As a former resident of Taiwan, Republic of China, Uncle Cephas wishes to congratulate that state on the hundredth anniversary of its founding.
Few Westerners realize that the issue between Mainland China and Taiwan is chiefly an unresolved and uncompleted civil war. Taiwan has not declared itself independent of China chiefly because it sees itself as the rump of a larger Chinese Republic, one founded by Dr. Sun Yixian (Sun Yatsen in Cantonese) on October 10, 2011.
Further, since back in 1992, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui declared his side's acceptance of its loss of the Mainland in the Chinese civil war, and invited peace talks on the basis of equality, Uncle Cephas would also like to express his respect for the ROC. Whether it continues to call itself the rump of Sun's Republic of China, a new Republic of Taiwan, Great Liuqiu, Dongning, or even Bob, it deserves international recognition. If we Americans could accept the separate existence of those reactionary running dogs of English imperialism in Canada, China can live with a separate Taiwan.
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kepha as you know Taiwan's population is going to shrink drastically, especially after abortion was legalized, and Taiwan now has a skewed sex ratio like mainland China and India.
ReplyDeleteThis can be an oppurtunity to hand back large tracks of land to the aboriginals as a good faith gesture, because some of what the DPP members said, claiming that Taiwanese were the true natives, was really insulting to them. Although it is unlikely aboriginals will be given anything.
There was a minor protest by Aboriginals over the DPP inviting the Dalai Lama to Taiwan.
You know the situation better than most westerners do, since you were there. Basically these DPP members are denying that Taiwanese hokkien are ethnic Chinese, saying that hokkien are native inhabitants to taiwan.
as you know, the aboriginal population doesn't like the part where the Hokkien claim to be native. Those aboriginal protestors were most likely angry over the fact that the Dalai Lama's visit gives credence to their claims, to form an anti China front of "natives".
By the way what years were you in Taiwan? Most KMT members hate Lee Tung-hui's guts and probably want him dead.
the first Republic of China actually had a respectable legislature, even though it had no power, up until 1927 when the Kuomintang seized power, and effectively nullified legislative power, since the Party was all that mattered.
ReplyDeleteMany people don't like political parties like the KMT and CCP they just want something like the original Republic of China, before 1927, and without the warlords.
Chiang Kai=shek himself was not a man of high morals. He married several wives at one time, one of them, Chen Jieru, was only a teenager, and he obtained gonnerhea from prostitutes, passing it on to Chen.
She wrote a memoir titled in English- "Chiang Kai-shek's secret past: the memoir of his second wife, Chʻen Chieh-ju"
Alot of Chinese believe in Lu Xun's philosophy, and hate both Mao and Chiang.
on the topic of Skewed sex ratio in Taiwan, materialism, globalization, and the economic liberalization have all contributed to the abortion of female babies now going on in Taiwan and India, where it isn't the state that is enforcing it.
if the USA stopped charging Taiwan over 6 billion dollars for weapons, and instead gave Taiwan military credit for free like it does for Israel and Egypt, then the government can subsidize every family in taiwan to stop abortions.
Israel and Egypt have relatively high birthrates while taiwan is negative. The fact that Taiwan is charged billions is unfair.
correction to my earlier comment- Alot of Chinese ''''dissidents'''' believe in Lu Xun's philosophy, and hate both Mao and Chiang, Chiang disliked the movement of may fourth.
ReplyDeletealthough I personally do not like Lu Xun's philosophy due to his pointless Nihilism. Those dissedents essentially want China devoid of belief.
Zebra, I'll admit the idea that Taiwanese Hokkien are really Austronesians utterly ridiculous, and a good place to observe that both China's are pitiful spiritual colonies of 19th century Germany. This essentialist vision of what a "nation" is makes people whose grandfathers never called an aboriginal anything other than "hoan a" (Fanzi) claim an aboriginal pedigree.
