If there is a “foreigner” who lived in Taiwan for four years without residence visa and still has difficulties in speaking Chinese, many people would simply assume that this “foreign fellow” doesn’t really love Taiwan and has no intention to stay here for long, right? But there are many things in the world that often challenge your intuition.
Alex who came from Canada majored biology in his college time and had done many research program. He had a good chance to stay in the academic field, but he thought such a peaceful life is too boring for him. So he started his drift off journey in Asian countries such as Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan after his got his college degree. He hoped he might “find himself” during his journey. Alex said that despite he didn’t find out what he “wants to do” during his journey, but he did make sure what he “didn’t want to do”. He made up his mind to be an employee only to himself so that he could enjoy all kinds of freedom, including the freedom to fail.
Canada still had no clarified copyright regulation on online digital music when he returned home. Alex wanted to try some protesting actions on Internet while he noticed that many professional DJs didn’t have proper online platform to buy musical materials. So he started an exchanging website for digital music materials by self-learning. Surprisingly, it was loved by many people, some were even willingly to sponsor the website without any repayments. He started his online music career by accident.
However, incomes from independence online music database was not stable enough. Finally, Alex thought of Taiwan. He first knew Taiwan on his college class called urbanization and global change. Once there was a report project asking students to take one city for example to discuss the possible changes brought by climate changing. Alex took Taipei as a case in his report. Taipei was also a stopping place in his Asian journey. At first, Alex only thought Taipei a good place for living with convenient living environment, pleasant weather, cheap living costs, peaceful society, and friendly people. But while he was a traveler, Alex didn’t come up with the idea of staying here permanently.
Alex thought, if his jobs and incomes are all from the internet, then in theory he can continue his online business at any corner of the world. Why bother himself by staying in a place where everything is inconvenient and cost highly for living? So after series of thinking and evaluating, Alex decided to come to Taiwan. The decision still stands now after four years.
But here comes the problem. According to Taiwanese law, if Alex wishes to stay in Taiwan for long, he has to find an employer to hire him so he can stay under working visa; or he has to find a Taiwanese bride so he can stay under marriage condition. However, neither these two things are Alex’s choice. So for the past four years, Alex continually stayed in Taiwan under “travel visa”. He has to take a short travel to another Asian country every three months for him to stay in Taiwan.
Although his incomes for the internet still cannot meet the expenses on “traveling” in Taiwan for so many year, he believes that he will be indebted more if he stayed in Canada. So for him it is a better choice to stay in Taiwan where living is convenient while planning his future career and learn deep on Asian culture to enhance his working skills.
According to article 9 from the “Draft of Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professional Talent Act” issued by National Development Council days ago, foreign artist can go to Ministry of Labor to apply for working visa without the consent of employer. With three years of visa period and can be prolong if necessary, it is very suitable for people like Alex to apply.
The only question is whether Alex will be seen as artist by our evaluation system? Or put it this way, is he a foreign professionals recognized by Taiwan? Before answering these two questions, we must answer the first question at the beginning of this article.
In fact, Alex is very fond of photography and traveling except running his website in Taiwan. When you open his travel map he made by Google map, you can see thousands of tags on it recording many locations of historical buildings, ruins and special sceneries in detail. Above all, he carefully categorized these historical building in different colors stating “Dismantled”, “Sill exists but it is better for me not to tell the exact location so little can be done to harm it”, “Had been alternated ”.
Even more surprising is that Alex can tell you different stories about these locations during Dutch, Qing, and Japanese period. He research every document in both Chinese and English languages by himself and wrote down notes after he clarified data reliability. You can prove his is not just a simple tourist judging from the map and historical stories he had recorded. He truly has deep interest to understand the surroundings where he lived. If you see in this aspect, he may be more “local” than many Taiwanese.
As an “Internet nomad”, Alex had particularly made a “Café Map” for foreign travelers which tells them where they can find spaces for working on internet. He said, “Some foreign bloggers dubbed him as “Ambassador of Taiwan”. Every time when somebody wants to travel to Taiwan, his blog will become travel guide for them. They will share it to other travelers around the world. We can see now that Alex is actually promoting foreign relation and tourism for Taiwan without even noticing it. ”
He always comes back to Taiwan after his travel in every three months. He traveled alone to every towns and villages in Taiwan despite he speaks little in Chinese. He researched hard and introduced Taiwanese histories to others. Although we see many inconvenient in his life, Alex still managed to stay in Taiwan for four years. Such a man, can we say he is not in love with Taiwan? Isn’t this person who worked hard to let the world to know and understand Taiwan the “talented person” we need?
Back to the working visa for artists mentioned before. Alex said it is absolutely good for Taiwanese government willing to issue this visa for foreign artist and he is looking forward to its happening. However, he was not being optimistic about how the future evaluation system is going to work. “How can I prove myself an artist to Taiwanese officials? How should I say to those officials what kind of job I am doing? This is my case. Will it be easier for other artists to prove themselves?”
