Menu
close
Home › Forums › Study Tours › 2015 NCTA Study Tour to China and Taiwan › reading -- taiwan matters, ch. 4-5
Anonymous.
AnonymousChapter 5 discusses more cultural aspects of Taiwanese life than actual nightlife. Taiwanese stereotypes arise in the form of work and relationships. Riggers states that there is a lot of pressure on men to earn enough money at their jobs to provide for a family where the woman does not need to work (P.100). However, the amount of women we saw working during our trip is a positive sign that this gender role is evolving.
One man who was under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform was our facilitator. Mr. Wu provides an excellent example of “many Taiwanese work(ing) six or seven ten-hour days each week" (P.101). I understand many of these pressures and like many of my friends around here, we have no problem working ten-hour days. The long work days don’t bother me, however, the challenges for us to all meet up after work is a problem.
Mr. Wu said that after work he would eat out before heading home. Once home, he just took a shower and rested up before his routine began again the next day. Working ten-hours at work isn’t that bad when it takes you another fifteen minutes to meet up with your friends or family. Living in a major city like Taipei makes socializing convenient, unlike many of our communities in the states. Many of us spend hours in traffic commuting home. Even if we live in a major urban area, you may get home too late to meet up with friends or you may not live in the same city as your friends. For example, since my friends all live in different cities in the Bay Area, we must drive to central locations to get together. Americans spend too much time on the road and in traffic. Our communities are not all set up to foster the kind of nightlife we experienced in Taipei. It is reasons like this that we have seen many younger people in China, Taiwan and even the US relocating to major cities. Their migration demonstrates a desire to work and live in places where our economic and social needs are met. While suburbs provide a level of comfort for some, others like the taxi driver from the book just views them as “boring” (P.95).
edited by jalves on 7/23/2015
AnonymousI have often heard Taiwan referred to as "Free China," and was for the most part unaware of it being under martial law up until the 1980s. What most caught my attention in Ch. 4 were the ways politicians try to get votes, and I made several comparisons to the current tactics of Republican candidates (especially Trump, who by the way, bought the Old Post-office in DC and it turning it into a HOTEL!!) and was shocked by the tale of Chen and Lu being shot while "sweep[ing] the streets" (p. 86-87). While Rigger does not directly state that this led to Chen's victory, between the lines it led me to believe that voters were so sympathetic to Chen's plight that helped many Taiwanese to switch their votes in order to elect Chen.
In Ch. 5, I was ready to read about Taiwanese social life at night, but the chapter was mostly about Taiwanese social life and customs in general. I drew a lot of the same conclusions as Jeff, and after talking to Mr. Wu and several of the Ambassador Hotel employees, figured out quickly that the Taiwanese work long hours away from their families (p. 100). As an American, I was confused. Was the struggle for a 8-hour work day in the past hundred years a battle against a basic human-rights violation? How could a country so evolved allow people to work such long hours-legally? Then I remembered my time in Europe and that most everyone takes naps at 3pm-I don't know anyone in America whose work would allow them to take naps at 3pm-so I guess it is all relative.
On another note, one of the many things I can share with my students in Ch. 5 is the idea of religion in Taiwan. The Taiwanese combine the 3 traditional religions Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism (p. 102). I am excited to share the many pictures I took of the various temples we visited and explain this concept to my students.
edited by jilliansheehan on 7/24/2015
AnonymousChapter 4
The title, Free China to Democratic Taiwan, highlights the reality that “Free” referred to member of the Free World not politic freedom for Taiwan’s people. The KMT was focused on preparing for a return to China. All political and economic resources were brought to bear on this one goal. Taiwanese with the temerity to suggest Taiwan might stand on its own and pursue a destiny apart from China were arrested. When the KMT realized the return to China was not eminent, they re-evaluated their political structure. They found it convenient to allow local elections to lessen their administrative burden. This new policy was good propaganda for the KMT internationally. Its downside for the government was that it promoted the establishment of local democracy. More and more intellectuals and influential politicians pressed for greater reforms. The government cracked down on opponents for change during the 1950’s-1960’s in what is called the period of “White Terror”. Political reformers and communist sympathizers were imprisoned, tortured, and executed.
