Saturday, November 21, 2009

"Overseas Taiwanese!" /// NOT "Overseas Chinese"

Cellist Felix Fan is an "Overseas Taiwanese." Mr. Fan is not an "Overseas Chinese."



It is good to speak up about Taiwanese identity at any and every opportunity -- whether academic events or music concerts. Take the time to set the record straight and to stand up for your nation and people.

3 comments:

Anon said...

People in taipei are chinese. They moved there during the civil war. The rest of taiwan is chinese like 300 years ago. We are all Han chinese ethnically. Are you aborigine? You know the dark polynesians?

All of your dialects are spoken in china. Hakka, fujian, and mandarin. Therefore, you can't even separate by culture.

Anonymous said...

First, Taiwan and China are different nations.

Second, Taiwan and China are different places with divergent histories and cultural influences.

Hakka, Fujianese and Mandarin are separate language -- more different than Italian and Spanish.

Hundreds of nations speak English, yet they are not the same nation.

Taiwanese have mixed ancestry -- Austronesian and ethnic Chinese immigrants.

There are differences between current Taiwanese culture and current Chinese culture (in China), even though Taiwanese culture was heavily influenced by ancient Chinese culture. (Korea, Vietnam and Japan were also influenced by ancient Chinese culture). Ancient Chinese culture in turn was influenced by them as well as by central Asian peoples, Indian, etc.

@Jason, please think instead of swallowing the party line and media propaganda.

Jade said...

Good response, Anon. I'm an overseas Taiwanese and I know for sure Chinese here are so different from us in many ways. Just go to Singapore, and tell them they are Chinese and see what kind of stare you'll get, Jason. I suggest you read a lot of real history books about Taiwan written by people who have nothing to do Green or Blue and you'll understand and will be proud to call yourself Taiwanese.