Global Voices Online » Taiwan (ROC)

Taiwan: Issues of identity

David Reid — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:31:46 +0000

Catherine at shuflies responds to an e-mail questioning how she identifies herself. Michella at Alive and Kicking! who was also a subject of the e-mail describes her own multi-cultural background. Catherine also follows up with a post on why she calls herself a Taiwanese-American.

Taiwan: LGBT Pride on parade

David Reid — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:53:10 +0000

The annual Taiwan LGBT Pride event was held in Taipei on Saturday with an estimated crowd of 25,000 people. Poagao writes about joining the parade for the first time. shuflies has a report and photos. The event's official photographers also have photos at flickr.

Taiwan: Ethics of gift giving

David Reid — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:24:39 +0000

Michella discusses the ethical issues for journalists offered gifts. She finds it difficult to understand some of the gift and money giving traditions in Taiwan.

Taiwan: Future of the Taiwanese language

David Reid — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:28:35 +0000

Stocks and Politics discusses the fate of the Hoklo Taiwanese language and expresses concern about its decline. There are also some comparisons with the use of Cantonese.

Taiwan: Baseball past and present

David Reid — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:19:14 +0000

Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Taiwan. The View from Taiwan analyses a paper on the history of baseball in Taiwan. Sponge Bear reports on watching a professional league game in Taichung.

Taiwan: Bike culture is growing

David Reid — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:56:02 +0000

Bike Hugger reports on the growing bike culture in Taiwan and comments that the growth doesn't seem to include bicycle commuters.

China and Taiwan: Uyghur Exile to Sue Taiwanese Government?

Oiwan Lam — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:34:03 +0000

Angry Chinese blogger comments on the report concerning Uyghur exile, Rebiya Kadeer's plan to sue Taiwanese government over recent accusations that they are connected to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

Taiwan: BoF 2009

Portnoy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:22:00 +0000

Started by a group of bloggers in 2005, and then organized by ADCT since 2006, BoF(Birds of a Feather), aka Taiwan Youth Blog Festival, has become the major Web 2.0 event in Taiwan. This year, because of Typhoon Morakot that wreaked havoc in August 2009 in southeren Taiwan, BoF 2009 on 9/27 focuses on how online community, as a part of local society, should have leverage in the offline world under the theme “Clean UP!”. Besides damage mitigation, this year BoF also divide sessions for microblogging, blogger economy and family bloggers, observing how different trends and innovations change the landscape in the blogosphere. (Live broadcasting in both text and video here.)

Taiwan: Kaohsiung set to screen film amidst controversy

David Reid — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:08:17 +0000

The Kaohsiung Film Festival came under pressure from China over its decision to screen The Ten Conditions of Love, a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer. As a result the Kaohsiung City Government decided to screen the documentary in advance of the film festival. Echo Taiwan criticises the Kaohsiung City Government for bowing to Chinese pressure. Guts United says that even the decision to put forward the screening harms Taiwan's freedom of speech (zh).

China and Hong Kong: Ex-president's life sentence, a farce or a victory?

Winglok Hung — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:00:19 +0000

Former Taiwanese leader Chen Shui bian was sentenced to life imprisonment on 11 September and Portnoy has made an excellent summary of Twitterers' responses from Taiwan. Here I would like to add to the discussion by collecting more opinions and discussions from mainland China and Hong Kong, which, very interestingly, are pointing at very different conclusions.

China: A farce of Democracy

There is a hot debate on whether Chen's life sentence is a farce or victory of democracy.

Wuluwufu from state-owned Qiangguo Forum argued that Chen's life sentence is a farce of Taiwan's democratic system.

陈水扁是靠操弄民主而上台的,一个操弄虚假利益冲突而捞个人实际利益的政客欺骗得了大多数民众,也太小看民众的智商了,它只不过表明一个最低政治操守都没有的政客是不能被利益强势集团容忍的,清除出局应是陈水扁注定的结局.

Chen came into office by manipulating democracy. He is a politician who is stealing personal gains by defrauding the public. He has underestimated people intelligence and his life sentence shows that a politician with low integrity cannot be intolerable be the interest groups in power. It is inevitable that Chen be kicked out from the political scene.

