tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post6607444751420384564..comments2023-10-22T18:25:39.688+08:00Comments on The View from Taiwan: Reuters Interviews President Ma: Human rights gone astray?Michael Turtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-67569656696660862362012-06-05T00:51:59.416+08:002012-06-05T00:51:59.416+08:00@kid.wh(y)"When Taiwanese and other Asian or ...@kid.wh(y)"When Taiwanese and other Asian or other immigrants come to the US, we are encouraged to think of ourselves as part of the White American cultural mainstream. My Floridian cousin-in-law TELLS me, "You're AMERICAN, okay???"<br /><br />Really? Your cousin told you to think of yourself as part of the "White" American cultural mainstream? In my experience it is usually the people who DON'T want you thinking of yourself as an American first who will try to make it a racial thing by mistakenly applying the label "White", "Anglo" or other such nonsense.<br /><br />I used to be in the camp of thinking all Americans, immigrants or no, should think of themselves as just "American". However with age I understand now that you really can't forget your home country. If you spend the first 12 years of your life somewhere before moving to the US, it is too much to ask that you forget everything about your first homeland or that you disavow all affection for it.<br /><br />However for children and grandchildren of immigrants to America it is important that we realize that our homeland is the America. Whatever our ancestors may have been, WE are Americans. To say that the culture we grow up in is less important than the race of our ancestors is a form of racism that we should reject.Readinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-22717637079622268622012-06-04T21:13:01.739+08:002012-06-04T21:13:01.739+08:00Ma deserves more respect. (S)he will be The Revere...Ma deserves more respect. (S)he will be The Reverend Ma to all the future Borg Queens.Lorenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-65683889619294087452012-06-04T21:06:30.102+08:002012-06-04T21:06:30.102+08:00Chinese culture is the Borg culture - the most adv...Chinese culture is the Borg culture - the most advanced one in the whole universe! Why I know that? I was inside their cube and now I am out.<br /><br />A Space Formosan, aka Captain PeacockLorenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-9973887036869145682012-06-04T19:38:36.048+08:002012-06-04T19:38:36.048+08:00Also, as a former human rights researcher, I don&#...<b>Also, as a former human rights researcher, I don't think it is prima facie objectionable to promote confucian or other forms of "humanism" not invented by European white men.</b><br /><br />I think the discussion was over what Ma was trying to signal, not over whether Confucianism is an acceptable form of humanism.<br /><br />Good comment. <br /><br />MichaelMichael Turtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-66927622755096121342012-06-04T18:26:37.121+08:002012-06-04T18:26:37.121+08:00you know, as a Taiwanese American, I find the whol...you know, as a Taiwanese American, I find the whole anti-Chinese backlash kind of comical ... When Taiwanese and other Asian or other immigrants come to the US, we are encouraged to think of ourselves as part of the White American cultural mainstream. My Floridian cousin-in-law TELLS me, "You're AMERICAN, okay??? You're JUST as American as Chinese." Her husband, my cousin, wonders why I refer to myself as Taiwanese, and points to the longer history of Chinese cultural predominance. Now, as a Taiwanese citizen, I am asked to omit my family's cultural heritage from China, from other Taiwanese? This is bonkers. Also, as a former human rights researcher, I don't think it is prima facie objectionable to promote confucian or other forms of "humanism" not invented by European white men.kid.wh(y)https://www.blogger.com/profile/02956797513845427964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-64179979330459719252012-06-04T11:27:36.728+08:002012-06-04T11:27:36.728+08:00Yep...that is the traditional KMT or Chinese way o...Yep...that is the traditional KMT or Chinese way of saying things. Any good and fundamental virtues are emphasized as Chinese vertues. You can find that tune in all the older education material in Taiwan. (I am not sure about the current material. But given the background of the new Minister of Culture, I won't be surprised if they turn more toward the old way once again)Dixteelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05689510846926854542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-62285074808456731962012-06-04T10:59:39.175+08:002012-06-04T10:59:39.175+08:00That is disgusting. I really hate how Ma always ju...That is disgusting. I really hate how Ma always just pushes the whole "Chinese culture" aspect down the throat of the Taiwanese. I remember on his inauguration speech, he said the Taiwanese people displayed values such as "kindness" and "humbleness" that truly represent the authentic CHINESE CULTURE....So the American or the Japanese don't preach that? The Formosans don't help others? The old uneducated ladies in the country side wouldn't be kind and humble to others? Just gross.Hanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02073275169438559834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-33696958019400042682012-06-03T23:16:52.876+08:002012-06-03T23:16:52.876+08:00That Ma, a Chinese exile, would stress a commonali...That Ma, a Chinese exile, would stress a commonality of values with his motherland is expectable, laudable even.<br /><br />The weirdness lies rather in the incongruity of that man pretending to speak as the elected head of state of Taiwan.<br /><br />For the last sixty-seven years Taiwan has remained a territory of Japan under undisrupted American occupation. Taiwanese are the last and forgoten hold-outs of the Pacific war. Ma represents the exiled Chinese rebel faction the US foisted on the occupied.Jerome Bessonnoreply@blogger.com