Annotations (2)

Legacy Debate as Republic of China Marks 100 Years

     According to this piece of BBC news, we find out a problem when discussing Taiwan’s independency. Our government recognizes the formal name of our country as ROC (Republic of China), and in the Constitution of ROC, it writes, “中華民國領土，依其固有之疆域”, but it doesn’t specify the parts which belong to its inherent territory. Should Taiwanese insist on the name of ROC? Or should we recognize Taiwan as just Taiwan?

     The article starts from the 100^th anniversary of ROC in 2011. While many people in Taiwan celebrate the national day, there are some people who have different opinion.

          "The ROC is a Chinese government exiled in Taipei. It should be out of Taiwan," said Tsay Ting-kuei, who is one of a group of people who believe that when Japan lost WWII, Taiwan technically should not have been handed over to the ROC because that was not specified in the treaties signed between Japan and the Western victors in the war.(BBC News)

Another business woman, Yeh Tsai-chu, said, “The ROC's 100th anniversary has nothing to do with Taiwan. Besides, what is there to celebrate? The ROC is not even recognised as a country by the rest of the world.” (BBC News)

     There are still many people credit KMT government with making Taiwan a democratic country and becoming prosperous in economy. Despite these facts, it seems that we have to choose between the name of ROC and Taiwan. Most the countries in the world recognize Taiwan instead of ROC. If we go abroad with the passport writing ROC, the customs officers categorize us as Chinese. ROC has lost its membership in United Nations in 1971, and it is only admitted officially by about 20 more countries.

     Considering the Sun Flower Movement happened in March in 2014, which is mainly the response of the students to Service Trade Agreement that is going to be signed by our government with China, we can get a hint of the attitude of both the government and the younger generation. There is concern among Taiwanese that we are about to be integrated with China. Even the name of ROC will become history. This is the reason of why the issue of whether Taiwan should be independent is under severe debate recently.

Reference

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15218596

Revised Annotations (1)

Revised Annotations (1)

1.      Define primordialism, structuralism and constructuralism.

2.      Connect my points more logically.

3.      Find out why other countries refused to admit Taiwan as an independent country.

4.      Refer to Sunflower Movement and Umbrella Revolution.

Source: 民族意識與兩岸關係 (P.31~P33) 林國章著

     From the perspective of Ethnic Politics, ethnic group is a kind of social group, which will act like an interest group in order to strive for political or economical resources from the government or the society. Since 1960s, research about Ethnic Politics had become more common because most of the countries in the world are consisted of multicultural ethnic groups. To analyze Nationalism from the perspective of Ethnic Politics involves two key points: identity principle and ethnic relation theory. Generally, ethnic or national identity is concluded into primordialism, structuralism and constructuralism.

Primordialism considers that the identification of an ethnic group is based on a common culture, such as blood relationship, life, language, religion and so on. Structuralism argues that ethnic group is a kind of consensus people form due to the inequalities in political right and economical property, and the features of blood relationship and culture are merely the tool to mobilize people. Constructuralism emphasizes that identification is constructed by human. The common experience and history is the key point to construct this identification.

In the behalf of the contemporary discourse of Taiwan nationalism that inclined to be independent, it attempts to establish Taiwan as a multicultural country though the ancestors of the residents in Taiwan were mostly Han race that came from China with Chinese culture.

Secondly, relation of ethnic groups refers to the phenomenon that different ethnic groups meet and conflict in a multicultural country, and the displayed phenomenon can be also concluded into three theories: Assimilation Theory, Conflict Theory and The Pluraist Theory. Assimilation Theory means that one ethnic group is transplanted into another ethnic group, and gradually become very similar. Conflict Theory emphasizes that different ethnic groups conflict because of different interest. The Pluraist Theory thinks that the culture of minority should be kept, and we should respect different ethnic groups in a society.

     When it comes to the question whether Taiwanese should accept being treated as part of China, I think we can first look at Taiwanese identity. Not all of the people in Taiwan have a strong identification with Taiwan this island. If we analyze Taiwanese with identity principle, we can say that Taiwan ethnic groups are the mixture of three identity principles. Some Taiwanese think they are Taiwanese because their relatives born, grow and share rather the same custom with other people in Taiwan. Others think the inequality in political powers and economical sources make the sense of group. The others think identification is built by human on the basis of the same experience. With these different kinds of identification, one can hardly identify with the other, and thus is difficult to form a common consensus.

     From the perspective of relation of ethnic groups, the Pluraist Theory is more valued in order to make the society more harmonious nowadays, so it seems that we shouldn’t create the conflict between different ethnic groups by refusing any interaction in any form with China. Chinese should not be discredited and that to get along harmoniously and peacefully is the long road to go.

     The theories I mentioned above provide the reasons why not all of Taiwanese wish Taiwan be an independent country. 

Annotations (1)

Source: 民族意識與兩岸關係 (P.31~P33) 林國章著

     From the perspective of Ethnic Politics, ethnic group is a kind of social group, which will act like an interest group in order to strive for political or economical resources from the government or the society. Since 1960s, research about Ethnic Politics had become more common because most of the countries in the world are consisted of multicultural ethnic groups. To analyze Nationalism from the perspective of Ethnic Politics involves two key points: identity principle and ethnic relation theory. Generally, ethnic or national identity is concluded into primordialism, structuralism and constructuralism. In the behalf of the contemporary discourse of Taiwan nationalism that inclined to be independent, it attempts to establish Taiwan as a multicultural country though the ancestors of the residents in Taiwan were mostly Han race that came from China with Chinese culture. Relation Theory contains Assimilation Theory, Conflict Theory and The Pluraist Theory.

     When it comes to the question whether Taiwanese should accept being treated as part of China, I think we can first look at Taiwanese identity. Not all of the people in Taiwan have a strong identification with Taiwan this island. If we analyze Taiwanese with identity principle, we can say that Taiwan ethnic groups are the mixture of three identity principles. Some Taiwanese think they are Taiwanese because their relatives born, grow and share rather the same custom with other people in Taiwan. Others think the inequality in political powers and economical sources make the sense of group. The others think identification is built by human on the basis of the same experience. With these different kinds of identification, one can hardly identify with the other, and thus is difficult to form a common consensus.

     If we consider Taiwan as a multicultural country, the phenomenon that different ethnic groups meet and conflict can also be explained in three relation theories. First, one ethnic group is transplanted into another ethnic group, and gradually become very similar. Second, different ethnic groups conflict because of different interest. Third, the culture of minority should be kept, and we should respect different ethnic groups in a society. Nowadays, the third theory is more valued in order to make the society more harmonious. From this perspective of view, it seems that we shouldn’t create the conflict between different ethnic groups by refusing any interaction in any form with China. Chinese should not be discredited and that to get along harmoniously and peacefully is the long road to go. 

References

林國章. (2010). 民族意識與兩岸關係: 孫中山研究的新面向. Taipei, 海峽學術出版社