Taiwanese Gamers Continue To Prove Their Own

If you recall in late 2007, at the World Cyber Games in Seattle, a Taiwanese placed Bronze in an event and was true to himself and his country by displaying the flag of the R.O.C. (which is being used for Taiwan), and as a result the insults from Chinese came. Read about it here.

While this time there are no naysayers and foul-mouthed Chinese threatening to kill him, a "Taiwanese man" as the article describes, has completed World of Warcraft- likely the game that has the most playability over the last 5 years.

A Taiwanese man has reportedly completed all 986 of the game's achievements. He's shown Azeroth's critters how much he loves them (To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life), equipped an epic item every available slot (Epic), and slain 15 turkeys in three minutes (Friend or Fowl?)

Congratulations to this Taiwanese man! I know a lot of Taiwanese boys are gamers, and being one myself, I know the glory you feel when you achieve being #1 in the rankings. I was once #1 on the Diablo II USWest Ladder after a reset-- up to level 13 or so, and then I had claimed my fame and proceeded to call it a night and went to bed.

I don't know how many hours he spent on WoW in order to achieve what he did, but it must have been a lot. If you haven't seen that South Park episode sometime in the last 2 or so years about the kids playing WoW- you should, it's pretty funny and may be something close to what this guy was doing (although I hope not- in that episode they were gaming so hard that they were becoming obese).

In other news, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu says that there will not be any designated areas for the protests for the upcoming ECFA meetings. I would applaud this move by him, and it's a step in the direction of freedom of assembly and speech, but being the skeptic I am, can't help but think this is just another pawn move to help boost opinion of the KMT right before the December elections, which should be happening in 24 hours or so!

Taiwanese Census 2010: Vote on Facebook

Received this message from the "Taiwanese Census 2010" group on Facebook. See this post for more information: U.S. Census 2010: Taiwanese-Americans

Subject: Taiwanese Census Campaign, Volunteers, & Vote for TACL!

Hi everyone:
Thank you for joining this group for Census 2010. We've grown quickly in the few weeks the group has started. Please help to continue to invite friends to join, to spread the word so that people are both aware of the Census, and that "Taiwanese" or any other ethnicity can be written in. This is extremely important for our community as well as any other community to be accurately counted and recognized.

TACL (Taiwanese American Citizen's League) is one of the non-profit organizations behind this campaign, and has formed a taskforce creating promotional materials to pass out, such as postcards, flyers, T-shirts, pens, etc. We also are preparing a PSA, to be shown on TV, youtube, etc, and creating a youth contest.

Therefore, we still need the help of VOLUNTEERS! If interested in helping with the campaign, feel free to message me back directly.

Also, since all of the above things also cost money, especially TV airtime, we still need financial support, and are continuing to try to FUNDRAISE.

Therefore, TACL is trying to get a $25,000 grant through Chase's Community Giving Program on Facebook. However, we can only win this grant if you and your friends get on Facebook and VOTE FOR US!!!! The top 100 receive $25,000.

Please take a second to cast a VOTE!
As a nonprofit organization run completely by unpaid volunteers, TACL definitely needs the community's support! These funds could go a long way, not only towards Census outreach, which would mainly help to pay for promotional materials, and advertising, but would also go towards continuing our youth scholarships, internships, camps, and young professional leadership development adjunct (TAP), which all serve to help to preserve and promote Taiwanese American IDENTITY.

Click here:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/816777

You may think your vote doesn't count but if we can get all our
supporters and your friends to vote, it'll make a difference! All
you've got to do is vote and ask 10 other friends to do the same!
Help TACL in 4 easy steps:

1. Become a fan of Community Giving:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/
2. Search for "Taiwanese American Citizens League" where it reads "Enter your charity".
3. Vote for us! Afterwards, under "Help this charity by spreading the word" you can post it on:
* Twitter
* Your Facebook wall & newsfeed or
* Invite a friend to vote!
4. Here's the text you can copy and paste to post on the walls of your friends:
"I just cast my vote for TACL! Please help support my charity by voting to give them a chance to receive $25K! Voting ends December 11, so please vote now!

Click here:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/816777

To know more about what TACL does, and where the funds would also go towards, you can click here to see our Leadership Development programs:
http://www.facebook.com/l/a728f;tacl.org/programs/tacl-leadership-development/.

