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EDITORIAL: Faulty science and faulty politics

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.
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