Taiwan Impressions

Every time someone asks me what my impression of Taiwan is, I find it difficult to explain my understanding to them in a comprehensive manner. No matter how I try to describe it, I feel that I may be mistakenly thought to be biased towards one side. So I simply write an article and write down everything I can think of. If there are any impressions that really have been forgotten or ignored, then let them remain at that time.

January 14, 2024, was the second day of the Taiwan regional presidential election and the day before I left. As usual, I went to the Gratitude Noodle House in the food court to "steal water" and heard the music of "Tomorrow Will Be Better" coming from a street shop. This was the first time I heard this kind of music on the street in Taiwan, and my trip to Taiwan ended just like that. (Figure [1] )

Workers' wages and daily life

The reason why I went to "steal water" was because there was no water dispenser in the dormitory. After I had carried large barrels of mineral water from 711 many times and solved the problem of "what to eat today?" at the Thanksgiving Noodle House many times, I realized that it was cost-effective to come to the noodle house to get water, although I started to get water without shame in the third month of my arrival in Taiwan. If I had stolen from the beginning, I would have saved a lot of money and energy for buying water. There was another thing I learned very late. It was said that the boss lady of the noodle shop was the mother of a certain Taiwanese R-rated actress. Although the boss lady should not be seen at ordinary times, the staff in the store were all foreign workers, and the accent was obviously from the Burmese and Vietnamese regions.

There are many Vietnamese, Yunnan, and Thai restaurants on the streets of Taipei, most of which are run by foreign workers from Myanmar, Vietnam, and Asia. After attending Professor Wang Fan-sen's class at National Chengchi University, I found a Thai restaurant near NTU with my friends on my way back to the city. There were not many people at noon, and the proprietress saw that we spoke with a mainland accent and started chatting with us. When asked about voting, she said that they would definitely vote for the Kuomintang because Ma Ying-jeou solved the household registration issues of a large number of their foreign workers when he was in power. Although the Kuomintang is very bad now, she will still support it. She said that she likes Taiwan very much. On the one hand, the medical conditions are good and the medical insurance is perfect (this is also one of the reasons why she came to Taiwan. She first went to Yunnan for medical treatment, but she said that there is still a difference between it and Taiwan). On the other hand, it is very tolerant and she does not feel like an outsider. The proprietress is very nice. She waived the service charge when paying the bill. When I went there for the second time, she also gave us an extra dish because the dishes were too slow, although she probably didn't recognize me that day.

In terms of eating out, Taipei is actually quite expensive, probably on par with Shanghai. A normal meal of noodles or rice costs about 30 RMB, and coffee is about the same as in areas outside Shanghai (some coffee in Shanghai is very cost-effective). Along with this is the low-cost service industry wages. Taiwan's minimum wage standard is relatively high. The price posted by restaurants such as milk tea shops for temporary workers is around 180 Taiwan dollars (Figure [2] ) , which is equivalent to just over 40 RMB. The lowest standard I remember is 176 (Starbucks pays this). Working eight hours a day, five days a week, it is probably not difficult to make a living. To some extent, perhaps this less stressful life has created the friendliness and relaxation of the Taiwanese people. This is the good impression left by most exchange students and tourists who come to Taiwan. Religious and cultural traditions may also have an impact on this, but I will leave this point aside for now.

Many places in Taiwan are very similar to the county towns in mainland China or the cities of 10 years ago. For example, there are a large number of homeless people living on two blankets by the wall of the train station (Figure [3] ) . A Taiwanese teacher mentioned this difference with the mainland when chatting with us. Although I added that this was partly due to "cleaning up the low-end population", I have to admit that I was a little surprised to see so many homeless people. It just so happened that the gold medal lecturer of homelessness in the United States was very popular some time ago, which made the affinity between Taiwan and the United States even closer.

It is said that this minimum wage standard was proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party. The Democratic Progressive Party seems to have been the first to promote the inclusion of mainland students in the health insurance, but this issue is still under discussion, so we still have to spend a lot of money to go to the hospital for medical treatment and medicine. Fortunately, the school hospital still provides students with cheap services, but unfortunately the school hospital cannot solve all problems. Another controversial issue related to the mainland is the issue of mainland spouses participating in politics. Taiwanese people with mainland nationality can participate in politics from a legal perspective after staying for a certain number of years, but they will still be "discriminated" in the political arena because of their identity. However, I have discussed this topic with the boss and his wife at Xuzhou Noodle Shop (the boss of Xuzhou Noodle Shop is Taiwanese, with a master's degree in law from Wenhua University, and the boss's wife is from Xuzhou and married here. They were all born in the late 1960s. The noodle shop is their second store. The earliest Xuhuai stir-fry restaurant was handed over to their son, but I have never been there because it is too expensive and the business is so popular. Restaurants in Taiwan that serve authentic mainland cuisine are generally more expensive. There was a time when I wanted to eat Hunan cuisine, and I looked everywhere for Hunan restaurants on the map. Many of them were small and inexpensive. When I saw the prices, the chopped pepper fish head cost 900 yuan, so I had to give up). They said that it was actually not bad, and that mainland wives could enjoy all the rights they should enjoy. Indeed, there should be very few mainland wives who want to enter Taiwan's political arena.

