Women air ethnicity woes

Kang Ping (康萍), the wife of Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), said yesterday that middle-aged mainlander's sense of language superiority has in part contributed to the lack of interaction between them and other ethnic groups in Taiwan.

"Due to the policies enforced in the early days [by the KMT], the majority of the so-called mainlanders, especially those who are 40 to 50 years old, tend to think that they are somewhat superior than other ethnic groups in Taiwan because they speak standard Mandarin and express themselves well in literary writings," said Kang, who was born in Shanghai, and came to Taiwan with her family when she was four.

Kang speaking at a panel discussion held by the League of Taiwan Women (台灣女人連線). The panel was held to offer a platform for female representatives from Taiwan's four main ethnic groups to present women's childhood experiences from the perspectives of their respective ethnic groups.

Kang the mainlanders' group while Laura Huang (黃月桂), the wife of DPP mayoral candidate Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), represented the Taiwanese, whose Fujian ancestors moved to Taiwan as far back as 400 years ago.

Aboriginal Yaru, of the Amis tribe, spoke for the Aborigines while Liu Yu-hsiu (劉毓秀), professor of the Foreign Language Department at National Taiwan University, talked about Hakka ethnicity.

Kang that policies of the early days, which included the prohibition on speaking Taiwanese, had widened the gulf between the mainlanders and others.

"And as a result, it has not been easy for many mainlanders, to establish a sense of national recognition toward Taiwan," she said.

She also expressed regret that she didn't have a chance to learn how to speak Taiwanese well.

Huang that because she married a Hakka and her brother married a mainlanders, she does not think about ethnic differences.

"I personally think that there are not many differences from one ethnic group to another," Huang said. "I feel that the ethnic fault line is often exploited only when elections are near."

Noting often the mobilization of voters along ethnic divisions are more apparent with mainlanders than that with Taiwanese, Huang asked the audience to think about who is really trying to create ethnic tension in Taiwan.

Speaking Aboriginal women, Yaru said that Aborigines don't have much of a concept of national identity because tribal ties take precedence over nationalism.

"Don't get me wrong, for I am not denying that there is a nation," she said. "What I mean is that to us [Aborigines], Taiwan is our tribe-at-large, Taiwan is our home and we regard people of other ethnic groups as our brothers and sisters."

Yaru that all those who came later to the land had forgotten their role as guest to the land and that the Aborigines were the first inhabitants.

"As a result, we have become Taiwan's primary underprivileged group."

Aborigines about 1.65 percent of Taiwan's 23 million people, while that more than 80 percent of the population regard themselves as Taiwanese. Hakka make up approximatly 1.7 percent, while mainlanders make up about 15 percent of Taiwan's population.