Thank you for your time and support!

Ben Ling
TACL National President
http://www.facebook.com/l/a728f;tacl.org
http://www.facebook.com/l/a728f;census2010.tacl.org

You can click the button right below this sentence as well to join and vote:

US Census 2010: Taiwanese-Americans

A reminder to all you Taiwanese-Americans that the 2010 US Census is coming up. Not only a great chance to get a high-paying part-time job (if you're still looking by then), but also a good chance to make the Taiwanese population in the states count.

These are official numbers that will be used in things such as federal funding allocation towards communities and social programs, as well as determining the number of representatives that each state gets to the House of Representatives, etc. I assume these numbers may also be used by politicians to determine how much influence a specific demographic (Taiwanese-Americans?) may have on a politician's chance of (put bluntly) being elected (if they support that group of people's concerns, etc.).

More information can be found below:

http://census2010.tacl.org/

and a Facebook group to join, to help spread the word:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=185788971053&ref=nf#/group.php?gid=185788971053&v=wall&ref=nf

The Fate of the Language?

Brought to my attention in my Facebook news-feed (what is this world coming to?!), a friend of mine posted a link to this article in the New York Times about how the Cantonese language is facing the possibility of becoming a "dying" language over the next few years in the United States- specifically in New York's Chinatown.

I emphasize language here because it is a language. As far as I can tell from my one-year education in Mandarin, the Cantonese language and Mandarin language are mutually unintelligible. Just as, the Taiwanese language and Mandarin language are mutually unintelligible. And while both languages, Cantonese and Taiwanese, may be facing an uphill battle in surviving as a language- the outlook for Cantonese remains much brighter.

This is due in most part to Cantonese having a fairly well supported written form of itself. On the other hand, Taiwanese is being hit on all fronts by many different systems, from using romanized systems to character systems, where each can be further broken down. This website, Talingua, has a good overview of the various ways you can approach Taiwanese writing/reading. The problem here is (from what I remember/hear) that the KMT government at one point gave money to a bunch of different groups/scholars to each come up with their own system of writing Taiwanese. Sounds good/reasonable right? Well, the result was that each came up with their own, and there ended up being a sort of competition for whose is better. In the end, we have a bunch of different systems, that no one can agree upon. So the Taiwanese language continues to lose place in society as the years pass on with no agreed upon writing system.

While a writing system for a language is not the only thing that is needed to help keep it alive, it is a large part of it. But, I believe there needs to be a change that takes place in conjunction with a unified writing system for Taiwanese to maintain it's prominence as a language of Taiwan. That is, the political and social issues that plague the Taiwanese language. Many young Taiwanese these days are plagued with the notion that Taiwanese is/should be used for only in the marketplace and at home. While currently this notion is certainly not unfounded (as Taiwanese is currently mainly used in marketplaces and inside the home), it is a slippery slope of self-fulfilling prophecy that should be reconsidered. It is one thing to put Mandarin on a pedestal and say it's the main language to be used in the business world/work place, but another thing to put Taiwanese down and limit it to the marketplace and home.

The part that I find must unbearable about this is (coming from personal experience), young Taiwanese telling other Taiwanese, "Why are you speaking Taiwanese? It's so weird." As one who excels in the Taiwanese language, and has the Mandarin capability of probably a 2nd or 3rd grader (or worse), I was not one to be ashamed to use my Taiwanese in all aspects of my life and time in Taiwan- from classmates, to professors, other exchange students, at clubs/bars, customer service people, retail workers, you name it, I probably talked to them in Taiwanese. Were they taken aback at first? Yes. Did they get used to it? Yes. Was it easier to make friends because of my Taiwanese? In my point of view, yes. I think we can all do the Taiwanese language a favor, by at the very least, simply not handing out negative remarks over using Taiwanese. I even met a few people who speak Taiwanese with their friends all the time, and it was a refreshing change to see that there are still young people in Taiwan who have respect for their own culture.

Keep in mind, this is no hack on the Taiwanese who don't speak the language, Taiwanese- but rather a reminder to those that do. Furthermore, I want to emphasize here that speaking Taiwanese does not make one more "Taiwanese" than those who don't. I have met plenty of people who don't speak Taiwanese (only Mandarin and/or Hakka), but are more "Taiwanese" than the current president of Taiwan will ever be (although that isn't saying much of those who really know what Ma is up to, but you get my point).

