Lang Lang’s fingers came to a rest as the last notes of Mozart’s C minor No. 24, K491 bounced off the walls of the sumptuous concert hall. For a brief instant there was only silence, followed by loud applause as the concertgoers emerged to their feet. Lang’s performance was stunning technically; the agility of his seemingly bewitched fingers was truly something to behold.
As the enchanted crowd dissipated, I used my journalist credentials to access the backstage. I walked past the violinists, cellists, flutists and the rest of the ensemble as they loosened strings, scrubbed their exhausted brass instruments to a shine, and packed their various sundries for the night. I reached a door at the back and rapped it musically with my knuckles. “Come in,” a slightly accented voice answered.
There I was, alone at last with the great Lang Lang. He was beaming. The performance, as the next day’s newspapers would attest, had been out of this world, one of his greatest. After brief exchanges of pleasantries and business cards (yes, the great pianist has one), I went straight down to business.
“Your proficiency, the fluidity and rapidity of your fingers, have been celebrated worldwide. In purely technical terms, you are, without a doubt, a great master,” I crooned. A thin smile flashed on his lips, his polite way of indicating that he’d been showered with similar flattery thousands of times already. “Mozart is evidently a favorite of yours, and again, let me underscore how pleased he would have been with the perfection with which you hit all the notes.”
“However …” I continued, and Lang suddenly looked up, sensing the shift in the movement. “Where exactly were you born again?”
“Shenyang, Liaoning Province,” he replied.
“Ah, China,” I said, shaking my head like a schoolteacher seconds before he berates a slow learner. “One piece of advice,” I continued, standing up. “Sell your piano and find yourself another job.”
“You see,” I continued as a despondent Lang rose from his seat, “Your Chineseness is a handicap. More than that, it is an unbreachable Great Wall. Being Chinese, you cannot possibly understand, let alone communicate, the emotions, the existential angst, the historical setting, and the cultural influences that shaped an Austrian coming of age in 18th century Salzburg. Unless you’re one of those who thinks that music is nothing more than mathematics, I’d give it up — at least, give up playing Mozart and Beethoven and all the European composers you have fraudulently presumed to interpret over the years, and limit yourself to Chinese composers.”
“You must face reality. You’re not European, and you never will. You cannot therefore possibly understand us, know what it is like to be us.” Having made my point, I walked out the door and left Lang Lang to deal with the bombshell.
* * *
Had this conversation ever taken place, Lang Lang would have had every right to pursue me and hit me on the head with his piano stool. At the very least, he could have shot back by calling my accusations by their rightful name — racism.
Yet such preposterous remarks are often made about writers, academics, and journalists who, like me, have made this part of the world their subject matter, their expertise. I’ve heard them often enough to know that it is an underlying current here. “You’re not Taiwanese, you cannot understand how we think, our needs, or what is best for us.” It doesn’t matter how long someone has been in Taiwan, or how thoroughly he or she has integrated society, learned its language, or embraced its culture. This is the “other” as perpetual outsider, as if understanding were not the outcome of accumulated knowledge, but rather something that, effortlessly, is acquired through one’s DNA. Unless you have Taiwanese (and perhaps Chinese) blood flowing through your veins, you cannot conceivably understand what it’s like to be a Taiwanese. (Similarly, young Taiwanese who lived abroad for many years and who come back to Taiwan often face this challenge, as if their Taiwanese essence was somehow diluted by their foreign experience. They are no longer “real” Taiwanese.) To hell with universalism: Sociologists, ethnologists, political scientists, historians, linguists, philosophers, anthropologists and all the others out there who specialize in this neck of the woods, who have lived here for years, who obtained PhDs and M.A.s and other advanced degrees; give it up, you’re wasting your time. Your subject is ineffable, comprehensible only to those who were born on this island.
What’s even more shocking — or insulting — is the fact that such comments are often made by Taiwanese who themselves have made only superficial efforts to know about Taiwan. Many of them have never attended a single protest, or given comfort to a victim of urban renewal, mingled with local gangsters, spoken with laid-off factory workers, cried with displaced farmers, or wined and dined with government officials. Theirs is knowledge acquired the facile way, through DNA. Knowledge as entitlement. When confronting the “other,” it doesn’t matter that the non-Taiwanese has done all of the above (and then some), or that he has been a resident for nearly a decade and made Taiwan the subject of his daily inquiries, written two volumes, book chapters, and more than a thousand articles about it. In the far-too-numerous instances when I was on the receiving end of such nonsense, my Taiwanese critic happened to know far less about Taiwanese politics or history than I did. Some hadn’t even studied politics, or history, or military affairs. But that didn’t matter; he or she was the expert, while I was the meddling idiot, the “Quiet Canadian” who needed to be reminded of the futility of his endeavors.
