From: thuang@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Tze-yau Huang)
Subject: Re: Taiwan vs Mainland To The Extreme
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 21:54:05 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.100156.7783@cs.mcgill.ca> haiying@cs.mcgill.ca (Haiying ZHANG) writes:
>   I found it interesting that although I cited many references in my
>counter attack, majority of it were about the age old conflict and
>animosity between CCP and KMT, this one about the Japanese seem to
>tricker more knee-jerking action from the people from the other side of
>the strait. I am not qualified to analyse this psychological complex of
>Taiwanese. But I do have a word of advice for you, it is part of your
>history. Although it might not be something you would like to talk
>about, you still have to accept it. Don't try to deny it in one form or
>another. (Pretending it does not exist.) 
>
The younger generation of Taiwanese know very little about Taiwan's
past.  Thanks to the Re-sinicization education policy of the ROC-in-
exile on Taiwan, Taiwanese students know the 4000 year power struggle 
in the Basins of YangZe and Huang Rivers by heart, but have little
idea about Taiwan's past 4000 years.  Taiwanese's linkage to China
comes largely from Fujian and Taiwanese know little about the stories
of people who lived in Fjian in the past 4000 years.  ROC-in-exile
pretents that history of people at the periphery of the Chinese
Empire does not exist.  ROC-in-exile (RIE) pretents that there is
a single memory of all peoples that once had comprise the subjects
of the Chinese (or say Mongolian, Manchurian) Empires.  This is the
myth of one China, one culture, one people, one history, one language,
one way of life, and one way of thinking.

Sea goers of Fujian, Japanese sailors, and aborigine peoples of Taiwan
had shared the island long before the administrations of the Chinese
Empires intervened.  The war between Taiwanese peoples and Japan before
the turn of this century was a business between the two island
countries.  All China did was surrender.  After twenty year failure of
armed resistance, the relationship between the two island countries
became that of the Ireland vs Britain.  Given time, the Taiwanese
languages would have faced the same fates of the Celtics.  

For Taiwan, Japan has been a model to be followed yet Taiwanese can
sense the Japanese control over Taiwan's present, future, and past.
Taiwan relies Japan on manufacturing hardwares and know-hows, and
Japan companies arranged 50% of Taiwan's exports to the US.  Pretty
soon, Japan's financial institutions will finance Taiwan's GNP
creators--medium and small enterprises which have long been starved
by the conservative state-managed financial institutions.  Finally,
Japan had studied and archived Taiwan's past, a research area that
RIE is not interested about.  A Taiwanese does not have to know all
these to sense the grip of Japan on Taiwan.  Evidences are everywhere.

Japan is part of Taiwan's experience and Taiwanese should open their
eyes and see how they have become who they are.  There is no need to
rid oneself of ones own experiences but one has learn to optimize the
benefits and suppress the illness from ones own experience.  If
Taiwanese keep pretending that they share that one exprience with
the one people of that one China, then they will never understand
their frustration and insecure feelings.



>   Let me borrow a phrase from Heng-Hsin Liao of AT&T, let's work hard
>for Taiwan and China.
>
>
>					Haiying

It's not borrowing; you have changed it and why not credit it to
yourself?

Work mindfully for a mindful goal.  Enjoy!


Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan,soc.culture.hongkong