Taiwan singer's flag display sparks row

[Ray]

Taiwan singer's flag display sparks row

Taiwanese singer Deserts Chang could never have imagined that her small concert in Manchester last week would trigger a massive row on Chinese social media over cross-strait relations.

At the concert held on Saturday at the University of Manchester, attended mainly by students from Taiwan and mainland China, Chang took a Taiwanese flag from a group of fans in the front row and unfurled it on stage.

"I see there are also people who bring a national flag to the concert," the 32-year-old singer-songwriter said, adding "I have not felt so patriotic for a while... and I am from Taiwan."

Chang was soon interrupted by a female Chinese student, who shouted in English: "There are students from mainland here. No politics today!"

To which Chang replied, "It's not politics, it is just a flag that represents where I am from."

It was a minor argument involving two people, and other Chinese students at the concert did not get involved.

But when the incident was disclosed on the internet, it attracted massive interest and on Tuesday became one of the top trending topics on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.

Online spat
Many online commentators accused Chang of openly declaring Taiwan's independence and being arrogant towards Chinese students in the audience.

Some even told the singer to stay away from mainland China and leave the entertainment industry.

"Please never come to the mainland and never release albums here," wrote Weibo user "Shen Xiaotang".

China and Taiwan split in 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party overthrew the Republic of China (ROC) and founded the People's Republic on the mainland, forcing the ROC government to retreat to Taiwan.

Many mainland Chinese support Beijing's claim that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and therefore find Chang's display of the Taiwanese flag unacceptable.

But not all Chinese netizens share this sentiment. In fact, many have come to Chang's defence and have criticised her critics for over-reacting.

"Some people have over-reacted again. Their sensitive nerves can only expose their fragility and sense of inferiority," said "April Zi".

To some netizens, it is absurd to accuse Chang of being a separatist due to this incident, because the flag she showed at the concert used to be the national flag of China before 1949 and is not a symbol of Taiwan's pro-independence forces.

Weibo user "Old Q" said: "Those who accuse Chang of supporting Taiwan independence have been brainwashed. You can afford to be ignorant, but you cannot afford to lack such basic common sense."

Gig cancelled?
As the online debate raged on, rumours began to circulate that Chang's career in China was in danger.

According to major Chinese and Hong Kong entertainment media outlets, which have given extensive coverage to the incident, Chang's 30 December Beijing concert could be cancelled by the Chinese authorities.

The Taiwanese government weighed in on Wednesday to try to minimise the damage to cross-strait relations.

Wang Yu-chi, the head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, said Chang had not done anything wrong and that he would be "pained" if her Beijing concert is cancelled simply because of the flag row.

When asked about her take on the incident, a Chinese spokeswoman on cross-strait relations avoided discussing the possible cancellation of the concert.

Talking to Taiwanese media, Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, simply said that Beijing hopes people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait could "enhance mutual understanding" and "work together for a Chinese renaissance".

BBC News - Taiwan singer's flag display sparks row

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This exchange is most interesting:

Chang took a Taiwanese flag from a group of fans in the front row and unfurled it on stage.

"I see there are also people who bring a national flag to the concert," the 32-year-old singer-songwriter said, adding "I have not felt so patriotic for a while... and I am from Taiwan."

Chang was soon interrupted by a female Chinese student, who shouted in English: "There are students from mainland here. No politics today!"

To which Chang replied, "It's not politics, it is just a flag that represents where I am from."

This indicates that the Taiwanese do feel that they are different and a separate Nation from the Mainland Chinese, notwithstanding the claims of the Chinese posters here, that money from business exchange is getting Taiwan to become a surrogate of the Peoples Republic and they are only in name a different country.

It is silly of the online commentators to have accused Chang of openly declaring Taiwan's independence and being arrogant towards Chinese students in the audience.

What is there to declare independence about?

Taiwan is independent and of that there is no doubt.

If they were not, then it would be governed by the PRC, which it does not and they will never allow.

What is so arrogant about in stating that Chang is proud to be a Taiwanese.

It is the delusion and arrogance of the Mainland Chinese student to think Taiwan is under the PRC!

This is the weird psychology that governs the Communist - that they are always right and the rest of the world is wrong!

We see that arrogance and delusion displayed here even on this Forum!

 

[W.G.Ewald]

 

[Ray]

I am amazed at the Chinese.

They think that the solar system revolves around them, forget about the world revolving around them!

 

[Ray]

There is no doubt that the Taiwanese do not consider themselves to be a part of China.

As good Chinese, they are not averse to doing business, since the Chinese of all hues love accumulating money and bargains.


There are at least three competing paradigms that identify someone as a Taiwanese person - a nationalist criteria, self-identification (including the concept of "New Taiwanese") criteria, and socio-cultural criteria.

The original Tawianese are Taiwanese aborigine who are ow aout 2% of the population.

Then there was this massive migration composed of the Hokkien people people from southern Fujian of South China who spoke Min Nan. Interestingly, Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Cantonese, or Mandarin.

Southern Min also inclued Teochew which is Shantou dialect that preserves old Chinese archaic pronunciations and vocabulary that have been lost in some of the other modern dialects of Chinese.

Then there are the Hakka people, who have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian. Their dialect is the Hakka of Mei county though have many similarities with the Gan language, which is somewhat intelligible with Mandarin and Wu.

While there are similarities between some areas of China with Taiwan people, they are by and large do not like to be equated with Mainland China as a Nation, since they have built up a separate nationality, though some have Chinese ethnicity.

They also have the distaste for Northern Chinese in a similar fashion as the Southern Chinese have for the Northern folks of China.

 

[Ray]

Another difference is

Mao ZeDong with a ton of highly uneducated, illiterate people carried out the occupation of China.

For this reason, they had to make literacy something attainable by making the actual written language easier to understand. So China simplified Chinese, whereas in Taiwan they kept it traditional.

In China, you can hear an "errrr" more in the end of certain words or sentences. If you hear this, you know they're from the PRC and not Taiwan.

 

[no smoking]

Another difference is

Mao ZeDong with a ton of highly uneducated, illiterate people carried out the occupation of China.

For this reason, they had to make literacy something attainable by making the actual written language easier to understand. So China simplified Chinese, whereas in Taiwan they kept it traditional.

BS! Any gov has the responsibility to increase literacy! Simplifying Chinese is actually make it harder to understand, but lot easier to remember. So, it is the way to save money on education when you have 500milians illerate people waiting in the line.

In China, you can hear an "errrr" more in the end of certain words or sentences. If you hear this, you know they're from the PRC and not Taiwan.

Wrong again, the only people who speak quite a lot of "errrr" is those from Beijing. Yes, I am sure about this because that is where I am from.

 

[Ray]

BS! Any gov has the responsibility to increase literacy! Simplifying Chinese is actually make it harder to understand, but lot easier to remember. So, it is the way to save money on education when you have 500milians illerate people waiting in the line.



Wrong again, the only people who speak quite a lot of "errrr" is those from Beijing. Yes, I am sure about this because that is where I am from.

That is what a Taiwanese wrote!

But as far as the 'errrrr', have you heard a Beijing Taxi driver saying Good Morning?

He says Gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Morrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg

and one is left wondering if one has landed in the zoo to see this cute animal.

I prefer "nǐ hÇŽo" or 你好

Easier on the delicate ears!

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Chang was soon interrupted by a female Chinese student, who shouted in English: "There are students from mainland here. No politics today!"

Young brainwashed communists. Is there anything they don't know?