Taiwan Today

In the West, Taiwan is better known as Formosa, an appellative given by the 16th century Portuguese sailors as a testi­monial to the island's beauty. Except in advertisements to attract foreign tourists, the people of Taiwan never designate their island Formosa. For them, it has always been Taiwan, a Chinese name inherited from their forefathers and meaning terraced bay but originally suggesting a "land rising from the sea." Less than a hundred miles off the coast of continental China, and with the Penghu (Pescadores) islands in between, Taiwan has been Chinese territory by historical tradition and in practical fact for hundreds of years. In the 17th century, the Dutch and the Spanish each seized parts of the island as trading posts, but were quickly driven away. Only the Japanese, who defeated the Manchus in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, were able to occupy Taiwan for any length of time.

On October 25, 1945, following its vic­tory over Japan in World War II, the gov­ernment of the Republic of China received the surrender of the Japanese forces on Tai­wan and restored the island to its old status as a Chinese province. Four years later, when the Communists usurped power on the Chinese mainland, Taiwan became the seat of the National Government of the Republic. The Taiwan of today thus is synonymous with free China.

The population of Taiwan, the Penghus, and a few other small islands is nearing 12 million at the close of 1963.

About four-fifths of the inhabitants are Taiwan-born Chinese, usually called Taiwanese. Except for a small group of aborigines, estimated at 200,000 and the only ethnic minority in Taiwan, the rest are mainland­-born Chinese (and their locally born children), who are commonly called mainlanders.

The Taiwanese are descendants of mainland Chinese who emigrated from Fukien and Kwangtung provinces. Recorded history says Chinese first came to Taiwan at the beginning of the seventh century. However, the bulk of them arrived in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Provincial Differences

Mainlanders arrived after the 1945 restoration of Taiwan to China, most of them in 1949 when the Communists were usurping power on the mainland. Presumably many will want to return when the mainland is freed from Communist control.

In a geographical sense, there is of course a provincial distinction between the Taiwanese and mainlanders. Similar provincial distinctions also exist among mainlanders, as exemplified by Honanese, Yunnanese, Fukienese, Cantonese, and so on. The provincial indication calls attention to ties of locale, language, and customs and habits, but does not affect their identity as Chinese. The 50 years of Japanese colonial rule did not subtract from the Taiwanese estimate of themselves as Chinese following a long-established Chinese way of life.

Once before, Taiwan was the custodian of Chinese culture just as it is today. When the Manchus overran China proper in the 17th century, General Cheng Cheng-kung (known as Koxinga in the West for his role in expelling the Dutch from Taiwan in 1661) established a Ming dynasty government on the island to provide a haven for mainland scholars and officials.

Belief in Buddhism

The first Confucian temple was built under Cheng's rule in 1666. Today this un­mistakable symbol of Chinese civilization is found in all major Taiwan cities. Among islanders, there are still some Confucian scholars who write classical Chinese verses, a difficult literary form beyond the ability of many educated mainlanders.

Like mainland Chinese, the Taiwanese formerly had family temples to enshrine the records of forbears. The custom is dying out everywhere. However, the Changs and Lins of Taiwan—to cite two examples—can trace the roots of their family trees back to the mainland, and are proud of it.

Both mainlanders and Taiwanese are principally Buddhists, and Buddhist temples are found throughout Taiwan. Similarly, their religious beliefs include an amalgamation of the traditional Chinese practice of ancestor veneration, Taoism, and the philosophy of Confucianism.

Chinese mythology has exercised a powerful influence in the everyday life of islanders. Matsu, the goddess of seafaring people in southern China, is widely worshiped. On Matsu's birthday, natives lavish money on paipai (worship) festivals more elaborate than most of mainland celebrations.

As a matter of fact, all sorts of main­land festivals, folk as well as religious, are observed in Taiwan. The customs and obser­vances of the lunar new year, dragon boat, and moon festivals are the same. No one can distinguish between the lion and dragon dances of Taiwan and those of the mainland.

