A Question of Identity

I am Taiwanese-American, and I identify myself as Taiwanese-American, not Chinese-American.  To some, the distinction may seem minor; to me, that perception is exactly why the distinction matters.  Like many other Taiwanese and Taiwanese-Americans, I hope for the eventual recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign nation, independent of the communist People's Republic of China, but before that can happen, the international community must recognize that Taiwan is, in fact, a separate entity from China.
My early education, unfortunately, demonstrated a discouraging lack of information on the basic political difference between Taiwan and China, or, indeed, much exposure to Asian politics at all.  I grew up in Decatur, Illinois, where, according to DiversityData.Org, a Harvard University research and data analysis project, the total number of Asians and Pacific Islanders was 509 in 1990, 0.4% of the total population (DiversityData Project), and our social studies curriculum focused primarily on the United States.  In “How Textbooks Around the World Portray U.S. History,” Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward perfectly summarize this educational myopia:

...many history classes in the United States are taught from an isolationist standpoint, where events in U.S. History are portrayed as if they occurred within a historical vacuum.  If other nations are mentioned in American textbooks, it is often only within the context of the impact of the United States' foreign policy or from the viewpoint of U.S. interests.  (46-47)

As a result of this, many of my classmates entered high school thinking that Hong Kong was in Japan and Tokyo in China, or that China, Japan, and Vietnam were all the same thing.  Hardly anyone outside my small circle of friends knew that Taiwan existed at all, let alone that there existed any difference between Taiwan and China.

The failure to grasp the difference is understandable.  The vast majority of Taiwan's inhabitants migrated there from China, and in custom and language, “they are similar to the Chinese and consider themselves part of the Chinese” (“Taiwanese” 581).  There are, however, significant differences, which originated primarily from the sharp divergence of Chinese and Taiwanese history in 1949, when the Taiwanese government was founded in opposition to Communist mainland China.  Indigenous Taiwanese peoples and traditions, as well as Taiwan’s greater openness to Japanese and Western influences as compared to China’s, also contributed to the development of a unique national and popular culture.  The way Mandarin is spoken differs, with Taiwanese speakers possessing a distinct accent and vocabulary.  Taiwan also uses the traditional Chinese written language, while China has adopted a simplified form.

The languages, customs, and cultures do overlap, though, encouraging the perception of Taiwan as a part of China and creating challenges to developing awareness about the existence of Taiwan as an entity distinct from China.   Taiwan is often poorly represented in reference texts.  For example, the 1993 edition of the Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World devotes three text columns to the Chinese, and only half a column to the Taiwanese.  CountryWatch.com, the San Diego City College library's recommended database for research on different countries, has Taiwan listed as a subsection of China's, without its own sections for such information as human rights or investment climate.  And, perhaps due to Taiwan's lack of representation in or recognition by the United Nations as a sovereign state, Taiwan is not among the nations evaluated using the United Nations' Human Development Index, an omission which denies researchers a valuable tool with which to measure quality of life in Taiwan.  This relative lack of information on Taiwan indicates a failure to recognize it as an independent entity.

The frequent failure to count and document Taiwan as a nation separate from China can create the impression that information about China applies to Taiwan as well.  Even if that were true, however,  China, a vast and populous nation with no less than “fifty-six different identifiable ethnic groups” (“Chinese” 147), defies attempts at generalization, since “sharp regional and cultural differences, including major variations in spoken Chinese, are often as great as among many European nationalities” (“Chinese” 149), and the Chinese are “dispersed over such a large and diverse country that it is impossible to expect them to share a uniform lifestyle” (“Chinese” 149).   CountryWatch.com's “People” entry for China contains a warning regarding the country's income and poverty statistics:

Poverty in China...cannot be easily dichotomized into regions, nor can it be considered in binary urban versus rural terms...Urban and rural residents of China apparently increased their savings from the 1970s to the 1990s by over 71 percent. But media attention on these increases... often overshadow the marked increases in urban poverty that has been occurring in recent years.  (CountryWatch.com)

The economic and political differences between China and Taiwan render the conflation of Taiwan with China misleading.  Chilla Bulbeck, describing the modern understanding of the third world as “'backward,' 'poor,' or 'developing' nations” (38), suggests that this category now includes formerly second-world countries such as China, while stating that Taiwan belongs to the “no longer Newly Industrializing Countries of Asia” (39) and pointing out its “high per capita incomes” (39.)  Unfortunately, scholars like Bulbeck, who distinguish Taiwan from China, appear too rare and specialized to create a common awareness of the differences between the two nations.

In the absence of a large body of research treating Taiwan as an independent state, or even basic education about Taiwan as an entity separate from China, raising awareness of the political differences and logical reasons for recognition of the two countries as separate states must begin at the individual level.  As citizens of the global community, each one of us serves as a representative of our unique background, and possesses the power to promote awareness of our culture to others.  When I identify myself as Taiwanese-American, rather than Chinese-American, I create an opportunity to inform others about the difference.  I don’t identify myself as Taiwanese-American simply because that’s what I am.  I identify myself as Taiwanese-American because it matters.

Works Cited

Bulbeck, Chilla.  “Fracturing Binarisms:  First and Third Worlds.”  Rothenberg 37-41.  Print.

“China.”  CountryWatch.com.  CountryWatch.  Web.  14 September 2009.

“Chinese.”  Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World, The.  1st ed.  1993.  Print.

DiversityData Project:  Metropolitan Quality of Life Data.  Harvard University School of Public Health, 2009.  Web.  7 September 2009.

Gonen, Amiram, ed.  Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World, The.  New York, NY:  Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1993.  Print.

Lindaman, Dana and Ward, Kyle.  “How Textbooks Around the World Portray U.S. History.”  Rothenberg 44-57.  Print.

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade.  “One-Third/Two-Thirds Worlds.”  Rothenberg 41-43.  Print.

Rothenberg, Paula S., ed.  Beyond Borders:  Thinking Critically About Global Issues.  New York, NY:  Worth, 2006.  Print.

“Taiwanese.”  Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World, The.  1st ed.  1993.  Print.