Overseas Taiwanese are Tai-chiao not Hua-chiao

Under the terminology of the English Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Chinese

The Chinese language has various terms equivalent to the English "Overseas Chinese".Huáqiáo or Hua-chiao (simplified Chinese: 华侨; traditional Chinese: 華僑) refers to Chinese citizens residing in countries other than China. Huáyì (simplified Chinese: 华裔; traditional Chinese: 華裔) refers to ethnic Chinese residing outside of China. [37] Another often-used term is 海外华人 (hǎiwài huárén), a more literal translation of Overseas Chinese; it is often used by the PRC government to refer to people of Chinese ethnicities who live outside the PRC, regardless of citizenship.

But let’s look at my comment and the response from the blog owner of this post, and her confirmation that she is indeed a Taiwan-born America-raised Taiwanese American.

Apparently, we had different opinions on how to define the word, 華僑hua-chiao. I thought the word 僑(chiao) refer to a person living outside of his or her country whereas the young lady thought it refer to a person living in a country with different customs and traditions from her traditional heritage and ethnicity. So the different understanding between us had triggered my continuous research and discussions with my blogger friends in Taiwan.

I have searched a bit more on the meaning of this Chinese word僑chiao, and have concluded that not only the Wikipedia’s definition above gives ample support to my assumption that the word 僑chiao has to do with the country where you left behind and has no connotation to ethnicity. Therefore, a Taiwanese living in the US is a 在美台僑 (Tai-chiao in the States), and a Taiwanese living in Japan is a在日台僑 (Tai-chiao in Japan). The word 在 (in) can be substituted by the word 居(live).

I say to people that I am a 台僑Tai-chiao because the word 僑chiao refers to the status of being an expatriate of a country, not of an ethnic group. 華僑Hua-chiao means being an expatriate living away from China whereas 台僑Tai-chiao means being an expatriate living away from Taiwan. Overseas Taiwanese with no indigenous background can be 華裔Huáyì but cannot be called a 華僑Hua-chiao.

Other usage of the word 僑 chiao are, for example, the word僑胞chiao-bao refers to overseas compatriots living away from their original country of residence, and the word 僑居地chiao-ju-di refers to an overseas place where the expatriates now reside.

Because the word 僑is a Chinese word, so we seldom hear people in Taiwan calling an American in Taiwan 美僑, they simply call an American living in Taiwan a 美國人mei-kuo-ren in Mandarin or a bi-ko-lang in Taiwanese, but technically speaking an American living in Taiwan is a 在台美僑 (or居台美僑), an American living in Japan is a在日美僑, and an American living in Europe is a 在歐美僑 regardless of his descent. So, my American friend in Taiwan concluded that if he was, say, an American with Italian descent, he would not identify himself as a 在台意僑 (an Italian expatriate in Taiwan), but would identify himself as a在台美僑 (an American expatriate in Taiwan).

But the Chinese Wikipedia has strong influence from the ROC ’s version of Han-Chinese supremacy in its content, and defined the word 華僑Hua-chiao differently from the English Wikipedia, as per http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=海外華人&variant=zh-tw:

根據通行的定義原則，出於某種目的、需要、動機跨出國境，在國外長期居住的華人移民稱之為海外華人。海外移民由於受到居住國國籍法的限制，稱呼有所不同：

§ 華僑，未加入外籍的移民，包括拿到居住國永久居民身份的人，稱之為「華僑」，仍保留本國公民身份，仍然受到本國法律及領事管轄和保護；

§ 華人，加入外國國籍的移民被稱之為「華人」，法律身份已變為外國人，受居住國法律和政府的管轄。

兩者在法律上有著嚴格的界限和區分。華人或者華僑的後代被稱之為「華裔」。^[6]

在臺灣，所有居住在海外的華人都被稱作華僑。^[7]

However, per the end of this link http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=中華民族&variant=zh-tw, the Wikipedia editorial has this paragraph at the very bottom of the link:

近代國家是把國家與民族分的很清楚的。例如美國人的認同是國家認同、而非民族、文化認同。

不少中國人認為，使用「中華民族」這個詞有許多不妥之處。中華民族是中國所有民族的統稱。但在國外，沒有「美利堅民族」（包括白人，黑人，黃種人等）、沒有大不列顛民族、沒有「法蘭西民族」（包括高盧人、羅馬人、日耳曼人等）、也沒有「西班牙民族」（包括卡斯蒂利亞人、加泰羅尼亞人、加利西亞人、巴斯克人）這種說法。

有人對中華民族這個概念的合理性提出異議。他們認為，由於中華民族這樣的概念是由人口占絕對優勢漢族設計出來，用以合理化統治較少數、較邊緣的弱小民族，防止該民族建立民族國家的一種政治籠絡手段。無論是否在中國統治之下，一些民族或地區的獨立運動，就是反對將該民族或地區視為中華民族、甚至構成中華文化圈的一部分。

Interesting reading on the side:

A side discovery about Ma’s fear of facing tough questions by foreign Taiwan experts during the presidential campaign.