A few days ago, it was nice and sunny outside, so I went to take a walk in a park. There, I overheard an elementary-school student ask: What countries do you like besides Taiwan?
The child called Taiwan by its name and said it was a country, showing that consciousness of “Taiwan is a nation” has been internalized, which delights me.
There are a few other examples of this.
As of this year, 110 countries recognize the Taiwanese passport and allow entry without a visa. Twelve of these have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan — and welcome Taiwanese with open arms — while the rest use our country’s name, Taiwan.
They do not call it “Chinese Taipei,” “Chinese Taiwan” or “Taiwan, China.” Even the name “Republic of China” is on its way out.
Taiwan also has its own Global Trade Item Number, which is a unique number used to identify trade items and is an indicator of an exported product’s origin.
“Made in Taiwan” is a branding that has global recognition as a marker of products made with superior quality, safety and reliability.
This has also been present in the stances of our presidents: former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) “special state-to-state international relations,” former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) “one country on each side [of the Taiwan Strait]” and President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “neither the Republic of China [Taiwan] nor the People’s Republic of China [China] are subservient to the other.”
Tsai’s administration marks 77 years of Taiwan being its own entity and with the changes over the past 36 years, the country’s diversity, governance, economy and cultural development have undeniably made it distinct and separate from China.
During the commemoration service for the 228 Incident, Taiwan Nation Alliance (台灣國家聯盟) convener Wu Shu-min (吳樹民) said that he hopes Vice President William Lai (賴清德) would find a suitable minister of education once he is inaugurated as president — one who promotes a curriculum of historical consciousness centered on Taiwan.
Under the guidance of the president-elect, Taiwanese national consciousness would continue to be promoted, ushering Taiwan toward the normalization of the nation, Wu said.
Chen Chiao-chicy is a psychiatrist at Mackay Memorial Hospital and an adjunct professor.
Translated by Tim Smith
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