Comments on: Taiwan, the Island Beauty http://www.chinaguide2008.com/03/taiwan-the-island-beauty/ Travel Info for China 2008 Olympics Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:42:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 by: Michael Turton http://www.chinaguide2008.com/03/taiwan-the-island-beauty/#comment-170 Fri, 09 Mar 2007 23:18:37 +0000 http://www.chinaguide2008.com/03/taiwan-the-island-beauty/#comment-170 Taiwan isn't part of China. What is it doing here in this collection? Taipei is not "rooted in Chinese culture" -- it is a modern city in a large industrial state, just like most modern Asian cities, and is slightly over a century old. It grew out of three different colonialisms, Qing, Japanese, and Chinese after 1945, and its administration depends more on Japanese and western models than Chinese. Its layout is really a consequence of Japanese and postwar development. Taiwan is a crossroads for many different cultures, and expresses part of each of them. Guanghua computer market is a good example. It used have a nice traditional feel to it, but then the KMT mayor, Ma Ying-jeou, who had a fixed habit of destroying old Taiwanese stuff, had it knocked down. Now it is nothing but sterile "temporary" huts. There's no reason to go to Guanghua at all. Similarly, Chishan is not a "genuine Song garden" but a postwar fantasy interpretation of Song architecture. Most of the "Chinese" architecture in Taiwan reflects the postwar KMT-led cultural imperialism, and is no more realistic than the city of Oz. I think it is detestable the way Chinese go about attempting to annex Taiwan to China like this. Please take this entry down. Michael Taiwan isn’t part of China. What is it doing here in this collection? Taipei is not “rooted in Chinese culture” — it is a modern city in a large industrial state, just like most modern Asian cities, and is slightly over a century old. It grew out of three different colonialisms, Qing, Japanese, and Chinese after 1945, and its administration depends more on Japanese and western models than Chinese. Its layout is really a consequence of Japanese and postwar development. Taiwan is a crossroads for many different cultures, and expresses part of each of them.

Guanghua computer market is a good example. It used have a nice traditional feel to it, but then the KMT mayor, Ma Ying-jeou, who had a fixed habit of destroying old Taiwanese stuff, had it knocked down. Now it is nothing but sterile “temporary” huts. There’s no reason to go to Guanghua at all. Similarly, Chishan is not a “genuine Song garden” but a postwar fantasy interpretation of Song architecture. Most of the “Chinese” architecture in Taiwan reflects the postwar KMT-led cultural imperialism, and is no more realistic than the city of Oz.

I think it is detestable the way Chinese go about attempting to annex Taiwan to China like this. Please take this entry down.

Michael

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