Should I study-abroad in China or in Taiwan?

Clollin
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:04:25 +0000

Hey, I’m going to study Mandarin in college and plan to go abroad for a semester.

I’ve been wondering: should I go to China or to Taiwan?

I used to want to go to China b/c it’s in the news so often, but, at the same time, Taiwan still supposedly has a somewhat higher quality-of-life, and that’s a big deal to me if I’m going to live there for at least a semester, possibly a year. I also hope that rule-of-law is more developed in Taiwan (whereas I expect China to be more like Russia, where the police would probably laugh at you and send you on your way if you told them you’ve been robbed).

Now, the key interest of mine is more in the language (spoken-component, obviously) and in the overall traditional Chinese aesthetic. Taiwan actually seems to have more traditional-looking temples and other buildings than mainland China does (many of these were built in this century, i know, but that doesn’t automatically make me not want to see them).
Furthermore, it seems to me that mainland China went through a period of de-Chinazation under the Communists, who built many buildings in the Soviet style (which I’ve seen enough of and don’t want to see more of). In contrast, the Republic of China government in Taiwan built tons of buildings that hearkened back to ancient Chinese styles and also promoted the “rich history of the Chinese people.” I know that died down later-on, as Taiwan took on its own identity again, separate from China, but I still think that it’s present. The National Palace Museum in Taiwan seems to contain tons of historical artifacts from the mainland.
Mainland China is where the famous historic events took place, it’s “famous land,” so to speak, filled with famous mountains and rivers. However, it seems that the pollution in recent years has taken its toll on the environment and that much of the mainland probably no-longer looks as magical in real-life as it does on retouched photographs. Taiwan has a pollution problem as well, but I’m guessing that the overall appearance of the air, land, and buildings is cleaner (One thing I always love when returning to the US from Russia is how clean the buildings in the US look and how green the grass is).

So, what’s up? Where should I go and why? If the above posts seems like I’m biased towards Taiwan, it’s mainly because I brainstormed reasons to go to Taiwan. This is because mainland China seems like the obvious choice for a student studying Mandarin, but I wanted to ask whether you guys think it’s the right one.

As a side note: If I went to mainland China, I would probably go to Shanghai (where the Mandarin is a little nonstandard, but still Mandarin, i know), whereas in Taiwan I would go to Taipei.

Thoughts? Thanks!