My response to those people (and don’t get me wrong, not all Taiwanese think like that) is invariably the same: “Following your logic, we in the West should deny the right to vote to anyone — Taiwanese included — who immigrates to our countries, because no matter how long they have resided there, they cannot possibly understand what Canadians, Americans, Australians, or Europeans need, or what’s good for their country. Try as they might, they just don’t have the proper DNA and are therefore eternal idiots, second-rate citizens.” Were I to advocate such a policy back home, I would rightly be accused of xenophobia, and the Taiwanese victims would be the first to cry foul.
(There is, of course, the obverse: The foreigner as both savant and enlightened savior, who acquires knowledge by the simple virtue of his or her being somewhere physically, or being married to a local. This island is crawling with individuals who think this way, a phenomenon that is compounded by the empowerment of the Internet.)
Those are admittedly two extremes. The attainment of knowledge is possible and its territory lies somewhere in between. It is well within reach of those who make it a profession (and in some cases, a serious hobby). There are foreigners in Taiwan who can make real contributions to this land, whose experience and knowledge is something that should be cherished rather than discarded outright. Taiwan is not exactly in a position where it can afford to close itself to new ideas. So next time you disagree with something that I say or write about Taiwan — I’m all for disagreement and by no means do I have a copyright on the truth — please spare me the old, tired, and downright insulting rhyme about my non-Taiwaneseness. Undo me with cogent counterarguments, not with cheap racism.
This is not really a criticism of the article above, but I would argue that regardless of the soundness of one’s argument, experience, and knowledge / qualifications, anyone who claims they know ‘what is best for another person or whole nation of people’ is always on the side of patronising his or her audience and silencing their voices. That action is particularly egregious when it comes from person of European descent given the history of colonialism and exploitation in the region. That said, if the opinion is presented as suggestion and contribution to the wider conversation, as part of a dialogue that is inclusive but not dominated to the detriment of local voices, then I think that represents healthy democratic exchange. If it is then still dismissed simply and only because of the person saying it then the problem is less the author’s attitudes than prejudice and bigotry on the part of the respondee. For my part I will admit to the sin of having written and acted like a white saviour in the past and part of my job of avoiding that mistake again involves ‘decolonising’ my mind from the laziness and arrogance that grew in the fertile bed of privilege my origins have afforded me when living in Taiwan. It is something I have to work at continuously. Ultimately, whilst I may have lots of opinions about Taiwan it is down to the Taiwanese themselves to determine the direction and state of their own country. If they consider some of my ideas accurate or useful then I am humbly grateful I could make a small contribution. One further note, I think that when it comes to politics and political issues, the people of a country often bristle at opinions and suggestions from people they consider outsiders, regardless of how long they have lived there. In Taiwan, in the medical field particularly, Doctors and Dentists actively seek and respect professional medical opinion from outside, and most greatly value that which originates from places they consider to be ‘high value locations’ such as North America, Europe, and Japan. This illustrates a certain hegemony of the sciences by countries in these locations but at the same time it demonstrates that Taiwanese can be very receptive to new ideas from outside – it just depends which ideas, about what subject, and from where.
I think Mr. Cole has been doing great work on this new publication, his blog, and elsewhere. And there is much to like in this article. However, it is missing a crucial element of the discourse: racism — and all other prejudices — do not exist in a vacuum, but in social contexts that exhibit structural inequalities.
Not all racist attitudes are equal. For example, whites’ racist attitudes toward blacks in apartheid South Africa have much more pernicious consequences than blacks’ racist attitudes toward blacks, because whites are the ones with power. Importantly, power need not be institutionalized. In Taiwan and in elsewhere, whites are typically on top of the social hierarchy. So it is misleading, at best, for Mr. Cole to equate the unfortunate attitudes that he encounters with the much more harmful racist attitudes that Taiwanese, East Asians, and other subordinated groups typically encounter.
It is almost trite at this point, but please check your privilege before you espouse your privilege. Foreigners — especially white men — can indeed make a genuine contribution to discourses in Taiwan, but they’re much more likely to do so if they recognize the privileged positions they occupy in the various social inequalities.
I have no doubt that some insults Mr. Cole encounters are indeed out of ignorance. But if he were more charitable, perhaps he can consider some of those criticisms with in mind some aspects of standpoint theory ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standpoint_theory ), where criticizing someone’s epistemological perspective can indeed be legitimate in some cases.
A very important article. It reminds me of my hometown in Ohio. My parents moved there when I was four. Twenty-seven years later, they still are considered outsiders by some. Some people will say things like that because they want to feel pride without effort. They default on, as you say, “entitlement.”
Agreed. I think you said what I was trying to say but with better clarity and focus. Most importantly, racism is entirely about power and privilege. I can’t be the victim of racism anywhere because I am white and enjoy the attendant privileges that incurs. I can be the victim of prejudice and bigotry but it is never racism. Not sure about standpoint theory so won’t comment on that part of your reply.
