SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2016
Happy 3-day weekend to us! Here in Taiwan, we have off on Monday, February 29th for 228 Peace Memorial Day. It’s a national holiday to remember the tens of thousands of people who lost their lives in a massacre on February 27, 1947. It’s crazy how much can change in 70 years. At the time, Taiwan was under temporary rule of China and there was a lot of economic mismanagement, corruption, and inflation on staple goods like cigarettes.
If you come to live in Taiwan, you will quickly learn that many Taiwanese people dislike China. The recent influx of mainland tourists at many Taiwan popular sights is also not favored by the Taiwanese. Why do the Taiwanese dislike China? It’s complicated. This sentiment has definitely trickled down to the younger generation, or it has at least for me, where I feel the need to make a distinction.
Back in the U.S.: I am Asian American and yes, I do look “Chinese.” But it is for some reason important for me to make the distinction that my family is from Taiwan and say that I’m “Taiwanese.” And often I’ll receive the follow up question, “What’s the difference?” There’s this implicit meaning behind the word Chinese. If you’re Chinese, then you’re from China. Sure, if you trace my lineage way way way way back, my ancestors are from China. There’s nothing wrong with being Chinese and I have nothing against people who are Chinese, but I identify with Taiwan and being Taiwanese because that’s where my family is from.
This little island is where my parents grew up and became the people they are. I am very proud to be their daughter because of the values and opinions they stand for. They’ve introduced me to a culture that I have grown to love and be proud of. Taiwan isn’t perfect, but it’s a great country in my opinion.
All in all, Taiwan and China have their history and the relations between these two countries is not super friendly. I would describe it as a more tolerable relationship right now.
So, I didn’t really plan on writing about race/ethnicity. Honestly, I was going to write about my travels during this weekend, but the whole talk on Taiwan and China got me digressing. I hope this post is as thought provoking as it was for me to write it.
Peace <3
P.S. I feel race/ethnicity can be a sensitive topic to some people so if my post offended anyone reading it, I apologize. It certainly was not my intention to do so.
