Best Taiwan blogger 2011

Who is the best Taiwan blogger 2011?

I'm trying to show you the real Taiwan. Photo from here.

The year is almost over and soon we will get Taiwanderful's best Taiwan blogger of 2011. Since I won last year by popular vote, I am very curious about who will be my successor this year. I was peer judge this time, but I requested, that my blog is not part of the competition and I am very happy, that my wish was granted.

Why I don't want to participate again? The answer is simple: Because I could easily win. And I think it's much better to give a chance for a little recognition to other bloggers, than to win based on the advantages you have in mobilizing your online buddies. This year my blog has more followers and readers and in addition, I could get support of a lot of Slovenian netizens, if I wanted, because my blog Slovenian in Taiwan is repeatedly shared in the Slovenian blogosphere and online media (I'm probably the only serious Slovenian blogger in the Far East). When some of my posts are shared, my traffic spikes sky high for a couple of hours. Not only that, our Slovenian Twitter community is very strong this year, I could be retweeted as much as I wished. This all shows how far I've come as a blogger. This year is just amazing. Including my Slovenian blog, I've written almost 300 posts in 2011! A lot of these were written in the first half of the year, when I just arrived in Taiwan and had a lot of time. After I started to work, my updates became less, but my focus shifted to quality over quantity. Sometimes I was drafting a post for a week, before I published it. Luckily, it was worth the effort, because it was quite well received.

Last year's epic win of the Taiwanderful blog award put me in the spotlight of the expat online community in Taiwan. Imagine, a Slovenian beats all the Americans, Canadians and Aussies - what a shock it was to some. I got a bit more traffic and few more readers, but other than that, it hasn't had any significant effect on me as a Taiwan blogger. I just continued to do my thing as usual. I was never really too engaged in this community, but I was and still am observing it from the sidelines. Sadly, I am not too impressed with what I see this year. Let me go deeper into that.

The problem of the Taiwan expat community is that it's not a community. It's more like a community of groups and most of these groups are small and less relevant in the broader sense. They usually consist of few bloggers, who interact with each other. There is however a main group, a group of the popular Taiwan bloggers, who have a lot of readers and are able to shape a certain kind of image of Taiwan for the world outside. This group is divided in the good and the not so good ones. The good ones really care about the online community and about Taiwan in general, they have no agenda other than pure enthusiasm for this Far Eastern gem. These people are also behind the Taiwanderful blog award, I have great respect for them.

The not so good ones are usually having an agenda. They are mostly writing about politics, history, society and random observations. They are highly critical of others, especially those who don't share the same opinion, but very insecure, if the criticism boomerangs back to them. These bloggers often distort the image of Taiwan and its people, most likely because of a personal issue - they exaggerate, make up stuff, write too hastily and have almost no balanced views on a variety of topics. Generally, they do some harm, but I think their influence is very limited, as most intelligent readers will abandon them very quickly. They end up only writing for like-minded people. This is of course nothing shocking, as every blogging community has these types of bloggers, especially expat communities in Asia. I will of course not mention any of them here, because I don't want to supply them with topics to blog about.

Instead, I'd like to focus on something more positive. I did find two Taiwan related blogs, that I would like to mention here and they are definitely worthy of your time:

Vagabond in Taiwan: Written by Adrienne, an American, who lives in Taipei. What I like about her blog is the simplistic layout, which is delightfully completed with beautiful photos. I generally like to read blogs, where photos tell a story or are a big part of a story - it's also my way of blogging. And in this case, I could say: Great minds think alike. I just dropped my vote for the Vagabond in Taiwan today.

Brennpunkt Taipeh: Written by Klaus, a German, who lives in Taipei. He's more known as a German language blogger, nevertheless, his English posts are excellent as well. It won't shock you to know, that he's a reporter and I have to say a very fine one. I've seldom met someone, who loves Taiwan as much as he does and yet is still very realistic about the good and the bad sides of the country and its people. If you wanna see the real Taiwan, he should be one of your prime sources.

