Information is now
believed to bespreading efficiently and quickly around the world.
Widespread information thus brings about the general idea that the world
is fast becoming a global village in which people receive almost the
same knowledge and news so that they have similar information
background. Still, when a person from the city meets another person from
the country, unconscious self-conceit swells his head, making him look
down upon the other as a country bumpkin.
I myself am a victim of such prejudice. As a resident of the so-called
outskirt isolated Kinmen islet, I know how stereotypes lead to
prejudice. When I first came to Taiwan, I found out that people thought
I had come from an area with little info circulation or poor
modernization. Some of the questions that I constantly get sound
extremely ridiculous: Did I ever watch TV or use a computer? Should I
swim or take a boat to Taiwan? When I said we surfed online too, they
even seemed astonished! Obviously people have little idea about a place
they』ve never been to and the prejudices they hold about us often lead
them to underestimate us. I can』t count clearly how many people have
asked me if I entered the university by quota or extra points. This
misconstruing reveals that people don』t even believe we have the same
ability to compete with them. Stereotypes, in this case, apparently lead
people to prejudice and ignorance.
Stereotypes and prejudices stem mainly from ethnocentrism, an
unwillingness to meet the other on equal grounds. The majority of
people, especially those from the so-called civilized countries, see
their own culture and circumstance as higher than others』. Likewise,
for Taiwan residents, Kinmen dwellers may be considered less equipped
with modern staff or even good education. Such narrow-mindedness is
quite damaging to our community as a whole. Since people nowadays are
educated to hold an international viewpoint --- taking a wide prospect
in seeing as well as respecting new things and new people --- the first
step for city inhabitants to take to prove their excellence is to
respect other cultures and other regions. Only then would we consider
the city as civilized and modernized.