Just completed my first SFO-TPE trip in three years. Had mandarin speaking flight attendants - most of them from Taiwan, one was from Hong Kong. In the past the Asia-based FAs were always great, those based in BKK, HKG, SIN, TPE, NRT. Even after they closed the TPE base, the many FAs continued to serve UA by transferring to NRT. I came to know more than two dozens of them.
This time, we flew SFO-TPE UA871 on 11/6. Almost the entire FA crew was speaking the Taiwanese version of mandarin. Everyone was indifferent. I don't care whether anyone recognized my GS status, but I was surprised that they all seemed unable to smile (may be with one or two exceptions). Most of them were just robots. A somewhat heavy FA in her 40-50s (not sure whether the purser) was very efficient, quickly conducted all predeparture routines - closing overhead bins etc,, but in such a way she almost pushed a few standing passengers out of her way or into their seats, The return flight TPE-SFO UA872 had half Caucasian and half Asian FAs, it was not better, although one older Caucasian gentleman FA was nice enough that he did not seem to react like I was bothering him.