual sidewalk. Or couldn't walk thanks to the thousands of parked scooters and illegal carts of clothes, food, and cheap plastic shit clogging the already narrow walkways.
Most days, I can look beyond the filth of both the landscape and see the beauty of many things here. Sitting in the classroom with my students and having a rare glimpse into the fact that the kids I am having engaging conversations with are all Taiwanese non-native speakers who, for some, have only been learning English for four years. I know how badly I sounded like after four years of French and I had a lot more class time than they do.
But for tonight, I feel that Taiwan is making itself easier to not miss when I leave this fall."
I'm not saying, that bad things don't happen in Taiwan (or Korea) and I'm not saying one should not vent, but some things are better not to be published, after you write them down. I rather vent to my girlfriend or send emails to family back in Slovenia. It's not like the cyberspace needs to store every thought that pops up in your head. Just know that words and photos have consequences and it's better to be overly sensitive than overly insensitive. I try to walk a fine line between being funny, entertaining and informational and now and then critical and analytical. Sometimes I go too far, but I have no problem to correct myself, if necessary. The important thing is, how you do it, not if you do it. If you write controversial stuff, be man (or woman) enough to sign your real name below.
In regards to the above topics, my questions are:
- Are those photos of drunk Koreans going too far?
- Is that blog attacking English teachers in Korea going too far?
- Which topics do you personally avoid to write about on your blog?
- How should a Westerner in East Asia blog about the things he sees?
- How did you find that rant of the "cranky laowai" about Taiwan?
Very interested to read your opinion on these issues.
More about Taiwan here>>