One clarification: When I wrote, “Foreigners — especially white men — can indeed make a genuine contribution to discourses in Taiwan, but they’re much more likely to do so if they recognize the privileged positions they occupy in the various social inequalities,” I certainly did not mean that white men are especially more likely to make contributions to discourses in Taiwan! Rather, I meant to say that white men, more than other foreigners, should be especially attentive to their privileged positions in order to make contributions. (And I have no doubt that there are some white men who are attentive!)
My first thought when I read that article was: Damn good, it’s kind of true. I used to live in Taiwan for some years and sometimes I felt that attitude, too.
But then, I remembered what my former boss in Taiwan once told me. She is actually a very good friend of mine, native Taiwanese studied in Germany, very fluent in German and working in the media industry in Taiwan. She told me about her first job in Taiwan 20 years ago for an European organization where all the higher ranking officials were European, all the co-workers Taiwanese. All of the Europeans had good jobs and high salaries but had neither good Chinese language skills nor a clue on the culture. But behaved as kings. I was very ashamed being European when I heard about that.
I think, stories like this are the origins of the thinking that us Europeans (or westerners) cannot possibly understand Taiwan or China.
Maybe the people nowadays think that westerners are still like that or they are even more worried that the westerners now learn the language and have even more chances in Taiwan than before. There is still some anger towards the ‚others‘.
The thing is, you can find this anger and that attitude everywhere. Be it in Central/Western Europe, the States, Australia, Japan.
I am not saying that this is a good attitude and it is always good to think about „daily racism“.
During my time in Taiwan I found it so annoying to hear things like you mentioned, sometimes I already had enough when somebody started with : „But, here in Taiwan…“
Being back in Europe I feel now that this was not actually very very bad. Taiwanese are mostly very friendly to European looking people, I cannot say the same for Europe when it comes to different looking people like Arabs or Asians.
Don’t worry too much about it and don’t be too angry. You will find intelligent people valuing other point of views and small minds in the same ratio all over the word I think.
Considering the fact that you are the editor of this popular public forum, that your columns were widely shared on the internet, and that most people who read and share your essay are Taiwanese , I’d say that most Taiwanese would not say that you can’t understand us. Please don’t misrepresent us as racist bigots.
Dear Hsin-wen: It is far from my intention to do so. As I do indicate in the article, this certainly doesn’t to all Taiwanese, who have been welcoming, kind-hearted, and tolerant. But that isn’t to say that this trait doesn’t exist within Taiwanese society, or that it doesn’t happen more often than it should. My intent here is to start a conversation on why this happens, and what, if anything, can be done about it. Far too many Taiwanese who grew up or were educated abroad are facing this problem, and it has devastating consequences on their sense of self as well as their ability to contribute to modern Taiwanese society.
Taiwan is not special in this respect. It’s always hard to accept the opinion of outsiders on your own way of living, and simultaneously it’s curiously attractive to think that outsiders have all the answers. I’ve experienced that in my home country, and various countries I’ve lived in, too. Whether it’s Brazil or Germany, Ireland or the UK, France or the US.
On the flip side it’s easy to fall into the trap of forming an opinion based on too little knowledge, I’m sure we’ve all experienced tourists who can tell us all about the workings of the country they were visiting and how it’s people think … after a 2 week trip.
It’s normal to have these tribal feelings when confronted with “outside” criticism we automatically become defensive, while at the same time hoping that “someone else” might have all the answers. It’s also normal to build theories based on very limited impressions – we are pattern seekers, that’s a vital part of being human. It’s just important to realize that all these behaviors are mistakes.
@Shen-Yi Liao = Whites are at the top of the social hierarchy in Taiwan??? You gotta be kidding me! Other than being able to get an English teaching job, and a few hot dates, what real power do whites have in Taiwan? Asians, Taiwanese and Chinese can be just as brutal and racist as any other people in the world. Look at how darker skinned Southeast Asian people are treated in Taiwan. Worse yet, witness how China is slowly slicing away at Tibetan and Uighur society. Asian societies are becoming more diverse, and social challenges and friction will inevitably increase. It’s time for Asian society (Taiwan included) to start taking racism seriously and stop pretending that it’s just a Western problem.
I am so in your same page, thanks to be this time our voice. F. A Foreigner
Well. I agree that there are Taiwanese people who would make such comments – “You’re not Taiwanese, so you don’t know shit”. There are many of them and I know a few. I am aware of Taiwanese people’s “racism” problem when it comes to the attitude towards workers from South-east Asia, etc. But I must defend some of us here regarding what you mentioned.
