7 posts tagged “roc”

This is the Chinese flag I fly in my office.

Being Chinese, I was always raised with the idea that Tibet is not an independent country, something backed up by a history book I remember at college that showed world maps going back many centuries. Certainly by the time the Mongols invaded, China, Tibet and Mongolia were governed as a single empire. However, I believe in the right of self-determination of all peoples, and if the Tibetans believe they should not be subject to the Communist Party, then so be it. That right is no less than the one held by East Timorese or any other group that has wanted to break from a larger nation.
   Many years ago, I understand that Chiang Kai-shek asked if HH the Dalai Lama would fight with him against the Communists and revolt, but that was declined. It remains a historical “could-have-been”.
   On the other side, I have heard from a Communist official who believes that the Dalai Lama is actually the largest landowner in Tibet and his control over the country means that he can impose his will on the peasants there. But remember that Beijing has spun whatever it has liked.
   Wikipedia, interestingly, features both the Tibetan and Red Chinese positions as well as a section on the lack of foreign recognition of Tibet. It also has a map from 1914 that is not unlike the ones I saw at college:

 
   While Wikipedia is not a definitive source, or, as I found while working on Autocade, an accurate source (there are preciously few error-free pages, but I am a lazy ass and want to run facts via Google first, then, grudgingly, get up and go to my reference books) the Tibetan sovereignty article does appear to have both sides recorded accurately.
   That last section reads:

No country publicly accepts Tibet as an independent state ^[32], in spite of several instances of government officials appealing to their superiors to do so ^[33]. Treaties signed by Britain and Russia in the early years of the twentieth century ^[34] and others signed by Nepal and India in the 1950s ^[35], recognized Tibet's political subordination to China. The Americans presented their view on 15 May 1943:

“

For its part, the Government of the United States has borne in mind the fact that...the Chinese constitution lists Tibet among areas constituting the territory of the Republic of China. This Government has at no time raised a question regarding either of these claims. [36]

”

No sovereign states, including India, have extended recognition to the Tibetan Government-in-exile.^[37] This lack of legal recognition of independence has forced even some strong supporters of the refugees to admit that:

“	...even today international legal experts sympathetic to the Dalai Lama's cause find it difficult to argue that Tibet ever technically established its independence of the Chinese Empire, imperial, or republican. [38]

   Whatever the case, violence and murder against civilians and the denial of self-determination are what matter right now.
   There must be a better way. The PRC–ROC standoff will probably never be resolved, which is why there has never been an Armistice and why some countries stay on the fence. One writer suggested China be a Commonwealth. It could work, wth representation for Tibetan, Communist and Republican. A solution that has little connection with the past may be one released from politicking, working for the future.

A lot of people chide Americans for not knowing their history. When a contestant on Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? answers that Abraham Lincoln was FDR’s immediate predecessor, it’s easy to make that criticism. My belief is that we are all largely in the same boat, with a limited awareness of our history, especially in the west.
   Germans are admired for their intelligence and if you examine their economy, you can generalize that many of their exports are founded on the intellectual endeavours of the German people. But there is a similar lack of awareness, as I read in an old Wired article today:

In November, the first children born after the fall of the [Berlin] wall turned 18. Evidence suggests many of them have serious gaps in their knowledge of the past. In a survey of Berlin high school students, only half agreed that the GDR was a dictatorship. Two-thirds didn't know who built the Berlin Wall.

   The criticism of the US comes simply from the fact that more of its citizens are exposed to international scrutiny. Mount the same number of cameras or do the same number of surveys in other nations, and I think the same pattern emerges.
   It reminds us, however, that not only do we have to be aware of our history, we must protect it from revisionism, something that is plaguing countries such as the Republic of China.

I had to scan some pics for a story tonight and added these off my films to the tally, for the petrolheads out there. (As with most on this site, these images are copyrighted. I am a bit more precious about my film stuff.)

