Relating to decoloniality

This is a take home essay I wrote for course 2101 at ISS in February, 2023.

Introduction

Taiwan is rich in colonial history. The recognition of coloniality helps me understand my surroundings and the existing social structures more; and to me, working on decoloniality is an important task. First, it is necessary to claim that coloniality is the rationalized invisibility and stagnant disadvantaged status of the colonized, the toxic heritage from colonization still deeply embedded in societies (Quijano, 2000). Accordingly, I think decoloniality is to eliminate coloniality by discovering the obliterated and healing the colonial traumas. It can open up new space to co-create a future where everyone can find and truly express themselves, demonstrating their own vitality and well-being. The following essay will briefly describe the most influential Taiwanese colonial history in my context, followed by my perception of coloniality and vision of decoloniality.

Brief Taiwanese colonial history

Before WW2, Taiwan was colonized by Japan for 50 years. The KMT regime from mainland China, called the Republic of China, legitimately took over Taiwan after Japan lost the war. People who moved to Taiwan with the KMT regime in 1949 are called Mainlanders. The distinction between Mainlander and Native Taiwanese was emphasized due to severe political conflicts during KMT’s totalitarian governance (Shih and Chen, 2010); the autocracy was claimed to be peacefully altered into democracy in 1987 when the government lifted the martial law.

Both Japanese and KMT regimes characterized colonialism, oppressed indigenous and Native Taiwanese who had been living on the islands before the colonizers arrived. For instance, Japanese and Mainlanders both put themselves in the highest positions of the social structure, holding most power in the public and private sectors, and degraded the others as inferior. Also, languages other than Japanese/Mandarin were banned and discriminated. Stigmas and stereotypes of ethnic groups were formulated hierarchically by pairing identities and languages with social status, jobs and income (Jacob, 2008).

The colonist authorities shaped the institutions to enhance the ideologies they wanted to convey, and the segregation between colonizers and the colonized, for taming and silencing the latter. During the Japanese ruled period, Japanese, Native Taiwanese and indigenous people had to go to different schools that were linked to specific occupations. Later, KMT claimed to abolish segregated education, but people’s access to knowledge was controlled. The education setting aimed to insert strong Chinese nationalism and anti-communism. Moreover, dissentients were constantly threatened or killed (Jacob, 2008.).

How I experience coloniality

I am an offspring of Native Taiwanese (although there is almost no clear separation between Native Taiwanese and Mainlanders in my generation). I was born and raised in Taipei, the capital city. My parents are both tender and obedient, seldom questioning or conflicting. My grandparents were born during Japanese domination, experienced the post-war regime shift; they obviously preferred the Japanese government over the KMT government. Additionally, colonial education successfully created an alienated and self-interested majority who would not question authority (Üstündağ, 2016), like most adults from my extended family, especially females. To most of them, politics only meant not voting for KMT in elections, while several who followed KMT’s education and bureaucracy more closely had become loyal supporters. They avoid having deeper discussions or engaging in political issues since “politics is dirty and dangerous”.

Since childhood, my parents and most teachers always emphasized that students should focus on getting good grades for eventually having a decent job and ordinary good life. I was taught to believe in the system of modernity which “organizes the world ontologically in terms of atomic, homogeneous, separable categories. (Lugones, p.742, 2010)”, which constituted through the colonist regimes and solidly embedded within the current societies. I put much effort trying to triumph in it and sacrificed explorations in many other aspects, while part of me doubted why this is how the world should be.

Growing up in the capital city, I knew no more than five indigenous people before my 20s. I had prejudices towards them due to my ignorance and privileges. What I heard about the indigenous was the stereotypes that they are lazy, poor, alcoholics, less intelligent but more athletic. I also slightly envied that they get bonus scores in entrance exams when getting into high schools and colleges. Although never being hostile towards the unknown indigenous people, I did not think about the discriminations profoundly or disprove them. Furthermore, I remember a famous incident when an indigenous group who moved to Taipei petitioned regarding their housing issue, the ex-President Ma from KMT answered the following:

“You came to our city; thus, you are one of us. I see you as a human, as a citizen. I educate you and offer you opportunities. So, I think the attitude of you, indigenous people, should be: I came here, so I should play the game according to the rules here.”

(Huang, Li, and Fu, 2007)

The above shows Ma’s default mentality of being a Chinese colonizer is naturally a higher-class human. To him, considering the indigenous as humans is an extra mercy for them. It resonances with Lugones’ statement that the center of colonial modernity is the dichotomous hierarchy between humans and non-humans, while the non-modern colonized would be valued as the latter (p 743, 2010). Some Native Taiwanese would use the term “supreme Mainlander-dog”, as I had heard from my family, implying their aversion towards Mainlanders who are with a strong sense of superiority.

