Well, I wouldn’t say they’re split – judging from the article, most oppose it vehemently, though a few disagree and want to buddy up with the PRC. (After all, Taiwan is just another province of the Motherland.)
In an upscale Beijing restaurant, a youthful real estate developer from Taipei muses ruefully over the possibility of union between China’s communist colossus and his home country.
“When I first came here 18 months ago I thought that if China takes over Taiwan it’s OK,” says Chang Chieh, 24. “But now I think that the Taiwan government cannot allow such a thing to happen. It would be a terrible thing for our people.”
Beijing has been working to convince Taiwanese that “common” language, culture and ethnicity make integration into China an inevitability, and a national duty.
But interviews with Chang and others among the around 300,000 Taiwanese professionals who have come to live in China as a result of thawing relations suggest the gap between the two sides is substantial, going beyond China’s one-party rule and Taiwan’s democracy.
“Taiwanese people think differently from people on the mainland,” Chang says. “In China it’s been a real struggle to survive. So people are a lot tougher here. If you put a Taiwanese child down in China, he’ll be eaten up alive.”
Opinion polls in Taiwan say only about 10 percent of its 23 million people want immediate reunification with China. About 15 percent support formal independence, while the remainder favor maintaining the status quo.
Conversations with Taiwanese in China suggest that 56 years of separation have taken a toll on whatever once existed of a common identity.
Shen Zhi-xing, 35, an architect who came from Taiwan early last year, says a key divergence was the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution that convulsed China.
She says Taiwan’s insulation from the event meant it preserved its “Chinese culture” while China was destroying its own.
“I don’t even think of myself as Chinese,” she says. “When I return to Taiwan I feel like I have come to a completely different place. The gap is very substantial.”
Vincent Yang, 42, a Taiwanese businessman now based in Shanghai, is also disdainful of talk of a common national identity.
“We really feel that China and Taiwan are different places,” he says. “I don’t see any reason why we should unify.”
Not all Taiwanese here agree.
Liu Jie, a 46-year-old businessman who has lived in China since 2001, thinks the cultural similarities are significant and argues that there can be a successful union between Taiwan and China — although he doesn’t think that can happen soon.
“These things take time,” he said.
Reading that, does it sound like they’re split, or that all but a few are dead set against reunification?
Link via CDT.
1
By longroad
Its from Taipeitimes, and their position is well known.
October 27, 2005 @ 3:31 am | Comment
2
By richard
No, it is an Associated Press article.
October 27, 2005 @ 3:37 am | Comment
3
By davesgonechina
Every Taiwanese person I ever met on the Mainland thought the Mainlanders were totally alien.
They also often thought they were completely superior to Mainlanders, so keep in mind how they perceive that gap. Alot of them seem to think their s**t don’t stink like PRC s**t does. I heard horror stories of Taiwanese bosses treating Mainland employees like chattel – I mean worse than a local 老板，for sure.
October 27, 2005 @ 3:47 am | Comment
4
By Kevin
Well, you know, the AP is a biased Western media. this was probably written by that guardian guy who went to taishi. you should read china daily! of course, uh, taiwanese want to return to the motherland, and, uh, you don’t understand china…and stuff…
this was the one article that finally got me off my lazy ass to post something on my own blog, glad to see that other blogs that actually get read are covering it too!
October 27, 2005 @ 3:49 am | Comment
5
By richard
That was one of my least favorite things about Honkies – they were brutal in their attitude toward Mainlanders, talking about them as if they were dirt. I couldn’t believe some of the nasty shit I heard. But the mainlanders have definitely had the last laugh as their tourist and investment dollars keep HK from sinking into oblivion and irrelevance.
October 27, 2005 @ 4:24 am | Comment
6
By richard
Speaking of Taiwan and China, have you heard about the invasion?
October 27, 2005 @ 5:00 am | Comment
7
By wkl
Interestingly enough, the attitude towards Mainlanders from Hong Kong people seems to have carried over into Canada. Here in Toronto, we have a large Chinese population, around 400 000 mostly from Hong Kong. With immigration from Hong Kong pretty much dried up, it’s now Mainlanders who are coming over, around 30 000 every year. The Hong Kong people don’t like them and now are moving out of their old neighborhoods to form Hong Kong only neighborhoods. Hopefully, the children will have different attitudes in the future.
