Hey all, sorry for the really late post. Typed out my blog entry in my laptop and it failed on me. Sent it for repair! So I lost my entire post :(
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Back in my army days, I had a navigation exercise in Taiwan where a group of us would spend 4 days and 3 nights in the wilderness. We had to look for several checkpoints before heading back to the main camp when we are finished with all the checkpoints.
On the 2nd day, we had to quickly find a place to rest for the night as it was fast approaching night and it was impossible to find a good place once it was dark. Unfortunately we couldn't find a good place to stay in the forest and found ourselves stranded! Luckily for us, a local spotted us and actually invited us to stay in a spare room in his house. We were quite taken aback at first cause in Singapore it's rare that strangers talk to us, and even rarer that someone invites 3-4 strangers into their house to stay over night. We politely refused at first cause firstly we were warned not to be spotted in anything that resembles civilization during the whole navigation exercise, and secondly we just felt it was highly impolite to stay in a stranger's place. But the local was adamant and insisted we stay. It was quite a funny conversation all round cause my group consists of a malay, an indian and I. My group members couldn't understand the language spoken and could only keep smiling and offer their thanks by nodding furiously and bowing whenever he directed comments at them.
We finally agreed to stay, but the hospitality didn't stop there. Our host then proceeded to give us food, mats and offered us a warm shower. We politely said no to the warm shower, but took the rest gleefully. After the host retired to his bedroom, , my friends and I discussed the whole situation and couldn't believe our luck, but after much debate, it wasn't really our luck. It was just that the people's hospitality here is far greater than back home in Singapore. If the situation was reversed, I highly doubt I would offer a stranger a place to stay in my house. We wondered though if people in the cities of Taiwan would offer us a place to stay, and we figured it would be highly unlikely as well. Maybe affluence affects how we treat strangers, with hospitality or contempt.
Cultures differ across countries, but it also differs greatly across the affluence divide.
On the 2nd day, we had to quickly find a place to rest for the night as it was fast approaching night and it was impossible to find a good place once it was dark. Unfortunately we couldn't find a good place to stay in the forest and found ourselves stranded! Luckily for us, a local spotted us and actually invited us to stay in a spare room in his house. We were quite taken aback at first cause in Singapore it's rare that strangers talk to us, and even rarer that someone invites 3-4 strangers into their house to stay over night. We politely refused at first cause firstly we were warned not to be spotted in anything that resembles civilization during the whole navigation exercise, and secondly we just felt it was highly impolite to stay in a stranger's place. But the local was adamant and insisted we stay. It was quite a funny conversation all round cause my group consists of a malay, an indian and I. My group members couldn't understand the language spoken and could only keep smiling and offer their thanks by nodding furiously and bowing whenever he directed comments at them.
We finally agreed to stay, but the hospitality didn't stop there. Our host then proceeded to give us food, mats and offered us a warm shower. We politely said no to the warm shower, but took the rest gleefully. After the host retired to his bedroom, , my friends and I discussed the whole situation and couldn't believe our luck, but after much debate, it wasn't really our luck. It was just that the people's hospitality here is far greater than back home in Singapore. If the situation was reversed, I highly doubt I would offer a stranger a place to stay in my house. We wondered though if people in the cities of Taiwan would offer us a place to stay, and we figured it would be highly unlikely as well. Maybe affluence affects how we treat strangers, with hospitality or contempt.
Cultures differ across countries, but it also differs greatly across the affluence divide.
2 comments:
Dear,
It was such an experience, wasn’t it? I do not fully agree with what you concluded from your army experience though. Generally, the statement could be true but it is too quickly to come to the conclusion in this case. I think there are many other important factors to account for the different hospitality between people of two contries such as the influcence of the political and social policies, and the effects of geographical location. I doubt that a Chinese in mainland China and a Chinese in Singapore have a same mentality given that their assests are equal and they are both in the upper class in the society. So I think you should provide us with more evidence to make your post more convincing. Things like the way a rich Taiwanese act vs an person with average income act towards foreigners could be good.
I hope it could help
Hai Van
This is an interesting scenario, Joel. You describe it well, even with the numerous language issues (see below).
I wonder though how you can be sure that the main differentiating factor is affluence. What led you to jump to that conclusion? That would tend to indicate that this is scenario shows an economic divide rather than a cultural one. Could it be, rather, that this host of yours, living in the countryside, did not share the fear that folks in Singapore have of strangers? Why else wold it be so natural for people NOT to communicate with each other?
Having lived in rural America, in a village in Portugal and in the countryside in Japan, what strikes me about life in urban areas like Singapore, like KL, like other big cities, is that people have lost a certain neighborliness that exists in small communities. We city dwellers become comfortably numb and oblivious to others except for our family and the ones that we pick out of the crowd to associate with. Is it fear? Is it competitiveness?
I'll let you explore that on your own.
Here are some language issues:
cause > because
cause my group consists of a malay, an indian and I >
because my group consisted of a Malay, an Indian and me.
hospitality here > hospitality there
Thanks, Joel, for the post!
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