Regarding the topic of discrimination, when I was visiting Mou Zongsan’s tomb, a teacher half-jokingly asked me, “How do you feel about coming to Taiwan? Have you been discriminated against?” I immediately thought of some cultural differences that I don’t know whether they should be called discrimination, and I may talk about them later. But I was also quite surprised that she would ask such a question, because I think most people would not have the reason and awareness to ask such a question. She said that during the 2019 Hong Kong Reversion Movement, she attended a meeting in Taiwan (I think it was the Academia Sinica), where a mainland student expressed different views on the incident, and was quickly greeted with boos and abuse from other students. The presiding teacher couldn’t stand it and had to stand up to stop it. This is her explanation of the “discrimination problem” that day. I can also attach some of the “discrimination” situations that my classmates encountered, but they all came from children on the bus. For example, when someone heard their mainland accents or saw them using WeChat, they would deliberately mock and imitate the mainland accents, and even worse, they would ask in surprise: “Are you a Communist? The Communist Party is so scary, don’t arrest me!”

However, the more common discrimination (stereotype) should be in the economic and cultural aspects, not in the political aspects. More than one Taiwanese told me that many people here still think that mainlanders are nouveau riche with no quality. This is probably due to those who came to Taiwan for tourism in the early days after the reform and opening up. But now they have come into contact with mainlanders and have realized the gap between their impressions. To a large extent, the cultivation of civilized and disciplined demeanor in the mainland is indeed a long and arduous journey, and the same is true for cross-strait exchanges.

Political life

No matter from which perspective, "freedom and democracy" is a major feature of Taiwan. But I recently realized that I have always been ambivalent about politics. Although I have witnessed some "famous" political events in the two sides of the Taiwan Strait since I was in college, I have hardly participated in them. The main reason is not that I dare not participate but that I don't want to participate. I can't understand the political frenzy in the square at all. To be more precise, I can't accept collective behavior that lacks prudence, except for music festivals or football, because the latter do not need to be taken seriously.

There was an event in Taipei that combined a music festival with a political rally. It was an art event that took place during the Double Tenth National Day, when the city government was occupied (Figure [4] ) . That night, the city government and other political venues were open to the public, and various art and entertainment activities such as swing dancing, talk shows, and drama were held inside. The activities lasted all night, so at 3 a.m., DJs were playing hits in the nightclub-like city hall, and everyone was dancing in the audience. Turning politics into entertainment and performance is an aspect of non-serious politics, and some friends are quite dissatisfied with this. Political performance is indeed a problem that Taiwan’s so-called democratic politics must face, but this is not the point I want to make.

Politics that is not serious enough is a kind of thinking that is triggered by my political and cultural experience during my stay in Taiwan. My political attitude may still be greatly influenced by Arendt. The separation of philosophy and politics has always been a question I think about. Arendt herself refused to be called a "political philosopher" because she felt that there was no such concept as political philosophy. Politics seems to be serious enough. It even has a strong public power to endorse its seriousness and let those who dare to be "not serious" have a taste of the iron fist. However, the administrative personnel who exercise power are one aspect, and the citizens who provide power are another aspect. The masses being ruled by politics and ideology is a problem that I am worried about. I find that this problem is not uncommon in Taiwan. (Btw Arendt is very popular in Taiwan (Figure [5] ) . Her books can be found in almost all bookstores. The most common one is The Origins of Totalitarianism. This shows what kind of ideological image Arendt exists in Taiwan. Little do people know that Arendt's republican political philosophy is very different from liberal politics. Another book by Arendt that has become more popular is Eichmann in Jerusalem. After the publication of this book, Arendt suffered a lot of fanatical attacks, and the people who launched the attacks were a group of "righteous people." In a fanatical group, calmness and prudence are often impossible to survive. Once you express your opinions in a marginal and straightforward manner, it is equivalent to exposing your soft belly to danger, and the possibility of being hurt is relatively high.)

What kind of politics is not serious enough? On the contrary, it is the kind of politics that does not allow irony. One of the manifestations of my ambivalence towards politics is that I feel that many symbols of power are only necessary to be respected in certain periods, and they are worthless in other periods. Why so serious? Nihilism is hidden in real history. Only those who really take politics seriously will find the childishness of politics, rather than becoming advocates of a certain group or position. So when visiting the campaign rallies of hundreds of thousands of people from various political parties, I couldn't help but ask my companions, why are they so excited? Aren't these three candidates just like that? I still remember a scene where when the People's Party was shouting Wu Xinying on the stage, I said "Shin Kong Daughter", and my companion quickly stopped me in a panic.

