Anyone else want to march for Taiwan? I think I am going to go to this. Perhaps, we can make a huge banner and walk as a group of foreigners in Taiwan that supports the motives of this march.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/05/07/story/0000134937
Anyone?
Anyone know what time this starts in the morning?
Don’t know when it starts… just make sure ya’ll dress purrty!
Yes, life in Taiwan is so monotonous, so let’s all join this march and see if we can provoke a war.
No, it makes sense, Juba. This way everyone can meet and greet and exchange name cards so they won’t have to do it in the line at the airport.
I’m with Juba. This is a problem the people here gotta figure out for themselves. This ethnic Taiwanese vs. mainlander bickering is getting out of hand, and the only people who seem to be benefitting from all this is that senile old fart Lee Teng-hui and his band of freeloading attention-seeking political toddlers that form the TSU.
This issue clearly doesn’t concern foreigners, and the more distance we can put between ourselves and this farce, the better off we will be in the long run.
I went to an anti-nuke demonstration here once about a year and a half ago. I wasn’t there to support the cause (or not), I just wanted to get close up to see the action. If you have never been to a major rally in Taiwan before, I suggest you go. But be careful, you are always liable to run into a froth-head, one of these guys that speaks English fairly well and asks a loaded question like “What’s the name of this country?” If you don’t answer the question to the froth-head’s satisfaction, he will immediately become apoplectic and start cursing at you in three languages about what an ignorant no-good… Well, you get the picture.
Again, if you have been to one, you are probably better off staying at home recreating the World Cup on your Playstation. I agree with Monkey. Don’t go out and support some political agenda here, it really is none of your business unless you can vote, and if you are a foreigner, you can’t and probably will never be allowed to even if you stay here 100 years. Ask the Gigelflosses or whatever their names are.
I would advice against attending rallies just for the hell of it. It makes it look like more people are rallying.
Forget the banner. I will go anyway. It is shame that the Commie butcher of Tibet could visit Washington DC, but the democratically elected president of Taiwan could not. Taiwan is not a province of the People’s Republic of China. I am going.
The problem with the marches here is that they’re so tacky! Disposable plastic vests, stoopid “baseball” hats, white cloths tied around foreheads, etc. What we need is to inject some EXCITEMENT into the whole event. I’m thinking a “Love” rave party like in Berlin, or the gay pride march in Sydney. Those places ROCK! We could wear flamboyant glitter jumpsuits and shout “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” “And we support Hanyu Pinyin”! “And Taiwan” “And we LOOOOOVE Mayor Ma!” Don’t have to be gay to join my parade, just be fabulous!
quote:
Originally posted by Maoman: Don't have to be gay to join my parade, just be fabulous!
Oh, well. I am many things, but “fabulous” ain’t one of them.
Besides, I already went to one of those protest things back in March of 1990 at the CKS Hall. Certainly wasn’t feeling too fabulous after four days of sitting around, shouting slogans and watching inane political plays with giant puppets. Got some good pictures, though.
Yeah Maoman, that’d be a nice way to be anti-effective. Having a pro-independence street rave run by a bunch of drugged up foreigners.
Good idea Maoman, but I have no glitter jumpsuit – could I borrow your blue one… or your pink one, for that matter? I’d let you wear my feathered headdress in return.
Even if I hadn’t been busy, I wouldn’t have participated. But I’m not going to knock Hobart for wanting to join in. There are good reasons for reminding Beijing and the rest of the world that many people in Taiwan don’t like pussyfooting around the issue. When there are no “extreme” voices, it’s often far too easy for people with an agenda to label “moderates” as “extremists.”
So how was it? Were there many other laowai there? Did your foreign face attract the media? Would you do it again?
quote:
Originally posted by cranky laowai: Were there many other laowai there? Did your foreign face attract the media? Would you do it again?
There were a few on TV, looking stupid (as some had predicted would be the case).
Not surprisingly, this event proved yet again that anything connected to the localization, and/or Taiwan independence, is sure to come off as low class, lacking in sophistication, mob-like, and generally revolting.
some of the highlights would have to be:
-the tacky podium with flashing lights (had to have been designed by the same people that do betel nut stands, those icons of contemporary Taiwanese culture)
-Huang Chu-wen leading a group of people in kissing the road to show how much they loved Taiwan (a predictably hollow and meaningless gesture)
-DPP legislator Wang Hsueh-feng coming from her wedding, in her wedding dress, to join the festivities (with her predicatbly geeky husband)
-People holding placards with pictures of Chin Mei-ling (It looked like Red Square, except instead of Stalin it was that queen of tackiness Chin Mei-ling on the placards. Thees people really need to get a life. We’re holding up placards of this tacky fraud who sits safely in Japan while advocating that her countrypeople plunge themselves into a war).