P.S. As crazy as it is to hear a girl inside Babe 18 speaking butchered-Taiwanese and continuing saying li-ho, li-ho, jia-beng, jia-beng, as if those were the only few Taiwanese phrases that exist, I do applaud these few girls that I met for attempting to do so- and I must say, it is rather cute.

Sorrow of Listening to Communists

An interesting editorial today in the China Post, titled "Sorry of being Taiwanese." As with many editorials in the China Post, this one is again signed off by a vague, "The China Post news staff." At least can we get a name behind who these opinions are? Or are they indeed the opinion of The China Post (wouldn't be a surprise).

This editorial piece is all over the place, and I really don't know how to respond. It just seemed like some typical things some Communist Chinese would say. The main point of this piece is to bring to question why Taiwanese view China as the most unfriendliest country towards China, and attemps to make Japan the bully.

Leaving aside these Han Chinese settlers' own colonialist oppression against Taiwan's Aborigines, the real “Native Taiwanese,” the fact remains that Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, French and Japanese colonialists did indeed oppress Han Chinese on Taiwan.

But have Lee and other champions of Taiwan's independence ever directed their justifiable resentment of colonialist oppression against Taiwan's Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, French and Japanese colonizers?

No, they have not.

Instead, in defiance of all reason, they have redirected all their pent-up frustrations against other Han Chinese who arrived on Taiwan after 1945, and against other Han Chinese who have never even been to Taiwan, but who live on the Chinese mainland.

While I am not knowledgable enough to comment on what types of oppression was committed on the people living on Formosa by the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, etc... I have enough common sense to know why Taiwanese (including not just those who "champion Taiwan's independence") resent the oppression of China and not Japan and those others- how about just the fact that China is the current one that is oppresing Taiwan. Regardless of the past (although the past is important sometimes), the current situation is that the Portuguese, Dutch, etc. have hardly any involvement in the Taiwan Straits, and Japan is clearly (at least should be clear) an ally of Taiwan, and the oppresor is China.

It's pretty obvious this article is written by a "Han Chinese" living in Taiwan after 1945, or by actual Communists living in China. The great emphasis on "Han Chinese" and the distinct comparison of Taiwan-Chinese mainland instead of Taiwan-China, is enough for me to know where this article's bias is headed.

The counter-point by the writer to my point that the current aggressor is China, not Japan?

Dismiss the 50,000 to 100,000 Taiwanese murdered by the Japanese between 1895 and 1945 as “ancient history,” as “bygones.” What about the aggression being committed by Japan against Taiwanese this very minute?

The young people polled apparently have no idea that Japan has annexed the Taiwanese island of Diaoyutai, and expanded its Exclusive Economic Zone to include waters a mere 37 km off the coast of Ilan and Hualien counties. Japanese Coast Guard vessels have intercepted Taiwanese fishing vessels found in “Japanese waters.” Japanese Coast Guard personnel have arrested Taiwanese fishermen, forced them to kneel before their captors, slapped them in the face, spit on them, and screamed racial epithets in their ears.

Ignoring whatever "Japan has annexed the Taiwanese island of Diaoyutai" means, the article also fails to point out that the PRC also lays claim to the islands. Furthermore, for most Taiwanese, these islands may not mean much to them. Japanese threat of fishermens at distant island that they in their whole life will most likely never go to, versus, PRC threat to Taiwan via 1,500+ missiles. Tell me, which would you call more unfriendly?

Nothing is wrong with Taiwanese, i.e., Chinese people on Taiwan, wanting to stand tall, walk out into the world, and enjoy respect. This is a perfectly laudable, completely understandable, and highly desirable goal.

Yes, thank you for defining what Taiwanese are- Chinese people on Taiwan. Why don't we go ahead and insist that Americans are British people on America as well. That way, we can start clearing things up.

But respect entails self-respect. Before others will respect you, one must first respect oneself. Self-respect in turn entails self-affirmation. If one respects oneself, one will have no hesitation affirming who one is.

A reluctance to affirm who one is, a determination to pretend one is something one is not, is symptomatic of a deep-seated lack of self-respect. If one is reluctant to affirm who one is, if one is determined to pretend one is something one is not, one has already invalidated oneself at one's very core. Nothing one can do subsequently will ever make up for this initial act of self-invalidation.

