Tuesday, November 23, 2010

taiwan foriegners: trust them.... not really

some taiwan people have asked me if i hang out with foriegners. the answer is, "not really".
i take people on a case by case basis. i have taiwan friends whom i love dearly, as well as japanese, african american, white guys, ABCs, south pacific islanders,India, pakistan, etc. all depends on if they're a good person and have a good personality.
so the idea of hanging out with "lao wai" is foriegn to me (pun intended). hell, i didn't hang out with whitey in college even. i was the egg (white guy into asian culture) at the "asian table" in the cafeteria.
and anyway, some foriegners are here because they're losers in their own country. i don't trust them. simple as that.
as much as i rant about taiwan, i would rather hang out with locals, because whatever faults they might have, i know what they are. asian cultures produce a fairly predictable personality, but even so there is a lot of variation in that. foriegners are a mixed bag.there are some really excellent ones,and some shity ones too who couldn't make it back home with half the level of woman they're banging here.
it's that lack of up/down in the personality style in asians that first attracted me to their friendship many years ago.
americans could be really nice or an axe murdering pedophile. there's just too much variation in the personality types. taiwanese, i know, and can choose my friends accordingly.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

why taiwan can't do western music

classical musicians aside ( i think taiwan has some excellent ones, but they are rare too), taiwan just doesn't get western music.
take for example, if eric clapton were singing. granted, clap doesn't sing great, but then again, he's clapton for crying out loud. He is who he is. that's his voice.never thought about it til some taiwanese pointed it out.
in taiwan, they will say, "oh he doesn't sing that great" or "there's a taiwan player who is more 'li hai' than him. why, marty young can play 300 notes a measure" (which is lie, i can prove it...another article).
not that clapton is my favorite. just illustrating point.
taiwan people are always comparing one person to another. these singing contests have fostered this type of thinking. the average person thinks he/she can be a singing contest judge because he/she also sings karaoke.
also i've found taiwan students to be extremely lazy about music learning. they want quick results, even if it sacrifices really knowing what they're doing. they run to those TAB books, practice them, then try to convince others that they can play. then again, parents think music is a waste of time anyway, unless it can be used to compare with others or make their child "better" than others.
i never regretted being a musician til i came here. its really an ugly market. everyone from the idols to the guy who sells guitars thinks he's the SHIT! there is so much dishonesty and back stabbing. that's why i stopped teaching except for one or two really stellar students. you teach them something they didn't know, then they say "that teacher is nothing" and go on their way with their new info in their pocket.
then if you're a forigner, it doesn't matter how well you play. they'll just say, "of course you can do that, you're a foriegner. all foriegners can play guitar.you're here so you should be nothing compared to the ones in the states", so they think they don't have to pay any attention to you. then again, you still have to be careful, because local musicians hate being shown up. even if you're not trying to show them up, they'll think you're trying to show them up. ad infinitum.
why can't taiwan do western music? it's simple. because they lack a western mentality. i didn't say IQ. i said mentality. and going abroad to study at berkeley, julliard, MI, whatever, won't change a thing.
until taiwan changes their way of thinking, they will always be stuck in this ugliness. and the music will still suck.