   I spotted this Jaguar XJ12 Series II in Jiji, Taiwan. Taiwan is home to a lot of old Buicks and plenty of Japanese-derived models, but a classic British car is about as rare as a virgin in a maternity ward. This XJ12 has plenty of chrome and has the growler on the hubcaps as you’d expect, but there’s a beautiful fluted grille from the Daimler. I can only imagine that this is the form in which XJ12s arrived in Taiwan in the 1970s. It’s a miracle this one even lasted so long.
   Here’s another Chinese oddity just up the road, parked outside the Jiji railway station:

This one won’t be sold for the 2008 model year and is unique to this part of the world. The Ford Mondeo Metrostar is the Chinese version of the CD132 Mondeo, with a more formal grille. As sedans mean status here, the European grille of the Mondeo wouldn’t have cut it. Plus, with the size of the Mondeo, the Taiwanese consider it a large car to rival the Nissan Teana and Toyota Camry. Therefore, it gets large-car æsthetics up front.
   Some cops use Mondeos as police cruisers, while among civilian buyers it’s considered an upmarket luxury car with German roots. That part may be true, but these, like the Mazda Familia-based Ford Tierra (not a typo), come out of a local plant in Taiwan and are even exported to Red China.

Despite my opposition to the Red Chinese Politburo, I think within my lifetime I will see China become a free republic.
   I see the growth of Confucianism on the mainland. And that must lead to some questioning over its political structure.
   I see such heroines as Madam Anna Chennault (陳香梅), widow of Gen Claire L. Chennault, back off from a totally staunch anti-Beijing position, as has Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀), whose opinion I value.
   I see the erection of the portrait of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), the founder of the Chinese Republic, at Tiananmen Square.
   While there are massive problems surrounding corruption, censorship, individual freedoms of speech, gathering and religion, poverty, and human rights, not to mention the usual Red desire to spread Bolshevism throughout the world, I can’t see the Communists holding on in a post-Olympic era without some kind of shift.
   Until then I remain a staunch defender of the Republic, the proper and free one founded on liberty, nationhood and equality.

I thought communists were more in to revisionist history than democratic governments. From the Fairfax Press:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4316159a12.html

   I am glad I got to the Republic of China to see the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial before this sort of government-sanctioned vandalism happened.
   The Democratic Progressive Party, indeed. Bit like the German Democratic Republic.
   I can’t speak for those inside the Republic but I would say that the majority of overseas Chinese will react similarly to me. Gen Chiang was not Franco or Stalin.
   The DPP calls Chiang’s Kuomingtang (KMT) repressive. I assume they have romantic notions of what was happening across the Taiwan Strait after 1949—or, for that matter, during the Sino–Japanese War.
   I am not exaggerating: in my time in Taiwan in November I met intelligent people who held beliefs that life was better under Japan than under the KMT, conveniently ignoring massacres such as the Rape of Nanking where hundreds of thousands were slaughtered.
   However, I accept that their positive ideas stem from the fact that some Japanese officials in Formosa did try to be good governors of the island.
   Back then, however, we weren’t talking about two Chinas. When 9-11 happened, it’s not as though Californians were cheery because they were comfortable, while the Twin Towers fell in New York.
   While the KMT did its share of demolishing memorials of Japanese colonialism after the war, it doesn’t make it right.
   My main view is that those of us outside need to respect the wishes of those within who participate in the Republic’s democracy. All we can realistically do from faraway keyboards is create a bit of noise when we are upset, just as we might with the War on Terror or other international matters.
   The Republic’s government also needs to know that this act insults those of us who hope that all of China will be ruled by a free and democratic republic, and whose families left because we did not believe such a China could exist under the Reds.
   Our hope was placed in the last free part of China that remained, that part in exile in Taiwan.
   Sadly, we are not voters in Republican elections. Only the inhabitants of Taiwan are.
   What now? Will a portrait of Mao be erected?
   One wishes that the DPP recognizes that it would not even exist without Chiang and the remnants of the Republican government in exile in Taiwan, but this latest incident suggests it does not.
   From an overseas Chinese view, it’s seen as an acceptance by Taipei that the Communist Party is correct across the Taiwan Strait, doing its work to erase memories that the Chinese people can have freedom.
   Indirectly, this is a slap in the face of the June 4, 1989 protesters in Tiananmen Square.
   Rebranding is something to be done carefully, more so when it comes to national monuments and symbols of national identity. Rebrands are meant to unite, not divide.
   Calling the Memorial the Democracy Memorial Hall sounds well and good on the surface—but divisions and the months of protest suggest the movement is foolhardy.
   For me, there was nothing wrong with calling it by its new name officially, while leaving the traditional lettering honouring Chiang Kai-shek’s memory intact. It was a suitable compromise and a recognition of history. It also reminds people of the freedom that Taiwan enjoys and the setting for its prosperity. Freedom, tolerance and open-mindedness are what separate it from Red China—which is still a dangerous place to visit or invest in, at least without high-level official help.
   Years after the American Civil War, there are still states (Louisiana and Tennessee) that call a certain holiday Confederate Memorial Day—and that does not seem to have harmed the Union.
   So what harm is there to retain the Chiang Kai-shek name in the interests of national unity on the island? Does the DPP seriously prefer disuniting Chinese people?
   At best, this was an ill thought through development.
   At worst, this was a desecration and an affront to traditional Chinese beliefs that memorials to the dead should be respected.
   Talk of independence or a two-China system is dangerous. It would be easy for the Politburo in Beijing to raise its voice—without even threatening violence—and Taipei can watch its stock market index fall. And I would hate to see any of my people suffer once again.
   Part of Taiwan might not know of Maoist suffering under the Reds, but I would never wish for any Taiwanese to be directly reminded of it.
   Beijing itself should not cheer at this latest development at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall as it sets the stage for separatism. During 2008, with worldwide attention focused on the Olympiad, the separatist movement might think it could get away with more mischief than usual.

