Yes, this has been my experience also:

[S]uch preposterous remarks are often made about writers, academics, and
journalists who, like me, have made this part of the world their subject
matter, their expertise. I’ve heard them often enough to know that it
is an underlying current here. “You’re not Taiwanese, you cannot
understand how we think, our needs, or what is best for us.” It doesn’t
matter how long someone has been in Taiwan, or how thoroughly he or she
has integrated society, learned its language, or embraced its culture.
This is the “other” as perpetual outsider, as if understanding were not
the outcome of accumulated knowledge, but rather something that,
effortlessly, is acquired through one’s DNA. Unless you have Taiwanese
(and perhaps Chinese) blood flowing through your veins, you cannot
conceivably understand what it’s like to be a Taiwanese. (Similarly,
young Taiwanese who lived abroad for many years and who come back to
Taiwan often face this challenge, as if their Taiwanese essence was
somehow diluted by their foreign experience. They are no longer “real”
Taiwanese.) To hell with universalism: Sociologists, ethnologists,
political scientists, historians, linguists, philosophers,
anthropologists and all the others out there who specialize in this neck
of the woods, who have lived here for years, who obtained PhDs and
M.A.s and other advanced degrees; give it up, you’re wasting your time.
Your subject is ineffable, comprehensible only to those who were born on
this island.