Culture shock for Chinese tourists and Taiwanese hosts
Ong Hwee Hwee & Sim Chi Yin
The Straits Times
Publication Date : 11-07-2008



When Xiamen businessman Ying Jiming set foot in Taipei last Friday (July 4), he expected a modern capital with wide boulevards and glitzy skyscrapers.

But right off the plane, he found himself walking along a non-airconditioned pathway to the spartan arrival hall of the downtown Songshan Airport.

The city's mishmash of tatty shophouses and high-rise buildings also left him less than impressed, he told The Straits Times two days into his Taiwan tour.

"I thought Taipei should be comparable to, if not more developed than, Beijing and Shanghai," said the 44-year-old, who sported a pair of Gucci shades.

The disappointment expressed by Ying, one of 760 mainlanders on the historic inaugural cross-strait tour in Taiwan, might have been shared by a few of his fellow tourists.

Already, some mainland Internet forums have commented on how rundown (popo lanlan) Taipei is.

The Taiwanese, who had been bracing themselves for an influx of supposedly uncouth mainland tourists, are beginning to realise that culture shock cuts both ways.

Barred from Taiwan for nearly six decades, mainlanders, who are increasingly affluent and well-travelled, may find the 'treasure island' less developed than they had imagined.

More Chinese tourists are expected to flock to the island after the political rivals eased a longstanding ban on non-stop weekend flights and mainlanders travelling directly to the island.

But even as the Taiwanese government rolled out the red carpet for the big-spending Chinese, some Taiwanese scoffed at their reputed lack of manners and poor hygiene habits.

Voicing a typical complaint, Taiwanese businessman Yen Ming-huei, 39, said: "The mainland tourists are fond of spitting. There is a risk that they could spread diseases."

Others, such as taxi driver Huang Li-kuo, are more tolerant. "The mainland tourists remind me of how we Taiwanese were when we first travelled abroad. We were also censured for talking loudly in public and haggling over prices," he said.

Taiwan had already established itself as a regional economic powerhouse when the mainland began liberalising its economy in the 1970s and 1980s.

"That is why some Taiwanese still have a condescending attitude towards the mainlanders," said Taiwanese Wang Hsing-ching, a well-known political commentator who pens columns under the pseudonym, Nanfang Shuo.

"But there has been a dramatic shift in attitude with the Chinese economy taking off. In fact, some Taiwanese have swung from one extreme to the other - from looking down on mainlanders to worshipping them as saviours of Taiwan's economy," he told The Straits Times.

Taiwanese journalists who trailed the first batch of mainland tourists on their 10-day tour around the island have so far put out mostly positive reports which portrayed the mainlanders as polite and friendly.

There have been only a handful of unfavourable reviews: On a Chinese tourist who wore his bedroom slippers to breakfast at a five-star hotel, and others who ignored no-smoking signs or refused to put on life jackets while taking boat rides.

Understandably, the inaugural batch of Chinese tourists - mostly well-heeled mainlanders hand-picked from thousands of applicants - were eager to impress their Taiwanese compatriots.

They have refrained from saying anything bad about Taiwan.

If she was unimpressed with Taipei's less-than-glamorous skyline, Madam Zhang Lizhen, 65, a retired civil servant from south-eastern China's Xiamen, did not want to say so.

Instead, she reasoned: "Every place has its own urban planning and pace of development. Old doesn't mean it's not good. And it doesn't mean if you've seen Mount Everest, you don't need to see Mount Ali in Taiwan. It's not fair to make direct comparisons."

In any case, she noted, southern Chinese like her have much in common with the Taiwanese.

"We speak a similar Hokkien and pray to Mazu," she said, referring to the Chinese Goddess of the Sea.

Observers are generally optimistic that increased interaction will close the gap between the people of the two sides and douse political hostility across the Taiwan Strait.

But some analysts are not holding their breath for Taiwan's democratic system to rub off on mainlanders quickly.

Dr Wang said: "All the talk about bringing change in China, I think that is looking at things from Taiwan's perspective. It's like telling people we have such a wonderful political system and culture, you have to learn from us."

Going by the fact that the Taiwanese say 'cheese' when being photographed while mainlanders typically shout out qie zi (Mandarin for 'eggplant'), just getting over the cultural differences may take some time.

I have been to both Taipei and Shanghai. Let's just say Shanghai is far more modern than Taipei because everything is new. Then again, Shanghai is also more modern than all USA cities I have been to. The problem is in the West when they want to show China, they only show people riding bicycles at country side. The only exception is financial channels like CNBC where they are eager to make a buck off China's growth.

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Why would he route to Songshan? Most intl flights go through Taoyuan. I don't think Shanghai is a fair comparison because it's more of an international port with a strong colonial history and presence.

Hate to be so blase but all of it sounds rather typical mainlander/taiwan bickering. Growing pains, I suppose. The increased travel is a good thing, IMO. Necessary step to increase ties and since a lot of Taiwanese families have investment in the mainland it's not a bad way to ease into things. They're all going to continue to be pissed about the National museum probably.

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Others, such as taxi driver Huang Li-kuo, are more tolerant. "The mainland tourists remind me of how we Taiwanese were when we first travelled abroad. We were also censured for talking loudly in public and haggling over prices," he said.


I found people I've met from taiwan were mostly very relaxed and laid back people...sophisticated likable and friendly....I'm surprised to read about some of the stuff on this article but I can totally see that.

and I think some of the behaviors of the mainlanders are just a product of modern and post modern red influence....ancient days were like that too? I have no idea...But I tend to doubt that.

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