New National Identity Emerges in Taiwan

[Muddleoftheroad]

Culture Shifting Away From Mainland China
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 2, 2004; Page A13

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Like almost all adults in Taiwan, Li Chuan-hsin grew up convinced that he was Chinese, that Taiwan was part of China and that his government was destined to take back the mainland from the Communists. These lessons were drilled into him as a child in school, as a student in college and as a young soldier in Taiwan's army.

But as a social studies teacher in Taipei's Xinpu National Elementary School, Li is passing on a different set of beliefs to his students. Ask the children in his sixth-grade class if any of them are Chinese, and they just giggle and trade puzzled looks. Ask which of them are Taiwanese, and they all shoot their arms into the air and shout, "Me!"

Textbooks that once covered only Chinese history and geography have been rewritten to focus more on Taiwan, and local dialects once banned in school are now the subject of weekly classes. Maps of Taiwan have replaced those of China, and portraits of Chiang Kai-shek, the nationalist leader who moved his government here after the Communist revolution of 1949, have disappeared from classrooms. The school even took down a sign telling students to behave like "dignified and upstanding Chinese."

The changes in Li's classroom, and in schools across Taiwan, reflect a profound shift in public opinion on this island of 23 million, one that poses a challenge for both China and the United States. After more than half a century of self-rule and democratic evolution, most people here have abandoned Chiang's dream of unification with China and see themselves as citizens of a new, independent nation with its own culture and history.

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

Despite what the regime in China and the one in D.C. wish, the Taiwanese people have evolved into a freedom-loving democracy. This will bring some new troubles to that region whether we try to deny it or not.

[Character Assassin]

1. This is good.

Self-determination for Taiwan.

[Muddleoftheroad]

2. I agree

And it will piss off a lot of folks.

[Character Assassin]

3. Only The Locksteppers

And even though it's the right thing to do, if it makes certain people look bad, then so be it, according to them.