Apparently many young Taiwanese have no self-respect for themselves. At least, speaking for myself, I do. I respect myself, and I can affirm who I am- a Taiwanese-American. My parents, can also affirm that they are Taiwanese (but not the definition the article uses), with self-respect as well.

The reluctance of champions of Taiwan independence to affirm that they are Chinese, their stubborn insistence that they are “Taiwanese, not Chinese,” rather than “Taiwanese and Chinese,” their pathetic attempts to ingratiate themselves with their Japanese victimizers, are all symptoms of a profound lack of self-respect. Champions of Taiwan independence who refuse to affirm who they are, who insist on pretending they are something they are not, have already invalidated themselves at their very core. Nothing they can do subsequently will ever make up for this initial act of self-invalidation.

Are you serious? The whole point of Taiwanese declaring that we are Taiwanese, not Chinese is in itself an act of affirmation of who we are. Rather than self-invalidating who we are, we are validating and declaring to the world who we are. Is it necessarily that we hate Chinese? No. It is my belief that the "Taiwanese" movement is that we want the right to declare to the world who we are, and not have someone else tell us who we are. That is the biggest problem with people from China these days, they always have to tell me that I am Chinese as if they are the ones that are in a place to say so. So why can't Taiwanese and Chinese co-exist? As long as we can both have respect, and self-respect for each other, then all should be well. But, instead we have Chinese insisting that Taiwanese are Chinese, and apparently the person who wrote this editorial also insists that Taiwanese are Chinese.

Dear China Post news staff, I apologize for my pathetic attempt to side with Japan instead of China. Because, we all know that China is all about self-respect, as long as you are Han Chinese. But if you are the "Chinese living on Taiwan" type that does not want to unify with China, then we are dogs and we can eat shit and die. Yeah, I know the drill- and don't try and deny it.

An interesting find while I was looking up some info on the Diaoyutai islands-- I came across this website, which pretty much has the same wording as this editorial:

The reluctance of Pan Green Quislings to affirm that they are Chinese, their stubborn insistence that they are "Taiwanese, not Chinese," their pathetic attempts to spin themselves as "quasi-Japanese," are all symptoms of the Pan Green Quislings' profound lack of self-respect. Pan Green Quislings who refuse to affirm who they are, who insist on pretending they are something they are not, have already invalidated themselves at their very core. Nothing they can do subsequently will ever make up for this initial act of self-invalidation.

So I am going to go out on a limb and say either the person who wrote this editorial plagerized, or is the person behind this website (and blog since the website is no longer active).

The ediotorial ends:

This is the real meaning of the “sorrow of being born Taiwanese.”

I'd say this editorial is the real meaning of the "sorrow of listening to Communists."

ABT in Taiwan Speaks Up

Recently an American born Taiwanese by the name of Eric has made national news in Taiwan. Naturally he speaks English very well, and surprisingly, his Taiwanese is also very good. I urge everyone to watch the following interview with Eric, after he spoke out against Zhang Mingqing (an ARATS official from China).

At the university: http://taiwanyes.ning.com/video/video/show?id=1970702%3AVideo%3A374755
Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbqBn00bpaE

It's now or never. Taiwan will be decided by our generation.

Apathy

So earlier this year I went to the yearly "Chinese New Year" celebration that is put on by the Taiwanese Association of Greater Seattle. There was a Taiwanese law professor that came from California that spoke on an important issue of today's young generation. Whether you are interested in politics in Taiwan or not, I recommend you read this illustration as it applies to many things, not just the situation that the professor applied this to at the end. I know it is long, but, honestly, it was a really good illustration.

