This web site may be near its end. My US bank was recently bought out by ING Direct, they closed the accounts of all their customers living abroad. That leaves me without a debit card. Unfortunately, even after living in Taiwan for five years, I still haven’t found a local bank willing to [...]

Mark S. made a great find over at pinyin.info:

Imagine some white guys in a fairly large U.S. city open a restaurant named “Mr. Taiwan Slant-Eyes Asian Cuisine.” And imagine that this restaurant specializes in distinctly Americanized dishes such as egg foo yong, fortune cookies, and California wraps. Now imagine the response. Isn’t this fun?
OK, now [...]

Do you have the courage to order from the Chinese menu?

Today, I met Brendan O’Kane (Bokane). He showed me around the city a bit. First we got a meal at a Sichuan place, then we hit a local punk concert, and after that we went to a popular hangout for “intellectual lăowài”, and got some Xinjiang food. It was [...]

I saw this on Michael’s website, today. For those readers convinced that “there is no prejudice against white-people”, maybe this will open your eyes a bit. One reader of my blog argued vociferously that me being kicked out of my appartment a couple of years ago (along with all the other white, but [...]

Everybody knows how confused Taiwan is when it comes to pinyin, that’s no news. Likewise, it’s not surprising that few of the foreigners who came here without prior study have a firm grasp on any method of romanization, let alone a standard one. But one thing I’ve been noticing more and more is [...]

One of the most frustrating things about living in Taiwan (or anywhere as a minority) is all of the racism one sees. One of my good friends when I first showed up, was a black guy. He graduated from a school pretty much equivalent to mine, had good grades, and a degree [...]

According to the Taipei Times, via Fred Shannon, foreigners in Taiwan will no longer be permitted to teach more than 32 hours per week. For teachers who work at more than one school, the total teaching hours in a week must stay below this limit. The minimum number of hours a foreign teacher [...]

Last night I had the uncomfortable experience of reinforcing some negative stereotypes about lăowài. I’ve been hurt by these stereotypes in the past, and I hate to perpetuate them. Back when I’d only been living in Táibĕi for three months, I was kicked out of my apartment with very little notice because my [...]

Well, I won’t be moving to my own host anytime soon. The reason? I don’t have a debit card. My US debit card expired last month. I’ve ordered a replacement, but I’m still waiting to get it. It seems like this is as good a time as any to bring up the fact that my [...]