{"id":3024,"date":"2019-04-21T21:36:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T05:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/?p=3024"},"modified":"2020-10-26T08:15:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T16:15:40","slug":"research-on-taiwan-merits-local-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/?p=3024","title":{"rendered":"Research on Taiwan merits local recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Research on Taiwan merits local recognition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Tiunn Hok Chu \u5f35\u5fa9\u805a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Taiwanese are an outstanding\npeople, they just do not know it. Centuries of colonial education have kept\nTaiwanese from forming and recognizing their own identity and establishing a\nTaiwanese subjectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not until 1997 that the\nclass \u201cUnderstanding Taiwan\u201d (\u8a8d\u8b58\u81fa\u7063) was added to the junior high school curriculum,\nintroducing students to the study of Taiwanese society, history and geography.\nPreviously, most Taiwanese had very limited knowledge about Taiwan\u2019s history, culture and core\nvalues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cairo Declaration \u2014 an\nunsigned press communique expressing the intent of the US, the UK and China\nthat has falsely been regarded as legally binding \u2014 has been consistently\ntaught in school. By contrast, the Treaty of Peace with Japan was never\nmentioned in textbooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we strove for the establishment\nof Taiwanese literature departments in universities, we were often mocked by\npeople saying that while there might be a few Taiwanese works, the quality was\ninsufficient to justify a proper university department. Today, departments and\ngraduate institutes of Taiwanese literature are highly renowned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiwanese language, culture and\narts also enjoy world renown. Tungfangpai\u2019s (\u6771\u65b9\u767d) epic novel A Cinematic Journey (\u6d6a\u6dd8\u6c99) is comparable to Margaret Mitchell\u2019s Gone With the Wind;\nHsiao Tyzen\u2019s (\u856d\u6cf0\u7136) works are no less romantically captivating than Sergei\nRachmaninoff\u2019s; Then Yi-hien (\u9127\u96e8\u8ce2) is a composer of classical nationalism just like Pyotr\nIlich Tchaikovsky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiwanese Nobel laureate in\nchemistry Lee Yuan-tseh (\u674e\u9060\u54f2) stands on an equal footing with Chinese Nobel laureate in\nphysics Yang Chen-Ning (\u694a\u632f\u5be7); Tan Ting-pho\u2019s (\u9673\u6f84\u6ce2) paintings shine along with Huang Tu-shui\u2019s (\u9ec3\u571f\u6c34) down-to-earth sculptures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March last year,\nTaiwanese-American professor of surgery W.P. Andrew Lee (\u674e\u70ba\u5e73) led the world\u2019s first total penis\nand scrotum transplant on a US veteran wounded in Afghanistan. The operation\nwas so successful that the veteran is expected to regain \u201cnear-normal urinary and sexual functions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiwanese technological talent is\nequally amazing: As many as one-quarter of top-class luxury sports cars, like\nLamborghinis and Ferraris, use air suspension systems made by Changhua\nCounty-based AirREX Global. An award for the world\u2019s best single malt whiskey\nin 2015 went to Yilan-based Kavalan Distillery\u2019s Solist Vinho Barrique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a decade ago, Chen\nRui-wen (\u9673\u745e\u6587),\nwho holds only a junior-high school diploma, invented a technology that helps\nroads breathe and obtained patents in more than 30 countries. Many countries are eager to\nacquire the product; the invention is not widely known in Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inventor Huang Chien-chung (\u9ec3\u5343\u9418) and his team last year won praise\nfor a technology to produce biodegradable straws using sugarcane fiber. It drew\nattention from\nalmost 20 Chinese firms offering high prices for exclusive patent rights, but\nHuang turned them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Taiwan lacks petroleum\nand other natural resources, its great biodiversity can be used to develop\nbiotechnology, including cosmetics, medicine \u2014 cancer-fighting drugs in\nparticular \u2014 and health foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formosa lambsquarters and\nAntrodia cinnamomea, better known locally as \u201cbovine tree fungus\u201d (\u725b\u6a1f\u829d), have been largely neglected, but\nthey are yielding brilliant research results. Uses for many other unknown species are awaiting\ndiscovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nother topics deserve closer study, such as local politics, culture, religion,\nfolk tradition, economy, military and even the climate, geology, philosophy and\nlife-and-death studies. Together, these subjects make up Taiwan Studies. It is\ntime to more firmly establish Taiwanology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiunn\nHok Chu is a former president of the Southern Taiwan Society.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated\nby Chang Ho-ming<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\narticle was published on the editorials of \u300eTaipei Times\u300f,\u300aEditorials\u300bon Feb 12, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research on Taiwan merits local recognition By Tiunn Hok Chu \u5f35\u5fa9\u805a The Taiwanese are an outstanding people, they just do not know it. Centuries of colonial education have kept Taiwanese from forming and recognizing their own identity and establishing a Taiwanese subjectivity. It was not until 1997 that the class \u201cUnderstanding Taiwan\u201d (\u8a8d\u8b58\u81fa\u7063) was added to the junior high school curriculum, introducing students to the study of Taiwanese society, history and geography. Previously, most Taiwanese had very limited knowledge about Taiwan\u2019s history, culture and core values. The Cairo Declaration \u2014 an unsigned press communique expressing the intent of the US, the UK and China that has falsely been regarded as legally binding \u2014 has been consistently taught in school. By contrast, the Treaty of Peace with Japan was never mentioned in textbooks. When we strove for the establishment of Taiwanese literature departments in universities, we were often mocked by people saying that while there might be a few Taiwanese works, the quality was insufficient to justify a proper university department. Today, departments and graduate institutes of Taiwanese literature are highly renowned. Taiwanese language, culture and arts also enjoy world renown. Tungfangpai\u2019s (\u6771\u65b9\u767d) epic novel A Cinematic Journey (\u6d6a\u6dd8\u6c99) is comparable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-3024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-39","tag-14"],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"No"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3025,"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions\/3025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tbc.chhongbi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}