I have been quite busy over the last week meeting new people and learning more about who the people are here in Taiwan and how they describe themselves. I was lucky enough to sit down with two professors from the Chinese language department at one of Taiwan's top universities, National Taiwan Normal University. My main question to them was this: "Would you describe yourself as being Taiwanese, Chinese, or both? And if you would describe yourself as being both Taiwanese and Chinese, which identity seems to affect your daily life and beliefs most? "
The question was complicated and it took me a few tries using Chinese to make sure they fully understood what I was asking. This is ultimately the challenge of learning a second language, there are always times when you want to say something and you just don't have the exact words needed to express yourself. In this situation, all I could do was try to use the vocabulary that I knew and explain what it was I wanted to learn about them. Eventually, they both understood and our discussion lasted nearly 3 hours.
The first professor, Zhu Laoshi, made it clear that she is first and foremost, Taiwanese. She explained that while she certainly feels a connection to her ancestors that came over to Taiwan from Guangdong Province, her connection is to the older customs and traditions of ancient Chinese culture, not the current culture of China that she believes has changed drastically. She went on to explain that many teachers, scholars, and well-educated people from China immigrated to Taiwan, and with them, they brought a deep understanding of Chinese culture and traditions. She is very proud of this fact that she celebrates festivals the way they were celebrated hundreds of years ago. With all this said, she professed a hope that China and its people will re-learn those traditions that she says many people in China have forgotten. For example, she said that while she was teaching in Beijing for a year, one of the more important festivals, Dragon Boat Festival, was approaching. She asked a student if he was looking forward to celebrating and his reply was, "Celebrating what?" She then proceeded to teach the student, a college student at one of China's top universities, the various traditions related to the celebration of Dragon Boat Festival.
I'll write more on this topic later.
