I have always preferred the uplifting melody of the National Flag Anthem to the solemn tone of the Republic of China (ROC) National Anthem, which is also the anthem of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). However, the National Flag Anthem contains the phrase “Yanhuang shizhou” (炎黃世胄, meaning “descendants of Yan and Huang”), referring to the Yan Emperor (炎帝) and the Yellow Emperor (黃帝), thought to be the ancestors of modern-day Chinese, most specifically Han Chinese. The phrase is particularly contentious.
Taiwan’s remarkable achievements in the recent Paris Olympics are undoubtedly cause for national celebration, but are the Taiwanese athletes truly all descendants of the Yan Emperor and the Yellow Emperor?
Taiwan’s history and political evolution reveal a complex and diverse heritage. Austronesians, who were not descendants of the Yan or Yellow emperors, have inhabited Taiwan for tens of thousands of years.
Later, European powers introduced their cultures. By Taiwan’s Cheng Dynasty — the Kingdom of Tungning established in southern Taiwan by the Ming Dynasty loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功, also known as Koxinga) in 1662 — integration between southern Han Chinese and those with ancestry in Zhangzhou, China, had likely already occurred before they crossed the Taiwan Strait from Quanzhou.
Similarly, Hakka groups from China’s Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces had probably intermingled with people from the She ethnic group before migrating to Taiwan. Intermarriages among Han Chinese and Pingpu (plain) people in Taiwan led to significant cultural and genetic blending. Research by professor Marie Lin (林媽利) of Mackay Memorial Hospital has shown that most Taiwanese have Pingpu genes.
In China, “Zhonghua minzu” (中華民族, “the Chinese nation”) is a political term created to promote a unified national identity. Originally, it included the Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui, Tibetan, Miao and Yao ethnic groups. Since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, China has officially recognized at least 56 ethnic groups.
Chinese academic Wu Rui (吳銳) and artist Long Mengrou (龍夢柔) are members of the Tujia ethnic group. Given this, can they be considered descendants of the Yan and Yellow emperors?
Taiwan is home to many exceptional athletes from various indigenous groups. Decathlete C.K. Yang (楊傳廣), known as the “Iron Man of Asia,” is Amis. Despite his indigenous heritage, he used a Han name and was selected as a representative of the Yang Clan Association.
There is no evidence to support that the Yan Emperor and the Yellow Emperor are the ancestors of all Chinese. Even ancestral theories based on the discoveries of “Peking Man” and “Shandingdong Man,” also known as “Upper Cave Man,” have been disputed. With the ROC government still participating in annual ceremonies paying tribute to the Yellow Emperor, it is no surprise that the term “Yanhuang shizhou” is still prevalent among Taiwanese. However, in our modern and diverse Taiwanese society, ROC nationalism should take precedence over ethnic nationalism.
Hung Yu-jui is a translator and Japanese-language teacher.
Translated by Nicole Wong
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers
RSS