It's off to work we go

Here's a lazy stereotype; people in the 'East' are diligent, committed and hard-working, whereas people in the 'West' are decadent, louche layabouts who wouldn't know hard graft if it gave them a lengthy and tedious lecture on the subject. The hypothesis for this differing work ethic? It's the food, stupid.

Us whiteys, you see, have an excuse (don't we always?). Our forefathers grew wheat. Our society is founded on the principles of feast and fallow - a seasonal work pattern. We're used to being able to goof off for most of the year.

In Asia, their forefathers grew rice. Rice is a needy, insecure crop, requiring constant attention. As a result, Asian society is geared more toward a relentless grind, with long work hours and barely any national holidays.

Whatever the theory behind it, there's some truth in the stereotype here in Taiwan. People are putting in work here. Well, Taiwanese people are. Westerners are generally staying true to form, larking about and doing not-very-much.

The average Taiwanese worker puts in a 10-hour day, 6 days a week. No plaudits here for the 60-hour hero. Especially since those are the hours of a softy office worker. If you run a restaurant or a shop, your nose is pressed to the grindstone way longer than that. Most shops are open here until 10 or 11pm. And Christ knows when my betel-nut chewing cabbie last had 40 winks.

If I was in any doubt that the Taiwanese put a shift in, it was confirmed when I found myself drunkenly urinating in the men's facilities of a music festival in Kenting at 4am, while three fellows gave the entire lavatory a scrub up and hose down. If nothing else, it was nice to end an inebriated toilet trip with wet feet and know it might not be my own handy work.

And when the time comes for me to return to the UK, I hope I remember that we have it pretty good in Britain. Our forefathers in the labour movement definitely gave us one thing to be thankful for – 20 days of annual leave and some stonking bank holidays. Keep the red flag flying high...