The thing about Taiwan, see, is that everyone is Asian.

Please hold your shock until the end.

Seriously, though, everyone here is Asian. They don’t call America the “melting pot” for nothing, it seems.

The unfortunate U.S. reality is that, in many cases, personal economic status seems to follow along racial lines. In most cases, not all cases. I do not say this to be racist, I do not say this to be judgmental; I say this to give attention to a situation over which I as an individual have no control.

More to the point: the guy that does the gardening back home is Mexican. You know what I mean. The guy that does the gardening here, though: Asian. The woman behind the counter at the Asian Gap: Asian. The trash collector: Asian. The high-powered CEO: Asian. The English-speaking motivational speaker a la Tony Robbins who assures you that with these 7 steps to success you can do it: Asian.

Everyone is Asian.

I do not have a problem with this, and rather enjoy how sorely I stick out in thumb form. I wonder, though, what the implications of this are. Are there more subtle racial lines that I am unaware of that delineate the population? Are people stereotyped by variations in speech patterns, the way they comb their hair? Or, is this some kind of shangri-la, where there really isn’t any kind of appreciable prejudice, where everyone starts out equal and with the same potential. I hope it’s the latter.