No to anthem in schools
The recent debate over the compulsory singing of the national anthem in schools reminds me of two fond memories.
One is when the anthem had to be sung in movie theaters before any movie. When I first went to see a movie here in the early 1990s, I was quite surprised at the fact that everybody, young and old, stood up to sing it. I refused, and remained seated eating my popcorn with my Taiwanese girlfriend, who was quite scared at the possible reaction of everyone around us. She was right. One guy behind me tried to punch me in the nose, yelling out how disrespectful I was of his country and da da da.
This immediately brought up another memory. When I was invited as a visiting fellow in one of Munich’s best institutions on public health, I was at first living at my professor’s house. He was the head of the institute. His teenage son and I soon became good friends.
One day, I asked him what his most memorable experience was when he did a one-year stint studying in the US. He said “the first day in school.”
What happened is that the school, like many in the US, also requested the singing of the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the school day. He, like me, refused to stand up and sing. The teacher could not try to beat him up, like my fellow moviegoer tried with me. He was a foreign student with a reputed father. Instead, the teacher asked him to explain to the class why he wouldn’t at least stand up like the others, thinking maybe the poor kid didn’t know the words of the Star Spangled Banner.
His reply was simply this: “Hitler got us in Germany to do this hyper-nationalistic stuff. I can’t agree with this.”
Wise kid. Is there a need for Taiwan to return to the bad habits of the past?
BORIS VOYER
Taipei
Let’s begin with the bottom line. The sad truth of the matter is that Beijing has trampled on its solemn pledge to grant Hong Kong a great deal of autonomy for at least fifty years. In so doing, the PRC ignored a promise Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) made to both Great Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the wider world back in the early 1980s. This was at a time when Beijing, under Deng and his successors, appeared to be seeking an equitable accommodation with the West. I remain puzzled by China’s recent policy shift. Was it because Hong Kong was perceived
French police have confirmed that China’s overseas “police service stations” were behind cyberattacks against a Taiwanese Mandarin Learning Center in the European nation. This is another example of Beijing bullying Taiwanese organizations, as well as a show of contempt for other countries’ sovereignty and for international laws and norms. L’Encrier Chinois, a Chinese-language school that opened in 2005 in Paris, became the second Taiwanese Mandarin Learning Center in France in 2021. The school was targeted by at least three cyberattacks last year, which were reported to French police, who discovered that the attacks originated from China’s overseas police stations. Overseas
A photograph taken on Tuesday of Taoyuan City Government officials bowing to an East African baboon that was fatally shot the previous day provides an absurd snapshot to a sorry farce that led to an avoidable tragedy. The photograph showed the officials in front of a plastic container draped in a purple cloth on which a bouquet of flowers had been placed. It was a perfect example of a death ritual performed for the benefit of the living, not the dead. The gesture was worthless for any other reason than to distract from personal blame and political guilt. It contrasts with
A Taichung high-school student recently committed suicide after allegedly being bullied and abused by his school’s head of student affairs, military discipline office head, and other disciplinary and security officers. The Humanistic Education Foundation accused seven staff members at the school of picking on the boy after he was found bringing beer and cigarettes on campus in his first year at the school. They allegedly started to conduct body checks and searches of his bag, vilify him in public and pressure him into admitting wrongdoings committed by other students using verbal threats. They allegedly handed him two demerits and nine
RSS