My interest in Taiwan began a few years ago when the Academia Sinica
in Taipei started a new institute in astronomy for the purpose of
exploring career opportunities. I visited this new institute in 1994
for one month and again in 1995 for five and a half months. Here are
my personal experiences and impressions.
I grew up in Mainland China, indoctrinated with the slogan "We Must Liberate Taiwan," but I did not know about Taiwan except that it is one of the major economic powers in East Asia. My first visit was in March 1994. It took about 3 months just to get a visa mainly because I hold a PRC passport, which is not recognized by Taiwan. I was met by the head of institute at the airport and was instructed to "store" my passport at the airport because it is considered an "illegal document". I was then taken to Academia Sinica (AS) where I was to stay. AS is about 30 km away on the opposite side of Taipei city and it took us two and a half hours to get there through the rush-hour traffic. We also witnessed the aftermath of a fatal accident: a motor scooter rider was lying dead on the ground next to the tail of a big truck. It was quite a shock for a first-time visitor.
Image (right): Photo One
Inside the AS, however, everything was nice and quiet. I stayed at a nice guest room at the Conference Center. The room was not luxurious, but had all the essentials (and it was only $20 per night). There was a cafe and a coffee place on the ground floor, laundry facilities, a ping-pong table, and a billiard table in the basement. Outside the building, there were basketball and tennis courts. AS is certainly the top research organization in Taiwan, with about 20 institutes (both natural and social sciences) and 1,000 employees. Each institute has its own spacious building, except newly established ones, such as astronomy. Yuan Lee, the Nobel Chemist, has just taken over as the president. He is native Taiwanese and got his Master's at the National Taiwan University before going abroad. Unlike the other Chinese Nobel Laureates, he is a very practical man with no pretenses and is willing to get down to the nitty-gritty to get things done. I saw him having lunch at the cafe at the conference center, waiting in the line like everyone else.
During the one-month stay, I visited several universities and met a lot of people. I was quite impressed that most people holding key research positions were young, with Ph.D's from U.S. These people have been attracted back to Taiwan first by well-funded visiting positions and then by becoming permanent university professors. As such, in Taiwan they enjoy a relatively higher social-economic status than their counterparts in U.S. Although the nominal salary for a professor in Taiwan is somewhat lower than in U.S., extra income comes naturally with the job. For instance, one gets paid for reviewing grant proposals, supervising graduate students, serving on various committees, giving professional and public talks, and applying for salary supplements for excellence in research. In extreme cases, the extra income can exceed the nominal salary. Aside from salary, researchers are quite well funded and well connected with the outside world. By the end of the month, I was happy with the general research condition and was willing to explore further.
Image (right): The Grand Hotel (Taipei)
In February 1995, I made my second visit. My wife went reluctantly with me, suspending her teaching job. We stayed at the AS visitor's apartment, across the street from the front gate of AS. It was a big four-bedroom apartment and very well furnished. Having the visitor's apartment was a big help, because most apartments for rent just have empty walls. We did not want to furnish one for just 6 months (there are no garage sales there). It took a while to get used to living in Taipei. The first problem was the air. It rained continuously for one month after our arrival and mold grows everywhere. By the time we learned how to deal with high humidity, the rainy season ended, but the air become very dusty and heavily polluted. I often developed a headache taking a bus ride to downtown. The second problem was noise. The apartment faced the street near a traffic light. When garbage or cement trucks went by, it felt like an earthquake; this started at 5 a.m. everyday. The third problem was the sanitary conditions. Having lived in U.S. for many years, our immune system must have deteriorated. My wife had a fever which lasted more than a month and I went to the emergency room for stomach trouble. The last problem we had was shopping. Although the public transportation is convenient, a trip to downtown usually takes a whole afternoon because of the traffic. In addition, things are generally more expensive than in U.S., it took a few months to get used to the prices. (The trick is not to convert the price to U.S. dollars.)