Chinese Cuisine

The Japanese left behind many tatami-floored houses in city residential areas, and these are shared by Taiwanese and mainland­ers. But native homesteads throughout the island are typically Chinese. The villages are patterned after those of Fukien province. Except for modern innovations, islanders cling to the ancient Chinese rites of birth, marriage, and death.

The typical Taiwanese diet comprises rice, vegetables, fish, poultry, and pork. It is typical of Chinese cuisine. As with mainland provinces, Taiwan has its special dishes. Some mainlanders may dislike the sweetened taste of Taiwan food, while many Taiwanese are not accustomed to the preserved meat favored by the mainlanders. Still, similarities are more striking than differences.

Three-fourths of the Taiwanese speak Amoy dialect, and the rest Hakka. These same dialects are spoken in parts of southern China. Many mainlanders speak them. Most Chinese dialects are a variety of Man­darin, the national language typified in the written characters.

Cultural Blending

Already able to write the Chinese characters, many Taiwanese have learned to speak Mandarin. The trend toward a single language also has received impetus in the schools, where island and mainland children use only Mandarin.

Partly because access to the mainland is cut off, Taiwan has become a melting pot into which Taiwanese and those from many mainland provinces have been poured. Intermarriage has become common. Should the children be called islanders or mainlanders? No one seems to care, and identifica­tion by feature or stature is impossible.

The situation is not unlike that on the mainland during the Japanese war. Large numbers of people flocked' into Szechuan province when the National Government took up its temporary seat in Chungking. There was mixing then, too. Wartime Szechuanese called the people from Japanese-occupied areas hsia-kiang-lao, meaning "down-river" people from the lower Yangtse. Taiwanese call the mainlanders wai-sheng-jen, meaning people from other provinces. Such identifi­cations imply no more than a difference in geographical origin.

Before Taiwan was retroceded to China, there was a large number of Japanese among the population. Out of the 1945 population of less than 7 million, a half million were Japanese. All were repatriated. The Taiwanese did not treat the Japanese as they have mainlanders. Japanese were aliens and oppressors. Mainlanders are fellow countrymen who seek no special favor or advan­tage.

Political Situation

Older Taiwanese still shudder at the nightmare of the 50 years of Japanese rule. The government and economy were in Japan­ese hands. Islanders were second-class citizens in their own land.

Magistrates, mayors, district chiefs, and police leaders were Japanese. They also held all administrative and executive posts. Although statistics showed 37 per cent of government positions were held by Taiwanese, nine out of ten were clerks or janitors. Japanese received a third more pay than Taiwanese holding equivalent jobs, and in addi­tion were given fringe benefits.

The Taiwanese had few political rights. At one time, there was an "advisory council" composed of Japanese and Taiwanese hand-picked by the Japanese governor. Not until 1920 were some local "assemblies" estab­lished. Even then, only half of the assemblymen were popularly elected. The rest were governor-appointed and mostly Japanese. Japanese magistrates, mayors, and administrators were ex-officio speakers of assemblies. In any event, powers of the representative bodies did not exceed the rubber-stamping of what the Japanese had already decided.

Economically, the Japanese followed a policy of "industrial Japan and agricultural Taiwan." The island was an integral part of Japan's colonial empire. It was an impor­tant supplier of agricultural products and processed materials in exchange for high­-priced Japanese industrial goods.

College Doors Closed

In 1938, half of the 1.2 million tons of rice harvested in Taiwan and one million of the 1.4 million tons of sugar went to Japan. Beginning in 1915, Taiwan annually contributed on the average of 100 million yen (at its prewar value) to the coffers of the gov­ernment in Tokyo.

When the Japanese first came to Taiwan, many Taiwanese farmers were dispossessed and forced to become tenants. In 1945, the Japanese owned a third of private farm land. So-called public land in the hands of the Japanese government amounted to 66 per cent of the total area.

