The latest meme in Taiwan - 雞胸男

雞胸男 - The chicken breast man

I'm currently in Taiwan on vacation - and what I've seen on the news is a great display of what news in Taiwan is all about. Let me explain why Taiwanese news is very different from the news I see in North America.

In Taiwan, news channels obviously talk about current events. The political stuff, the sad stuff, and the dangerous stuff. But there's one key distinction in Taiwanese news compared with the regular news I watch in Canada - and that is in storytelling. You see, in Taiwan, it doesn't matter what kind of news you get. The reporters tell it like a story kind of like you're watching a reality TV show. For example, with traffic accidents, you get real traffic footage of how an accident unfolded. When you see disputes in a convenience store, 8 hours later some reporter has obtained the CCTV footage from the store owners.

It makes it such that news reporting is covered so in-depth that you get detailed explanations of events that only police may have known.

Let me give an example:

The backstory is that this individual proposed to his girlfriend of 4 years. He, unfortunately, got turned down, and he walks into a convenience store hoping to get his chicken breasts (he is a bodybuilder). However, he goes there to realize that the convenience store has run out of chicken breasts. So he proceeds to throw a fit and knocks everything on the shelves off the aisle. The startled cashier quickly calls the police - who arrive to try to arrest him. But since this guy is a bodybuilder (and one who has won medals before at that), they aren't able to subdue him very quickly. After hitting the bodybuilder's head with police batons for a while, the bodybuilder finally stops and is cuffed - sitting in front of the convenience store. 

The entire dramatic event is caught on camera, and the Taiwanese dub him the Hulk of Taiwan. A lot of internet memes are also circulating showing a shirtless guy sitting in front of random stores such as Mcdonald's saying things like "No chicken nuggets".

Anyways, I just found that very interesting and it's just a display of what I like about Taiwan - the news and the funny memes that it creates. Although kind of serious - has become an internet sensation.