Taiwan Diary: 228

In the last five years, I've lived in some places with complicated and violent histories. I mean, who hasn't in this world, but I've lived in places with recent violence and tension: China, Belarus, and now, Taiwan. I have moved to these places with very little knowledge about them. I admit that this is not great, and I've tried to rectify that in addition to keeping up with the things I need to know for my job and the need to keep informed about the things happening at home in America. I definitely have opinions about the political situations in China (and Hong Kong, since I lived close to HK), Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Taiwan, but I keep most of them to myself because A) I am woefully uneducated about them, B) sometimes there is a very real danger to me and those around me if opinions are expressed to the "wrong" person, and C) I don't feel it's my place to pass judgment on any of these places. I'm a visitor and a guest, and while I quietly support causes that I feel promote human rights and justice, I definitely don't talk loudly about it, especially when I'm in that place.

Which brings me to today. Tomorrow, February 28, is a national holiday in Taiwan. It is a national memorial day, commemorating the 228 massacre. You can read about the events here at the Memorial Foundation of 228 website. Since the holiday falls on a Tuesday, schools and many businesses are closed for a four-day weekend. (Not my school, more on that later.) You might know of the fraught history between China and the CCP and Taiwan and diplomatic relationships with the rest of the world. Within Taiwan, there are strong pro-independence factions (including the DDP party) and strong pro-China factions (KMT party, the party that was responsible for the massacre in 1947). Feelings about this holiday are mixed among Taiwanese citizens. Some, like this KMT member back in 2009, have called for this holiday to be ended. As far as I can tell, it remains popular both as a memorial day (the massacre led to martial law being declared in Taiwan, and this only ended in 1987) and as days off to spend with family. One analogy I can come up with is how Idaho doesn't recognize Martin Luther King Day. We call it Idaho Civil Rights Day, and while banks are closed because it is a federal holiday (we have an "equivalent" to MLK Day, which counts for some reason), schools stay open. It's not a great analogy.

My school is open, and I have learned that it is because the head of the school and the members of the board are all staunch KMT members. On a selfish level, I'm annoyed that we don't get time off. We're having a Sports Day tomorrow, which I feel all kinds of ways about, for all kinds of reasons. I'm not at all educated enough to comment on the political angle, but I will say that it has further cemented my decision to NOT return to this school after my contract is up.

(Let's not think too deeply about how I might end up going back to China after this contract.)