Taiwan - Strange Place For A Clutterbuck

Clutterbuck's find themselves in many places accross the globe, most of them however in former colonies. One Clutterbuck finds himself as a new generation of pioneering Clutterbuck, Dale Clutterbuck (me) in Taiwan. Here's a picture of the said pioneer in his working clothes.

Taiwan, just to avoid confusion, is not Thailand. It is a little island off the coast of Mainland China (no, not Hong Kong). Many people actually wouldn't know where Taiwan is, so let me show you a bigger picture of the island that I now call home.



Now if you are looking on the map, it's somewhere below Japan and above the Phillipines. Look closely though because if you blink you may just miss it.

Are we still Clutterbuck's in Taiwan?

My family and I, as far as Taiwan is concerned, now have "Chinese" names, and as such do not exist as Clutterbuck's. We are known by the family name 柯 (Ke) pronounced like the "cur" in curtain. (Here's a picture of the Chinese character for our name.)


Who are "we"?

Dale, Jennifer (Jing Fang), and Joshua - child no.2 arriving May 2005


Jennifer and Dale


Joshua

Just who is Dale Clutterbuck?

I am a New Zealander, born and raised in Christchurch. Son of Frank Victor and Yvonne Margaret (nee Cooper) Clutterbuck. Born in 1975.

So, tell us about the Taiwan adventure.

I began my Taiwan adventure back in March 1999, when I came for a planned 6 month trip. That trip extended to one year, and that one year has been extended to going on 6 years.

I touched down in Taiwan barely with any survival Chinese at all, besides a few basic greetings, the ability to read pinyin, and a Chinese dictionary; I was completely unprepared for what awaited me. The air trip was a long one, 19 hours to Gaoxiong city in southern Taiwan, where I was to be met by friends of a Taiwanese family that I knew from Christchurch. I have to admit that the hot climate and humidity was a real shock to the system, imagine if you will the reverse of the weather from the airport scene in “Cool Runnings” and that is about what it was like for me.

The next day I found myself in the town were I would spend my days up until the present day. Tachia (Da Jia), a little town in Taichung county, Central Taiwan. Not a bad little town at all. Home of the famous Mazhu festival. It was there that I began my teaching career, almost immediately as it happened.

I have taught everything from kindergarten to adults and corporate English for one of the biggest bike companies in the world. I’ve taught in Junior High, with classes up to 50 students all wanting conversation classes. Sometimes what the Taiwanese want and what is realistic is so unbelievable, but that’s another story.

Finally, I have ended up as Director of a language school and English director for a network of schools.

It was here that I met my wife, and here where our son, Joshua, was born. August 2001 saw the arrival of Joshua into the world, as far as I know, the first Taiwanese born Clutterbuck, although he goes by his Chinese name here.

If you have any questions about Taiwan or Clutterbuck's in Taiwan, please contact us. If you know of any other Clutterbuck's in Taiwan or that have been here, please let us know too.