3.09.2006 Dating: Taiwanese guys don't mess around, date-o-rama

Well not to be the kind of girl to kiss and tell, or to boast and brag but I have to write about this.

The History

First some history. For those of you who don't know, I'm a white girl. I'm a very very brown white girl, but I'm a white girl.

Asia is called "single girl hell" for north American women. I became very interested in this when I got over here. The short story is, Asia is North American boy heaven. It's not very uncommon to see gorgeous Asian girls, dressed to the nines, hanging off the arm of a guy who wouldn't get a second glance even by the plainest Jane back home. They're kind of a commodity over here. Some girls like them because of the "status" it gives them, some girls like them because of the $$$, some girls want the way into North America, and no doubt some girls it's pure attraction and/or love... but probably less than the first few reasons.

I actually feel sorry for some of the guys. If you were looking for a deeper meaningful relationship I think you'd constantly be asking yourself "does she love me for me, or does she love me because of who she thinks I am/what I can give her?". And it's not that some of these guys don't deserve incredible women, I just wonder if they're getting the incredible women for the right reasons. But none of my business I guess.

Anyway, so as you can imagine most foreign guys (meaning non-Taiwanese) do not have a lot of interest in foreign (non-Taiwanese) women. Taiwanese male with white female relationships are even more rare. There are a lot of interesting theories about this, many can be read online. The common ones seem to be:

- the Taiwanese (or even Asian in general) male's perception of us ie that we're loud, easy, outspoken, and overly independent.)
- that Taiwanese males are just too shy.... this stems from lack of confidence in their ability to speak English and confidence issues created by the way they're portrayed in Western media.
- they're unattracted to our shapes. Our facial features, colouring and hair colour are great... even envied.... but what they're fed by their media is even more extreme than what we're fed back home I think. An "attractive" Asian woman (as per sensationalized by their media) is almost pre-pubescent in body shape. Skinny skinny skinny.

Well I like challenges, and not that it was a goal, but I'm very happy to have a very very fantastic boyfriend. Not only does he like me for me (mentally and physically) but he's confident and accepting. And patient, oh so patient! I get stared at a lot in Asia for being foreign but a white girl with an Taiwanese male draws A LOT of attention (even from other foreigners). I tease Han that we're rock stars.

20/03/06:I have made generalizations here but like any generalizations I feel there is truth to them. This is based on what I've heard first hand from people in this type of relationship and different conversation threads I've read.

I love Taiwanese women. I have many many Taiwanese girl friends. It makes me shake my head when I hear them say things like "Oh, I've never had a foreign guy ask me out. I must not be beautiful".

I know some Taiwanese female/foreign male couples who have been happily married for many years. This isn't about them.

I'm sure even happily married Taiwanese female/foreign male couples know plenty of other couples together for the wrong reason. I hear male foreigners complain about it all the time. Most of them aren't gems themselves but that's my point. It's interesting that guys who wouldn't get a second look back home because of their aesthetics and/or their personality have no problem attracting doting females.

I'm not bitter about this at all, just fascinated. I've had foreign males, and local males both interested in me and I'm very happily in a relationship right now.

I'm sure if there was a country out there (and maybe there is) where foreign males were completely ignored by the local women while foreign women with less than stellar personalities and physical appearance were the hottest thing around that scientists worldwide would be flown in as well as a top-notch team of private investigators to find out what the scoop is! :-P

I write all this in good humour. I see a lot of beautiful foreign male/taiwanese female couples. It's just a topic I'm interested in, and fascinated by... so it gets written about here. Don't take anything I say too personally. I am a very open-minded, non-judgmental person

Date-o-Rama

So I have to tell you about my date-o-rama. One of the things I most adore about this guy is the diverse amount of activities he's willing to partake in. From hiking, to shopping, to playing in an arcade, to exploring museums and art galleries. He's like the boyfriend I've been fantasizing about ever since highschool. A guy who likes to do stuff, and all kinds of it. And best of all he integrates really well with my friends.

So Saturday night I called him late in the evening. I haven't been seeing him much lately because I've been keeping busy and because I'm a bit weird like that (I don't like seeing someone *ALL* the time). This is worse I think because before him I'd been single for over 3 years. Anyway he knows I've been wanting to see the Confucian temple near where he lives so he told me to come up to his MRT (subway) stop and meet him. Once I got there we decided it was too late, and since I didn't have my camera it would be a wasted trip. So instead we went bowling! This was great except it was big ball bowling which I'm not that great at. Still fun though. Oh but before bowling he bought me this really sweet t-shirt. It's like the Taiwanese equivalent of "I heart NY"

Next we headed to this fun multilevel arcade place we'd been to once before. Han was telling me about these go karts. I didn't really think it'd be REAL go karts, especially not indoors. But alas, I was wrong. It was a full out go kart track, indoors. And the karts went FAST. We raced around like crazy, and Han made me run into a wall once, but I forgive him. After we played some table hockey, and that close range basketball shooting game.

But that's not all! :) After all those good times we headed to this 24/hour pool hall where Han has a membership. We ended up playing pool until like 3am. It was great. The only time I won was when he sunk the eight ball but hey I'm getting better.

This evening I actually went back for round two with Han and my roommate Meg.... sadly Meg and I didn't fair much better taking Han on than I did alone. We'll get him though!

So this weekend is supposed to involve some pottery making..... and soon he's talking about taking me to this place down south where you can pay to sleep in this tunnel in an aquarium where fish swim over and under and all around you. He definitely deserves an award for date ideas. The more indecisive I am the better the date seems to be so I think I'm just going to shut up entirely. Although I will make him do some hiking and climbing with me, and hopefully rafting in Hualien.

Labels: relationships, taiwan