Greetings from Asia - 1 July 2011

Well, our current stay in Taiwan is coming to a close... June was a blur of finishing up work, seeing friends and family, and packing in some sightseeing... Lots of cultural reflections, but the conversation that came up again and again in recent months, both with American expats here and Taiwanese, concerned the Westernization of the society. Taiwan has picked up some good Western habits -- increasing care about the environment, greater attention to museums and other historical and cultural venues -- but also many bad ones. We will get into the details in a subsequent post, but for now, a little anecdotal evidence that points to the negative influence of some young (?) Westerners living in Taipei. I spotted the notice below (click on the image for a close-up) on a major thoroughfare near National Taiwan Normal University (國立台灣師範大學), a place where there are many students from overseas...



The decline of the West, bringing the East down with it...