Most Taiwanese see Taiwan and China as distinct nations, despite cultural similarities, a study released yesterday by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center showed.
Center researcher Cheng Su-feng (鄭夙芬) revealed the results on the first day of a two-day academic symposium in Taipei on Taiwan’s democratization and free elections. It also marked the center’s 30th anniversary.
The study on the national identity of Taiwanese, which involved interviews conducted between 2000 and 2016, has found that while most people considered China to be the source of much of Taiwan’s culture, they considered China to be a separate country, Cheng said.
Photo: CNA
The research showed that while a collective identity had not yet taken shape in the nation, Taiwanese largely saw Taiwan as a country, she said.
While most felt that there was a connection with China based on migration and shared cultural elements, there was a portion of the public that conversely cited cultural differences as making the two nations distinct, Cheng said.
The study found that a growing number of Taiwanese view the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a distinctly separate country from the Republic of China (ROC), but there is a number of people who consider Taiwan as a part of “China,” without specifying whether they mean the PRC or the ROC, she said.
The study showed that Taiwan is still in a state of change, but a majority refer to themselves as Taiwanese to specify that they were born and raised in Taiwan, she said, adding that they also agreed that they were “willing to make contributions on behalf of Taiwan.”
“Looking at the discourse in Taiwan from the past 10 years describing Taiwan and China as opposing countries, it is clear that [seeing Taiwan as a separate country] has already become the mainstream,” Cheng said.
Tropical Storm Gaemi strengthened into a typhoon at 2pm yesterday, and could make landfall in Yilan County tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The agency was scheduled to issue a sea warning at 11:30pm yesterday, and could issue a land warning later today. Gaemi was moving north-northwest at 4kph, carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of up to 118.8kph and gusts of 154.8kph. The circumference is forecast to reach eastern Taiwan tomorrow morning, with the center making landfall in Yilan County later that night before departing from the north coast, CWA weather forecaster Kuan Shin-ping (官欣平) said yesterday. Uncertainty remains and
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