Tag Archives for Taiwan

Jeremy Lin: diplomatic pawn and diasporic subject

Source: Colorlines.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard that Asian America, China, and Taiwan have gone completely Lin-sane for Jeremy Lin. Not only are Asian Americans claiming him as a hero, but China and Taiwan are also trying to latch on to his success. I don’t particularly care for basketball, but since I’m researching diasporic membership and globalized nationalism, I find this struggle to “claim” Lin to be quite fascinating.

Is he Chinese or Taiwanese?

China and Taiwan see Lin as a diasporic subject. Chineseness or Taiwaneseness is something you are born with, in contrast to Americanness which can be acquired. Even if he only has US citizenship, he is still part of the Chinese/Taiwanese nation, and so they have a right to claim him as one of their own. The New York Times’ adorable story about Lin’s grandmother in Taiwan touches on these competing claims: Continue reading →

The battle for the hearts and minds of diasporic Chinese kids

Children performing at a Mandarin-medium Chinese school in Vancouver.

我是海外的中國人，我愛中國，我也愛本地的國家。

“I am overseas Chinese. I love China. I also love this country [in which I live].”

The above is the only passage I remember from my days as a student at a Taiwanese-run weekend language school in the San Gabriel Valley ethnoburbs. Throughout my childhood I thought it was strange that we had to repeat that sentence over and over. I was born in the US. My parents were born in Vietnam. My grandparents were born in Vietnam. None of us had ever set foot in the Republic of China; our last territorial link to China was probably in the Qing Dynasty! But that didn’t matter.

The sentence comes from a textbook dating back to the 1980s that was sold (or perhaps donated) by the Republic of China government to Chinese weekend language schools all over the world. The martial law era in which Taiwan was dominated by the pro-reunification Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (國民黨) lasted until the late 80s.

The party’s message is evident even in this elementary school text for ethnic Chinese children overseas. Chinese nationality, as the Kuomintang understood it, was immutable, even with foreign residence or citizenship. Once Chinese, always Chinese—and clearly you want to side with the Nationalists.
Continue reading →

Republic of China naval officers at Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College students and alumni – did you know that Chinese naval officers studied English there during World War II? This is something they do not reveal in your average campus tour, and something that I didn’t know about until I looked more closely at the fountain underneath the Wharton Hall staircase last spring. There I found a plaque commemorating this collaboration between Swarthmore and the Republic of China navy:

The plaque reads: “To the Chinese naval officers, whose presence and spirit as students of Swarthmore College have symbolized the bonds of friendship and democracy that unite our two countries, this fountain is affectionately dedicated.”

The aging Swarthmore history website states:

The officers came from all parts of China, and most had already seen active duty. They spent several months at Swarthmore before half departed for MIT to study shipbuilding and half left to study naval administration at the Naval Academy. The intent was for these officers to form the backbone of China’s post-war navy.

Since the Republic of China is back in US news with the re-election of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), I figured it was a good time to post this image. The rise of the People’s Republic of China on the mainland has redefined the US-Republic of China (Taiwan) relationship. How do we maintain these “bonds of friendship and democracy” while building a relationship with a regime that is not so open to the democratic process?