To browse more Taiwan blogs, check these websites and posts:

- Bloggers in Taiwan (listed English language blogs on Taiwan)
- Taiwanderful's blog directory (similar to the link above)
- List of Taiwanese bloggers (native Taiwanese, who blog in Chinese language)

I know I'm very picky, when it comes to reading blogs. For one, I have a very high quality standard for my own blog, and secondly, I don't have a lot of time, that's why I have to set my priorities. Btw, I'm trying to tweak my layout a little, make it cleaner and with less links, but more to the point. As the first step, I have redesigned my table of contents, please check it here and tell me, how you like it. It was a lot of work, but I have to make my blog more professional and that's why I will continue to tweak and redesign until I'm happy with it. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of free time, that's why I'm doing it bit by bit.

I've already written over 1200 posts in the recent 4 years and currently I have between 3000 and 4000 pageviews per day! That's a lot of traffic for a simple blogspot blog and it's even getting more every month. It's very fulfilling to know, that so many people read and appreciate what I've written - I hope that this will continue next year as well. Actually, I'm pretty sure it will.

• Who is your best Taiwan blog this year?
• What was the reason for you to become my regular reader?

I'm looking forward to your answers. Thanks for sticking with me and going through thick and thin. I appreciate it :)

[My TAIWAN page][Photo by MKL, 2011]

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Taipei on Christmas, 2011

Jingle bells in the Far East

Today I went out to Taipei's popular East District to see a movie. It happend to be on the Christmas eve and I decided to take some photos. Taipei is not very different during Christmas, especially because it falls on a weekend, where people go out to 走走 (dzǒudzǒu) or walk around. This time they dzǒudzǒued a little more, so it seemed, because the pedestrian area near Taipei 101 was so crowded like I've rarely seen before. Maybe some of these people just got the annual bonus and want to splurge on shopping? I don't know. It was a little Christmasy, but very commercialized. Basically similar to what we see in most of central Europe: Just minus the food stalls and freezing cold weather. I made some photos for you, but the best part is the video at the very end, which is compiled of several clips, that I've made today. Enjoy!

Not like the stalls I saw in Germany, but still ok.

Oh yeah, did I mention that there was a lot of people?

A whole lot of people!

Taipei 101 seen through the decoration.

Street performers taking photos with young fans.

When the night fell, people were leaving home.

But some were just coming!

My video will show you the Christmas atmosphere in Taipei.

Taiwanese are mostly not Christian, but Taoist, Buddhist, both or not really religions. Christmas is like Halloween, something interesting from the West, that is another reason to have fun. Taiwanese love celebrations, so it doesn't need too long, before you'll see cute girls and their friends with Santa caps or antlers posing for a photo with the v-sign and a wide smile. Xinyi these days is packed with people and I think it will become even crazier in 5 days. The famous Taipei 101 countdown to 2012 will be held here. And then there is Chinese new year... Phew. The festive season just started in Taiwan. Merry Christmas, everybody!

[My TAIPEI page][My LIFE IN TAIWAN page][All photos by MKL, 2011]

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European City Tour: Basel, Switzerland

Part of my 2011 European travel adventures

Basel was my gateway to Switzerland and the place, that made me fall in love with this beautiful country. It's a small city, but it has a lot to offer. Located close to where the borders of Germany, France and Switzerland meet, Basel has an international feel to it. Some of Basel's suburbs even reach far inside the French and German territory, its international airport is actually located in France. I'm very enamored with this medieval gem and very happy to share some of my best shots with you.

1. My impression of Basel

Unfortunately I only had a late afternoon to explore the city. I arrived at the main railway station at around 5pm, decided to stack my luggage at one of the lockers there and headed towards the city center by foot. The good thing about Basel is that the main station and the center are not too far from each other. The streets and roads are fairly small, but not too crowded. Most Baslers take the tram, which is conveniently cruising up and down the city, you can't miss it. What surprised me, was the medieval part, which is located on a rock above the river Rhine. There are several narrow and steep old streets going up and down, it's truly an adventure to explore this part.

