Saturday, August 20, 2005

"Tai Ke" = 台客

A new craze sweeping Taiwan is the so-called "Tai-Ke" 台客 which is supposed to be a stereotypical Taiwanese guy in the tradition of plastic slippers, wife-beater shirt or flower-printed shirt, bin-lang eating, Mild-Seven smoking , Sanyang driving - you get the idea.

Only problem is that pretty much covers Kevlar, too. I guess Ann must be a little bit Tai-Mei, the female version of a Tai-Ke.

Mr. Wu Bai is presented as a very good example of Tai-Ke. Here's some more gleanings from the internet and Yahoo with weak photos and all in Chinese. I think we could find a better paragon of Tai-Ke virtue within 50 台尺 of any 7-11.

Make sure to ask some of your friends and co-workers if they are "Tai-Ke" but beware the backlash has already begun. (Check out the club's name in the little web address section of your browser. I guess Tai-Ke are not universally loved.)