ReplyDeleteBut, the other side of the coin is this: what is wrong with people of similar cultures and ethnicities having separate states? Where would we Americans be if we, on one hand, tried to usurp the genealogies of people our forefathers saw as "howling savages",and, on the other, insisted that the world de-recognize those reactionary, counter-revolutionary running dogs up in Canada? They are, after all, British North Americans who preferred to remain loyal to King George III and his heirs. And, how amusing, I, who cannot claim much of a British pedigree, identify so much with the American founders (who, admittedly, didn't make too many bones about my people after we learned to speak English).
ReplyDeleteAnd, getting back to the Germans, why should we insist that Austrians, most of the Swiss,the Luxemburgers,Alsatians,and Liechtensteiners either deny their Teutonic heritage or join the Bundesrepublik?
In short, why must the Taiwanese,who have a very hard time trusting the Communist Party and good reasons for not doing so, make the choice of either denying their Hua-xia heritage or submitting willy-nilly to a Communist regime that will treat them with both suspicion and hostility, even when they are back "in the bosom of the motherland"? Add to this, how does the Chinese Communist Party appear to those outside, when it both affirms the value of Marxist doctrine and embraces a kind of development capitalism that isn't too far in spirit from the very thing against which Marx so loudly protested? Would it not be a shame for any people to go down as Marxism-Leninism's last conquest?
Re Lu Xun, I also find his nihilism appalling. But it was the fate of many a 20th century Leftist to find his mind straining the "end of its tether".
ReplyDeleteThis may also be why so many Chinese dissidents are also nihilistic. Their "grand narrative" of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong thought collapsed for some very good reasons, and they find themselves lost and adrift. In this, they are a lot like the former New Leftists of America and Europe.
Actually what I was getting at was that some aboriginals are pro kmt due to the obnoxious attitude the DPP has on ethnicity
ReplyDeleteI think that taiwans ethnic policy should be like Singapore, which though independent, does not claim that hokkien or Hakka are not Chinese. They admit freely to being ethnic Chinese while being their own country
And that is basically already taiwans policy, I meant that the DPP should change their attitude. They will tell any westerner they meet that hokkien are native to Taiwan..
ReplyDeleteAlot of aboriginals just want better conditions and to protect their culture. If most Taiwanese do not change their minds about family planning then Taiwan may well end up as the only state which was passed back to it's native inhabitants in about 50 years
Aboriginals have higher birthrates than hokkien, Hakka, and mainlander, I think that they might just reclaim Taiwan as the hokkien have the lowest birth rate in the world
Article on aboriginal population growth
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2004/10/03/2003205357
Alot of aboriginals are Christian, much more percentage wise than hokkien or mainlander. There are movements to revitalize their language, this will significantlynalter the demographics
And is their any reason given why Taiwan gets charged for weapons?? I think egypt and Israel are getting a free ride on taiwan's money.
Zebra, I think you're right about Taiwan's aboriginals being Pan-Blue due to the DPP's attempts to hijack their genealogies.
ReplyDeleteAs for Taiwan's demographics, the first time I was there, in the late '70's, they were pushing family planning. In the early 2000's, I actually saw official pro-reproduction posters. I think Singapore's in the same boat.
However, with a couple hundred thousand self-identified aboriginals v. 22 millions of the various Han groups, I think the aboriginals will still have a long time to catch up. As late as 2005, I saw plenty of school-age kids in urban Taiwan, the bulk of whom looked Han.
Also, the Taiwan Yuanzhumin are not revitalizing their "language"; they are trying to revitalize their "languages". The Taiwan Yuanzhumin languages are the most mutually divergent part of the whole Austronesian family of languages, and I assure you that an Amis cannot converse with a Tayal save if both are speaking Mandarin, or one has learned the other's native language.
ReplyDeleteBut, I have another post urging commemoration of the upcoming anniversary of the Treaty of Ghent. Let me know what you think after looking at my October postings.