Ma deaf to Taiwanese voices
Taiwanese artists and performers are being forced to say phrases such as “we Chinese.” After this was pointed out, the office of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) asked: “When did Taiwanese start needing to apologize for saying ‘I am Chinese’ or ‘we Chinese’?”
Ma is pretending to be aggrieved when he is actually the one inflicting the damage.
His office should really be asked: When is China going to stop threatening Taiwan with military posturing or fiery speeches over “Taiwanese independence?” When is China going to stop trying to suppress or malign Taiwan? When are Taiwanese who identify as Chinese going to stop misrepresenting and demeaning our country?
I hope our nation gains de jure independence and that our people’s desire to be a normalized country would be fulfilled, but why do Chinese or Taiwanese who identify as Chinese continually refuse to respect that?
We should not forget that when Taiwan was under the heel of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) dictatorship and one-party rule, Taiwanese were prohibited from expressing views such as wanting “Taiwanese independence,” with many sent to military prisons and some even losing their lives.
Should Ma’s office not apologize for that first, and seek forgiveness from Taiwanese?
What is unforgivable are Taiwanese — who are not Chinese to begin with — being forced to say that they are “Chinese.”
This is deprivation of our national identity and differs little from killing off our national spirit. If one day that destruction of Taiwanese spirit is expanded in scope and is systematized, it would morph into a form of cultural erasure.
Is this not the same thing the KMT party-state tried to accomplish in the past? Is this not what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is trying to do to Taiwan?
Ma’s office has never reflected on this. Instead, he and it collude with the CCP from within Taiwan, as Beijing attacks Taiwan from outside.
As he feigns being some sorry, pitiful character, he poses a rhetorical question to Taiwanese: “When will you say that we Chinese should be excused?”
Trying to strong-arm Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians into identifying as Chinese when none of them ascribe to a Chinese identity is unforgivable. This is national erasure.
When Taiwanese are forced to be Chinese, it is tantamount to falling into a hellscape where democracies, freedoms, rules of law and human rights do not exist.
Calling me Chinese when I am from and live in Taiwan is more painful than physical scars and is, of course, much more malicious — it is unforgivable.
Lin Yu-lin
Taipei
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