FAQ of Alt.taiwan.republic _________________________________________________________________ Here is the FAQ I did for this group a year ago. I am relinquishing it to public domain. You can use it for whatever purpose, be it for a new faq maintainer, personal references, etc. *************************************************************************** THE OFFICIAL ALT.TAIWAN.REPUBLIC FAQ ____ _/ \ Version 0.4 / | / | Last Modified . / | Written by: April 29, 1994 ::. . / Taiwan | . | | Po-Han Lin . . |_ / (plin@usc.edu) \_ / \ | |_| *************************************************************************** --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * DISCLAIMER * --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ is to aid in informing the public and new readers about this newsgroup alt.taiwan.republic. I claim NO responsibility regarding any activity in this newsgroup, nor any detrimental effects derived directly or indirectly from this newsgroup and this FAQ. The information contained in this newsgroup reflects the posters' opinion. This group was not created by me, nor do I take ownership of it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * COPYRIGHT NOTICE * (Removed) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- How Do I Navigate Quickly in this FAQ? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To navigate quickly to a topic, examine the Table of Contents for items of interest. Then, using the search feature of your editor/reader, jump to the appropriate section. All major sections have been designated a letter of the alphabet, while the sub-sections given a numerical number. The sections and sub-sections are enclosed in brackets "[]". Thus, to jump to Section A, you would search for string "[A.0]" (Without the quotes of course). To jump to Sub-Section 2 of Section A, search for string "[A.2]". The Table of Contents can be quickly accessed by searching for string "[0.0]" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [0.0] TABLE OF CONTENTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Introduction 1. What is a FAQ? How do I contribute? 2. What is this newsgroup about? 3. What is the general topics of discussion, and how should I behave? B. Frequently Asked Questions and Answers 1. What do those weird characters mean? 2. Why is there only one question? C. History of the island of Taiwan. D. Ethnicities/Languages in Taiwan. E. Politics 1. The Republic of China government in Taiwan 2. Foreign countries that recognizes ROC. 3. Taiwan Independence, Unification, and Status Quo viewpoints. 1. Taiwan Independence (TI) 2. Unification (U) 3. Status Quo 4. Presidents of Taiwan F. Pronunciation, Romanization, and Chinese Text 1. Mandarin Romanization (Wade-Giles, PinYin) 2. Minnan Romanization. 3. Displaying Chinese characters. X. Terms and Abbreviations. 1. Terms. 2. Abbreviations. Y. People 1. Taiwan 2. China 3. Hong Kong 4. Tibet Z. Other Information. 1. Aknowledgements 2. Versions of this FAQ. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [A.0] Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [A.1] What is a FAQ? FAQ means Frequently Asked Questions. This FAQ pertains to the newsgroup "alt.taiwan.republic". To contribute to the FAQ, please send E-mail to "plin@usc.edu" explaining what your suggestions and/or comments are, and I'll think about incorporating them into the next version of the FAQ. [A.2] What is this newsgroup about? This newsgroup is basically about Taiwan, and need not be restricted to topics related to the culture of Taiwan. Nuff said. [A.3] What is the general topics of discussion, and how should I behave? The posters here tend to post a LOT about politics, especially those concerning Taiwan independence and/or Taiwan-China reunification. Now and then, someone will post things dealing with culture, but sometimes they get drowned and lost among the political discussions. But don't give up, you'll just have search for them. If you find a topic that you would like to discuss, then initiate the post. Most people like to talk about different subjects, but if no one initiates a topic other than politics, you'll expect them to continue with the hot topics of TI and U. There are good behaviors, and there are bad behaviors in this newsgroup. Mostly, people could care less about what you post, as long as you do not CROSSPOST topics not directly related to Taiwan. If your post is dealing specificly with China, post to china newsgroups like _soc.culture.china_ or _talk.politics.china_. The same applies with Tibet and Hong Kong; post in their specific newsgroups. Unless your topic has relevance to Taiwan, I would suggest you not to crosspost to alt.taiwan.republic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [B.0] Frequently Asked Questions and Answers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [B.1] What are those groups of weird characters? If