Tuesday, September 25, 2012

To Shaun Bettinson: Why Taiwan Sucks - Boring, Miserable, Repressed

Dear Shaun Bettinson,

I read a few articles about your bizarre campaign to get everyone in Taiwan to say "I love Taiwan" and photograph themselves doing so, for no reason other than the sake of it. So I was wondering what you suggest about my no win situation in Taiwan. See here:

http://www.happierabroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15807

Also, check out my article of the pros and cons of Taiwan, which lists things that other sites don't list, that are taboo, yet obvious, but other people don't have the guts to talk about. Let me know what you think.

http://www.happierabroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14561

Anyhow, I have a question for you: Why should I raise up my hands and say "I love Taiwan" given the following:

What's the point of living in Taiwan if you don't get any attention from cute girls? I get attention from girls in most other foreign countries - e.g. Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Mexico, Philippines (see here for hard proof: http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Collage.htm) - but not in Taiwan. So how can Taiwan be so wonderful like you and everyone says?

Girls treat me like shit here, which undermines my ego and self-esteem. They are super cliquish and uptight about not talking to strangers (especially males) unless introduced by a mutual friend. Why should I love or enjoy that, just because it's taboo to say anything negative about Taiwan's social scene?

The biggest reason why Taiwan sucks is that to meet girls or try to get dates, I have to try to walk UPSTREAM against a raging river. If I go downstream and "go with the flow" I get nothing - no love, romance or sex. Everything in Taiwan goes against my love/sexual satisfaction. In Taiwan, I'm in a constant state of DEPRIVATION. It feels like everything is against me. I'm not allowed to flirt, talk to female strangers I like, approach girls without feeling like a creep/criminal, and they don't give me attention and won't offer to meet me if I chat with them on the internet, etc. That just plain SUCKS for sure.

So why should I raise my hands and say "I love Taiwan" in spite of that, just because Shaun Bettinson says so? Get real. How can Taiwan be so wonderful, if I can't even get girls I like to meet up with me, and none of the experts I know in Taiwan can help me? On dating sites and on Facebook, about 1 in 100 Taiwan girls I like respond to me, and among those that do, none of them ever want to meet up! WTF?! All they do is make excuses excuses excuses about being busy all the time... blah blah blah. So how can Taiwan be so wonderful?! WTF?

In contrast, in other foreign countries (besides USA, Canada and Taiwan), girls are happy to meet me and they will OFFER to when I am in their area. So why not Taiwan? What is the problem with Taiwan? Why are Taiwan girls so damn difficult and uptight about meeting up? It's crazy! And it totally sucks!

Having hot girls everywhere who ignore you and expect you to mind your own business while they mind theirs is a depressing society. What kind of guy likes that? What kind of life is it to be constantly deprived and unsatisfied in the areas of love, sex and romance? That SUCKS.

It's no different than living in the US. So what's the point of living in Taiwan? There's no advantage other than lower cost of living. Socially, it's no different to me than the US. At least in America, the air is fresher, cleaner and more healthy, drivers are more polite, and there is always a place to park your car.

Thus I have every right to say that Taiwan sucks, even though it contracts the popular cliche on every Taiwan website/blog that says "Taiwan is so wonderful and friendly!" Why should I conform to that? Is conforming more important than telling the truth? Should I conform or be honest?

Also, everything feels so repressed, stiff and miserable in Taiwan. It's like there is a wall or barrier around everything that blocks me from being who I am and doing what I want to do. That sucks. I can't be myself in Taiwan and I'm not allowed to tell the truth either. What could be more invalidating than that?

In fact, Taiwan is actually one of the less interesting countries in the world. Workaholic cultures tend to be less interesting, because they lack passion and soul. The environment is very sterile. There's no romance, passion, love, special moments, special memories, camaraderie with others, or intellectualism. Instead, there's extreme repression and misery. Interactions are cold, fake and financially based. Women are very cold, difficult and picky. And young people are not interesting to talk to, but are eggheads and not very bright. All people care about is work and food. In addition, the architecture is ugly and consists of ugly slabs of concrete, and the natural scenery is bland and nothing spectacular. How is that any better than America?

There also seems to be this dark negative energy vortex in Taiwan. Everywhere I go the vibe feels so negative and miserable 24/7. Why is that? I don't think it's all in my imagination since Taiwan does have a high suicide rate, and people do look extremely repressed and miserable on their faces, which is consistent with the vibe I feel. It's like there are hungry ghosts sucking the life out of you in Taiwan.

In any case, why should I rave about Taiwan being "so wonderful and friendly" just because everyone else does? Why should I put up my hands and say "I love Taiwan" just because Shaun Bettinson says so? Why can't I be honest, rather than appease you and your campaign?

Am I obligated to lie and conform? Or is it better to tell the truth?

Thanks for reading, if you got this far that is.

Sincerely,
Winston

Update:

Shaun Bettinson responded to me by email. You can read his response and mine here:
http://www.happierabroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15832

See also:



5 comments:

  1. shaun is the BEST !!

    check this out :

    http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/73962_534333059915533_1226869670_n.jpg

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  2. When was the last time you got laid (and didn't have to pay for it)?

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  3. you got too much time, but you don't have a life.
    Have you tried any doctors that is willing to cure you?

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  4. I am agree with what writer (you ) say about this place is sucks for most population who has no capitals,who works their arses off mostly for their "local" boss.
    But i am not agree with no passion and no soul.
    Because there is no fire without smoke.
    u can take a look at this link,
    discuss about Why Taiwan's basic salary so low (but young ppl are high educated,most Taiwanese are like those "lost generation" in the past.
    Now is the end of 2015, we don't have many foreign investment here, most companies are local, with no good benefits to their workers, if u think workaholic is idea of workers, u really dont get invoolved with real Taiwan culture much. Our governors are same pussies like else where. They can be corrupt, and hypocritical and selfish as well. So basically most Taiwan ppl can see is a endless karma in past 60 years, the inequity is the main cause of the repressed society. Its that you know the society, the economic (regression, catching up by neighbor countries, Tw wanna get rid of manufacturing OEM ODM main business patterns, but cant really catch up to be high technology based country, but at same time the cost /price cant be cheaper than China or elsewhere ). So its like a trapped monster was trapped in its old business mode,but cant figure out the new direction (not just entrepreneurs, but also government).So most ppl are making money out from banking (stock investment), real estate investment, eventually creating a society with supply exceeds demand in education (degree bubble), real estate ( too pricy that young ppl cant afford at all).

    So I just wanna tell writer, when you write this article, i find a bit funny and ridiculous, coz the way you look at Taiwan society and women by a very shallow way. But you haven't seen the whole picture of whats gone wrong with one country. And I believe this global regression is not just happend in Taiwan but also many other countries whose economic are going slow.Or like what you say no difference from USA.So if you really want a soulful passionte girl (like manic pixie dream gril that only exist in the novels ,who is a muse to writer or artist ) you can go ahead to idealsit, college or university girls, but maybe as what you say, they can be naive like retarded.
    So I would say you can't expect a horse to run fast and yet won't feed it.
    And there is no fire without smoke.

    Look at this link, there is an article to give you a clear view , analyse the economic situation of Taiwan, pointed out "WHY TAIWAN HAS SUCH LOW SALARY FOR YEARS"
    and why young ppl feel hopeless.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/23dqd8/coming_from_a_western_background_im_confused_by/

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  5. I agree to an extent the landscape is bland the archictecure is crap and the people are like robots here, Japan Thailand are miles better, I've been here two months and can't wait to get out of here Thailand has life fun culture Japan has lovely scenery loads of culture food etc, this country is mediocre at best.

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