I know many people from the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, etc. and unfortunately not everyone of them actually tried to understand us. Some of my international friends care about Taiwan and often post environmental issues, gay rights, interesting news about Taiwan on Facebook. I actually learnt about my own country through these South African, Canadian, Australian, American friends. But, unfortunately, there are many of them out there who can barely speak Chinese good enough (after living here for YEARS) to start a meaningful conversation with locals who don’t speak English. Some of the observations they make are rather superficial or even wrong. I sometimes see my English-speaking friends write something like “I don’t understand why Taiwanese people do this, do that, blah blah blah” on Facebook. Of course they don’t understand. They didn’t even try. So of course when you try to say something to us, be it some political comments or friendly suggestions, some of us may say, “You’re not Taiwanese, you don’t know nothing” because some people can’t tell which kind of foreigner you are, hence such rude comment.
Last, I hope you can understand, Taiwan is a developing country (though some of us like to compare us to China or Thailand then feel so good about ourselves that we think we’re developed). The mindset of many people living on this island is still quite backwards. There is a fair share of racism here for sure. We need another 50 to 100 years to learn to NOT say shit like that. Before then, I guess let’s bear with each other?
@aaron
First of all, I don’t think anywhere I said Taiwanese people cannot be racist. Indeed, I think the psychological mechanisms that underly racism can probably be found in every single individual. I also did not discuss anything about Chinese people, so I am not sure why you brought that up and what that has to do with Taiwanese people.
Second, I absolutely agree that there has been systematic and institutional unfair treatment against darker-skinned foreigners, especially many of the laborers and domestic workers who come from Southeast Asia. We as a society must improve on that. I didn’t think they were the foreigners that Mr. Cole meant to be representing in this article, however, as they are practically absent from all political and social discourse—unfortunately. Again, I did not mention anything about China, so I am not sure why you brought that up and what that has to do with Taiwan. However, I do agree that China’s treatment of its ethnic and religious minorities is truly deplorable.
Finally, as you may have noted in my original comment, I said specifically that racism exists in “social contexts that exhibit structural inequalities”. This does not imply that all contexts exhibit the same structural inequalities. There are different structural inequalities that are exhibited in different social contexts, and certainly I would not want to claim that whites are on top of all of them.
However, in non-institutional social contexts — you yourself mentioned a couple — it is true that white foreigners often enjoy a great deal of privilege, especially compared to other foreigners, such as the Southeast Asian workers. Indeed, even in some institutional contexts, it’s clear that lighter-skinned voices are already (over)valued. For example, Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien is much more happy having expensive lunch boxes with white expats than many Taiwanese that comprise of his potential constituency ( http://newtalk.tw/mobile/news_in.php?id=49630 ).
Racial or ethnic stereotyping is fast and easy, so in a racially homogeous society such as Taiwan, people are prone to stereotype and discriminate. George Simmel coined the term “racial uniform”, so basically, a white person in Asia, no matter how “oriented” he or she is, will be the subject of discrimination. So it’s better not to take everything personally in order to live happily in Taiwan.
Thanks for starting this discussion. I’ve been in Taiwan for about two and a half years now. Anyone who doesn’t look Chinese or Native is by default labeled a ‘foreigner’ until proven otherwise. I tell my Taiwanese friends that in the United States there are people from all over the world; an American cannot just look at another person and call him a foreigner or non-American because there is no standard for what an American looks like! Yet, the Taiwanese people I meet seem to have a hard time fully comprehending the significance of that statement. What it means is that in everyday conversation, people in the U.S. do not say things like:
“Oh, look at that foreigner!” or
“Aren’t you a foreigner?” or
“Wow, that foreigner’s English is SO good!” or
“He likes to hang-out with foreigners” or
“Last week my sister married a foreigner”
Furthermore, the use of 外國人 in Taiwan isn’t just an appraisal on someone’s appearance, but implies other–often erroneous–conclusions about that person, such as:
~Doesn’t speak/understand Chinese
~Doesn’t know local customs or way of life
~開放–>’liberal’ or ‘open-minded’ or ‘sexually unrestrained’ (depending on context)
The more I hear the word 外國人 used loosely in conversation, the more uneasy I feel about the people using it.
What do you guys think?
Thank you so much for this comment. The intersectionality between racism and sexism is definitely important to considered. I think the Taiwanese society, by and large, is quite sexist. In addition to adding non-Western voices to this discussion, it would be great to hear about Western women’s experiences in Taiwan as well.
Don’t mix criticism with concepts of face.
Criticism exists in this case because of racism. Real racism, that needs to be stamped out. And Taiwan is a developed country already, there are no excuses, just a CULTURAL RELUCTANCE TO OPEN UP AND CHANGE and FACE ISSUES instead of getting defensive.
This is not about Taiwan’s FACE, this is about racism that exists in Taiwan. Forget about face and Taiwan can come a long way.
Having lived in Taiwan starting 18 years ago, I’m so happy to read such an eloquently written explanation as to how I’ve endured racism the whole time.
