Taiwan's identity crisis
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Taiwan's identity crisis has been an ongoing issue for several decades arising from the political rivalry between the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Taiwanese are frustrated by the political rivalry which is the cause of confusion both inside and outside Taiwan.
"When we use the term 'Taiwan', mainland China is not happy. They think it means we are moving towards independence. But, on the other hand, they will not let us use the name 'Republic of China' so people are angry." (2002) [1] -- Tuan-Yao Cheng (鄭端耀), Acting Director of the Institute of International Relations at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan.
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[edit] Identities
[edit] Chinese
Of the 23 million people in Taiwan, 98% are descendants of ethnic Han Chinese immigrants who migrated from China from the 17th to the 20th century. Of these, around 70% are descended from immigrants from Fujian and identify themselves as Hoklo whilst 15% are Hakka from Guangdong (Canton) and also Fujian. The ancestors of these people were laborers that crossed the Taiwan Strait to work on plantations for the Dutch. It is believed that these male laborers married local aborigine women, creating a new ethnic group of mixed Chinese and aborigine people. It is these descendants who identify themselves as Taiwanese and increasingly reject their identity as Chinese. The reason for this lies to a great extent with the authoritarian rule of the foreign Kuomintang (KMT) which fled mainland China during the Chinese Civil War and set up government in Taiwan. There was martial law that lasted four decades and was discriminatory against the existing inhabitants of Taiwan. Mandarin, a foreign language, was imposed as the national language (國語 Guóyǔ) and all other languages were made illegal. The harsh rule over Taiwan was lifted in 1988 and began a new era in Taiwanese history when Lee Tenghui, a Taiwanese, became president. The first transition of power from the China-centric KMT occurred in 2000 when Taiwanese Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidential elections. He has been making efforts to push for Taiwan independence with statements that there are two nations across the Taiwan Strait; a push for plebiscite on independence; and the abolishment of the National Unification Council. Taiwanese opinion on independence is split between the northern and southern half of Taiwan which interestingly also divides the "mainlander" (外省人 Wàishěngrén; Person from outside the Taiwan province) in the north from the "Taiwanese" (本省人 Běnshěngrén; Person native to Taiwan province) in the south.
[edit] Japanese
Japan occupied the island of Taiwan after China, then under the control of the Qing Dynasty, lost the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese occupation of Taiwan lasted from 1895 until 1945, when Japan was defeated by the allied forces at the end of World War II. The period of Japanese occupation of the island of Taiwan was marked by brutal suppression of local resistance movements, the systematic exploitation of the island's natural resources and the subjugation of the local populace into slave labor on plantations and factories set up by the occupying force. All these, along with the resources from the rest of the Japanese occupied territories in Asia, were fed to the ever-growing expansion of the imperial Japanese war machinery, culminating in Japan joining the Axis powers during World War II, and ultimately led to Japan's defeat at the end of World War II. Of note, during World War II, the Japanese army brutally enslaved many local women from Taiwan, and used them as sexual slaves, called "Comfort Women." The Japanese army also drafted many men from Taiwan to aid in their military campaigns on mainland China. Many such drafted units from Taiwan, alongside the regular Japanese army, took part in some of the most infamous campaigns of that time, including the Rape of Nanking.
Towards the last decade of the Japanese occupation, the occupation force started a systematic campaign of Kōminka (皇民化 Transformation into Imperial subjects) to instill the "Japanese spirit" (大和魂 Yamato damashī) to turn the people of Taiwan into third class imperial subjects of the Japanese empire. This process was stopped when Japan was defeated at the end of World War II, and also prevented efforts on the part of the Japanese occupation force, to integrate Taiwan, to be known as Okinawa and Hokkaidō, into the Japanese empire. During this last decade, the people of Taiwan were encouraged to adopt Japanese names. Many older generation Taiwanese, inexplicably, are reported to have fond memories of the Japanese occupation, when compared to the later KMT rule. Many scholars have attributed this phenomenon to brain washing tactics pervasively used in schools run by the Japanese occupation force at the time. Even the former president Lee Tenghui of Taiwan has a Japanese name 岩里政男 (IWASATO Masao) and has stated on numerous occasions that he is, in fact, Japanese (there are persistent rumors that Lee Tenghui is actually half Japanese; that is, he is the illegitimate son of a Japanese officer, who served in the occupation force, and of Lee's ethnic Chinese mother).