从这个意义上说,民主是局部地胜利了,法制也如帮规一样惩戒不守规矩的前帮主.但这种胜利如果超出这个范围去宣讲,甚致说是人民民意的胜利就太可笑了,反而,从大的角度看,说是民主法制的胜利勿宁说是民主法制的又一丑剧

It may be valid to say that it is a partial victory of democracy as the legal institution had punished the former outlaw leader. However, it would be a joke if we overstate such victory as a manifestation of “people power”. On the contrary, from a broader point of view, it is a farce rather than a victory of the democratic institutional system.

111.167.234 added in the comment section,

记住了，陈水扁是卸任成了老百姓之后，台湾司法才敢制裁他。在任上的官僚陈水扁，台湾司法屁也不如。所以，台湾司法只敢欺负百姓。

Remember, Taiwan’s court started to sue Chen only after he became an ordinary citizen. Taiwan judiciary was in a mess when Chen was still in power. We can say that, Taiwan legal institution only bullies the ordinary people.

Hong Kong: A victory of Democracy

However, Xiaoren from Hong Kong celebrated Chen’s life sentence as a victory of democracy in his blog,

台灣民主o既成功，證明法院係由人民開，而唔係政府。

有民主先有民生，如果香港呢家已經好似台灣咁民主發展得咁成熟，真係唔知會有幾多官員因為某 d 事件而下台。

The success of Taiwan’s democracy proves that the court is for the people, not the government,
People’s livelihood is based on democracy, if Hong Kong’s democratic progress is as mature as Taiwan’s, I cannot estimate how many governmental leaders have to step down…

Several netizens from Hong Kong Golden Forum used the graphic picture below to celebrate Chen's sentence. It said: “let's sing and dance!”

In Hong Kong Discussion Forum, a netizen udbkam posted a question, asking “Do you agree that Chen’s corruption is a minor problem because Taiwan enjoys universal suffrage?”

Helios agreed

呢個我同意，
至少陳水扁貪污之後唔會不了了之，
對岸嘛，想知邊個唔貪都難．．．．．．

I agree with that,
at least Chen’s corruption case comes to a conclusion.
Across the strait, people do not even know who’re involved (in corruption)…..

Eric_from_1986 further elaborated,

將陳水扁「手多多」得來的錢跟大陸貪官比較，簡直蚊脾同牛脾，輸足十條街

但係阿扁咁樣已經要坐穿牢底，大陸呢？

The amount of money taken away by Chen's dirty hands is only a fraction of the corrupt officialdom in the mainland China, but Chen was punished for life sentence, will that happen in mainland China?

Carlucci also shared similar view,

今天我很羨慕台灣人. 能把前貪污總統判無期徒刑. 公義得以申張. 中國人民共和國? 何時才能這樣???

Today I am so envious of Taiwan people that they could sentence their former corrupt president to life in prison. Justice has been served. Until when the People’s Republic of China will be able to do that?

Anti-CCP sentiment at work?

Another debate among Hong Kong netizens over Chen's sentence is on whether or not Chen's sentence is a result of the anti- Chinese Communist party's sentiment in Taiwan (as corruption is the biggest problem in China). It is interesting to note that such opinion is very different from some Taiwanese netizens viewpoint that the Taiwanese ruling party KMT is trying to please CCP with Chen's life imprisonment (via Portnoy's post).

Helen17162 in Hong Kong Discussion Forum disagreed with such association,

陳水扁的例子同反共有什麼關系呢？法律面前人人平等，人類生存才有希望，台灣加油啊，給中國共產党一個好好的警鐘，貪官的下場，沒有明天社會是黑暗的。中國要同台灣談統戰，共產党好好改革喇，走向民主法律的社會才是中華民族之褔。

I don't see the relation between Chen’s case with anti-communism? People are all equal under the law so that there is hope for our future. Add oil Taiwan! and alerts the CCP and its corrupt officials the consequence of corruption. Our society will be in darkness if we can't see the future. Chinese needs to reform itself if it wants to apply United Front strategy with Taiwan . A society that moves towards the institutional democratic system will bring fortune of all ethnic groups in China.

