Lost in transit

Age

I've been living in Taiwan for well over a decade now, but it was only about half a year ago that I caught on to the fact that most Taiwanese add two years to their age, and not one. Most of the time, that is, because nothing here is as simple as it seems.

Here's how it works: you're one year old when you enter this world, credit for time spent in the womb. Then, at Chinese New Year's -- or the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, take your pick -- which falls anywhere between late January and early March depending on the moon, but mostly some time in February, you enter a new year, and you then add another year to your age. So if you were born in August 1980, you would have turned a Western 24 and a Taiwanese 25 in August last year. You will then turn 26 on February 9 which is the first day of the new year this time around, even though you would be 24 until August according to the Western reckoning. So for six months, you would be adding two years to your age.

This kind of counting is apparently still commonly used here in Taiwan, but I only realized it when someone I knew to be a couple of months older than me gave his age as being two years older. Depending on whether articles in the English-language press here are written by a Westerner or a Taiwanese, the same person may very well be given different ages.

So do I these days. I have lived here long enough now that I give my Western age when speaking English or Swedish, but my Chinese age when I speak Chinese, and I now add two years instead of one. At least some of the time.