What Taiwan should do next (inching toward independence)

  1. Stop using the Ming Guo calendar. The mainland can hardly complain, since they’re on Jesus Time too.

  2. Topple Chiang Kai-Shek statues wherever they can be found. Re-theme his memorial into something having to do with human rights or local culture or Hello Kitty or something.

  3. In addition to the “national” ROC flag, give Taiwan a provincial flag. Make that flag identical or similar to that of the first Republic of Taiwan:

segue.com.tw/viewtopic.php?t=4649

Later, when they’re really feeling brave, they can start leaving off the ROC flag!

  1. Add the name “Taiwan” to “Chung Hua Min Guo”:

Tai Wan Chung Hua Min Guo

“Chinese Republic of Taiwan”

Unfair to the aboriginals, I know, but it’s virtue is in its ambiguity, and the fact that it’s almost the same as the current name.

(If they really don’t like the “Chung Hua” part, then go whole hog and secede from Chinese culture altogether. Promote Klingon as the national language and Mormonism as the state religion, that should be enough to impress!)

  1. Mollify the aboriginals by officially declaring all dozen of their languages (or however many there are) plus Hakka to be official languages. This would follow the example of South Africa, which has eleven official languages, some of which are more equal than others. Obviously the move would have little practical effect, except for cluttering up the street signs so that the Tong Yong Pin Yin becomes harder to read.

Hong Kong’s trilingual (Mandarin, Cantonese, English) system would be a useful practical model for public announcements etc. I’d solve the street sign problem by putting up both mainland pinyin and Bible Taiwanese. Using sticky-paint like they use on the MRT stations, which is easy to peel off in case of misspelling or political change.

VINCENT: yes, good first step. i quite agree! stop this 91 nonsense and go to global calendar 2002. Japan does this more and more, too, although they still use the Emperor’s Year now too. Yes, all schools and banks and post offices and newspapers in Taiwan can stop using 91 as of today. Good point!

But how to do it?

  1. STop
    using the Ming Guo calendar. The mainland can hardly complain, since they’re on Jesus Time too.

The change to the calendar is an obvious one to make.

How about changing the names of the roads too. Guilin Rd, Chengde Rd, Chengdu Rd, etc. could be changed to Kaohsiung Rd, Hualien Rd, Taichung Rd, etc.

And as for the many Zhongzheng (Chungcheng) Roads…

Get rid of Mandarin and all Chinese characters, including signs and documents, tear down the temples, toss the lunar calendar and all holidays related to it, institute English or Japanese as the official language (because “Taiwanese” is actually a Chinese dialect spoken on the mainland. Can’t have that), ban the Chinese New Year in favor of Christmas, and make everyone get married in a church.

Oh, and I forgot the most important step: Using advanced technology to physically move the island halfway to Hawaii.

Nice post guys, don’t mind PoaGao.

Poagao is dead on here boys and girls.
Wouldn’t want to be like the Chicoms over there.
Personally I think that the entire island should be evacuated and then bombed flat. Then rebuild with some common sense (and a long-term objective) and then put the people back.

Or you could asked the Taiwanese government to behave like the Chinese Communist officials and make everyone move at gun point while they tear down parts of the city and replace the older ugly concrete buildings with newer yet equally ugly concrete buildings.

Hey Wolf, what is with the off topic insult? What does your post have to do with Taiwan independance?

People might already know this but I only found out the other day (having only been here for 6 weeks) that this notion of independence is not as clear-cut as you would be led to believe.

I asked my students (yes I am a teacher) and they ALL said that Taiwan should not become independent and that there is a North / South divide within the island. Apparently President Chen was pretty much voted in by the Southern electorate and there are many (a majority?) Northern Taiwanese who oppose his idea of independence due to a fear of losing a lot of power and financial influence in the World stakes. (I suppose this is already evident from the move of many Taiwanese businesses to the Mainland coz of the cost)

A lot of BS or reality?

Hey! What are you doing, asking Taiwanese what they actually think? You’ll get your opinion from the Times, young man, and you’ll like it! Chen Shui-bian won the election because he’s BETTER, don’t believe any of this split-vote rigamarole!

Keep it simple, or you might get confused and not enjoy your stay on the Green Silicon Island!

Actually, LTH promised and chose his successor in summer of 1991. After holding power and making some reforms, he handed over the reigns of power to then President Chen of the Academia Sinicia. The presidential elections are decorum and a political facade of Taiwan democracy. :unamused: Democracy or plutocracy?