(P.S the thumb nail picture is from NF daily news)

Taiwan: Response to Ex-President's Life Sentence

Portnoy — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:23:16 +0000

On September 11, Taiwan's former President Chen Sui-Bian was sentenced to life imprisonment and a NTD 200 million fine (roughly USD 6.13 million) on charges of embezzlement, taking bribes and money laundering. Chen's wife Wu Shu-jen also received a life sentence while their son Chen Chih-chung and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching received sentences ranging from 20-30 months for money laundering. Other relatives received suspended sentences. Two former advisers were given sentences of 16 and 20 years imprisonment. See Taiwan news for more detail on Chen family's corruption charge and sentence.

The GV Chinese lingua team invited twitterers to comment on the case and use hashtag “#abian911” to mark the tweets that they recommend to be featured in GV. The opinions are rather diverse.

Twitterers from Taiwan tended to doubt if the sentence is justified. HOW from Taiwan:

[murmur] 阿扁判無期徒刑…但為什麼性犯罪者可以假釋。我恨透他貪汙，但司法也不能這樣搞啊，比例原則在哪裡啊！（認為我政治狂上身可以盡量remove我沒關係）

Abian got life sentence…but why sex criminals can have conditional release, (but he can't?). I hate his corruption, but justice cannot play it this way. Where is the principle of proportionality!

pipperl from Taiwan:

扁案這簡直是抄家，以後所有被告也要比照辦理嗎？ #abian911

The case of Chen is simply a family purge. Is this going to be a model for other politicians?

judie35 from Taiwan:

扁案一審的判決充滿政治報復意味，讓人無法接受。此種做法不是伸張正義，而是逼台灣社會對立分裂繼續深化。扁非無辜，但過重的懲罰反而會使法院失去正當性，讓人同情他、甚至尊他為殉道英雄。 #abian911

The sentence of the first trial of Chen's case smells completely like political avenge, and that is not acceptable. This is not justice, instead, it forces Taiwan society to continue its antagonism and disunion. Chen is not innocent, but the over-weighted punishment is making the court lose its legitimacy, which in return lets people feel sympathy for him or even regard him as a hero who die for his country. #abian911

traaworld from Taiwan RT @thecarol: RT @Lydia618: RT: @4F:

你們不要傻傻的，以為謀財貪污已經走了。謀財貪污一直都在，謀最多貪最大的一直都在打人喊救人。#(真的，這才是笑點所在) #abian911

Don't be fooled to believe that corruption is gone. Corruption is always here, and the most corrupted are always accusing others as corrupted. #(Yeah, this is the point) #abain911

traaworld from Taiwan RT @lianyue from China:

终生监禁的两种表述方法：陈水扁无期；共产党万岁。 #abian911

Two expressions for “In jail for life”: Chen Sui-Bian's life sentence and Long live CCP.

Octw is quite an exceptional Taiwanese view who believes that justice has been served:

正義。所有犯罪的人都應該追繳犯罪所得。希望這是一個永恆的判例。 #abian911

Justice. All the illegal earnings of criminals should be pursued and returned. I hope this is an eternal prejudication. #abian911

While among twitterers from China, the fact that an ex-political leader received life sentence is quite unimaginable. gudidi from China:

陈水扁的人生还真是跌宕起伏。。像部精心炮制的精彩大戏哪。。#abian911

Chen's life is full of ebbs and flows…just like a sophisticated drama! #abian911

TONG from China cites lianyue's tweet:

#abian911 民主的台湾，阿扁无期；专制的大陆，人民无期。

Democratic Taiwan leads to Abian's life sentence; Aristocratic Mainland China leads to all citizens' life sentence.

ismaelan, a Chinese Muslim:

重判一个具有族群象征意义的台湾人,更让人加深了对国民党治国无能、内斗有方的恶劣历史印象. #abian911

Heavily punishing a token of ethnic Taiwanese adds more on the evil impression on KMT's inability to run the country and the ability to battle against interior enemy. #abian911

As for the Taiwan English-speaking twitter circle, it seems that most of the opinions simply do not trust the ruling party KMT and some accuse the Beijing government for operating behind the scene in Chen's sentence. The following tweets are selected by GV author David Reid:

Tortue: You know that I don't keep SCB (Chen Shui-Bian) and DPP in my heart but I don't think that a life sentence here was really appropriate…

TimMaddog: Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian and his wife Wu Shu-jen just sentenced to life imprisonment. Fuck this Ma Ying-jeou government!

vshchen: I hope most Taiwanese are smart enough to see how KMT is trampling on Taiwan's justice.

