Saturday, July 30, 2005

Disoccidented

Sometimes I walk behind two blonde people and they turn around and they are Asian, in fact, 99.9% of all blonde people I see here are Asian. However there are a lot of Caucasian models on billboards and ads, and so in some ways, you see a lot of white people. In other ways, you don't see many at all.

Once in Taibei, an African American guy walked by. I assume that he was American mainly because he was dressed like American, for all I know he could have been Canadian, English, Jamaican or African. This Taiwanese guy who was lounging on the street corner did this double take and said (in Chinese) "Whoa, a black guy!"

Today, subbing for a class, this kid started speaking to me in Chinese, and I said "I don't speak Chinese" which is half a lie, and half not. So he asked "Where are you from?" and I said "America." and he actually looked me up and down, with a head motion and everything, and said "You're an ABC?" and I said "No." and he said a "CBA" I don't know what that is, I'm guessing Canadian, and I said "No." He's the only person who's pushed it that far. American is good enough for most people, although some will simply assume that I was born in Taiwan and have come back. I have to say, Taiwanese people so far have been way more tactful about the whole "Where are you from?" thing than my 21 years of experience in America.

However, in talking to my roommate about his experiences, I realize that I don't stick out as much as he does, in that I don't get people running up to me trying to be my best friend because I'm visibly foreign. At the same time, I think most people get the general idea that I ain't exactly from around here, although my roommate did advance the intriguing theory that they do think I'm local, but just as he put it "evil."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

CBA could be the inversion of ABC - "Chinese Born American." I know some people who'd've described themselves like that. Born in China/Taiwain/wherever, raised in the US.

-jam

Anonymous said...

yeah, i agree with jam, i think that CBA might mean Chinese Born American.

Did you know that there is a famous black celebrity in Taiwan...I dont know where he was born but he was raised in Taiwan. His Chinese is even better than mine and I suspect he knows how to speak Taiwanese to some extent too. Anyways, he is part of a boy band. He's a cool guy.

I dont get the evil thing you talked about. local but evil?

-Michelle

Anonymous said...

Wow, you'll have to explain the "evil" thing. I was thinking at first it might mean "unconventional," but...

lovelesscynic said...

Perhaps the "I hope my daughter/granddaughter doesn't end up like you." sort of evil.

ChroniclesofChaos said...

I just got back from Taipei and hmmm... I might not re-visit anytime soon.

Being Chinese, I have had a whole multitude of locals talk to me in Mandarin and Hokkien. I think I even got snubbed when I seemed to have committed some sorta rookie tourist mistake, though to date, I still haven't the foggiest what it was I did wrong.

But well the gist of this is that most of the locals didn't seem to believe me when I said I wasn't Taiwanese, nor did they suspect much from my English accentuated Mandarin or even my general overall appearance (I ain't the petite little taiwanese girl in pretty lace).

Anyways, kudos on reading thru Mandarin 'manuscripts' in your recent posts. Something I have always hoped to achieve but never got around to trying.

~Chronicles of Chaos~