Bruce Jacobs, an academic who has been concerned with Taiwan’s democratic development and historic interpretation for decades, is visiting the nation again. A civil group held a tea party for him to express its appreciation, and the Australian Office in Taipei invited him to analyze Taiwan’s current and future situation, while President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration is planning to present him with a medal.
Due to his poor health, he has told his friends that this could be his last visit to Taiwan.
Jacobs has been paying attention to Taiwan for more than a half-century.
He first visited in 1965 as part of his postgraduate studies in history and politics, gaining a deep understanding of grassroots society in his studies of the local political culture.
Taiwan has remained a permanent focus of his research and discourse, and during the White Terror and Martial Law eras, he was accused by the Chiang (蔣) regime of being involved in the murder of dangwai (“outside the party,” 黨外) activist Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) family members, and was put on a blacklist of people barred from entering the nation.
However, he has unreservedly defended the nation, and his concern and support for and devotion to Taiwan and its people has helped the nation achieve freedom and democracy.
Jacobs’ love for Taiwan has not diminished since his retirement from Monash University in Australia. He continues to be active in the international arena, publishing books in support of Taiwan from democratic, historical and international perspectives.
Jacobs is not an unrealistic academic sitting in an ivory tower.
He participated in grassroots society and investigated the roles of relationship, face and factions in local politics, and was the first academic to engage in field research to uncover the zoulugong (走路工) vote-buying practice — paying people to attend a rally — in Taiwan’s election campaigns.
In addition to conducting research, he has also released numerous publications, including academic papers and books, as well as opinion pieces in newspapers and magazines.
Since teaching at Nanjing University in China as an exchange academic, he has also engaged in comparative research on politics, history and society between Taiwan and China.
More recently, he urged the world to tell China that Taiwan does not belong to it at international academic organizations.
Jacobs’, who is also known locally by the nickname “Big Beard,” interest in Taiwan was not dampened by his experiences in the aftermath of the Feb. 28, 1980, murders of Lin’s mother and twin daughters, who were killed in their home, while Lin was in jail after being detained for his participation in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident.
During the investigation, police focused on Jacobs as a suspect, because he was a friend of the family, and it was leaked to the media that a foreigner with a big beard was a main suspect in the case.
Jacobs wrote about this experience in his 2016 book, The Kaohsiung Incident in Taiwan and Memoirs of a Foreign Big Beard.
Having witnessed how Taiwan left authoritarianism behind and became democratic, Jacobs’ love for Taiwan and faith in democracy has not diminished, despite the government’s accusations, obstruction and humiliation.
Instead, these actions further strengthened his determination to stand up for Taiwan.
As a result, Jacobs invited more than 200 international academics and experts to form a discussion group on Taiwan issues to provide relevant information to the international community.
Whenever the nation has been at a major political turning point in the past few years, Jacobs and the group of academics and experts have released joint statements to show their concern.
He has explained Taiwanese history in the US and Europe, emphasizing the building of Taiwanese awareness and Taiwan as an independent historical subject.
He told the international community that the population of Taiwan is bigger than that of two-thirds of the world’s countries, and that its area is larger than that of two-fifths, not to mention its high economic and educational levels.
In accordance with the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, other countries do not need to recognize Taiwan for it to be a nation.
Jacobs suggested that Taiwan need not worry about losing some or even all of its diplomatic allies while building normal relations with more democratic nations, and that it does not have to sever ties with its diplomatic allies if they establish ties with China.
He has called on Taiwanese to rethink Taiwan’s national status and future direction, and to strengthen Taiwanese awareness.
He has also called on Taiwanese to discuss whether to change their national symbols, as Double Ten National Day, the national anthem and the flag are remnants of the past Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
Jacobs said that Taiwan is the origin of Austronesians and that its history since the 17th century is a combination of six colonial periods: the rule of the Dutch, the Spanish, Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功) — better known to Westerners as Koxinga (國姓爺) — the Manchurians and the Japanese, followed by the KMT.
He accused the KMT’s colonial regime of falsifying history to claim that Taiwan is part of China and that Aborigines came from China.
He said that after bidding farewell to past colonial rule, Taiwan should no longer use incorrect history to mislead the next generation.
For more than 50 years, Jacobs has supported Taiwan while introducing the world to the nation’s history and transformation from colonization and authoritarianism to democracy and prosperity.
He is not only a loyal and old friend of Taiwan, but also a benefactor.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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