In Taiwan, I still like to talk about politics with others, just like in mainland China. Most people think that being able to discuss politics freely is something to be confident and superior. I have heard more than one Taiwanese person tell me that they can criticize their leaders freely.

On the last day, in the taxi to Songshan Airport, the driver also mentioned to us the good thing of freely criticizing politicians. However, the driver obviously hated the corruption of the Green Camp and was also the kind of person who wanted to remove the Democratic Progressive Party. Most of the opponents of the Green Camp have a favorable impression of the mainland. The driver talked about his visit to the mainland more than ten or twenty years ago. At that time, Taiwan's economy was still much better than that of the mainland, but when he saw so many people in tourist attractions and the vast territory of the mainland, he expected that this land must have hope. In my few taxi experiences in Taiwan (because the fare was too expensive), most drivers were very friendly and seemed to be supporters of the Blue Camp; but according to an Uber driver, in fact, taxi drivers are probably more supporters of the Green Camp, but I didn't encounter them in my limited communication, probably because those who really hate mainlanders will not take the initiative to talk to us or express political views. This Uber driver was also very interesting. That night I chatted with my teachers and friends until late, so I went to stay at the Academia Sinica Guesthouse with my friends. The driver heard us talking about the election and asked cautiously, "Are you from the mainland to study this election?" We embarrassedly said that we were not, we were just here to study or travel, but he still asked us cautiously for our predictions and carefully expressed his thoughts. The election results did fit the predictions that night, although I was able to realize the general result after I just came to Taiwan.

The driver to Songshan Airport told us that anti-mainland sentiment is more serious in the south because there are more people from Taiwan, and my classmates agreed. I have never been to Tainan, but I had a good experience in Kaohsiung and Pingtung. It may be because I ate mostly in mainland restaurants and did not meet enough people. However, the service industry practitioners I met in Kenting still did not adjust their words and called the mainland China.

But I did have some unpleasant experiences in Kaohsiung, because there were Taiwanese warships parked on the coast of Kaohsiung for a long time:

I took a photo and sent it to a group of Taiwanese friends with the caption "Today's Spy Photos". That small group often makes fun of politics, and the small group includes more than 4 political positions. Then I received a chat screenshot like this:

I sent them a screenshot of the ship on Google Maps, saying that these were much more valuable than the ones I took, and suggested that they go online more often:

I was surprised that a sarcastic remark and a meaningless photo that was only posted to a private group would be labeled as disrespectful and tried to report me, especially when it came from young Taiwanese (I had just arrived in Taiwan not long ago). I gradually realized that the nation-state (Taiwan independence) narrative carried out by Taiwan was actually very successful. There are really people who take the so-called national symbols of this region seriously, devote their limited lives to the infinite struggle for this political community, and demand its name and dignity. However, as a modern thing, the nation-state needs a lot of things to support its reality. What surprised me was that I didn’t think Taiwan had these things. Whether it was the nation, history and culture, or political, economic and military strength, none of them could support independence. Aren’t the pitiful aborigines the ones who can truly be covered by the so-called national liberation? So when I felt that the ideology of a so-called left-wing bookstore in Taipei was so-called Taiwanese nationalism, I was also quite surprised, not to mention that the lecture I attended in this store that day was about blaming the mainland for the rise in housing prices in Taiwan.

A friend from the Democratic Progressive Party who was related to the above screenshot sent us New Year's greetings, saying that we made him realize that there are also good people in the mainland who cherish us very much. He then added that his (negative) perception of the mainland will not change, as he believes that we exchange students are only a minority, and that China is a country full of vulgar and ignorant people and a bizarre world.

I attended an event organized by a student club at National Chengchi University. The theme was about freedom of speech (Figure [6] ) . I was also surprised. Although the lecture was about freedom of speech, most of the content was anti-freedom of speech in my opinion. The speaker was promoting how to fight an information war with the other side of the strait and how to be vigilant against infiltration from the other side. It was completely a Cold War mentality.

Those who are clearly anti-China and hold a black-and-white Cold War mentality may not be the majority, but they are definitely not rare, and they are keen to promote such views and ask Taiwanese youth to confront the other side in all aspects. What is worrying is that this group may grow in the future. In contrast, I think the middle-aged and elderly in Taiwan are more sober, which is contrary to my experience in the mainland. Among the young people in the mainland, whether they are keen on politics or stay away from politics, there are even people who have been in the most politically colored groups for a long time but are depoliticized. The probability of encountering extremists in reality (not online) is really not that high. To some extent, the characteristics of some middle-aged and elderly people with lower education levels in the mainland are reflected in some young people with higher education levels in Taiwan, which is really confusing.

