A Haven We Don't Deserve

Ondy Ho
Jun 2, 2019
3 min read

Updated: Sep 17, 2019

They say "home is where your heart is", but in many cases here, home is where we take for granted and criticize heavily on.

Taiwan is a small(bigger than Belgium actually) country with its repeatedly claiming 23 million people. (Fun question here, other than Taiwan and China, which other countries do this?) We're not famous of too many things in the world, other than ...

being the 3rd most democratic in Asia

being the 1st to accept same-sex marriage in Asia

being very vegetarian-friendly (reported by the CNN)

having a female president

having the one of the best national health insurance in the world

helping Chinese refugees

...

Do none of that stand out? Of course, they do. We just don't care enough. These may not seem profitable. It's false assumption but fine. What about ...

Tech

Acer and Asus are two of the world leaders in laptop production, and with these two giants of the industry in Taiwan, it’s no shock that there are hundreds of smaller local companies riding along on their coattails. Taiwan produces a huge percentage of the world’s computer components, and it’s not too far behind on peripherals and hardware. Taiwan is also home to Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and IT trade fairs.

Bike

Taiwan is home to both Merida and Giant Bicycle manufacturers. Giant is accepted as the world’s largest bike manufacturer while Merida sells their bikes in 77 countries. Taiwanese locals have a serious love affair with cycling, so it’s understandable that both Giant and Merida have honed their skills to become the powerhouses of the industry that they are today.

History

Most people assume that the vast majority of imperial Chinese artifacts would be in Beijing, but they are in fact here in Taiwan’s National Palace Museum. Here you’ll find the world’s largest collection of said artifacts, resulting in the museum becoming one of the most visited museums in the world. -by Culture Trip

All that nature, humanism, democracy... does none of them count for anything? Of course, they do. It's unfortunate that due to the complexity of our history and politics, we lack acceptance to this land/country. While some are aborigines, some are Chinese immigrants, most were born and raised here, every group has mixed feelings/understandings of who we really are. Take me as an example. I used to think that I was Taiwanese(for being born in Taiwan), then Chinese(for we represent the real China), and until now conclude that I'm truly Taiwanese with Chinese origin. The only problem in this process is communism.

228, 318, 604... does none of them matter anymore? of course they do. I'm not an activist but I could at least come up with these dates with ease. We live in a world where war has changed its face and we don't know we're being invaded; we live in a time when the freedom people died for has been taken advantage and almost forgotten. More and more greedy, we have become. When people pay respect to historical, memorial events, we say "Let it go already. Show me the money!" Without the people who are criticized as people who "sits around doing nothing", we would have lost the fundamental rights we have now, freedom. The price of freedom isn't paid in our currencies but blood, and the price is high.

We are not perfect, not a single country or person is. The reason of this post isn't to hype up Taiwan but to take down haters although they don't read. I guess this echos my view on anti-labellism. It's easy to make a shocking perspective over-generalizing a point but it doesn't make it right. In an era of misinformation and disinformation, instead of benefiting in between, we should not just go against it, but fight it. Not joining evil does not mean justice; standing by evil means evil.

p.s. if Taiwan is so bad, why are people leaving their homes to be here?