Foreign professional observations on interpersonal relationships in cities like Taipei.

As someone who travels a lot, I believe I keep an open mind and try to be in tune with my surroundings. Coming from the US, being in tech and finance circles there was at times a toxic environment which later became known as “Flexing”. It is a global problem found in many cities around the globe but not as much in Taiwan until relatively recently. Flexing is part of a trend of slowly devaluing personal relationships and people while focusing on materialism and accumulation of assets.

I began seeing more of this troubling trend in my time in Taiwan and you dear reader can consider this article a cautionary tale based on my observations coupled with my experiences.

Flexing is also known as consumerism. It is a beast with an unlimited appetite and a trail of unhappy hearts left behind it. The symptoms include a fixation on social status, superficiality, materialism, IG and brands. All of these have warped relationships between people and the damage is already apparent throughout the world.

Taiwan is no exception . There is a decline in cohabitation, a decline in marriages (The number of marriages in Taiwan dropped in 2020 to a low over one decade according to the Ministry of Interior — MOI) and a decline in birthrate as…