Another dark period in Taiwan’s history surrounded the KMT crushing of the rally staged in Kaohsiung City on December 10, 1979 for International Human Rights Day and the horrific aftermath. The KMT took this opportunity to imprison political opponents, mostly members of the Dangwai movement. The family of Lin Yi-hsiung was brutally murdered while he was incarcerated. This outraged not only the citizens of Taiwan, but the world community and it exposed flagrant human rights violations by the KMT. Harsh criticism and threats by the United States pressured the KMT to make reforms and release Kaohsiung defendants from prison.
At the same time these pivotal events were taking place the political torch was being passed from Chiang Kai-shek to his son Chiang Ching-kuo (CCK). CCK seemed an unlikely agent for change, but he quietly set out to do just that. Rather than continue the trend of nominating political candidates whose motivation was personal gain he backed candidates that were highly qualified. His greatest contribution to democracy however was lifting Martial law. This allowed for official recognition of opposition parties to the KMT
[font=Times]Lee Teng-hui[/font][font=Times] continued the march toward full democracy when he became president. He hosted a National Affairs Conference to build consensus. He abolished extra-constitutional presidential powers and he called for direct elections of mayors, provincial governors, and president. By 1996 all of these reforms were implemented.
"Not only is there an 800-pound gorilla in my living room, that gorilla happens to think he's my bother,"[/font] is a famous quote by Mayor Hu of Taichung about Taiwan’s uneasy relationship with China.
Chapter 5
Taiwanese life is centered around relationships, guanxi, “human Feeling”. This includes family, friends, and beyond. High intensity social interaction spills over from personal relationships into business ones. The foundation of Hui lending associations is friendship, as is political networking. We experienced this guanxi through the extraordinary kindness and generosity of Chairman Hsu and the incomparable staff of the Ambassador Hotel. Ten hour work days are common in Taiwan, so how do they fit in time for socializing? They simply extend their day. Everything from restaurants to bookstores, and discos to beauty shops are open “into the wee hours.” Tiny cramped apartments make socializing out the norm.
Marriage norms have changed over time in Taiwan. Gone are the days of simpua marriages where a bride was adopted into a family as a small child. Nearly gone are arranged marriages. By the 1980’s only 13% of marriages were arranged by parents. Now the overwhelming majority young people choose their own spouse with parental approval. Marriage ceremonies are small and private with dates set by fortune tellers. However the public aspects of wedding culture are very elaborate, western weddings on steroids! Engagement parties, gift exchanges, voluminous, comprehensive photographic extravaganzas, elaborate receptions. We walked by whole streets devoted to wedding culture near our hotel in Taipei.
I was most impressed by the Longshan Temple in Taipei. Certainly the Buddha was the central focus, but the beloved Daoist deities were also worshiped there. Guanxi extends to the gods as well in Taiwan.
edited by karenrieger on 7/24/2015
edited by karenrieger on 7/24/2015
AnonymousThere were a number of details in chapter 4 that interested me. One one the most fascinating topics was the idea of Nationalism in Taiwan. The KMT faced a number of challenges when it fled to Taiwan. They had the task of uniting all the different people in a common quest. At first it was taking back the mainland, then it was building up Taiwan. What added to the challenge was the different amounts of people that called Taiwan home. From the Austronesians, Hokkien, Hakka, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese and the post 1945 mainlanders, all these groups came at different times and had different experiences in Taiwan. The KMT used education as a method to try and unite these people with moderate success. Rigger describes a number of studies that show citizens of Taiwan do not see themselves as "Taiwanese Only". The majority of people see themselves as both Chinese and Taiwanese. Although I dont know when I could use this in my classroom, my students could really relate to this. When I ask my students how they identify themselves, most tell me "Mexican" even though they were born in the US and have spent very little time in Mexico.
AnonymousChapter 4 was by far the most dense chapter in the book as it unveiled the Taiwanese political history from the civil war to the 1980s. It seemed like every sentence had a new, important piece of information to absorb.
