What is Taiwan? That is a question without a conclusive answer yet. Although many people stubbornly believe Taiwan is this, Taiwan is that, to disregard the contingent and contradictory nature of Taiwan is to disregard what Taiwan really is. The answer to what is Taiwan is inconclusive and people…
I have taught English in San Francisco to international university students for almost two years now. Many of them come from China. Few come from Taiwan. I would say the general ratio of Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese is usually 8:1. Our school policy is that we refer to Taiwan independently from China. This comes up on the class roster, which shows which country students are from. This also comes up in class, when we as questions like “What is something in your country that is different from America?” Both Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese students catch on quick to this language - I haven’t had one semester where a Mainland Chinese student hasn’t raised the issue that Taiwan isn’t a country.
As a teacher, I want to promote a safe, comfortable learning environment for students. But it is difficult when some students are told that they can’t be who they want to be. Therefore, my personal policy and the way that I’ve explained to my students why I refer to Taiwan independently from China is that everyone in class can choose to be whatever they want to be. They can be Chinese or Taiwanese. They can be referred to as Qianyu or Claire. And I think it’s important that the Taiwanese students have a choice in whether or not they want to be referred to as Taiwanese or Chinese. It definitely isn’t up to the other Mainland Chinese students to mandate how the Taiwanese students want to be referred to.
To help them understand better, I use myself as an example. I ask them, “What am I?” Some will say Chinese. Some will say Asian. Some will say American. And I usually shrug and say, “Well I decide. I can be called American. I can be called Taiwanese American. I can be called Asian American. I can decide for myself.”
While I suspect that most of the Mainland Chinese students don’t buy it and just follow my rules because of my authority as the teacher, I still think it’s important for me to set that standard in class, to support the students that are often silenced because they’re the single Taiwanese student in class.
Asked if they would favor a declaration of independence if it caused China to attack Taiwan, nearly 30 percent said “yes,” while nearly 60 percent said “no.”
However, if a declaration of independence would not cause China to attack, 70 percent would favor it, while 20 percent would not.
“Bilateral relations between China and Taiwan are growing stronger, but most Taiwanese feel low affinity with China,” Niou said.
While there remains a significant difference between Taiwan and China’s political, economic and social conditions, 77 percent opposed unification and 14 percent were in favor.
However, if there were little difference in conditions between Taiwan and China, 33 percent would support unification, with 58 percent opposed.
No matter how things may change — or not change — 53 percent think unification is inevitable, while 32 percent think Taiwan will become independent.
″conclusions by Duke University political science professor Emerson Niou, from a new analysis of polling data sourced by the Election Study Center of Taiwan’s National Chengchi University last year, with Niou as the principal investigator, in a presentation to the Center for Strategic Studies in Washington.
That 53% is potentially worrisome. It might reflect Taiwanese fatalism (born of being constantly colonised over the last 400 years) or it might suggest that many Taiwanese see Taiwan as boxing itself politically and economically into a corner it can’t escape from.
(via lettersfromtaiwan)For all of the effort, time and money I’ve poured into learning Chinese and about Taiwanese culture over these past few months, more so than the vast majority of my white peers here, at the end of the day the vast majority of Taiwanese people would still pick a white person over me at the drop of…
Just another day where I’m proud to call myself a pro-Taiwan & pro-Taiwan Independence Chinese-American.
Just found out that one of the big English teaching programs out here (run primarily by Taiwanese) openly discussed rejecting all east Asian American applicants at one point, since they don’t look “American” (i.e. white) enough. The…
“You could blame it on Taiwanese ignorance but you also really have to consider that Taiwanese people marinate in an imported American media that denies the visibility and existence of Asian Americans. I’d imaging that finding images of ABTs in American-imported media in Taiwan is a needle in a haystack since we don’t exist in American media here in the states. (Also, Taiwan gets exposed to a lot of imported American anti-blackness.)”
Whoa. First time hearing this point of view. What did you base this from? I don’t think American-imported media plays a significant role (except for maybe J. Lin — interesting thought). From my personal experience and understanding, it’s just a marketing game. White faces sell better — Taiwanese (Asian culture in general) judge off looks greatly. For instance, all job applications require a photo. Of course, those that hire solely on the look will fail in the long run, but usually the qualifications for their candidates are the same: native speaker, no formal training. What’s the distinguishing trait? Race.
