An Expatriate in Taiwan

Random Fact about Taiwan #1481

In Taiwan, many people don’t eat beef for various reasons; however, religion doesn’t appear to be one of them.
A coworker of mine doesn’t eat beef because her family has always been farmers. I guess they raise cows for milk and think that because the cow has given them so much (allowed to make a living, that is), they should respect the cow and not eat it.

Miss Expatriate’s Mother also doesn’t eat beef. You see, on her deathbed, her mother (Miss Expatriate’s Grandmother), told her that she shouldn’t eat beef. No rhyme or reason to it… just that she shouldn’t do it. And so, respecting her dying mother’s wish, she hasn’t eaten any beef since.

Some in Taiwan (including Miss Expatriate’s mother) believe that eating beef will make you stupid. I’m not sure where the correlation/connection is, but they are quite superstitious about a number of things. (My note: See Edit below!)

As of yet, I have met no Taiwanese people who object to eating beef for religious purposes.

EDIT: OK, a bit of clarification. Miss Expatriate has done some research for me and found out a few things. First, let me retract my statement: People in Taiwan do NOT believe that eating beef will make you stupid. Rather, some people in Taiwan, including Miss Expatriate’s mother, believe that eating beef will give you bad grades on upcoming tests. There are two possible reasons for this, but the source for both reasons comes from fortune tellers, which are wildly popular here among the superstitious people (Miss Expatriate’s mother goes to see them on a regular basis).

Reason 1: Fortune tellers will often tell you that your son/daughter/husband/wife/relative was born with good spirits protecting him/her. This is because they were a good person in their previous life. However, if you eat any “higher-level animals” (Cow, snake, rabbit, horse, dog), the good spirits will no longer protect you; they’ll leave you and make you vulnerable to bad-spirits which will obviously influence how well you do on tests, life, etc.

Reason 2: Fortune tellers may tell you that your son/daughter/husband/wife/relative was going to be a governor in a past life (they do this through a myriad of “calculations” according to numbers, birthdates, names, etc). As a governor, you are naturally a very smart person, a leader of people, etc. However, cows are very stubborn. So, the fortune tellers will tell you that if you eat beef, you will become stubborn like a cow and you will obviously not make a very good Governor(ess). So, they advise them not to eat beef.

Sounds a bit crazy, I’m sure, coming from the outside, but you must realize that many Taiwanese are wildly superstitious and honestly believe what fortune tellers tell them.

Anyway, hope that clears it up!

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6 responses to “Random Fact about Taiwan #1481”

  1. Karyn Avatar
    Karyn

    But eating pig uterus and chicken feet and stinky tofu doesn’t make you stupid? 🙂

    Reply
    1. The Expatriate Avatar
      The Expatriate

      Haha, well, I haven’t seen anyone eating pig uterus yet, but let me clarify.
      Miss Expatriate has corrected me. No one believes that eating beef will make you stupid; rather, some people, including Miss Expatriate’s mom, believe that eating beef will make you get bad grades if you have a test coming up. The reasons are outlined above in my edit.

      Reply
  2. naturallyjojo Avatar
    naturallyjojo

    another one for those who come from a family of farmers and once-were-farmers:

    because beef (牛 … cow/ox) = water buffalo (水牛 … water cow/ox) for them (are close enough at least), so in respect to the animal that allowed them to make their living pulling the plow, they abstain from eating beef.

    i also like those who are vegetarian for a year because they promised the gods that if they i.e. passed the test and got into their desired university they’d not eat meat for a year…and then when they do eat meat during that year, they say (when called on it by their friends) that they will make up for it by prolonging the year by an extra day

    Reply
  3. BDumpster Avatar
    BDumpster

    Raising cows to kill and eat is a much less efficient way of gaining nutrients. With limited land and space in taiwan, you cannot grow enough crops to feed the cows so that people can eat the cows.
    The Hindu reverence for cows is borne of a similar situation. Efficiency and ability to survive comes first. If those farmers killed their cattle in India, they wouldn’t survive.
    We have tons of space in America-thus the reason beef is such a popular dish. (I’m from texas 😉
    Brazil likes their beef so much, they are cutting down rainforest to create more grazing land.
    In reality-it just isn’t sustainable.

    Reply
  4. taiwan girl Avatar
    taiwan girl

    beef steak and stinky tofu is my fav. >.<

    Reply
  5. Melaniee Avatar
    Melaniee

    This post brought back so many mremeios of the Laotian family who lived with us over thirty years ago! They arrived in January at night with the clothes on their backs, flip flops, coats issued by the refugee camp, picture books that told them all Americans are good and a Lao/English English/Lao dictionary. There were no Asian markets we wandered the streets of Chintown peering into stores trying to help them find something that tasted like home. We learned to enjoy many new dishes, but never really took to the pigs feet boiling in brown sauce with hard boiled eggs in the morning! We had to explain it really was ok to swim in the lake there are no crocodiles here, and the trees were not all dead the leaves will come back in the next season. For the second family who came, perhaps the biggest challenge was in the midst of a very difficult labor, explaining to a husband that mom and baby will die if they don’t do a Cesarian . this was not in the dictionary.

    Reply

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