Bad Manners & Book Crimes: How an American Op-Ed Sparked Taiwan’s Self-Awareness Movement – S5-E15

In 1963, a 32-year-old American grad student in
Taipei wrote a newspaper editorial
complaining that Taiwanese people were great at treating friends
kindly, but kind of awful in public. 





Within days, he had unintentionally launched a nationwide student
movement for civility, morality, and self-awareness. But this
student-led push for better manners would also lead to arrests,
prison time, and even psychiatric detention.





In this episode, we tell the strange true story of the
“Self-Awareness Movement,” how it exploded from one opinion
piece, and explain how it contributed (or didn’t) to
Taiwan’s public behavior transformation. Listen as we go
from the sharp-elbowed chaos at bank counters and bus stops of
the 1960s to today’s orderly lines and the quiet pride of the
MRT.








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