Letters from Taiwan

LOL TVFT: “Ideological Bubble”

Taipei Sticker Madness

According to a knowledgeable analyst here, this sticker is being promulgated by the Taipei City gov’t and is  going up in government offices of Taipei City. The blue section says “The Diaoyutai are the ROC’s.”

Great idea. I really love it. It signals that the city’s KMT administration lives in an ROC ideological bubble. It does not contain a single Taiwanese/Taipei face, landmark, or artifact — it is basically an announcement that the ROC doesn’t have any link to the island and people of Taiwan, and doesn’t care about them. Great work, KMT. I’m sure the DPP will have lots of fun deriding it.

Note that it says “Republic of China National Day” not “Taiwan National Day”.

Yes, I know. “Yawn. Why does LfT keep harping on about this like some demented wannabe TI’er affecting a stockholm syndrome-esque affiliation to a crude form of local Taiwanese nationalism that was entirely a construct of the 20th century?” I hear you say.

The answer is that although I despise the politics of nationalism I can’t entirely get behind the idea that the ROC = Taiwan, especially since Ma Ying-jeou declared that definition to be null and void in 2008.  If the President of the ROC can not accept that his beloved ROC has become equivalent to Taiwan through democratisation, and instead asserts Taiwan as just an ‘area’ of the ROC, then in turn I will call him out on his bullshit and return to insisting on the historically accurate definition of the ROC as a government-in-exile ON Taiwan.  I’ll recognise that most Taiwanese have come to accept the ROC flag as their own but it seems that Ma and the KMT still don’t want to play nicely and share their toys. As they so often demonstrate it’s THEIR flag, of THEIR country and THEIR national day.  And they’ll pat little Taiwanese on the head for having the intelligence to appreciate, and be loyal to, their rightful masters.

They can stick that flag somewhere dark and pungent.  Here’s two alternatives that I feel would be a bit more inclusive and realistic:

David’s excellent post on the Taiwan flag.