[edit] Taiwanese
In recent years, there has been a trend, known as the "Taiwanese localization movement", to emphasize the importance of Taiwan's culture rather than to regard Taiwanese as solely an appendage of China. The movement stems from the continued hostility displayed by the People's Republic of China towards Taiwan independence and the memory of Kuomintang dictatorship. This involves the teaching of history of Taiwan, geography, and culture from a local perspective, as well as promoting languages locally established in Taiwan, including Hoklo, Hakka and aboriginal languages.
The place of the Taiwanese identity (台灣人) in relation to the Chinese identity (中華人) has been a matter of intense debate. While pro-reunification Taiwanese (海外華人) prefer to think of the Taiwanese identity as a subset of the Chinese national identity, and instead describe the Taiwanese identity as a component of the Chinese diaspora (海外華人 or 華裔). However, pro-independence Taiwanese place the Taiwanese identity outside the Chinese national identity, and instead describe the Taiwanese identity as (海外台灣人 or 台裔).
Originally part of the Taiwan independence movement, its aims are now endorsed by some supporters of Chinese reunification on Taiwan. In its rejection of a monolithic officially sponsored Han Chinese identity in favor of one rooted in local culture, it bears some resemblance to the Xungen movement in mainland China.
[edit] Taiwanese opinion
Polls conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in 2001 found that 70% of Taiwanese would support a name change of the country to Taiwan if the island could no longer be referred to as the Republic of China [1].
In recent years, especially after the 1990s, there has been a growth in the number of people identifying themselves as Taiwanese. In polls conducted by the National Chengchi University back in 1991, only 13.6% of respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese. This figure rose to 45.7% in 2004. In contrast, the number of respondents that identified as Chinese was 43.9% in 1991 and fell to just 6.3% in 2004. Half of respondents responded with dual-identity, both Chinese and Taiwanese, and the statistic has remained steady with just a slight decline from 49.7% in 1992 to 45.4% in 2004. [2]
The Academia Sinica conducted a survey between 1992 and 2004 to further explore the identity issue by asking questions such as whether people would support independence if it wouldn't result in war, and whether Taiwan should unite with China if there were no political, economic or social differences between the two sides. Results showed that a third of respondents maintained "double-identities" over the years whilst a similar number of respondents were "Taiwanese nationalists" (those that would never support unification with China even if there were no differences with China). This number doubled as a result of provocation from the PRC in the 1996 missile crisis. There has been a sharp decline in "Chinese nationalist" (those that would support unification with China the social conditions were the same as Taiwan) from 40% to 15%. The opinion of Taiwanese continues to change, reflecting the problem of national identity which is easily affected by political, social and economic circumstances.
In a recent poll dated November 2006, over 60% of Taiwan's population consider themselves to be Taiwanese while only 34% consider themselves to be both Taiwanese and Chinese. This is consistent with the ethnic breakdown of Taiwan's population. Since most Hakka consider themselves to be Han Chinese, their number combined the Mainlanders and a few Hoklo comes closes to the 34% cited. It would appear that most Hoklo consider themselves to be ethnic Taiwanese. Approximately 62% favored independence for Taiwan. [1]
[edit] Different perspectives of history
During the period of Martial Law, where the Kuomintang (KMT) government was the sole party who governed Taiwan. The KMT government has "modified" Taiwan's history from a Greater China perspective and lump the pre-existing Hoklo and Hakka with the Mainlanders as Chinese, who came to Taiwan and pushed aboriginal communities into the mountains. This is a fallacy, because as mentioned earlier, the early Hoklo and Hakka who arrived in Taiwan have mixed with lowland aborigines in Taiwan. Also, due to several government factions that ruled Taiwan prior to Japanese occupation, many lowland aborigines were forcefully assimilated, and it was in their incentives to pass as Hoklo. There are Taiwanese historians who believe that the Hoklo, especially, are 90%-100% direct descendants of pure lowland aborigines in Taiwan. However, this is politically driven as well by Taiwanese who are extreme in their opposition to the KMT party.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Michael Bristow (May 17, 2002). Taiwan's identity crisis. BBC News.
- ^ Rich Chang (March 12, 2006). 'Taiwan identity' growing. Taipei Times.