Of course, life in Taiwan has its bright side, too. Good food is everywhere. One can eat at street side for $2, or in one of the fancy hotels for $30, either is good and well worth the price you pay. There are a lot of good books, from Jin Yong's novels to biographies of political figures. Taiwan has a large group of pop singers and the standards are very high. A lot of them can sing in Taiwan dialect, Mandarin, English, and Japanese. There is also a large selection of movies and TV programs, both Chinese and foreign. I enjoyed martial arts movies and sports programs while my wife was hooked on Chinese soap operas. Inside Academia Sinica there are many recreational activities and clubs. The institute had laserdisc movies every Tuesday at noon and the AS had a movie show every Thursday. I joined the bridge club for $2 per month. We met every Tuesday evening to play swiss pairs. The attendance averaged ten pairs and everyone was friendly. At the end of the evening everyone got some prize. The top pair got a box of detergent each and the last usually a bar of soap. I also played in a few contests representing the AS, but my performance was less than satisfactory. In general, I enjoyed my daily routine, especially on Tuesdays.
Image (right): Photo Two
At the work place, the atmosphere was very relaxed. Secretaries and supporting staff frequently came in late or left early. Work was mixed with chit-chat. This is the norm in government agencies, but the pace is much faster in private industries. Naturally, secretaries in private industries are paid much better as well. In Taiwan, secretarial work requires a lot of patience and frequent leg work. Many things that can be done with a phone call in the U.S. must be done in person. At the astronomy institute, there were seven scientific staff persons, one computer manager and three secretaries. Yet, I had to do quite a bit of the secretarial work myself. The rules for paperwork are very complicated and only the secretaries understood them. (It often pays to build a good personal relationship with the secretarial staff to get things done.) During my stay, the institute sponsored a large workshop with 90 participants from overseas and 30 or so from within Taiwan. Somehow, a large part of the organizational responsibility fell on my shoulder. All the participants stayed at the guest rooms in AS. I had to do things such as room assignment and tour guiding, which were clearly not the responsibility of the scientific staff. I certainly felt an inadequacy of research support.
I also paid some attention to politics in Taiwan. The internal politics was dominated by the conflict between the "locals" --not the aboriginals, but those who came to Taiwan a long time ago -- and the "outsiders," those who came from the mainland around 1949. For a long time, the locals, who constituted 85 percent of the population, had no representation in government. After 1987, Taiwan evolved rapidly toward a democratic society. Now, the locals occupy about 50 percent of the positions in government; the current president is also a local. There is a tendency to "localize" everything, including the language. Taiwan's independence movement is mostly supported by the locals. Internationally, Taiwan is struggling to get attention. The recent visit to Cornell by the Taiwan president was a big breakthrough to this end. However, Taiwan is under the constant military threat of the mainland; money and economic prosperity cannot solve the problem. For this reason, a lot of Taiwanese are working in Taiwan with a U.S. passport. Many professors are working in Taiwan alone while their families stay in the U.S. Interestingly, the danger of an imminent invasion is felt more outside Taiwan then inside Taiwan.
Note that Taiwan is developing the first democratic system in a Chinese society (Hong Kong is a capitalist society, but not a democracy). There are problems such as buying votes and fist fights in the legislature (captured on TV camera). I met a few older people who complained that democracy never gets things done and no one takes responsibility when things go wrong. Despite the existence of an elected legislature, the power is mostly in the hands of a selected few, who control the people through an elaborate network of personal connections and interdependencies. For the average person, it is still necessary to have personal connections in order to find a job or to build a successful career. Things that normally take months to complete can be shortened to a few days just by a phone call. Such things may be one aspect of the Chinese concept of "root."
My wife and I enjoyed the Taiwan visit, but we were also happy to be back in the States. While driving on the empty I-55 after a long flight from Taipei to Chicago O'Hare, I suddenly realized the biggest difference between Taiwan and the U.S. -- space! The crowded space in Taiwan suppressed my mind, making me worry about small things, the daily routine, the gossip. The motto was to be patient and be tolerant. The vast space on both sides of the highway liberated my mind; I was free of the small worries of the daily routine and able again to think about the big picture.
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