with their life's experience different from that of their fathers, they would also have feelings toward the place where they live. With the growing Taiwan nativist consciousness, not only do native Taiwanese advance the idea that "self-determination will save Taiwan," but on August 23 of this year [1993] we witnessed the establishment of the Mainland Emigrés Society for the Advancement of Taiwan Independence. Moreover, with South Korea and the PRC signing the communique on August 24 establishing diplomatic ties, the last country in Asia to have formal diplomatic ties with the ROC severed such relations; and this was immediately followed by the establishment of the "One Taiwan One China Action Coalition" on Taiwan, which in action opposed the "One China Policy" that had brought about a diplomatic crisis.

     Being so bold as to adopt actions that violate the National Security Law, these organizations are obviously counting upon the support of public opinion behind them.   Premier Hau Pei-tsun emphasized on September 25, during the very first day of the Legislative Yüan's general administrative inquiry, "The day there is no more Republic of China, there'll be no more Taiwan the next."  But such remarks notwithstanding, on the day that the name of the Republic of China is no longer viable internationally and the PRC is also a threatening power, the calls for independence on the island of Taiwan will become in any practical sense unstoppable, except by the reinstitution of martial law.
     Taiwan faces a national identity problem, which is manifested not only in politics but actually in culture as well.  The standardized curriculum of the KMT since 1945 has heretofore stressed Chinese culture at the expense of native Taiwanese culture.  Except for the aborigines, belonging to the Austronesian language family, most of the people living on Taiwan are the descendants of Kwangtung and Fukien immigrants--a mixture of Han and Southeast China cultures, and yet they are also mixed with the bloodlines and culture of the P'ing-p'u tribe.  The Han component has formed a strong culture during its long three to four hundred year period of development on Taiwan, but nevertheless is not without unique local features, while the fifty-year period of Japanese colonial rule has also left a certain layer of culture.  Culture differs from the life of an individual, and basically can be counted in units of 100 years.  Putting aside the distant past, of the last 100 years, the first half saw Japan importing her culture to Taiwan, which was especially true during the Japanization movement in 1937, when Japan forcibly turned Taiwan towards Japan;   the opposite happened during the post-war period when Taiwan was forcibly twisted towards China.  Although Taiwan's society is one that basically reflects Han culture, these wide swings in direction made it difficult for the society to adapt.  

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