My belief is that Asian parents know that if you’re ABT, then at the very least you can speak proper English. Rather, one problem is that Asian parents probably view an ABT wanting to teach English at a cram school as a failure (why come to Asia to teach English when you can get a real job in an English-speaking country) unless the person has a special trait, ie. SAT prep, Mandarin fluency. In that case, tutoring can and does pay very well with the proper network.
For these reasons, I never viewed hiring white teachers as white supremacy. It is simply the tradition — hell, even I think of a white person when I think “English teacher.” I barely believe white supremacy exists, but it’s my first time hearing it so maybe my view will change over time. However, I don’t see parents encouraging their children to marry white people, and that makes me believe that white people are more of an oddity than an idol.
Lastly, I found the linked lawsuit very interesting! I didn’t know that TW had anti-discriminatory laws, but I think the person who filed suit was in an unusual situation: TW citizen-ish status vs. foreigner status of most applicants, who thus can’t really bring the case to court since they can’t even stay in the country.
Last lastly, hope you’re enjoying TW blackinasia! I think it’s a great place with great people if you search a bit. Love the Tumblr name too! I’m surprised nobody had taken it already.
“It’s not white supremacy—it’s tradition. I hardly believe white supremacy exists, but it’s my first time hearing it…”
Kind of like gravity except like, history and stuff.
Just found out that one of the big English teaching programs out here (run primarily by Taiwanese) openly discussed rejecting all east Asian American applicants at one point, since they don’t look “American” (i.e. white) enough. The program in question was already predominantly white, but the second biggest group was composed of said applicants.
It just goes to show you how pervasive and damaging white supremacy is, even out here.
Right out of high school, I was hired by a SAT prep business in Orange County, CA run by Taiwanese immigrants to teach the Verbal portion of the SAT test. Halfway through I was asked if I had any white classmates who would be willing to replace me (I was one of the top English students in my class and the students in my class above me were all Asian American.) I was told that that Taiwanese parents felt more reassured when the teacher was white. One Taiwanese parent didn’t believe my SAT score and told her child to expect to score lower than his white peers simply because he is Asian.
Wow. A friend of a Taiwanese English teacher I know here was adopted from Taiwan at the age of 8 and grew up in the States (Wisconsin). She returned to Taiwan to teach English later in life with a mid-western accent and a lot of parents complained vocally to her supervisors about her pronunciation saying that it “wasn’t standard enough” for their kids.
You know for damn sure if she had the same voice but were white they wouldn’t have complained for a second.
These are pretty overt, documented, hiring practices for hiring “English teachers” that are well established (see this article from 2000). There was even a successful lawsuit about this in 2011.
English teachers at Hess have been told by company representatives that when Hess opened in 1983, the organization originally had a policy to only hire Caucasians with North American accents.
[source for the above image and commentary]
You could blame it on Taiwanese ignorance but you also really have to consider that Taiwanese people marinate in an imported American media that denies the visibility and existence of Asian Americans. I’d imaging that finding images of ABTs in American-imported media in Taiwan is a needle in a haystack since we don’t exist in American media here in the states. (Also, Taiwan gets exposed to a lot of imported American anti-blackness.)
Combine it with the widespread belief that ABTs suck at languages in general (eg: poking fun of Jeremy Lin, many of the most famous ABT celebrities’ mediocre Mandarin skills) and you can sort of see why wealthy parents would be (wrongly) distrustful of ABTs abilities to teach their children English.
Forgot to add…Focus on the proper accent or pronunciation is a big deal for these parents and I think this makes sense because if you’re at all observant, it’s quite obvious that white Americans mock Asians for having the “wrong accent.” Having the right English accent is necessary for survival and so some parents mistakenly believe that a white person can give their kid that (even if the person is French or Danish and English is their second language or w/e and they just don’t know.)
[This is kind of a messed up anecdote but when I was a kid my mom tried to stop me from watching some of my favorite tv shows: Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters, Moesha, and Sister, Sister. Why? Because for some totally out-there reason, she thought that if I watched those shoes I would suddenly start speaking AAVE and my “accent” would be wrong.
