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• Friday, April 6, 2007 01:17 AM

  Chinese culture = ??

  Andrew:

  Let me put it this way. When people say that "Taiwan is Chinese" they are generally referring to an imaginary idealized Chinese culture. That construction evidences itself here in the comment that Taiwan "preserves" Chinese culture, as if Chinese culture were one thing.

  Taiwan certainly has A Chinese culture, just as China does. Just as France has a western culture and so do Spain and Germany. But it doesn't preserve THE Chinese culture, any more than France preserves THE Western culture. The idea of cultures "preserved" is a romantic colonialist fantasy.

  The whole discussion of "Chinese culture" revolves around Beijing's deployment of Chinese culture as a colonialist tool. Under that logic, only Beijing has the right to define what "Chinese culture" means. Under that rubric, Taiwan is not a Chinese culture -- it has its own cultural identity. Imagine if the Tahitians decided they and only they could define what constituted Polynesian culture and they had the means to enforce that across a broad domain -- what do you think the Hawaiians would say? They would be given the ugly choice of either kowtowing to someone else's definition of Polynesian culture, or declaring themselves "not Polynesian" which everyone would regard as nuts. And rightfully so.

  But that is the choice that confronts Taiwan today. Unfortunately the question of whether Taiwan is "Chinese culture" is a question that Beijing has chosen to load with profound political implications. As long as Beijing asserts its culture as an imperialist tool, then Taiwan will have to assert that it isn't Chinese. Because Beijing doesn't recognize a broad Chinese cultural domain.

  Michael

  —Michael Turton Read Michael Turton's other letters
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