Ahh right, the mainland.
The mainland to what? There is only one island called Taiwan, you can’t say mainland Taiwan because that would mean there are other islands that are also Taiwan…? If you’re on Penghu and refer to Taiwan island as mainland Taiwan, that means you are saying Penghu is also Taiwan, and if that’s what you think then I’m afraid we live in very different realities
Yes, this countrys’ mainland is Taiwan. Green Island, lanyu, penghu, Xiaoliuqui etc are all this mainland’s smaller islands 
I live on the mainland too, Taiwan mainland.
That’s the core of the issue. Too many people use mainland as if China (PRC) is our mainland…
Well according to the law on both sides of the strait, mainland China is Taiwan’s mainland
Ya, was just clarifying where we stand on the issue. Duly noted.
Thus why the saying is troublesome for those of us that don’t recognize China’s oppression and insist we live in the country of Taiwan. Despite the threats of murder and war.
If it was truly the will of the people to change that, then as a democracy, Taiwan would change that.
And be faced with war. That’s why we don’t. But in the meantime, with literally oppression and weapons aimed at our families for just being a nation, we can at least call China by its country name, not as our mainland. To say they are our mainland is frankly just disrespectful against everything we have here.
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Seems so. I wish other people could agree to disagree without weapons and oppression like you and I. I hope for the day
How about this one?
Which was the essence of the 92 agreement.
That never existed and was invented post facto.
The 92 agreement was to agree that both sides maintain they are the sole representative of China.
The Taiwan side proposed by fax that both sides agree that there is one China and orally state their different positions on which entity governed. The PRC side never responded to the fax but later continued the negotiations. Since there was never any acceptance of the offer, there was never any contract/agreement let alone perfomance (orally stating different view).
Around 2000, Su Chi started talking about a 1992 Consensus that he said had been formed. He made it up to try to check the incoming Chen Shui-bian administration.
There was never any consensus or agreement. China has never ageed to disagree. It has simply taken the part that it likes and equate it with the fictional 1992 Consensus. Much like what they are doing with Resolution 2578, which doesn’t say what they sat it does.
The whole normalization of relations was built on having an agreement to set aside disagreements.
其後，雙方之「兩岸文書查證」及「兩岸掛號信函查詢補償」等事務性協商，因大陸方面提出「一個中國」的問題，未能達成共識，氣氛及時機均有所不宜，致使會談之舉行延宕甚久。直至十一月，雙方同意「一個中國原則」由兩會各自採用口頭方式表述後，本會始積極考慮此項會談之舉行。
Since these are semi secretive meetings between governments, there really is only the official statements and recounting of those who actually attended the meetings to go on. Both the official statement and retelling of the events by Koo Chen-Fu confirms that the first meeting only took place between both sides agreed to orally state their different positions.
I wonder if there is any politically motivated attempt to avoid saying Zhongwen and instead use Guoyu when referring to Mandarin.
All native languages of Taiwan are national languages, hence Taigi, Hakka, Atayal, Seediq, Truku, Saisiyat, Rukai, Pangcah, Paiwan, Pinuyumayan, Bunun, Tsou, Tao, Ita Thaw, Kavalan, Lha’alua, Kanakanavu, Sakizaya, Pazeh and Kaxabu are all guoyu, which guoyu are you referring to?
When someone says “請講國語” the other person is not going to ask “Which guoyu are you referring to?”
Of course, people will think Mandarin. Unless…
… the other person is hansioux.
OK, let me rephrase my question.
Is there any politically motivated attempt to avoid saying Zhongwen, when referring to Mandarin?
If that other person is me, yes. Just like if someone say Dalu, I’ll immediately follow that up by asking “which continent”, and if someone say Neidi, I’ll say “oh, I love Nantou too.”
No. The difference is by calling China China, KMT is afraid that it is implying that the current government in Taiwan isn’t China. However, by calling Chinese Zhongwwen, it is reinforcing the idea that the current government in Taiwan is China.
My impression is that not too many people object to zhongwen and I hear people of all political persuasions using it. It is possible that more educated people have a slight tendency to avoid it when referring to the spoken language. But it used very commonly this way.
There are politicized distinctions between guoyu/huayu/beijinghua.
- ‘Guoyu’ referring to Mandarin usually means the speaker is blue or not highly educated.
- ‘Huayu’ is the preferred term by the government and light green speakers.
- If someone uses ‘Beijinghua’ you can be pretty sure they are a die-hard independence supporter.