Anyone with a minimal understanding of democratic values and the ethnic diversity of this country would shy away from promoting ethnic nationalism. But Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) is apparently not one of them.
“One consensus between the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT is that both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait are all yan huang zisun [炎黃子孫, descendents of emperors Yan and Huang] and shoulder a common responsibility to revive Chinese culture,” Wu said in a speech at Nanjing University in China on Sunday.
“We belong to the same culture, and such is the might that glues the relations between the two sides of the Strait that it cannot be obliterated,” he said.
Wu said both sides of the Strait would use Chinese culture as the foundation to promote cross-strait exchanges and integration in areas such as education, academics, sports and arts and to “enhance the common existence and pride of [the Chinese] nation.”
Wu’s speech reveals a pride in Han Chinese “superiority” as well as a lack of understanding of Taiwan’s diverse culture.
Wu must be unaware that a genetic study by Marie Lin (林媽利), director of Mackay Memorial Hospital’s immunohematory reference laboratory, suggests that although only 1.5 percent of people in Taiwan are Aborigines, 85 percent of Hoklo and Hakka in Taiwan are genetically linked to Austronesians through hundreds of years of intermarriage with Aborigines.
Aside from a history of colonization by Dutch, Spanish and Japanese that has left its own mark, this nation consists of Hoklo, Hakka and Aborigines along with a growing population of immigrants from Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Indonesia and many other countries. National Immigration Agency statistics show that one out of eight newlywed couples are cross-border couples and one out of four newborns have an immigrant parent.
“Chinese culture” is undeniably one part of Taiwan’s culture today, but Taiwan has created a culture that is rich and diverse.
In 2007, then-premier Yu Shyi-kun coined the term “Chinese Taiwanese” to describe Taiwanese of Han ethnicity. Then-KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attacked Yu, accusing him of harming ethnic harmony.
“How cruel are they to continue their attempts to divide instead of pursuing unity,” Ma said at the time.
Ma’s failure to chide Wu for neglecting the other ethnic components of Taiwan’s diverse culture should come as no surprise given the KMT’s reputation for double standards.
Wu also described what he said was a trend in Taiwan to eliminate all references and links to Chinese culture. But Wu told his Chinese audience that such an effort would never succeed because it went against mainstream opinion.
Wu got it wrong once again. There is no groundswell for eliminating all Chinese influence in Taiwan, simply efforts to reduce the over-riding role given to it during the KMT’s authoritarian era, just as there have been bids to limit the KMT’s linkage of the party to the state.
The ultimate goal of exalting Han blood ties between Taiwan and China is unification.
Taiwan is Taiwan, not China. Taiwanese take pride in their unique cultural blend. Taiwan’s future must be democratically determined by its people, not considered a foregone conclusion because of the racially conceived “China-centric” view of the KMT.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
On Monday, the day before Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) departed on her visit to China, the party released a promotional video titled “Only with peace can we ‘lie flat’” to highlight its desire to have peace across the Taiwan Strait. However, its use of the expression “lie flat” (tang ping, 躺平) drew sarcastic comments, with critics saying it sounded as if the party was “bowing down” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Amid the controversy over the opposition parties blocking proposed defense budgets, Cheng departed for China after receiving an invitation from the CCP, with a meeting with
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
RSS