Inspired by Japanese comic book and animated movie One Piece, Taipei has been compared to the notorious “kingdom of the celestial dragons” (天龍國), a kingdom for nobles only, in the controversy over a temporary home for sick children.
The label has been turned into a negative symbol for the city’s Da-an District (大安) and its residents as an example of how the cultural and creativity industry can help us see things in a different light. Taking this view helps us to stop thinking about this industry only in terms of production value and economic terms, and it helps us avoid the idea that cultural creativity should be measured by whether it creates business.
The comics and animation industry has always had the potential to make the city reconsider its desire for modernization and that is something it should take pride in.
There is a reason why the desires of the city can be transformed into a shared sense of crisis. In the 1960s, a time when Western capitalism dominated the world, the Italian writer Italo Calvino wrote an inspiring passage in his book Invisible Cities, in which he argued that it was pointless to try to decide whether a city should be classified among happy cities or among unhappy cities.
“It makes no sense to divide cities into these two species, but rather into another two: those that through the years and the changes continue to give their form to desires, and those in which desires either erase the city or are erased by it,” Calvino wrote.
The way of thinking about urban modernization driven by capitalism has become a bad example for urban development. The time has come for us to reconsider urban values.
Let us take real-estate speculation as an example, which is driven by market competition. Some people actually treat it as an ethical way of protecting communities. They claim that they want to maintain a clean and safe environment, but in fact their only concern is whether the price of their home is rising or falling. This is not only an attempt to exclude new or unfamiliar things from their communities, it is also a sense of urban self-righteousness created by the opportunist speculative economy.
Naturally, this has caused a strong protest from the members of the urban middle class who live in these communities and disagree with these values.
In other words, the wealthy are pushing up market prices because they want to protect the value of their property by excluding sick children from their community. Such behavior is of course unacceptable to anyone who is willing to work together with others to safeguard shared urban values. No wonder many Taipei residents were ashamed when their city was called the “kingdom of the celestial dragons.”
The discussion triggered by the comparison of the city to the “kingdom of the celestial dragons” is quite unique because it allows us to observe the greater picture from a small detail.
Indeed, crises are often seen in the city, but as Chinese tourists often say after a visit, Taiwan’s greatest asset is its people.
Frankly speaking, an immigrant society must be tolerant, but it could also easily lose its own identity as a result of external influences.
Still, we should embrace newcomers regardless of their social standing and avoid any analysis based on class differences. In addition, the people’s warmth is the most valuable spiritual resource in daily life. Taipei, as the nation’s capital, has always been praised for the warmth of its people.
When the term danding (淡定), which means “calmness,” first appeared in a dramatic breakup story recently, it caused a sensation online. This was an example of the creative online culture among ordinary people. Comments by people of all ages implied that after having experienced the economic ups and downs of the chaotic urban competition, city residents are looking for a way to express their opinions and live an optimistic and active life of their own, without being led along by their desires.
Looking at the controversy over the “kingdom of the celestial dragons” from the perspective of the warmth of the citizens of Taipei, perhaps the term danding could teach us to pay greater attention to another term, namely “self-liberalization,” as a way to deal with the desires of a constantly changing city.
By doing that, the message would be that in the busy, competitive city of Taipei, we hope to free ourselves from the pursuit of short-term benefits and to free the city from the stigmatization of the “kingdom of the celestial dragons.”
Chiao Chung is the artistic director of the Assignment Theatre.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS