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Lily Lin
Joined: May 19, 2008
Posts: 2 (view all)
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Gender & Age: Female & 23
Country: United States
Province/State: California
City: Berkeley
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Taiwanese Chinese: Better Choice?
May 19, 2008 - 05:47 PM
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**I tried to send this through contact us, but the spam image would not appear, hence approach #2.
This is a great website, however I must express my extreme displeasure at being forced to label myself as Taiwanese Chinese in order to assert my relationship to Taiwan. I am well aware that this is tricky political issue, however it is for that very fact that I find this very offensive.
I was born in Taiwan and I have researched its history extensively (not the propaganda spouted by the Chinese Communists or the Nationalists Party). Both sides of my family have been in Taiwan for over 300 years and lived through both the Japanese takeover and colonialism as well as the bloody affairs of the Chinese Nationalist occupation/takeover in the 1940s. One of my great-grandparents was hunted by the Chinese Nationalists and my grandmother witnessed the horrors of the killings as a nurse in the hospitals. The family dynamic that I grew up in along with the eclectic culture in Taiwan is distinctively different from Mainland China. For these and many more reasons, political and personal, I do not want to be associated with China. At the same time I don't feel that it is right that I cannot express the pride I have of my Taiwanese heritage. In addition, that association is extremely offensive for a large portion of the people who lived through the period of the 1940-1960s in Taiwan.
That said, if possible, it would be greatly appreciated if the demarcation could be altered to Taiwanese or allow for users to choose to identify themselves as solely Taiwanese or Taiwanese Chinese. Although, with trends in Taiwan being how they are, that portion of the population is decreasing day by day. Therefore the people who would be most concerned about the retainment of the Taiwanese Chinese label would be people from Mainland China who don't even belong to this group. Also, it is a disservice to aborigines that have been in Taiwan for over 600 years.
Another term for the people of Taiwan that is often used by historians in order to avoid political innuendoes is Formosan, which comes from the Portuguese name for the island in the 1400s.
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Michael Furdyk
Joined: Aug 12, 2000
Posts: 221 (view all)
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Gender & Age: Male, 29
Country: Canada
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Re: Taiwanese Chinese: Better Choice?
May 21, 2008 - 01:23 AM
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Thanks for your comments! We'll look into this and see what the best options is to address your feedback. This is the first time we've had this brought to our attention.
Welcome to TIG! 
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