-Lee Teng-hui not even showing up. Well, that’s typical. I know, he was sick. He was so “sick” that he was able to show up on Sunday and make a speech at the launch of taiwanesevoice.net
-and the worst, that mob of hooligans that attacked pro-unification supporters, damaging their vehicle and causing serious injury to several people.
I think the whole event, and especially the vicious attack on the pro-unfication people, is emblematic of the kind of people that lead and participate in this movement. The leaders appeal to the worst aspects of Taiwanese society in order to maintain their positions of power, and the mobs are too stupid to realize what they are being fooled into doing.
So, the DPP fought all those years for democracy, so that their people could attack others exercising the right to free speech. Where is Chen, Yu, and the DPP and TSU leadership in condemning the violence? Their cause would gain a lot more support both in Taiwan and abroad if they actually attempted to be articulate and professional in espousing it.
I simply could not agree more. This march has been the worst yet.
What makes sick is that if this childishness increases and eventually incites mainland China to invade, AMERICA will have to come in and save these idiots. And when I say idiots I mean the independence movement, I’m not talking about everyone!
Having “Republic of Taiwan” on the passports is not worth tens of thousands of American lives.
Some people might prefer the “other” pro-Taiwan demonstration:
“Oppose Taiwan independence - Save Taiwan”
Meeting time: 1-2pm, Sunday 19 May, 2002
Meeting place: Main gate, CKS memorial hall
March start time: 2pm
March route: Xinyi Road sections 1-4 and Guangfu South Road
Dispersal place: Sun Yatsen Memorial Hall
Post-demonstration music and speeches: 7pm, 228 Peace Park music stage
Main organiser: The Alliance for the Reunification of China
Contact person (trilingual Mandarin/Hokkien/English): Mr. Wang Jinping 02-2321 4125
(Wang Jinping is one of the people who got beaten up by Taiwan independence extremists at the previous demonstration.)
19th March? Bit late advertising this one, isn’t it?
Woops…19 May
ABC’s post has at least one grave mischaracterization,which makes me wonder about the accuracy of the other statements in his post.
The TSU never said that Lee was “sick,” instead they said that his doctor had recommended that he not go to the march because he is old and it may be too hot for him to be walking around for several hours. And if I remember correctly, he did just get out of the hospital. I would imagine that the opening of taiwanvoice.net would have been much better air conditioned and probably less of a commitment.
As for the behavior of the people who attacked the pro-unification group, well, it seems like this kind of puerile, naive understanding of free speech goes across party lines, or has everyone forgotten the behavior of the PFP-KMT crowd who were demonstrating to get Lee Teng-hui to step down as party chairman? Heck, those guys even attacked the international press. Also, a class act.
I’m not saying I support the ideas behind the demonstration held last Sunday (I went to it and I plan to go to this Sunday’s bash as well!), but for someone to maintain that the Taiwanese that showed up to support the “rectifying the name of the country” march are just a bunch of gullible fools who don’t really know what they want shows the same contempt for democracy that the marchers are accused of. I think they know exactly what they want, but just because ABC doesn’t agree with the idea doesn’t mean that they are a bunch of brainwashed idiots that fell from the mountains surrounding Taipei.
Yeah, they weren’t exactly the cream of the crop American-educated, TaiDa crowd, and a good many I saw seemed so old that even if a war broke out, they may not be here to experience it, but one thing was obvious, after 50 years of the KMT telling them how to think, they weren’t going to cater to that anymore. (Or was ABC suggesting that still, only the KMT knows best? Hmmm…)
Does that mean everything in the march was in good taste? No. Does it mean that it was well-organized and thoughtfully presented? No, again.
ABC’s post descends into petty insults about people’s appearances (predictably geeky husband), which makes me think (I don’t know about you) that maybe I shouldn’t have taken that post too seriously.
Last thing, ABC writes
quote[quote] and the mobs are too stupid to realize what they are being fooled into doing. [/quote]I think both Joe Stalin and Marie Antoinette have embraced similar sentiments in the past.
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