Monday morning at 10:00: Taipei's Chungshan North Road is clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Office workers and students have scrambled into their respective offices and schools, but the long row of shops, the Taipei Story House (fomerly Yuanshan Resort), and the SPOT-Taipei Film House (formerly the American ambassador's official residence) have not opened their doors. The wide sidewalks underneath the flamegold trees are quiet--you could walk a long, long way... almost back into history.

Setting off from the area near Yuanshan we come to the Taipei Story House, built under Japanese rule in the English Tudor style and located near the Fine Arts Museum on the southern bank of the Keelung River. The first floor is constructed of bricks, while the second is wood. It has remained intact since Tataocheng tea merchant Chen Chao-chun built it in 1914. The Myoshinji Temple, which looks across at the resort over a small hill, was also completed under the Japanese in 1911 in the classical style of Japanese temples. It was built by a Japanese monk when he was asked by Kodama Gentaro, the fourth Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, to come to Taiwan to spread Buddhism.

Even more powerful than the words and language or the wood, bricks, and tiles that went into the creation of these buildings is their ability to stir up memories. Now, as the traffic zips by on Chungshan North Road--this is the story of Taiwan, the story of Asia--it has a background rich in foreign flavor.

The end of World War II saw the exodus of the Japanese colonizers and the entrance of the American military. During the 1960s, the strip between Yuanshan and Tienmu at the far end of Chungshan North Road was a residential area for American military advisers. Years after the breaking off of relations with the United States in 1979 and the US military pullout, businesses in the area remain very American. The area from Tienmu to Yangmingshan is still the first choice of white-collar foreign nationals working in Taiwan.

Going in the other direction, south from Yuanshan to the intersection of Nanking East Road, the former official residence of the American ambassador, abandoned for many years, has been transformed into a coffee shop and the garage into a mini movie theater. Renamed the SPOT-Taipei Film House, the building is now a Mecca for movie buffs who eschew Hollywood movies in favor of art films by the likes of Francois Truffaut and Yasujiro Ozu and who strive to understand the Dogma95 Movement (a movement emphasizing the use of the most primitive methods for shooting films, launched by Danish director Lars von Trier).

Until recently, foreign laborers were brought into Taiwan en masse, their activities were confined to certain areas, and they rarely interacted with locals. Their cultures are now gradually attracting attention and the people of Taiwan are becoming increasingly aware of their contributions to Taiwan's economy and society.

Are we still in Taiwan?

Although the colonizers have long since departed, the cultural ambience they left behind bears witness to the area's history and has become an integral part of the cityscape, fashioning the fusion of East and West that characterizes Chungshan North Road.

But over the past decade this street, which boasts the most foreign presence of any place in Taiwan, has begun to feel a completely different kind of influence. Between the wedding shops, the Filipino franchise store Bing Go, replete with its pink sign, bristles with all kinds of groceries imported from Luzon Island, including spaghetti sauce, cans of ground meat, powdered fruit drink mix, instant oatmeal packets, and a variety of Filipino candies that closely resemble some local favorites.

Scattered along Chungshan North Road are a number of other Filipino stores, banks, and restaurants. And located at the center of this commercial district is the faith center for Filipinos in Taiwan--St. Christopher's Catholic Church.

St. Christopher's, which still looks like it is fresh out of the wrapper, was designed and erected in 1967 by the Americans for US military advisers and their families. Sixteen years ago, when Taiwan was opened up to foreign laborers, this place of worship, which offers mass in English, immediately became the religious center for Catholic Filipino laborers. Filipino workers and Filipino spouses of Taiwanese have continued to increase in number, so that now each of the five masses held every weekend is packed with 1,000-plus participants. Starting two years ago, three of the masses are now celebrated in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines.

In order to better serve the Filipinos, this area has been expanding and now offers shopping and entertainment and has become the most "Filipino" region in Taiwan.

By and for foreigners

On weekends and holidays, the industrial county of Taoyuan, home to more foreign laborers than any other in Taiwan, witnessed the birth of "foreign laborer streets" five years ago. Almost 70,000 of the over 430,000 Southeast Asians residing in Taiwan can be found within Taoyuan County. In contrast to the uniformity found in the Filipino sector of Taipei's Chungshan North Road, Taoyuan is host to shops with signs written in various languages and large numbers of clientele hailing from a variety of Southeast Asian countries, like Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Exiting from the Taoyuan train station, walking through the Yanping Street underground pedestrian walkway to "Southeast Asian Street" at the intersection of the Yanping and Talin Streets, you'll find some 20 Southeast Asian eateries and stores. They are anywhere from 20 to 100 square meters in size, and the menus posted on their walls are in Thai and Indonesian. In all the Thai restaurants, in addition to the glittery pictures of the Buddha, photos of the beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej grace the walls.

