As the nation celebrates Youth Day today in commemoration of the dozens of young patriots who sacrificed their lives for the birth of a new country more than a century ago, Taiwanese should also be proud of today’s young people, who, in some ways, are even more courageous than their predecessors and perhaps deserve their own Youth Day.
Youth Day was designated in memory of the more than 80 revolutionaries killed in the Huanghuagang Uprising (also known as the “Yellow Flower Mound Uprising”) on April 27, 1911. The uprising failed, but eventually led to the Xinhai Revolution later that year that overthrew the Qing Dynasty and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC).
In the past century, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime in Taiwan has advocated the spirit of the “72 martyrs” — only 72 bodies were identified in the aftermath of the failed uprising — using their patriotic act to inspire young people.
Let us first put aside the potential argument that some, staunch Taiwan independence supporters in particular, might raise about the relationship between the ROC and Taiwan, and how young Taiwanese nowadays could relate to and find motivation in the bravery of the martyrs across the Taiwan Strait more than 100 years ago: For them to die for what they believed in was truly admirable.
However, times have changed. Barring military conflicts and wars, it would be difficult for young people today to imagine that they would have to give up their lives to safeguard their country.
Born in the post-Martial Law era, they could be inspired by Deng Nan-jung’s (鄭南榕) self-immolation and death for freedom of speech and democracy, yet they probably could not imagine themselves having to do the same thing to fight an authoritarian regime, because Taiwan without democracy is the furthest thing from their minds.
While many see young people today as the “strawberry generation,” a group that is spoiled and selfish, who do not work hard and do not care, they have shown they do care about what is happening around them and when they have the determination, they work very hard.
Perhaps because they were born in a democratic era and “take democracy for granted,” these young people value equality, freedom and justice more than their predecessors, which is why, in the past two years, they have fought against injustice and the things they believe jeopardize the world in which they live.
They fought in Losheng (樂生), Huaguang (華光) and Wenlin Yuan (文林苑) against mandatory demolition by the government, as well as against the Miramar Resort in Taitung and Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co’s plans to build a chemical plant in Changhua County, projects that could endanger the environment.
They marched in the streets against monopolization of the media and besieged government buildings not once, but many times, vowing to make their voices heard.
In some ways, young people have taken on the spirit of the 72 martyrs and the ideology the former authoritarian regime bestowed upon Taiwanese with its slogan: “This is your country; save it by yourself.”
Some of them may go into politics, some may work for civic groups, while others will simply become fathers, mothers and employees who work in fields unrelated to advocacy. However, it seems very likely that they will be citizens who care and try to change the world for the better.
If young people keep doing what they are doing, they could be the first generation since the late 1980s to bring about epoch-making changes to Taiwan.
That would be a movement everyone can relate to and, perhaps, they deserve a Youth Day of their own.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past