quote:
Originally posted by thyrdrail: Why would they want a Portuguese name. They're not Portuguese.
I was thinking the same thing, but Formosa is still better than the current name of Republic of China, suppose Taiwan or the TI standard Republic of Taiwan.
Juba, oh yea, I forgot, you mean the Republic of China the official name of Taiwan, you bring up a good point, I suppose it is time to change the name to the Republic of Taiwan so as not to confuse anyone to believe that this land is governed by the Communist People’s Republic of China.
Hey Juba, do you favor Soong/Ma/Lien or Jiang Zemin more?
Can you believe Madame Chiang Kai-Shek is still alive? 101 and living in Manhattan. Sold her Lattingtown, Long Island mansion few years ago. Property was subdivided and a French-Normandy style castle/mansion was built on one of the parcels and listed for US$6 million. Landscaping wasn’t that nice tho. I wonder if she will be buried in the States or Taiwan. I guess in Taiwan next to her husband.
Is Madame Chiang Kai-Shek a regular poster on the ORIENTED website? What is her code (member) name?
Her code name = J.o.l.i.e.
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Originally posted by thyrdrail: I wonder if she will be buried in the States or Taiwan. I guess in Taiwan next to her husband.
Definately U.S.A. after she charmed the U.S.A. government to back her husband. Taiwan was just a stepping stone for her and many other Chinese Nationalists. 105 and still alive!
Apparently even her husband wants to return to China from the grave:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/famousSearch.cgi?mode=country&FScountryid=263
quote:
Originally posted by Juba:I do.
More confusion. Are you a PRC Chinese posing as a European or a European posing as a PRC Chinese?
Perhaps PRC PLA operative living in Taiwan using a European cover?
Am I Chuang Tze or a butterfly?
The words “Taiwan Province” and “provincial” (省) are actually very common in Chinese. People here use them all the time and don’t seem to have a problem with them. Have you checked your license plate?
TaiwanGuardians
Guard Taiwan’s Name from Abusers
http://www.formosa.org/cgi-bin/taanj/TaiwanGuardians/TaiwanGuardians.pl
According to Poagao, the Chinese character for PROVINCE is on the license plates of cars and scooters. I couldn’t believe it, so I looked today, being a newcomer here, I didn’t realize… wow!
I checked a few scooters and sure enough, the top line reads TAIWAN PROVINCE. Is the DPP aware of this? I noticed that the GIO changed its logo a few months ago to change the map of mainland China, get rid of it, now that the DPP is in power. And the passports will be changed too, I guess. So isn’t it time to change the license plates, too, to read just “TAIWAN” ?
I mean Alberta is a province of Canada, sure, but Taiwan is defintely NOT a province of China.
I do realize Poagoa, that the Taiwan Provincial Government used to be a real thing here too, and James Soong was its Governor. But that was then, this is now, no?
since you have been here a long time Poagao, do you think it is possible to get the licensen text changed to just TAIWAN from TAIWAN PROVINCE or is this much ado about nuttin?
those licenses plates are issued by the Taiwan Provincial Govt. It didn’t disappear when James Soong left you know.
I talked to someone today that told me that the government is in the process of changing the license plates.
In the future the plates will have the local Taiwan governments or county locations on them, not the offensive reference to this fictitious Taiwan Province.
Sorry, I don’t have a source for this. Will search tomorrow.
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Originally posted by Hobart: ...the offensive reference to this fictitious Taiwan Province.
You are mentally moulding the reality of Taiwan to fit your personal idea of how things should be.
For more “offensive” references to not only the “fictitious” Taiwan Province, but the equally, if not more “fictitious” Fukien (Fujian) Province, read on:
http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/book2000/ch05_6.htm
Those people at the Government Information Office must have been eating magic mushrooms, judging by the way they keep hallucinating about all these provinces, provincial governments and governors.
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Originally posted by Juba: Those people at the Government Information Office must have been eating magic mushrooms, judging by the way they keep hallucinating about all these provinces, provincial governments and governors.
Check the current edition.
http://www.roc-taiwan.org.uk/taiwan/5-gp/yearbook/chpt05-6.htm
This is old information from the “KMT in Wonderland” book with CKS as the smoking caterpillar.
Check out the latest:
http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/taiwan2003.html
“Taiwan is formally known as the Republic of China (ROC).”
Reminiscent of “The Former Yugoslavia?”
Wow…they’ve changed the spelling from Fukien to Fujian.
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Originally posted by Juba: Wow...they've changed the spelling from Fukien to Fujian.
Well, no more jokes about that Fuk**n Province.
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not the offensive reference to this fictitious Taiwan Province.
Hobart
who’s offended here? You?
A sizeable proportion of the population thinks ‘Taiwan Province’ is a misnomer (& you agree with them) and a sizeable proportion would like to keep the name, at least for some uses (& you don’t agree with them).
Meanwhile, there is a branch of government here called the Provincial Govt with a budget, staff etc etc.
So, as you know very well, it’s not “fictitious”. You can visit it. As Poagao said, you hear references to the province every day.
Do you really find this offensive?
I think you are taking yourself and your noble opinions far too seriously. There is a legitimate debate to be had on this, but let’s not get offended that many people on this island don’t share your enlightened views.
Hobart wrote: "I talked to someone today that told me that the government is in the process of changing the license plates.
In the future the plates will have the local Taiwan governments or county locations on them, not the offensive reference to this fictitious Taiwan Province.
Sorry, I don’t have a source for this. Will search tomorrow."
Please keep this forum informed, Hobart. Very interesting. Do u know timetable yet?
It makes sense. Step by step, the govt is correcting the mistakes of the past, GIO logo, Passports, now license plates. Good.
I heard from my friends in Taoyuan that some motorbikes already have licenses issued by local govts, such as Taoyuan City or Hualien City. Have you ever seen these on bikes yet? I looked but everyting I see is TAIWAN PROVINCE (sic)…
interesting listing for taiwan from the cia world handbook:
"Country name: conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Taiwan
local long form: none
local short form: T’ai-wan
former: Formosa "
looks like the cia isn’t even acknowleding that the official name of the place is republic of china.
Check out www.countrywatch.com. They claim to provide detailed information about “all 192 countries of the world”. Taiwan does not appear on their list in any form. They used to include Taiwan in the drop down list for setting up user accounts, but dropped that recently.
Imagine students doing reports on, for example, the IT hardware industry. Taiwan ranks 4th, after USA, Japan, and China. Over 70% of the IT hardware products made in China are produced by Taiwanese companies. But, Taiwan doesn’t count (according to Country Watch).
I did send a letter about this to countrywatch and got a reply. Their definition of country requires recognition by the UN. Of course, UN recognition is not an element of any standard definition of country or state.
I think Countrywatch does this so that they don’t have to do any actual research. They just take published information from the UN and sell it on their website. They maintain the illusion of providing complete and accurate information by choosing a definition of “country” that ignores areas not represented in the UN.
However, Countrywatch is linked to several of the major web sites where people would begin to research a subject. It is considered a reliable source for basic geopolitical information, but (from visiting their site) you would have no idea that Taiwan even exists, let alone plays such an import role in the world’s economy.