Rectify this
Dear Johnny,
Several weeks ago I was listening to a podcast of Bill Moyer’s Journal. The topic of the podcast was completely unrelated to Taiwan, but during the course of the discussion, countries with politicians that flout the law or change it to suit political ambitions, prosecute previous administrations based on policy differences and have a lack of due process were described as “Banana Republics.”
Well, you can imagine what that reminded me of. Given the proceedings of the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) trial and now the refusal to release him to prepare an appeal — despite the comments of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “mentor,” Jerome Cohen — I think it’s high time we engaged in some name rectification and updated the name of our fair island to reflect reality.
Although it may be more accurate to refer to Taiwan as a “Betel Nut Republic,” there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel given that the term “Banana Republic” has been around since 1904. Therefore, without further adieu, I give you “Taiwan, BROC” — the Banana Republic of China.
MARVIN HILLER
Taipei
Johnny replies: Excellent suggestion, Marvin, though we might have to take into consideration the destruction of the banana harvest by Typhoon Morakot. By the way, do you really think this government gives a rat’s ass what Jerome Cohen thinks?
Rectify this, too
Dear Johnny,
Are you aware that Taiwan’s government makes a distinction between ordinary “foreigners” and “overseas Chinese” and charges the foreigners twice as much for health insurance, ARC renewal and presumably many other things as well? Why was this relic of Chinese chauvinism not removed by the DPP back when they were in power?
I’d also like to ask if the Taiwanese have ever campaigned to change names to something, well, Taiwanese. Besides the Chinese place names that proliferate throughout Taipei’s road network (especially in Wanhua District (萬華), home of “Tibet Road”), pretty much every town in the country has a Zhongzheng Road (for Chiang Kai-shek, 蔣介石) and a Zhongshan Road (for Sun Yat-sen, 孫中山).
Worst of all, some townships, like Sansia (三峽, formerly known as San-kak-eng, but renamed by the KMT in honor of Sichuan’s Three Gorges), have prominent streets named Jieshou, or “Long Live Chiang Kai-shek.” And don’t even get me started on the Aboriginal townships inexplicably named Renai (仁愛), Sinyi (信義) and Heping (和平). It’s 2009, for Matsu’s sake — you’d think bentuhua would have taken hold by now.
NICK
Johnny replies: On your first questions, I was vaguely aware of this, and I note that in line with our de facto status as an independent country, this discrimination now represents de facto Taiwanese chauvinism.
On the last question, there were some changes: Ketagalan Boulevard consigned Peanut to the grave in Taipei, while Mangka Boulevard (using Wanhua’s old name) is a newish artery. Elsewhere, Namasiya Township (那瑪夏) replaced “Three Principles of the People” (Sanmin, 三民) but as God is a Nationalist, Morakot duly punished those insolent folks.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
RSS