Chapter 49 49．What is the concept of China in your mind?

Q One half of the dream asked the "post-80s" and "post-90s" in Taiwan For you, what is the concept of China?What does the mainland look like in your eyes?From birth, what you see is the land under your feet!What you accept is the education given to you by your adults!What you eat is the melons, fruits, cattle and sheep grown there!For the "rooster" facing each other across the sea, your experience may not be as deep as that of your parents!So in your eyes, are you as enthusiastic about "returning to the motherland" as most people in the mainland? A National Taiwan University Master of Sociology students answering half of their dreams when they were young

It is undeniable that due to historical factors, Taiwan has many complex emotions towards the mainland. These complex emotions may appear as nostalgia among our fathers and grandparents, but the young people of our generation are inevitably confused.In fact, I am a typical child who was educated in Chinese culture, and I have a deep cultural admiration for Chinese classical things. This admiration comes from imaginary China.But cultural proximity doesn't make us feel close to the mainland. For me, cultural admiration is not the same as total identification.Taiwanese of my generation hardly bother about cross-strait issues in their daily lives, because it is increasingly clear that the two have different processes.

Furthermore, I found that mainlanders have very contradictory imaginations of Taiwan.To give the most obvious example: I chatted with an elder sister when I was doing foot bath in Shanghai. She asked me warmly about Taiwan and expressed her warm welcome to the "compatriots". Interestingly, at the end of the conversation, she suddenly asked me: "Oh, how can you speak Mandarin so well? People from Japan and Korea can't speak Mandarin." I went to Shanghai this year and found that the social atmosphere in mainland China has changed. More and more people are starting to think more openly about their relationship with the country. I believe this is not a bad thing for any country.The loosening of ties between the individual and the nation, I think, is a sign of progress.I look forward to seeing a different continent in the future, just like what I see.

> Q49 Extended reading Alice's Begonia / Yang Jiaxian As a Taiwanese born in the late 1970s, I just experienced the transition from the authoritarian era to the non-authoritarian era.I was nine years old when martial law was lifted, and Chiang Ching-kuo passed away the following year. I didn’t know what it meant at the time. I just found out that in a nearby dormitory for part-time students, those youths in blue uniforms all ran out and gathered in the grocery store to watch TV. whispering to each other.A strange atmosphere prevails. And I grew up in Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan in the south. This city was once regarded as a "Holy Land of Democracy" (the "Kaohsiung Incident" once occurred, and many activists outside the Kuomintang were arrested), but some liberal thoughts are also very popular. Strangely, compared to Taipei, it took a little longer to affect the campus life in primary and secondary schools.So, I have some experiences that startle my Taipei friends of the same age.

For example, in elementary school, the class teacher gave each student five cards. If they heard a classmate speak Taiwanese, they could ask the student to hand over one card.At the end of the semester, count the number of cards in each student's hand. The more cards, the more thorough the "Mandarinization" and the less dialects he speaks. He is a good boy and a good citizen.I remember that at that time, everything was in danger, and even when we uttered the local word "啦", a group of students would rush up and shout, "You speak Taiwanese! Give me a copy!" At that time, we thought that the people on the other side all spoke "Mandarin". "Yes, if one day we really want to "unify" together, we can speak Taiwanese, and our compatriots who have not seen each other for a long time will not be able to understand.

Or, I have served as the master of ceremonies for the flag-raising ceremony for a long time.Every holiday, a celebration meeting will be held on the day before the court meeting, such as "Youth Day Celebration Meeting", "Constitution Day Celebration Meeting" and so on.I flattened my white uniform, brushed my hair, and stood on the side of the command platform, consciously announcing in a voice three times more solemn than usual: "The commemorative meeting has begun—now the principal will give us a speech!" The ceremony ended, and the audience The students put big beads on their foreheads, no one was listening, they made strange faces and kicked each other with their toes.The point is that in the end I was able to lead the whole school to shout slogans with high spirits. The content of the slogans was nothing more than "obey the leader's leadership" and "unify China with the Three Principles of the People".Participating in speech contests and composition competitions, no matter what, I must write "Save the mainland compatriots in dire straits" at the end to show that I always keep such a solemn belief in my heart.

However, maybe it was because it was the end of the martial law culture, and everything was formalized. In fact, I never knew what kind of "dire straits" the "mainland compatriots" were trapped in.All I know is that the mainland is huge and has many provinces, and you have to memorize the products and transportation routes of each province. If you are asked on the test paper: "Wang Xiaoming wants to take the train from Fuzhou to Beijing to visit his uncle, which railways will he pass?" You must be able to answer correctly. . There is a set of "Beautiful Begonias" in the childhood books, with color pictures, coated paper, and phonetic notation. The content is that assuming that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have been reunified, a group of elementary school students from Taiwan will go to the mainland for a year-long visit.Those children's words bring readers into the world that they only read in geography textbooks in the past, such as West Lake, Harbin, Hohhot, and Yarlung Zangbo River.That world is both familiar and strange, and I suddenly walked into a dream like Alice. There is no rabbit, but there is a pocket watch that keeps ticking, reminding me of the existence of some jet lag.