Tsai Ing-wen Plays the "Taiwanese Identity" Card 蔡英文打出族群牌

http://thechinadesk.blogspot.com/2011/07/tsai-ing-wen-plays-taiwanese-identit...

Tsai Ing-wen, DPP candidate for Republic of China President in 2012, has played the "Taiwanese Identity" card.

Watch this slickly made campaign commercial, commissioned by Tsai Ing-wen's campaign committee. But don't be fooled. The impeccably professional production values, replete with a cover of Iz Kamakawiwoʻole's rendition of "Over the Rainbow," mask deeply repugnant psychological attitudes.

Tsai's concluding remarks in the commercial are: "I am Taiwanese, I am Tsai Ing-wen."

Tsai's opponent is incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou (KMT), who was born in Hong Kong.

Many native English speakers unfamiliar with politics on Taiwan, especially those living in the US, may not fully appreciate what Tsai is getting at. They may have difficulty discerning her subtext. They may find it hard to read between the lines.

To better understand what Tsai Ing-wen is really saying, imagine the same commercial in the US, run by white supremacist David Duke, running against a Barack Obama type "outsider," someone cast as "not one of us." Imagine Duke concluding with: "I am American, I am David Duke."

No one would have the slightest difficulty understanding what Duke was getting at. Everyone would know Duke was implying that his opponent was "not an American, not a white American."

And so it is with Tsai Ing-wen, the DPP, and the Taiwan independence movement. They remain motivated, today in 2011, as they have been for the past four decades, by atavistic identity politics and petty ethnic hatred.

The more rabidly fundamentalist supporters of Tsai Ing-wen, the DPP, and the Taiwan independence movement are unguarded in their speech. They scream about how "Taiwanese bulls" will exterminate "Chinese pigs," at the top of their lungs.

Tsai however, gives their barnyard bigotry a kinder, gentler face, the way genteel white supremacists such as Peter Brimelow give white racism a kinder, gentler face.

The sad fact is, DPP leaders and the Taiwan independence movement are motivated at their psychological and emotional core, not by any longing for "democracy, freedom, and human rights," but by their compulsion to craft a "Taiwanese ethnic and national identity."

The central defect at the heart of the Taiwan independence movement is not practical. The central defect at the heart of the Taiwan independence movement is moral. The central defect at the heart of the Taiwan independence movement is its self-hating "We're Taiwanese, not Chinese" identity politics.

As Sisy Chen, former DPP Public Relations Director noted, "The DPP is the KKK of Taiwan." As Cheng Li-wen, former DPP National Assembly Member noted, "I never wanted to believe that the DPP was racist, but it is."

Make no mistake. The KMT was indeed at one time guilty of gross abuses. These abuses were committed by a government against its own citizens.

They were typical of abuses committed by countless governments against their own citizens. They must be harshly condemned, and have been harshly condemned, even by KMT leaders.

Tsai, the DPP, and the Taiwan independence movement, however, knowingly and deliberately misrepresent these abuses. They misrepresent them as abuses committed by "one tribe against another, different tribe." As abuses committed by "one people against another, different people." As abuses committed by "mainlanders against natives." And ultimately, as abuses committed by "Chinese against Taiwanese."

Why do they engage in this flagrant misrepresentation of the facts?

Because they need a rationale for their ethnic identity based project of nation building, for the creation of a Hoklo Chauvinist themed "Republic of Taiwan," and have no qualms about lying to achieve that goal.

In 2004 for example, a delegation of ministers from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, a long time abettor of Taiwan independence, paid an emergency visit to DPP elder Shen Fu-hsiung. Shen was under pressure to spill the beans, and testify that First Lady Wu Shu-cheng had accepted huge cash bribes from a prominent businessman.

What textual truth did these devout Christians share with him? They solemnly assured Shen that it was not a sin to lie as long as it was in a good cause. In other words, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, unless of course it advances Taiwan independence."

Tsai Ing-wen has marketed herself as a reformer whose mission it is to upgrade the DPP. Sad to say, she has done no such thing. Instead, the DPP has downgraded Tsai Ing-wen, bringing her down to its level.

Assuming of course that Tsai Ing-wen was not already at their level from the beginning.

Category:

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• 台灣人
• Taiwanese
• 蔡英文
• Tsai
• Ing-wen
• 現在決定未來
• identity
• politics
• Taiwan
• independence
• presidential
• campaign
• ad
• TV
• commercial
• 打出族群牌

[thechinadesk]

Update!

Good news! Tsai Ing-wen's ethnic identity card failed.

Ma has just won reelection in a landslide.

The Chinese people on Taiwan have resoundingly rejected Tsai Ing-wen's attempt to reject the 1992 Consensus, which affirms that "There is only one China. Both Taiwan and the mainland are inseparable parts of that one China."

[taiwanese2037]

Absolutely supporting for Tsai Ing-wen and DPP

Taiwan is country of Taiwanese,and Taiwanese want UN membership.

[thechinadesk]

@taiwanese2037

See? I wasn't exaggerating.

It's not really about "freedom, democracy, and human rights."

It's merely about artificially concocting a separate "Taiwanese, not Chinese" tribal identity.

[thecjl]

@thechinadesk That's like saying Americans are British, or even that Austrians are German (no offence to Americans, Brits, Austrians, or Germans, just making a point). You're treading on very thin ground by arguing that the Taiwanese are not distinct from mainland Chinese in any way, even though their political systems, currencies, and written languages are very distinctly different.

Why can't multiple cultural identities co-exist peacefully?

[thechinadesk]

@thecjl

IF your analogy was accurate, your point would be valid. But since your analogy is not accurate, your point is irrelevant.

A vastly more meaningful analogy would be East and West Germany, North and South Vietnam, North and South Korea.

[thechinadesk]

@knightsfly5

"Her family is one of the richest in Taiwan."

We knew that before. Now we know why.

[knightsfly5]

@thechinadesk The identity card is freedom and justice. What China is doin to taiwan is not freedom or Justice. The identity card = Justice and freedom. China points 4000 missiles at Taiwan is that freedom? Btw that biotech is false accusations. Polls show most taiwanese don't buy that shit she used it for scientific studies. Her family is already one of the richest why would she need more?

[knightsfly5]

@thechinadesk if you realised if thats the case she would be in jail now. President Ma is trying to find anything bad about Tsai he can scrap up but currently they got nothing. Online polls also shows the biotech was a scientific research lab not for money making purposes. Her family is one of the richest in Taiwan. Throughout history Kuo ming tang is one of the most corrupt parties btw so don't talk shit about Tsai if you don't know what ur talking about

[thechinadesk]

@stephenpschen

The fact that you made an artificially concocted distinction between "China people" [sic] and "Taiwanese" confirms my entire point.

Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP's first priority is ethnic identity, not freedom and justice.

Also, Tsai Ing-wen, is the one who doesn't "respect Taiwanese." She's the one pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars of their tax money through TaiMed, a biotech company she created for that purpose.

[stephenpschen]

I like this video. China people should respect Taiwanese.