I'm going to monitor this blog to see how much impact a UDN story is going to have on the number of people who visit my site
I was interviewed about my views on Taiwan...but the headline picked up one comment I made about how there were many smart, financially independent women in Taiwan who were still single into their 30s, bemoaning the lack of good, available single men who had evolved as much as they had ie weren't looking for a wife who would be willing to give up career and freedoms to cook, clean and look after their kids.
According to one story I read on Taiwan's news agency, there are more than 8 million singles. And roughly 30% of women over the age of 16 are single. The island has one of the lowest birth rates in the world.
For men living in rural areas, one solution is to find women to marry from other , poorer Asian countries.
UPDATE:
Thanks so much to everyone who has posted their comments and taken the time to look at the blog; I appreciate them.
I think Taiwan is a "hidden gem" in Asia when it comes to tourism..and the longer I am here, the more fascinated I become by the island and its diverse people and cultures.
I hope to keep updating the blog reguarly. Keep checking in!
Final update:
Wow, what an incredible week...one of the people who left a comment talked about the power of UDN and I agree with him! I've had more than 1700 hits on this blog since the UDN article appeared... which is amazing. If only my blog was advertising some product, I would have probably made some money!! (thats a joke)
Seriously, I'm happy that so many people have checked out the blog.
I'm always looking for new ideas, stories to write about ..both for the blog and for my radio/tv reports...so feel free to let me know about anything you feel deserves wider attention .
Thanks so much!
caro
27 comments:
Hi, I am Shelly.
Yes, I was the person who watched your point of view which be posted on UDN.
I like your blog.
The style is like what I said at BBC.
(Of course, you are the correspondent of BBC)
Anyway, I am glad to see your article.
Hi, This is Wesley. I am one of ur reader from that UDN news.
Though I don't think there is shortage of good men in Taiwan:) (haha, because I am a man! :P) But I do love ur blog a lot.
It's very interesting to read those articles about my own country from a foreigner, especially from a professional writer;)
It's interesing to read your blog!!!
Wish you a good time in Taiwan.
Hi, It's Michelle here. I am Taiwanese but currently work in London. I read UDN online news quite often that's why I know about your blog.
How long have you been living in Taiwan? I did my MA in Brighton, and after graduation, I went back to Taiwan but came back here and have worked in a digital media company for almost one year. Coinccidently, BBC is our big clients! (eg. BBC Food Get Cooking)
Do you intend to stay in Taiwan longer? I would really like to go back as I still can't get used to England even I haved stayed here for three years...
All the best
Now you will see the greatest flexibility, creativity and manipulation from the Taiwanese correspondents.
It's good for you: never too late to mend.
Shortage of good men? Why I am still here then?
Hi, Caroline:
This is Tun-ying (though the English name given by my kindergarten teacher is Carol as well).
It surprised me that it's so easy to find your blog after reading the interview article from UDN, and I do enjoy browsing your impression of Taiwan from your blog. You are absolute right that Taiwan can promote ourselves by more creative and heart-warming approaches (of course, for positive perspective. No Taiwanese abroad would like to read our news on medias in international column due to conflicts in Legislative Yuen anymore). Hope you have great days at Taiwan.
hello,
I am coming here because of UND
hope you enjoy Taiwan :)
Hello!
I come from Hong Kong. I am a girl who love Taiwan so much,I pay attendion to TW everything,range from pop singer to politics.
So,I read UDN every day. I read your interview and go to your blog!Your blog is nice as I can know more about TW!
I am sorry to know that TW is lack of good men as I want to find the mr.right in TW. However, Taiwan is not alone. There are many single women in Hong Kong, many of them are over 40! They also think there are not many good men in HK~!
I think, the higher quality women have, the more critical requirement of husband they request!
Nice to visit a blog about Taiwan from a foreign journalist's view. Good photos you took in Taroko and the mountains.
visitor referred by UDN,
lancat
Hi, I'm Stanley. It's good to know what the foreigner living in Taiwan for years thinks about Taiwan.
"shortage of good men!" If you ask most of men here, you might get the same answer - "shortage of good women!" Because there are too many negative news in TV and newspaper or any media, people don't see the positive point and bright side!! Then how can we see others'strong point with the right attitude.
I also like your point - Taiwan has to learn to promot/advertize herself better. Before doing this, Taiwanese has to learn to enjoy ourselves in Taiwan.
Hi, I am Shenny.
I was the person who watched your point of view which be posted on UDN.
I like your blog! :)
Hi, I've just read your interview on udn website.
Your point of view is very interesting!
Hope you can share your taiwan experience to your friend and welcome to taiwan :)
Hi,
I agree what your point about Taiwan,and that why I chose to marry a western man,which treat me as a equal partner.
and taiwan do need to know how to sell their"good points"
I'm not sure if I can use the "shortage of good man" as my excuse failing to find a Taiwanese partner. One thing for sure is that I'm over 30, a single female, independent, well-educated and finally find some guy I admire abroad. I don't know if I can find one if I'm still in Taiwan. But I do know it would be difficult.
Connecting through Udn.
I like your blog, especially those photos!!
Hi, this is Maggie.
I am also one of the readers who read the story on UDN. I was attracted by the title for two reasons. Firstly, it reflects my view as well. Secondly, I am one of the women you mentioned during the interview.
Hi! Caro, this is Cather. Ha! I'm one of those who are "redirected" to this blog from UDN and also one of those women who are financially independent and stay single at their 30's. :-P
The UDN interview is really interesting and you are really a journalist with good insight on Taiwanese culture.
I'm looking forward to reading more articles from you.
:-D Have a good time in Taiwan and enjoy more love and friendships here!