Kaohsiung is a place I like very much because the south has plenty of sunshine and there are both mountains and sea (Figure [7] ) . The mountains are right by the sea, and there are monkeys on the coastal highway that will snatch food. The warships in Kaohsiung remind me of the military aircraft in Taitung. When I went to Taitung, military aircraft and training planes circled overhead like crazy because there is an air force base in Taitung. I was confused. Wouldn’t the citizens find it noisy? The mountains and sea in Kaohsiung remind me of Green Island near Taitung (Figure [8] ) . It was winter when I went there. It was cloudy and the sea was dry and the rocks were crumbling, which was perfect for detaining political prisoners. Green Island was a famous base for detaining political prisoners during the White Terror (Figure [9] ) . Political prisoners were first detained on the main island of Taiwan, such as Jingmei Prison in Taipei, which has now become a human rights museum. However, due to certain riots and pressure to accommodate prisoners, the prison on Green Island has continued to expand. However, the people in the prison cannot see the outside, but I am afraid that they will be even more desperate when they see the seaside. Interestingly, political prisoners include two types of people: those who support the Communist Party and those who support Taiwan independence (Figure [10] ) . Nowadays, of course, those who support Taiwan independence are no longer imprisoned, but the claim of supporting the Communist Party is still as terrifying as a flood. Regarding Taiwan independence, according to the mainland's standards, almost all people on the island are Taiwan independence supporters, but if the standards are relaxed, it may be more accurate to say that most people just want to maintain the status quo, and do not want to fight for the title of an independent country, nor do they want to unify with the People's Republic of China.

Because my mainland roommate at Wenda University was passionate about the left, I would follow him to watch some of Taiwan’s left-wing activities, even though this was undoubtedly a minority in Taiwan. In terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Taiwan’s left-wing organizations tried to contribute to supporting Gaza, but their power was negligible, and they were even largely opposed. Because most (or even all) of Taiwan’s media propaganda was pro-American and pro-Western, and on the Israeli-Palestinian issue (Taiwan calls it Israel-Palestine), they had a clear position and supported Israel and regarded Hamas as a demon. When this conflict first broke out, there were almost no posters on the poster walls of Taiwan’s university campuses that showed concern for this matter. A month later, I saw a poster in support of Palestine at National Chengchi University. The wording was very neutral and euphemistic, and it only called for the separation of Palestinian civilians from Hamas, but it was also opposed. Opponents believed that the people were “accomplices” (Figure [11] ) . Left-wing organizations will hold some lectures for this purpose. The event I went to with my friends was in an underground livehouse. Someone at the event said that some mainland media’s reports on the Palestinian-Israeli issue were actually quite fair, but he did not dare to share it with his friends for fear of being labeled as "united front" or "a fellow traveler of the Chinese Communist Party." This may give us a glimpse into Taiwan’s political ideology. After the event, the organizer called on everyone to donate money to Palestine. According to the final public announcement, everyone donated tens of thousands of Taiwan dollars, but after excluding the cost of the event, only a few hundred dollars would be given to the Palestinian side. There was also a lecture held at Soochow University. The speaker clearly supported Palestine, but no matter how much evidence she gave during the lecture, the final question-and-answer session was still unbearable to watch.

Regarding Taiwan’s political evolution 45 years later, it can be divided into three periods: the period when the Kuomintang first took control of Taiwan, the White Terror period, and the “transitional justice” period. The first period mainly concerned the conflict between Taiwanese and mainlanders. The February 28 Incident was a famous symbol. Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A City of Sadness was based on this incident (Figure [12] ) . There is a monument in Taipei’s February 28 Park (Figure [13] ) . Although I cannot understand its meaning, this park does appear in Pai Hsien-yung’s book and is said to be a gathering place for homosexuals. However, I did not meet Pai Hsien-yung in Taiwan, and I do not know whether there are really many LGBT groups dating in this park. The White Terror period was of course a political martial law, and intellectuals would worry about whether they would become political prisoners, although according to Green Island Prison, many of the people arrested did not really have clear political tendencies. Left-wing publications were not allowed to be read, but Professor Wang Fan-sen mentioned in class that many “illegal publications” during that period flowed in from the public security department because a certain relevant leader (I can’t remember who) loved to read them. After experiencing various movements in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the "Wild Strawberry" and "Wild Lily" movements, Taiwan also began to democratize. Zhongzheng Square was also transformed into Liberty Square after the movement (Figure [14] ) . In fact, there was already a tendency towards democratization at the end of Chiang Ching-kuo's administration. The Democratic Progressive Party also rose in this process. Its party platform is a Taiwan independence platform. Some early DPP members also left because they disagreed with the issue of Taiwan independence. The DPP was originally an expert in manipulating the media and student movements. Now that it has come to power, it has also been very successful in controlling the media. The success lies in that they do not make the people feel that they are being brainwashed.