I’m going to start to cry. Some white boy foreigner got his feelings hurt when some local boy told him he’s not local, and doesn’t really get it. His retort should have been, ‘yeah but I’m listening.’ Or school me. Instead he goes on a rant, acting just like a foreigner is expected to. Good show. Jolly good. I loved living in Taiwan, studying their culture, language, marrying in, living with my inlaws for a decade.
Observing how the place worked. I always knew I was Gringo. I used to lie, tell people I was from Xinjiang. They would look at me closely then smile. I think the Chinese, Taiwanese,Vietnamese etc can survive, as they have for thousands of years, with or without our comments. But homie, keep reporting from there. You got great insights.
It hurts to be rejected or dismissed unfairly. I can guess this has happened to Cole, and more than once. But I also notice that I react negatively toward him in response to the article. After formulating one basis after another for charging him with something that sounds smart, just, etc., I realize that I am a bit confused and that my negative reaction stems from my personal discomfort with an underlying sense of vulnerability and uncertainty in an arena in which I like to think of myself as sophisticated, knowledgeable, and right-thinking.
I sort of hope Lang Lang would smile, thank Cole for sharing his advice, and accept the fact that all of us humans carry around our sets of illusions and irrational thoughts. I hope he wouldn’t let it cause him to play some off notes at his next concert. But if it did, that should be OK. He’s only human, too. And if he banged out something a bit confused and harsh-sounding, but did his best to explain why, and in so doing provoked some thought and civil discussion, then I’d want to say, I hear your frustration.” That’s OK. Keep playing!”
“Here is Taiwan, you know? Here is not America! Here is Taiwan!” … Thanks for that information! You’ve really filled me with insight and awareness! (And here I thought I’d got off the plane in San Francisco! Stupid me…) Thank Buddha Taiwanese are so persistent in steering me back to reality.
I think if you indeed knew enough about Chinese, Taiwanese or really any Asian culture, you would not be offended that someone lashed out at you like they did, especially given that they were less educated than you.
The fact that you react so strongly to something like this is weak evidence that you actually don’t know where they are coming from.
The fact that Cole believes that knowing more about Taiwan’s history than a local makes him understand it better is case in point that he, in fact, doesn’t understand Taiwan. History is only one facet of a place’s identity and knowledge and understanding are not the same thing.
I just found this column through the Facebook this morning. I’d love to share my ideas with you all if my poor English is going to be tolerated.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the East Asia started to have intensive contact with the Western Civilisations. China and the Chinese culture were the most dominant and superior in the area. However, that situation was suddenly broken by the white people(No offence, but most westerners came to the East Asia were white then). That contact, to most East Asians, was not only a culture shock, but also a culture earthquake. The governments in Korea, Japan, and China, desperately held many reformations in order to compete with the white people who came here with superiority, both militarily and culturally. After about 2 centuries, frankly and honestly, most East Asians still don’t know how to face the Western Civilisations properly without harming or losing their subjectivity. Even today, they are still trying to relocate their position in the modern world mainly led by the West.
With the negative heart-breaking memory, most East Asians have special feelings and image about the white people. Some good, some bad. For example, some Taiwanese show different attitude to white people and black people because certain skin colour represents the advanced image in the modern world to some East Asians. Secondly, some East Asians admire the white people, but also don’t accept them sincerely for many reasons. I would only mention some in this article because I guess many readers would be pissed off by my ideas. One is the self-inferiority complex and the other is the narrow-mindedness. The first reason mainly came from the historical background in the past 2 centuries, but the second reason came from another historical background for most Taiwanese.
For 2 reasons, the Taiwan society is not as open and plural as the West. One, we have fought against one of the military powers in the world for 69 years so the coast line is military defence hot zone. Besides, Taiwan is an island without any under-sea tunnels to any other country. The South Korea and Japan are too distant for that, and China is too threatening for that. In Europe or North America, you could just visit another country where people speak another language simply by train or even by bus. Therefore, most Taiwanese hardly have any friend who comes from the West in their entire life. I know most of the readers here might disagree with me on this, but please try to understand that the Taipei City is the most westernised and well-educated area on this island. Taipei is absolutely not Taiwan. It’s just like that Paris is not France. If most Taiwanese don’t have any western friend in life, then how could they establish their understanding of the westerners? Just like the way you understand the world, from books, TV, and the Internet. In the past 2 decades, many westerners came to this island. Some of them appeared in the local TV shows. What did they say in those shows? Mainly, they’re talking about their wonderful night life with the local girls. Trust me, that embarrasses every western friend of me and every Taiwanese. However, that shallow and disrespectful image has already been delivered and it still is today.
