The in-house editor saw on the news item, “Curriculum Adjustments: Ministry of Education Ruled Illegal,” that Hsu Wen-tang, Secretary-General of the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP), stated: “The Ma government has always acted secretly and even faked public opinion. Now that eighty percent of the public considers themselves Taiwanese, why does the textbook still say ‘be a proud and upright Chinese’?”
In reality, people like those in the TAUP are just playing word games, especially certain political parties that delight in creating populist conflict and frequently use this kind of tired old gag for bad jokes.
If Hsu Wen-tang says that $80%$ of the public identifies as Taiwanese, then I want to ask: what percentage of the public identifies as citizens of the Republic of China?
In fact, the forceful requirement to identify solely as Taiwanese is a political brainwashing maneuver that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been executing since Chen Shui-bian was elected president—I still consider myself a Taipei native, for crying out loud.
If we only acknowledge ourselves as Taiwanese, then what should the people of Kinmen, Penghu, and Matsu consider themselves?
To brainwash the Taiwanese public, the DPP treats the people on other territories like used tissue paper that can be discarded at will.
It has even turned some Taiwanese people into Great Taiwan chauvinists. If one puts their mind to it, not just Taipei residents, but all Taiwanese can become true sense ‘celestial people’ (a reference to arrogance).
In fact, Hsu Wen-tang has blurred the focus in his statement, whether unintentionally or intentionally.
Hsu Wen-tang ostensibly opposes the narrative of being Chinese, yet he deliberately fails to clearly define whether the Chinese he refers to are Chinese from the People’s Republic of China or Chinese from the Republic of China. This deliberate generalization of ‘Chinese’ is meant to exploit your low intelligence.
The term “China” (中國) can currently be traced back to the time before the Tang Dynasty, and it has been in continuous use ever since. Based on my own clear recollection, starting from the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, “China” was already listed as the official formal name.
In other words, excluding the indigenous people who migrated to Taiwan from Southeast Asia $1,800$ years ago and the so-called new residents of today, everyone else is a Chinese person who migrated from the Chinese mainland.
(The Yuan-shan culture people from $3,300$ years ago are excluded, but tracing back further $700,000$ years to Peking Man, it is hard to say they didn’t come from the same region.)
I would like to ask everyone: If someone has the same name as you, would you abandon the name given by your parents and choose another name? It now seems that people from the DPP, the New Power Party, and the TAUP might do so.
The current situation is that a group of people is deliberately hyping up national identity issues, insisting on giving the name China to the Chinese mainland governed by the Chinese Communist Party, and abandoning the Republic of China, which is located in Taiwan and also represents China.
Are people who lack a sense of heritage and are ready to abandon their family history (perhaps because their family lacks culture and left no genealogy, so they don’t know who their ancestors were) truly worthy of our admiration and learning?
The Republic of China and Taiwan can coexist, just as we know America refers to the landmass of the Americas, while United States is the formal national name, yet both represent the US. This is exactly like the relationship between the Republic of China and Taiwan.
Just as we all say Hawaiian, does that mean Hawaiians are not Americans?
Stop being lost in the debate over what name to use, driven by issues hyped by others, or even controversies manufactured for election considerations.
Our national title is the Republic of China (ROC), which can be abbreviated as China. Furthermore, the China defined in the United Nations Charter is the Republic of China.
The current effective governing area is mainly the island of Taiwan (ROC on Taiwan), as well as the islands of Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, Green Island, and Orchid Island.
The national title of the opposite side is the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which can also be abbreviated as China, currently residing on the Mainland (PRC on Mainland).
Although due to the United Nations issue, the international community generally regards China as referring to the People’s Republic of China, just as everyone previously ridiculed former President Chiang Kai-shek for withdrawing from the UN (which was due to the historical context at the time), we have no reason to be the first to abandon the abbreviation of our own national name (China)!
Although the abbreviations for both the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China can be China, which can easily cause confusion in some people’s minds, they can indeed be distinguished independently, provided you use your brain and are willing to think carefully.
As a side note, some people, when referring to former President Chiang Kai-shek, deliberately avoid saying “Chiang Chung-cheng” (his formal name), considering it a symbol of authoritarianism, and intentionally say “Chiang Kai-shek” (his courtesy name, tzu), foolishly believing it to be derogatory.
However, in the etiquette norms of Chinese culture, Kai-shek is the courtesy name, and calling him Chiang Kai-shek is actually a sign of respect for that person (Chiang Chung-cheng became popular on the island of Taiwan because formal documents had to use the official name).
Many people who have doubts about the usage of these names are either maliciously motivated (for example, to incite ethnic conflict) or their cultural literacy needs improvement (but judging from the example of confusing both China and Chiang Chung-cheng, the intelligence of these groups is truly not very high).