By Franz Lin-Brandmaer
Category : Travel (General)
TAIPEI -- Perhaps not at first glance, but certainly on closer inspection, it is clear that foreign and expats influence is ubiquitous in Taiwan.
There's a town in the south called Alien. There's a 7-11 at every corner, and a McDonald's fastfood calorie intake emporium on every block, or so it seems. KFC, too. There are replicas of the Statue of Liberty standing tall in almost every town square around the island, and some even stand atop love hotels and massage parlors around the nation.
Yes, expat influence in Taiwan is strong, and a new museum dedicated to showcasing this influence is now up and running. Called "The Expat Heritage Museum of Northern Taiwan", the museum documents more than 400 years of expat influence on the Beautiful Island, from the first Portuguese sightings of land here to modern cram schools dedicated to passing on the heritage of the Queen's English.
About one-sixth -- about 4 million people -- of the nation of 23 million are expats now, with more to come. While most TV newscasts are still in Chinese and Taiwanese, more and more cable channels are doing English-language broadcasts for the nightly news shows and some are in Japanese, Vietnamese and French now.
Some places had so many expat settlers that they were dubbed Expat Towns. .......
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