History curriculum

I was up in arms recently about planned changes to the high school history curriculum which would emphasize Chinese history over Taiwan's, and possibly subsume Taiwan history into Chinese history.

These are long standing issues where there is plenty of good faith disagreement, even among those who are for Taiwan's continued independence. Remember that for a long time, Taiwan has never really been taught history in a Taiwan-centric way. It's been either Japan-centric or China-centric, and only in the very last years of the DPP administration did things start to swing the other way.

I was originally alerted to the upcoming changes by Weichen's post here. Taipei Times covers the issue and some of the protests to it, and describes the two proposals being considered:

Chou, who is on the task force making changes to the high school curriculum, said NTU philosophy professor Wang Hsiao-po (王曉波) and some other task force members had proposed that students spend two semesters learning Chinese history and just one semester studying world history.

On Nov. 15, the task force voted in favor of a proposal by Chou and others to allot one-and-a-half semesters each to Chinese and world history, but task force convener Wu Wen-hsing (吳文星), a history professor at National Taiwan Normal University, resolved to put Wang’s amended proposal up for further deliberation after task force’s term expired on Dec. 31.

For sake of simplicity, here is a chart (translated from Weichen's table) to break down the two proposals in a bit more depth. Please note this is written somewhat from Chou's perspective, and some of the characterizations seem rough; you'd obviously want to see what textbooks came out of the guidelines before deciding how reasonable Chou's proposal is, even if Wang's proposal is wack. And I'm not sure exactly about the last two things in the table, as the descriptions are a bit vague and confusing to me.

	Wang's Proposal	Chou's Proposal
Taiwan:China:World History ratio	1: 2: 1	1: 1.5 : 1.5
Earliest included Taiwan-related historical records	Eastern Wu (~250 CE) and Sui Dyansties (~600 AD)	400 years ago
Japanese Occupation	Emphasizes Japan as colonizers, fact of second-class citizens.	Discuss both modernization and colonization issues
Taiwan in WW II	Place special emphasis on Taiwanese efforts to reunite with China and oppose Japan	No particular details especially emphasized
Post-WW II Taiwan	Describe international relations in such a way as to avoid picking apart the ROC sovereignty (over all of China) argument.	Describe international relations according to the historical record
Post-WW II Taiwan culture	Topics include: Re-Sinization, Taiwan's development of unique features and internationalization	Topics include: Sinization, localization and globalization
Chinese History	China-centric world view	Looks at China's neighbors and the world from the perspective of cultural exchange
Post-war Chinese history	The splitting of One China, discusses both Taiwan and Taiwan	Covers the People's Republic of China [and not Taiwan]
World History	Takes the nation-state and representative events [?] as the main units	Emphasizes a macro-view of schools of thought and frameworks

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This time, a blast from the back to the future

Taipei Times:

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday morning thanked the outgoing Solomon Islands ambassador at the Presidential Office, but referred to his administration as the “Chunghua government” (中華政府) or “Chinese government....”

Realizing his mistake, Ma immediately corrected himself and said he meant the “government of the Republic of China.”

I'm no native speaker, but I'd argue that the Chinese term used here seems really bizarre and forced. “Chunghua government” (中華政府) is not *quite* a coinage, as the phrase appears when searched for online, mostly in relation to some sort of Taiwan military surplus dealer which uses the phrase in their name (though I'd argue the deep structure is different for their title).

So although the phrase isn't entirely invented, it does not roll off the tongue. Frankly, "Chinese government (中國政府) would be not only smoother but probably preferable to this bizarre formation that is riding on the back of Zhunghua Minzu. And there's no reason the good old "Taiwan government" (臺灣政府) should have been avoided here.

However, I'll give Ma the benefit of the doubt and assume this was a misspeak leaving out two words (should have been 中華民國政府), not an attempt to start using new terminology.

100th anniversary of the ROC

The coming 100th anniversary of the founding of the R.O.C. is sure to be a tremendous propaganda fest. As others have pointed out, it will be an effort to roll back the Taiwan-centric conscious that we've built up over the last couple of decades in favor of portraying Taiwan within the context of Chinese political and cultural history. The Zhonghua Minzu will feature prominently, as will early Republic (ROC) history.

I have a feeling the whole thing will just go over most people's heads. Don't expect any major transformations in opinion to accompany the festivities.

It remains to be seen if the KMT plans to sign something with China, beyond the ECFA, before the anniversary. While the peace agreement in the works probably cannot happen by that date, it seems likely that they will push for something new to wrap up in October.

