Missing the Point Taiwan Style
Two separate reports in the Taipei Times illustrate how Taiwan, like many other nations including my own, continues the practice the fine art of avoiding discussion of the elephant in the room, even when it is crushing them underfoot.
In the first example, graduates at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School complained to the media after they were asked to remove decorations from a statue of dictator Chiang-Kai-shek on their campus. Apparently the 'tradition' of decorating the statue goes back a little while, as do alleged public complaints against the practice:
... seniors had decorated the statue for the June 6 commencement ceremony, the former students said in a letter to the Central News Agency, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) and other media outlets.
The graduating seniors were told to take down the decorations as soon as the ceremony was over because the school did not want to receive a flood of complaints from the public, the letter said.
The students were told the school “had been overwhelmed by demands” from the public and alumni to restore the statue to its original state, the letter said.
The new graduates reluctantly followed orders and removed the decorations on June 13, but said that the school’s decision was “autocratic,” the letter said.
“The faculty should allow students the freedom of creativity and expression. It is as though we have returned to the Martial Law era,” they said.
Academic affairs director Tsai Che-ming (蔡哲銘) said the school has long defended criticism about students’ decorating the statue by explaining that it is part of the school’s decorations for the commencement ceremony.
The high school receives complaints every year about Chiang’s statue being decorated and this year was no different, Tsai said.
Now it might be true that with the school being situated in Taipei's Zhongzheng District, named after Chiang Kai-shek, a couple of blocks away from the Chiang-Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and right in the heart of the administrative center of the ROC on Taiwan, the schools' claim of a large number of public complaints is valid.
Jiangguo is also Taiwan's oldest and allegedly most prestigious public senior high school (for boys) featuring alumni such as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), New Taipei City May Eric Chu (朱立倫), and the late finance tycoon Jeffrey Koo Sr. (辜濂淞). Built by the Japanese 1898, it was
... renamed in 1946 (along with Taipei Second Boys School) so that the two names would spell out the phrase "successfully establish a country" (建國成功), thus naming them Jianguo High School and Chenggong High School (成功中學)
The school then is an important site of KMT nation-building and identity on Taiwan.
It is then somewhat of a contradiction when the students slam their school for being autocratic and giving the impression of a return to the days of Martial Law but their complaint is focused on being forced to remove decorations on a principle of freedom of speech and not on the logic or taste of having a statue of Chiang on their campus in the first place. The students are clearly aware of the history of Chiang's instituted Martial Law, which they appear to regard in the negative, but are at the same time obviously not upset with the presence of the statue. Could it be that the students don't directly associate Martial Law with Chiang Kai-shek or the KMT and if so what does that say about the quality of education at Jiangguo? I wonder if they understand why so many statues of Chiang were removed from public spaces under the former DPP Government and relocated to Daxi as part of a process of transitional justice, a move at the time which elicited massive public protest, nationwide conflict, and internecine strife bordering on civil war. Oh wait, none of that happened and most people either didn't care or were glad not to have reminders of KMT dictatorship in their faces in almost every public space.
In our second example, apparently some perverts and misogynists have been taking see-through pictures of women wearing swimsuits at the beach ...
a recent media report warned women to be alert to photographers using new camera equipment that can see through a swimsuit’s fabric.
According to a report in the Chinese-language Next Magazine, a group of photographers allegedly plans to strike at next month’s Gongliao Ocean Music Festival, as well as at Kenting (墾丁), Fulong (福隆), Wushi Harbor (烏石港) and other beaches around the nation.
The magazine reported that pictures of victims who did not know they were being photographed began to circulate about seven years ago, when cameras or handheld video cameras were outfitted with night vision filter or infrared lenses.
The infrared and filter can penetrate thin bikini garments and reveal covered-up body parts, the report said.
With new video technology and more sophisticated camera features, the latest photograph equipment can render most bikinis nearly transparent, according to Next Magazine.
Some women have expressed concern about the equipment, given that in the past, photographers had sold such pictures to pornography Web sites, it said.
The report alleged that the unscrupulous group of photographers include both men and women.
Aside from the salacious and disturbing nature of the story highlighting a deeply embedded culture of sexual objectification of women in Taiwan, reading on through the article we get calls for the Government to clamp down on these perverts and for better education to teach both men and women to respect other people as humans and not as exploitable sexual objects. Ah wait, again I'm wrong. No, it seems the responsibility for not being harassed and exploited apparently lies with the victim ...
It quoted experts as advising women to avoid wearing bikinis made of nylon and other synthetic fabrics, or add breast padding to the bikini top.
Experts were also quoted as advising female beachgoers to wear an extra layer of underwear to cover up.
Yep, the 'experts' didn't call for harsh measures against abusers, profiteers, and distributors, but for women to take measures to protect themselves. No doubt some fabric businessman is right now designing a line of "'x-ray proof' beach wear for the modest woman!" products to cash in on this form of sexual abuse and climate of fear and slut shaming.
Imagine what the Government could achieve if it put half as much effort into providing a safe and respectful environment for women as it does in deliberately creating irritants in the relationship with Japan.
