Celebrate A new Taiwan’s “National Day” (慶祝新的台灣國慶日)
By Mark Kao, President of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA)
高龍榮，台灣人公共事務會（FAPA）會長
As a high school student in Taipei I and my classmates were ordered to join Taiwan’s “Double Ten Day” celebration in front of ROC Presidential Palace every year, chanting “Anti-Communism Will Be Won and Construct the Country Will Be Accomplished”. Over the years slogans have changed, today, the slogan has evolved into the un-inspiring “No Unification, No Independence and No Use of Force”. I and many first generation Taiwanese Americans routinely joked about the evolution of the political slogans in Taiwan, but more seriously we are concerned about the future of Taiwan. For some 1G (first generation)Taiwanese Americans, the “Double Ten” day is a painful reminder of an oppressive Chinese regime’s brutal past, because they lived through it. For most, including myself, we refused to celebrate the National Day because it celebrates the day that inspire creation of ROC, not Taiwan. Not only that we felt completely detached from the National Day, “Double Ten” does not make us proud as Taiwanese; as does July 4th to Americans. In fact, the 1G Taiwanese American is proud to be US citizen of Taiwanese decent, but not ROC citizen. The 1G Taiwanese Americans are deeply concerned that continuing celebration of this “Double Ten” National Day would make the international communities believe that Taiwan and China are the same country, and that the aspiration of Taiwanese people to build a new country would be overlooked. We also hope the real change would come after 2016 election. We hope that Taiwanese Constitution will be completely overhauled; a new nation will be born with a new National Day – for that we will be proud to celebrate.
作為一個在台北成長的高中生,我和我的同學們每年都奉命參加在中華民國總統府前的“雙十節”慶祝活動，高呼“反共必勝,建國必成”。這些年來那些政治口號已經變了，今天這個口號已經演變成平庸的“不統，不獨，不武”。我身為第一代台美人儘管笑談台灣政治口號的變化，但更關心的是台灣的前途。對於某些第一代台美人，“雙十節”讓他們回想中華民國是一個壓迫的政權的殘酷往事。然而我和大多數第一代台美人拒絕慶祝“雙十節”是因為10月10日激發了中華民國的創建，但不是台灣國的建立。不僅如此，我們從未覺得與“雙十節”沾邊，“雙十節”並沒有讓我們台灣人感到驕傲;類似美國人對7月4日所感到的驕傲。事實上，第一代台美人很自豪能夠成為美國公民,但不情愿作為中華民國國民。第一代台美人擔心繼續慶祝雙十節會讓人不了解台灣和中國是不同的國家，也讓台灣人民獨立建國的願望被國際社會忽視。我們也希望2016年的選舉會在台灣產生真正的改變,全面改寫台灣的憲法,建立一個新的國家,設立一個新的國慶日 – 讓我們可以引以為傲來慶祝新的台灣國慶日。
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By Gabby Juan, Teacher’s College at Columbia University
In my opinion, 10/10 really is the Independence Day for Republic of China. It was established before the commanders of ROC even set foot on Taiwan. Thus as a Taiwanese, I personally do not believe in, nor do I celebrate the ‘Independence Day on October 10th’. And I hope one day Taiwan can establish one of its own instead.
OFTaiwan 