These are some photos from Taiwan, some taken for a friend to whom I promised I would send oddball pics. Let’s begin:

   Jiji is the end of the line if you’re heading south from Taipei, and this is the local freak show. There is a Gremlin (not AMC, but Spielberg) and a caged pig outside. I didn’t go in: the signage was too off-putting. But it stands true that small country towns have some weird things.    Taichung is the second largest city in Taiwan. This isn’t the best pic, but since I was staying in the tallest building in town, the Hotel One, I had to attempt to shoot something from a high floor. Embarrassing admission: I forgot my room number and had to go to reception to ask. The floors all looked the same, but boy was this a good hotel. The ergonomic seats are the best I encountered on my trip.    I didn’t spend much time in Nantou and only had lunch there. Across from the restaurant was this strange furniture store logo. Look closely: it’s a guy with his pants pulled down. No, there is no particular significance to this in Chinese.    I expected to meet some aboriginal Taiwanese in Alishan but didn’t. However, I did see some of their art. This giant wiener is supposedly a guardian against evil female spirits, or so the tale went. Now we all knew what 48 inches looked like.    The chap in the middle was a wonderful man who served us love jade fruit. His aim wasn’t to get tourists: he wanted to make friends, and just hosts strange foreigners like me (and some of the journos who were with me here) now that he’s retired. This was in the Alishan mountains, where the local tourism department really went all out for us and had a photographer follow us around.    While atop the tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, I snapped this. Obviously, I wasn’t totally atop if there were a few floors to go. This was from the observation deck—the outside one where clouds literally came at you (no exaggeration at all) and the winds were like, well, Wellington. The winds felt like 50 mph up there and I was worried that it would blow the things out of my pockets.
   What is it with November? Last year I was up the Tour Eiffel, this year it’s 101.    If you’re an overseas Chinese, you would probably feel a bit patriotic seeing this sculpture by Ju Ming of a KMT soldier in World War II garb. The Juming Museum is an outdoor museum that hosts works primarily by Ju Ming, but features other artists as well. Ju Ming seems to have a bit of a fixation on the military and some of his soldiers held sculpted Chinese flags.    Finally, what is a trip to Taiwan if you don’t get to check out the high-tech stuff? The computer-geek district has plenty on offer, including DVDs, but I found the prices of the gear on a par with New Zealand. You can even find old American films with Jimmy Stewart, but if you are after some classic Hong Kong flicks, then think again. I picked up one DVD here (Rob-B-Hood, with Jackie Chan) for a very low price and no, it wasn’t pirated.