I found it ironic that Taiwan was once called "Free China" even though they were clearly run by a dictator under Chinag Kai-shek and his son, CCK, both with martial law. None of that screams "Free," but in the eyes of the free world (aka, the U.S.), that was deemed more free than communism. The White Terror that lasted for 38 years kept Taiwan in a failing economy and put it's people in fear to live their lives. It is interesting to note that once Taiwan became "Democratic Taiwan" the KMT was able to rebrand it's image to the people and still maintain political influence in a democratic government; most countries that rid themselves of a democracy don't keep the party name that regime was under, or at least don't keep it successfully.
Chapter 5 was by far my favorite chapter. I liked the social and cultural background Riggers gave as she discussed the nightlife, the courtship rituals, and how the family network is of utmost importance. I especially enjoyed reading about and then experiencing how helpful the Taiwanese are to foreigners. In Tainan Tara and I were looking at the map to figure out how to get back to the hotel from shopping and quickly someone came up and helped us go under the train station and to which exit we should take to get to the Shangri-La. And in Taipei a small shopkeeper took the time to show me how to brew tea correctly and how to sip and even chew the tea to get the full taste. Taiwan left a positive lasting impression on me and one I cannot wait to see again with future trips.
AnonymousChapter 4 was the most eye-opening for me in terms of getting to know Taiwan's past and present. I was very shocked to read that Taiwan was an authoritarian state for much of its existence, yet now is heralded as being one of the freest democracies. I kind of assumed that it was always like that, "escaping communism to preserve democracy." However, much of chapter 4 proved how wrong my assumptions were. What was particularly fascinating was how long the KMT held on to re-capturing China. One of the ways they intended on doing that was by maintaining everything Chinese from the mainland in order to make their transition back seem more legitimate to Mainlanders. However, today, it seems an entire shift has taken place, where I almost felt it would be insulting to ask someone in Taiwan if they considered themselves Chinese. There is a sense of pride from being from Taiwan that has clearly done away with the preservation of mainland culture and traditions. Most Taiwanese I know here in LA always introduce them as Taiwanese with no caveat about China. Awesome read.
Anonymous“America is boring at night”. Well, I guess it depends on who you talk to. Had someone told me this in my early to mid 20s, I wouldn’t have disagreed. I was a social butterfly. How did I have time for it, I have no idea. I had 2 jobs and was working on a double major. If we wanted to interact with someone we would actually have to call them or meet up for lunch/dinner. According to Rigger, “what makes life in Taiwan so exciting are the nonstop interactions centered on tight personal ties…most guanxi relationships are rooted in real emotion. Friends exchange gift, they help each other out when needed but friendship come first”. (p.96) In America, many people interact online, not at the night market or outside their home like they do in Taiwan. They have hundreds or thousands of facebook, twitter, snapchat, instagram, or whatever other social networking thing is out there. People stopped interacting in person. We click “like” or make a comment on someone’s post. Interaction complete. (The fact that we don’t have night markets came as a shocker to Mr. Wu. He asked a group of us, “You don’t have night markets!!! What do you do at night when you get hungry???” Food trucks and drive thrus.)
Living in a big city, there is always something to do, but many times people are not aware of it or they don’t want to drive for hours to do it. Traffic, traffic, traffic gets in the way. On Friday, I drove an hour an twenty minutes to meet some friends for lunch. The lunch took about an hour and a half, then I drove an hour and forty five minutes home. Drove over 3 hours to enjoy a one hour lunch. Trying to coordinate a time and place that works for all is extremely difficult. We all commute in different directions from home to work and back. Now in my mid 30s, I have to admit that many times retreating to “my private fortress” is more appealing than going out to a club, bar, or anything that will keep me out late. “The density of human relationship and interactions helps explain why so many Taiwanese find American lifestyles a little dull”. (p.96)
edited by malvarenga on 8/2/2015
AnonymousThroughout my reading of the book and discussing my trip/showing pictures, explaining Taiwan has been quite interesting. What struck me as interesting was the concentration of trading partners and % of their interest in importing with Taiwan and how that influenced their political movements to not move toward being too pushy. Listening to President Ma Ying-jeou's speech had measured words when discussing its relationship with mainland China. The person that attended with me has a degree in international business and he continued to dissect the words as much as I did. I'd like to do this with students during a speech analysis and writing with ELA. The discussion of voting gifts was interesting in that there was an item given to influence but that isn't something new where its happened throughout history and in the USA. Nothing new, something to compare with students. Discussion of Senator Edward Kennedy's speech about Taiwan on International Human Rights Day would be great to use as a leadership and influential demonstration for characterization in 7th grade ELA. pg 75. My pictures of the chiang Kai-shek Memorial are far more beautiful than the picture included in the book, especially the moment I had with Zoy (met her there) we are now communicating with me in both English and Spanish! 
