2004 January 1

Happy New Year....

A reasonably good article on Taiwanese national identity, even though things are quite a bit more complex than the article states

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48076-2004Jan1.html

The main complexity is the natural but wrong assumption that being more Taiwanese means being less Chinese. For example, I don't know of any Chinese nationalist either on the mainland or on Taiwan that now objects to teaching more about Taiwanese history and the local language. Another complexity is that most of the symbols of the Taiwanese identity are derived from the symbols of the Republic of China. For example, the flag is that of the Republic of China, and even though Chiang Kai-Shek's pictures have been taken down, those of Sun Yat-Sen haven't.

Finally, culturally and even politically, the Mainland and Taiwan are probably closer now than they have been in over 100 years.

I think the big debate really isn't about the existence of a Taiwanese identity. I think the big debate is whether the identity is part of or separate from a larger Chinese one. Ultimately what happens depends on events on the Mainland. If the PRC collapses like the Soviet Union, then the Taiwanese identity could be the basis for a separate nation-state. On the other hand, if the PRC doesn't collapse, then it really would become untenable for Taiwan to develop a separate identity.

At example of the latter is Hong Kong. Something that is interesting is that the discontent against Tung Chee-Hwa and Beijing isn't expressed in terms of identity. One thing that becomes obvious in talking to people from Hong Kong is that they don't associate democracy with separatism in the way that it is done in Taiwan. There's no point really.

Curiously, my sense is that the newspapers are a bit behind. The focus of the election has turned into KMT's party finances and away from nationalistic issues. Also, my sense is that people in Taiwan are somewhat less nationalistic than in the late-1990's.

-- JosephWang - 22 Mar 2004