However, the Taiwan independence issue cannot be achieved by brainwashing alone. It is indeed the result of many factors. On the one hand, under the current regime in Taiwan, people's lives are indeed good. It should be said that many people will agree with the saying "good country and good people"; on the other hand, the outsiders who moved to Taiwan in 1949 had conflicts with the native Taiwanese, and even now there are still a small number of Taiwanese natives who are disgusted with the outsiders. However, Yang Rubin's "Praise 1949" talks about the contributions of the outsiders to Taiwan from the perspective of the natives. The number of these outsiders is not large, accounting for more than 10% of the population of Taiwan, while the vast majority of other Taiwanese are immigrants from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and have also experienced Japanese colonial rule. Although the culture is still Chinese culture, it is understandable that they have no feelings for the mainland. It can be imagined that if a family in the mainland has several generations of ancestors who moved from other provinces, but has been seriously disconnected from that province for a long time, it is normal that they no longer miss that province emotionally. Therefore, there is also such a narrative in Taiwan, which believes that Taiwan has always been under colonization, from the Netherlands to the Qing Dynasty to Japan to the Kuomintang. Of course, there may not be many people who support this view, and not many people care about historical narratives.

In summary, the so-called cross-strait politics, or even world politics, is probably about each side doing its best, each side doing its worst, each side winning, and each side getting into trouble. Being proud of politics is probably not as good as being proud of culture, although the former seems much more powerful.

University and the Grave

“The greatness of a university does not lie in its buildings, but in its great masters.” President Mei Yi-chi, who said this, is now buried in the Plum Garden of National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu (Figure [15] ) . The campus of National Tsing Hua University is built on a hillside and is indeed not as beautiful as that of Tsinghua University. Even the Tsinghua campus is just a crude imitation. Taiwan’s universities did have a large number of great masters, both in the humanities and in the science and technology fields, but those people are probably getting old. I didn’t meet many people in Taiwan’s universities, so I can only provide some partial impressions of universities.

Among the schools I have visited, the presidents of the schools are buried in the National Tsing Hua University, the National Taiwan University’s Fu Sinian Tomb (Figure [16] ), and the Wenzhou University’s Zhang Qiyun Tomb.

The one I want to talk about is of course the Chinese Culture University (Figure [17] ) . The school I went to for exchange is one of the few universities in Taiwan that is still named after China, so it is obviously politically biased towards the blue camp. Wenda is a private university. Its founder is Zhang Qiyun, who was the dean of the School of Geography at Zhejiang University in mainland China and later became the Minister of Education. After coming to Taiwan, he founded this school in the 1950s. It is located on Yangming Mountain. According to a teacher, the location of Wenda was relatively poor because the best climate was already selected by the US military base at that time, and there were strong winds all year round. Before coming to Taiwan, some Wenda students told us that it was impossible to open an umbrella at school, but after personal experience, it was not that serious. Coincidentally, when I visited Yin Haiguang's former residence, I also saw an introduction in which Yin Haiguang angrily scolded Zhang Qiyun (Figure [18] ) . Zhang Qiyun's tomb is in the Xiao (Feng) Garden of Wenda University. It has a very good feng shui and overlooks the northern part of Taipei, including the Tamsui River and New Taipei City in the distance (Figure [19] ) . Therefore, many students go there to enjoy the scenery and chat. Moreover, this is one of the few flat areas on the mountain. So what puzzles me is why those Wenda students who like to dance square dance don't go to this flat area to dance? These dancing students are said to be members of the National Salvation Corps, which seems to be a youth political group under the Kuomintang. It is not known why their activities are dancing, but in any case, the place they choose to dance is in front of the library of Wenda University. When the weather is good, they gather in groups every night, play strange Tik Tok pop music, and shout repetitive but incomprehensible slogans until one or two in the morning. They work diligently and never get tired of it. The students studying in the building are only separated from them by a layer of glass, and they sincerely admire their perseverance. Of course, except for exam weeks, the study rooms in the library are still mostly populated by mainlanders. Near the International Society where I live, men and women would gather together late at night to smoke and chat, with perhaps a motorcycle parked nearby. There are many people jogging on Yangmingshan Mountain late at night, but there will be fewer people when the weather gets cold at the end of the year.

