taiwan's little music "club"

this happens to me EVERYTIME i am asked to do a show. someone goes to a previous show i did and asks me if i can come to their venue to play. there are 4 other bands appearing, but they say since i'm a solo act i should go on first. i agree, because a solo act warms up the stage for the bands that follow. you wouldn't put a singer/songwriter with an acoutic AFTER a heavy metal band, now would you? you let the solo act open, then put the more exciting bands on. but soon after the soundcheck, i am informed that i will be on last. and that's even if my name is first on the poster. then i end up playing as the people are leaving. i discoverd a phenomenon thru this though: all of the people leaving were friends of the bands who played before me. since i have few friends in the crowd, i end up playing to the 3 people who came to see me. but by that time,my energy is pretty much gone. the bands that came before extend their sets to include more songs, plus i get references to my ethnicity made when i am introduced. the introduction pretty much isn't an introduction, but a dismissal of my abilities. i do the show, but with nowhere near the feeling i would have. is this planned? or is this just the way taiwanese act when they feel threatened? i beleive both. if i sucked, i wouldn't be asked to do a show. but the politics involved in that show, i.e., the bands and those loyal to them, make sure that i don't get a fair chance. i even remember one karaoke contest back in the US in chinatown, the guy was moving the song pitch up and down while i was singing. my friend told me they weren't going to let me win, but i had kept coming back each week. this was their way of letting me know. what about other foriegners who don't get this treatement? i don't know. it seems taiwanese know which foriegners they like and which ones they don't.it's weird, cause i'm friendly to everybody. sort of a metaphysical hatred they have for me. but i think it has something to do with my chinese ability. i've seen foriegners working at a chinese restaurant who couldn't speak chinese at all,and the boss treated them like gold. but me... they forced me to work overtime, belittled all my work, and expected me to know everything like a chinese person. do chinese people intrinsically hate me? i wonder sometimes.