the group of characters are all in capital letters, then most likely it is an abbreviation of a term or group of terms. For example TI means Taiwan Independence. Look in section X for common abbreviations and their meaning. If a group of characters end in a number, then most likely it is a Romanization of a Chinese word. See section E for info on Wade-Giles and PinYin Romanization. If a group of characters don't seem to be from the common alphabet, then most likely it is a specially coded Chinese character. See section E, subsection 3, for more info. Lastly, if the group of characters looks like "@#$%##@", then that person is cursing at you without spelling those curse words. :) [B.2] Why is there only one question? More to come in later versions of this FAQ. But the main reason I think is because not many people ask questions on this newsgroup. If you think the FAQ should explain something, please email me. I also tend not to phrase the answers to a specific question, but rather categorize answers to a related topic. Thus, if you feel you need to know something, look in the table of contents to check if its in this FAQ. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [C.0] History of the island of Taiwan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Taiwan is an island 250 miles long and 60-80 miles wide located about 100 miles off of Fukien province (Mainland China). It was named Formosa (beautiful) by Portuguese traders in the 16th century. Taiwan was populated for most of its history by Malayo-Polynesian aboriginies, and in late 16th century, began to be settled by Chinese traders, bandits, and peasants from mainland China. In 1683, Ching dynasty under the Manchu rule in China took over the island and merged it with the Fukien province. In 1885, Taiwan became a separate province under the Ching government. By then, the populace consisted mostly of immigrants from Fukien or Kwangtung province, and their decendents. Most of people in Taiwan at this time exported sugar, tea, and camphor to China, while imported mostly textiles and opium. After the first Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895. During this time, Taiwan was transformed into a Japanese colony, with the eventual goal of assimilation into Japan. Many things were changed to reflect the Meiji Japan. A centralized bureaucracy, headed by a military figure was installed. Modern police systems enforcing law, order, morality, and public hygiene was instituted. Government development and control of communications and transportations, along with mass elementary education were also placed on the public. In addition, development of agriculture, banking, and industries deemed suitable for colonies were also set up. In 1903, railroads linking the north and south of Taiwan was completed. In 1905, Taiwan was economically self-supporting. Common schools were built for Taiwanese that taught modern science, Confucian morals, and the Japanese language. In 1915, the first middle school for Taiwanese were established. By 1929, 31 percent of school-age children attended the schools. In 1944, it was 71 percent. After the Japanese defeat in World War II, Taiwan again became a province of China. Kuomintang (KMT) officials viewed the island as conquered territory (because of previous Japanese occupation), and went in to take control of the land and resources. Originally, welcomed by the Taiwanese, the harsh treatment from greedy and corrupt administrators resulted in uprisings. The protests continued, and cumulated in the significant date of February 28th, 1947 shootings, by the KMT army, of thousands of Taiwanese protesters. From 1949 on, the KMT, along with 2 million soldiers retreated to Taiwan when they were defeated by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) People's Liberation Army in mainland China. The KMT since then, has governed the Republic of China from Taiwan, while the CCP has government the People's Republic of China from Mainland China. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [D.0] Ethnicities/Languages in Taiwan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- China has over 3000 dialects alone. However, many dialects are grouped by their main province or area of origination, and thus we can group them into six broad categories. They are Mandarin, Hakkanese, Cantonese, Fuchienese, Xiang, and Wu. The prominant ones spoken in Taiwan are Minnan (Southern Fuchienese), Hakkanese, and Mandarin. The majority of the population in Taiwan today consists of people decended from ancestors that immigrated from Fukien province. Shortly after the KMT moved ROC to Taiwan, the official language of Mandarin has been adopted on the island. Although schools, radio, TV, and government institutions conduct their business in Mandarin, the majority of the population speak Minnan at home (55%-60%). Today, as a result of vast assemilation