Now, you see me.                        Taiwan 

More than three decades ago, while I was studying or traveling abroad, people asked me where I was from. If I said I was from Taiwan, they'd say, "Oh, you're Thai." I'd say, "No, it's from Taiwan, not from Thailand," and they'd ask, "Where is Taiwan?"

 

I'd explain for a long time, but I still couldn't get them to understand where Taiwan was geographically. The truth was that Taiwan was relatively unknown. The island, Taiwan, was too small to be spotted in the world map.

 

In 2013, I started writing this blog with a motivation of letting Taiwan be known by foreigners. I was trying to give ideas about our traditions, education, people or beliefs. Taiwan does have its own unique characteristics and independence. In addition to that, the ones especially students in Taiwan, collected the information from this blog, might be benefited when they need express themselves to the foreigners in English, 

People might wonder if English is a language required to learn in Taiwan since primary school or even earlier, why can’t they introduce Taiwanese things etc..

 One of the most important reasons causing this is that the English textbooks the students learn from are almost written and edited by English-speaking publishers. Most of the contents are things occurred abroad, but rarely discuss things about Taiwan in English. That makes students feel reluctant to communicate with foreigners and stop them from delivering their own thoughts and feelings.

 

 But recently, almost every foreigner has heard of Taiwan. They even know where to go in Taiwan and what Taiwanese snacks are.

 This is all thanks to the facts that several large chip manufacturers in Taiwan supply the world with the chips needed for all technologies in the whole world, no exception.

Now, it seems that somehow everyone abroad knows Taiwan, but this blog will be still here because there might be some things that foreigners are interested in. Or some things in Taiwan just occur unpredictably and should be said and heard.

 

Yes, Taiwan seems under the spotlight now but Taiwan remains voiceless truly. Whenever political agendas are brought up or even about economical policies when necessary, not a one asks what we really want to for our own sake.

It’s hoped that more and more foreign friends will one day come to Taiwan and see if Taiwan is exactly the same as they think and image, or if there are differences…