2. My images of Basel

One of the biggest and most important railway stations in the area.

The busy square in front of the busy main station.

This is one of the busiest parts of Basel.

Off to the central part.

The view over the Rhine to the other side.

Mittlere Brücke or Middle bridge over the Rhine.

Middle bridge from close.

Marktplatz or the Main square.

Basel's beautiful landmark: The town hall or Rathaus.

Reminds me a little of the old Munich town hall.

A closeup.Heading to the Basel Münster.

The colorful top of the tower.

Marktplatz again.

Typical street in the old Basel.

Closer to the Münster.

The Basel Münster, former cathedral, now a protestant church.

The beautiful golden clock on the Münster.

A closeup on the Münster.

Baslers playing boules.

View from the Münster on the other side of Basel.

The Offene Kirche, a beautiful neo-gothic church.

Offene Kirche from the side.

And then I was back at the Basel Main railway station.

3. Basel in conclusion

Basel has much more to offer than what you've seen in my photos above. I really wish I had at least a weekend in the city, but I hope that the photos will still give you enough impressions to decide visiting this medieval treasure yourself. I can only highly recommend you visiting Basel and Switzerland as a whole. It's one of my favorite European countries.

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Interracial couples in Taiwanese commercials - It's a start

Not your every day thing in Taiwan, but growing in significance

Today I saw a TV commercial featuring a White guy as a loving husband, who cooks for his Taiwanese wife and their child. It's a rather simple and short commercial, but pretty amazing, because it might well be the first of such kind to regularly run on Taiwan's national TV (correct me, if I'm wrong). The ad is not new, it's at least a year old, but I haven't noticed it too often (yeah, I'm pretty busy). The company, that launched the ad is called 好帝一 Haw-Di-i. I'm not sure how tasty their sauce is, but I'd like to commend them for creating this ad. Big thumbs up from me. In my previous post about big hot dogs, I've said that the foreigners in the video don't represent me. Sadly, the foreigner in the commercial doesn't represent me, too. When my wife saw the video, she immediately said: You don't cook! :-P Sadly, I don't have time to cook for my wifey, but the commercial really makes me want to :-) And I might buy that sauce, since I'm also targeted as a consumer.

The husband says: This is the original taste of Taiwan.

A little later the company made another commercial with the same family.

Earlier this year Quaker made a commercial featuring a prominent Taiwanese couple, of which the woman is an actress and a singer, who married a Canadian. Her name is 黃嘉千 (Phoebe Wang) and the husband is Christopher Downs (夏克立). Check the commercial:

Brief summary: Husband and mother-in-law are discussing what is the best food for the baby. The daughter/wife then says: This milk powder from Quaker is the best. And the other two finally agree.

More and more foreigners are appearing in Taiwanese TV commercials, but usually as English teachers or travelers, which still places them outside the Taiwanese society. What more commonly represents the reality of the mainstream, are interracial babies (can I say Eurasian babies?), but those might be booked, because they "look cute" to the average Taiwanese (I heard this a lot), not because companies want to have any connection with the reality of interracial relationships in Taiwan. The fathers of these babies rarely appear in these videos (the ones above are the proof of that). If any, it will be the advertising industry, who will be the first to realize that foreigners, who married Taiwanese women and live here, represent a very potential customer base, and start to invest more into this direction.

[Source of the ad][My UNIQUELY TAIWANESE page][TAIWANESE WOMEN Series]

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"Meet foreign big hot dogs" - Are Taiwanese girls obsessed with foreigners?

Just bigger hot dogs or more skilled cooks?

Today I want to share a video with you, which was made by Apple Daily, a fairly known media in the yellow press of Taiwan. It's discussing the non-issue of late night action between Taiwanese girls and foreign guys. They interviewed a cabbie and two Taiwanese guys in front of a night club in Taipei and shot few videos with a camera, which was secretly placed in a cab just to highlight how easy it is for foreigners to hook up with a Taiwanese girl. Check my transcription of the things that were said in the video underneath and enter a discussion in the comments.

Western guys' attraction makes the Taiwanese girls obsessed!?

Google says Taiwan girls are easy.
Guy 1 says: "Foreigners don't need to be handsome, just normal. Some are even a bit chubby, but they can get the girls easy, because they have a big hotdog."

The video wants to proof, that Taiwanese girls are obsessed with foreigners. We want to do a research in the most popular night club among foreigners. The club has a "foreigners night". [The night club is named Brassmonkey]

Guy 2 says: "Many foreigners, be it whites, blacks and taiwanese girls, when they enter the night club, they kiss with tongues, hug tight, touch the butt, grab the waist."

The cabbie says: "The club here is full of foreigners and Taiwanese girls. Even if some foreigners can't get girls inside the club, they will go out and try to get a drunk girl outside and take them with them. Those foreigners are all horny."

They want to track, if things they say is true, hence they install a camera in taxi to monitor.

Cabbie again: "Most of the time foreigners will hold the girl, when she enters the cab and then he will be all over her."

The video ends with: This is happening every day. Foreigners are very horny.
Are Taiwanese girls so easy to get?

My thoughts about the video

It's a very one-sided video and you don't need to be Einstein to understand what it tries to say. It's the classic case of the "good" Taiwanese guys against the "bad" Taiwanese girls and the notoriously horny immoral foreigners). It's interesting, how the whole story is interpreted and commented only by three Taiwanese guys, there are no comments from foreigners who frequently visit the club, let alone Taiwanese girls... or a sociologist, for example. I'm not saying that what we saw in the backside of the cab doesn't happen, but how much does it represent the dating scene of Taiwanese girls with foreign guys? I'd say very little. Well, at least in my world. But what do I know, I'm just a boring TGIF worker, never go to clubs or pubs and never had interest to hook up with girls this way. This behavior doesn't represent me and I can't be happy about the sexist and racist undertone I feel throughout the video, which is somehow related to my personal love story as well. Similar and crazier things happen between Taiwanese girls and guys, but nobody makes a story out of it. Why is that? The answer is obvious.

My personal experience

Videos like this one do cause harm, I experienced it first hand. It's a kind of a constant theme in recent years for the Taiwanese yellow press and it gets under people's skin. It took me a long time to prove, that I am a "good foreigner", before I was accepted by my wife's parents. When we started to date and she told them about us, they always confronted her with the bad stuff about foreigners they saw on TV or read in the newspapers. They had a lot of concerns about our relationship, their fears were rooted in such biased reporting. In addition it seems that it's in the nature of Taiwanese parents to be overly worried about their daughters. It was a very stressful and tiresome time for me and I don't wish anyone to go though a similar torment.

Open sexuality in Taiwan

Openly displayed female sexuality is a taboo in Taiwan, but what we saw is nothing shocking for Europeans. Go to Hamburg's, London's or Amsterdam's night clubs and you'll see things, that will make the video above look very innocent. Of course Taipei is not Amsterdam, but it's also not the Taipei it used to be few decades ago. Taipei wants to be a global player (constantly ogling at Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo) and a part of this process is a liberation of mind and a tolerance for the choices other people make, even if they conflict with your own values. A vibrant night scene is part of a metropolis, attracting foreign and domestic adventurers, travelers and free spirited people. It's part of city branding. If we take this into consideration, we realize, that the video is fairly naive. Even more so in the way it argues its point. If you constantly use other guys' "big hot dogs" and "horniness" as a kind of a case against them, what does that say about your own hot dog and sexual drive? I've heard these things a lot during the recent attacks against Taiwanese girls in interracial relationships. I also mentioned this whole issue in my detailed post about interracial relationships in Taiwan. I guess these things won't stop any time soon, because there's a great divide between sexes in Taiwan, which is completely redefining the way the society is structured and it happened way before Westerners entered the local dating scene. There is no simple answer, why are some foreign guys able to pick up Taiwanese girls like ripe cherries from the tree, but one thing is sure: Constantly bemoaning this fact won't help you. Real men take action, real men don't whine. And Taiwanese girls like real men.

