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Tsai tries to bridge ethnic divide
Saturday, May 29, 2010, Page 8
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen
(½²^¤å) has been the target of criticism from the pan-blue camp following her
comment that ¡§the Republic of China [ROC] is a government-in-exile.¡¨
Critics have said Tsai is moving toward the dark green side of the political
field, that she doesn¡¦t identify with the government and that she is inciting
ethnic division. They also taunted her for serving as the deputy premier of a
¡§government-in-exile¡¨ and for running for election in Sinbei City, a city
administered by that same ¡§government-in-exile.¡¨
The fact is that in her foreword to the book 100 Years Since the Nation¡¦s
Founding, 60 Years as a Government-in-Exile: The Republic of China¡¦s 60 Years as
a Government in Exile on Taiwan and Taiwan¡¦s International Status After the War,
Tsai says that under the Chinese Nationalist Party¡¦s (KMT) postwar rule of
Taiwan, Taiwan was understood in terms of its relationship with China and that
Taiwan could not define itself because the Taiwanese identity had been
suppressed and the public¡¦s self-identification was distorted.
As a result, Taiwan and China became two polar opposites, experiencing long-term
tension and clashes. Democratization has led to the consolidation of a Taiwanese
identity, and a relaxation of the polarized relationship with China.
Tsai has also said that understanding the relationship between what it means to
be Taiwanese and what it means to be Chinese is a necessary task in the
development of a Taiwanese identity. She says this is the internal foundation
necessary to establish and safeguard a Taiwanese identity.
Returning to the meaning of what Tsai said, she believes that in the future we
must go beyond deSinicization by taking a new look at the Chinese component of
what it means to be Taiwanese, and in particular at the pro-localization
experience, including the Mainlanders¡¦ feeling of being part of a diaspora.
Not only does Tsai not want to incite ethnic division, she is the first DPP
leader to suggest that we accept the Chinese component of what it means to be
Taiwanese. She also feels that following Taiwan¡¦s democratization, there is no
longer any reason for Taiwan to continue to be polarized.
She uses cultural theory and post-colonial concepts to explain Taiwan¡¦s
historical experience and future vision in a rational analysis of the
development of Taiwanese politics and ethnic diversity and integration.
Tsai neither avoids nor rejects the view that being Taiwanese includes a measure
of being Chinese, and she argues that without broadly accepting the different
cultural components Taiwanese have, Taiwan will not be able to build its own
identity and multiple modernities.
Tsai is a different kind of DPP chairperson. She looks at Taiwan¡¦s identity with
the eyes of an academic in the hope that she will be able to get the DPP to stop
playing the ethnicity card.
The problem in this ongoing conflict is that the pan-blue camp are staring
themselves blind, stuck on the surface meaning of the words without trying to
understand what they really mean. By making such a big deal about the words
¡§government-in-exile,¡¨ the KMT is instead highlighting the concerns of its own
Mainlander minority as well as its own belligerence.
It seems every time there is an election, Taiwan must live through another round
of ethnic conflict, and it also seems that every election is a choice between
Taiwan and China. After each election is over, the divide runs a little deeper
than it did before.
This time, Tsai has tried a different approach. Let¡¦s hope the KMT can also
leave its past ethnic mobilization behind and give Taiwan another chance for
social integration.
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