By Lianne Lin, 8 Asians
I lived in Taiwan (Taipei and Taichung) for three years, and though I had an amazing time, I experienced a more harmful type of racism there than I ever have in my home country. Born and raised in America, I would occasionally get teased or put down for being Asian, which was definitely damaging to the ego. However, that could not compare to the devastation of being turned down for job after job because of the way I look.
Lianne Lin with some substitute teaching students in Taiwan
I’m an ABC (American Born Chinese) and come from the same ethnic background as 98% of the people in Taiwan today: Han Chinese. I was shocked to find myself facing discrimination in a country where I totally blended in with the locals, and heartbroken to feel rejected by a country I loved so much.
I moved to Taipei in early 2010 to study Mandarin and learn about my mother’s birthplace. I looked for ways to get a work visa so I could try and stay long term. Work visas must go through an approval process and require companies to pay high fees and taxes, so it isn’t easy for foreigners to get sponsored for most jobs. However, if you have a bachelor’s degree and a passport from the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland or South Africa, it’s supposedly not hard to find an English teaching job.
I applied to every major school I could find in Taipei but got very few replies, just a few interviews that went nowhere. I got some substitute teaching gigs at kids’ schools through friends and started tutoring privately on my own. (Freelance work, unfortunately, does not lead to a work visa.) Another friend set me up with an interview at his school, where I was offered a position with an “ABC pay rate”, which is only 400 NTD per hour ($13.50 USD). This was ridiculous because I knew the rate should 600 NTD ($20 USD) or higher. This was my first time ever facing pay rate inequality, and I didn’t accept the job. Another friend who is hapa (mixed Asian/white), easily got a job at a well-known adults’ school and helped me turn in a resume. But later, my friend told me that his boss said that they didn’t want to hire ABC teachers. Apparently, as soon as the schools see either my photo or my Chinese last name, my resume goes into the trash.
I felt frustrated and angry, but completely powerless. I felt like all I could do was keep trying and hope for the best. Later, when I moved to Taichung to try my luck there, things were even worse. I wasn’t getting called for interviews at all. One day, I handed a resume to a woman at a school, who told me frankly that pretty much all of the schools in Taichung were only interested in either hiring local Taiwanese teachers (who don’t require the cost and hassle of a work visa) or Caucasians.
Read the full article by Lianne Lin from 8 Asians.
