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| *Travel Tips>>>Taiwan Travel Tips |
Do you think Taiwan have similar culture with Japan ? |
Travel Info I heard Taiwanese culture are copy of Japan Travel Tips I agree with you . lots of people say that . Every time I hear about it , I can't understand why they copy our culture . Why they didn't try to copy Chinese culture .. Others You heard it wrong. Most people came from the mainland china and the natives have more similar culture with natives of Batanes Island, Philippines. Some people here (younger ones) like to copy some elements of Japanese culture. But Taiwan has a weird mix of cultures going on. Its what I would say is the logical fusion of about 60% chinese culture mixed with a strong dose of native 'Tai-Ke' culture (10-20% dose in each person) mixed with 10% Japanese cutey culture and 10% American speed/business culture and the rest is a mishmash of whatever else they can come up with. The amount in each individual varies based on personal preferences. Definately young girls here like to follow Japanese girl fashion because a) its closer. b) japanese look like taiwanese more than models in Milan and America do- thus their role models will likely be asian. c) Japan is sucessful and admired for it. d) japanese porn stars have perfected the school girl is sexy look and its easy for young women her to affect that look seeing as how they are forced to wear uniforms anyways. When women get into university generally they like to switch between a few different looks, often switching from one to the other from week to week. University girls either go for the boring 'I am not sexy' Blah homeless japan-pop look (sweats/ oversized shirts that create shapeless blobs/ oversized thick glasses/ messy dyed overdone heavily damaged hair). Or they go for sexy office lady look (American/Euro style with perhaps an oversexed Jap office girl touch on a few). Or they get all weird and go for a weird mix of hippy/victorian/old english golfer look which can look good in a classy kind of way on certain ones (also Japanese style currently) Then there are the Tai-Mei who generally look like hiphop booty gangsta girls or else 'nature hippy'. This typically is mixed up and together based on the whim of the individual. half hippy/half office girl is one of the weirder combos I have seen. The older women (over 35) tend to stick to that or just go for the discount A-Mah look with too much makeup, a hairstyle from the early 80's and a weight problem. This is special and unique to taiwan and probably hong kong. No self respecting older Japanese woman would try to look like this. But it is very special. The young guys dont really seem to have any one uniform fashion. Usually its either geek-chic video gamer waiting to get to the next fix of CS/// stuffed pig spoiled mama boy wearing school uniform from parents trying to get their kid to avoid the draft by being waay to fat look, /// zombie student with glazed eyes from being stuffed with too much educrap (high schoolers) The fashion of choice is purely asian style ugly school uniform. VERY few Goth types exist once university comes. Hiphop americ-style/GQ clone/ Italian fashion lookers. (University to 35 ish) The tai-ke version 2 guys tend to favor either the hiphop look with betelnut stains and whisbih or the back to earth american spiritual hippy look, both heavily american flavored looks. Around this age the younger salarymen may begin to appear, but they tend to stay inside the traffic jams or on the MRT where we cannot see them interact with other humans naturally. Over 35 you generally see depressed looking underfed office type guys in their office suits (japanese salaryman style to the hilt), or large construction worker type guys (Tai-Ke! V 1.0 Classic style!) dressed like construction workers everywhere in Asia, but with the bonus of betel nut stained teeth and the reek of whisbih (the local firewater) (-generally with the T-shirt, jeans and no safty gear!) The mafia here tend to look like mafia members across asia that were inspired by Japanese mafia suits and the Hong Kong movies. The black sportsjacket, black socks, white undershirt and black pants with oily hair never seem to go out of style anywhere in Asia's Triad/Yakuza scene. The enforcers tend to look like construction workers but with oily hair and they prefer to wear tank tops to show their muscles more to scare non-insurance payers more. Generally they stay inside their black or white BMW's and spit their betelnut onto the roads everywhere and drive like maniacs. Some of them invest in sports cars that usually end up with lots of bodywork needed. If you go back a few generations and get to the crowd that are 60+, the majority of them don't understand a word of Chinese, just Japanese and Taiwanese, this is because Taiwan used to be a Japanese colony. From asking various Taiwanese people I've gotten mixed reports about Taiwan's Japanese occupation; however, it's apparent that Japanese culture has deeply taken root in Taiwanese society. The Japanese also affected the education system of Taiwan. These days the Taiwanese tend to blow hot and cold about the Japanese, it's quite common for Taiwanese girls to critisise how Japanese girls behave (according to them), while at the same time copying Japanese fashion, wearing sk2 and shisheido or whatever and religeously following Japanese dramas (or Japanese influeced dramas - Meteor Garden and Hana-Kimi - both originally anime). It's also quite common for the same people who criticise the Japanese here in Taiwan to claim a place is worth visiting or a restaurant is worth eating in 'because Japanese people go there' - I've heard many Taiwanese people use this as a measure of how good a place is. You won't hear 'Dim Tai Feng is the best Dim-Sum restaurant in Taiwan' - no, you'll hear 'Plenty of Japanese people go there' - (which apparently means the same thing). Again, I agree with what Matt of Asia was saying about culture and style. Not to mention that Anime, Manga, Cosplay and that general kind of thing are really really popular in Taiwan, if you go to Ximen Ding you might wonder which country you are in! Besides all they have in common with Japanese culture, they also have big differences. Take for instance pollution and air quality, it's pretty awful here in Taiwan. I was recently in Tokyo and was shocked to see how clean it was compared to Taipei (well - except Taipei's MRT stations which are still spotless). I was surprised to see how clean the rivers in Japan were, the rivers here are absolutely filthy - if you fell in the dan-shui you might not come out alive! City planning, a third of the buildings in Taipei are ok, another third are still under construstion or renovation of some sort and the final third are falling to peices - in Japan the buildings and roads were all well maintained - in Taiwan it's a total mess and no body really cares about it. The traffic in Taiwan really sucks as well - again, it was much better in Japan! To sum up, yes Taiwan has borrowed from Japanese culture; however, it has left some of the finer points of Japanese culture out - such as perfectionism and the idea that clenliness is next to godliness. |
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