My mates have mentioned it, my mum has mentioned it, my grandparents have mentioned it and so have I. We’d have simply had some good sushi, or been strolling by way of spotless, orderly streets throughout our third go to to Japan that yr. Sooner or later, somebody—both with a smirk or with an unreadable, deadpan expression—would possibly say: “Yeah, I wouldn’t thoughts being colonised once more.”
There’s an implicit understanding that the speaker is referring to Japanese rule over Taiwan, not simply due to the context, however as a result of what have any of our different colonisers ever executed for us? This unstated swipe on the Spanish, the Dutch and the Chinese language is often a part of the joke; we youthful Taiwanese have a tendency to only snicker it off and go away it at that. However every now and then, it turns into clear that the older people really imply what they’re saying, and I begin to marvel why there seems to be some reality to such quips.
Extra from Mekong Evaluate
A poem by Maung Htike Aung.
Ducky Tse was a longtime photographer in Hong Kong when, on the age of fifty, he determined to uproot and relocate to Taiwan. He purchased a van and refurbished it, driving it across the nation. By way of his pictures, he displays on a brand new chapter of his life.