The other reason for the narrow-mindedness is Confucianism. That ideology (not really a system of ideas, but vague and not very well-structured ones.) the mainstream ideas in the East Asia nowadays, was created about 2 thousand years ago when at least more than 10 schools actively debated against one another at the same time in the Northern China. However, in less than 1 century, all the other schools were abandoned by the imperial government except the Confucianism (the Taoism still have slight effect until now). Yes, the only answer to every question would be the Confucianism, and others would be wrong. That narrow-mindedness blocked the East Asians to understand and appreciate the Western Civilisations for so long. Even today, many scholars still encourage the children to read the bible in Confucianism—The Four Classics(四書). Compared with the West, many different schools compete against one another until today. Even now, many thinkers and scholars still try to create new schools, for example, the Annale School in France does change the way we study history so much.
Back to the topic, in my humble opinion, when that rude and impolite answer was presented to the author, that means the speaker didn’t know how to communicate with the author on the subject. He or she could be not very self-confident to exchange his or her ideas with a foreigner. Or, even worse, he or she didn’t even want to do so.
At the end of this article, I have to say that I’m really glad that purchasing firearms isn’t allowed in this country or my points in this article might get me killed.
Great post, for those Taiwanese live outside the island long enough they might understand. I think most people simply do not recognise this is an act of racism. Although I think those who make such claim get a point. Taiwanese are brought up in an environment where people follow existing way of doing things rather than thinking the meaning behind. Therefore you can find people take false information/knowledge as fact. When you tell them something that’s beyond their everyday experience they will most likely overwhelm and reject your “theory”. Since they cannot tell exactly why you are wrong the simplest response is “You cannot understand”.
I have enormous respect for J. Michael Cole’s scholarship and the keen analysis and insight he has exhibited in his many articles on the politics of Taiwan, and so it was with a sense of incredulity turning to disgust that I read this massive cow pie of an opinion piece that he has signed his name to.
What I’m going to say here can be summed up in one sentence: Prejudice is not racism.
There’s a subtle difference, but a clear one: Anyone can experience prejudice, but only the systematically disenfranchised can experience racism.
Hey, here’s a quick quiz: Who globally controls most of the financial and political power, as well as the media? A quick survey will show, it is not the Taiwanese.
Years of colonialism, now changed to a seemingly more neutral globalism, have worked to give J. Michael Cole, as a white man, the privilege and status he now holds today, able to go into any country in the world and be instantly given respect and authority. Is a Taiwanese reporter afforded this same level of entree? Of respect? Would their authorship be readily considered as neutral, as authoritative? It’s hard to argue that case.
I feel for white men. It’s extremely irritating to find out that years of work, scholarship, erudition, finely honed analysis can be dismissed with a single glance at your exterior, when you’re not used to this experience. All I can say is, you have experienced but the briefest taste of what it is like to experience the world as a white woman, much less a Black or brown woman or man.
It must be so galling, when doors usually open for you, to suddenly find a couple slammed in your face. How painful it must be, to run into people who seemingly haven’t worked as hard as you to develop themselves, who appear to have been less diligent in educating themselves, and find that they don’t care about your grueling discipline and hard work. They don’t care that you can base the prestige of your career on chronicling the grief of farmers. How incredulous it must feel, to find that they have circled the cultural wagons, and you are left on the outside, credentials in hand, rejected. Rejected! When as a white man you’re taught that all places must accept you, if only by virtue of the superiority of the culture you represent.
Let’s be realistic and admit how much entree has your white skin earned you in this country. Let us talk about how much you as a white man have been welcomed in Taiwan as a signpost of global culture, of progress. How many halls have you been welcomed in, by dint of your skin and what it represents? And not even just the skin, let’s also talk about the respect your white male upbringing has trained you to expect, your understanding that doors are there to be knocked on, that all questions are available to you to ask, that you’re entitled to enter any space. All of this is part of that skin you wear.
And now that this entree has been rejected, now that you’ve felt the sting of being told you’re not good enough, you must bring up that ugly word, racism, to describe your feelings.
Well, you have not earned that right.
You reach for this word ‘racism’, as a way of expressing the anguish you feel, but this word is not for you. ‘Prejudice’: This is a word that describes what you experienced. When you stand at the very top of the pyramid of status, you cannot cry oppression.
What makes the opening scenario of the article especially outrageous is that the Lang Langs of the world are in fact told on an everyday basis that their Chineseness is a handicap, an impediment to becoming a full citizen in the Western-dominant global world. That you choose to imagine yourself personally in the role of the abuser makes those paragraphs even more cringe-inducing, as what you pretend is an illuminating role reversal is in fact the daily experience of Asian people across the globe. White racism is alive and breathing in the world and in this article you have unwittingly helped promulgate it. That you choose to use this excruciatingly wrong-headed example clearly shows your blindness to your privilege as a white man.