America is boring at night... sort of. Taiwan is a lively place at night, almost every place and corner we went to BUT that can be a bit much. The dogs throughout the trip, made me miss Scully but then hearing about their possibly being sent to be euthanized was worse. Reading how polite and welcoming the people were in Taiwan did not do it justice. Many times, people were very helpful and would help us even without being asked. The bridal photography was viewed at several locations, I'd like to have students analyze those pictures. The pictures I took could also help as a supplement to the the heart of a small town is the temple, especially the temples on the last two days.
AnonymousI immediately gravitate to the political aspects and conditions surrounding “From Free China to Democratic Taiwan”. This is what Rigger deems a perfect political storm. Political decline, economic troubles, and international isolationism set the groundwork for the appointment and future presidency of Chiang Ching-kuo.
With all the new information we encounter and post with on the forum I try to look through the lens of “how can I integrate this into MY lessons?” With that question in mind I gather my knowledge from our study tour and our time spent with Dr. Ketty Chen of the DPP and the current “political storm” occurring in Taiwan. When teaching honors government this year we will have the ability to watch the U.S. presidential race in real time. The Taiwanese election takes place this January and we will also be able to follow that election, the role of the student movement, political participation, and most inspirational of all, that both party candidates are female. This is an invigorating and exciting time to be a government teacher, a Taiwanese voter, a citizen of humanity.
In an attempt to post more photos of my amazing trip to new lands, enjoy the changing of the guard at the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, the father of CCK referenced above. #taradoestaiwan
AnonymousI immediately gravitate to the political aspects and conditions surrounding “From Free China to Democratic Taiwan”. This is what Rigger deems a perfect political storm. Political decline, economic troubles, and international isolationism set the groundwork for the appointment and future presidency of Chiang Ching-kuo.
With all the new information we encounter and post with on the forum I try to look through the lens of “how can I integrate this into MY lessons?” With that question in mind I gather my knowledge from our study tour and our time spent with Dr. Ketty Chen of the DPP and the current “political storm” occurring in Taiwan. When teaching honors government this year we will have the ability to watch the U.S. presidential race in real time. The Taiwanese election takes place this January and we will also be able to follow that election, the role of the student movement, political participation, and most inspirational of all, that both party candidates are female. This is an invigorating and exciting time to be a government teacher, a Taiwanese voter, a citizen of humanity.
In an attempt to post more photos of my amazing trip to new lands, enjoy the changing of the guard at the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, the father of CCK referenced above. #taradoestaiwan
clay dubeCh. 4 - From Free China to Democratic Taiwan
Why reality does the chapter title hint at?
How did the preoccupation with the mainland as an object and a threat affect Taiwan's political development? What was the White Terror? Has today's population reconciled with this repressive past?
How did having local elections serve the colonial government and the KMT regime?
Universal Human Rights Day, December 10, looms large in this chapter. How did what happened on 12/10/1979 and how it is remembered ultimately change Taiwan?
No one expected Chiang Ching-kuo to help Taiwan democratize and no one expected his successor Lee Teng-hui to have advanced democracy so rapidly. What did they do?
Explain "Not only is there an 800 lbb gorilla in my living room. He says he's my bother."
Ch. 5 America is borning at night
Rigger explains that Taiwan is about intense and regular social interaction? Where do people interact? What, if any, are the political and economic ramifications of such netorks?
How have marriage norms changed over the years?
Which of Taiwan's religions or social organizations seems the most interesting to you?
AnonymousCKS Memorial