J. K. Kelley says:

While I haven’t visited Taiwan, I did work for two years for a company owned by Chinese folks from Taiwan. From what I have been able to observe, culturally speaking, this book is right on.

The breadth of topics covered is impressive. A bit of language, enough history to teach you why things are as they are, information on doing business and entertaining, what you should worry about and what you should not, climate, traffic, politics, religion, philosophy, the culture of the small business owner, and even varieties of food are addressed. I would recommend it strongly, not only for the traveler to Taiwan but for anyone with close friends or co-workers who hail from it–if I’d had it years ago, I’d have committed fewer faux pas and had a better time.
Rating: 5 / 5

Frederic Caldwell says:

Admittedly, I have only read the first couple chapters of the book, so please take the following review with a grain of salt.

While I understand that books such as these are meant to give visiting foreigners a taste for what to expect, I felt that these first chapters have far too much opinion and political bias mixed in with the facts.

One example is the portrayal of the KMT (dominant political party for much of Taiwan’s recent history) and its leadership as a self-serving cabal bent on preserving its interests and maintaining its pipedream of reasserting its rule of China. In my opinion, the actual facts would have been more than sufficient to give the reader an insight into some of the unfortunate events resulting from the KMT coming to Taiwan, and that the added commentary on KMT leadership was really unnecessary.

My take is on this is that the authors have clear political tendencies and they let their personal opinions obfuscate what should be a more objective view of the country. This is sort of like reading a book about the USA written by somebody with very strong Republican or Democratic leanings – you will certainly get a lot of fact, but it will be cast in the lens of that particular party’s politics.
Rating: 3 / 5

John W. Hicks says:

I was disapointed by this edition of the Culture Shock series. Taiwan, as exotic a place as you can imagine, must be full of specific cultural behaviors. And the entire book only said to be alert and aware of them. There were no specifics. For those of us who are looking for specific do’s and don’ts when traveling, this book was largely useless.
Rating: 2 / 5