I started establishing explicit political awareness since engaging in a significant social movement in 2014, and volunteered in citizen groups working on transitional justice the next year. From there, I have become more sensitive to coloniality, especially targeting the KMT regime as the primary culprit. Besides, my interest in indigenous culture and concerns about the relevant issues have particularly increased since 2016, relating to the fact that I have made more indigenous friends and confirmed my love of nature. However, even though I thought I had been paying attention to coloniality and the indigenous, seeing my underprivileges has been much easier than noticing my privileges. Discoveries of my blindness will always continue.

In 2020, during a discussion about the upcoming presidential election, I expressed my strong opinions against the KMT candidate to an indigenous friend; he said, “whoever is elected would mean the same to indigenous people”. Feeling slightly unhappy, I replied, “sounds like you think the indigenous are irrelevant to our common future or not part of Taiwanese people”. After a long time, I finally understood what he meant when this conversation suddenly reemerged in my mind, and I was so ashamed. I failed to notice how bad the marginalization had been of the indigenous back then. I have not stopped participating in reproducing the invisibility of the colonized myself.

Decoloniality in my context

Inevitably inheriting coloniality, I have to start decoloniality from myself. Fluidity is essential. I must always value and be open to confrontations, alternations, and unfamiliarity. Because coloniality intertwines with my life experiences, being careful not to persist on what I am used to is necessary. Regarding a broader social context, challenging the dominant colonial institutions and discourses, as well as offering reappraisals are crucial. It is needed to identify the oppressing colonial discourses and to weaken them. For example, in Taiwan’s context, Chinese nationalism and the name “Republic of China (R.O.C.)” should become history. However, both are still prevalent among KMT supporters, and R.O.C. is still the official name of Taiwan.

Regarding this, it is worth mentioning that in 2020, on the cover of the new version of the Taiwanese passport, the word “Taiwan” was enlarged, and “Republic of China” was removed. The official reason for this is to avoid confusion between Taiwanese and Chinese regarding the entry ban during COVID pandemic; KMT posted against this decision, saying that the action was to influence political ideology since the two passports are always in different colors (BBC News Chinese, 2020). The above could be a good sign for decoloniality in Taiwan, but there are still many to do. For instance, the indigenous activists protested non-violently for five years, requesting legal rights regarding their deprived traditional territories, most of which are currently “owned” by the State. After being expelled many times, the movement had paused since the last expel in March 2022, without getting the desired results (Indigenous Transformative Justice TW, 2022). It had been an unaccomplished attempt at decoloniality.

Conclusion

Despite the frustrations, I believe that the decolonial movements in Taiwan will be long-lasting and stronger, until there is no need for it anymore. Decoloniality is to acknowledge what erase and what is erased, making all stories complete as a whole. The full story should become the source for reconstituting the status quo in a just way. After accomplishing the task of decoloniality, a better new story will be co-written.

References

BBC News Chinese (2020) “台灣護照改版：「中華民國」英文字樣「幾乎消失」” [Taiwanese passport new version: English words of “Republic of China” become almost invisible]. 3 September. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese-news-54010521 (Accessed: 9 January 2022)

Huang, J. R., Li, S. F., and Fu, C. B. (2007) “「把原民當人看」馬發言挨批” [“See the indigenous as humans”, President Ma was criticized], Liberty Times Net, 27 December. Available at: https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/paper/178072 (Accessed: 9 January 2022)

Indigenous Transformative Justice TW (2022) 一起陪原住民族劃出回家的路[Accompanying the indigenous to draw the way home]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/IndigenousTransformativeJusticeTW/ (Accessed: 9 January 2022)

Jacobs, J. B. (2008) “Taiwan’s Colonial History and Postcolonial Nationalism”, In: Chow, P.C.Y. (eds) The “One China” Dilemma. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi-org.eur.idm.oclc.org/10.1057/9780230611931_3

Lugones, Maria. (2010) “Toward a Decolonial Feminism”, Hypatia, 25(4), 742–759.

Quijano, A. (2000) “Coloniality of Power and Eurocentrism in Latin America”, International Sociology, 15, 215–232.

Shih, C. and Chen, M. (2010) “Taiwanese Identity and the Memories of 2–28: A Case for Political Reconciliation”, Asian Perspective, 34(4), pp. 85–113. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42704735 (Accessed: 9 January 2022)

Üstündağ, N. (2016) “Self-Defense as a Revolutionary Practice in Rojava, or How to Unmake the State”, South Atlantic Quarterly, 115, 197–210. Durham: Duke University Press.