Final round of Holo Taiwanese characters

Characters

Besides knowing the roman orthography for Holo Taiwanese (explained in this handbook:臺灣閩南語羅馬字拼音方案使用手冊), knowing how to read Taiwanese in characters is key for Taiwanese language study in Taiwan. And at long last, the third batch of standardized Holo Taiwanese characters has been announced by the Ministry of Education's National Languages Committee. You can find it here: 臺灣閩南語推薦用字(第3批)

This document contains the newest 300 characters from the 3rd round of standardization, but also remember the 100 characters adopted May 1, 2008 and 300 characters adopted in May 2007.

臺灣閩南語推薦用字（第1批）採用創用CC授權
臺灣閩南語推薦用字(第2批)採用創用CC授權

Your best bet is to just download one of the cheat sheets provided by the government here.

You can also see a list of some of the suggested revisions and how they would affect Holo Taiwanese songs frequently heard at karaoke:

臺灣閩南語卡拉ok正字字表 (pdf)

For the time being, this is the final batch and these three lists of 700 characters total more or less finish the process of standardizing those previously "hard to pin down" Holo Taiwanese characters. Amendments will be made as required in the future.

I got advance word on August 27 of this impending announcement, mostly due to my relentless stalking of the National Languages Committee (國語會).

Dictionary

In addition, the MOE's Taiwanese Southern Min Dictionary of Frequently Used Phrases (臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典) which fully integrates the now standardized orthography, is online and functional. The print version will be published in October.

There is also a similar dictionary for Hakka (臺灣客家語常用詞辭典), an initial list of standardized characters (臺灣客家語書寫推薦用字 (第1批)) and a standardization of romanization as well (臺灣客家語拼音方案).

The online version allows you to search in characters or romanization, with tone marks/numbers or without tones, using either the official standard Taiwanese Roman Orthography (台語羅馬字，簡稱台羅拼音) or its predecessor and main inspiration, Church Romanization (教會羅馬字，亦稱白話字).

The dictionary also includes notes on literary or colloquial readings and example sentences. One thing to note: one thing missing from the dictionary are some very common nouns and phrases; the scope of this dictionary is not yet that ambitious. You won't find Tâi-uân (台灣), kok-ka (國家), Tiong-kok (中國) or kok-tiong (國中) in this dictionary, though you will find the characters listed separately or in phrases such as Kok-li̍p Tâi-uân Gē-su̍t Kàu-io̍k-kuán (國立台灣藝術教育館).

The standardized romanization system used in that dictionary, Taiwanese Roman Orthography , is outlined in the orthography handbook mentioned above (臺灣閩南語羅馬字拼音方案使用手冊). The handbook should allow any competent Southern Min speaker to master the basics of the romanization and tone system within a couple of hours.

The dictionary draws on and is also complemented by two earlier Southern Min character databases, both of which have been updated to reflect orthography standardization and are available in print for about NT$300.

閩南語字彙(一)修訂版 & 閩南語字彙(二)修訂版


Input method

The MOE also offers a multi-platform input method that gives only romanization output, built on Open Vanilla, downloadable here (these links are to version 1.2, which may be be updated soon to reflect any additions. You can find the download at the dictionary main page, linked to above):

臺羅輸入法下載：Windows、Mac、Linux.

For character output using romanization input, which is what most people will want, there are a number of sources; I recommend FHL Taigi IME (信望愛台語文輸入法).

Remaining problems

Unfortunately, there is little public interest in using the new standardized Holo Taiwanese orthography, either in romanization or character form. So don't expect to see written Holo Taiwanese popping up on your TV subtitles, Karaoke lyrics, cereal box, street signs or story books any time soon.

In fact, I expect the vast majority of Taiwanese people, even those younger ones that are educated with the standardized characters and romanization, to remain unable to effectively read or write their mother tongue. But this is certainly a huge step forward.

HS! Standardizing Hakka characters

The big upcoming news for me is the impending release of the final set of standardized characters for written Holo Taiwanese. But today when checking up, I found some equally exciting news -- the first set of standardized Hakka characters for written Hakka!

「臺灣客家語書寫推薦用字」(第1批)

The 305 characters listed include pronunciations in all major Taiwanese Hakka dialects. If you are interested in the romanization system chosen for Hakka, see this link: 臺灣客家語拼音方案.

One thing I notice right away is that for certain characters (毋, 啉) we see continuity between the choices for Hakka and Holo. I find that encouraging in that there was some systematic thought involved.

P.S. Calling to get some more info, but Hakka group is having their meeting. They'll call me back later. Mainly, I want to ask what percentage of total characters that will be standardized these 305 represent; what the time line is for further standardization; whether it will affect textbooks on a mandatory basis; whether they'll push music companies to publish Karaoke lyrics in the new characters; etc.

I've also alerted Liberty Times and Apple Daily to the news.

Some changes to the mother tongue education program in Taiwan which I imagine will make it even more ineffective than it is now ...