-----------------------------------

I will say first, that his speech was probably 90% Taiwanese, 5% Mandarin, 5% English, so if it seems like theres some holes or confusion in the illustration, it may have been lost in translation. Although I think my Taiwanese is not bad, I lack some vocabulary... anyways here is the illustration he gave:

There are three monkeys that are locked in an cage, sitting on a table. The cage is large, with a farily tall ceiling. At the top of the cage hangs a rope on which a banana is hanged from. Naturally, the three monkeys want to get the banana. So, the first one goes and tries to get it. As he is climbing up, just as he is about to get to the banana, the owner pours a bucket of water right onto the monkey. The monkey loses grasp and slips down the rope back to the floor. The other two monkeys laugh at the first monkey because he could not get the banana. The first monkey tries again; getting half way up before again, getting pushed back down because the owner pours water down on the monkey. The other two monkeys are now laughing and telling the first monkey to let them try. Finally, after the failed attempt by the first monkey, the first monkey gives up and sits down on the table in the middle of the cage. The second monkey now gives it a try. Just as the first monkey, he goes up and as he reaches the banana, the owner pours a bucket of water right above the monkey; and once again the monkey falls to the ground. The second monkey gives it another two goes as he still believes he can get it before giving up, just as the first monkey did. The third monkey, waiting for his chance to get the monkey, finally gets his chance. Just as the first two monkeys, he fails because of the water coming down on them as soon as they get close to the banana. Finally, all three monkeys are left sitting on the table, with the banana still hanging at the top of the cage.

The owner, then opens up the cage, and brings a new monkey into the cage, and takes one of the original monkeys out. The new monkey sees the other two sitting on the table, and looking at the banana, asks why they are just sitting there. "What are you waiting for?" The two monkeys reply saying, "Don't try, you won't be able to get it." The new monkey, not understanding why, goes for the rope to start climbing. The two monkeys from the original three start to pull on the new monkey to tell him to come down and stop him from climbing because they know its impossible. He tries again, with the other two monkeys once again pulling on him to just sit down because its not possible. After many failed attempts to get on the rope, he sits down as two monkeys are able to stop him from going up.

The owner, then opens up the cage, and brings a new monkey into the cage, and takes one of the two original monkeys remaining, out. The new monkey, again, looks at the two monkeys on the table and at the banana, and instantly laughs at them for not getting the banana. He tries to go for the rope, but the two monkeys stop him and pull on him, telling him that it's not worth his time, that it's impossible. Everytime the new monkey tries to reach for the rope, they stop him. After trying to get up the rope many times and failling because of the two monkeys pulling on him, he simply sits down on the table with the other two monkeys.

Finally, the owner opens up the cage, and brings in a new monkey, and takes out the final last original monkey. Just as the new monkeys previously, he goes for the rope, but is once again stopped by the two monkeys already in the cage. Not understanding why, but just that the other two monkeys keep saying not to do it, he finally takes a seat on the table.

The result? The three monkeys in the cage are left miserable, and on the table, with a banana within reach above them- but no one dares to go for it. And the sad thing is, they have no idea why. The original three knew why- water was being poured on them to stop them from reaching the banana. But the new three monkeys have no idea why, just that they were told by the previous monkeys, and stopped by them, to not attempt to go for the banana. And that is how the three monkeys, sitting on a table and staring at the banana, come to be.

-----------------------------------

So what does this have to do with the current situation in Taiwan and why was I reminded of this when I talked with my friend? The issue that the professor brought up was that the current generation of Taiwanese (my generation), has an apathy towards politics in Taiwan. Part of it, he says, stems from the past where parents may have discouraged their kids to not pursue and become involved in things such as politics because of the KMT in power. In the past, when the KMT was in power, although not as extreme as China, opposition to the KMT government was often put down and dissidents were placed into jail on absurd political charges. The illustration is that, the monkey owner could be likened to parents of one-two generations ago. The three monkeys are successive generation of kids. Parents discouraging their kids from pursuing and engaging in political discussion because of the possible failures and dangers of pursuing a career in politics that differs from KMT (the bucket of water), over time, became parents discouraging kids from pursuing law and politics because, well, we really don't know. The monkeys sitting on the table at the end of the story, are our young generation of Taiwanese. We just have an apathy towards it, which I believe is partially because of the previous "noes" to politics that have been handed down by our older generations. And now, the reason has been lost in time- and we simply don't get involved with politics because our parents said to not to, whose parents also said not to, and their parents, and so on.

So, the law professor said that the young generation of Taiwanese needs to wake up, and see the reason why. At the same time, called on the parents there to teach their kids about what happened in the past. Because not doing so, will result in a vicious cycle in which the future of Taiwan where the young generation will decide the vote, will actually be unable to have the knowledge to say, this is what happened in the past, but this is what it is now, and things have changed, so we can do this. The point is not to highlight the sins of the past of KMT, but to underline the current problem of apathy in our generation.