上班族必備軟實力

[Over the past 20 years, Richard has confused his relatives about where he lives.]

It is obvious that I haven’t done a very good job of educating my friends and family back home about Taiwan. They say things like, “How is everything in Thailand?” They wonder if everyone lives in grass huts, and if they have indoor plumbing.

Life in Taiwan?

Whenever I bring presents, it is always about ancient China. I give them replicas of bronze ceremonial cauldrons, oversized decorative coins (with the hole in the middle), imitation jade wall hangings, tea sets, waving cats, and laughing, fat wooden buddhas.

They are afraid to eat samples of Taiwan food. They dare each other to try it. The dried fish and dried shrimp was met with disbelief, but some found that it didn’t taste that bad after all. Squid and octopus are just some of the things that we don’t get very often in Oklahoma. We aren’t near the sea at all. What is pork floss, anyway?

I should promote Taiwan better so that my relatives will know what it is really like. It is a modern, nice, and friendly place to live with good food.

This year I only sent them Hello Kitty stuff. Thank you for reading.