- Alex Teachey is a New Yorker who moved to Taiwan in 2020.
- He took a pay reduce to make the transfer and now makes lower than $40,000 a 12 months.
- Even so, he stated, he is aware of he made the correct alternative.
This as-told-to essay is predicated on a dialog with Alex Teachey, a 38-year-old astronomer and New Yorker who moved to Taiwan in 2020. This essay has been edited for size and readability. Insider verified his wage and bills.
I’d been residing in New York since I used to be eighteen. I moved there to check a level in theater at New York University, earlier than later pivoting in the direction of a profession in astronomy by beginning a PhD in 2015.
After graduating from Columbia University in 2020, I began making use of for postdoctoral positions globally. I landed my present job as a postdoctoral fellow on the Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, that very same 12 months.
It meant a pay reduce, which is a rarity for US grad college students, who usually make considerably extra after their PhD. I used to be making barely over $40,000 a 12 months earlier than taxes as a grad scholar. I took greater than a ten% pay reduce to maneuver to Taiwan.
Still, I do not remorse the transfer and am now centered on staying in Taipei. Here’s why.
I fell in love with Taipei after transferring right here on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York
Alex Teachey
New York City was hit onerous by the pandemic, and residing there at first of 2020 was a scary time — it was like a ghost city stuffed with the noise of ambulance sirens.
When I arrived in Taiwan in September 2020, I felt like a prisoner for the 2 weeks I used to be in quarantine, however life after that was principally again to regular.
That was an actual jolt coming straight from New York City.
But it wasn’t simply the way in which Taipei dealt with the pandemic, it is how way more secure, purposeful, and clear the town feels compared to NYC.
Every New Yorker is aware of there are a lot of locations within the metropolis the place you’d really feel susceptible strolling by way of, however I really feel secure strolling down any road at any time of day in Taipei.
And if Google Maps informed me it’d take half-hour to get someplace in New York, I’d allocate an hour due to how unreliable the subway is. In Taipei, the identical estimate usually means arriving early.
Though I solely began studying Mandarin after accepting the job provide, I’ve discovered it very easy to assimilate, as persons are extraordinarily pleasant right here.
Right now, determining a method to proceed to remain right here after my postdoctoral place ends has turn into my high precedence.
Why I do not want greater than $40,000 a 12 months to thrive in Taipei
Alex Teachey
When I first obtained the job provide to come back to Taiwan, I believed: Wow, this wage is actually low. But after residing right here for 3 years, I can safely say it is sufficient to reside comfortably on in Taipei.
I reside in a three-bedroom house on my own — it is a fourth-floor walk-up constructed within the Seventies, a typical Taiwanese household dwelling. I pay round $800 in lease for it.
It’s in a neighborhood that I really like, in New Taipei City, the large donut that sprawls across the middle of Taipei. I reside a 20-minute bike trip from my workplace — I by no means might have have afforded something remotely comparable if I’d stayed in New York City.
Other than lease, the opposite massive chunk of my bills comes from meals. My sense of what counts as an costly meal has modified quite a bit: Here, my lunches price between 100 to 200 Taiwan {dollars}, or between $3 to $6.
If I spent 500 Taiwan {dollars} on a meal, I’d really feel like: Wow, it is my birthday. And that is lower than what I might spend on a Chipotle in New York.
One massive problem that I’ve confronted although, is that while you journey out of Taiwan, you actually do really feel how low your wages are compared to the remainder of the world.
The primary false impression about Taiwan is that we’re all the time beneath siege
Alex Teachey
In normal, I really feel like people within the US do not know sufficient about Taiwan.
Some individuals I’ve spoken to are anxious about coming right here due to geopolitical threats.
When I first moved right here, I paid shut consideration to what number of Chinese navy planes have been getting into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, every day. I felt like possibly I had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fireplace.
I do not know when precisely it switched, however at a sure level, I noticed loads of it’s simply background noise. The menace is actually actual, however now we have to go about our lives, and we do.
November 15, 12:49 p.m. SGT: This story has been up to date to make clear Teachey’s response to geopolitical threats in Taiwan.
