T h e T a i p e i K i d talks about Mr. WOSBTSU and notes that the guy is either just really lame or is having a senior episode and that he’s very likely to find out very soon that the expat community in Taipei is like a small town so folks eventually run into others and word gets around.

I don’t think the Taipei expat community really is like a small town . . . I think it’s more like a few isolated small towns and most folks live in one or perhaps two or three of them in rare occassions but most expats are very much rooted in their small frame of what’s what and who’s who and the like and most think their experience and circles of acquaintances are what everyone’s experience is like but most don’t get out beyond that fence they put themselves in . . . given the description of the position and context for this guy’s experience here I seriously doubt that he will “run into” just about everyone . . . however, word is very likely to get out and he is likely to bump into folks within his circle which seems to intersect with yours and casually walk past and not even be aware of so many who don’t fit into that world . . . for instance, as my experience is not Chamber of Commerce or Tienmou Ghetto and I’ve no strong connection to the folks at the Taipei American School community, that circle is beyond my own so the intersections are very small with folks rooted strongly within that community . . . likewise, I don’t go to country club or black tie things or fancy shmancy hotels and formal gatherings and the like . . . I am however rooted in a circle of folks in the national universities, many of whom have no clue what the folks teaching in the English kindergartens and bushibans are experiencing . . . some of the circles do intersect . . . but many do not. So, Taipei’s expat community is really a bunch of different communities some of which are aware of some of the others but there are huge parts of the expat experience which many of us are blissfully unaware of because it’s not part of our personal experience. Of course, that’s not unique to an expat community, that’s pretty much what life is like for so many of us in any context . . . even best friends may not be fully aware of one another’s circles.

All the best,
Brian