November 22, 2010

Taiwanese inferiority complex

-Rant 2nd part
Refer to "Make up is magic"

Well, the anti korean sentiments are not that ungrounded apparently.. I suppose these come from envy and unhealthy competitive jealousy. As we all know Taiwan and South Korea are two of the four asian tigers together with Hong Kong and Singapore. And somehow I always got the impression that the taiwanese always wanted to be classified together with Korea and Japan as the three big north east asian power countries, leaving China behind. As we know, the taiwanese doesn't want to be associated with China because of those political reasons. So, having this image in mind, they think of South Korea as their biggest competitor, since both have some similarities.. Both have been influenced by Mainland China, have been colonized by the Japanese for decades, both export electronics goods, etc. And since Japan served as the 'mother land' and is much more developed than Taiwan, the Taiwanese curiously do not turn against the Japanese, in fact they even idolize the japanese culture and try to identify themselves with the japanese, maybe in attempt to further dissociate themselves from the Mainland chinese.

In my opinion, they have some serious identity crisis. They actually speak and write chinese, embracing chinese culture proudly, seeing theirselves more pure than their mainland counterparts, because they have traditional writing characters, whereas the mainland chinese has simplified characters dubbed by some 'puritants' as ugly, corrupted and used only by the uneducated. But in the same time they do not want to be associated as chinese, thus looking up at the Japanese, being proud of the history that they used to be colonized by the japanese, even identifying themselves with the Japanese. And the fact that the mainland chinese government keeps oppressing them by every mean, like putting pressure on Taiwan on international level (sport or political events, even the latest Japan film festival where they tried to force the japanese commitee to change the name TAIWAN to China Taiwan or China Taipei, even threatening to boycott the festival if the Japanese wouldn't budge), constantly threatening other countries to severe diplomatic ties with Taiwan doesn't help either. (My heart goes out to the Taiwanese on this matter, since I don't like the chinese aggresive foreign policy either).

I recall a funny anecdote.. I was tete a tete-ing with a Taiwanese and he was telling me proudly that they have more historical artefacts in their Taipei national museum than in Beijing forbidden city and how the mainland chinese desecrated many historical monuments, paintings, etc during the Mao Tze Tung's regime. He was also telling me about the history lessons he learned in school, the legend of the three kingdoms and the chinese dynasties.. The thing is, he said (and I quote),"WE have ... dynasties, etc etc."

And being a meanie, I asked him,"You guys speak and write chinese, learn the chinese history as your own, have all the chinese cultures, so it means you're a chinese, right?
*I know how sensitive they are on this matter, I was just trying to annoy him in purpose :p
Wow, did he get annoyed. "Of course not! If you say so, it means that the Singaporeans are chinese as well."
At this point I was confused. I do admit some Singaporeans are of chinese descent, but they have their own language, which is Singlish (Singaporean-english, please don't get me started on this.. hehe), and they learned the Singaporean/Melayu history in school and they would never say "WE had the legend of the three kingdoms etc".

To be honest, a part of me can relate to this identity confusion thing, though not as strongly as theirs. Only by having chinese blood, though living in Indonesia for generations, speaking Indonesian as my mother tounge, thinking as Indonesians, learning indonesian history, still throws me off the track sometimes.. So, I guess I can imagine how hard it's for them to embrace and distance themselves from the chinese culture at the same time.

Back to the rivalry with the Koreans. As I said, because they can't compete with Japan, they try to compete with Koreans as their closest neighbour of the North east countries.. But unfortunately, in the past decade Taiwan lagged behind S.Korea in the economic growth, sport, brand names, pop culture. South Korea has gone from a per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) just 77 percent of Taiwan's to pull even and ultimately surpass Taiwan's per-capita GDP by 26 percent. Samsung and LG (compared to taiwanese Acer or Asus) rule the world, if I may exaggerate a bit.. And let's not start on the K-wave, K-drama, etc.. I myself am not a fan of korean nor taiwanese pop culture, but how many girls out there go crazy over those Koreans? Speaking as an Indonesian who knows what she's talking about, I can say the indo. girls love the Koreans (more than the Taiwanese, if I may add again).

The funny thing is, while the Taiwanese tried so hard to beat the Koreans, the Koreans didn't even know where Taiwan is (Well, they do now after those anti K sentiments, flag burning, etc). They see only Japan (and China?) as their competitors. CMIW.

