Embracing the Bay
Taiwan youth find careers and stronger sense of belonging in GBA
○ Taiwan youth hope to develop their career in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA)
○ The GBA enriches the practice of the “one country, two systems” principle, so as to provide a model for the reunification of Taiwan
Opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) have attracted more youth in Taiwan as the Chinese mainland offers political and financial support to GBA’s development and promotes their Chinese national identity.
“The Chinese mainland will make great efforts to develop the GBA by giving political and financial support in recent years. It will bring dramatic economic development in the region,” Lee Hao-ming, vice-chairman of the China Cross-Straits Culture Trade Development Association in Taipei, told the Global Times.
Lee attended a forum in Shaoguan, South China’s Guangdong Province on October 29, in which young people from the mainland and Taiwan talked about the traditional Chinese culture and shared their expectations on the GBA’s future development.
Career development in the GBA
“Extensive and in-depth communication helps Taiwan youth to hold a real and comprehensive understanding of the Chinese mainland. With that, they will definitely realize the Chinese mainland is a place that provides them with the best opportunities for career development,” Lee said.
Lee said the forum provided him a chance to learn more about cultural development in the GBA. He also wanted to share good news of the Chinese mainland’s policies with the youth of Taiwan.
Lee quit his position as a civil servant in 2012 as his salary was not enough to support his family, starting a restaurant in Taiwan. He initially refused the opportunity to expand his business to the Chinese mainland in 2012 since the business in Taiwan was doing well enough.
“However, the business environment in Taiwan is getting worse and worse, mainly because that the Kuomingtang and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were busy for fierce competition while no one truly cared about the welfare of Taiwan people,” he said.
Lee finally came to the mainland in 2015 and to help improve the services of dining halls of hospitals nationwide.
“I regret not grabbing the opportunity seven years ago. Me on that time, like many other youth in Taiwan, knew little about the mainland,” Lee told the Global Times.
Lee said young people in Taiwan are living too comfortably, encounter fewer challenges and opportunities, and have lost competitiveness.
Lee compared Taiwan youth to tigers who only jump out for prey if they feel certain they can catch it. He views youth from the mainland as wolves, leaping at any small chance to make a kill and bravely face intense competition.
“I have traveled to around 16 provinces across the mainland so far this year; each province takes various approaches to welcome Taiwan young people, including establishing youth entrepreneurship bases or holding cultural communication forums,” Lee said.
The Chinese mainland government announced 26 measures on November 4 to give equal treatment to businesses and individuals from the island of Taiwan, aimed at improving cross-Straits economic, cultural and educational exchanges, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The GBA and Taiwan have similar weather, dialects and dietary habits, which are convenient for young people from Taiwan to live and work in the GBA, Lee suggested.
Young people in Taiwan, who would like to develop their careers in the GBA and Chinese mainland, hold additional expectations.
Hsu Chih-chao, a 28-year-old student from Taiwan doing his PhD in journalism in Fudan University in East China’s Shanghai Municipality, told the Global Times he hopes to pursue a faculty position in universities on the mainland after graduating.
“As far as I know, five universities in Taiwan have closed down due to Taiwan’s declining birth rate, so I would prefer to find a more stable teaching position on the mainland,” Hsu said.
The declining birth rate is an increasingly serious issue in Taiwan, causing severe challenges for college enrollment. Taiwan education authorities have approved the suspension or elimination of enrollment in 105 departments, colleges and universities for the 2020 academic year, Xinhua reported in September.
“I am optimistic about the development of the GBA, as more and more avorable policies will be introduced to ttract talents there. However, we also ope that there will be a specific inormation platform, for which Taiwan outh could learn and consult relative olicies for talents introduction or ntrepreneurship subsidies and ask for mployment guidance,” Hsu said.
National identity
Career development opportunies have attracted young people from Taiwan to the mainland. Further communication and deeper understanding will naturally strengthen their shared cultural and national identity, said Development Hsiung Committee Yi, chairman under Union, the of a Chinese Taipei-based the Sinology Youth organization.
Hsiung’s organization is working too promote communication between young people in the mainland and Taiwan.
Hsiung divided the youth in Taiwan into three types. “Some of them are ambitious and competitive with a comprehensive understanding of the mainland and would like to work and live in the Chinese mainland. “Some are influenced by the Democratic Progressive Party, who bear grudge toward the mainland and refuse to communicate with it. Others, attracted by the benefits of working on the mainland, go there only to do business without having a sense of shared cultural and national identity,” Hsiung told the Global Times.
He criticized the Tsai Ing-wen authority and the DPP as trying to eliminate the Chinese culture and mislead Taiwan youth to deny their Chinese identity for their political agenda. “This is hurting young people in Taiwan,” Hsiung said.
Hsu Chih-chao said that separatists in Taiwan started the educational reform in 1995, attempting to get rid of “influence from the Chinese mainland” and alienate Taiwan from the Chinese mainland. He grew up in this educational background.
“Some young people misunderstand the mainland as they never set foot there and all their impressions of the mainland come from the education and some biased media. Not all young people have the opportunity to see the real mainland. It costs 5,000 yuan ($712) for travelling a week probably, which is not easy for Taiwan youth to afford,” Hsu said.
Hsiung said despite how much separatists in Taiwan may try, the tendency towards reunification with the motherland is inevitable.
Hsiung’s father and grandfather are both teachers of Chinese language and literature in universities. The experience of studying traditional Chinese literature from childhood gives Hsiung a strong sense of his cultural and national identity.
He encourages Taiwan youth to learn more about traditional Chinese culture and to have a correct understanding of history.
Hsu said people in the Chinese mainland and Taiwan celebrate the Spring Festival and other traditional festivals in the same way. In recent years many Taiwan youth enjoy watching palace dramas made on the mainland, such as Ruyi’s Royal Love in
the Palace and Story of Yanxi Palace.
“Our shared cultural identity is actually very strong. I brought some Taiwan children to visit the Forbidden City in Beijing last year, where they enjoyed experiencing its history so much,” Hsu said.
Jia Chaowei, deputy inspector of the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, said the construction of the GBA is a major measure taken by China to shape a new pattern of comprehensive opening up and promote the “one country, two systems” principle in a new way.
He added that the GBA’s development is of great significance for enhancing the recognition of “one country” and the understanding of “two systems” among young people in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Through the joint construction of the GBA, people in Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland will undergo subtle changes in their “one country” identity, building a sense of inclusive understanding and emotional belonging. The strengthening of national and ethnic identity in Hong Kong and Macao will naturally influence and spread to Taiwan, Jia explained.
One of the important functions of the GBA is to enrich the practice of “one country, two systems,” and thus provide a model for the reunification of Taiwan.
In terms of economic development, the joint development of the GBA will create a unified and open market. Hong Kong and Macao will deeply integrate into the regional industrial division of the labor system, making new opportunities for development and economic growth. This will pay huge economic dividends in Taiwan, provide important practical evidence, and make the benefits of reunification more convincing, he said.
The GBA will provide an effective method of consolidating connectivity in the field of employment, education, healthcare, public services and law. This aspect of GBA’s development will reduce costs and serve as a model for the future reunification of Taiwan on an operational level, Jia explained.
The development of the Guangdong-Hong KongMacao Greater Bay Area is of great significance for enhancing the recognition of “one country” and the understanding of “two systems” among young people in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.