between the mainland ROC and the original inhabitants of Taiwan, Minnan has become quite acceptable for many businesses, and there are now TV programs conducted in this dialect as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [E.0] Politics -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [E.1] The Republic of China government in Taiwan. The Republic of China (ROC) was originally dominated by a one-party system when it moved from mainland China to Taiwan. The party in charge of ROC since 1949 is the Kuomintang (KMT). Lately, multi-parties were allowed to exist, and now we have the Democratic Progressive Party, and the Chinese New Party. The CNP was created in 1993, and consists of breakaway members of the KMT. The policy of ROC is that it is the rightful ruler of China, and Taiwan is a part of China. Since the defeat of the KMT to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Red Army in mainland China, the KMT retreated with its army to Taiwan. CCP, on the other hand, set up the People's Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China, and also declared that they are the rightful rulers of China, and Taiwan is part of China. The main policy of ROC towards PRC is that of the "three-nos." No contact, no compromise, and no negotiations. Thus today, the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC in mainland China are still hostile to each other, with each competing for recognition by foreign countries and international organizations. Some major events that shaped Taiwan since 1949... United States provided economic, diplomatic, and military support: Economic: $2 billion in aid up to the year 1968. Diplomatic: Helped Taiwan attain seat in the United Nations. Military: Mutual Defense Treaty (1954-1980) allowed American Seventh Fleet to patrol the Straits of Taiwan. Isolation of ROC in Taiwan as a result of PRC pressures in Mainland China 1971 - ROC loses seat in United Nations. PRC gains seat in United Nations. 1979 - United States switches recognition from ROC to PRC. 1980 - ROC loses membership in World Bank and International Monetary Fund Softening of relations between ROC and PRC 1987 - ROC lifts ban on (indirect) travel to China. [E.2] Foreign Countries that Recognize ROC. Apostolic Nunciature, Bahamas, Belize, Central African Republic, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Malawi, Nauru, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Swaziland, Vatican. List may not be totally accurate, nor complete. Please correct me. [E.3] Taiwan Independence, Unification, and Status Quo Viewpoints [E.3.1] Taiwan Independence viewpoints The main reason TIers want TI is based on the age-old concept of self-interest or self-preservation. TIers view mainland China's population with either sympathy or contempt. This is based on the constant reinforcement of negative news coming from mainland China. * Mainland China is poor. Every time someone from Taiwan goes to China, the relatives they visit ask for money or some sort of economic support. They see the backwardness (in comparison to Taiwan) of the living conditions. There is a lack of luxuries commonly found in capitalistic societies. Over 70% of the mainland Chinese are peasants. They thrive on the soil, sometimes living on the brink of survival. * Mainland China has a more oppressive government. The people in China usually view the government with fear or hate. Most people there tend to shun away from the government, tending to whisper or keep to themselves the negative views of their government. You can get jailed or killed by the government there, and sometimes you just can't do anything about it. The government rules with an iron-fist, whatever it wants to do, it does, and anyone that gets in the way is met with some sort of punishment. In other words, there is no legal way to voice your negative views and be guaranteed that you will not be "punished". The media in mainland china is government censured. * Mainland China lacks individual freedom (i.e. human rights) when compared to Taiwan or "Western" nations. You cannot travel from one part of China to another part without prior permission. If the government wants you to live somewhere else, you are relocated. You want more than 1 child? Nope. You want to voice your negative views against the government? Nope. You want to change your career? Get permission. You want to live somewhere else? get permission. You want to exit the country? Even if you get a VISA from another country, you still have to get permission from the government. Want to start another political party? nope. * Mainland China keeps having negative news. 1989 Tienanmen massacre. Forced relocation of Tibetan people to other parts of China. Starvation, famine, and floods from past history. Corruption of officials in the government. People in mainland China sell themselves to slave-dealers, hoping for a better