What you must accept is that as a white man, some things are not for you. Yes, you have your years of experience, your vast factual knowledge, yes, you may even be able to explain Taiwanese culture more clearly than some Taiwanese everyman, but you know what? You are still a white man. You are still not Taiwanese. And Taiwanese people, who’ve grown up here, who have lived their culture from the inside out, have every right in the world to point this out.
A white man doesn’t know what it means to grow up Taiwanese. A white man doesn’t know what it is to experience the intense changes this country has gone through in such a short time in the way a person who grew up here has, as a person who owns this identity, ‘Taiwanese’. You know a lot about it, yes, but it didn’t happen to you. And therein lies the difference. Knowing about is not the same as experiencing. Experiencing culture as an outsider is not the same as experiencing culture as an insider.
Here’s something even harder to hear: When a Taiwanese person tells you, “You cannot possibly know”, this is actually not about you, your credentials, your knowledge, you as a person. What they are rejecting is your representation of whiteness. The line they’re drawing is the cultural last stand of a people who find that every time they go out into the world it is as second-class citizens, as supplicants, as learners, as forever ‘not good enough’. It’s the only way they can defend themselves from the voracious Westernization of global culture biting deep into every aspect of their lives.
So, they don’t want to include you, every single time. You’re left out at the playground sometimes. Does this hurt you economically? Does this mean you are barred from advancement in your profession? Have you been largely found unfit to practice your profession in venues across the globe? Does it mean that you’re normally considered to be an untrustworthy source to major global media? Are you asked to go through extra security checks at the airport? Are you considered to be lacking in credentials to run English web media in a country not of your birth? Be honest now, how many of the speakers you iterated have real ability to influence your ability work, your freedom of movement, to tell you where and how you choose to live? They don’t? Oh, I thought we were talking racism here.
The truth is, prejudice hurts. It hurts a lot. But prejudice is not systematic disenfranchisement based on a hierarchy of identity. It is not racism.
Thank you for the comments, Angela. I must admit the prejudice is indeed a better term to characterize what I and many others have gone through. I disagree, however, on your contention that this is about my “whiteness.” How, if that were the case, would you explain the repeated incidents in which Taiwanese who grew up or were educated in the West were themselves they could not possibly understand X and Y. Time and again, in places where you’d least expect it (hint: a major opposition party), “returned” Taiwanese are made to feel like they don’t belong, that the are not “real Taiwanese” and therefore unable to fully comprehend politics and society. Surely those are not “whites,” and the object here is something that’s a little deeper. As to the impact of that prejudice on my career (I just came back from speaking at a conference at SOAS in London, and I can assure you that the Taiwanese academics who participated in the lectures received the same attention and welcome as I did), I don’t think that’s the point; at least, that’s not the point that I was trying to communicate. What irks me is the damage that is being done to this society by those who close off all possibility of learning from the “other,” whether that “other” happens to be white or a Western educated Taiwanese. I have long argued that Taiwan, given the challenges it faces, cannot afford to remain divided politically and “ethnically,” for lack of a better term. That, above all, is what matters to me and why I felt it was necessary for me to write that op-ed. My intent may have been misunderstood, and if that is the case, the fault lies entirely with me.
Before Ma became president he pulled the “you’re a foreigner and can’t possibly understand” stunt on Stephen Sackur of the BBC.
Host (Sackur): You don’t actually believe in an independent sovereign Taiwan in the future, do you? You actually believe in One China and unification.
Ma: No no no no no. You don’t understand what these terms mean because you are not very much affa.. familiar with Chinese affairs and Taiwanese affairs.
Mr. Sackur is one of the most respected interviewers in the Western world and did not deserve this belittling crass comment by Ma.
I have enjoyed reading Mr. JM Cole’s works throughout the years. I am a Taiwanese (whose ancestors have lived in Taiwan for several generations) who emigrated to the US for post-graduate education several decades ago. Indeed, I have now lived more years in the US than in Taiwan (which surprises me when I think about it). My opinions are just that: personal opinions and I am not an expert. But I would like to give my personal support and encouragement to Mr. Cole’s efforts. His views and opinions may not be agreeable to everyone but I personally find it touching that someone who was a complete foreigner to Taiwan would take such a personal interest in her development and work so many years in Taiwan. Of course, there may be an ulterior motive to Mr. Cole’s works (I suppose I’m cynical enough to think that anything is possible), but my own superficial research has uncovered none. Or at least none that I personally find reprehensible. Mr. Cole: I personally don’t think that not being a native Taiwanese precludes you from understanding Taiwan government/society. While I may not agree with all your views, I think your analysis and opinions at least make for interesting debate that can lead to improvement of Taiwan. And your writings (arguably) give a voice to a segment of Taiwanese society that I feel is very much under-published in the English media.
“X ethnic/national/cultural/gender/age group (of course not all of them) have y undesirable characteristic…”
It almost doesn’t matter what x or y represent, we’re already heading for negative responses, and in this case, appropriately so. That the charge is racism or prejudice seems by turns ridiculous, funny/ironic, and completely understandable.
