Yi-Fu Tuan - Dear Colleague

January 25, 2005

Dear Colleague,

My sister worked for many years at the Government Information Office of Taiwan, Republic of China (ROC). This probably explains why for many years--until the late 80s--I received every year a hefty volume called The Handbook of China, issued by the Information Office. Upon receipt, I would turn first to the frontispiece map, which shows a China that includes Outer Mongolia and sizable chunks of India. Compared to it, how modest is the People's Republic map of China! Yet it is the People's Republic (PRC) that is (or was until recently) considered inherently and potentially aggressive. The Handbook itself, some seven hundred pages long, is a detailed account of the entire country, with just the last dozen pages or so devoted to Taiwan province. What I am trying to say is, until a few years ago, governments on both sides of the Strait totally accepted the idea of one China: contested was the question of legitimacy. Which China, ROC or PRC, had the greater legitimacy? Taiwan argued that it had. Why? Well, among other things, it treasured the Chinese heritage, Confucius and all, whereas the PRC had given up its Chineseness in favor of something totally alien--Communism.

A very curious turn of events occurred in the 1990s. Taiwan's newly elected president, Chen Shui-bian, wants independence and a national identity based on Taiwaneseness rather than Chineseness. He now says that the Republic of China is just Taiwan, nothing more. You would think that the PRC would be delighted, but no. It actually prefers the time when cocky Taiwan, a renegade province, claims the mainland as its own. A propaganda war to gain the approval of the West is going on. ROC boasts democracy, PRC greatness. I think PRC is actually winning the battle. ROC, being a democracy, has given rise to a very sophisticated film industry, producing such films as Yi Yi and The River that, unfortunately, project a dull and even corrupt picture of the island. Yi Yi presents a rather commonplace middle-class life in an undistinguished Taipei, awash in neon lights and fast-food restaurants. The River shows copulation between father and son in the darkness of a brothel! PRC's film industry, by contrast, produces such historical epics as Hero and House of Flying Daggers; both show China at its most imperial and romantic, and both are winning big audiences in the West.

Where do I belong? Born in China, I became a naturalized USA citizen in 1973. In 2003, I was also granted Taiwan citizenship. Am I Chinese, American, Taiwanese, all three, or none of the above? Where does my gut loyalty lie? I am afraid to find out. Between mainland China and Taiwan, I am definitely more emotionally engaged with the mainland. Yet I can go to Taiwan, but not to the mainland, as a citizen. For a trip to China, I'll have to use my American passport. As for loyalty between USA and China, I close my eyes when these two countries compete in the Olympic Games. Another complicating factor is this. I am temperamentally always in favor of the underdog. And of the two countries, China is definitely the underdog. Yet, if I am pro underdog, why am I not pro Taiwan vis-a-vis China?

Best wishes,

Yi-Fu