Elementary Explorations

I would recommend that you read this series in order, but each piece should be relatively self-contained.

Part II (I am Taiwanese American) | Part III (The Game of Politics…) | Part IV (What Now?)

In general, Taiwanese people of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, “Green”) are the people whose families have lived there for over a hundred years (known as “benshengren”). A more “recent” influx of people to Taiwan are in general, people of the Kuomingtang (The “Chinese Nationalists”, KMT, “Blue”) who fled China after they lost the war to the Communists (known as “waishengren”). Funny part? They thought they’d be able to take over China in three years (which didn’t happen).

When the KMT came over to Taiwan, they brought along their military and began ruling the island with Martial law. This naturally means we have to talk about the White Terror, where the Taiwanese were suppressed. Hundreds of thousand were imprisoned and thousands were executed, especially the elite (socially and intellectually). Thousands overseas were also blacklisted from returning to the island nation. Why? The KMT was worried about the inevitable resistance. I say inevitable because it’s a fantasy to think you can just march into a place and say “look, I’m in charge now,” and have everyone concede. Then came the 228 incident where thousands more Taiwanese were killed.

So why do I naturally have this distaste for the KMT? Remember what I said about the Taiwanese people being killed and blacklisted? That was my family. People couldn’t even talk about the 228 for the longest time, because they were scared of the KMT. Until this day, has there even been a genuine apology for the murders of thousands of lives? (I’m not talking about a political maneuver, but a legitimate/sincere apology) It’s sometimes frustrating to see peers support the group that historically, has violated the rights of the Taiwanese people - of my family. While I know that I can’t change their minds with this, I simply hope to enlighten people to the thoughts of at least some “Benshengren” (rather than “Waishengren”) - and leave it to the individual to form their own thoughts. 

As always, questions?