'Love Boat' tour program is about more than study

Jay Su had to travel 12,000 kilometres to find his true love.

At first, the Oakville resident refused to visit his native land, where his parents were born. But at their insistence, he went on a summer study tour to Taiwan in 2001 to reacquaint himself with a culture that was always present but still somewhat foreign.

Little did he know that he would end up with his girlfriend of three years and a realization of just how Canadian he was.

Su's is a classic "Love Boat" story.

Every summer, a group of overseas Taiwanese travel across the Pacific to the tropical island off China's coast to drink bubble tea, learn Chinese calligraphy and order fried squid at local restaurants.

The four-week program is nicknamed "Love Boat," not because it's held on a boat, but after the popular television show that ran from 1977-86, with its reputation for romantic encounters and hookups. Many in the program have come back with partners and some even marry, participants say.

About 65 Taiwanese Canadians from Greater Toronto just returned from the Taiwan study tour last week, sponsored by the Taiwanese government.

Su, now 22, met his girlfriend, Fabienne S., 22, who was born in France, in the first week of the program at Keelung. They've been together in a long-distance relationship ever since.

"It's for overseas Chinese youth to go to Taiwan to know their culture and people," said Connie Yeh, the trip's organizer for eastern Canada at Toronto's Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, the unofficial Taiwanese link to Canada.

"Some people go to find out more about their parents' heritage. And some of them end up getting married."

While on the trip, about one-third "have a summer romance at any level," said Pierre Wu, who went in 1991 and is the president of click2asia.com, a personals website for Asian Americans.

Yeh offers a more conservative estimate: "About 10 to 15 per cent do find someone there."

Wu sees the trip as one of self-realization, where he rediscovered his roots after growing up in Ohio. "There's a good majority that are from an area where there's not a lot of Asians. And they go (to Taiwan) and it's like, `Wow!' ... It's all Asians," he explained.

"I have a better appreciation of where my parents are coming from," he added. "During the short-term, you think `Love Boat,' but then you appreciate your culture."

When the young people arrive on the island, they sometimes realize just how different their mentality is having grown up in North America, Wu said.

"Being more Western is something that you can tell ... the way that you are dressed as well as the kind of look," said Wu, who was born in Montreal.

"When you're overseas you want to have a great summer," he added. "People tend to go out to nightclubs. When you're 24/7 with each other, that exudes an atmosphere that exudes romance."

Vivienne Hsu, 23, who grew up in England, lived in Etobicoke with her parents and now calls downtown Toronto home, also met Su on the trip three years ago.

"I lived in a white, WASPy neighbourhood. The high school I went to didn't have many Asians," said Hsu, who works in advertising — not the kind of job, she said, that Asian parents often support.

"The people I met (in Taiwan) were Asian and had similar value systems. When I went on Love Boat, people were very similar. They weren't super-traditional Chinese but had certain traditions" that weren't found in the West, she said, such as a greater respect for their elders.

Until this year, the participants spent half the time in Taipei, the country's capital, and the other near the ocean in Keelung. After that, they went on a nine-day tour of the island.

This year, they say the program is more tour-oriented.

They take calligraphy and language classes, and visit museums, cultural sites and amusement parks, while trying out the local cuisine.

At night it's a different story. Eleven o'clock is supposed to be when the bed check takes place, but many of them sneak out of the program's building for an evening in the club district.

"We've snuck out a few times," Hsu said. "The counsellors check on you at 11 and you're supposed to be in bed. But then we'd get up to sneak out again."

Some have climbed down pipes and even scaled walls to leave in the waiting cabs just outside their complex, Wu said.

"They used to chase you and stuff. There's not much they could do," Hsu said.

The program, which began in 1966, drew 250 foreign-born Taiwanese in its first summer. Taiwan has hoped to attract some of the best and brightest from around the world to help promote the island, especially after it lost its United Nations membership in 1971 to mainland China.

The program was cancelled in 2003 because of the SARS outbreak but was revived this year.

Some participants have gone on to successful careers. Past participants have included Garrett Wang, who played Ensign Harry Kim on Star Trek: Voyager; Judy Chu, former mayor of Monterey Park, Calif. and currently a state senator; and Michael Woo, a former Los Angeles mayoral candidate.

There are hundreds of "Love Boat"-related websites, many of them personal home pages of past participants.

Annual reunions are held in several cities, from Vancouver to Los Angeles.

Su plans to reunite with his girlfriend this summer in China, where she is now living. She hopes to one day move to Canada, he said.

"It's probably the best experience you can have," Su said. "I grew up in Oakville and there are not many Asians. There's so many people like you (at Love Boat). Whenever I met a group of Asian people, I never thought I could be close friends with them. But I think I just lived in Oakville for too long."