I left Taiwan with my family when I was six years old. Since then, I have only visited once when I was eight. Much of what I know of Taiwan is through social media, my distant memories, and the opinions of my family. Yet, despite knowing in my heart that I’m more American than Taiwanese, I have always felt so strongly connected to Taiwan. I love supporting Taiwanese businesses, Taiwanese food is my jam, and it boils my blood when I see Taiwan disrespected in international politics. That is why this post is dedicated to the country that gave me birth and one-half of my hyphenated identity (Taiwanese-American). If you didn’t know anything about Taiwan or Taiwanese culture, here’s your quick guide.
Taiwan is Not China
History of Taiwan
I can’t start this post without addressing this topic. To give you the TLDR version of the history, the history of Taiwan dates back “tens of thousands of years”. Over the course of Taiwan’s history, the Dutch, Spanish, and imperial China had established certain bases of operations there. Most recently in the 20th century, Japan took control of the island before the nationalist government (the Republic of China) in mainland China took control of Taiwan after World War II. Following World War II, the Chinese civil war kicked off in a fight between the nationalist government and the communist government. The nationalist government lost and retreated to Taiwan, where they ruled until the 1980s when democratic reforms took place.
The Indigenous Population
The indigenous people in Taiwan are Austronesian (meaning they’re related to the Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, etc.). They are an entirely different ethnic group from the Han Chinese ethnic group that originated in mainland China. Over the years, the indigenous people suffered at the hands of all the colonizers. They lost their ancestral lands, were forced into cultural assimilation, and still remain significantly disadvantaged.
Han Dominance
Han Chinese with its various ethnic subgroups (such as the Hoklo or Hakka) still dominate Taiwan today. Much of Taiwan’s festivals and holidays have roots in the Han Chinese culture. The Lantern Festival, for example, is a celebration of the end of the Lunar New Year. National Day on October 10 commemorates an uprising in imperial China that ended the last imperial dynasty and led way to the creation of the nationalist government.
The Taiwanese Cultural Identity
In the modern-day, there has been a major push to reassess what it means to be Taiwanese, and it can’t be more evident than in the election cycles when the choice is always between a candidate who is more pro-Beijing and a candidate who is more pro-Taiwanese independence. What I personally loved seeing was the progress Taiwan made when President Tsai issued the first apology ever to the indigenous people.
Aside from the human rights atrocities and the lack of democracy in China, a huge reason why some Taiwanese do not believe in unification with China is partly that Taiwan is no longer a Han Chinese-only society, though Han traditions are dominant. The mix between the indigenous people, the Hoklo, the Hakka, and other Han Chinese who immigrated after World War II means that Taiwan has developed its own, unique Taiwanese culture.
The Taiwanese-American Experience
Being a Taiwanese-American is unique because half of the time, most Taiwanese-Americans will call themselves Chinese. This comes from the idea that the Han Chinese ethnicity has one culture that stems from mainland China. Oftentimes, those who are first-generation or born to immigrant parents mention being Chinese rather than being Taiwanese because the Han Chinese culture in Taiwan remains very dominant in Taiwanese society.
From personal experience, I have been making a conscious effort to separate culture from ethnicity. Culturally, I am Taiwanese. Ethnically, I am Han Chinese (to get really micro, I am half Hakka on my dad’s side). To me, what defines who I am and what my culture is doesn’t come from what modern-day land my ancestors used to live in. It comes from the life that I actually lived.
Though my grandparents on my mother’s side came from the Shangdong province in China, I know nothing of Shangdong but I know everything about their lives in Taiwan. Much like any other immigrant in the U.S., choosing to consciously associate with Taiwan has nothing to do with ethnicity and everything to do with culture.
The Best of Taiwanese Culture
Food
Food is, undoubtedly, the best way to get acquainted with the culture. Much like the blurry lines between what’s considered mainland China and what’s considered Taiwanese, food very much has these same problems. However, there are some very uniquely Taiwanese dishes that cannot be replicated on the mainland.
Here are a list of some of my favorite food growing up.
- Beef Noodle Soup
- Hot Pot
- Stinky Tofu
- Taiwanese Fried Chicken
- Oyster Omelets
- Taiwanese Meatballs (bawan)
- Tofu Pudding
- BOBA!!! (we don’t call it bubble tea here…)
For some more amazing food items, check out this awesome post from Eater!
Entertainment
Taiwanese entertainment is an area of Taiwanese culture that I think gets overlooked because of how popular K-pop is. The super neat thing about Taiwanese entertainment is that since around the 1980s, Taiwanese mandopop was became to take center stage. With the Cultural Revolution in China leaving it isolated from the rest of the world, what the world knew as “Chinese pop” was a lot of times just Taiwanese mandopop.
Similarly, Taiwanese tv dramas are just as popular in South Korea as they are in Taiwan, and the crazy part is that some of the most popular South Korean tv dramas such as Playful Kiss and Boys Over Flowers were actually Taiwanese tv dramas first (adapted from a Japanese manga).
I’m more into the 90s and 00s Taiwanese music rather than dramas, so here are some of my favorite artists:
- A-Mei (an indigenous, Puyuma singer)
- Jolin Tsai
- S.H.E.
- Rainie Yang
- Jay Chou
- F4
- Wang Leehom
- Teresa Teng (I never listened to her much growing up but she is really the reason we have Mandopop!)
For more on Taiwanese culture, check out this great collection of resources from the Tourism Bureau in Taiwan!
Overall, I hope this post was a fun read in getting to know Taiwan! Taiwan is such a diverse and unique country that should get its own time to shine. If you would like to hear more about my experience as an Asian-American growing up in Taiwan in general, then check out the below YouTube video!