life in the U.S. Students in the U.S. seeking protection and permanent visas after Tienanment massacre. More recently, the thousand lakes debacle. Hijackers risk their lives to fly to Taiwan. * Taiwan is Taiwan. Taiwan was never a major entity of China in its history. Taiwan's has not been part of mainland China for over 50 years, and why should it now? The major improvements in Taiwan was initiated by Japanese occupation. The majority of the population in Taiwan is Taiwanese, and the decendents of 2 million KMT troops and officials that came over from mainland do not represent the majority of the 20 million people in Taiwan now. Taiwanese never had a say in how they want to be governed when KMT retreated to Taiwan after losing to CCP. The "Taiwan is part of China, and ROC is ruler of China" policy was initiated by the KMT, and the Taiwanese never had a say in that policy. This is why most TIers do not like the KMT. TIers wants to get out the message that KMT came from mainland China, took over Taiwan, oppressed the Taiwanese people, and the KMT's original interest is to take China back, not to represent the Taiwanese population. Thus, the KMT do not represent Taiwanese, but are trying to represent the whole of China. In conclusion, TIers want to keep their self-preservation and self-interest. They don't want to risk losing what they have now. They have a better economy. They have more individual freedom. The government is less oppressive. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are all doing better than mainland China now, and they are all Chinese. If we are better separated, why reunify? They also believe that TI may grant Taiwan international recognition. [E.3.2] Unification Viewpoints Uers views on U are based on the idea of the grand unification of all Chinese is better than being separated. They believe in the common fate of the Chinese being together harmoniously, and this unification will bond all the Chinese together under one roof. They believe that a Chinese nation will be better and more "powerful" unified rather than being broken up into little pieces competing and fighting amongst themselves. Most of their views are driven by the following... * Many other countries have reunified successfully. West Germany and East Germany unified, and they seem to be ok (although the end result was that the communists gave up control). China and Hong kong and Macao have already set a deadline for reunification. It is only a stepping stone-away for Taiwan to do the same, and there will be one Greater China. * Mainland China is improving. The recent economic zones set up seem to be very successful, and if left undisturbed will probably surpass the economic conditions in Taiwan in the future. There is even a economic zone set-up in Fukien province for Taiwanese investment (a political decision with the hope of staving off TI, by creating economic dependencies across the strait). * The government will have to change based on the current trends. With the current government in China being ruled by a few powerful old individuals, time is at hand where there might be drastic changes in the government as younger recruits replace dying officials. The assumption is that the economy will drive China to a better future, and politics will have to change in face of this force. As China cooperates with "western" nations, there will be pressure to adapt to demands of a free economy, which will probably lead to more individual freedom, and a better living environment. * If we declare TI, then mainland China will attack Taiwan. In the end, many will die in a "civil" war, which will not benefit both sides. Peace is always better than war. However, Uers often want reunification with a condition. And that condition is that they want China to catch up with Taiwan and then Unify, or Unify, but leave Taiwan alone until China catches up. "Catching up" is usually referred to economically, but sometimes politically and democratically as well. In conclusion, Uers take on the optimistic view that mainland China will improve to a point that it will equal or surpass Taiwan's economy (or some other factors) and it would be better that we join forces rather than stay as separate entities. They believe that since we are all Chinese, we are brothers. Uers want to stave off TI and allow mainland China a chance to improve themselves, and leave the probability for reunion. If we have TI now, then the hope for reunion is less optimistic, or we may end up starting a war. Note that for Uers I generalize for those that came from Taiwan. Most mainland Chinese are of course for U, but some usually want reunification without condition, or concern for how these ramifications may affect the Taiwanese. Note that some officials in the government of ROC want U in this similar fashion because they tend to view it from the standpoint of the whole of China, rather than the people living in Taiwan. [E.3.3] Status Quo Viewpoints This last group of people believe that we should leave Taiwan as it is right now, and not declare independence, nor reunification. They believe declaring TI or U is not a good choice now, and we should not upset the balance and stability currently attained in Taiwan. [E.4] Presidents of ROC 1911 Li2 Yuan2 Hong2 1911-1912 Yuan2 Shi4 Kai3 (83 days) 1912-1925 Dr. Sun Yat-sen (Acting) 1926 Chiang Kai-shek 1949: Relocation of ROC to Taiwan. Presidential terms limited to 6 years with possibility of re-election. Term 1 began in 1948. 