From: cwt2@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Charles W Tang)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Yes, Let's Not Talk about History (Was: Re: BANANAS)
Date: 12 Aug 92 15:43:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Aug12.154312.21920
Reply-To: cwt2@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Charles W Tang)
Organization: Columbia University

lmh@MIT.Edu (Minghsun Liu) writes:
>
>FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
>THOSE PEOPLE ARE DEAD!  GONE!  THEIR CORPSES DECOMPOSED BEYOND
>RECOGNITION!
>
>Let's just leave it to a time (hopefully) in the future when we can
>look at them without inciting hatreds and with a clamer mind.

Why is it that everytime someone talks about our past history, he's
always labelled "inciting hatred?"  Yes, "their corpses [are] de-
composed beyond recognition," and so are the corpses of those who
died in 6.4, those Chinese who died during the Japanese invasion,
and those who died during the Cultural Revolution.  Yes, let's just
pretend that nothing happened, cuz if anyone talks about it, that
means he's "spreading hatred."

Give me a break, please!  We don't need this kind of censorship in
the 90's!

Did I in anyway try to "promote hatred" against WSR in my postings?
No!  I was just genuinely puzzled, surprised, shocked, flabbergasted
to see that WSR are *blaming* Taiwanese for the kind of treatment
that they're getting from BSR, as if they really don't know anything
about the history of Taiwan and why BSR feel the way they do about
WSR!

Didn't I also suggest several ways that I think will improve the
BSR-WSR relation?  Am I "inciting hatred" against WSR by suggesting
that they should probably show more respect to Taiwan, the Taiwanese
people, the Taiwanese language, and the Taiwanese culture if they want
repect from BSR?

I suspect that this BSR vs. WSR conflict will NOT end until BSR can
really be regonized, politically, as a group of people who really
have a VOICE!  But with this kind of "it's all in the past, let's
not talk about it!" altitude from WSR, how do you expect this
conflict to ever be resolved!?

>For all I care, anyone who cares and loves Taiwan deserve and are
>entitled to live there and help building it into a better place.  Yes,
>mistakes WERE made but we are making the same mistake by inciting
>hatreds.

Again, I'm not "inciting hatred" here.  However, not learning from past
mistakes is the true mistake committed here.  Since I'm not into
the political/government scene in Taiwan, may I ask you if Taiwanese
people now have at least half of the seats in the National Assembly?
Is "speaking Taiwanese" still forbidden in school?  (Have you, as an
immigrant to this country, walked into your classes here in the US and
told your classmates not to speak English or else be punished?)  Can
Taiwanese people now freely elect their president?  I'm sure things are
changing really fast today, but it's not enough.  At least not yet.

I do have a personal question: why wouldn't the 2nd generation WSR's
in Taiwan call themselves "Taiwanese?"  Is it really so bad to be
Taiwanese?  If you don't accept Taiwan, how do you expect to be
accepted by Taiwan and its people?

As I said, I have nothing against WSR personally.  Our ancestors were
WSR's too when they first arrived a few hundred years back.  And
I wasn't Taiwanese in my immediate past life either.  But today I'm
Taiwanese, and I accept Taiwan, and that's exactly what anyone who
wishes to have anything to do with Taiwan should do too!

-Charles


*** Om Ma-Ni Pad-Me Hung *** | "Hey, Charles, have you been 'waiting' all
============================ |  your life?" -- Thao D. "the creature" Vo
   Charles Wei-Ting Tang     | ===========================================
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