Why learn about Southeast Asia? Let me start with my own experience. I came to Taiwan to study in 2010 from Malaysia. I have lived in Taiwan for 12 years, and the New Southbound Policy started in 2016. As far as my observation is concerned, in the year or two before 2016, due to the increasingly close exchanges between Taiwan and Southeast Asia, the new residents and the new second generation (there were no such terms and concepts at that time) had become an
ethnic group that was difficult to ignore in Taiwanese photo restoration service society. The issue of Southeast Asia is also fermenting among the people, but the New Southbound Policy has come to an end, prompting Taiwanese society to pay more attention to Southeast Asia. 2016 is my 6th year in Taiwan, and my journey in Taiwan is exactly halfway through. Taking this year as a watershed, the most obvious feeling is that after the implementation of the New Southbound Policy, a voice appeared in Taiwanese society.
Tell yourself a bit self-critically, "Sorry, we don't know much about Southeast Asia." To be honest, although I am from Southeast Asia, do the people living in Malaysia know a lot about the neighboring ASEAN countries? In fact, not necessarily. Perhaps many Malaysian Chinese have more deeply rooted stereotypes and discrimination against Thais and Indonesians. In my education, no one ever told me: "Malaysians must understand Taiwan", so I would not ask Taiwanese friends: "Taiwanese must understand Southeast Asia".