台灣人很保守嗎? Are Taiwanese Conservative?
Taiwanese are conservative, for its older generation remains old school all along, and the young fakes openness to be cool. Neither minds are open to diversified new ideas. Taiwanese values appear to be unitary. Movies and television shows praise the freedom of thought and freedom of choices; however, these glorifications stay only on the TV screens. Few parents would respect their children’s decisions to become make-up artists or movie directors.
And while the old are being obviously conservative, the younger generation is pretending to be open. Rebellion has become a fashion. Things that violate the taboos or irritate adult’s conservative values are considered cool. Gay is cool, sex is cool, and drugs are cool. People do progressive things so that they don’t fall behind, but no one truly understands what he/she is revolting against. As long as it’s anti-social, it’s cool. Such open-mindedness is nothing but superficial.
How narrow-minded Taiwanese of either generation is can be clearly seen in our many sturdy stereotypes. Our society is firmly built by sets of make-believes, and new concepts don’t easily find their place in Taiwan. For example, we assume those live in China are poor people in lousy clothes, who often speak words with funny tones and high pitches. Even when some Chinese visitors stand in front of us in their jeans and shirts looking no more different from ours, we still say, “Ah… so that’s how they look, but do they eat in McDonalds?” Stereotypes die slowly and the general knowledge among most Taiwanese is being updated only slowly.
And the different yet likewise ignorant opinions of the old and the young in Taiwan has resulted in a problem: Conservative parents avoid discussing sex with their kids; and kids pretend to be open and sleep around without much common sense. An investigation of the year 2000 shows that, among people under seventeen, 70 percent have had sex, but only 30 out of the 70 used any kind of protection.
No matter how advanced our economy may seem, Taiwanese are still way behind psychologically. In sex education at least, we may need those people who have been sent to teach condom usage in under-developed countries to come back to our own schools and give us lessons, because our parents and teachers are too embarrassed to bring up the subjects and our youth are too eager to try their own hand at these things.
Taiwanese are conservative, for its older generation remains old school all along, and the young fakes openness to be cool. Neither minds are open to diversified new ideas. Taiwanese values appear to be unitary. Movies and television shows praise the freedom of thought and freedom of choices; however, these glorifications stay only on the TV screens. Few parents would respect their children’s decisions to become make-up artists or movie directors.
And while the old are being obviously conservative, the younger generation is pretending to be open. Rebellion has become a fashion. Things that violate the taboos or irritate adult’s conservative values are considered cool. Gay is cool, sex is cool, and drugs are cool. People do progressive things so that they don’t fall behind, but no one truly understands what he/she is revolting against. As long as it’s anti-social, it’s cool. Such open-mindedness is nothing but superficial.
How narrow-minded Taiwanese of either generation is can be clearly seen in our many sturdy stereotypes. Our society is firmly built by sets of make-believes, and new concepts don’t easily find their place in Taiwan. For example, we assume those live in China are poor people in lousy clothes, who often speak words with funny tones and high pitches. Even when some Chinese visitors stand in front of us in their jeans and shirts looking no more different from ours, we still say, “Ah… so that’s how they look, but do they eat in McDonalds?” Stereotypes die slowly and the general knowledge among most Taiwanese is being updated only slowly.
And the different yet likewise ignorant opinions of the old and the young in Taiwan has resulted in a problem: Conservative parents avoid discussing sex with their kids; and kids pretend to be open and sleep around without much common sense. An investigation of the year 2000 shows that, among people under seventeen, 70 percent have had sex, but only 30 out of the 70 used any kind of protection.
No matter how advanced our economy may seem, Taiwanese are still way behind psychologically. In sex education at least, we may need those people who have been sent to teach condom usage in under-developed countries to come back to our own schools and give us lessons, because our parents and teachers are too embarrassed to bring up the subjects and our youth are too eager to try their own hand at these things.