Who Are You Calling "Taike"?

Over the last two years, the word "Taike" has become Taiwan's hottest--and most controversial--slang term. It's been picked up by the mainstream media, and the former ethnic slur has found wide currency, even taking on a positive meaning.

Scantily-clad "Betelnut Beauties" have come to be called another name--"Taimei," the female version of "Taike."

Painful memories

The origins of the term "Taike"--literally "Taiwan guest" or "Tai guy"--are obscure. It is generally believed to have been in use in the 1960s at the earliest, when gangs of second-generation immigrants from the mainland would use it as a slur against Fujianese and Hakka people whose families had already been in Taiwan for many generations. It carried a sense of superiority against what the gangs saw as the unfashionable, unworldly country bumpkin locals who couldn't speak "proper" Mandarin. The term is heard many times in the Edward Yang film A Brighter Summer Day, which takes the immigrant village culture of that era as its backdrop.

A-ho is a 1960s-born graphic designer. He recalls when, as a student, mainlander kids would use the term to rile the local kids up. He says, "If someone called us 'Taike,' there was nothing more to say--it was time to fight!" Because of these memories, he can't accept the way the word is bandied about by the younger generation who hear it on TV and don't realize the hateful connotations it carried in the past.

The term "Taike" expresses not only a sense of superiority over certain ethnic groups but also that of city-dwellers over those from the countryside. Professor Kuan Chung-hsiang of Shih Hsin University's Department of Radio, TV and Film was also born in the 1960s. He's of mainlander extraction and is from Kaohsiung. "But," he says, "I've spoken Taiwanese since I was a kid, and I didn't grow up in an immigrant village." When he moved up to Taipei to attend school, the earthy Kuan was seen as "that guy from the countryside" by his classmates from Taipei. Even though Kaohsiung is also a big city, he says, "It seems that to a lot of Northerners, it seems that outside of Taipei, all of Taiwan is 'countryside' and backward."

Though Taiwanese born in the 1950s and 1960s have such strong memories of "Taike" as a term loaded with prejudice against local ethnic groups and people from the countryside, the generation born in the 1970s do not. In their experiences, the term was no longer in use and they knew little of its negative connotations. It's only been in the last two years that this insult from the past has come to their attention through its media revival.

The record industry has put together a Taike Rock concert for two years in a row. Crowds flocked to see acts like Wu Bai (center left), The Clippers (center right), and Bobby Chen (bottom right).

Taike on TV

Though the term "Taike" may have disappeared for a time, the discriminatory stereotypes it connoted have remained a fixture in the media. Television commercials, for example, have long used the same formula--an out-of-touch "hick" speaking Mandarin with a heavy Taiwanese accent gets into difficulties and is "educated" by a smooth-talking city slicker about some fashionable new product.

Since 2004, the TV variety shows Generation and Kang & Hsi Are Coming--both produced under the auspices of Wang Wei-chung, who grew up in an immigrant village--have been stirring up the "Taike" controversy. On the shows, the word "Taike" and the related insult "That's so Tai" are used for comic effect in reference to celebrities and audience members who are seen as out of touch with the latest urban fashions, or who lack sophistication. What was once a term of abuse has become the calling card of these variety programs.

Assistant professor Lee Ming-tsung of National Taiwan University's Department of Sociology has followed the "Taike phenomenon" for years. He says that the media, in its process of adopting the term, has from the outset taken the mindset of the urban middle class, looking at "Taike" with a voyeuristic, exoticizing eye. Li says this shows that for the producers, who often sneer "That's so Tai" at others, Taike are not "us" but "them."

However, in segments with titles like "I'm Tai, But I'm Hot," "My Tai Boyfriend," and "The Taike Challenge," youthful participants embrace an attitude of "I'm a Taike--so what!?" They might feel a bit pai sei ("embarrassed" in Taiwanese) about being "so Tai," but they attach stronger importance to their earthy lifestyle in which loyalty, self-expression, and directness are valued characteristics. In the minds of these members of the younger generation, the prejudice the term once carried seems to have completely evaporated.

As "Taike" was once a wholly negative word, its transformation has been especially miraculous. A lifestyle seen by the urban middle class as vulgar or tacky has come to be seen as positive and characterful. Though Taike style is still exoticized and seen as a source of humor by the media, many younger Taiwanese are applying the term "Taike" (and its female equivalent, "Taimei" or "Tai girl") to themselves.

Gaudy clothes and accessories sold at night markets are the Taike uniform.

Taike: The new style

The "Taike phenomenon" cooked up by the media has attracted the attention of many cultural critics. In the summer of 2005 it hit the print media, with Eslite Bookstore's Eslite Reader, the China Times' arts supplement, and Net and Books magazine all publishing special issues on the topic within weeks of each other. First they posited that such an imaginary group actually exists, then they broke down its lifestyle preferences, fashions, and characters. "Taike" was treated as an aesthetic style in which people dress in oversize clothes in loud colors and attention-grabbing cuts, or blindly chase fashions but never quite get them right. Taike who come into a bit of money but are not yet "rich" were portrayed as buying counterfeit designer goods and mismatching their clothes. In the past, these articles said, such styles were ridiculed as gaudy and a poor imitation of fashion, or as the mark of an awkward transitional period in which rural people were trying to get a taste of the lifestyles of the upper classes.

