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International Students Feature: Taiwan

Alexandra Detweiler
CO PY E DITO R

International students go through
too many transitions to count. Their
surrounding scenery, people, language,
holidays, and traditions may all change, and
that’s not even close to an exhaustive list.
This section of TechNews aims to capture the
perspectives of different international students
in order to help others better understand other
cultures and what American culture looks like
to someone newly exposed to it. This week, the
spotlight is on Taiwan. Shen Chun-Iu, a second
year graduate student from Taipei studying
manufacturing engineering, and Yuan Kai
Tsai, a first year graduate student from Tainan
studying materials science and engineering,
have shared their opinions on the biggest
differences between Taiwan and America.

One clear similarity between almost
all international students is a dislike of the
American diet, or at the very least a preference
for the food back home. Both Shen and Yuan
miss the food back in Taiwan. In Shen’s words,
the “food in Taiwan is a lot of different than
here.” In her opinion, food in Taiwan differs
so drastically from here that a lot of foreigners

wouldn’t try it. One food she misses most is
Taiwanese fried chicken, usually purchased
from a street vendor. Shen described it as
boneless, with Taiwanese spices like basil, all in
a white paper bag. One would “normally eat it
with bubble tea, [which] originated in Taiwan.”
According to Shen, near her house there are
three or four separate bubble tea vendors, and
the competitive atmosphere makes the bubble
tea even tastier. In comparison, Shen said,
“bubble tea in Chinatown is bad.” One thing
Yuan found strange about American food is
how common it was to eat vegetables raw. “In
my country,” Yuan explained, “we eat vegetable
which is cooked, but here people eat vegetable
raw. We can put some salt, or put some other
sauces.” Another difference Yuan noted was
the presence of less seafood. “Taiwan is a
small island,” he said, “so every city [is] near
the sea. It’s easy for us to get seafood. But in
Chicago, it’s very difiicult to get seafood.” In
addition, Yuan explained that the general
composition of meals varied greatly between
the two countries. While American meals tend
to have an emphasis on potatoes, he thought,
Taiwanese meals instead use a lot of noodles
and rice. But while most of the food is clearly
very different, Yuan mentioned that the pizza

in Taiwan was very similar to the pizza offered
here.

In terms of general culture, one of
the most obvious differences is the language.
And while the language barrier is a big part of
the transition, there are many other changes to
account for. According to Yuan, “I think one
difference is about family. The connection of
parents and kids is very strong in my city. For
example, I know a lot of Americans [whose]
parents don’t care much about them after
18 years old. In my country, the connection
is stronger. For example, if we encounter
big challenge[s] in our lives, we can get help
from our parents. Our parents can help us to
solve the challenges because they have more
experience [and] their age is older.” Yuan
also noticed that people in America seemed
to prefer to stay home after they finish work,
contrasting with the behavior he had become
accustomed to.

Academically, differences also
abound. One such difference, according to
Shen, is the “education system here is more
practical. [The] professor will do a project,
be more helpful for searching a job after we
graduate.” In Yuan’s opinion, teachers and
students interact more frequently in American

classrooms. “In Taiwan, teachers usually teach
students and students don’t ask any questions.
It’s totally different than America.” In addition,
Yuan said that the way students go about
getting answers can also be contrasted. For
example, Yuan said, “students in my country
they prefer to ask teachers to get the answers,
but the students here in my opinion find how
to solve the questions by themselves the
students in my country want to get the answers
directly. They don’t want to know what the
process is to get the answer, they just want to
get the answer.”

While many international students
have a similar opinion of the American diet,
there is a also a clear trend that international
students appreciate the diversity of the people
and cultures here. Yuan described this feeling,
saying that when the two countries are
contrasted, the “big difference is human. People
are from [all] countries, from everywhere.
When I arrived in America and I met new
people, I can know a lot of cultures from
their countries or different kinds of concepts
or ideas.” Perhaps it is a lesson to be learned
from voices like Yuan that this diversity, this
opportunity to learn from so many different
perspectives, is truly an American blessing.

QED holds its first thought-provoking meeting of the semester

Reno Waswil
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

QED: The Ethical Debaters, or just
QED, is a student organization dedicated to
discussing ethics and philosophy surrounding
a broad range of fields, including political
ethics, medical ethics, bioethics, metaethics,
and much more. The club invites and unites
students with a curiosity about ethically
ambiguous situations and a desire to talk
about them and understand them in light
of many different points of view. The club
exists to engage its members in open-minded
discourse, teach and encourage them to utilize
their critical thinking and reasoning, and
improve their confidence and public speaking
in such manners.

QED’s history is linked with the
Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, which is an
intercollegiate debate-style competition run by
the Association of Practical and Professional
Ethics that, according to its website, “combines
the excitement of a competitive tournament
with a valuable education experience for
undergraduate students.” The name of the
organization was changed over a year and a
half ago from “IIT Ethics Bowl” to its current

one, which was chosen to signify that the
organization was looking to publicly broaden
its role from a group that competes in the Ethics
Bowl to an ethics and philosophy appreciation,
education, and discussion society on campus.