Read more about Taiwanese girls.

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European City Tour: Munich, Germany

Part of my 2011 European travel adventures

Munich (German München) is the 3rd biggest German city and the cultural and economic center of Southern Germany. It's also the capital of the German Bundesland Bavaria. Munich is famous for so many things, that I don't know where to start: The Oktoberfest, the beer, the weisswurst, the pretzel, the dirndl, the lederhosen, Bayern München soccer club, BMW, Frauenkirche, schiki-miki and much more. Munich is for me culturally closer to Austria and Switzerland instead of middle and northern Germany. One thing, that makes people of Munich very different from the rest of Germans is the colorful Bavarian dialect, spoken in and around the city. Germany's southern metropolis has so much to offer, that I'd need days, maybe even weeks, to explore most of it. My focus was on the historic center, I spend one morning to walk around and take photos.

1. My impression of Munich

Munich seemed quite big to me. The center is truly located in the very middle part of the city, which is very convenient. The Hauptbahnhof, Munich's main station, is located right next to it and can be reached by foot. Therefore almost all roads lead to there, be it the railway, the U-Bahn, the S-Bahn, the buses or the cabs. You can't miss the place. Getting around is a little confusing at first, because there are really so many means of transportation. You'll need some time to comprehend that maze. Munich center is interesting, in parts. It's very diverse, from old churches to modern buildings: You have everything you want. The most beautiful part is the Marienplatz with the old and new City Hall, as well as the famous Frauenkirche, the onion-shaped tips of two identical towers that form Munich's most notable landmark. But of course Munich also has few ugly sides, especially the main station and some quarters nearby. I wasn't too eager to walk around there at night, but yeah: I survived.

2. My photos of Munich

The area south of Hauptbahnhof is dominated by immigrants.

The tram slowly passing by.

Few meters inside the old town and I already saw a church.

A Bavarian restaurant.

Beautiful old house, which is today a museum.

The new synagogue.

Walking deeper into the central part.

Vegetable market called Viktualienmarkt.

Alter Peter Church and the Old City Hall.

People strolling around.

Old City Hall or Altes Rathaus.

Alter Peter or St. Peter's church.

The old City Hall again.

The new City Hall or Rathaus at the Marienplatz.

The right side.

The tip of the tower.

The coat of arms.

The left side.

The trapped dragon.

The busy Weinstraße.

The famous Frauenkirche or Cathedral of Our Dear Lady.

This is Munich's most famous landmark.

Each tower is 99m tall and built with bricks. Amazing.

National theatre of Munich on the right. On the left is the Munich Palace in renovation.

The posh Maximilianstraße, full of luxury brands. This is where the posh hang out.

The Upper Bavaria governmental building.

Statue of Maximilian II of Bavaria.

Maximilianeum, a palace in use for the Bavarian Landtag.

Walking back in the central part of the center.

I saw a BMW near the synagogue.

The Old Peter again.

This is the Hauptbahnhof.

A very big station, but not as big as the one in Frankfurt.

Off to the trains.

This is where my Munich tour ended.

3. Munich in conclusion

Munich is one of those cities, that are huge by size and importance, yet they still retain that small town feeling, the ambiance of the old times long past. Bavarians are very down to earth and make every visitor feel like home. At least that's how I felt during my (now already) second visit. Munich has a lot to offer, it's definitely worth a few days long stay, but I'm sure that it's even more interesting to travel around Bavaria, see the beautiful landscape and stroll through picturesque small towns. That will need to wait for some other time, because my next destination is Basel, Switzerland.

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