As for shopping, in addition to the international prepaid phone cards, required for calling home, that sell like hot cakes, grocery stores selling items from their home countries do a brisk business. In stores specializing in Indonesian products, you can buy inexpensive raw coffee beans from Indonesia as well as the green bean powder used in the traditional dessert cendol. What's more, CDs and cassette tape sales of music by Terlaris and Terdo, popular singers throughout Southeast Asia, are nothing to sneeze at.

Scattered among these exotic shops are stores that specialize in electrical appliances and toys. "Our customers are generally those who are returning to their own home countries and want to bring something back for their kids or other family members," explains Huichen owner Mr. Hsu, whose wife is a Chinese Indonesian.

If you feel you haven't had your fill after eating lunch and singing karaoke, you can follow the younger foreign workers to the area in front of the Taoyuan train station where you'll find large Thai-style discos with electronic music, any one of which is packed with over a thousand people on any given weekend. They differ from dance halls in that they don't impose a cover charge. Their profits are derived entirely from the amount of liquor they sell to customers and they are a favorite of many Indonesians, many of whom are Muslim. "We've seen a lot of bar fights triggered by jealousy," says shareholder Mr. Yang who has been watching the door all night, "so now, we frisk customers before letting them in."

"The Thai beer Singha, which goes for NT$120 a pop, is an obvious favorite, but Heineken and Taiwan Beer also sell well," confides Mr. Nguyen, who works in Hsinchu but who came to Taoyuan to party with his fellow Vietnamese. The area near the train station area differs from its Filipino counterpart in Taipei in that in addition to the various languages that can be heard, "We also chat in Mandarin, and because of this, we've made friends with a number of Thais and Indonesians," explains Nguyen.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

Southeast Asia in Taiwan

In this age of globalization, we are seeing an increasing number of immigrants and people seeking work abroad. "Although Taiwan has both white- and blue-collar foreign workers, if you look at the numbers, the less than 10,000 white-collar workers that come from mainly the US, Japan, and Europe make up far less than half of Taiwan's more than 300,000 foreign workers," relates Tsai Ching-lung, a researcher with the Academia Sinica and professor of Southeast-Asian Studies at Tamkang University. "As a result, the cultural landscape built by laborers from Southeast-Asian nations is especially prominent."

In contrast to white-collar workers that occupy the tip of the pyramid, "the faces of these foreign laborers, who are generally imported en masse and confined to their factories and care centers, don't stand out from the crowd in Taiwan," says Tsai, "The Taiwanese society feels that they only come to Taiwan to make money and as such, don't really target them for entertainment or consumer spending. As a group, they slip under the media's radar."

Ministry of the Interior statistics show that the number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has grown continuously, doubling from 260,000 in 1994 to over 500,000 in June 2006.

Looking at sectors in which foreigners are employed, we see that foreign laborers compose the lion's share with 69.4% and foreign spouses come in second with 19.9%. Together, these two groups represent some 430,000 individuals. The remainder of foreigners residing in Taiwan are here for other reasons, such as tourism or business.

Within this huge group of foreign laborers, Thais make up the largest percentage with 33.9%, while Filipinos come in second with 28.7%. With 63.1%, Vietnamese constitute the largest percentage of foreign spouses.

"The number of Southeast Asian laborers and spouses continues to grow. These stores came into being to help them cope with homesickness and to meet their daily needs. You can't expect them not to bring with them a little bit of their own culture," Tsai confides.

In addition to meals and shopping, entertainment and religion are very important parts of the lives of foreigners. In the photo above, foreign laborers take the edge off of stress from work by dancing in a Thai-style electronic disco located in front of the Taoyuan train station. (below) In St. Christopher's Church, another group seeks the strength of faith.

The tastebuds have it

Most will agree that the quickest way to the heart of a culture is through its stomach. It's noon on a weekday. Office workers and students from local cram schools flood into Sari Rasa, a popular Indonesian restaurant on Peiping West Road next to the Taipei train station. They pick up plastic trays and prepare to order. This little restaurant, saturated in the fragrance of Indonesian clove cigarettes, is famous for its specialty (Malaysian fish wrapped in banana leaves) and its Indonesian cuisine.

"On weekends and holidays, our clientele consists of Indonesians; from Monday to Friday, we serve mainly locals," explains the owner, Ms. Su, who is herself an overseas Chinese from Indonesia. "Business is pretty good." Most dishes come with rice. A serving of Padang beef costs only NT$25. The satay lamb kebab, which goes for NT$20 a skewer, differs slightly from what they serve in Indonesia.

"In Indonesia, banana leaves and coconut leaves are plentiful and cheap," explains Su. Here, to save money, they don't place leaves underneath; instead, the satay lamb kebabs are placed directly on the grill. The generous, inexpensive portions have won over diehard customers, including many young people with a penchant for lamb.

