02/12/2025
Taiwan has this wonderful way of blending the practical with the playful, and I keep stumbling into examples that make me smile.
For instance, receipts.
Back home, a receipt is… well, a receipt.
Here, every receipt comes with a QR code that enters you into a national lottery. You can buy a bubble tea and technically win NT$10 million. 🎉
(But only if you’re a resident, so not for me 😕)
It’s actually a clever system to encourage people to take receipts so businesses record their sales properly. But the best part is that it turns everyday life into something a bit fun. People genuinely check them every two months with a tiny bit of hope.
Then there are the green coconut-flavoured corn puffs. 🥥
I keep seeing these bright green bags perched on laptops, taxis, shop counters etc. At first, I thought everyone here was just really liked snacks!
Nope.
They’re a good luck charm.
The name means “be good,” so people put them on machines to keep them working smoothly. Servers, cash registers, cars; everything gets its own snack guardian.
I love this mix of innovation and superstition, wrapped in a sense of humour and warmth. It’s uniquely Taiwan.
And while I’m here delivering leadership training, I keep thinking about how culture isn’t just policies and performance plans. It’s the tiny things people do without thinking; the rituals, the jokes, the shared beliefs that make a place feel alive.
Feeling grateful to be here learning from it all… and occasionally eating the coconut puffs. 💚
