Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Thursday expressed hope that young people in Taiwan would “keep in mind [their] Chinese cultural roots,” as he paid respects to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi, 黃帝), who some consider to be the ancestor of Chinese people, at a ritual in China.
Ma, who is on a visit to China until Thursday next week, made the comment to reporters after taking part in the official event held in Huangling County in Shaanxi Province, where, according to legend, the emperor was buried.
He said that attending the ritual in China in person “bore significant meaning to him,” as he had paid tribute to the emperor in similar events in Taipei six times.
Photo courtesy of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation
The majority of Taiwanese “have an extremely strong belief in Chinese culture and ethnic identity,” Ma said, adding that such belief was intact even after the Japanese empire’s 50-year colonial rule in Taiwan from 1895 to 1945.
After the colonial period, the people of Taiwan continued to recognize the Yellow Emperor as their ancestor and strived to maintain “the subjectivity and dignity of the Taiwanese,” he said.
He encouraged young Taiwanese to “firmly remember the roots of Chinese culture and the Chinese nation” and to take pride in being the descendants of the Yellow Emperor.
Thursday’s ritual was held at the Palace of Offering Sacrifices in the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor’s Xuanyuan Temple, as part of an annual commemorative event on Tomb Sweeping Day, which fell on Thursday this year.
He was accompanied by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤). They joined a procession of officials from the central and local governments to offer a flower basket during the ceremony, where the host referred to him as the “former chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).”
Ma and a group of Taiwanese students arrived in Shaanxi Province on Wednesday evening after wrapping up their visit to Guangdong Province earlier in the week.
Ma met with Huang Kunming (黃坤明), a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s politburo and the party’s secretary of Guangdong, on Wednesday, during which he urged both sides of the Taiwan Strait to “work together, pursue peace and avoid war.”
Multiple news outlets, including Reuters, have reported that Ma is to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Monday.
The KMT has been coy when asked about the matter.
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