From watching Fresh Prince or Sister, Sister. Seriously. (Which I doubt was one of the shows that got exported to Taiwan.)] So my Taiwanese immigrant mom encouraged me to watch shows with white characters so my accent would develop in the “right (white) direction.” I mean I understand her concern but at the same time that is just so messed up racist.]
- anti-blackness •
- taiwan •
- esl •
Just found out that one of the big English teaching programs out here (run primarily by Taiwanese) openly discussed rejecting all east Asian American applicants at one point, since they don’t look “American” (i.e. white) enough. The program in question was already predominantly white, but the second biggest group was composed of said applicants.
It just goes to show you how pervasive and damaging white supremacy is, even out here.
Right out of high school, I was hired by a SAT prep business in Orange County, CA run by Taiwanese immigrants to teach the Verbal portion of the SAT test. Halfway through I was asked if I had any white classmates who would be willing to replace me (I was one of the top English students in my class and the students in my class above me were all Asian American.) I was told that that Taiwanese parents felt more reassured when the teacher was white. One Taiwanese parent didn’t believe my SAT score and told her child to expect to score lower than his white peers simply because he is Asian.
Wow. A friend of a Taiwanese English teacher I know here was adopted from Taiwan at the age of 8 and grew up in the States (Wisconsin). She returned to Taiwan to teach English later in life with a mid-western accent and a lot of parents complained vocally to her supervisors about her pronunciation saying that it “wasn’t standard enough” for their kids.
You know for damn sure if she had the same voice but were white they wouldn’t have complained for a second.
These are pretty overt, documented, hiring practices for hiring “English teachers” that are well established (see this article from 2000). There was even a successful lawsuit about this in 2011.
English teachers at Hess have been told by company representatives that when Hess opened in 1983, the organization originally had a policy to only hire Caucasians with North American accents.
[source for the above image and commentary]
You could blame it on Taiwanese ignorance but you also really have to consider that Taiwanese people marinate in an imported American media that denies the visibility and existence of Asian Americans. I’d imaging that finding images of ABTs in American-imported media in Taiwan is a needle in a haystack since we don’t exist in American media here in the states. (Also, Taiwan gets exposed to a lot of imported American anti-blackness.)
Combine it with the widespread belief that ABTs suck at languages in general (eg: poking fun of Jeremy Lin, many of the most famous ABT celebrities’ mediocre Mandarin skills) and you can sort of see why wealthy parents would be (wrongly) distrustful of ABTs abilities to teach their children English.
- taiwan •
- teaching english •
- esl •
- discrimination •
- racism •
Sometimes the most amazing albums are inspired by equally amazing source material. Such is the case with A Memories Chase, the first full-length by the Chicago-via-Miami band Ohvaur.
In fact, the band’s main driving force, Timothy Den, has amassed plenty of experience to inspire a 10-disc box set of music. Over the past two decades, Tim has been the Assistant Editor of Lollipop magazine; founded his own website, Transform Online; fronted the Boston-based Kimone, a spacious and driving rock band whose work was produced by former Jawbox head J. Robbins and logged time onstage opening for the likes of Spoon and The Album Leaf; and scored numerous short films, including Bitch, which premiered at the 2007 edition of the Sundance Film Festival.
Through all that, Tim was constantly dogged by an unsettling truth: he was living here in the U.S. illegally.
Tim was born in Taiwan, but at the age of 10, legally moved to Miami with his mother and sister, where they lived for seven years (with a good chunk of that time also spent in Ecuador) before a legal mess ensued, forcing them to return to Taiwan. They managed to make their way to Canada, and then back into the U.S., but were forced to live in fear and anonymity for nearly 20 years.
Now a legal citizen, Tim is finally ready to open up about this harrowing period of his life, starting with A Memories Chase.
Mind you, the album isn’t about the details of these experiences (the full story is in a personal letter written by Tim – available in English, Spanish, and Chinese – read that here. Rather, A Memories Chase uses the backdrop of the immigrant experience, and the sounds that Tim has absorbed from his time in Asia, South America, and the States to examine what identity, ethnicity, and “home” means.Too, it is filtered through the hearts and hands of his band, almost all of whom are Latino immigrants or the children of Latino immigrants.