However, these magazines tried to rehabilitate the "Taike" image from cultural and economic standpoints. When compared to these Taike, who have created a culture of mixing and matching creatively from whatever is on hand with an attitude of "There's power in bad taste," city dwellers and their demand for brand names and a luxurious lifestyle look rather pretentious. The rehabilitated Taike could say that their being seen as getting fashion "wrong" was only natural and part of a transitional stage, and that with their thrown-together look they at least show more creativity than those who chase after the latest fashions from overseas.

"Taike" has gradually turned into a positive term denoting someone who dares to make a statement and who doesn't beat around the bush. It used to connote bad taste, but now it's the in thing. Ironically, after it came to refer to a certain aesthetic style, members of the more economically privileged urban middle class have embraced it as well. They treat this "local yet exotic culture" as a game of dress-up in which they put on night-market flip-flops, a loud Hawaiian shirt, and bright shorts, and romantically imagine themselves as salt-of-the-earth "Taike."

Traditional folk culture is also being picked up and changed by youth. Pictured above, the legendary character Nezha sashays along the street to electronic music, wearing sunglasses; below, young fans of Pili puppet theater cosplay their favorite characters.

Lingering controversy

The transformation of Taike from a slur to a kind of local culture has not been without controversy.

The nativist Northern Taiwan Society has held many press conferences to oppose the popular use of the term by those unaware of its original derogatory sense. Member Chang Jui-lan admits that the meanings of words do change over time and that the word "Taike" could become a symbol of pride and self-respect, "But first we need to go back and consider the word's original meaning. To do otherwise is to ignore history."

It seems that, on the surface, the new acceptability of the word "Taike" has made some lifestyles more palatable to society. However, its popularity in the media allows those negative stereotypes of old to perpetuate themselves. A contestant in the Miss Taiwan beauty pageant, for example, was referred to as "so Tai" and "lacking class" for not speaking standard Mandarin. Variety show segments like "Taimei Intelligence Test" imply that those labeled "Taike" are clueless bumpkins.

Although Kuan Chung-hsiang agrees that the acceptance of the term "Taike" brings with it a positive sense of individual liberation, he says that the institutional classism behind it still exists. That classism, along with rapid commercialization of the Taike culture, have kept the phenomenon from growing beyond a mere collection of superficial images into a meaningful discussion of class issues.

Lee Ming-tsung believes that the appearance of Taike culture has had good and bad points, and that the controversy shows that it has resisted an authoritative definition. Though "Taike" carries associations with stereotypes, it may be the first time that a previously ignored class of people has received this sort of attention. Their characteristic lifestyle and culture have an opportunity to be taken seriously and discussed. That's why Li describes the phenomenon as "Two steps back, three steps forward." He says, "Only with this sort of back-and-forth is it possible for society to gradually improve."

Though the word "Taike" is thrown around very casually these days, Li still believes that it's best to take into account one's audience when using it. "After all," he says, "many people still have very negative memories and emotions attached to it."

Mixing, matching, and copying--that's the eclectic spirit of Taike culture. Pictured here is a mobile stage combining the American Statue of Liberty with elements from local dance shows.

Taike rocks

Taike fever has brought attention from the business world and led to many jumping on the bandwagon. As a result, the term's definition has been stretched even wider. One place where its influence has been very apparent is the pop music world.

In 2005, Rock Records and other music industry players began putting on annual "Taike Rock" concerts, featuring performers such as Wu Bai, Bobby Chen, Joytopper, and Mayday. Wu Bai has positioned himself as the "Taike Kingpin" and called for a new Taike rock 'n' roll movement.

However, the concert included decidedly non-rock performers such as Cyndi Wang and the Shining Three Girls; Mandarin singers with nothing to do with the "Taike" image such as Faith Yang, Cheer Chen, and Sodagreen; and even Hong Konger Alex To. Though it sold a lot of tickets, it was criticized by many as lacking a core concept. To the critics, it was just a lineup of mainstream pop artists jumping on the Taike bandwagon as a commercial gimmick.

Ho Tung-hung, an assistant professor of sociology at Fo Guang University who used to be in the music business, says that what should have been brought to the fore by the Taike phenomenon is the oft-forgotten culture of working-class youth from central and southern Taiwan. However, what the music industry is doing is using the Taike label to repackage their own artists to make them more commercial. "The result is that at the Taike Rock concert, the spotlight was still on those few faces. No new musical possibilities were uncovered."

Ho believes that if Taike rock is really to become the sort of movement that Wu Bai has called for, artists must abandon the format in which large-scale concerts are given on a periodic basis and return to the ways of the 1950s, when Taiwanese-language artists like Yang San-lang and Wen Hsia would tour venues around central and southern Taiwan. Only when the movement enters the lives of the working class can it truly be called "Taike" rock.

