I come across many Chinese in South Africa, some of them are nice and polite, but many more of them are 'unexpectedly-different-from-Taiwanese', so I call them 'the alien species'. The level of unbelievableness they cause are usually out of one's imagination. I would like to record each of them down like it's a field observation of cultural anthropology.
I was a check-in agent at an airport at my first job. The Chinese travellers like to ask me 'Where are you from?' when they noticed I also speak Mandarin. On that day, as soon as that man heard my reply saying 'I am a Taiwanese', I should have put up a shield preparing for a fight when he showed the subtle expression of despisement.
'The Mandarin in Taiwan has never been upgraded in decades!', he said.
I'm usually awkward in speech and not good in confrontation, so I decided to reply with silence and pretended I did not notice how provocative the comment was, even he thought he was very civilised.
A friend who is very good in confronting any strangers said, 'I would say to him, "Well, it is better than you, Chinese, downgraded Mandarin. Chinese government converted traditional writing to simplified beacuse there were too many illiterate farmers, so the purpose was to elevate the literacy level in the country"'.
人物故事集,各國家、種族、職業的各類人物面向。不要意外在文裡找到你的好朋友、老朋友、舊同事、 敵人,或是新朋友。請大方微笑說聲:「很高興認識你!」Character Anthology-Featuring characters from different countries, races, professions.