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KMT lawmakers miffed
at Taiwan Academy’s name
‘DEGRADING’ NAME: A KMT legislator said the
inclusion of ‘Taiwan’ in the institute’s name demoted Taiwan’s status to that of
a province of China through localization
By Chen Hui-ping / Staff Reporter
The name of the Taiwan Academy, established in some US cities last month, is too
narrow in meaning, degrades Taiwan and should be changed to “Zhonghua Academy
(中華書院),” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators have suggested.
Setting up Taiwan Academies was one of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign
promises in 2008 as part of his efforts to secure the nation’s role in spreading
what he called “Taiwanese culture with Chinese characteristics,” such as
promoting the use of traditional Chinese characters, as opposed to the
simplified characters used in China.
The first Taiwan Academy opened in New York last month, where an inauguration
ceremony was held at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office there.
The issue came to a head in a budget review for the Overseas Compatriot Affairs
Commission (OCAC) by the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee on
Monday, where KMT lawmakers questioned OCAC Minister Wu Ying-yih (吳英毅) over the
name of the academies.
KMT Legislator Herman Shuai (帥化民) said that “the name ‘Taiwan Academy’ is a name
signifying self-localization and demotes ourselves to the status of a province
[of China] and is [an] absolutely unforgivable [act].”
Naming is an issue that’s either right or wrong and an issue that cannot be
avoided, he said, adding that “Ma can not decide everything by himself.”
“The national defense and economy of Taiwan are already falling behind that of
China, how can we also give up the culturally ‘orthodox position’?” Shuai asked,
adding that “even though the Republic of China is no longer a UN member and we
can only refer to ourselves as ‘Taipei’s representative office,’ how can we cede
the cultural battle without a single shot fired?”
“I believe we would not be pressured by China if we use the name Taiwan Academy,
but we still have to ‘keep the character and guts as the descendants of the Han
race [sic],’” Shuai said. “Why was it that we dared not use ‘Zhonghua culture’
(中華文化) [in the name]?”
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said it was not that difficult to distinguish
from China’s Confucius Institutes, referring to the Taiwan Academy project
having been in part devised to counter the institutes Beijing has established
and around the world in recent years to promote Chinese language and culture, as
well as to support Chinese teachers internationally.
“We could rename the ‘Taiwan Academy’ to ‘Zhonghua Academy’ in countries with
which we have diplomatic ties, while in countries with which we have no
diplomatic ties, we could call them ‘Taipei Zhonghua Cultural Center’ or the
‘Taiwan Zhonghua Cultural Center,’” Lin said. “The point is that the ‘Zhonghua
culture’ part has to be kept.”
Wu said the naming of the Taiwan Academy was not under the jurisdiction of any
one unit, as it was a cross-ministerial effort headed by the Council for
Cultural Affairs.
“We will try to work with legislators’ opinions and will discuss the issue with
the Council for Cultural Affairs, the Executive Yuan and other concerned
organizations,” he said.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
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