Taiwanese people give non-Taiwanese/Chinese foreigners who speak Chinese a lot of attention. Heck, I find it fascinating too. Every so often, I'll turn the boobtube and see Chinese-speaking foreigners as regulars or guests on TV shows. I guess they never make it as far as being on a scripted show (dramas, etc), but their novelty is enough to get on one of the many game or talk shows.

Here are a few examples:

瑪格麗特 (Margerite): [1 | 2 | 3 ] This Russian damsel is a regular on a popular Taiwanese game show. She's also an item with the famous singer/show host (in the pictures with the beard). Her Chinese is only so-so, she's not all that funny, she's not that attractive (a la Leelee Sobieski)... but... she's not ugly, she's white, she has a figure, and she speaks Chinese. Good enough for most people here.

Jeffrey: [Couldn't find a link] Jeff is a young Canadian guy who hosts an English-teaching TV show. His Chinese is PHENOMENAL. Ok, I give props to him, even if he does dress really gay on the show. No, I don't mean it like "oh, that's so gay!"... well, it is. Com'on, he wears hugging jeans, a sleeveless jean vest, and a red hankerchief around his neck. Unlike any Canadian I know. I'm not sure if he does it because he/they think it's "children-friendly". But a red flag should pop up when Taiwanese parents see their kids wanting to be Macho Men singing YMCA. But his Chinese is incredible. AC tells me that sometimes if she doesn't look at the TV screen, she could mistaken him for a local. Although, here and there, I hear some phonetic mistakes, but I'll let those slide.

Nicky Lee: [ 1 ] Nicky's a Korean-American from LA, and made famous in Asia by being part of the Machi Hip-Hop group. His Chinese is broken and strongly accented, but he was never supposed to be known for that anyway. I see his baby-face far too often in advertisements and guest appearances on any show. Either way, hugely popular (with the young girls). Ok, credit goes to Machi for actually being a pretty decent hip-hop group, and not a lame bunch of guys trying to be hip-hop.

A while ago, I went to a book exhibition at the Taipei World Trade Center. There was a Polish guy who spoke Chinese better than me! Very fluent, very impressive.

I met an English girl at a friend's party, and she's been here for 3 years. Her Chinese is pretty good and very fast. She knows words that I don't know.

Ok, now I'm a Canadian-Born Chinese (CBC). And I already speak Chinese better than most Taiwanese CBCs, and I can argue that given my surroundings, I'm not expected to speak fluently. But when I come to Taiwan and see a lot of foreigners speaking better in my family tongue, should I be embarrassed or ashamed?