I live in Taiwan. As places go, you can do far worse. That thought keeps returning as I see armed thugs greeting the President of the United States, and overtly racist right-wing hecklers disrupting town hall meetings, I have to be thankful that, as a white man in Asia, I'm not singled out for scorn, hostility, or discrimination.

Most of the time, anyway.  I've told my wife about a phenomenon I've witnessed over and over on the trains here. The seats are arranged much as on the New York City subway: two adjoining seats along the wall, then two more seats at right angle to them, forming a half-square. A similar configuration is placed across the aisle, along the other wall. So: eight seats, in four units of two each. As in most countries, people tend to sit next to an empty seat, if there's one available. But, if all four units are already occupied by one person, where do you sit? In Taipei, at least, you sit anywhere but next to the white guy. The unfortunate latecomer gets to choose between that sad fate and standing.

My Taiwanese wife claims  that she's never seen this happen. Of course not, I tell her, when you're with me we're sitting together.

A few months ago, I  was explaining this  to a very perceptive British lady, who immediately asked, "So, is it both men and women who do this, or only women?" It was so obvious that I'd never realized it before: it is only the women.The Taiwanese men don't seem to care much who they're sitting next to; they'll plunk down next to an old lady, next to me, or next to the sexy young thing across the aisle, with no apparent preference. (Very strange in itself, that.) But the ladies... More often than not, if offered the choice between sitting next to a smelly, belching, nose-picking yokel and a perfectly presentable and not-bad-looking white man, won't hesitate for a second. That's OK, I'll just use the extra room to stretch my legs a bit....

By Brit friend attributed it all to ethno-sexual anxiety--fear of the hyper-sexualized other. The more I think about it, the more true it seems. Western men definitely have the reputation of se lang--literally "sex wolf," or lecher. It's a more tepid version of the attitude of many white women in the South of my childhood; they might be perfectly polite and respectful to a black man, but they'd rather walk up ten flights of stairs than get into an elevator alone with one.

Today a friend forwarded me an article from the Apple Daily. It's the lowest form of tabloid rag, serving up daily helpings of lurid, sensationalistic crap and selling tens of thousand of copies in the process. The article was about a local woman who went home with a Wesern guy, had sex, and was made to pose for nude photos. Later, when the man was away in Japan, he forced her to masturbate on webcam for him.  (The article fails to mention what weapon or threats he employed.) Some days later, when she, after stalking him at his home, caught him with another woman, she called the newspaper to report his heinous crimes. And it was reported as news, complete with his (not her) full name, place of employment, and illustrations of the evil deeds.

 Actual illustrations accompanying the article. http://tw.nextmedia.com/applenews/article/art_id/31880119/IssueID/20090821

Well, I suppose it's better than a lynch mob.

The flip side of this collective neurosis is a bit less directly offensive. Early in our relationship, the future wife told me that some of her friends were eager to hear if I, shall we say, measured up to the local stereotype. (Modesty prevents my reporting her answer.)

All these things are, of course, just freakish  anomalies. As my wife keeps reassuring me, Taiwanese people are not in any way racist. I'll just keep repeating that to myself on my train ride tonight....