I once booked a flight from Seoul to Taipei on Korean air's website.. I tried to find Taipei under the category "North East Asia", but couldn't find it.. I found only Japan and China under this category. I was not sure if Korean Air does fly to Taipei. So I tried the category "South East Asia" to check on Jakarta, my hometown.. And guess what, Taipei is listed there. Again, under South East Asia. To make it clear, south east asian nations have the reputation of being poor, whereas the north east asians are the richer ones. Though it's not entirely true.. We still have Singapore! :D Well, as a South East Asian, I don't care about these labels. I know my home country is poor, so what? haha. But it's sad for the Taiwanese, isn't it? Esp. that they think that they are one of the rich North East Asian countries, but their neighbours don't even acknowledge them..

So now, I can only smile ironically if defeat plus inner inferiority complex make them play dirty like throwing eggs at korean school, putting up 'no Korean accepted' signs in some stores and restaurants, which reminds me so much of the Jews and Nazi, smashing Korean electronic and beauty products just because of a stupid taekwondo game in which the referee was a Filipino (of korean descent), the judges were from China, Kuwait, and Tajikistan, the opponent represented Vietnam, and the game took place in China.. Well, let them vend out their frustration.. There's a saying: Jealousy is the sign of incapability. Go figure!

*If you're reading this, please take it with a pinch of salt as I'm just a foreigner with my own subjective opinion with no relation whatsoever to Taiwan, Korea nor China.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia

http://www.jal.co.jp/en/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Korean_sentiment

Anonymous said...

There is a difference between nationality and ethnicity. In English, when you ask "Are you Chinese" it can mean either (leading to confusion), but in Chinese they are stated differently (no confusion).

Most Taiwanese are ethnically Chinese (Han Chinese) and describe themselves as such. But they don't describe themselves as belonging to the PRC political system. (ie Mainland China). No identity confusion here...

Anonymous said...

That's funny, often the person accusing another of "inferiority complex" is the one with the complex (just like a fart :P)

1. Go to google.com and have google instant turned on.

2. Type "korean infe" and immediately "korean inferiority complex" comes up.

3. Do the the same thing with "taiwan infe" and you get "taiwan infertility treatment". Go figure. :P

Anonymous said...

When that taekwondo incident take place it did happen where stores reject selling stuff to korean, it really embarassing to the core just by clasified in the same species with this kind of human being, let alone in the same inheritance. on the other hand a lot of youngster identified jap as hip and want to be a japanese, cheering me with "ganbate" shit, if he's not one of my classmate I will tell him to go die and rip his heart out.

Anonymous said...

I think Korea is having the inferiority complex, because you invented the word, and I only heard this word from Korean.

Taiwan don't give a shit of Korea. The reason why we prejudice you is because we came from China hundreds of years ago, and you (Korean) are just a servant for us. Majority of Taiwanese have ancestors from China or Japan, and so of course relatively associated with these countries. You rarely see a Taiwanese carrying Korean blood, or do you???

Anonymous said...

http://www.imd.org/research/publications/wcy/World-Competitiveness-Yearbook-Results/#/wcy-2010-rankings/

Anonymous said...

It's amusing to see all the anonymous comments above me are nothing more than rabid taiwanese whom are butthurt of the fact that Koreans are always ahead of this unknown "country". Notice how I quotated country? Yes, it is not even a country. What a nuisance!

Anonymous said...

Taiwang sucks . Noone is your servant you gay little fookanese fairy kooky taiwangers !

Anonymous said...

I'm Japanese and here is my opinion.

Korea developed a little thanks to Japanese and American investments.

Taiwan developed all by themselves under the difficult international circumstances.

Taiwan >>> Korea.

Period.

Anonymous said...

All these wishfull bullshi.t from this poor, unfortunate, and under-developed 3rd world country named 'Chaiwan' is why they will always have an inferiority complex towards the superior Korea and will always LAG BEHIND Korea. :)
Go figure.

Anonymous said...

Hey Japanese anonymous,

Can you explain to me how Japanese occupation over Korea benefited Koreans while Japanese businesses utilized natural resources and forced labor?



"Virtually all industries were owned either by Japan-based corporations or by Japanese corporations in Korea. As of 1942, indigenous capital constituted only 1.5 percent of the total capital invested in Korean industries. Korean entrepreneurs were charged interest rates 25 percent higher than their Japanese counterparts, so it was difficult for large Korean enterprises to emerge. More and more farmland was taken over by the Japanese, and an increasing proportion of Korean farmers either became sharecroppers or migrated to Japan or Manchuria as laborers. As greater quantities of Korean rice were exported to Japan, per capita consumption of rice among the Koreans declined; between 1932 and 1936, per capita consumption of rice declined to half the level consumed between 1912 and 1916. Although the government imported coarse grains from Manchuria to augment the Korean food supply, per capita consumption of food grains in 1944 was 35 percent below that of 1912 to 1916."

