big brother china and little sister taiwan
Taiwan-China relations can be a touchy subject. I'm no expert on it, but I can talk about my experiences with it - even if anecdeta is so often considered the lowest form of evidence in any argument. Aha! But I'm not presenting an argument, at least not that I'm aware of. I'll reassess this at the end of my spiel. I have a lot of thoughts, per usual, and I was promised an audience, so bear with me here!
I grew up influenced (read: happily brainwashed) by my mainland parents into believing that of course Taiwan is a part of China! I wasn't really into politics, see, and didn't really care about Chinese history, so this was an issue I never bothered engaging in. I spent more of my time fighting with my parents that I was American, goshdarnit, so just let me be! Why do I have to go to Chinese school! With time, I grew out of that phase and learned to accept - even embrace! - my Chinese heritage. Perhaps it was zealous overcompensation for the past that made me even more inclined to accept that China was great and amazing and powerful (watch out, America! I was gloating and gleeful, as if I had any hand in the rise of China). In this vein, of course Taiwan is clearly part of China! China does what it wants, yo. LOL Taiwan is foolish to think it can resist through its token protests - please, the U.S. is too afraid of China to even officially acknowledge Taiwan as a country!
Thankfully I grew out of that phase too. I still can't pretend expertise, like I said, on either China or Taiwanese history or politics, but I'm a little more conscious of China's faults. As a country that I love, it's easy to be blind to its problems, but I'd argue that you can't really love something unless you know it, and knowing it entails knowing the realities of its strengths and weaknesses, its pros and cons. I'd like to think I love China more now that I know it a little better, not because I'm ready and willing to excuse its flaws, but because at least now I know where it comes up short. I know its reality a little better. China is far from perfect and far from capable of blithely dictating Taiwan a part of itself and making it a reality. It's also far from being in the right for making that dictation to begin with.
In my experience, Taiwanese people are easy to rile up if you mention China or imply that Taiwan is somehow part of China. In my experience, mainlanders rarely bring up the topic because they don't feel as though it is an issue at all - of course Taiwan is China! It's a fact of life that brings up no more contention that saying the sky is blue. Moving on!
But I have Taiwanese friends - no, wait, hear me out! This isn't like saying I have a black friend, I promise. I don't purport to suddenly know everything or be justified in all my opinions simply because I have friends who say or believe X, Y, or Z. I have Taiwanese friends, yes, but all they've done is help me face the reality of Taiwan, not as merely a concept (a "province" of China, a controversial issue, and so on), but as a country with food and music and culture that I'm interested in. It's self-absorbed, isn't it? But true. Only through my own interest in Taiwan did I finally come to accept it as a diverse reality, rather than a theoretical political entity I could easily dismiss as just making trouble for China because it could.
So, being a little less blind, I can see that China is not the maligned motherland here (though I do like to joke about how the National Palace Museum (Gu Gong) in Taipei is full of treasure only because they 'stole' it from the National Palace (Gu Gong) in Beijing when the KMT fled) and Taiwan not some recalcitrant child. I loved Taiwan when I visited, though it was a short visit. I can't pretend I'm filled with a fire for Taiwanese independence, but at the very least I am no longer blindly resistant to the idea. I'm not really bothered either way, though I think I'd prefer if China acted less stupidly re: Taiwan mostly for the sake of my own love for China. It's painful to watching someone you love make a complete fool of themselves, convinced of their own righteousnes...
This is only my personal journey re: Taiwan-China relations. While the official relationship has improved in the past five years (owing, according to my dad, in large part to the current Taiwanese president), the present balance is still somewhat precarious: Taiwan's current policy involves refusing to acknolwedge itself as part of China but not actively refuting either, and the latter is all China particularly cares about so it can continue to maintain a facade of one glorious unified kingdom. On the plus side, tourism has picked up between the two and I'd like to think the younger generation isn't as dead-set as the older generation in enmity. It's hard to say, though, since I didn't grow up in either China or Taiwan. I'm as much an outsider as any other American, in many respects. There remain, undoubtedly, a lot of prejudices.
It's not my place to to dictate how Taiwanese people should feel about mainland Chinese people or vice versa (or how they feel about each other's government, since that is a fairly separate thing from the people). I can say this, however: Prejudice is ugly and the perpetuation of it is never a good thing. Prejudices are not well-founded concerns or thoughtful arguments; prejudice, whatever legitimate concern or fear or mistrust it once originated from, is a warped version of those things used to justify the continued refusal to engage with reality.
Maybe I do have an argument. If I do, that's it. I'm not an expert on Taiwan-China relations, but I am more enlightened than I was in the past. (It's not hard, considering how little I knew then.) My enlightenment tells me only that the relations are complex and complicated because of history and politics (both past and current) - and also because of prejudice. Taiwanese people will say and believe terrible things about mainlanders. Mainland Chinese people will say and believe terrible things about the Taiwanese. Even if history and politics somehow resolved to unify Taiwan and China or to grant full recognition of an independent Taiwan, the prejudice would continue.
I hate that.
I wish we, as humans, weren't so willing to perpetuate that.
Feelings are valid, be they rational or irrational. Of course they are! I'm the last one to argue against that, being so constantly ~full of feelings~ myself. But if our feelings are rooted in prejudice, maybe we should reexamine those feelings and that prejudice and ask ourselves if that is what we want to perpetuate. Feelings may be valid, but they are not the sole guiding factor to our actions, nor do they trump the rest in importance.
Hey Taiwan, I love you! Maybe not the way I love China (or even Singapore, and with far less complexity than the way I love the U.S.) but you ain't bad. And fuck, I miss your food.
