Being a foreigner in Taiwan ... and Germany

Reading my last complain about being called a “longnose” in Taiwan (LINK) may make Taiwan seem like a country which treats its visitors unfriendly. Moreover, it may seem as if things in my own country, Germany, would be always perfect, while they are not in Taiwan. This is incorrect and so I like to compare being a foreigner in Germany vs. being one in Taiwan a bit. Of course, being a native German, I can only guess from reactions from my wife, who is Taiwanese, and what I have heard from other foreigners in Germany, what it is like.

So in Taiwan you may be laughed at; fun at your expense. Longnose, you are fat, your belly is so big, “do you only drink coke and eat burgers?” But all this while also being told “you look like Tom Cruise” and “you are handsome”. Not too bad when you sum it up.

In Germany however, things are entirely different. Even looking substantially different from the average German, you will receive a standard treatment from almost all people. Meaning, they are used to foreign looking people around and it is general consent that people should be treated equally and are not to be made uncomfortable or given an outsider feeling. If you are dark skinned or Asian, some people might give you a second look but will quickly turn their eyes anywhere else when you notice it; you have your right of privacy and being treated equally.

Germany can suck as well. But the Gummibaerchen are really good...

However, there are some people who actually are prejudiced, but they will pretend not to be and show normal behaviour, because having racial prejudice is not commonly accepted and kind of out-ruled by society.

There are however subtle or suddenly happening strange things. Like me and my wife getting the “Ah, bought a Thailand wife from catalogue” line when walking on the street or a dark skinned US-American girl feeling uncomfortable near the train station because men approach her and think a very foreign looking girl (by German standards) near a train station must be prostitute or whatever. People will also complain if foreign spices (smell in the stair case of the house) or noise bothers them and will be more sensitive to the foreign family doing things than to a German family.

In Taiwan, stares of ladies strangely never bother me. Hey, what you looking at over there... I am HERE, god damn it! (company party in 2006)

And of course, besides such little prejudices, there is the big hatred which some (often low IQ) people have against foreigners. Looking at crime statistics, it is most dangerous for an African-looking man to walk the streets of Eastern Germany (the part which was a communist state before the reunion of Germany in 1990). I remember reading about a Japanese University guest professor being beaten up on the streets of (the city of) Dresden just for looking different. Africans had been killed in Germany just when walking the park – I remember incidents in East Germany. In both parts of Germany Turkish immigrants had been killed by mob burning down their house.

Summarizing it, prejudice in Germany is also existing, but usually hidden. And there is definitely racial hatred among some few West Germans and a few more East Germans. And that hatred might sneak up on a foreigner who is just enjoying a walk in a park or sitting in front of his TV set at home. This type of hatred can easily be deadly and is something totally different than Taiwan’s attitude of bothering the “funny longnose”.

This doesn’t mean there is no hatred against dark skinned people in Taiwan. But getting yourself beaten up or even killed because you are a foreigner is quite impossible in Taiwan***. In Germany, all it takes might be a walk in a Dresden park.


*** I have to exclude the night club and pub scene in Taiwan. There are incidents like white guy talks to girl in disco and then getting a bottle over his head by the locals. Or a big story of an African American getting attacked by a large cloud of locals (seemingly some gangster gang associated with the disco). Reported on Forumosa.com and it is never really possible to verify all reports, but they seem likely to me. But I am a married guy and don't walk the bars, so this does not bother me. Alcohol and the Chinese way of hiding feelings all your life (alcohols lets them out) seems to be the key issue here.