Anonymous said...

Without America's aid and funding (via post-WW2), Japan won't be as developed as they are now.


[U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1954 (1955)]

1. Japan ($2.44 billion)
2. China/Taiwan ($1.051 billion)
3. Philippines ($803 million)
4. South Korea ($494 million)

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Unknown said...

In fact, only korean think themselves as being superior, and thats why they need to use all those cheap tactics to maintain their fraud status, and whenever they got caught cheating, they started blaming Taiwanese for pointing finger at them, and say they have inferior complex, and starting to manipulate with Taiwan's political status. Most Taiwanese don't even give a shit about korean except when they cheat. Like the above said, Korean companies are shit without US/Japan's assistance, whereas Taiwan's techno companies are innovative by themselves.

Unknown said...

And yes, korean is famous among south-east Asains including Indonesia, that defines the reason why your post is so shockingly bias. Yes, only in south-east asia together with a few stupid artists like PSY who is being mocked all round the world :)

Anonymous said...

korea, a country prop by their american daddy is superior? as an oversea chinese, I've always know koreans as servants and vassals throughout their history, constantly serve each and every chinese dynasties, the japanes, russians and the american. a country who can't stand their two legs and constantly need sugar daddy to protect them is what we call "whore". k-wave is only popular for the past 10 years, chinese and japanese influence for the past what... 2000 years? there's no comparison. a country with no nobel winner, constantly under other's protection, copy western electronics is simply inferior in my opinion.

Unknown said...

Koreans are not slaves to Chinks! We are far more developed and civilized! And the people are far more attractive and nicer than Taiwanese monkeys! Stop being so jealous because Korea is more superiors than ur people! Jealous cunt!

Unknown said...

Jealous Taiwanese Chinks and Japanese monkeys. Why can't you leave Korea alone and stop annoying the pretty Koreans! Koreans dont have time to deal with you savages!

Anonymous said...

This is so stupid. I'm Korean. I found out this anti-Korean sentiment feelings in Taiwan because of my Taiwanese friend. I tried to figure out why some people have such negative view on my home country and the only fucking reason I found is what, because Taiwan used to be superior but Korea is now going ahead? I mean, I thought there would be more "reasonable" reason like a war or .. a war or something. I don't believe Korea is "superior" or something but from how those people in comment section are reacting is definitely an indicator of inferiority complex. Actually, what kind of Korean says they invented the world? I never heard of any kind of sayings from Korean. They are perhaps sarcastic about their own country. Don't you guys realize media in Taiwan is just bringing up stupid excuses to justify building animosity toward Korean for political purpose? I mean many countries do that including Korea(still their animosity toward Japan seems pretty legit). But let me state this, the reasons these Taiwanese bring up to justify their hatred is so fucking poor and they purely seem to exist in purpose of hiding their jealousy inside.

Anonymous said...

Taiwan belongs to China

Taiwan is inferior dogs

look at how salty and butthurt they are on this comment LOL.

/end of discussion

we are korea dog said...

Anonymous
korea they ate dogs
they are change face
cuz they looks so ugly
very simple face
very small eyes
all of world hate korean
jarcoks skr 6 months ago
Fuck Korea in 2002 World cup... Cheated

Anonymous said...

Taiwan? Isn't taiwan a part of china?

patrick said...

No one cares about taiwan. I only heard of taiwan from the term..."made in taiwan"...which usually meant it was low quality and cheap...just like made in china

Anonymous said...

"Without America's aid and funding (via post-WW2), Japan won't be as developed as they are now"

No way. Japan was already a developed nation in WWII. They had the technology and industrial capacity to build many aircraft carriers and export Nissan cars to Australia in 1930s.

Anonymous said...

I'm Taiwanese but I grew up abroad, and even then I still dislike Koreans in general. For a few reasons:

1) Koreans that I witnessed during college are for the most part: materialistic, vain, and shallow.

2) They are in cliques, and they look down on other Asians (barring Japanese) as inferior, at times literally as you walk past them on the streets. This is ingrained in their culture as well, they think they are a better ethnicity than other Asians. Even Jesus is Korean at their churches.

3) The majority of the men/guys have terrible tempers, seen on many occasions where guys lose their tempers over nothing, maybe it's part of their culture?

I know its a generalization, since I know several Koreans who don't fit the stereotype but it's rare.

Anonymous said...

Ok simple fact
Korean dont really care about Taiwanese
Leave us alone we dont really care about you once from Mainland China
Go China :)

Anonymous said...

Seriously, taiwan... your media always compare Taiwan with Korea, admit it.