You should also check out Hsichih's "Vietnam Street," "Thai Street" in Hsinchuang, and "Myanmar Street," which was gradually built up long ago in Chunghe by overseas Chinese that fled to the Golden Triangle and then to Taiwan. Trips to these places will give you the opportunity to try various types of curries, so popular in Southeast Asia.

Most people in Taiwan are familiar with lighter Japanese curry and its much spicier Indian counterpart. Here, however, you'll discover spicy and colorful Thai curry, made with generous helpings of red and green curry sauces (both made using masses of chili peppers). Myanmar curry is a slightly salty concoction to which shrimp sauce is added. It is sprinkled with a healthy splash of sesame oil just before serving. Vietnamese curry, which uses fish sauce, has become a new favorite for the people of Taiwan. It seems that curry has worked its way into the hearts of people.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

If you can't beat 'em

When foreigners like Aullya, a doe-eyed Indonesian caregiver that has lived in Taiwan for two years, hear that locals also frequent these restaurants, their first reaction is one of surprise.

Speaking clearly in slow Mandarin, Aullya asks, "Taiwanese also eat here? I don't think I have ever seen any." Like many other foreign domestic help, with the exception of her place of work, her entire circle of acquaintances is completely separated from local people.

On the other hand, if you carefully observe foreign laborers in the places mentioned above, you'll discover that as they walk about at their own leisure, they and the local Taiwanese tend to avoid each other, seemingly out of tacit agreement. In Taoyuan, foreign laborers occupy the traffic circle and the area in front of the train station, but you rarely see them browsing about in the neighboring high-end department stores, such as FE21, Tonlin, or Idee. A similar situation can be seen at the Chingkuang commercial district, renowned for light repasts and imported goods and less than 500 meters from St. Christopher's on Chungshan North Road. "I've never even heard of the Chingkuang Market," exclaims Lito M. Capuz, a Filipino white-collar worker who has been in Taiwan for three years and goes to mass at St. Christopher's every week.

"This is similar to what many Southeast Asian spouses experience. They lead lives completely separate and distinct from those of locals," confides Gu Yu-ling, secretary-general of the Taiwan International Workers Association, "The paradox is that on the one hand, we want to internationalize and welcome foreigners and their cultures into Taiwan, but once they're in, we push them far away from us. The stress that this creates is sometimes even more unbearable for foreign laborers than any derived from their work."

What's in a meal?

Chen Chi-nan, anthropologist and Academia Sinica researcher, observes, "The age of globalization has increased the flow of people across borders and it goes without saying that wherever they go, people take their cultures with them." First of all, much of the earliest foreign culture introduced into Taiwan finds its roots in Taiwan's experience with colonization." Japan is an obvious example, and the US, because of its tremendous political and economic influence on Taiwan, has more cultural impact on Taiwan then it probably should have. Because of this, the cultural impact of the US and Japan extends from politics and the media to life in general.

"In addition to the experience of colonization, the types of culture so prevalent in Taiwan are, for the most part, closely linked to global trends toward culture consumption," continues Chen. The globalization of culture is the unmitigated result of capitalism. When the cultural sector becomes a kind of production machine, it actually tries to win market share all over the world, "as opposed to the more natural process that kicks into gear when cultures meet. There may be conflict and friction, but they also learn from each other and learn mutual understanding," explains Chen.

In other words, unlike McDonald's hamburgers, Starbucks coffee, and LV products, Indonesian satay and Thai curry have not been standardized so as to facilitate mass production, nor are they backed by rabid marketing and sales departments. Faced with today's highly developed consumer society, they have no choice but to simply scratch out a living in their own local markets.

In addition to selling international phone cards needed to call home, shops and restaurants that service foreigners tend to play the role of cultural catalyst.

Tense relations

Whether you consider its experience with colonization or developments in today's increasingly competitive market for commercialized culture, Taiwan has always been "at a relative disadvantage when it comes in contact with other cultures and tends to be on the receiving end," Chen observes. "But faced with these foreign laborers and spouses from Southeast Asia, our position has changed. We have the upper hand, at least in terms of economics, high tech, and ingenuity. This is new to us and we need to learn to adjust our attitude."

"Culture and cultural contact, conflict, and misunderstanding are par for the course," points out Kuang Chung-hsiang. An assistant professor who teaches a course on cross-cultural communication at Shih Hsin University, Kuang has noticed that the overall view of students toward foreign laborers, spouses, and immigrants is quite skewed and that they look down their noses at them.

"Students feel that laborers are only here for the money and that they are highly replaceable contract workers. They tend to divide them into two simple categories: pitiable or detestable," Kuang points out.