“Racism”, a form of ethnocentrism, has many definitions. One is a belief that this or that “racial” group is inferior to another. It seems to be (uh-oh does saying this count as yet a deeper hypocrisy) held by most (of course not all[!]) humans and groups of such.
Of course it’s in and among “Taiwanese” people. We need only turn to the scripture archives if Broadway musicals to cite that all of us are: http://youtu.be/RovF1zsDoeM
What I wanted to say in an earlier comment on this piece (what a surprise that I didn’t revise it several times and seek feedback from trusted friends first in this click-to-post age) is that I bet almost any reasonable reader could have been more sympathetic to a more personal narrative of how you felt having your perspective dismissed on what you feel are unfair and unreasonable grounds–and I think thereby presenting yourself as honestly vulnerable to hurt–than to a charge against a people as a group (but of course not all of them) based on your personal experiences.
All well-intentioned, humanistic, intelligent people should be listened to. Though none of us will be all the time, for all kinds of reasons, including prejudices. That’s tough on anyone, and I hope you continue to share more, on politics and society, your own experiences, thoughts, and feelings, including difficult, personal, and emotional ones, and not always perfectly! Jia you.
An “outsider” approaching another culture/ethnicity through immersion and study can understand everything about the politics, culture, history, music, etc., but there is some truth in not really being able to FEEL all the subtleties of what it is like to be in another person’s shoes from moment to moment.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to fully empathize, but some things about the “other” can be grasped more quickly than other things. You may reach 90% understanding of Taiwanese people Mr. Cole, but for that last 10%, you would have to go back and change your DNA. And they would have to change theirs to understand you 100%. This isn’t racist, it’s a fact. Maybe it’s a matter of fully understanding individuals – as every individual interacts within a “culture” in a deeply personal way. Note: 90% isn’t bad.
One might be able to understand phenomena in “another” culture by discussing and comparing with phenomena intimate to one’s own background. Share and compare. In any case, the effort in trying to understand others is all good. But it’s more a matter of ongoing dialogue, than of grasping concepts.
JMC’s point apparently flew waaaay over your head. Cultural understanding is not innate in one’s biology, but rather a constantly learned experience. There are some things that just cannot be reached 100% (though it wouldn’t hurt to try), but these are due to ingrained behaviors and ideals growing up rather than DNA.
As a Taiwaese diasporic I’ve appreciated Cole’s writings throughout the years, but here he doesn’t get it. Different cultures identify in-group identity in different ways, and individuals of the culture choose to adhere to those norms or not. For example, Americanism is a national identity of location and beliefs and generally not about blood (though some peopke think you have to be white) or language (some people think you need English.) To be embraced as ethnically Jewish you have to rather strictly meet the blood requirement or conversion requirements. The Chinese, much to my own detriment and the deterriment of many of Taiwanese, claim folks by blood.
What it means to be Taiwanee is still being worked out. Remember that before the 1990s, identifying as Taiwanse could get you jailed or killed. If Cole is not being claimed, it’s important to reflect on why that might be. Identity is not the same thing as cultural exchange (Lang Lang and the piano.)
In my book, you are Taiwanese if you have a love for the island and it’s people to the extent that it is an integral part of your identity. But Cole needs to remember, he is a first generation white Taiwanese. He doesn’t have to carry the weight of the intergenerational trauma of being Hoklo or Hakka or aboriginal Taiwanese, or even the intergenerational trauma of KMT Chinese Taiwanese. Some things you may need to experience in your history to understand…because it is not about understanding, but shared experience. It’s heavy stuff and should be approached with empathy, not false equivalences.
“First-generation white Taiwanese.” I like that very much. Thanks for the honor!
Mr. Cole,
As an American citizen of Taiwanese origin, I have long admired your in-depth reports about the country that I was born in yet whose history I knew little about when I left as a child to attend school in the United States.
So much of the history of Taiwan and its people were kept in the dark by the ruling KMT government when my generation was growing up. I myself learned of my father’s imprisonment on Green Island during the White Terror Era only after coming to the United States, in a chance encounter with an elderly friend of my grandfather revealed this long kept “secret” of my family’s sad history to me. I had never heard of the term “228”. Those were dark days, which must not be allowed to happen again in a society that cherishes democratic ideals and the dignity of a nation and its people.
We must endeavor to continue to shine a light on a path that will lead Taiwan to a future of peace and prosperity, that respects the rights of its people to choose its own destiny in accordance with the principles of law and a vibrant democracy.
Thank you for being the “foreigner” who, through professional training and endeavors, has made Taiwan and this part of the world the focus of your research and journalistic contributions. I look forward to reading more of your informed and insightful analyses of the pressing and complex issues impacting Taiwan’s upcoming election and its future.