Education was divorced from Chinese culture and directed toward achieving Japanese economic objectives. Few native-born students could progress beyond elementary and vocational schools. University doors were virtually closed to non-Japanese. In its 16 years of existence before 1945, the Imperial Taihoku University (now National Taiwan University) graduated only 219 Tai­wanese, of whom 131 majored in medicine and others in science or engineering. Political science was taboo for Taiwanese.

After start of the war in 1937, the Japanese made a calculated attempt to erase Chinese culture and promote native loyalty and support. An "imperial citizenship campaign" was launched to indoctrinate Taiwanese with Japanese cultural ideals. Islanders were intimidated into adopting Japanese names and wearing Japanese clothes. A Taiwanese could not even buy a train ticket unless he spoke Japanese.

For all their painstaking efforts, the Japanese failed completely. Their claims to superior status already had segregated them from the Taiwanese. Japanese lived in ex­clusive commercial and residential areas where natives were usually barred. Inter-marriage was unthinkable.

Flights to Mainland

Oppressive Japanese rule never extinguished the spirit of Taiwanese resistance. After Taiwan was ceded to Japan in the Shimonoseki treaty, the Japanese had to take possession by force and violence. Led by former Chinese officials, the nations declared Taiwan an independent republic. The revolt was crushed, but in succeeding years, Taiwanese staged in the neighborhood of 100 uprisings.

Despite strict Japanese restrictions against Taiwanese contacts with the mainland, many island-born patriots fled there and organized a number of irredentist groups. Among them were the Taiwan Revolutionary League, established in Chungking in 1941, and the Taiwanese Volunteers Brigade that fought alongside Chinese government troops against Japanese in southeastern China from 1940 until V-J Day.

Postwar Progress

The Chinese government resolutely sup­ported Taiwanese aspirations for reunification with the motherland. At the 1943 Cairo Con­ference Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek proposed that Taiwan should be retroceded to China after the war. A declaration to this effect was jointly issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Generalissimo Chiang.

With the Taiwan retrocession, islanders become full citizens of the Republic of China. The celebrations lasted for days. A special delegation of 15 was sent to the mainland to thank the National Government. It visited the Shensi tomb of Huangti, first ruler of China and traditional ancestor of the Chinese race, to pledge loyalty to the nation.

However the good life did not come automatically in 1945. The island was war-ravaged, its economy at a standstill. The half-century of Japanese rule had drained away the wealth of Taiwan and stifled the talents of its people.

With the help of officials sent from the mainland, Taiwanese began to learn how to run the government and the economy. Tai­wanese personnel were promoted and trained to fill posts vacated by the departing Japanese. Even so, the government was compelled to keep some 7,000 Japanese at their posts for a couple of years because of the shortage of competent personnel.

As the island moved toward rehabilita­tion and recovery, the rise of Communism on the mainland suddenly posed a clear and imminent danger. Communist-inspired elements attempted to destroy freedom from within. The Red conspiracy was check­mated, however, by Taiwanese and mainlanders working together.

Mainland Stimuli

In 1949, the National Government was moved to Taiwan. Wave after wave of mainlanders swarmed onto the island. Many were scholars, artists, engineers, bankers, and industrialists—the elite of the motherland.

Fleeing the Communists, these people brought not only their personal effects but all properties that were movable. In line with government policy, public and private bank reserves, industrial plants, transportation facilities, educational equipment, etc., were moved to Taiwan from Nanking, Shanghai, Canton, and other cities.

Instead of creating an island crisis, the inflow of mainland manpower and material resources provided tremendous social and economic stimuli. The textile industry is an example. It was started with evacuated equipment. Today it supplies domestic needs and earns US$40 million a year in foreign exchange.

A silver lining in the dark horizon of the time was the unswerving support given the government by all people, Taiwanese and mainlanders alike. They resolutely stood behind the National Government in effecting sweeping changes in all fields of endeavor, and in resisting Peiping's threat to "liberate Taiwan."

Growth of Democracy

The objective quickly became the rebuilding of Taiwan into a wealthy, strong, free, democratic anti-Communist bastion to serve as a rallying ground for free Chinese in their efforts to retake the mainland. A series of constructive programs has been adopted and implemented: local self-govern­ment, land reform, industrialization, social security, and popular education.

