I agree with the editorial ("Waking up to Racist Sentiment," April 7, page 8) and particularly with the statement, "Unfortunately, the flexibility that the Han majority are able to exercise with regard to their identities turns into stiff inflexibility when they meet Others." Several recent experiences spring to mind.
A week ago, I attended a bible study group at an Aboriginal dormitory in Taipei. It included six Aborigines, an Indian, a Russian, a Canadian, my wife and a Presbyterian minister (both Taiwanese) and myself, an American. The minister asked us to bow our heads: "God bless Taiwan and all of its citizens," he suggested, "God bless the Aborigines, the Taiwanese, the Hakka, the Chinese who arrived here after 1949 and also the brides from the mainland." The 60,000 brides from Vietnam, 10,000 brides from Indonesia and 5,000 brides from Thailand were excluded from this prayer. I was also excluded. As the editorial puts it, we are simply the "Others."
On what is our "Otherness" based? Is it that we are the immigrants who have shown up within the last decade as opposed to 55 years ago or 350 years ago? Or is it racial?
As the minister continued to speak, he seemed to recall that Taiwan did have Southeast Asians in its midst. "Taiwan has 700,000 migrant workers from Southeast Asia. That's twice as many people as we have Aborigines in Taiwan," he explained. "It is up to the government to limit their numbers in order to protect jobs for future generations of Aborigines." This kind of attitude bothers me.
Would the minister speak to Taiwanese parishioners about the importance of preserving jobs in the labor sector? Does he assume Aboriginal youngsters will look for employment primarily as construction workers 20 years from now? We all know migrant workers do the work everyone else avoids. Besides being grossly underpaid for it, they are cheated and debased on a regular basis. If Taiwan needs a scapegoat, it should at least have the decency to choose one that is not suffering in such a despicable manner. When I encouraged the minister to hold higher expectations for future generations of Aborigines, he told me to be realistic. Not one of the individuals of Aboriginal descent seated around us, six university students, dared to correct him. They only nodded respectfully.
Last month, I heard the children of "mixed couples" as the editorial put it, those "who are not so easy to pigeonhole" described as "troublesome students" by no less than a university professor. I also agree when the editorial states "there is no question that Taiwan is a tolerant place." In many ways, it is. But try getting the 100,000 Taiwanese men who have "Others" for wives to believe it is 10 years from now, when their country is still treating their loved ones like second-class citizens. Try telling my wife. In a way, she belongs to the "Others" as well because she is married to "the foreigner."
Patrick Cowsill
Taipei
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