As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) told the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that attempts to “tilt to the US to seek Taiwanese independence” would damage the Chinese nation’s interests, a shameless proclivity to “sell out” Taiwan.
She then put on a different tone and wished viewers a happy festival in Mandarin, Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) and Hakka, asking them if they prefer sweet or meat rice dumplings, even adding that the flavor debate is a manifestation of “homesickness.”
Even with a simple festival greeting, Zhu did not pass up the opportunity to link culture to politics, and to use national identity to embed pro-unification propaganda, that “countering China” means “selling out Taiwan.”
At the eye-dotting ceremony of this year’s New Taipei City Dragon Boat Race Championship on May 30, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said that the Dragon Boat Festival is a shared custom celebrated by people across the Taiwan Strait. Using a festival that connects China and Taiwan, Hou hopes to unite people with dragon boat races.
However, the holiday is also celebrated in South Korea and Japan, so why has neither nation has ever used the holiday to express sentiments of “uniting with China”? To cozy up to a nation bent on annexing Taiwan, Hou is adding fodder to China’s cultural unification agenda by diminishing the “us vs them” distinctions in the minds of Taiwanese.
When Chinese poet and politician Qu Yuan (屈原) committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River in ancient times, his death became a cultural code that rulers capitalize on for symbols of patriotism and loyalty. As a democratic country thriving in the 21st century, it is high time that Taiwan shakes off this kind of “colonial imprint” given by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) when it retreated to Taiwan.
As the Dragon Boat Festival became a social custom, it was endowed with new cultural meanings in different societies. In Japan, the holiday was called Tango no Sekku, a day that ancient Japanese celebrated by purifying their homes by thatching the roof with irises, believed to be effective in repelling evil spirits.
As the holiday reiterates the idea of warding off evil to make way for a new beginning, the solidarity that dragon boat racing represents should not only buttress the idea of Taiwanese subjectivity, but also to highlight that Taiwanese are in the same “boat” and share the goal of countering a common enemy.
Pro-China supporters who are busy playing to Beijing’s tune have overlooked that the holiday actually has connections closer to home. Perhaps the pro-Taiwan DPP government can start using examples of Taiwanese martyrs in place of Qu Yuan and the attendant pro-unification propaganda, and offer Taiwanese a local interpretation that taps into Taiwanese culture.
The Ministry of Culture could introduce a Taiwanese martyr at every Dragon Boat Festival. For example, it can introduce Tang Te-chang (湯德章) — a half-Japanese who fought for the people of Taiwan and met his end in the aftermath of the 228 Incident — to honor his passion for the country and his love of Taiwanese, thereby endowing the festival with a new meaning.
Reinforcing the national identity of Taiwanese is an arduous task that the government has to face, but it is also a question that every person living in Taiwan’s diverse society has to ask themselves. When cultural identity has been appropriated as political identity, Taiwan’s sovereignty and subjectivity would be in further jeopardy when its people start losing their Taiwanese self and identity.
Chu Meng-hsiang is a counselor at the Lee Teng-hui Association for Democracy.
Translated by Rita Wang
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