I wouldn't be surprised if Chen Shui-bian were sentenced to death by KMT's court. It's already very obvious that KMT want Chen to die.

jgdeutsch: A life sentence for Chen Shui-bian? This seems a bit extreme, even for a regime that's kissing up to the CCP. http://ow.ly/oWh1 [link to BBC news article]

JuleSuga @vshchen Hope now more ppl will wake up & see KMT's true colours. Chen will come out one day & lead us to build our own country.

David also suggested an article from The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato, who believed that the life sentence is to please Beijing government:

Chen was a flawed leader. But he is being sacrificed by a regime that cannot help but bend over backwards to please Beijing. As he and his wife face life behind bars, Beijing has successfully split Taiwanese Aborigines while dealing as death blow to the only opposition party in Taiwan that make the country worthy of being called a democracy……….

I certainly do not wish a 9/11 I Taiwan, or anything resembling a Cuban Revolution. But if the voice of the people continues to be ignored like this, and if Beijing continues to succeed in its plan to annex Taiwan one voice at a time, I fear that nothing less will be necessary.

Taiwan: Pheasant-tailed Jacana struggles for survival

David Reid — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:22:52 +0000

Typhoon Morakot damaged a reserve for the Pheasant-tailed Jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus) in Tainan County. Stop Hushan Dam! writes about the challenges the birds face to survive.

Taiwan: Deaflympics open in Taipei

David Reid — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:55:42 +0000

The Deaflympics began with the opening ceremony in Taipei on Saturday night and the sporting events began on Sunday. Bartek reports on a volleyball match. Brian Webb reports on the friendly vibe at the main stadium.

Taiwan: The future for the aboriginal people after Typhoon Morakot

I-fan Lin — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:03:47 +0000

Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan Aug. 7-9, triggering the worst flooding in 50 years in southern Taiwan and leading to landslides that buried remote mountainous villages and tribal settlements. In order to speed up the post-disaster reconstruction, the Legislative Yuan passed an urgent special statute to raise a special budget on 27 of August. However, the Statue authorizes governments at all levels to impose compulsory relocation of villages or tribal settlements from areas vulnerable to floods and landslides to safer areas. For aboriginal people, the geographical location and tribal community are crucial to the preservation of their culture and tradition, many are worried that the “compulsory relocation policy” would make their more vulnerable in the future.

Home buried in mud

imagelight visited Mashia village and reported,

橋樑房屋無一倖免，全被土石流吞噬…村裡像是剛戰爭過一樣…還有二十幾名村民被埋在土石堆裡。

The bridges and buildings were all engulfed by the mudslide…The village looks like a battlefield… More than twenty people were buried in the mud.

由於道路不通，電力一直無法恢復…晚餐五點多就開始吃了，就是怕天色暗了夾不到菜…現在要清理道路，就是希望可以將山上的水果運送到山下去賣，順道帶幾部發電機回來。

Because the roads are still blocked by the mud, there is no electricity…Villagers have to eat dinner at 5pm or they have to eat in the dark after sunset…Now the residents are trying to clean the roads so that they can bring fruits to sell in the markets and bring back some electricity generators.

After the typhoon, many people from other less affected aboriginal villages bring food and generators across the mountains to these isolated villages. Judie reported,

遠從宜蘭、桃園、新竹來的泰雅族勇士(包括女性)，以最簡單的提袋(ka-chi-a)綁上綿繩和塑膠水管當背包，揹著重重的民生物資，徒步越過已不成路的土石堆，進入鄒族部落。這樣的行動持續超過兩個禮拜。

The Atayal people (including women) from Yilan, Taoyuan, and Hsinzu have carried these heavy supplies with the backpacks made of simple bags, cotton ropes, and plastic tubes for two weeks. They walked across the mountains to go to the Tsou villages.

