Two Sides, One View
Taiwan compatriots from all over the world call for peaceful development
Shangying Village in Henan Province is also called “Taiwan Village.” More than 300 years ago, soldiers of the Gaoshan ethnic minority, known as the “aborigines of Taiwan,” left their home turf to make a living on the mainland and eventually settled in Shangying.
In August 2005, with the help of Wu Tianxi, a businesswoman who hails from Taiwan but resides on the mainland, the Gaoshan people in Shangying Village were reunited with their “ancestral kin” after more than three centuries.
“They were born and raised in Henan, but their ancestors were originally from Taiwan. I was born and raised in Taiwan, but my ancestors were originally from Henan,” Wu told Beijing Review, adding that this was what motivated her to help Shangyingers reunite with their ethnic kinsfolk in Taiwan.
Wu’s parents moved to Taiwan in the late 1940s. By the time the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the Kuomintang authorities had retreated to Taiwan. A state of protracted political confrontation across the Taiwan Straits ensued. In 1987, after the two sides had resumed people-to-people exchanges, Wu first traveled to the mainland with her parents to visit relatives in Henan.
“We flew from Taiwan to Japan, then via the Philippines to Hong Kong, and eventually arrived in Henan,” Wu recalled. It was a long journey, but her parents were very excited to see their relatives again. Wu later moved to Henan in the 1990s to help residents there develop the local printing industry, in turn helping to improve their living standards.
Wu further established the Henan-Taiwan Cultural Exchange Center to promote crossStraits communication. The center donates school supplies to children in Shangying and introduces mainland business policies to entrepreneurs from the island. “I am both Henanese and Taiwanese, and I figured it would be great if I could do something for the peaceful reunification of both sides [of the Straits],” she said.
Wu, along with other individuals and groups with Taiwan backgrounds, attended a two-day forum of Taiwan compatriots’ social groups in Beijing on October 12-13.
A united front
The forum attracted more than 300 participants who were born in Taiwan but now live around the world. They discussed how to promote peaceful development across the Straits and contribute to the further development of the Chinese nation.
Guo Yicheng, a Taiwan artist who now teaches at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, said when he first came to the mainland to visit the Great Wall and the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, which housed China’s imperial palace from the 15th century to the early 20th century, he was moved because he had only known these things from books.
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“Culture is a bond that unites the Chinese nation,” he told the attending media.
In recent years, Guo and his students have focused on exploring China’s rich cultural content to create new lifestyles, such as creating intellectual property (IP) based on traditional Chinese culture. “The Americans have successfully created Kongfu Panda. If we can create good Chinese cultural IPs ourselves, this will help Chinese culture to blossom worldwide,” Guo said.
Shi Zhiwen, born in Taiwan and residing in Paraguay, promotes Chinese
nd culture in the South American country. As president of the Paraguayan Hongmen Association, a local Chinese group, Shi and members from both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan organize a range of cultural activities, including lion dances during traditional Chinese festivals.
“Twenty years ago, when I first came to Shantou in Guangdong Province, it was still underdeveloped. But the whole mainland has since developed swiftly,” Shi told Beijing Review. Shi now owns a factory in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, and his business partners are all from the mainland.
Zhang Guanhua, Deputy Director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at the forum that “the social groups of Taiwan compatriots can play a role in integrating Taiwan compatriots and enterprises into the mainland’s new ‘dual circulation’ development pattern.” Doing so would further drive policy and system innovation in crossStraits integrated development. The double development dynamic, also known as dual circulation, reorients China’s economy by prioritizing the domestic market (“domestic circulation”) while remaining open to international trade and investment (“international circulation”).
People on both sides of the Taiwan Straits can join hands to promote the peaceful and integrated development of cross-Straits relations, and create brighter prospects for the reunification of the motherland, Zhang added.
Youth power
The event also featured a sub-forum on young Taiwan adults, aimed at further deepening cross-Straits youth exchange and helping Taiwan youth realize their dreams and showcase their talents on the mainland.
“Taiwan youth should actively participate in the process of promoting the development of cross-Straits relations, remain dedicated to the country and the people, and make their own contributions to realizing the reunification of the motherland,” Li Dongxian, a Taiwan athlete, said at the forum.
Li won a bronze medal in t he taekwondo competition at the 2023 AsiaPacific Masters Games in the Republic of Korea on May 5. During the award ceremony, he proudly waved the Five-Star Red Flag, the Chinese national flag.
Lin Zheyuan, a native of Taiwan who is now an associate professor of Marxism at East China Normal University in Shanghai, echoed Li’s sentiments. He said the mainland has provided great opportunities and policies for Taiwan youth to develop themselves.
“Taiwan youth should not be misled by the political division and confrontational rhetoric on the island,” Lin said at the forum.
Many Taiwan youth shared their stories of mainland entrepreneurship with the sub-forum’s audience. Chen Xiaowen, for example, works in the beauty industry in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, where her grandparents are from. When she was little, her grandparents used to tell her all about their hometown. Chen came to Suzhou in 2002 to start her career and has since established a beauty school there—as well as married a local.
The young speakers all called on more Taiwan youth to come to the mainland, integrate themselves into China’s development and promote cross-Straits relations.