IN A LAND where business is almost literally worshipped and relationships are oftentimes precarious and fleeting, many Filipinos who work in Taiwan still find escape by way of entertainment as the best way to cope with the pains of homesickness. They rent and swap tapes, sing in karaoke bars, play computer games, read rented Pinoy comics and magazines, hang around malls and tell each other funny and sad stories about home.

These seemingly life-of-Riley and hedonistic attitudes continue to puzzle other expatriates whose workaholic streaks and materialistic whims dictate their cross-cultural lives. Yet to most Filipinos, real or imagined hedonism should not be misconstrued for complacency. This is an additional factor to their high survival quotient.

Another factor is humor. During the Sept. 21 earthquake when most Taiwanese and other foreigners ran and prayed for their dear lives, a Filipina, still in a nervous daze told her companion: "D'yos ko, di man lang ako nakapagsuklay at nakapag-lipstick! Baka mamaya, and'yan ang CNN, makikita ako sa Pilipinas na ganito ang itsura ko!" (My God, I didn't even have the time to comb my hair and apply lipstick. Any moment, CNN might be here and I might be seen in the Philippines looking like this!)

Being veterans of tragedies and natural calamities, Filipinos working in Taiwan have managed to survive the catastrophes, labor and political "heat" that continue to threaten their peaceful existence.

But survival in this tiny but economically rich island also has its intrinsic merits. While you attempt to seek forms of entertainment to escape the routine of work, you sometimes inadvertently stumble into a cultural melange that would sharpen your learning curves and enrich your appreciation of your roots.

Movie watching, for one, is an expensive activity in Taiwan. Ticket prices range between $NT150 to $NT250 per movie, depending on the film and type of theater where the movie is shown. This is almost five times more expensive than movie watching in the Philippines. True enough, it is not surprising to see only six people watching a box office film like "The Sixth Sense" in a quaint, cozy theater in Taipei. Still, Filipinos queue up for Hollywood blockbusters every now and then, although not as often as they used to back home. And they all confess to miss watching Tagalog films so much.

Trust Filipinos to search for alternatives. In Hsinshir, a little town south of Taiwan, some Filipinos are renting out tapes of old Tagalog movies and TV shows. For a few Taiwan dollars, for example, old episodes of "ASAP," "Jullie" or "SOP," complete with commercials, can be rented overnight. A Filipino worker even swears that, early this year, ABS-CBN's coverage of the Richard Gomez-Lucy Torres wedding (which was shown in the Philippines several years ago) still sold like hotcakes.

Pirated CDs of Pinoy music also adorn many record bars and convenience stores. Martin Nievera's "Forever" and its sequel, "Forever, Forever," which is sold at P450 in the Philippines, can be bought here for only $NT99 per copy. Ditto for albums of artists like Ariel Rivera, Kuh Ledesma, Jaya, Regine Velasquez, Sharon Cuneta, Side A, Lloyd Umali, Zsa Zsa Padilla and many bands. Most of these CDs even have lyric sheets, while their original copies back home don't. With the advent of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which supposedly enforces stricter copyright laws, it is a wonder how these pirated CDs are slowly mushrooming in this country.

There are some shops that do sell original Filipino CDs. In Taipei, legitimate copies of Lea Salonga's "Lea in Love" can be bought for $NT500, while in Taiwan, a huge poster of Regine Velasquez complete with Chinese characters describing her music, is displayed in a corner of a record store.

Only a small percentage of the more than 200,000 Filipinos working in Taiwan have white-collar jobs. They have greater access to the Internet and can read news, chat and send e-mail all over the world. The less fortunate still rely on scribbling letters, reviving the romantic, forgotten art of letter writing.

But in the process, some Filipinos say, their overseas exposure have somehow transformed them into more mature patrons of popular media. Years of watching CNN, HBO and National Geographic have raised their standards of viewing entertainment, so much so, that they find some Pinoy shows on cable laughable. They are cut-and-dried, bread-and-circus features which lack substance and weight. Similarly, their continuous exposure to Chinese and European cinema has opened their eyes to another world of film, very far from the linear, formulaic and glossy styles of Hollywood.

This newfound maturity and acculturation, however, has taken a long gestation period. In part, the Filipinos' physical detachment from their country has made them more aware of what's happening around the world. Some even become staunch advocates of burning global concerns like labor issues, environmental degradation and human rights. This, plus an infusion of oriental, european and western influences, have made the overseas Pinoy a more sophisticated appreciator of culture.

Often, without knowing it, some Filipino overseas workers have become erudite travelers. During their days off or on official holidays, they explore museums, sample snake soup at the night market, watch Chinese opera, scour Buddhist temples, eat Schezuan and Cantonese food with chopsticks and even learn to speak Taiwanese or Mandarin.

But at night, they gather themselves in dormitories and play chess, mahjong or "tong-its." Some re-read old Pinoy comics or magazines, while others watch old tapes of Bong Revilla or Nora Aunor starrers. Sometimes, they play minus-one tapes of songs by Sharon Cuneta and Gary Valenciano and imitate the singing styles of the famous Pinoy singers they sorely miss.

Arlene, 26, a Filipina domestic worker in Taichung articulates her longing for home: "Malungkot lalo na kapag Pasko, pero may magagawa pa ba kami? E, di pagkatapos ng iyakan, kantahan na lang at saka manonood ng TV o sine." (It's lonely, especially at Christmas, but can we do anything about it? After crying, we just sing or watch TV or movies.)"