The Beijing Games start in only a few days. Welcome to the latest round of what to call the Taiwanese team. The latest flap: Zhonghua Taipei or Zhongguo Taipei? The View from Taiwan blog has the story and news link.
The name game has always infuriated me. It basically attempts to efface Taiwan by slapping on a spurious label -- and now, spurious labels, plural. What, you can't even settle on a name for the island? How about not holding to previous agreements about naming? How is this not rather demeaning? I say scrap it all and call Taiwan (here's a novel idea) "Taiwan," which is certainly more accurate and includes the entire island, not just the capital city.
Besides, Beijing has always used names as way to mess with Taiwan on the international stage. What's in a name? Plenty, actually.
The IHT has more.
2 comments:
I agree with you entirely that Taiwan should be allowed to compete in the Olympics under the name "Taiwan". However I read recently that in the sixties the K.M.T which still held out hope of regaining their previous power in China protested against Taiwan competing against Taiwan competing under the name "Taiwan" and insisted that the team from Taiwan compete under the name "China" or "Republic of China". So it wasn't the C.C.P that put an end to Taiwan competing under the label "Taiwan" but the K.M.T.
Oh, yes, I know. But that was then, and this is now, and the name game has shifted in its nature a bit. The "R.O.C." label really has become a millstone around the neck of Taiwan, and it's too tied to the KMT past. The name "Taiwan" would be good, I think, for the new, current, democratic Taiwan that has no KMT-driven fantasies of taking over the mainland and just wants to be left alone...
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