3.

This past weekend we went to Tainan and Kaohsiung, spending about one day in each city. In Tainan, we visited some historical forts and smaller temples. Our time in Kaohsiung was particularly interesting to me because we visited a Buddhist temple for the first part of the day, went on a ferry ride, and briefly visited the wedding of the nephew of our teacher Dr. Liu.

Last week in class, Dr. Liu asked us to observe tourists in Taiwan from Mainland China. In Tainan and Kaohsiung, I saw that there were noticeable differences between the manners and customs of Mainland Chinese people and those of Taiwanese people. For example, in the Tainan hotel during breakfast, some of the Mainland tourists were impatient and had less regard for lines. Later, on the ferry ride in Kaohsiung, our tour guide said that the passengers who stood up before the ferry was fully docked must have been Mainlanders.

In contrast, the Taiwanese people I encountered seemed more soft-spoken and cared more about manners and politesse. For instance, at the restaurants, the waiters would often say “不好意思,” or “I’m sorry,” when they had to ask us to move a little bit so they could bring the food to the table. This custom surprised me because I didn’t encounter it often at American restaurants, so it was more polite and apologetic than I was used to.

The wedding we visited in Kaohsiung highlighted the differences between Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese people during our trip. At the wedding, the couple’s families invited us to take many pictures and arranged for us to have food to take on our trip back to Taipei, even though they had not met any of us in person before the wedding. This treatment of strangers was not something I had previously seen during my visits to Mainland China. My mother, who grew up there, said that sometimes our family could be “小氣” or “stingy” because they were used to living in times when food, money, and resources were scarce. It was interesting to see the contrast between the different cultures during my trip.

Tomorrow we will be wrapping dumplings in our culture class. We will also be visiting the main campus of the Tamkang University later in the week.