Simply through observing the fact Taiwan is evenly divided on the issue.
The expat subpopluation is not evenly divided on the issue.
AC, you have a point on this one.
Such a large discrepancy means expats are seeing something (or seeing very differently) from about half of the Taiwanese, or conversely half of the Taiwanese are seeing something (or seeing very differently) from the expats.
I have no idea where people get their information but I can’t help but notice the reasons given in this post are nearly indistinguishable from Taiwanese deep-greens talking. Are the greens that convincing? If so, half of Taiwan voting for blues must be a strong indictment of the assumption that people can be trusted to make informed decisions. I rather like to think that’s not the case, that it’s the same as in other places where opinions are divided: greens and blues are about equally good or bad. Then it comes back to the question again: why do expats prefer green?
Yea, that is still the question.
My theory is that the greens have more literature in English, thus the expatriates are flooded with pan-Green views in English. The lacking of English language literature on pro-Blue views further compounds the problem, thus reinforcing the narrow casting of information expatriates are exposed to.
Also many of the expatriates’ countries of origin, like the USA for instance, have extreme “China Threat” theme in their media, hence, further skewing the outlook of these individuals.
I think age and demographic group and education level all have something to do with it.
[quote=“david”]Yeah - I think it’s interesting. Some general reasons off the top of my head:
Reading up on the history of Taiwan makes the unpleasant bits stick out much more. Stuff like 2-28 and the white terror make a much bigger impression than boring stuff like land reform, general relaxtion of restrictions etc. This makes the simple connection of KMT = bad guys, DPP = good guys. (E.g. who did you support in the last presidential election? The guys who were put in prison for advocating democracy, or the guys who put them in prison)
.[/quote]
not to mention that china gave tw away twice lol
but david’s points are articulated clearly
oh n the buffoonery that is mainline china and its interaction with tw
such as the gallant mainline soldati that helped defend tw from jp 
need i add anything about the republicans in world war 2?
I also sometimes wonder what expatriate percieve as appealing about the DPP in terms ethnic tension.
There are two images the DPP promotes; victimization and ethnic empowerment.
Do expatriates sympathy more with the victimization of identity of the DPP, protraying themselves as near slaves on Taiwan for over 100 years?
Or do expatriates sympathize with enthic empowerment of the Hoklo as they bully the other ethnic minorities on Taiwan?
Saying the DPP is only about victimization and ethnic empowerment is an overly simplistic view. From that perspective there are some genuine claims about correcting prior ruling government/KMT excesses, be they economic or political. This was a society in the 1980’s where the big discussion was whether things had gotten too soft having banned public executions in the 70’s.
If fins myself a times getting upset with the Pan-Greens- and then I run into some relic or vested interest left over the the KMT days and a get a remider why Pan-Green isn’t so bad.
What the DPP have failed to do is deliver on there promises of reform and they are adopting many of the poor practices of the KMT.
What I think many expats miss or conciously overlook is that these Hoklo guys are the biggest proponents of idiotic ideas like “Taiwaner” vs. “Taiwanese”.
[quote=“sandman”]Politically, they’re all like a bunch of elementary schoolkids squabbling in a schoolyard, so I can’t taker any of them at all seriously.
I’d be tempted to say I’d favour anyone who is anti-panblue, but when the alternative is pangreen… bunch of stupid kids.
And that outlook is a slippery slope, in any case. I was anti-Thatcher when I left UK, not anti-Tory, like many other people there, but look what that got us – Tonee Bllleuuurgh and his bunch of clowns – so that was a bad plan, too.
Face it, China will have Taiwan next year, in five, ten or 15 years, what’s the difference? Exchange one bunch of corrupt inept fools for another.[/quote]
Brilliant! :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:
[quote=“ac_dropout”]
Do expatriates sympathy more with the victimization of identity of the DPP, protraying themselves as near slaves on Taiwan for over 100 years?[/quote]
It’s new to me that the DPP has nearly 100 years of history. however, it might be true onthe planet you are living on.
Not really, I have never lived in a Hoklo area, and have never have any very close contact with Hoklos. Honestly, I think that the KMT repression also hit the refugees from china, living in their special settlements. Poor people, still used by the PFP/KMT… Also, you will find that more and more hakkas support the greens, as their fears of being bullied subside. The refugees who came over in 1945-49 have been told how much they will be bullied, however I don’t really think ethnic bullying is on the DPP agenda. I have earlier posted what has been said in public by the DPP leaders, and what their policies are on the subject. i don’t see them playing the ethnic card. That’s a KMT prerogative.
Interesting you say this. I preferred the KMT during the LTH years, and distrusted the DPP. Starting with the disgusting KMT reaction to Chen’s election, I lost that preference, and the DPP have gained my trust with their moderate stance since then. I have seen nothing like these huge exaggerations:
[quote=“ac_dropout”]I also sometimes wonder what expatriate percieve as appealing about the DPP in terms ethnic tension.
There are two images the DPP promotes; victimization and ethnic empowerment.
Do expatriates sympathy more with the victimization of identity of the DPP, protraying themselves as near slaves on Taiwan for over 100 years?
Or do expatriates sympathize with enthic empowerment of the Hoklo as they bully the other ethnic minorities on Taiwan?[/quote]
this is typical blue scaremongering and just what turns so many people off about them.
