Taiwan has really changed a lot in the last eight years.
It was not long after I came to the States for my PhD when The Sunflower movement happened. For the entire week, I was closely following Taiwanese news, reading all the documents from all the organizers and people on the ground, translating as much as I could to English on Twitter. All this passion was because, I was scared, scared that Taiwan is gonna go away if this continues. But, on the other side, the opposite happened. Taiwan has been becoming better and better.
Outside the world famous “First country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage”, there’s also how Taiwan dealt with COVID-19 and the modernization of government IT from the new Ministry of Digital Affairs. The biggest change that I can personally feel, as a Taiwanese person who lives overseas, is definitely the news coverage of Taiwan. It used to be Taiwan was barely on the news, if it were, it was often mixed up with Thailand or presented under the pretext of the umbrella of China. However, thanks to the Chinese government driving foreign reporters out of the country and thanks to the Taiwanese government and society for taking the opportunity to welcome some reporters to stay and live in Taiwan. We’re getting so, so ,so, much more coverage now. It’s not just the good side or propaganda, when disasters happened, we can see a lot of English coverage immediately, and a few days later, in-depth analyses are published and we hear Taiwanese voices in them as well. It felt great to be seen, after all those years of China’s attempts to suppress Taiwanese voices, a country that China has never ruled for a single second, yet tries to claim as theirs.
Taiwan has really become a country I’m so proud that I was born and raised in. For every big elections (every two years as Taiwan interleaves local elections and presidential elections) I fly back to Taiwan and cast my vote. I hold my excitement to see the poll result on the same day. Sometimes I’m happy, sometimes sad, but you can really feel Taiwan’s vibrant democracy. This is what President Tsai did best: reconnecting Taiwan with the world.
Taiwan is also not perfect. Even though I don’t really live in Taiwan anymore, staying there for less than a month every year. I have also become one of the so-called “If China comes, they can just fly to other countries” people. Taiwan is still my home, a place that I deeply care about. I still see terrible policies of Taiwan: like somehow we’re still discriminating against motorcycle in that they are still banned from freeway access, the average speed zones, terrible bicycles road plannings (especially when it comes to bridge crossing, wtf, why are we mixing motorcycle traffic with bicycles? Though I have to say I really enjoy riding bicycles in Taipei, YouBike is crazily amazing), and the worst part, the KMT and TPP’s are still causing chaos in Taiwanese politics.
But, which country is perfect anyway? The US certainly is also not perfect. The politics may be less dramatic but are probably even worse. There’s the inconvenience of living in the States and having bare-bone public transportation. Each country just has its own problems.
Thank you President Tsai Ing-Wen. Out of all the presidencies I’ve lived through so far, your administration is definitely the best overall. Thanks for charging Taiwan into a much more progressive and inclusive society and lead us into the world.
To end this post, after seeing what KMT and TPP is trying to do in the last few days, I will just say this: fuck KMT and TPP.
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中文版內容略有不同，原本是 po 在脆上所以比較短也比較雜。
過去這八年真的是看著台灣改變很多欸。 5/20 八年心得
還記得當年剛出國唸書的時候，就遇到了太陽花事件，整個禮拜幾乎都沒好好睡覺在跟著關心台灣的新聞。當年覺得好緊張，台灣是不是真的要完蛋了，結果反而開始看到台灣越走越好。
除了最指標性的同婚、疫情應對跟這幾年的政府數位化改進（數發部）之外，身為一個長住國外的台灣人感受最深的就是台灣真的變成了一個大家都知道的國家，疫情之後感謝中國趕走國外記者，也感謝台灣政府跟社會把握機會留到了一些記者，越來越多新聞從台灣的視角出發，而且是報好也報壞，能夠全面性的被國際看到跟被檢討真的是超級開心。每兩年的大選投票我也一定飛回去投好投滿！（請假理由都寫 Performing my sacred duty as a Taiwanese citizen XDD）
台灣真的是變成一個自己很驕傲是自己長大地方的國家。蔡英文也絕對是我經歷過得台灣總統以來，我最喜歡的一位。
謝謝蔡英文政府過去八年的努力也期許下一任政府能再更好！
雖然自己現在每年在台灣的時間不到一個月，也變成了那些所謂「中國打來可以逃去國外」的人了。可以理解可能有些人就覺得我是那些「反正出事不關我的事」而討厭我的人，但台灣還真的就依然是我自己的家。我能看到的東西跟面向真的變少了，我也還是有看到不好的政策跟亂象：像是重機不能上國道跟停車場歧視、國民黨跟民眾黨還是天天在亂。
但也因為距離感，一年一年的比較，很多改變還是很有感。每次回去都看到更多的外國人在台北旅遊或是居住，YouBike 系統一年比一年更好用（雖然很多人抱怨在台北騎車很可怕，我也同意台北跟新北自行車道規劃可以更好跟跨橋可以更方便，但老實說我真的超喜歡在台北跟新北騎車欸，尤其河濱自行車道超舒服！)
但不管我哪裡喜歡跟哪裡不喜歡。哪個國家是完美的？住美國的不方便大家都知道，政府鳥事也是一大堆，也很少看到有人就這樣否定美國、稱呼其為鬼大陸還是鬼國之類的，而住在美國也確實有很多舒服的時候。真的覺得只是國國有本難念的經。
最後補上，最近兩天看新聞的感想：幹！國民兩黨去死啦！