Wenhua University once had great masters. When Qian Mu came to Taiwan in his later years, he was invited by Zhang Qiyun to teach. Of course, he did not teach in the mountains, but taught in his residence "Su Shu Lou" (Figure [20] ) at Soochow University. Sanmao was also invited to teach after she finished her studies at Wenhua University and became famous. Nan Huaijin also taught at Wenhua University. I cannot comment on the current teaching staff, but at least the student source situation can be seen from the small. This decline in the quality of students may be related to Taiwan's low birth rate. It is said that many universities in Taiwan are facing the risk of being cut because they cannot recruit students. Wenhua University is not the lowest among Taipei universities in terms of ranking, so there is no such danger for the time being, but it is already very easy to get into Wenhua University. There is no one studying for a master's or doctoral degree at Wenhua University. Most of the people who took my classes were already working or retired. Although they love learning, it is difficult to expect them to make any academic breakthroughs. A teacher commented that the suspension of mainland students after 2019 has exacerbated this student source situation.

I can also introduce the area around Wenda University, because the only thing that made me happy while studying at Wenda University was probably the natural scenery. Yangmingshan was originally called Caoshan. Chiang Kai-shek was a fan of Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism, so after moving to Taiwan, he renamed Caoshan Yangmingshan. Lover's Hill at the main entrance of the school is a place that everyone often goes to at night, because you can see the Taipei city area more completely (Figure [21] ) . There is a grassy area where you can sit and drink, and there is also a stall selling grilled sausages. Taiwan's grilled sausages are really delicious, not the kind of starchy sausages. The back door is actually a highway, adjacent to the former US military base, and there is also a Yangming Zhuzhu Temple. I am not sure which came first, but the US military base has long been converted into a catering industry, and the original architectural style is still retained (Figure [22] ) . One advantage of the mountain is that you can often see rainbows, because sun showers are more common. I have seen them no less than four times in just one semester (Figure [23] ) . When you go out, you can see all kinds of animal friends, big and small birds, squirrels, cats and dogs that you don't recognize, and of course annoying mosquitoes. I heard there are monkeys, but I haven't seen them. One of the scenic spots on Yangmingshan is Qingtiangang (Figure [24] ) . It takes more than ten minutes to get there by bus from Wenda. It is very popular on weekends, so it is often very troublesome to go down the mountain and wait for the bus. There are often wild buffaloes on Qingtiangang. Once I tried to go there to take pictures of the stars, and a wild buffalo suddenly jumped out of the tall grass on the hillside and rushed in front of me (Figure [25] ) . It was still a bit scary. That starry sky shooting trip was not smooth. In addition to the many clouds, the light pollution in Taipei is also serious (Figure [26] ) . Even in the mountains, you can still see that the sky is bright.

Another school I want to talk about is National Chengchi University. Although National Chengchi University and National Chengchi University are located on two mountains in the northwest and southeast corners of Taipei respectively, and each trip requires crossing the diagonal of Taipei, which takes one to two hours (I researched the best bus route at the end of the semester, and it only takes about an hour and ten minutes to get there), I am quite familiar with National Chengchi University because I attended two classes there this semester. National Chengchi University is the party school of the Kuomintang and its political color is also blue, but it did not exist as a spiritual stronghold of the Kuomintang during the transitional justice movement (Figure [27] ) . National Chengchi University's humanities department has produced two musicians I like very much, Chen Qizhen and Wu Qingfeng. The former is in the philosophy department and the latter is in the Chinese department, but I think they studied around 2000, and the teachers who taught there are not very similar to the teachers I meet now. National Chengchi University is also related to cemeteries. The humanities building at National Chengchi University is a century-old building. According to Professor Li Minghui, the century-old building was a cemetery when he was studying there, and it has bad feng shui, which may echo the current decline of the philosophy department at National Chengchi University. I don’t know what is buried in these tombs in Taiwan.

Culture and confidence

We talked about the political part and the non-political part. My biggest impression of Taiwan’s youth is that they are happy but lack depth.

I am not the only one who has come to the conclusion that "Taiwanese youth have average cultural tastes." This is certainly due to the arrogance of cultural elites and survivor bias, but it is indeed more difficult for me to make friends who can chat with me in Taiwan, which is more difficult than in mainland China. In the cultural field, mainland China and Taiwan are in two opposite dilemmas. In my opinion, mainland college students, whether in famous schools or schools with lower admission scores, are not lacking in groups that crave multiculturalism. They will take the initiative to explore things that are less popular in the cultural field and that they truly resonate with. Perhaps there will be some unconventional mentality in it, but it is certain that many people are unwilling to be bound by mainstream culture. Unfortunately, the quality of literary and artistic production in the mainland is often not high, and there are not many literary and artistic workers who are both well-received and popular. On the contrary, in terms of population proportion, Taiwan has many excellent literary and artistic workers. At least in terms of music and movies, a good figure will appear every few years, although it has also been declining in recent years.

