Expat Culture in Taiwan: Shameless exploiting our name I

I first realized how we expats shamelessly exploited our name as i surveyed the scene around an Italian restaurant while on a date.

It was filled with white dudes like myself trying to impress Taiwanese girls with conversation about the authentic thin-crust pizza, and proper salad dressing, bread and tiramisu; that the Pizza chains across the city were not proper pizza. The message was clear: stick with them and you could learn what Americans were really doing.

What fucking bullshit. There were fucking thousands of Pizza Huts in America selling the same unauthentic shit they were in Taiwan.

But it was part of a bigger picture of bullshit: I could hear the guy next to me start the conversation that I would be having later.

Girl: "So why did you come to Taiwan?"

Foreigner: "I just wanted to take it easy, have an adventure."

Girl: "Oh, that is so good. In Taiwan our parents wouldn't let us."

Foreigner: "In the west children make their own decisions from an early age. What does it have to do with our parents? Anyway, they support what we want to do."

Hmm, every western parent is a fucking hippy who doesn't care if their kid drops out of school...

While i was listening our thin crust pizza arrived. She looked at it funny so i told her that this was authentic Italian pizza - and i always ate it like this.

"So you say you want to study in America?" I asked.

Girl: "Yes. Hmm, I really admire the way that teach in America. We Taiwanese need to learn to question and think for ourselves."

"That is right. We chose exactly what we want to study from a very young age..."