[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 96 (Thursday, July 21, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     TAIWAN: AN ISLAND ON THE MOVE

                                 ______


                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 21, 1994

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, Bill Bridges, a good friend and former 
constituent of mine has just returned from a year in Taiwan. On leave 
from the journalism department of Franklin College, Bill worked as a 
senior copy editor for the Free China Journal. Before his return to the 
United States, his paper published an essay in which Bill discusses the 
ignorance and misperception with which Americans view the exciting 
changes that have occurred on Taiwan in the last decade. I think that 
Bill Bridges' observations are worthy of Members' attention and ask 
that his essay be printed in the Congressional Record.

              [From the Free China Journal, July 1, 1994]

         Taiwan Is Not Exactly What the Folks at Home May Think

                          (By William Bridges)

       Westerners, especially Americans, ought to like Taiwan, for 
     reasons that have little or nothing to do with its economic 
     prowess.
       But to like anything, you have to know about it. And mail 
     from home suggests that many Americans are a few years behind 
     in their perceptions of this place.
       Item: A correspondent writes to say that he has the 
     ``perhaps stereotypical picture of a tiny country, suffering 
     from overwhelming pollution at the hands of a rapacious 
     military-political complex.'' But he adds later on that 
     Taiwan citizens probably take better care of their public 
     places than Americans do. This picture of Taiwan as both 
     rapacious and tidy is somewhat off the mark on both counts.
       Item: Another correspondent, who worked in Taiwan a few 
     years ago, advised me to stock up on cheap, pirated 
     literature. Sorry, Steve, the day's of building a library for 
     next to nothing are gone. Taiwan is tough these days on 
     copyright violators.
       Item: A veteran newspaper friend writes to ask if there is 
     any press freedom in Taiwan. Answer. You bet, with only a few 
     lingering hangovers from the martial-law era that ended in 
     1987. But tough, accurate and investigative journalism seems 
     in somewhat shorter supply.
       I don't blame my correspondents for not being fully 
     informed. The Republic of China on Taiwan leads a strange and 
     isolated life internationally. Since the United States and 
     many other nations refuse officially to admit its existence, 
     the ROC's representatives are never seen at the United 
     Nations. Its highest leaders never address Congress or speak 
     at U.S. university commencements.
       And because it is peaceful, prosperous and increasingly 
     democratic, the world media find little to report. That 
     little tends to be sensational--an earthquake or a slapping 
     match involving a fistful of parliamentarians.
       Here are a few things I'd like to tell friends back home 
     about this exciting and endlessly absorbing place.
       First, the energy. This is a country constantly on the go--
     tearing down, building up, going to school, zooming past on 
     motor scooters, talking endlessly on cellular phones or the 
     public ones that seem to be spotted every 20 feet along the 
     sidewalks.
       The traffic, which everybody deplores, is part of that 
     energy. This foreigner had no trouble with it once he 
     realized that he was a small, bipedal vehicle, often chugging 
     along elbow to side-mirror with a car or motor scooter.
       Taipei's taxi system is like an endless people-mover belt--
     wave your hand, hop in, and be whisked wherever you want to 
     go. Close your eyes if you don't like close encounters of the 
     vehicular kind.
       The pollution is terrible--very close to that of Athens, 
     which also lies in a basin that traps all the junk.
       Tidy? No. This is not Switzerland or Tokyo. And Taipei is 
     made messier by its effort to build an 85-kilometer subway 
     all at once.
       People. There are more of them per block than an 
     Indianapolis native can imagine. They are friendly, outgoing, 
     helpful when approached. Stories about being elbowed out of 
     the way in queues are exaggerated. Most people seem to be 
     enjoying life--and certainly enjoying the endless variety of 
     Taipei eating establishments.
       Politics. Rambunctious, a little nutty at times--though 
     maybe no more so than big-city ward politics in the United 
     States. The democracy is genuine if imperfect.
       Law and order. This is an interesting paradox. Taiwan 
     streets are remarkably crime-free. But citizens routinely 
     disregard inconvenient laws. As I waited for a bus to the 
     opera the other night, a gray Mercedes parked 6-feet out in 
     the street, blocking both a crosswalk and the bus stop. The 
     driver ambled off to do a little shopping; nobody seemed to 
     think anything of it.
       Culture. The opera was an excellent concert production of 
     Verdi's ``Nabucco,'' with a local orchestra and chorus. It 
     was followed a couple of nights later by the New York 
     Philharmonic presenting Mahler's Ninth Symphony. The 
     orchestra opened with a nice touch, playing both the ROC 
     national anthem and ``The Star-Spangled Banner.''
       I'm aware of being a partisan--that not every visitor would 
     find all the things listed above endearing. I also could 
     write a litany of complaints--the ways in which this is not 
     like home.
       But by and large, I think my countrymen would like Taiwan--
     if they had a chance to know about it.

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