Students expose Han
At several school graduation ceremonies at the end of last month, students criticized or made fun of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who is contesting the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential primary, as he presented awards and posed with the winners.
It was a pleasure to see the students’ frankness. The brief conversations they had with him, unhindered by political considerations, exposed Han’s true personality on television.
Members of the older generation can definitely learn something from these events.
On one occasion, a student told Han: “Your presidential bid is outright ridiculous.”
Another student wore a T-shirt that read: “Run away,” a swipe at Han for attending campaign rallies instead of concentrating on his job as mayor, and a third posed with Han while holding the Chinese-language version of the book The Lying Ape.
The students deserve credit for their creativity, humor and truthfulness.
Those of us who grew up in the previous century had to put up with restrictions imposed by schools based on the prevailing framework, which included a greater-China outlook and was replete with the ideology of Confucian ethics. Students were only supposed to study, not to raise questions about worldly affairs. It would have been a great honor for them to have their photo taken with a senior official. They had no business knowing, nor any opportunity to know, whether leaders’ actions matched their words, still less did they know the meaning of “political hack.”
The new generation of students live in an atmosphere of freedom and democracy, and they have ready access to plentiful sources of information. Their grades might not be outstanding, but most of them can say a thing or two about current affairs. For this generation, there is no great honor in getting a pat on the head from a high-up official or to pose for a photo with one. They might even complain that it is a waste of time. Such is the generation gap.
Because of that generation gap, my generation mocks young people as being soft and always complaining, while youngsters complain that we are always harping on about “the good old days.”
Model students have shown their creativity in these “performances” with Han. We members of older generations have to admit that their choice of words is not just simple and straightforward, but in tune with the public’s perception of Han.
They have the courage, which we might not have, to show Han for what he really is.
There is no need for us to encourage the students’ spontaneous actions. We can just let them be creative, whether we agree with them or not. From the moment the first student called Han’s presidential bid “ridiculous,” we should take a good look at ourselves. Han presents himself as being as down-to-earth as a bowl of noodles, but he has tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars in the bank. Is this really the right kind of person to invite to present awards to students? Or are these ceremonies just photo opportunities for his presidential campaign? Perhaps the students know better than us.
Wu Hsin-chieh
Penghu County
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