Hakka

The MOE continues to work on standardizing Hakka:

《臺灣客家語書寫推薦用字》公聽會即日起開始報名
臺灣客家語拼音方案

Some good news for a change

Premier says he disagrees with Hoklo cash cut (Taipei Times)

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday that he disagreed with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators’ rejection of the budget request for Hoklo accreditation examinations.

Liu told Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) during a legislative session that he would do his best to remedy the lack of funding for the examinations this year....
Hung’s move prompted a demonstration outside the Legislative Yuan last Friday.

The premier yesterday rebutted DPP legislator speculation that Hung initiated the motion at the Cabinet’s request.

He said the Cabinet would request a budget to hold the examinations next year.

Chen Hsueh-yu (陳雪玉), executive secretary and a senior inspector at the ministry’s National Languages Committee, said on Friday that the ministry would not be able to hold the exams this year as a result of the budget cuts.

She said the ministry would consider ways of improving the proficiency of Hoklo teachers.

Let's wait and see what actually happens.

Where we go from here

Do you remember the days when Taiwan's current VP was declaring Taiwan is an independent and sovereign country? Or when President Ma was saying that Taiwan was the same as the ROC? As long ago as that now seems, I do.

Those were the days just before the 2008 presidential election, when making such common sense statements was a necessary stretch for the KMT, meant to attract some more votes and dispel fears, all while more the party quietly held onto "one China (two interpretations)" and called for a One China market.

Now we are in different times, where Taiwan and China are "two regions" of the same country, and where Taiwan again takes the impossible position that the PRC does not exist, despite some rhetorical flair from our presidential office trying to spin things just a little more positively. The Third United Front, this time aimed at crushing formal Taiwanese Independence, is unfolding according to KMT-CCP plans.

What will ultimately happen? Who knows. Some things are certain: increased economic ties between Taiwan and China, as well as the precedents set by KMT-CCP dialogue that sidesteps the government, will increase Taiwan's economic dependence on China and may well alter the conditions under which election slogans and policies are developed. The DPP may be forced to alter its rhetorical approach while reinforcing its support of Taiwan's right to self-determination and holdin gout for the ultimate goal of establishing an internationally recognized country separate from the PRC.

Meanwhile, the KMT is unlikely to find a way to move beyond its current rhetorical emphasis on economics and pragmatism; how can they sell to the people any of the political concessions that the CCP will surely demand? If economics matters don't improve as the current leadership predicts, the KMT base and legislators will likely sour on the China-centric ideology and policy of the current administration. Internationally, we can expect Japanese and US support and interest in Taiwan to further decrease. The future does not exactly look bright, but this is not over.

It's the end game that matters. Unification is not just around the corner. The variables are too many. Despite the structural advantages the KMT enjoys at all election levels, and despite its media advantage (and pressure on public media), and despite the apparently politically motivated prosecution of DPP figures, the green camp is not crippled. Factionalism and debate is alive in well in both the KMT and the opposition. Green leaning papers and stations are financially healthy and functional, enjoying wide circulation and viewership. The public still has the right to initiate referenda and at the end of the day, Taiwan's future is still very much in the hands of the people, however the KMT tries to influence or control the likely direction Taiwan will go. And this power of referenda, however terribly flawed the current law is, is the most reassuring thing of all.

But aimless hope is not what we need. We need the DPP to develop an election plan that involves winning at all levels, not just the presidency. We need NGOs and the opposition to continue the fight against the rollback in human rights the KMT is initiating, and we need them to get some results, as difficult as that will be. We need a revised referendum law. We need targeted attacks on absurd KMT rhetoric and continued rejection of any "one China" framework. We need the green camp to develop a sales pitch that works and an alternative to KMT rule that is again attractive to the people.

DPP incompetence is potentially just as capable of damaging continued independence as a KMT sellout. We need measures to curb both of these dangers. Will we get them?

Of that, I am less hopeful.

Korean textbook controversy not unlike Taiwan's internal debate

While the DPP administration and reputable publishers never went so far as to actually teach children that the KMT constituted an occupying foreign power, that is in fact how many people on the Green side feel. Take a look at this IHT article on a Korean textbook controversy.

To conservative critics, a popular textbook's version of how U.S. and Soviet forces took control of Korea from Japanese colonialists in 1945 exemplifies all that's wrong with how South Korean history is taught to young people today.

The facts no one disputes are that, at the end of World War II, the Soviet military swept into northern Korea and installed a friendly Communist government while a U.S. military administration assumed control in the south.

But then the high school textbook takes a direction that is raising hackles among conservatives. It argues that the Japanese occupation was followed not by a free, self-determining Korea, but by a divided peninsula dominated once again by foreign powers.

