Taiwan is the Canada of Asia?
The title is a bit exaggerated. This video is mainly saying that Canada has a similar history background as Taiwan. It was colonized by many different countries (England and French), it is relatively a “new” country, and has a mixed cultural society, just like Taiwan.
When it comes to national identity, we are not as assure as other countries. It’s harder for us to identify ourselves in this world. Plus, Taiwan is still facing the threat of getting united by China, the youtuber Prozzie deems that Canada, as a democratic country like Taiwan and sharing such similar history background, should help Taiwan out and support Taiwan more. Although I think I’m quite optimistic about Taiwan’s future, because many other countries started to know more about Taiwan these years and have shown their supportive attitudes.
After going to exchange in the Netherlands, I did learn how to see Taiwan with a higher perspective. There are many chances that I have to introduce Taiwan to people I met. “Taiwan has stunning natural sceneries, it’s an island surrounded by ocean, our transportation is really convenient, you will love Taiwanese food, Taiwanese people are very hospitable…”, I said. But it’s often following by another question — What’s the difference between (other places)? The most common one is, of course, China. Besides Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, we share the same language (Mandarin), we both love eating rice and noodles, but Chinese people eat spicier…? What I feel like is, Taiwanese culture is a combination of Chinese and Japanese cultures. But come on! We are definitely more than that!
The fundament of Taiwanese culture is Chinese culture, but we don’t have the rich history and strong antiquity; Taiwan is well-developed in technology and economy, but we’re not as international, busy and crowded as Singapore or Hong Kong; Taiwan’s society is competitive, cram school culture prevails, but our academic pressure and anxiety of young generation are not as big as China or Korea; Taiwanese people are disciplined and polite, we are altruists, always consider other’s feelings and think for the whole, but we’re still not as humble and disciplined as Japanese.
Thanks to Taiwanese movies, when watching them, I could tell that “this is Taiwan” or “this is very Tai”. Whether it is aboriginal elements, temple culture, Hakka flora patterns, traditional Chinese and Zhuyin(phonetic symbols), scooters and fortune trucks, beef noodles and bubble tea, politics and protests… etc. However, it still is difficult to distinguish how much of these trivial things are the same as other countries, if you don’t see it from the outside of the Taiwan. For example, the scooter culture, it is also present in many Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Vietnam. For Traditional Chinese, Hong Kong and Malaysia are still using it.
In the end, let me share this Canadian commercial to you. (Thanks to 廣告裁判 for sharing this on their IG.) A fridge was put in the middle of the road, inviting people to come and say “I am Canadian” in their own native languages. In such a mixed cultural country as Canada, it’s really an interesting and inspiring way to gel people’s heart together and raise the awareness of national identity. As a Taiwanese, I’m so moved.
What does Taiwanese truly stand for? I think we’ll just have to keep asking ourselves and 'continue discovering.
