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Letter:

Loving cleanliness

Rick Chu (朱立熙) makes an important point that the Taiwanese need to adopt a conceptual change with regard to standards of cleanliness ("Taiwan should adopt Japan's love of cleanliness," June 12, page 9). It is a virtue that long should have been adopted, and now even more so, especially with the recent SARS outbreak.

But I'm not sure if Chu has convinced me that we should adopt what he repeatedly refers to as neurotic cleanliness unique to the Japanese people. As he mentions, this labeling of cleanliness as neurotic or uniquely Japanese has caused much resistance and backlash. In order to get people to buy into this conceptual change, we need to get past these labels. Chu's discussion remains steeped in these labels and limiting constructs.

Perhaps a more apt question is: What ever happened to the Taiwanese people's love of cleanliness, which was adopted during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Some Taiwanese may recall that during that period, everyone engaged in the annually celebrated ritual of a New Year's cleaning. With the coming of the New Year and its festivities came New Year's cleaning, much like what we call spring cleaning in North America. Out with the old and in with the new.

Houses were meticulously cleaned from top to bottom. Borough wardens inspected individual homes and issued special certificates of recognition for homes dutifully cleaned for the New Year. And families proudly displayed these certificates of honor.

Cleanliness is not necessarily a matter of national identity, though in Japan's case it may be. The Taiwanese need not emulate the Japanese; in fact some might take exception to this simply due to the historical relationship that Taiwan has with Japan.

Taiwan needs to simply focus on improving the quality of life of its residents. This can be done by adopting the virtues of cleanliness, orderliness and accountability. These are virtues that many developed nations adhere to in the interest of maintaining a healthy nation both literally and figuratively.

Felicia Lin
Kaohsiung
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