Monthly Archives: August 2010

Last month, young adults from around the world descended on Taiwan to participate in the Expatriate Youth Taiwan Summer Camp. The month-long camp combines educational classes, field trips and an island-wide tour of Taiwan. Organized and subsidized by Taiwan’s Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC), the program is a great bargain for young people (ages 16-27) who wish to experience something new, explore the island and perhaps learn about their own cultural roots.

Program nicknamed the Love Boat

Among the participants, the summer camp has been affectionately nicknamed the “Love Boat” because of the romantic attachments that often form during the program. Given the age group and its recreational setting, it is perhaps to be expected that fast forming friendships frequently lead to romance.

“By the end of week one, you could see people holding hands,” according to Scott Inouye, who participated in the program in the summer of 2005. And, while most of these fledgling relationships end a few weeks later, a few have resulted in marriage, Inouye said.

In Inouye’s year, there were about 200 young adults at each campus. Inouye was placed in the Chien Tan Campus, the preferred campus due to its proximity to Taipei’s vibrant nightspots, such as the Shilin Night Market. A typical day would begin with breakfast, followed by morning electives. After lunch, the group would go on a fieldtrip around Taipei. Then after dinner, the group would gather to see a cultural performance followed by free time. The last week and a half is usually reserved for the graduation trip around the island.

For Inouye, one of the most memorable occasions at that time was his first ride in a Taipei cab. As the taxi weaved through the city’s rather chaotic traffic, he frantically searched for a seat belt, only to realize, that there were none.

History of the program

Founded in 1967, the program is the longest running of its kind. Enrollments increased with Taiwan’s economic boom and with the lifting of martial law in 1987. By the early 1990s, the program was six-weeks long and catered to 1,200 international participants aged 18-23. Taiwan’s devastating earthquake in 1999 made parents more hesitant to send their kids on the program, but the program still continued every year, until 2003, when the island was hit by an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). That summer was the first time in 37 years that the program did not take place. Currently, besides the Expatriate Youth Taiwan Summer Camp, the OCAC also has three other programs for young adults. They include the Language Study Program for Expatriate Youth, the and the World Youth Hakka Culture Camp.

The OCAC accepts applications for the camps at the beginning of each year, usually with a deadline at the end of February. Applications are processed in Taiwan and almost all the literature about the program is in Chinese. However, participants usually hear about the program through word of mouth, from family or friends.

A bargain not to be missed

Participants in the Expatriate Youth camp usually pay their air fare along with a registration fee. This year, the registration fee was NT$20,000 (around US$625). The program is subsidized since the fee hardly covers the cost of transportation, food, lodging, and a wide selection of cultural classes.  As such, it is surely one of the best travel bargains around since the program gathers a wealth of resources and exposes   campers to a wide diversity of cultural performances, island-wide travel and offers  opportunities to socialized with other like-minded youths from around the world all in a  supervised environment.  Although the camps do have participants from Europe, Asia and elsewhere, the bulk of the campers come from the United States and Canada.

Inouye highly recommends the summer camp, and not just because the opportunity for romantic encounters. When he first applied to the program, he did so at the suggestion of his Chinese-American mother, who thought he might enjoy the experience. “I had never been aboard before then, but after that, I wanted to keep going back,” he recalls. He returned on subsequent OCAC programs in the summer of 2006 and 2008, when he enrolled in the Language Study program. The two programs are very similar, with the language program focusing on learning Mandarin Chinese.  But, Mandarin instruction is just one of many classes offered on the Expatriate Youth camp.

A trip down Memory Lane

Valerie Soe, an assistant professor of Asian-American studies at San Francisco State University, a documentary film maker, and an alumnus of the program from 1981, has long wanted to make a film about the camp.

When Soe experienced Taiwan it was way before its economic boom and while the island was still under martial law.  Her experience was very different to Inouye’s and more reflective of austere times.  Every morning, the counselors would bang on their doors to wake the campers up for the 6:30 am flag ceremony. Although there were language and cultural classes promoting a deeper understanding of Taiwan, the program also contained negative images of China and taught that the Republic of China was the legitimate government of China.

When asked to describe some of things she recalled from her time at the camp, Soe mentioned seeing a heartwarming film – a romance between a young couple who could not be together… because of Communism. This was an example of the subtle or not-so-subtle propaganda aimed toward them. In the early 1980s, the program had about 500 participants in Taipei. Despite the rules, which campers to this day try to evade, Soe’s generation were still very well-treated and given luxuries not afforded to the locals.  This was brought home to her as she and her fellow campers traveled around the island in air-conditioned buses.

According to Soe, the program was an interesting strategy to get into the minds of young people. “At 18 or 19, you don’t care about global politics,” Soe said. The participants just wanted to “hang out, dance and hook up.”

In 1994, Andrea Sui also participated in the summer program. She grew up around large Chinese and Taiwanese populations in the Bay Area, but her immediate neighborhood was Danville, California, where she grew up among mostly white kids. As such, she appreciated her experience. “It was valuable for me to learn about the culture. And I know people who are still close friends from that experience.”

That summer, she had just graduated from high school and was one of the younger members in the group. It was her first trip to Taiwan and also her first introduction to Taiwan’s flying insects. She also noticed the “Love Boat” aspect of the trip, where “a lot of the college graduates were looking to get together,” she recollects. 

Youth programs elsewhere

Other countries have similar programs, either organized by government, government-affiliated organizations or non-profits. By far, the largest of such programs is Taglit-Birthright Israel, a non-profit that seeks to heighten Jewish solidarity worldwide.  Since it began ten years ago, the program has sent 230,000 young people to Israel for 10-day trips, free-of-charge. Other smaller programs include the Irish Way (Irish American Cultural Institute) and the Ambassador Peter F. Secchia Voyage of Discovery Program (The National Italian American Foundation). Some of these programs are completely free while others charge up to US$5,000.  

Soe, Sui and Inouye fondly recall their experiences of the camp and their time in Taiwan and urge other young people not to miss the chance to experience a new country, a new culture, a new language, and make new friendships that may just last a lifetime.