October 27, 2005 @ 5:05 am | Comment
8
By Thomas
Almost all of the Taiwanese I know who have spent time in the mainland also think it is totally alien. Note: this has nothing to do with the self perception of being “Chinese” or not. But it does indicate that the two sides of the strait have grown apart somewhat.
I think if more Taiwanese spent time in the mainland, there would not necessarily be more support for full independence, but there would be far less support for unification.
October 27, 2005 @ 9:24 am | Comment
9
By wayne
Of course it’s an AP article. It involves actual research and interviews, something you’ll rarely see in an article written by a Taipei Times staff writer.
But the Taipei Times regularly skims through the various wire services and prints anything anti-China they can find. It’s ridiculous how some times they’ll devote the top headline to some minor Chinese story like “China continues to drag feet on IP violations” while they’d relegate something like “300 die in Indonesian blast” to below the fold.
But if you want something even more absurd, check out the TT’s op-ed pages some times.
October 27, 2005 @ 11:26 am | Comment
10
By sun bin
Definitely by a junior expat reporter.
(s)he used pin-yin spelling for businessmen from Taiwan.
October 27, 2005 @ 11:55 am | Comment
11
By amida
Sun Bin-not only is it Pinyin, but it’s incorrect Pinyin! There shouldn’t be a hyphen in the names. I know it’s picky, but I find that sloppy. Evidence of not making it over the clue barrier.
October 27, 2005 @ 6:41 pm | Comment
12
By xing
>Alien to the mainlanders.
It has more to do their false sense of superiority over the mainlanders than the real defferences.
October 27, 2005 @ 9:31 pm | Comment
13
By Thomas
Perhaps a little bit, Xing. But I know plenty of outsiders who have lived in both societies and notice large differences as well.
One more note. In order to have a false sense of superiority, SOME differences must exist. Senses of superiority arise when one sees that something else is different.
October 27, 2005 @ 10:54 pm | Comment
14
By davesgonechina
Xing, I think it’s the other way around: they have a sense of superiority because of the differences, not that the differences are because of the attitude of superiority.
Taiwanese I’ve talked to think they’re better than Mainlanders because they feel they are a) more worldly, b) less inclined to let people walk all over them, c) more informed, d) more wealthy, and e) have more exposure to traditional Chinese culture.
These things are often true about Taiwanese in comparison to Mainlanders. It doesn’t make them better people, or give them the right to be snobs about it, but those are real differences.
October 28, 2005 @ 2:15 am | Comment
15
By sun bin
Same attitude for people from Hong Kong (more so years ago), and for Shnaghai ober Anhui, Anhui city over Anhui rural.
Really, there is no clear logic that these interviews support the comment in the posts though.
October 28, 2005 @ 2:53 am | Comment
16
By nausicaa
I would add to dave’s list f) they may think they’re more civilised.
So, yes, there are Taiwanese do exhibit barely-veiled ethnocentricity (for lack of a better word) when talking about the mainlanders. But their ethnocentricity is hardly unique, as some of what passes on this board can attest to.
However, my Taiwanese friends have never looked down on me, and our similarities are much more apparent than our differences, so presumably at least some of the perceived cultural divide is due to miscommunication.
I also recall that my father had a colleague with whom he was very good friends, and believe me, although he was a very personable and kind man he was definitely an “old Red” in his values.
October 28, 2005 @ 6:22 am | Comment
17
By nausicaa
Ugh. Meant to write “Taiwanese colleague”.
October 28, 2005 @ 6:23 am | Comment
18
By xing
>have more exposure to traditional Chinese culture.
Dave,
You must be kidding me. That’s what the lady said in the article: on one hand, she claims that the chinese culture has been better preserved in Taiwan than in the mainland, on another hand, she said that she didn’t consider herself chinese.
I have many friends from Taiwan in the states. Putting political view points aside, I have found that it was very easy to mix up with Taiwanese because of similar cultural background.
For good reasons, many Taiwan like to pretend that they are “foreign devils”, believing they are more worldly and more civilised.
I heard some mainlanders call taiwanese Tai Biao Zi (country-pumpkins from taiwan).
October 28, 2005 @ 2:09 pm | Comment