Excess of tourists!
I felt like a tourist in my own birthing country. Apart from the familiarity of relatives, Grandparents, and their house that I grew up in, most of everything else has changed. Going to shops and restaurants, people could tell that I am a 'foreigner'. I've never felt more like a Banana (perhaps I am more of one than I realised). The most striking observation while frolicking around tourist attractions was the prolific numbers of Chinese tourists. They came in busloads and busloads, traveled in groups, led by guides who would hold up their little flags high to direct the swarms of obnoxiously loud, camera donning (most complete with tripods) tourists. Like a plague of locusts: upon emerging from the buses, they would sweep hurriedly through the place (even in the museums or exhibitions), into the souvenir shops on the way out, devour the shelves clean of anything expensive (they are unimaginably loaded with cash), and back on the bus to the next stop. They stood out with their accent, their fashion, and behaviour; you can pick one straight away. On the other hand, the financial stimuli has allowed many of the tourist attractions to update and upgrade their hardware. I was much impressed by the organisation, presentation and even the marketing of these renovated tourist spots.
This is definitely the highlight of the trip. The museum reinstated the significance of Taiwan in the geopolitical importance of the area, but more so the status of Republic of China in the history of Chinese civilisation. When the exodus government retreated, one of the priority was to ship the contents of the Forbidden City to the new capital, so as not to fall into Communist hands. Which is fortunate, because much of this will not have survived the Cultural revolution.
The most impressive artifact to me was an ivory ball of about 15-20cm in diameter, sculpted all from one piece of tusk. The surface of the ball is carved to minute details of dragons playing in the clouds, but when you take a closer look, there's a smaller ball inside, and a smaller layer, and another..., there are 15 layers of balls right down to the core of the tusk, each individually free from one another. It must have taken the sculptor decades to complete.
This tiny little boat (1.6x1.4x3.4cm) is sculpted from one single olive shell. The windows and doors on-board can be opened and closed. There are 8 people on-board, 3 poets and their respective servants, two boat-handlers. There's a little table in the centre showing a small banquet underway, with plates and cups. the bottom of the boat has a poem sculpted on it, all 300+ characters. It's eye-opening.
My visit brought back the heritage that I haven't thought much of for years. I had been an avid reader as a kid, the sense of pride in Chinese civilisation had rooted in me deeply early on. It always appeared to me though that the Old ways (the Confucian ways of Moderation) had died long ago, much like the grieve over the death of Chivalry in the West. However, seeing the history and the culture in its physical form, it's revived the pride and reminded me of the traditions that had evolved from the thousands of years of Chinese civilisation, that I am and always will be a descendant of the Dragon.
---Index---
We don't really consider ourselves 'travelling' unless it's to a destination different from the usual definition of home. That's why many experienced travelers often never visited another city in their own country. Many of the Mainland Chinese went to Taiwan to see the product of divergences: the democracy, the cultural differences, and the places they've heard so much of from the years of propaganda. To gain a travel visa, they are required to deposit $10k Yuan (Chinese Dollar) as security to the government, which is equivalent to over 50% of an average annual wage for an urban Chinese (or two years worth of income for an average rural Chinese wage). However, their itinerary was often filled with horrible 3-star hotels and expensive crappy food. Many resented with the saying: Never seeing Taiwan is a regret; but once there, you regret ever making the trip. If Taiwan is just another province, would they have gone through the same trouble?
The issue of Taiwanese sovereignty stems from the composition of its population, and the history of its inhabitants. I feel that a short breakdown of this confusing history is necessary, and according to my understanding this is how it goes. The first record of Taiwan in Chinese history dates around 800AD during the Three Kingdom Period. It was a hotbed for pirates and rebels, and throughout Chinese history there were mentions of military actions to suppress the piracy in each dynasty (funny I have always hated growing up among the descendants of criminals and pirates, now I'm living among them again (...I jest...)). Even with several attempts of rebellion in Ming and Qing Dynasty, Taiwan was so far away from the power central of Imperial China that its geopolitical importance only became a reality in the recent centuries. The indigenous population arrived in Taiwan thousands of years before the first Han Chinese arrived and the Hans were mostly migrated from South Eastern Chinese coastal provinces. These people would go on to identify themselves as the first settlers of the island, and regarded the later-comers as foreigners.
The Republic of China was founded a democracy on the grave of Imperialistic China in 1911, while still a fledgling, it was thrown into the fires of war with Japanese invasion (Second Sino-Japanese War from 1936-45). In the midst the war, the communist party ambushed the young democracy and started a civil war which would end with the Nationalist government retreating to Taiwan. The exile left the Mainland for the Communist party to consolidate its powers, who eventually established the Chinese Government today; whilst the Nationalist government regrouped in Taiwan, it would never regain control over the Mainland again, resulting in the stand-off today. These exodus of ex-military and government officials stayed and settled, but would be regarded as foreigners. Due to elections in recent years, politicians inflammed the division between the two groups, fueling the country into renewed heights of disgust towards each other, all for political gains. Much like the Bush administration dividing US into the Blue and Red states in his second election. I am a descendant of the exodus, born to the land and never felt like a foreigner, until recently that is.
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