Forget `mainland'
Call Taiwan, Taiwan? ... how about first calling the other side by its name, the real one.
Although I really wanted to go to the demonstration in favor of changing and recognizing the true name of this country, Taiwan, I did not. The reason is that because I do not carry a Republic of China passport and in the end I considered it a bit weird to assist. This is something that should be decided by the Taiwanese themselves.
But before any change is possible, the Taiwanese (and foreigners too) need to change their mind set. In some way we all have been brainwashed. I hate that in every newspaper, radio or TV news program, government organization and even among average people (including hardcore pro-independence ones) there is an excessive and irritating use of the word "mainland" (
There is no such country as the "Mainland" -- except for those people who live on an island and recognize that they politically belong to a country whose main territory is on the mainland. That is what it means: main [principal] and land [territory].
Those who believe that Taiwan is not a part of China should refrain in using this term, both in English and Chinese. Mainland women (大陸妹) are Chinese women, mainland people (大陸人) are Chinese and the mainland (大陸) is the "People's Republic of China." This is the real name of that big country that so proudly and openly squeezes and denies any international recognition to this island called Taiwan.
If we continue using "mainland," we are just helping to extend the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) pro-China brainwashing of the 1950s to 1990s. The Mainland Affairs Council should become The Council for the Relations with the People's Republic of China and so on.
If you do not agree with the idea that Taiwan is an island that is part of the PRC, then it is time to stand up and call the PRC by its own name. Then you can begin to realize who you are, what is your identity, where you belong to and so on.
The greatest dangers for Taiwanese identity, like this one, are disguised and look harmless in appearance, but run deep in the social body and with their omnipresence prevents the Taiwanese people from discovering their identity.
Francisco Carin Garcia
Taishan, Taipei County
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