When I listened to Luo Dayou's performance in Pingtung (Figure [28] ) , I felt that 80% of the audience in the concert hall were middle-aged and elderly, and the remaining 20% ​​were young people. According to my estimation, most of them were exchange students from mainland China. The aunt next to me was very curious and asked me where I was from, because she was so surprised that there were young people coming to listen to Luo Dayou. I said, "I'm from mainland China, and I guess all the young people in this place are from mainland China." Sure enough, a girl in front of me turned around and said, "I'm from mainland China too." When we were playing in Yilan, we stayed in a homestay of a Taiwanese classmate. I happened to ask her if she knew Luo Dayou, and she said she didn't know. Another Taiwanese classmate from Wenda University also talked to me about movies. She said that she estimated that most students at Wenda University would not know Edward Yang, even though Taipei was holding an exhibition commemorating Edward Yang at that time (Figure [29] ) . When I was playing in Pingtung, I went to the filming location of Edward Yang's "A Brighter Summer Day" that I found on the Internet (Figure [30] ). This movie was not filmed on Guling Street in Taipei. Instead, a lot of shots were taken in Pingtung in the south. Unfortunately, the filming location has long since changed and there are no signs or signs. I think if this place was in mainland China, perhaps many people would come to check it out. In the end, we could only joke that this is Taiwan's "de-Edward Yang-ization."

When I listened to the free campus performance of Shengxiang Band at Taipei National Taiwan University of the Arts (Figure [31] ) (they had just performed in Shanghai the day before I came to Taiwan, and tickets were required), I also observed that many of the exchange students from mainland China were on the cement steps that were not yet crowded. Shengxiang said during the interaction, "Yesterday I asked you art students at Taipei National Taiwan University of the Arts if you had seen The Great Buddha Plus, and only a few people raised their hands. This movie is pirated everywhere in China (mainland), and everyone is rushing to watch it. My movie soundtrack also has a score of 9.9 on Douban." In Taipei, Lin Shengxiang, Zhong Yongfeng and host Ma Shifang of Shengxiang Band had a lecture. I observed that the proportion of middle-aged and elderly people in the audience reached 70%, and I successfully met a new exchange student from mainland China at this event. In this lecture, it was mentioned that the predecessor of Shengxiang Band was Jiaogong Band, and their first album, Chrysanthemum Night March, was based on the movement against the Menong Reservoir. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Taiwan government wanted to build a reservoir in Menong, and local residents resisted and struggled. After several years of strife, the matter was finally abandoned. A friend asked her classmates from Mei Nong whether they knew about this. The Taiwanese classmates said they didn’t know. Maybe it’s because they were born too late.

When I went to National Tsing Hua University to listen to Lai Shengchuan's lecture, I found many familiar faces. After the lecture, most of the people who lined up to get Lai Shengchuan's autograph were mainland students. Lai Shengchuan's play "Treasure Island Village" tells the story of the mainlanders in the military dependents' village who were attached to the mainland when they first came to Taiwan. Many people expected to return to the mainland soon, but the counterattack was a lie of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang. They had to become Taiwanese, and many of them didn't even get the chance to go back. Lai Shengchuan's lecture that day was about cultural memory, linking his early plays with cultural memory, but in my opinion, in today's Taiwan, the relationship between culture and forgetting should perhaps be given more attention.

I attended a lecture at the Taipei Poetry Festival with my Chinese exchange student friend. The speaker was a young Taiwanese poet of the same age as us. But after listening to it, both of us had a bad experience. We thought that the poems they presented were too "fresh" and "peaceful". If they just transcoded some personal daily experiences into some intentions and then turned them into vertical text, it would be difficult to be regarded as good enough poetry. Moreover, in what sense are their personal experiences worthy of being conveyed to the public as literary works? Not answering this question may be a feature of the self-media era. People do not need to consider whether their expressions are worthy of acceptance, because they will always be accepted. Private life and inspiration are affirmed without thinking, especially in Taiwan, a society full of affirmation. One speaker expressed dissatisfaction with Yang Mu's shackles on the Taiwanese poetry scene, but I still have reservations about whether he can surpass Yang Mu.

The relationship between Taiwan and Chinese culture should be close, whether from the perspective of immigrants from the Ming and Qing dynasties or from the perspective of so many Chinese cultural celebrities coming to Taiwan after 1949, not to mention the public education promoted by the Kuomintang in Taiwan to seize the orthodoxy of Chinese culture. According to teacher He Shujing, supporters of the Green Camp will also, to a certain extent, try to seize the title of Cultural China to oppose mainland China. This is the impression she got from the Chinese students studying in the United States at that time. But I think Taiwan is probably drifting away from Cultural China now, although some of those who study Chinese culture are still supporters of the Green Camp, which means that Chinese culture has not been opposed to too deeply by young people.