1948-1975 Chiang Kai-shek 1949 Li Zong-Ren (Substitute President for CKS) 1975-1978 Yan2 Jia1 Gan4 (Finished CKS's term after death) 1978-1988 Chiang Ching-Kuo 1988-Now Lee Deng-Hui (Finished CCK's term after death, re-elected 1990) ?Xu2 Shi4 Chang1 ?Cao2 Kun1 (bought votes) ?Feng Guo-zhang -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [F.0] Pronounciation and Romanization, and Chinese Text -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [F.1] Mandarin Romanization Some people, when trying to write Chinese using the Roman alphabet, will usually use either of two standardized Mandarin Romanization methods. One is called Wade-Giles, predominantly used by English-speakers, and the other called PinYin, used by the PRC, and is based on northern Chinese pronunciation. Note that before the change to PinYin, most cities and provinces in China used even another system, called the Chinese Post Office system, and this system is based on southern Chinese pronunciations. An example of this is Peking. Note that the official name is now Beijing, using PinYin. If you translate this into Wade-Giles, it comes to Pei-ching. Note that in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the cities still use the Chinese Post Office system, while in mainland China, they are all changed to PinYin. Since Mandarin has 4 major accents, most words when Romanized will have a number at the end, indicating the way to pronunciate it. Some examples of differences between Wade-Giles (WG) and PinYin (PY)... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | WG | ch | ch' | hs | j | k | k' | p | p' | t | t' | ts | ts',tz' | |----+------+-----+----+---+---+----+---+----+---+----+----+---------| | PY | j,zh | q | x | r | g | k | b | p | d | t | z | c | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Usually, PinYin is more accurate in the actual way the Chinese words are pronounced in Mandarin. [F.2] Minnan and other Romanizations. I have come across a "standard" way to romanize Minnan. I'll describe it in the next release. As for other dialects, anybody that wants to give me more info, please do. [F.3] Displaying Chinese Characters. If you see random garbage in a posting, they will most likely signify Chinese ascii codes. Some people have special clients or operating systems that will translate those special ascii codes, on the fly, into a Chinese word, and graphically represent the word on their terminal, thus allowing them to read Chinese words, rather than a romanization of the words. If you want to read them, you have no choice but to get this special client or operating system. There are two special newsgroups set aside for these Chinese ascii codes, and they are "alt.chinese.text", and "alt.chinese.text.big5" There are basically three main types of systems for encoding Chinese words into ascii codes, and they are called HZ, GB, and Big5. All three are very similar in that they all use two bytes to represent a Chinese character. Since a byte can represent any value between 0-255, and the ascii codes for the English alphabet and common symbols are represented from 0-127, that leaves values 128-255 for other uses. GB and Big5 uses those 128-255 values for encoding Chinese characters. Since there are more than 7000 commonly used Chinese characters, you need two bytes to represent all of them. The only difference between GB and Big5 are their different encoding methods, and the different types of Chinese characters they are trying to represent. GB means GuoBiao (National Standard), and is used mainly in mainland China to represent the simplified Chinese characters. Big5 is used mainly in Taiwan, and represents the traditional Chinese characters. However, you can usually change the fonts used by the software to display either the simplified, or the traditional form of Chinese characters. Now since USENET are sometimes propagated through UUCP for some schools, and UUCP strips the 8th bit on transmissions, GB and Big5 users get distorted codes. Hence HZ (HanZi) was created. This encoding method envolves coding using the 0-127 values, thus allowing regular transmissions using only 7 bits. To make it compatible with the ascii American alphabet and symbols, HZ incorporates a BEGIN and END code in the text to tell the client when to start translating into Chinese, and when to stop. BEGIN is represented by ~{ and END by ~} Thus, if you have a system the uses Big5, post it to "alt.chinese.text.big5" only. If you have a system that uses HZ, post to "alt.chinese.text" only. I don't know any newsgroups that specifically use GB though. Note that if you post in one of the groups, a special client has been set up that will automatically process your message, translate it, and post it on the other group. Therefore, you need not post twice to the two newsgroups. For more info, read newsgroups "alt.chinese.text" and "alt.chinese.text.big5", and search for their FAQ. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [X.0] Terms and Abbreviations -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [X.1] Terms HanJian - Category of Chinese people regarded as betraying the Han people. [X.2] Abbreviations 2-28 - Feb 28, 1947. Date KMT army killed many protesting Taiwanese after taking over the island, as a result of Japan's losing WWII. 6.4 - June 4, 1989. Date of Tiananmen Square Massacre in mainland China. A.T.R. - Abbreviation of alt.taiwan.republic CCP - Chinese Communist Party. The party in control of PRC in mainland China. Note that both CCP and KMT both claim rightful rulers of China, and Taiwan is part of China. CKS - Chiang Kai-shek. (Pres. of ROC when they moved to Taiwan) CND - China News Digest. Daily internet relayed news concerning China. CNP - Chinese New Party. Rival party to the KMT in ROC. Formed in 1993. CR - Cultural Revolution. Mao Tse-tung initiated the Cultural Revolution to change mainland China what you see today. DPP - Democratic Progressive Party. Rival party to the KMT in ROC. FEC - Special currency for foreigners used in Mainland China. Has been abolished in 1994. Merged with the Renminbi (RMB) HK - Hong Kong IMO - In my opinion. (or IMHO - In my humble opinion) JD - Joint Declaration. "Treaty" between Britain and China, stating the policy of returning Hong Kong to mainland China in 1997. KMT - Kuomintang. The party in control of ROC in Taiwan. Note that both KMT and CCP both claim rightful rulers of China, and Taiwan is part of China. MFN - Most Favored Nation. An import-export status given to a foreign nation such that that nation is treated the "low" tarriffs and duties as other trading nations. In this case, U.S. giving MFN to mainland China would allow mainland China to trade with U.S. like how the U.S. trades with most of her trading partners like Japan, England, and Germany. OOOE - One On One Education. PLA - People's Liberation Army. The army of PRC (mainland China) PRC - People's Republic of China. Socialist (Communist) Government in mainland China. RMB - Renminbi. Official currency of mainland China. ROC - Republic of China. Nationalist Government in Taiwan. S.C.A.A. - Abbreviation of soc.culture.asian.american (SCAA) S.C.C. - Abbreviation of soc.culture.china (SCC) S.C.H.K. - Abbreviation of soc.culture.hongkong (SCHK) S.C.T. - Abbreviation of soc.culture.taiwan (SCT) TI - Taiwan Independence. The opinion that the island of Taiwan should be independent from mainland China politically. TIer - Person who believes in Taiwan Independance. U - Unification. Belief that Taiwan and mainland China should be reunited politically. Uer - Person who believes in Taiwan-China reunification is best solution for Taiwan. UN - United Nations. PRC is a member, ROC is not. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Y.0] Important People. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Y.1] Taiwan Chiang Kai-shek - Was president of ROC when it fought PRC and lost, and retreated with the army to Taiwan. Lee Teng-hui - President of ROC (First Taiwan born president) Sun Yat-sen - Leader that brought about ROC (when in Mainland China) during the end of the Ching Dynasty. [Y.2] China Deng Xiao-ping - Most senior leader in Mainland China's CCP. Because of old age and deteriating health, he does not run the CCP daily anymore. Li Peng - Premier of PRC Zhu Rongji - Vice-Premier of PRC. [Y.3] Hong Kong Patten, Chris - Governor of Hong Kong. [Y.4] Tibet Dalai Lama - Tibetan leader that advocates Tibet as a separate nation from Mainland China. He leads a refuge government in India ever since 1959. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Z.0] Other Information -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Z.1] Acknowledgements I've been taking a lot of info off of the newsgroups, so if you see something that look like yours, then I thank you (and don't sue me!) Thanks to the following people for their constructive criticism and contributions (and others, if I missed you).... James Chen, James Ting, Ruben Tsui, Petei Kang, Sandy Yeh, Gang Yue, Joseph Wang. [Z.2] Versions. Version .4 Apr 29, 1994. This one. Version .3 Mar 6, 1994. Version .2 Jan 19, 1994. Version .1 Jan 14, 1994. _________________________________________________________________