When was the last time you said your pleases and thank yous? Well, if you're a Taipei resident, chances are you haven't said them in a while, according to Reader's Digest magazine.
The US-based magazine conducted a survey of 35 cities around the world recently, probing the politeness of each city's residents. Ranking 29th overall, Taipei turned up at the bottom of the list, with just six other cities considered ruder. And when it came to "document drops," one of the three tests Reader's Digest reporters used to score politeness, Taipei came in 31st, with only four other cities scoring worse. That test involved a reporter "accidently" dropping a stack of papers in public and seeing if anybody would help pick them up.
Luckily, Taipei fared better on the "service tests" in which the reporters observed whether sales clerks would thank buying customers. The survey also consisted of "door tests" (observing if people tended to hold the door for others), which Taipei flunked as well.
The good news is Taipei is not alone -- of the 10 Asian cities surveyed, including Taipei, none scored above 50 percent (New York was ranked the politest city with a score of 90 percent). Singapore and Seoul were ranked 31st and 32nd respectively.
Among the politer cities, Sao Paulo, Brazil, which ranked fifth, is so courteous that even blackmarket vendors are mindful to thank their customers before running away from the police.
The survey also discovered that there seemed to be an odd correlation between wealth and courtesy. A Reader's Digest reporter in Johannesburg, South Africa, for instance, noticed that the nicer people dressed, the fewer courtesies they extended to strangers.
Seasoned diplomat Loh I-cheng (
Although Loh, now retired, did admit that Taipei residents could be nicer, he said that of the many locales he has traveled to in his career -- including all of the cities the Reader's Digest surveyed except four -- Taipei was one of the most civil.
Radio Taiwan International talkshow host Andrew Ryan agreed, saying that the survey was flawed because it was based on Western standards of courtesy.
"The generosity and respect that the Taiwanese show to guests -- the way mass rail transit [MRT] passengers give up their seats for each other, the men holding women's bags for them. These are all acts of courtesy that Westerners would do well to learn from the Taiwanese," Ryan said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS