Though ethnic issues in Taiwan are highly sensitive and emotional, a seminar attended by scholars and lawmakers yesterday shows that a rational and serious discussion on the matter is possible.
While Taiwanese people are talking about ethnic reconciliation, a high-ranking Hakka official said yesterday that reconciliation must not come at the price of a minority group's culture.
"Minority ethnic groups can only accept equality, goodwill and mutual respect, not ethnic integration," said Executive Yuan Hakka Committee member Yang Chang-chen (
For minority groups, ethnic integration (族群融合) implies their complete absorption by an overwhelming majority.
In a bid to bridge gaps and promote rational dialogue between ethnic groups, the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan (台灣促進和平基金會) organized a seminar in which officials and scholars with different ethnic origins took part.
The conference began with a skit in which Chinese, Hakka, Tai-wanese Aborigines, foreigners, Hokklo people and foreign laborers pointed their fingers at each other for promoting negative stereotypes of various ethnic groups.
In the skit the mainland Chinese were stereoptyped as being "hypocritical and cunning," Hakka people as "selfish and stingy," the Hokklo people as "stupid and vulgar," while the Taiwanese Aborigines were portrayed as "lazy and alcoholic."
As a Taiwanese Aborigine, outgoing DPP legislator Payen Talu (巴燕達魯) complained that, for a long time, under whatever regime, Taiwanese Aborigines have never gained respect or received enough resources from the government.
"In our textbooks, there is not a single word to illustrate the culture of Taiwanese Aborigines. As a result of this, ethnic identity has become a serious problem among Aborigines."
Payen Talu said the reason why he joined the DPP was because he wanted to get involved in the process of Taiwan's democratization. "I don't want the Aborigines to be absent in this process," Payen Talu said.
However, Payen Talu lost in the Dec.1 election and blamed his defeat on the division of the Aborigines into subgroups, which jeopardized the chances of stronger candidates getting elected. "The Aborigines are pushed to the periphery in all fields of Taiwanese society," Payen Talu said.
Yang said that the Mandarin-language movement pushed by the KMT since 1949 has oppressed the Hakka language.
"Only when such historical pain is understood can reconciliation be possible," Yang said.
But, "if every ethnic group focuses only on its own pain, reconciliation cannot be accomplished," Yang said.
Ng Chiautong (黃昭堂), chairman of the World United Formosans for Independence, said the impression that his group cannot tolerate ethnic differences was not true.
Ng said that what really causes stress in the Taiwanese independence movement is the issue of national identity, rather than ethnic identity.
"People who identify themselves with Taiwan are our friends, and those who identify with the People's Republic of China are our enemies," Ng said. For Ng, there are only two ethnic groups in Taiwan -- Chinese and Taiwanese.
Kuo Li-hsin (郭力昕), a lecturer in the Department of Radio and Television at National Chengchi University, said that it is only through respecting ethnic differences that various ethnic groups can live together peacefully.
Kuo said that, as a second-generation mainlander, he believes the first step in reconciliation is "for the mainlanders to admit their original sin (原罪) and the wounds the mainlanders inflicted on indigenous Taiwanese people in the past."
"We have to face our original sin and develop a self-examination mechanism in our mind. Then the bias and discrimination can be removed," Kuo added.
Chiang Wen-yu (
Chiang stressed that the media in Taiwan have created three false images. The first is the image of Taiwan as being a disastrous society -- through broadcasting horrible images on TV 24 hours a day. The second is to exaggerate the importance of Taipei by ignoring other places in Taiwan. The third is the exaggeration of Beijing's influence by constantly broadcasting Chinese officials' threats to Taiwan.
"These factors become a bone of contention among different ethnic groups during election periods," Chiang said.
The scholar concluded that the media is responsible for for exacerbating ethnic conflict.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
RSS