"This is clearly a typical example of perspective distorted by the media. They only see the obvious confrontational side. They can't see things through the eyes of the foreigners," Kuang continues. In order to help students better understand these new groups, he invited foreign spouse members of the Association of South Sea and Taiwan Sisters to communicate face-to-face with students during cross-cultural communications classes. It produced quite a reaction from students.

"In this era of increasing movement of humans around the world, it's a pity that many of us have been caught flatfooted. We don't know how to communicate with people with different cultural backgrounds," Kuang confesses.

"We've been drilled about internationalization and international exchanges for years, but our world vision still boils down to one where the white man reigns supreme. This mentality has not changed despite calls from the government over the years urging businesses to 'Go South!'" explains Kuang.

"That is not only true of the media. Our educational system has also been guilty of wearing blinders." Kuang shares an example. Shih Hsin University's "English Corner" has been around for a number of years. Its purpose is to provide a space on campus where students can practice English. "There's nothing wrong with studying English, but why don't we see a "Malay Corner," an "Indonesian Corner," or even a "Hakka Corner" or an "Atayal Corner"? After all, there are no native English speakers on campus, but we do have plenty of overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia."

The importance of listening

Tsai Ching-lung, who for the past five years has participated in UNESCO's Social Change Program as a "program partner" and published a number of papers on the situation of Southeast Asian immigrants and migrant workers in Taiwan, shakes his head, "Riots such as that experienced by Formosa Plastics in Mailiao and the one at the Kaohsiung subway worksite a few years back show that after 16 years of importing foreign laborers, we are not very good at playing employer." Tsai, who has lived in Thailand and speaks the language, is now studying Indonesian. "All students in the Tamkang Graduate Institute of Southeast Asian Studies are required to study Malay and reside for extended periods in country, so as to learn to view issues from a local perspective."

"If you study immigrant workers in Taiwan, you'll only see their plight here in this society--this is only one facet of the issue," explains Tsai. If you go to their country and research the same issue, you might approach it from a different angle, such as what social factors force them to go abroad to work. Combining these different perspectives gives us a more complete overall understanding of them.

Not only are academic circles reviewing their attitudes, the Executive Yuan's Council of Labor Affairs and local governments at all levels have placed increasing emphasis in recent years on the cultures of Southeast Asian laborers in Taiwan. "They have promoted events like Foreign Labor Poetry Day, the Songkran ("water splashing") Festival, and Reclining Buddha Day, and even set up foreign laborers' cultural centers. The purpose of all of this is to better understand foreigners from a cultural perspective. This represents a huge shift in thinking over simply governing over them with unfeeling regulations," continues Tsai.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

A new experience

Migration is the norm in human society, but "since 1949, Taiwan has mainly been on the receiving end," Tsai explains. "Domestically, Taiwan industry needs the human resources; externally, globalization has triggered an unprecedented flow of humanity."

Taiwan is not the only place experiencing this. Early this year, news of President Bush's plan to erect a perimeter fence along the US-Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants stirred up a hornet's nest. In Europe, the emergence of extreme right wing political groups in reaction to the steady increase in immigrants and refugees is a cause for concern.

Chen Chi-nan reminds us at this time of a seesaw battle between acceptance and rejection that the "Bohemian index" of urban creativity is higher in cities with diverse ethnic groups. "A major reason that Paris, New York, and Melbourne are such fascinating metropolises from a cultural perspective is the cityscape formed by immigrants," he confides. The gradual influence of the cultures of 430,000 Southeast Asian laborers and immigrants perhaps marks a new beginning for Taiwan.

The steady shift from law and the rights of foreign laborers to their cultures, caring for their lives, and helping them adapt to life in Taiwan has marked a watershed in the focus of the policies of all levels of government in Taiwan. This is a scene of a singing contest for foreign laborers held in Taipei's Zhongshan Hall.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

In addition to meals and shopping, entertainment and religion are very important parts of the lives of foreigners. In the photo above, foreign laborers take the edge off of stress from work by dancing in a Thai-style electronic disco located in front of the Taoyuan train station. (below) In St. Christopher's Church, another group seeks the strength of faith.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

In addition to selling international phone cards needed to call home, shops and restaurants that service foreigners tend to play the role of cultural catalyst.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

The number of foreigners residing in Taiwan has smashed the 500,000 mark. Coming from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, they come here as workers, students, or as the spouses of locals and they're gradually sinking their roots more deeply into life in Taiwan.

As globalization blurs national borders, seeking work abroad is becoming increasingly common. It is important for Taiwan to learn to see things from the perspectives of foreign laborers and immigrants.

In addition to selling international phone cards needed to call home, shops and restaurants that service foreigners tend to play the role of cultural catalyst.