A Memories Chase might use the 60+ years of Tim’s family history as a starting point, but its themes are much more universal: how we define ourselves through the people, places, and cultures that bring us into this world and shape our being. Or, as he sings on the album, “No one single part / tells me who I am or not.”
Just found out that one of the big English teaching programs out here (run primarily by Taiwanese) openly discussed rejecting all east Asian American applicants at one point, since they don’t look “American” (i.e. white) enough. The program in question was already predominantly white, but the second biggest group was composed of said applicants.
It just goes to show you how pervasive and damaging white supremacy is, even out here.
Right out of high school, I was hired by a SAT prep business in Orange County, CA run by Taiwanese immigrants to teach the Verbal portion of the SAT test. Halfway through I was asked if I had any white classmates who would be willing to replace me (I was one of the top English students in my class and the students in my class above me were all Asian American.) I was told that that Taiwanese parents felt more reassured when the teacher was white. One Taiwanese parent didn’t believe my SAT score and told her child to expect to score lower than his white peers simply because he is Asian.
The last few days I’ve been traveling with some white friends here in Taiwan, and it’s been fascinating observing and getting a glimpse into what life is like here for them. Watching countless people smiling at them, waving, giving up their seats for them, going out of their way to talk to them and calling them beautiful. All of this occurring as I stood there and they barely engaged with me or looked at me quizzically. I love my friends, but the blatant disparity was a bit jarring even for me, who’s grown used to seeing how entrenched white privilege and supremacy are over here.
The worst part, though, was when I momentarily felt hurt by the situation and the following thought floated into my head:
“Maybe it’s you? Maybe you’re the one doing something wrong, and that’s why you’re not getting treated like your white friends?”
The thought was unexpected and crept up insidiously. And it stung. This lasted until I realized how problematic my thought process was given how white supremacy and privilege operate over here. There is little, if any, comparison in the way Taiwanese and Chinese people treat white people to how they treat black people, and that is no fault of my own. All I can do is focus on me and doing the best I can for myself out here, in spite of these things.
BlackinAsia
She came to America
She taught me Chinese
She cut all the garlic, fed us our history
She slaved over a hot stove
She told me to lose weight
She told me to eat more
She put her in Chinese school, week after week
She fought with her daughter, as head strong as her
She gave me…
Taiwanese linguist saving Kanakanavu language that helped give birth to languages spoken by 400 million people
Her eyes lit bright with concentration, Taiwanese linguist Sung Li-may leans in expectantly as one of the planet’s last 10 speakers of the Kanakanavu language shares his hopes for the future.
“I am already very old,” says 80-year-old Mu’u Ka’angena, a leathery faced man with a tough, sinewy body and deeply veined hands. A light rain falls onto the thatched roof of the communal bamboo hut, and smoke from a dying fire drifts lazily up the walls, wafting over deer antlers, boar jawbones and ceremonial swords that decorate the interior like trophies from a forgotten time.
“Every day I think: Can our language be passed down to the next generation? It is the deepest wish in my heart that it can be.”
Kanakanavu, Sung says, has a lot more going for it than just its intrinsic value. It belongs to the same language family that experts believe spread from Taiwan 4,000 years ago, giving birth to languages spoken today by 400 million people in an arc extending from Easter Island off South America to the African island of Madagascar.
“Taiwan is where it all starts,” says archaeologist Peter Bellwood, who with linguist Robert Blust developed the now widely accepted theory that people from Taiwan leveraged superior navigation skills to spread their Austronesian language far and wide. At least four of Taiwan’s 14 government-recognized aboriginal languages are still spoken by thousands of people, but a race is on to save the others from extinction. The youngest good speaker of Kanakanavu, also known as Southern Tsou, is 60, and the next youngest is 73.
“To survive a language has to be spoken,” Sung said. “And with this one it isn’t happening.”
It’s a story repeated in the remote corners of the earth, as younger generations look to the dominant language for economic survival and advancement, whether it be English or, in Taiwan’s case, Chinese. Aboriginals account for only 2 percent of the Taiwanese population of 23 million. Many young people are leaving Dakanua, a picturesque village in the south that is home to the Kanakanavu language, to work in the island’s cities.
