Correspondents' Correspondence
BERGER, MICHAEL
Correspondents'Correpondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. The Pig and the Dog Taipei--like the mainland, the tight...
...This gap between mainlanders and Taiwanese is omnipresent...
...So they practice the art of the possible...
...The regime is very worried right now," says a source close to the Kuomintang (KMT) government of 83-year-old Chiang Kai-shek...
...An otherwise complete encyclopedia will be missing the entry for Communist China...
...There's a 24-hour surveillance team on him, every day...
...Trying to stave off what many see as the inevitable, Taipei newspapers have been directing their strongest remarks toward Japan, currently in the midst of a national debate over its China policy...
...Getting out, however, is extremely difficult...
...These restrictions and harassments are directed largely against the intellectuals...
...The long years of colonial rule under the "dog" (Japan) ended in 1945, but by 1949 the "pig" (KMT) had come from the mainland, and most think it's a tossup as to who was better (or worse...
...The compulsory courses in Mandarin Chinese imposed by the KMT have not changed the fact that outside the cities, native Taiwanese still speak local dialects or--when with older people--Japanese if they wish to be understood.--Michael Berger...
...The editorials pound away at a single theme--that further contact with the mainland will open Japan to "Communist subversion...
...Across the street, in a black car, sat three men...
...Most of them are antitotalitarian--meaning not only anti-Communist but to some extent anti- KMT," explained a young local professor...
...While throughout Asia newspapers are warning of a reemerging Japanese militarism, the Taiwan press is suggesting that Japan be more militant toward outside "threats...
...Moreover, no matter how hard a boy may try, without a mainland background he is ticketed for subservient positions...
...Passports are virtually unobtainable, and young men, even the rich ones, cannot leave before serving two years in the military...
...Defeat Mao Tse-tung and Communism...
...Their memories are not all bad ones...
...As children, Taiwanese wear khaki uniforms with high-peaked, military-style caps, and are encouraged to join the Boy Scouts...
...Correspondents'Correpondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS...
...This, however, is a mainland expatriate attitude, not the feeling of most Taiwanese...
...The natives' sentiment is summed up in the saying, "The dog goes and the pig comes...
...Those Japanese who seek closer ties with the Communist Chinese," intoned the China Post, "are either fools or traitors...
...Here scouting is paramilitary, with training and physical conditioning...
...The KMT stance has its amusing facets, too...
...They say Japanese rule was harsh, but fair...
...Opposition politicians and intellectuals are under control, or--in the case of the Taiwan independence movement--underground...
...The famous "pirate book shops," where cheap copies of almost anything in print can be purchased, do have an ideological drawback...
...They secretly believe that Peking will have enough votes by 1972 to enter the UN and kick Taiwan out...
...Either that, or they get out...
...One night, I was driven past the home of a well-known opposition politician...
...They are displayed on the large red gates that line the broad boulevards of this capital city, along with more practical exhortations: "Be thrifty...
...This somewhat romanticized view, which is also heard from Japanese who lived here, is nurtured by KMT repression...
...Yet on Taiwan they can at least have some sort of private life, which they feel would be impossible under a Communist regime...
...The Pig and the Dog Taipei--like the mainland, the tight little island of Taiwan is filled with slogans: "Congratulations on the 60th Anniversary of the Chinese Republic...
...some even join the KMT to work from within...
...Yet the calm resolve reflected in these slogans masks a deep concern about the nation's future...
...Many older Taiwanese," says a local journalist, "prefer the Japanese...
...Secret police," said my companion...
...Save money and buy your own home...
Vol. 54 • April 1971 • No. 8