The government asks the survivors to evacuate, but many of the villagers prefer to stay in the villages. Gaea explained their reasons.

居民不願下山「是擔心政府之後就不開路，我們就回不了家」…「下了山，我們就不是『居民』，而是『難民』。」三民國中教師葉一萱指出，原住民離開部落，幾乎不受任何法律保障。

These residents choose to stay in the village because they are worried that ‘if we have left our village, we will not be able to come back.'…'Once we have left our village, we are no longer considered as “residents”, we become “refugees.”‘ A teacher in Sanming junior high school said there isn't any law to protect aboriginal people's rights and properties once they have left their villages.

Culture and social network

In addition to material damages, the Typhoon has also destroyed aboriginal people's culture heritage. Airportman said that in Hsiaoliin village,

平埔族聚落幾乎覆滅，他們辛苦活化起來的大滿族文化、夜祭、公廨都淹沒在泥土裡。

the Siraya tribe is almost vanished; now everything is buried in the mud: the temples, the Daman tribe culture and the night ceremony the tribe tried to revive in the past few decades.

Furthermore, for the aboriginal people who have been evacuated, gaea said they will be more vulnerable.

必須面對部落分散的狀況，對原住民來說，等同另一種毀滅。

They were forced to settle in different places. Such kind of arrangement is devastating to the aboriginal people.

Village relocation and Post-Disaster Recovery Statue

Coolloud, a citizen media website, discussed about the Post-Disaster Recovery Statue《莫拉克風災重建條例》:

中央政府、縣市政府得就災區安全堪慮或違法濫建之土地，劃定特定區域，限制居住或限期強迫遷居、遷村。金惠雯批評，此條文無限擴張政府權力，完全沒有原住民參與遷村決策的機制。

The central and county government have power to decide on the land use policy in the disaster zone. They can evacuate residents by force or move the whole village to another region. Hui-Wen Jin criticized that the regulation had given the governments with unlimited power and excluded the aboriginal people from decision making process.

gaea reported that before the Post-Disaster Recovery Statue was passed

災區部落的代表與民間社團前往立院靜坐抗議…要求「強制遷村」應拿掉，以及「應取得部落同意」的訴求。

Representatives of the survivors and some civil associations protested in front of the Legislation Yuan…they asked to the legislation body to replace the principle of ‘forced village relocation' with ‘village relocation with consensus.'

coolloud discussed the possibility of reaching a consensus:

金惠雯說，遷村議題一定要回到原住民「傳統領域」的概念，讓原住民保有傳統領域，再由原民住他們選擇安居適合的遷村地址。

Hui-Wen Jin said, the discussion about village relocation should be based on the concept of ‘traditional territory' according to aboriginal culture. The aboriginal people should enjoy their rights to claim their traditional territory and decide on their settlement plan.

The government has a mortgage plan for the survivors, but kikisweets said there are still many problems for the survivors to rebuild their home.

貸款的申請期限僅僅只有一年，意味著在一年內必須要決定該在哪居住。部落的族人依舊希望能夠返回家鄉居住，然而面對消失的土地以及外界專業學者的建議，原地重建的機會渺茫，不得不向外另尋住所…嘉蘭真正需要的是實際的經濟援助，以及未來安置上的專業規劃與建議，家園失去了，族人之間的聯繫與文化是不能失去的。

The deadline for applying this mortgage is one year from now, which means the survivors have to make decision on where they want to settle within this year. Even though the aboriginal people do not want to be displaced, some of the tribes have been buried in the mud and according to experts' opinion, it is impossible for them to move back. It is inevitable that they have to settle elsewhere.…What Chialan tribe needs is financial support and professional advice on future relocation of the tribe. They have already lost their homeland, they cannot lose their culture and relation among members of the tribe.

時間一天天的過去，族人們究竟該何去何從？

Day by day, time passes by. What will be the future of the aboriginals?

Japan and Taiwan: Comparing the LDP and KMT

David Reid — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:48:34 +0000

The election in Japan over the weekend brought an end to more than 50 years of almost continuous rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The KMT also continuously held power in Taiwan for a similar period of time. Sponge Bear makes some comparisons between the LDP in Japan and the KMT in Taiwan.