The debate over the orthodoxy of Chinese culture is a very interesting topic. It will have different effects on ordinary people than on intellectuals. Ordinary people have little professional cultural knowledge and it is difficult for them to conduct professional discussions in theory, so their cultural confidence is almost all turned to the National Palace Museum in Taipei (Figure [32] ) . I have heard three Taiwanese from different age groups take the initiative to mention the National Palace Museum in Taipei and recommend that I must go there. The relevant descriptions are surprisingly consistent: first, all the treasures from the mainland were transported here by Chiang Kai-shek, and second, many cultural relics from the mainland were also destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The idea that the Beijing Palace Museum has a palace but no treasures, and the Taipei Palace Museum has treasures but no palaces seems to be a very successful propaganda. Li Ao also thought so at the time, so the Beijing Palace Museum specially invited him to visit once, and then he realized that this view was problematic. In fact, first of all, not all the boxes packed by the Chiang Kai-shek government were shipped here, and some people also tried to secretly keep the cultural relics in the mainland; secondly, there are still many masterpieces in the Beijing Palace Museum, and if all the treasures were really packed here, this would be impossible; thirdly, many displaced and unearthed cultural relics in the country after the founding of the People's Republic of China are also being slowly collected; fourthly, the damage to cultural relics during the Cultural Revolution may not be as great as the damage caused by the reselling of cultural relics after the reform and opening up. Of course, the exhibitions in the Beijing Palace Museum are not concentrated, and precious cultural relics are not always on display. Although the Taipei Palace Museum has more intensive precious porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, there are also a large number of parts that are not on display, such as "Sacrificial Essays to My Nephew", which seems to be completely not on display (it was sent to Japan for exhibition a few years ago).

Another time I encountered self-confidence was in a Zhuangzi class. When I discussed Zhuangzi's political thoughts, I extended it to the separation of philosophy and politics, and pointed out the potential dangers. The cases I had in mind at the time also included Taiwan's political situation. Of course, I didn't say it directly. A retired classmate stood up and said that this should be the situation over there. Scholars here often offer suggestions. I had to remain silent, but the impolite voice in my heart was: First of all, you have to understand what I am talking about, but you don't have enough philosophical knowledge so you can only use simple real-life examples to understand it. But if you really understand the real-life examples you see, if Taiwan's politics are really not isolated but supported by culture and thinking, Taiwan's political situation would not be as ideological as it is now, and you would not stand up to refute me.

end

I took a boat from Kinmen back to Xiamen on January 15. According to a friend who tried to take a boat from Kinmen on the 16th, she was not allowed to take the boat that day because exchange students were not allowed to use the mini-three links. In the end, she never understood why this happened, so she had to buy two tickets to urgently return to Taiwan Island and then to the mainland. Homesickness really became a strait. Because of the inconvenient transportation in Kinmen, I did not visit any tourist attractions there (remains of artillery battles), but military facilities can still be seen everywhere (Figure [33] ) . After being abandoned and decayed, it looks even more absurd, which also makes the words "Kinmen Welcomes You" and the "Full House" written on the door of Green Island Prison have the same meaning (Figure [34] ) . In Kinmen, the song that came to my headphones was "Nao Hai" by Nezha Band. In traditional Chinese rebellious stories, Nezha's story is related to the relationship between father and son, but it is not like the West or Japan, which has the tradition of patricide. Even in the conflict between patriarchy and freedom, Nezha is seeking a middle way. His body is still with his father, and his spirit adheres to the right path. There may be some kind of middle way in the cross-strait issue, waiting for enough people on both sides of the strait to be willing to discover and practice it.

postscript

After arriving in Xiamen, I took a taxi to the Youth Hostel (taxis are much cheaper in the mainland). The driver saw that I came from the pier and started chatting with me. I'll write it down below.

"What is the frequency of boat trips at the pier now?"

"Every hour from morning to afternoon, many people are queuing for a table."

"It used to be once every half an hour, but now it's really worse than before. Look at what the DPP is doing. (We) will get rid of it immediately. Within four years, he won't be able to serve in the next term."

"Em, then wouldn't the cost of military reunification be too high?"

"There is no cost! We can take over the small island of Taiwan in one day! We should not care about the cost when it comes to the Taiwan issue!"

"Then why did Russia fight Ukraine for so long?"

"They are countries, and we are China's internal affairs!"

“What about Israel’s attack on Gaza?”

"That's different!"

"How will we govern after the military reunification?"

"What's the point of governing? Kill all those who don't obey. Where are you from?"

"Jiangxi people"

"How can you, a Jiangxi native, ask such strange questions? This is not right."

"I am studying international relations" (sorry to those students who are actually studying international relations)

"You haven't learned this as well as I have. Let me teach you. Look at international relations. They are all about national interests. There is nothing else. Look at China and Russia, the United States and Japan. They are all linked by interests. Good or bad, hatred can all be eliminated by interests. This is not an international relations issue, this is a philosophical issue!"

I became silent, and when he saw that I didn't respond, he stopped talking too.