Hi Caroline, I am your 18th Commentator that has read the UDN News. It seems that you have grown quiet popular, keep it up!
It is always interesting reading blog from a westerner considering living here in New Mexico U.S.A no one knows where Taiwan is except for the negative publicity of Legislative Yuan. It makes me think, maybe I should start a blog about my own country .
Thank you for bringing such perspective to other fellow westerners :)
Amy
Hello,
this is Regina writing from Paris.
I am pretty much 100% agree with your point of view. I lived in US for close to 10 years, and worked in Taiwan for 3 years. I've seen how different and tough Taiwanese women can be. That's really sad that it's hard to find someone who can keep growing with you. What's wrong with the men in Taiwan? There much be something wrong with it, but it will takes a long long time to fix the issue i think (only if people are aware of it and willing to do some changes)
regina
Dear Caro,
You've done the internet marketing survey I always wanted to do. Way to go! UDN should pay you for this result.
The latest article I read about UK's culture was from a webzine on UDN, 新聞大舞台：和英人打交道真的要知道很多，which was very impressive and could pinpoint out the directions for foreigners within a short time.
Taiwan definitely needs more international marketing and environment planning for tourism.
I wish you all the best.
Hello, thanks everyone again for taking the time to post your comments. To be honest, I'm really surprised how much reaction there's been to my UDN article.
I had more conversations with male friends on the article this week...so Regina's comment struck me as maybe making the same point..... "I've seen how different and tough Taiwanese women can be. That's really sad that it's hard to find someone who can keep growing with you. " - why are the women from Taiwan more different or tougher than say in Europe, where you are living now?
One male friend here suggested it could be that women in Taiwan were reacting to the "male standard" presented to them by their father when they were growing up...that their father was a very dominant authority figure who could rarely be questioned, and yet could be wrong in his views in so many areas - especially their view that somehow women however hard they worked and achieved academically or in their career were still less worthy than their male siblings or men in general.
His view was that the behaviour of some of the women he had dated could be derived from their sense of strong resentment at their fathers. I'm interested to know what other people think of this theory.
I think it might be the issue of gender again. In Asia, for the same position, however, for some "unknown" reasons, men always get better pay than women under the same job scope. It's somehow really not fair to most women, that's why they need to be tough in order to climb up. In Europe or US, generally speaking, it's not the issue because everyone has been treated equally (at least in New York i know) Can't really say that women in Europe and US are not so tough, they are tough are well but just in different ways. I would think that as the result of the education background and the culture issue instead of anything else. Perhaps it may change sometime in the future, but who knows.
Dear Caro,
One of my friends told me that his Korean trade dealers would only negotiate with male asian managers. This is really different from what I saw on TV, I mean soap opera.
Sometimes male despise female on purpose and swear in front of female coworkers with F words almost everyday, because this is the only way they can show their ascendancy if their female coworkers happen to be wiser or higher educated. I assume something must be wrong in these mens' family relationships. In this case, I would resent their fathers, but the fathers are only a projection of this society.
It's really not eazy for women to compete with men in a father-dominated society, in fact a lot of men who obtain higher ranks than their female peers is only because they are male, which is an unbreakable biological rule, not a glass ceiling. Men only have to think like a man and behave like a man, but a woman works among men must think like a man, and behave like a woman!
Caro, you posed a very interesting question. I came from a family environment where women either don't marry or married late. When I asked the single women why they don't want to get married they would always tell me, they have passed the stage of trying to find men that fit them. Now these are women who have successful careers and looking for higher standards. Sadly enough given the economic circumstances in Taiwan, good, successful mature single men without kids are hard to find. This is just my observation. I mean my aunt is 42 successful, but her criterias for men are things like they are well established, preferably don't have any kids, kind, and intelligent. Those kinds of men are usually taken. Being at 42 for her if there is an younger man interested in her, there is another issue of she can't give birth. That will get looked down upon by most parents. There are just a lot of difficulties of finding a good guy out there.
Hi,This is Kelly~
I agree that the father's attitude builds daughter's character.I come from a traditional Chinese family as well.My father is a male chauvinist who is spoiled by parents a lot coz his is the only son besides other 4 daughters......
I really hope we can change the situation this generation.To let male and female can be more equal,and respect each other.
I learned about your blog also from UDN. I really enjoy your articles. Your perspective is both in-depth and interesting, and you are a great photographer!
Keep it up! :D
Hello,
i'm a foreigner who has leaved in taiwan and i was also very surprised to see so many single girls in Taipei with very "high profile", aged between 28-35years old.
I just want to precise here that I am not judging who/what is bad or good, i am just explaining my analysis of this situation.
It seems to me that most of those girls correspond to 3 profile :
- the girl who has been with a guy for a long time (since high school or univ) and broke up around 26-28;
- the girl who has studied oversea and went back in taiwan with complete different point of view about what a good husband should be, and most of time their "what a good husband should be" is not at all matching with taiwanese guys ;
- the girl who has sacrified her youth to her career;
In the same time :
- the taiwanese guys who have the way of thinking that those taiwanese girls are looking for, most of them are not single anymore since few years;
- the other taiwanese guys rarely have the way of thinking and considering girls that taiwanese girls want;
- taiwanese guys usually prefer younger girls;
+ you can also consider the fact that many foreigners don't behave very well or don't stay there for a long time so many taiwanese women don't necessary want to be in a relationship with them.
Last but not least, it would be interesting to study the situation of single foreign girl in Taiwan. It seems a lot of them don't find taiwanese partner because they don't like there way of thinking, very different from western's one (here again, i am just stating fact, not judging so please don't be agressive).
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