For three straight weeks, a poll of some sort about the social and global awareness of teenagers has appeared in the news. Conducted by different organizations, the latest one published last week showed that 50 percent of teenagers are not interested in or familiar with global issues that are closely tied to Taiwan, such as the South China Sea territorial disputes. When asked to rate themselves and the general public in terms of global perspective, respondents gave both groups a score of less than 60 out of 100.
While it might seem normal for teenagers to be disinterested in news and politics, that the students also rated the general public at less than 60 in global perspective indicates that the problem is prevalent even in older generations.
It is also not just about global issues — Taiwanese respondents were ranked third-least knowledgeable in the world about their own nation in last year’s Index of Ignorance. In May, a survey showed that 90 percent of teenagers did not know that more than 98 percent of the nation’s energy is imported.
In a nation that often looks inward and is prone to internal squabbles, both local and global knowledge are crucial to steer Taiwan toward a competitive and stable future. Especially when so much of the nation’s fortunes depend on its international standing, Taiwanese cannot afford to be ignorant.
One problem is that teens really do not have many sources of relevant national and international news and analysis in Chinese. With the local media fixated on sensationalism, empty political statements and dashcam footage, it might be easier to simply start incorporating more global and practical current events topics and discussion into the classroom.
As society starts to value practical, creative and vocational education over the traditional “force-feed” model, awareness of current events should be a point of emphasis as well.
The same goes for social issues. Another recent survey showed that 42 percent of teenagers are passive toward social issues. The average score of their self-evaluation regarding how much they understand nine listed issues was 2.8 out of five, meaning that they are not “capable of expressing detailed points of view.”
A third survey indicated that Taiwanese teenagers tend to engage in political and social issues through social media, while few of them join organizations.
The second survey might have a key clue to the students’ passiveness: 40.9 percent of parents were unsupportive of their children’s interest in such matters, with more than half of them saying that their children should focus on schoolwork, while 43 percent said teens should care when they are older.
Again, it is the same mentality that leads to students attending college just for the sake of attending college. Good grades matter over career choice, practical skills and relevant knowledge. There is really no waiting until they get older for civic participation — good habits are best developed young, since ever more of the realities of life will get in the way as they get older.
The oversaturation of college students and lack of opportunities for them are causing society to realize that the system is no longer working, but it will likely take a while for parents to realize that what their children learn while working for social causes is just as valuable as information in textbooks. These social issues could be incorporated in classrooms so that they become legitimate pursuits for students in the eyes of the parents.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS