Racist propaganda
Is not the timing of the recent little furore in your letters pages over allegations of racism in Taiwan brought by Callum McGovern (Letters, Jan. 21, page 8) perhaps somewhat serendipitous given the revelation in today’s news of just what will be inscribed on the red envelopes that Chinese billionaire philanthropist Chen Guangbiao (陳光標) plans to give out to poor Taiwanese prior to this Lunar New Year?
“The day is cold, the ground freezing, but the people’s hearts are warm. The Chinese race is one family and a fire in the winter (中華民族一家親,冬天裡的一把火).”
To ascribe the term “family” (with its implicit connotation of moral obligations) to other people on the basis of race alone is pure racial collectivism and ought to be condemned by every decent person. Whether a person is Chinese, American, Japanese, English, Vietnamese, French or whatever other nationality in origin, or whether the color of their skin is black, white or yellow is of no moral import whatsoever. What is of moral import is, in the words of murdered civil rights activist Martin Luther King, the “content of a person’s character.” Period.
I do not condemn Chen’s wish to help the poor, even though I suspect this particular help may be partly a propaganda stunt, but he could have easily phrased that description differently, for instance replacing the words: “The Chinese race is one family and a fire in the winter” with the non--collectivist and non--racialist: “Everyone needs a fire in the winter” (人人在冬天需要火爐). Such an inscription would preserve the benevolent nature of his intentions in handing out red envelopes to the poor, while rejecting unfortunate racial collectivist propaganda.
As it stands, Chen’s inscription is not a little ironic — a fire is indeed a likely outcome when one member of the “family” threatens the other member with more than 1,000 missiles.
MICHAEL FAGAN
Tainan
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