Last Friday, January 20, from 12:50-
3:00 p.m., the organization had its first meeting
of the semester in the Crown Conference Room
in Hermann Hall. Though their meetings
had historically focused on discussing Ethics
Bowl cases, the topic for discussion at this
meeting was about the foundation of ethics. In
particular, beginning with thinking about the
is-ought problem (which is that what happens
or what people do is not necessarily what they
ought to do), members engaged in a discussion
about what ethics is, where we get the virtues
and goals which determine or influence our
choices, and what basis there is for them. Habit
dictated that references to Immanuel Kant’s
method of ethics, Utilitarianism, the Ethics
of Care, Virtue Ethics, and moral relativism
were plentiful. This is because “prescriptive”
ethics, or arguing what people should do given
certain circumstances, is most often the club’s
goal

Members talked about what reasons
there were for not acting in total self-interest,

or why one should follow any prescriptive
ethics in the first place. The discourse then
evolved into one almost singularly stemming
from the philosophical pessimism of Arthur
Schopenhauer, the ethicality of having
children. This followed a general agreement
that the ability to exercise consent of others'
actions that affect you was a justifiable virtue
to be protected. A couple of the members at the
meeting, both Shimer students, held the belief
that, because a child cannot consent to being
born, people ought not to have children.

This followed the logic that since
suffering was an inevitability of living, causing
the suffering of a living thing by causing the
existence of the living thing without its consent,
is fundamentally unethical. Just as society does
not allow children, even with their consent,
to engage in certain activities because they
can later regret their decisions and undergo
suffering, so too should we, each as decision
makers, not allow children to be born to
protect them from this suffering to which they
cannot consent. Moreso, even if children may
later not regret their decisions (or someone
may not resent their life), most people believe
that, because they are a vulnerable population
and do not have a developed sense of the

consequences of their actions (or have no
ability to consent what so ever), they should
be protected from the possibility of future
suffering that may be caused by those past
actions. Furthermore, it is not that children
are only protected because they are already
living, and we do not have such obligations
to the unborn. Most people, given the option
to cause a great number of people misery and
suffering several generations in the future
in exchange for, say, free margaritas today,
they would most likely feel the obligation
to keep that suffering from taking place due
to an obligation for inevitably living beings,
which can experience suffering but do not
exist yet. Therefore, everyone ought to not
have children, since the child would go on to
undergo suffering as a result of being born,
to which they did not consent. It was quite an
intriguing and thought-provoking argument
for those in attendance.

The club accepts all types of people
with all types of positions and meets Fridays
from 12:50-3:00 pm. (although, showing up
late or leaving early is absolutely acceptable).
QED hopes to continue providing a space
to encourage interesting discussions for all
students on the campus.

Hawks Coffeehouse returns for the Spring 2017 semester

Reno Waswil
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

Hawks Coffeehouse is the biweekly
Union Board-hosted event series wherein
student, amateur, and professional poets,
songwriters, and musicians are invited to
perform their art at Illinois Tech for the
enjoyment of the student body in a cozy,
coffeehouse-esque atmosphere. Since a day
change last semester, the events has taken place
every other Wednesday night, 7 to 8 pm. in
the MTCC Welcome Center, which is the the
space between the State Street entrance and the
Pritzker Club in the MTCC.

On Wednesday, January 17, the

series began anew for the Spring 2017 semester
with the folk rock musical duo Hunt for
Hunter. The band, based in Brooklyn, New
York, consists of Michael Hunter and Ian Hunt.
Hunter, who sat atop a cajon “box drum” for
the duration of the show, accompanied the
standing violin-playing Hunter on acoustic
guitar and percussion. Hunter, while playing,
would also occasionally kick his leg up to
strike a cymbal, which added a bit of effect
to Hunter’s already vivacious “fiddling.” Each
displayed a veritable skill on their respective
instruments, and though both sang, Hunter,
with his impressive range, was the primary
vocalist. Hunt even recounted that Hunter,
having come down with a slight cold recently,
had given him a list of a few songs he might

have to perform during their upcoming shows,
and how he was a little bit worried about it.
Although both skilled and practiced
musicians in their own right, they were novices
of college touring. The 2016 Fall Regional
National Association of Campus Activities in
Covington, KY, which is where Union Board
booked them, was the first they had attended.
The setlist for their show last
Wednesday included striking covers of
popular songs like “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay
and a song Hunter explained was one of his
first to learn, the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” as
well as a few originals, including “Divine” off
of their new EP “No Locks 81 No Bars.” One
particularly memorable song of theirs was a
novelty song in which Hunter described in

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no small detail an incident of a bird pooping
on him in a Whole Foods. This was followed
by a warning to all audience members of one
particular Whole Foods in New York that they
might want to avoid.

Along with the music, students
enjoyed coffee, hot chocolate, and an
assortment cupcakes—slightly smushed, but
cupcakes nonetheless—which were set out for
attendees.

With this semester’s Hawks
Coffeehouse in full swing, readers interested
in attending can look forward to coming, or
perhaps even performing at the event in the
coming weeks. The next such event is scheduled
to take place on February 1, 2017 from 7 to 8
pm. in the MTCC Welcome Center.

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