“Taiwan” is my country, not “Chinese Taipei”!

Chinese Taipei is a term used by kowtowing organizations and the surrendering KMT government to describe Taiwan when facing pressures from the Chinese authorities.

From inter-governmental organizations to apolitical cultural events (see Note 1 below), the PRC officials are gradually forcing organizers of events to submit to their demand on changing Taiwan’s membership name into one that is不三不四 (or dubious)!

It does not matter if Taiwan’s membership is called “Chinese Taipei”, or “Taiwan, Chinese Taipei”, or “Taiwan, China”, or “Taiwan (a province of China)”, it does not change the fact that the People’s Republic of China has never governed Taiwan for a single day.

Which organizer of an event will be the first one to stand-up to its principle of equality among all participating members, and start to command the course of the event instead of taking command from the PRC officials is a phenomenon waiting to be seen.       

The INTEL SCIENCE FAIR 2009 (concluded), and 2010 (coming), plus a science poem from me.

Taiwanese student wins top US microbiology prize as reported on May 18, 2009 Taipeitimes.

“A Taiwanese high school student won a major prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the US on Friday for her discovery of a bacteria that breaks down Styrofoam.”

“On the eve of the conclusion of the fair in Reno, Nevada, Tseng Yi-ching (曾依晴), a student at National Taichung Girl’s Senior High School in Taichung City, was awarded the top prize in microbiology, a press release issued by the National Taiwan Science Education Center said.”

Yes, Tseng Yi-ching’s (曾依晴) name was found here (on page 22), and I also saw other winners from Taiwan (click to see 1 image) in other categories in the list.

But, they had our country written as “Taiwan, Chinese Taipei” as if people in the world don’t know where Taiwan is, and it must be explained further by the additional entry of the “Chinese Taipei”.

I was quite disappointed to see that in almost every event or conference, more and more organizers started using the terminology of the IOC’s invention (with the KMT regime’s consent in 1979) of CHINESE TAIPEI to name our country Taiwan.

Chinese Taipei (click to see our message to the world) is offensive to the people of Taiwan (click to see another) who aren’t Chinese and aren’t from Taipei.

We never call the American, the Canadian, and the Australian people “British”, even though their ancestry may have come from the United Kingdom many generations ago.  Not to mention that the Taiwanese people’s ancestries are quite complex with the indigenous, the Han, and the European factors.

How many Americans would like to have their nation’s name be called “British Washington DC”? or how many Greeks would like to have their country called “Ottoman Athens” instead of Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία)?

If China could claim Taiwan as an inseparable part of its motherland, so could today’s Mongolia claim any part of the historical Mongol Empire, including some countries in Europe; and so could Turkey on what used to be the Ottoman Empire, including some countries in south eastern Europe (Greece for example) and north eastern Africa etc.

So, I hope from now on the organizers of events will be more sensitive to the feelings of the people in Taiwan.

Next year, I hope the Taiwanese students will combine their science talent with properly trained English (technical paper) writing skills to get ready for the 2010’s competition from now on.

I have a science poem to share with my readers.  It was an assignment given to my daughter’s class by her science teacher for motivating science learning.  I helped her a bit on composing the poem at the beginning, but letting herself finalize her work.  This is my attempt, for fun and for encouragement to my daughter who is not so fond of science.

A Science Poem

The time for the science lab is lots of fun,

cause

sleepy faces and lazy hands are gone.

Mixing chemicals are so much fun,

but

don’t do it before instructions are done.

When chemical reactions have begun,

some new substances will be found,

and

the reverse reactions can’t be done.

Hooray!  Hooray!

Learning science is so much fun!

Note 1:

In November 1979, the International Olympic Committee, and later all other international sports federations, adopted a resolution under which the National Olympic Committee of the ROC would be recognized as the National Olympic Committee of Chinese Taipei, and its athletes would compete under the name Chinese Taipei^[1] and a flag bearing the emblem of its Olympic Committee against a white background as The name "Chinese Taipei" has spilled into apolitical arenas. The PRC has successfully pressured some religious organizations and civic organizations to refer to the ROC as "Chinese Taipei".

In 1998, the government of the People's Republic of China pressured the Miss World Organization to rename Miss Republic of China 1998 to "Miss Chinese Taipei", it has been competing ever since under that designation^[11]. The same happened in 2000, but with the Miss Universe Organization. Three years later at the Miss Universe pageant in Panama, the first official Miss China and Miss Taiwan competed alongside each other for the first time in history, prompting the Chinese government to again demand that Miss Taiwan assume the title "Miss Chinese Taipei". The contestant in question, Chen Szu-yu, was famously photographed tearfully holding her two sashes^{[citation needed]}. Today, neither Miss Universe nor Miss World, the two largest pageant systems in the world, allow Taiwan's entrants to compete under the Taiwan label.

In 2005, the third largest pageant system, Miss Earth, initially allowed beauty contestant Li Fan Lin to compete as "Miss Taiwan"; after a week into the pageant, however, her sash was updated to "Taiwan ROC". However, as of 2008, the official name for the ROC in this contest is, again "Chinese Taipei"^[12].

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Taipei

Related news:

An example of unexpected encounters by the PRC officials facing Taiwanese school children in international cultural or educational events.

中國打壓 連學童都不放過 (highly recommended link if you read Chinese) http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/nov/21/today-fo1.htm

中國的打壓甚至連台灣學童都不放過！七月初，台北市永樂國小歌仔戲團應「捷克民俗協會」之邀至捷克參加藝術節演出，中國駐捷克大使館干預，永樂國小無法懸掛中華民國國旗，舞台上展示中國五星旗，案經永樂國小向該協會抗議，表示如不取下中國國旗，該校歌仔戲團將拒絕演出，後經協商改以永樂國小校旗取代。

I will translate the above news into Chinese:

Even Taiwanese children are not excluded from China’s bulling!  In July of 2008, Taipei Yong-Ler Elementary School’s TAIWAN OPERA group was invited to perform in Prague by the cultural heritage organization of the Czech Republic.  The Chinese embassy had interfered the event as shortly before the performance, the stage was found to display the flag of the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan’s official flag was not allowed.

The group refused to perform if the PRC’s flag was not taken down, upon negotiation, the group was only allowed to perform with the display of their school flag instead of the country’s flag.