🇹🇼 Questions of National Identity: Loving Taiwan, or Loving Colonial Memories?

Even if the Father of the Nation wasn’t Sun Yat-sen, even if the country wasn’t the Republic of China, you could still love Taiwan… my ass.

If the Father of the Nation wasn’t Sun Yat-sen, and if we weren’t the Republic of China, the Taiwan you love would merely be a miserable colony under the state of Japan.

Further Reading: Secret Japanese Files: During the Occupation of Taiwan, Japan Massacred 400,000 Taiwanese!! The Hidden History of Taiwan!!

What is Taiwan? Taiwan is my home, a province, and the name of an island. When you talk about Taiwan to foreigners abroad, many just mistake you for being from Thailand. Taiwan is to the Republic of China (ROC) what “America” is to the United States of America.

Further Reading: What Exactly Are Taiwanese People? Q&A from Pearl Milk Tea to the Republic of China

Unification and independence have always been fake issues in Taiwan, hypocritical topics manipulated for the sake of manipulation.

When the Kuomintang (KMT) was in power, many people used these fake issues to constantly attack them.

Tell me, during Chen Shui-bian’s eight years in office, were you ever excited by the term “Taiwan Independence”?

Trends are “cool,” but you shouldn’t pursue what everyone else is doing just because it seems like the thing to do. You should think: besides the “Republic of Taiwan” (what an ugly name) and unification with the mainland, we have a name called the Republic of China.

Of course, if you are happy to be Japanese, you might naturally feel that being a Japanese colony would be better. This is due to Taiwan’s unique national character—or rather, its lack thereof; all national self-awareness was washed away by the Japanese long ago.

How many people did the Japanese massacre in Taiwan back then? Every one of these historical bloodstains is a very real historical fact.

When the Qing Dynasty lost to Japan, the people who couldn’t leave had no choice but to stay in Taiwan as colonized subjects who were neither Chinese nor Japanese. Throughout that colonial period, there were resistors within Taiwan fighting back.

During the decades of Japanese colonialism, new generations of Taiwanese were born. They thought of themselves as Japanese. Then Japan lost to the world, and once again, those who couldn’t leave had to stay in Taiwan. Now, this group is like the resistors of old, still fighting within Taiwan today.

As a result, you only remember being colonized by Japan, but forget that your ancestors actually came from mainland China?

Your elders went through Japanese “baptism,” but it took one or two generations of “cleansing” before a Japanese identity gradually emerged. But have you ever thought about the time before that? No one accepts the fact of their country suddenly being changed overnight. One of the most terrifying things about ethnic cleansing is that you spontaneously forget the bloody events that happened in the past.

It’s like the “Void Century” in the manga One Piece.

I have a friend who is a very active promoter of Taiwan independence. Later, after talking with him in detail, I found out he actually has one-quarter Japanese blood. He takes pride in his Japanese blood, loves Japan immensely, and loathes the Republic of China that defeated Japan.

What boring ethnic masturbation. If you are not an indigenous person, and not a pure-blooded Japanese person who stayed in Taiwan back then, where exactly did your ancestors come from? I suppose they probably sprang out of Taiwan’s Mount Huaguo!? Cheep cheep.

Why does no one in the world acknowledge Taiwan as a country? Never mind the world—when you won’t even acknowledge your own name, how can you care about the world? It’s like someone giving up the name their parents gave them for profit. This act of betrayal had a very fitting term during the Sino-Japanese War: it’s called being a “Traitor” (Hanjian).

Further Reading: China = Shina?? Only Two Kinds of People in the World Still Say ‘Shina’