Random Fact about Taiwan #1481

The Expatriate — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:29:26 +0000

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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Random Fact about Taiwan #1481

Random Fact about Taiwan #325

The Expatriate — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:44:32 +0000

Many Taiwanese are extremely superstitious. Among their beliefs are that if you whistle at night, it will attract ghosts. It doesn’t matter if you are in a car, outside, or in your house: if it’s after dark in Taiwan, no whistling!

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