Is Taiwan the Real China?

[goodrick]

Someone told me that Taiwan is the real China. I'm not sure I quite understood that. Does anyone know what this means?

[Guo Xiang]

Someone told me that Taiwan is the real China. I'm not sure I quite understood that. Does anyone know what this means?

In a nutshell, KMT and the Communist Party fought over the control of the country decades ago. The losing party, KMT, lost the fight and fled to Taiwan but refused to give up and decided they were the "winners" and that the country was stolen from them. So they decided that Taiwan was the real China instead - led by the real winner.

That's my impression from their kind of behaviour. I don't support the communists, but KMT is no less annoying.

How can Taiwan be the real China anyway? Most ridiculous claim ever. All dynasties of China (be it Han Chinese or not) and most Chinese history did not occur on that island. Heck, a number of Taiwanese Chinese don't even want to be Chinese (中国人）!

[jiang bao]

Just loser's whine.

[PJ]

Actually, the notion that Taiwan may be more "authentic" than China, at least in some sense, does carry some weight in my opinion. My impression is that China's Communist government, in its early to mid days, eradicated, reversed, or halted many traditions that were deemed "unrevolutionary", thus altering the culture greatly. I actually think that in some ways, Hong Kong and Taiwan have preserved aspects of Chinese culture better than Mainland China.

I don't have many concrete examples, though I can think of a few.

[Lucre]

No, it's not.

[Cesare]

Nah. Commies won the war. No matter what my opinion of CCP might be, they are the legitimate government (not that it is an awfully good thing, but they are) and PRC is more entitled to be labeled "real China" as far as I'm concerned.

And since development and change (however abrupt or dramatic) is an integral part of any living culture, not even ten cultural revolutions and a dozen leaps forward will change my opinion of where the "real China" is.
...Of course, it all heavily depends on how you define "real China". In a way it is a matter of perspective, but in Taiwan's best interest, I sure hope the perspectives will never openly and violently clash - I have an idea of who might be the winner...

[Guo Xiang]

Nah. Commies won the war. No matter what my opinion of CCP might be, they are the legitimate government (not that it is an awfully good thing, but they are) and PRC is more entitled to be labeled "real China" as far as I'm concerned.

And since development and change (however abrupt or dramatic) is an integral part of any living culture, not even ten cultural revolutions and a dozen leaps forward will change my opinion of where the "real China" is.
...Of course, it all heavily depends on how you define "real China". In a way it is a matter of perspective, but in Taiwan's best interest, I sure hope the perspectives will never openly and violently clash - I have an idea of who might be the winner...

China, of course. The US is never going to seriously back up Taiwan, who is just a political pawn to them. China has much more trade benefit to the US than Taiwan will ever be.

[Dennis Chen]

Culturally, yes. But China is bringing it all back.

[QF]

Culturally, yes. But China is bringing it all back.

THey should bring back traditional form of writing, screw the simplified version.

QF

[Ken Cheng]

THey should bring back traditional form of writing, screw the simplified version.

QF

I can understand the practical reasons for the simplified forms, but they're FUGLY, aren't they?

[Cesare]

It's only a matter of getting used to it and getting rid of bias.
Simplified are after all often derived from cursive forms that date way back, so it's not like they popped up out of the blue.
Not that simplified characters are without disadvantages, but I'd leave aesthetics out of it.
(I usually like trad. chars better, but there are quite a few simplified forms that IMHO look pretty awesome. Like 苏, for example... Much better looking than 蘇...)

[goodrick]

Actually, the notion that Taiwan may be more "authentic" than China, at least in some sense, does carry some weight in my opinion. My impression is that China's Communist government, in its early to mid days, eradicated, reversed, or halted many traditions that were deemed "unrevolutionary", thus altering the culture greatly. I actually think that in some ways, Hong Kong and Taiwan have preserved aspects of Chinese culture better than Mainland China.

I don't have many concrete examples, though I can think of a few.

Thanks PJ, I now understand the statement in my question.