Sung is clearly revered by Dakanua’s tiny cadre of Kanakanavu speakers, who are happy to spend long hours going over their language with her and a small group of graduate students she brings to the village from National Taiwan University in Taipei.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, they sat outside a well-ordered cluster of whitewashed concrete buildings, painstakingly documenting the proper use of the imperative and the grammatical subtleties of concepts like “it could be that” or “it is possible that.” In the background the bamboo and palm tree covered contours of Mt. Anguana protruded through a moving blanket of fog and mist, and a thin rain fell in the Nanzixian River valley below.
Life here is defined by farming, a reverent belief in Christianity — Presbyterian and Roman Catholic missionaries converted almost two-thirds of the aboriginal population in the 1930s and 40s — and chronic concern about the harsh elements. Five hundred residents in the nearby village of Hsiao Lin Tsuen were buried alive 3 1/2 years ago when torrential rains unleashed by a typhoon sent thousands of tons of mud cascading down onto their homes.
Sung started working with aboriginal languages almost by accident. After returning to Taiwan in 1994 as a newly minted doctor of linguistics from the University of Illinois, her department head at National Taiwan University pushed her into the discipline, insisting that Taiwan’s majority Chinese population had to understand more about its aboriginal minority.
“At first I was intimidated,” says Sung, now the director of the university’s Graduate Institute of Linguistics, one of a handful of Taiwanese bodies seeking the preservation of the aboriginal languages as part of a wide-ranging effort funded by the government. “I had no idea of how to carry out my field work among the aboriginals. But over time I got used to it. And I learned the importance of Taiwanese aboriginal languages in the overall scheme of Austronesian dispersion.”
The deep rooted linguistic seeds the dispersal sowed have now morphed into dozens of languages — Malay for example, and the Philippines’ Tagalog — that make Austronesian one of the largest language groups in the world.
The dispersion is illustrated by the similarities of the words for “ear.” What linguists call the proto-form — the Taiwanese basis from thousands of years ago — is usually rendered as “galinga.” In modern Taiwanese aboriginal dialects that becomes “calinga,” while in the Philippines it’s “tenga,” in Fiji “dalinga,” in Samoa “talinga,” and in Papua New Guinea “taringa.” Taiwanese aboriginals traveling to New Zealand, for example, are struck by the close relationship of their own languages to Maori, particularly when they hear the local version of numbers.
Sung’s most recent project was collating a Chinese-English dictionary for the Seediq language spoken by the tribe of Taiwanese mountain dwellers memorialized in “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” a 2011 film recounting their rebellion against Japanese occupiers in the 1930s. Last February she began her work with Kanakanavu, hoping she can preserve the language before the last speakers die out.
The odds against her are long. Even many 40- and 50-year olds are incapable of mouthing anything more than a few simple phrases in their native tongue.
Still, frolicking on the neatly cut lawn of Dakanua’s deserted bed and breakfast is a three-year old girl with a runny nose, an infectious smile and a lovely lilt to her voice.
The odds against her are long. Even many 40- and 50-year olds are incapable of mouthing anything more than a few simple phrases in their native tongue.
Still, frolicking on the neatly cut lawn of Dakanua’s deserted bed and breakfast is a three-year old girl with a runny nose, an infectious smile and a lovely lilt to her voice.
She is the granddaughter of Mu’u Ka’angena, the man with the leathery skin, and just within earshot she begins conversing with him in very simple Kanakanavu.
“Did you hear that?” Sung asks. “Isn’t it wonderful? She’s our hope for the future.”
If it weren’t for Kanakanavu, Tagalog (my language) wouldn’t exist.
President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan Republic of China on Taiwan in his New Year’s speech. 01/01/2013.
Translation:
ALL YOUR IDENTITIES ARE DEFINED BY ME.
ALL YOUR IDENTITIES ARE BELONG TO CHINA.
(via lettersfromtaiwan)This is fucking bullshit President Ma and you know it. What about all the native Taiwanese, or do they not count as people to you?
- Ma ying jeou •
- Bullshit •
- Taiwan •