No matter how tempted, I promise I won't wish you off the map. Seriously, I'd miss your food too much. D: And your variety shows, when SJM is on them...
I grew up influenced (read: happily brainwashed) by my mainland parents into believing that of course Taiwan is a part of China! I wasn't really into politics, see, and didn't really care about Chinese history, so this was an issue I never bothered engaging in. I spent more of my time fighting with my parents that I was American, goshdarnit, so just let me be! Why do I have to go to Chinese school! With time, I grew out of that phase and learned to accept - even embrace! - my Chinese heritage. Perhaps it was zealous overcompensation for the past that made me even more inclined to accept that China was great and amazing and powerful (watch out, America! I was gloating and gleeful, as if I had any hand in the rise of China). In this vein, of course Taiwan is clearly part of China! China does what it wants, yo. LOL Taiwan is foolish to think it can resist through its token protests - please, the U.S. is too afraid of China to even officially acknowledge Taiwan as a country!
Thankfully I grew out of that phase too. I still can't pretend expertise, like I said, on either China or Taiwanese history or politics, but I'm a little more conscious of China's faults. As a country that I love, it's easy to be blind to its problems, but I'd argue that you can't really love something unless you know it, and knowing it entails knowing the realities of its strengths and weaknesses, its pros and cons. I'd like to think I love China more now that I know it a little better, not because I'm ready and willing to excuse its flaws, but because at least now I know where it comes up short. I know its reality a little better. China is far from perfect and far from capable of blithely dictating Taiwan a part of itself and making it a reality. It's also far from being in the right for making that dictation to begin with.
In my experience, Taiwanese people are easy to rile up if you mention China or imply that Taiwan is somehow part of China. In my experience, mainlanders rarely bring up the topic because they don't feel as though it is an issue at all - of course Taiwan is China! It's a fact of life that brings up no more contention that saying the sky is blue. Moving on!
But I have Taiwanese friends - no, wait, hear me out! This isn't like saying I have a black friend, I promise. I don't purport to suddenly know everything or be justified in all my opinions simply because I have friends who say or believe X, Y, or Z. I have Taiwanese friends, yes, but all they've done is help me face the reality of Taiwan, not as merely a concept (a "province" of China, a controversial issue, and so on), but as a country with food and music and culture that I'm interested in. It's self-absorbed, isn't it? But true. Only through my own interest in Taiwan did I finally come to accept it as a diverse reality, rather than a theoretical political entity I could easily dismiss as just making trouble for China because it could.
So, being a little less blind, I can see that China is not the maligned motherland here (though I do like to joke about how the National Palace Museum (Gu Gong) in Taipei is full of treasure only because they 'stole' it from the National Palace (Gu Gong) in Beijing when the KMT fled) and Taiwan not some recalcitrant child. I loved Taiwan when I visited, though it was a short visit. I can't pretend I'm filled with a fire for Taiwanese independence, but at the very least I am no longer blindly resistant to the idea. I'm not really bothered either way, though I think I'd prefer if China acted less stupidly re: Taiwan mostly for the sake of my own love for China. It's painful to watching someone you love make a complete fool of themselves, convinced of their own righteousnes...
This is only my personal journey re: Taiwan-China relations. While the official relationship has improved in the past five years (owing, according to my dad, in large part to the current Taiwanese president), the present balance is still somewhat precarious: Taiwan's current policy involves refusing to acknolwedge itself as part of China but not actively refuting either, and the latter is all China particularly cares about so it can continue to maintain a facade of one glorious unified kingdom. On the plus side, tourism has picked up between the two and I'd like to think the younger generation isn't as dead-set as the older generation in enmity. It's hard to say, though, since I didn't grow up in either China or Taiwan. I'm as much an outsider as any other American, in many respects. There remain, undoubtedly, a lot of prejudices.
It's not my place to to dictate how Taiwanese people should feel about mainland Chinese people or vice versa (or how they feel about each other's government, since that is a fairly separate thing from the people). I can say this, however: Prejudice is ugly and the perpetuation of it is never a good thing. Prejudices are not well-founded concerns or thoughtful arguments; prejudice, whatever legitimate concern or fear or mistrust it once originated from, is a warped version of those things used to justify the continued refusal to engage with reality.
Maybe I do have an argument. If I do, that's it. I'm not an expert on Taiwan-China relations, but I am more enlightened than I was in the past. (It's not hard, considering how little I knew then.) My enlightenment tells me only that the relations are complex and complicated because of history and politics (both past and current) - and also because of prejudice. Taiwanese people will say and believe terrible things about mainlanders. Mainland Chinese people will say and believe terrible things about the Taiwanese. Even if history and politics somehow resolved to unify Taiwan and China or to grant full recognition of an independent Taiwan, the prejudice would continue.
I hate that.
I wish we, as humans, weren't so willing to perpetuate that.
Feelings are valid, be they rational or irrational. Of course they are! I'm the last one to argue against that, being so constantly ~full of feelings~ myself. But if our feelings are rooted in prejudice, maybe we should reexamine those feelings and that prejudice and ask ourselves if that is what we want to perpetuate. Feelings may be valid, but they are not the sole guiding factor to our actions, nor do they trump the rest in importance.
Hey Taiwan, I love you! Maybe not the way I love China (or even Singapore, and with far less complexity than the way I love the U.S.) but you ain't bad. And fuck, I miss your food.
No matter how tempted, I promise I won't wish you off the map. Seriously, I'd miss your food too much. D: And your variety shows, when SJM is on them...