I doubt it. I believe that you might go around reading party literature AC but i’m pretty sure most foreigners i know don’t 
I wonder what Jiang Jing-Guo would say about that
[quote=“ac_dropout”]Simply through observing the fact Taiwan is evenly divided on the issue.
The expat subpopluation is not evenly divided on the issue.[/quote]
Wait…so more foreigners disagree with YOU than agree with YOU. That means we are just not seeing things clearly? You can’t even say it is because they have divergent views from most Taiwanese. So since when does the fact that a majority of people have an opinion automatically mean they are correct? To cite an old example, Hitler was popularly elected in Germany. So by your rationale, a non-German who would not have voted for him would have been simply misinformed because he was not German and could not understand the situation.
Being Chinese, I would have expected you to understand the frog in the well fable. I see I misjudged.
Once again, as usual, your logic is faulty in the extreme.
First my personal path:
I guess you could label me a ‘leftist’ back in NZ. Before coming to Taiwan I wanted to go to China. I had a great interest in Chinese culture. I also had a history degree and had read a couple of histories of China. I was very sympathetic to China (the PRC). It wasn’t until I arrived in Taiwan that I found out what was going on. As others have posted, I think it is only natural for those form countries that enjoy freedom and democracy to want those. So I supported the DPP without knowing much about it, but not really taking a lot of interest. 6 years and a lot of reading later, I support the DPP less. I just don’t think they’re very good. But my opposition to both the CCP and the KMT has grown a lot. I simply don’t have any sympathy for any political position other than letting the people of Taiwan decide their own political future. I also think people supporting the KMT in Taiwan is like Eastrn Europeans still supporting their communist parties.
Now, some other observations about why most foreigners are probably pro-green, (or at least more anti-blue).
I think most supporters of the blues can be divided into the following groups:
Diehard, old school unificationist WSR.
People from WSR families who have been exposed to anti-green, pro-KMT ideology their whole lives.
Businesspeople who want unification so they can make more money in China.
Businesspeople and other conservatives for whom stability is the most important thing.
Hakka and Aborigines whose old tensions with Hoklo led them to identify with the KMT against the DPP
Basically, I think very few foreigners will fall into any of those groups.
Brian
What Bu Lai En said.
Before I moved to Taiwan (living in HK and PRC) I was somewhat sympathetic to the KMT for several reasons. The attempt (however half-assed) to bring democracy to China via revolution, the fact that Taiwan’s income spread was much closer than China’s (and that was in the 80’s), plus the very nice sounding western aligned spiel the Soongs and Chiangs had left here and there. Compared to the CCP they looked like saints, despite the stink of corruption and the gangster legacy.
Moving here dispelled these fantasies pretty quickly. Elections with only KMT candidates or independants with close ties to choose from. The squads of MPs stomping around intimidating the public. The number of liaobeiya snooping around to inform on dissenters, and the speed with which a bignose would find himself deported for the slightest mention of multi-party democracy, labour rights or other touchy subjects. The GIO and TGC denying the 228 incident or White Terror ever happened or even having a list of the people they had abducted… My first gf here was the daughter of a retired mainland legislator, and what he told me about the bad old days in China was the icing on the cake. There’s no horror story like the one from the inside.
I also count myself as being more anti-blue than pro-green. KMT didn’t get kicked out of China due to bad luck, the vote being split, or some sneaky candidate faking an assassination attempt. They lost China then because they were corrupt buffoons backed by gangsters, and that’s why they’ve lost Taiwan now.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention out of the local papers I only read 自由日報
For one thing, the average foreigner who posts on these boards is far better educated and informed than the average Taiwanese voter, and therefore is much more likely to be able to distinguish between right and wrong and to recognise where Taiwan’s true interests lie.
In this respect, they’re no different from Taiwan’s intelligentsia – by which I mean the true thinkers and intellectuals in this society, not those who wormed their way into professorships and other such positions by slavish devotion to the KMT party line – the overwhelming majority of whom identify much more closely with the positions held and causes espoused by the pan-green camp than with those of the pan-blues.
What hsiadogah said! 
David summed up it nicely.
One thing I would add, especially if you have lived in Taiwan a long time, is to see some payback to all the relatively recent shit the DPP supporters had to put up with just to bring the vote to the people. (wife paralyzed, twins/mother killed, reporter and university prof killed, jailtime) (and unrelated to vote but blatant black gold deals like the KMT/French kickback murder and more *see note below)
To see the KMT lose all the assets they misappropriated would be justice served. Forgive and forget? I don
Still sounds like legacy issues to me; I don’t see anything that the KMT/PFP doesn’t do any more or does/will do has changed or will change any minds. The continued hanging on to legacy issues is a thing that the pan-green uses to great effect even after 5 years in the driver’s seat, but it only works on greens. So, still, whatever works on greens apparently works on laowai’s, too. Very strange.
The other theme here is, sure Taipei Times is biased, but I read it anyway. And, sure China Post is biased, but I don’t care to read it any more. What??? What gives?
The point is, a case can be made for voting for pan-blue and obviously many are convinced that way in Taiwan. But either that case does not resonate at all with expats or it never got to air with expats (either due to lack of info or due to DOA by negative association).
Now that’s what I was writing about earlier; you realize you are indicting the fundamental tenet of democracy, that people can be trusted to make informed decisions in their true interests. Unless you are willing to go the indictment route, I think it’s best not to attribute ‘quality’ to political views.