Examination Yuan member Lin Yu-ti's (
After all, in our school textbooks, documents, films, portraits, money, celebrations, monuments and countless other parts of our daily life, Sun Yat-sen (
Even as ruling party and opposition legislators started trading barbs over the issue, I finally got the chance to see footage of Lin being questioned on the issue of whether the "nation's father" should be abolished. His answer was that: "It would be best to abolish it, for these days, we shouldn't have patriarchal ideas."
Now that was really a shock. I had always thought of Lin as an avuncular local type with a strong sense of Taiwanese identity. I never thought that he brought such advanced feminist ideas to the concept of patriarchal social structures.
It comes as no surprise that living in this patriarchal society, we are used to patriarchal values. Friedrich Engels, in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, published in 1884, pointed out the men and women were originally equal, but that after the concept of private property was developed, with the resultant emergence of nation and class, women's status became that of chattel.
Through this process of development, the legal status of women was repressed and their freedom and ability to participate in the community constrained. Virginia Woolf lamented that "As a woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country."
What Lin has done is to point out the patriarchal development that has taken place within our historical and political education. Why indeed should we have a "father of the nation?" Why does our history follow a line of male rulers all the way down to Sun Yat-sen in a patriarchal line?
What is without doubt is that the concept of "father of the nation" is used to constrain thought within a framework of national rule, affirming national legitimacy and consolidating diverse social and ethnic groups with the aim of acquiring the highest degree of political power.
But does anyone remember the "mother of the country?" That was Soong Ching-ling (
Of course she knew that her husband was the founder of the Republic of China, but she also understood that the "father of the nation" is nothing more than a political symbol and it is "the people" who constitute the body of the nation. Therefore, while embracing the thought of Sun Yat-sen, she threw herself into another revolution, one that sought to overthrow the Republic of China -- not caring at all that Sun was supposedly the father of the Republic of China.
As the people constitute the body of the nation, sexual equality and equal rule by both sexes is the goal we wish to achieve. This equality should be incorporated into our thinking on government policy and education.
Who is the father of our country and do we want such a father? Well, we should go ask the nation's mother.
Cheng Wei-chun is a masters candidate in the Graduate School for Social Transformation Studies at Shih Hsin University.
Translated by Ian Bartholomew
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability. Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to