Now a functioning democracy at the grass-roots level, Taiwan is ruled in accord with the outcome of popular elections. Of 16 counties and municipalities, all but one have native magistrates and mayors. The story is the same for rural districts and town­ships. The elected provincial assembly has 74 seats, of which 70 are occupied by natives. In the provincial government council, natives outnumber mainlanders by 12 to 6.

Taiwanese also have manifested increasing leadership in the National Government. Two cabinet ministers are natives. One is the minister of the interior, always a key figure in police and security matters. The president of the Legislative Yuan (parliament) is native-born.

A substantial majority of provincial civil servants are Taiwanese. In the National Government, however, there are more mainlanders than Taiwanese. This is so because many mainlanders have served since mainland days. Taiwanese now are joining the national civil service in increasing numbers. Many are officers and non-corns in the armed forces.

Land Reform

The change in economic life is startling. Wealth produced locally no longer is sent away to support a colonial master. People in all social strata enjoy the fruits of their work in a growing prosperity never known before.

The once lopsided agricultural economy has been balanced with a whole range of new industries—textiles, plastics, autos, and elec­tric appliances, to mention a few. As com­pared with the peak years under Japanese rule, the staple rice crop has increased 50.7 per cent and the industrial output 37 times. Even the fishing fleet has doubled and catches are up by 65 per cent.

Land reform has enabled tenants, who accounted for 70 per cent of native farmers under the Japanese, to own the land they till. Besides the private land redistributed, some 96,000 hectares of public land taken over from the Japanese was transferred to farmers on the installment payment plan. New dams and irrigation channels built in recent years have opened up thousands of new acres to rice planting.

The area of paddy fields has increased nearly one third. Improved technology has raised the per acre rice yield 19 per cent higher than the record under the Japanese. The average income of local farming families is twice what it was during the Japanese period.

Boost for Industry

Farmers are Taiwanese. They constitute the single largest section of the population. For once impoverished rural folk, life is good. Radios, sewing machines, bicycles, scooters, and power tillers—articles formerly beyond reach—have become common.

Landlords were fully compensated for the land they gave up. As part of the com­pensation, they received stock in government-owned industrial enterprises. Thus former agricultural capital was diverted to industrial development. This step has attracted other investments to private industry. Taiwanese entrepreneurs have the lion's share of in­dustrial as well as agricultural wealth.

In the decade following full rehabilita­tion of the economy, Taiwan's income has registered an increase of 100 per cent. Per capita income has reached US$120, representing a 44 per cent gain. The economy has grown faster than the population, although the rate of population increase is one of the world's highest. People are living better than ever before. Taiwan has Asia's second highest standard of living.

Keeping pace with the economy is edu­cational development. Many new schools, including 28 colleges and universities, have been opened. Compulsory elementary education enrolls 96 per cent of school-age chil­dren. Native youths, once segregated in secondary schools and denied opportunity for higher education, attend colleges and universities without discrimination.

Combining old elements and new, Chinese culture has flourished into a virtual renaissance on Taiwan. Mainlanders brought many of their regional arts and crafts. The cultural soil of Taiwan has been receptive. A synthesis is emerging and will play its part in the destruction of mainland provincialisms in the years to come.

Credit goes equally to mainlanders and Taiwanese. So will that for liberation of the mainland from Communist tyranny. Both elements of the free Chinese population are aware that without their partnership in the defeat of Communism, freedom eventually will be destroyed in Asia.

In a special TV program marking this year's 18th anniversary of Taiwan retroces­sion, Tsai Pei-ho, a prominent Taiwanese leader and minister without portfolio in the National Government, declared:

"We people of Taiwan once struggled for 50 years to rejoin the motherland and be free. Our dream came true only after our mainland brothers fought an eight-year war against Japan. Our freedom cannot be truly meaningful so long as the mainland is shut behind the Iron Curtain. We must fight to recover it."