Cultural Hybridity in Taiwan
Even though I found little joy in most Taiwanese cuisine; including bubble tea and the city’s atmosphere felt dull compared with other places I had visited, its rich culture and history fascinated me so much that I could not resist researching and learning more. Here are my thoughts after taking some time to reflect.
Walking and waiting to cross the roads in 34 degrees Celsius, went through the building's shaded blocks. Ten minutes was the time it took from my stay to one of the most populous commercial areas, Ximending. What struck me the most isn’t how nicely the city was planned. Rather, the resemblance of the place to Japan. Furthermore, as I hopped from restaurant to restaurant, the dishes seemed to blend between Chinese and Japanese, although Taiwan’s identity is more diverse. From my point of view (an outsider ofc), experiencing the blend between cultures is novel to me. It offers us the opportunity to look back and reflect on how a nation is built and how culture is formed through generations.
Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule for fifty years, from 1895. With this length of colonization, Japan transformed Taiwan as if it branched from its ancestral root between Taiwan (R.O.C.) and China when Chiang Kai-shek retreated from the mainland to this island four years later. From the bureaucratic system to the city planning that reminds every traveler who has been in Japan of nostalgia. However, Taiwan’s colonization did nudge it toward prosperity (and yes, to serve the Japanese empire); it must also have left the homework to the Taiwanese to tinker with their culture, which plays a significant role in shaping the people and, in turn, shaping the country.
As Chiang Kai-shek attempted to build the nation, he deliberately prohibited Japanese ingredients and cuisine to give rise to Han cuisine, which came with his 1.2 million followers. He even renamed the roads and cities in Taiwan after the mainland provinces. I interpret these efforts as attempts to remove the Japanese influence, while reinforcing their Chinese culture. Even in these efforts, you can find Japanese miso soup everywhere, or even the Wasabi that is often eaten with Sashimi, or Takoyaki in every night market. Remarkably, Taiwanese in later generations also prove otherwise; when Japan was hit by an Earthquake in 2011, Taiwanese privately donated, accounting for over 90% of the overall country donation despite its historic roots. This favor, in turn, saved Taiwan’s agricultural industry during the dispute with mainland China later. While these international relations keep improving, so is the national identity.
Taiwanese culture is evidence that in order to build the nation, you don’t need to lead with singularity, treating every aspect of citizens as one by implicitly and explicitly forcing conformity. I believe that one possible path is to engage citizens to be part of the whole, so that not only will everyone feel they belong to this nation, but they are the ones who drive the nation.