Traditional folk culture is also being picked up and changed by youth. Pictured above, the legendary character Nezha sashays along the street to electronic music, wearing sunglasses; below, young fans of Pili puppet theater cosplay their favorite characters.

An immigrant culture

Many people now consider the sort of mixing and matching found in Taike culture to be characteristic of Taiwanese culture as a whole.

Taiwan is a society of immigrants. History has seen the arrival of Aboriginal people, the Dutch, the Japanese, Hoklo, Hakka, and people from all areas of China on this island. Recently there has also been a large influx of Southeast Asian laborers and brides. What is known as "Taiwanese culture" is actually a composite of various disparate elements.

Kuan Chung-hsiang's ideal "Taike culture" is all-encompassing. "The 'ke' ('guest') in 'Taike' gives a feeling of otherness and distance, but in actuality, all the groups in Taiwan differ only in when they arrived. None is superior or inferior in its culture."

Lee Ming-tsung believes that the upside to the Taike phenomenon is that as it emphasizes mixing, it has opened new avenues by which Taiwanese can imagine their culture. In the past, people assumed "culture" to be something rarefied and aloof. "They thought that those people with bleached hair chewing betelnut and dressing in counterfeit designer clothes lacked culture, but actually that is a kind of subculture itself," he says.

In the Taike controversy, those who use the term to mercilessly poke fun at others would seem diametrically opposed to those who reject it as a shameful insult. However, says Lee, both sides are making a distinction between what they see as refined and what they see as vulgar. Culture, they believe, is something that belongs to the upper classes. "Both viewpoints take different paths to the same end point--denying the legitimacy of the Taike class's cultural taste. Both are unacceptable."

The record industry has put together a Taike Rock concert for two years in a row. Crowds flocked to see acts like Wu Bai (center left), The Clippers (center right), and Bobby Chen (bottom right).

The future of Taike

Taike mania is sweeping Taiwan, but oddly almost everyone involved in describing it or setting up related events is from the city. In the phenomenon supposedly about them, these disadvantaged, working-class outsiders from rural areas are lumped together, labeled, and made into a spectacle for the benefit of others. Therefore, Lee says, whether "Taike culture" makes an impact depends on these marginalized people finding a space from which to make their own voices heard, and not merely remaining the media's "other."

The word "Taike" has been rehabilitated from being a slur and has gone from meaning someone with bad taste to denoting a kind of self-made aesthetic. It's been shaped by political, commercial, and social forces. Will it go out of style and disappear without a trace, just as countless other media-manufactured fads have before it?

Lee believes that with the media being as consumer-driven as it is, "Taike" will very likely disappear once again after the fad passes. However, he hopes that the discussion of culture and class it has brought about in Taiwanese society will continue, and that what started as a joke about "tacky" people will leave in its wake the concept that cultural standards can be multifaceted. "Then," he says, "it won't matter if this single term disappears."

The record industry has put together a Taike Rock concert for two years in a row. Crowds flocked to see acts like Wu Bai (center left), The Clippers (center right), and Bobby Chen (bottom right).

A Guide to the Media-Manufactured "Taike" Image

* Always smoking--favorite brands are Longlife Premium and Seven Stars.

* Speaks Mandarin with a heavy Taiwanese accent. Sprinkles the occasional English word in--with each syllable stressed.

* Loves Taiwan-style cocktails like Kaoliang and plum juice or red-label rice wine and Vitali soda.

* Mobile phone has a light-up antenna, glowing stickers, and clear, flashing buttons.

* Applies bumper stickers to car with slogans like "Speed Demon," "Ride Like the Wind," or "Hot Chicks Only."

* Loves customized cars, with the stereo blasting out the driving rhythms of Taiwanese-style trance music for all the world to hear.

* When riding a scooter, keeps knees jutting out to the sides.

* Loves counterfeit fashions and rapper-style thick gold chains, attempting to copy the Hip-hop style.

* Wears oversize shirts--in loud colors or white--bought from the night market, along with surfer shorts.

* Wears white socks--if any.

* Bleaches hair.

* Wears rubber "bathroom slippers" out, and puts his stuff in a cheap plastic bag from a roadside food stand.

* Covered in wild tattoos.

* Mobile phone hangs from belt. Ringtone is a deafening pop song.

* Females wear large hair clips, thick-soled boots, and super-short skirts--in all seasons.

* Often thinks others are "so Tai!"

source: Eslite Reader and Net and Books/compiled by Chang Shih-lun

The record industry has put together a Taike Rock concert for two years in a row. Crowds flocked to see acts like Wu Bai (center left), The Clippers (center right), and Bobby Chen (bottom right).

Traditional folk culture is also being picked up and changed by youth. Pictured above, the legendary character Nezha sashays along the street to electronic music, wearing sunglasses; below, young fans of Pili puppet theater cosplay their favorite characters.

Tacky and proud of it! The word "Taike" has gone from being an insult to connoting a youthful style.

Generation, the show hosted by Tsai Kang-yung (center, kneeling), has been a major force in propagating the recent Taike phenomenon.