"It was not our national flag that was hoisted to replace the Japanese flag," reads the textbook published by Kumsung Publishing. "The flag that flew in its place was the American Stars and Stripes. Our liberation through the Allied forces' victory prevented us from building a new country according to our own wishes."

The article continues.

MOE stresses the classics

This news almost entirely escaped the attention or interest of the English media:

The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced yesterday plans to increase the number of Chinese literature classes and the percentage of classical Chinese literary works in the nation’s high school curriculum. Vice Education Minister Wu Tsai-shun (吳財順) told reporters in the ministry that the number of Chinese literature classes offered in high school had been reduced to four sessions per week in the curriculum guidelines published in 2006 year. The amount of classical Chinese literature in high school Chinese literature textbooks has dropped to 45 percent, Wu said. “What we are certain now is that classical Chinese literary works will account for more than 45 percent of the content of high school Chinese literature textbooks,” Wu said. Wu said the ministry would also make Analects of Confucius (論語) and the Works of Mencius (孟子), both of which were optional under previous regulations, required reading for high school students.

The lack of interest does not extend to the Chinese language media, even in China. And some still find the increase in classical content to be inadequate.

I am generally supportive of efforts to keep the younger generation literate in Classical Chinese, but don't like the way this new policy.

Let us be clear exactly what the new policy means: the increase in Classical Literature --

(1) directly equates into less time for modern prose and poetry and local authors;

(2) cements a Confucian-oriented education system by requiring the Analects and Mencius with no attention being paid to Zhuangzi, Hanfeizi, Laozi and other classical philosophers (as that first Liberty Times article points out, it's almost like the KMT wants to relive the Han dynasty); and

(3) is likely almost 100% ideologically driven, by those conservative elements who wish to revive the 'old days' of China-oriented thinking. They are more interested in forcing kids to read several-thousand-year-old texts than they are in improving the education system in some substantial way. The system has plenty of real problems no matter who you ask. Classical Chinese has to be the least of them.

KMT legislator: TDMH -- > CKS Memorial

KMT legislator Chiang Yi-hsiung (江義雄) said today there is hope that the legislature will "rectify" the name of Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall back to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall next legislative session. The argument goes like this: the last Executive did not get Legislative approval for the name change, so next legislative session the KMT can make an official strike down of that name change.

What a very sad misappropriation of the word for name rectification (正名).

Postal service to be renamed again

The Taiwan Post, soon to be renamed the Chunghwa Post, will be the first state run enterprise renamed since Ma has taken office.

Hakka Dictionary

The Hakka Affairs Commission will publish a Hakka dictionary next year.

It's about time!

Taiwan's ministry of education finally announced the publication of the second round of Holo Taiwanese characters that may form the basis of a standard Holo orthography (I say 'may' because I'm not sure how the new government will treat this effort).

The first round of characters, released last year, totaled 300 characters.

The second round of characters, originally slated to be be 1,200 characters long. It can be viewed here (pdf).

Despite the list totally only 400 characters now, instead of the originally intended 1,500, most of the most contentious issues have been resolved. Perhaps 1,100 more was deemed unnecessary. A third list of at least another 300 characters is planned for release by year's end, at which point a dictionary will be compiled.

Another document (pdf) shows the difference in karaoke lyrics using the new standard versus the song's original subtitles. This is probably a great way to introduce the new characters to people who might otherwise be turned off to learning about Taiwanese orthography (widely considered useless).

Update: A number of articles in the local press about the character choices. The commentary is largely negative, even hostile, thoughtless and full of outright errors. No surprise there. Here we go:

統一教材家長批大人都看不懂 (蘋果日報)
愈改愈亂教部公布台語字 (蘋果日報)
鄉土語言教材也要統一用字 (中國時報)
教部閩南語正字鎖定KTV歌詞 (中國時報)
乎乾啦→予焦啦唱卡拉OK會卡到 (聯合報)
台語推薦用字有看沒有懂 (華視新聞)
閩南語這樣說：無較縒你會念嗎？ (聯合報)
愛情限時批請你跟我這樣唱 (聯合報)
教育部公布台語卡拉OK推薦用字 (中廣新聞網)
海浪↓海湧教部推薦100個閩南語用字 (軍事新聞網)
教部閩南語推薦用字推出五十首歌曲歌詞 (Sina)
閩南語推荐用字增至400個 (國語日報)
尪婿變翁婿？台語文學者這樣用 (聯合報)

Language law (again)

I just got done talking to an aid in the office of KMT Legislator Chiang Yi-hsiung (江義雄). He is one of the heads of the Education and Culture Committee which is currently looking at the National Languages Development Draft Law (國家語言發展草案).

Let's just say Chiang's staff was refreshingly honest. When I asked about Chiang's opinion for the law, the staff took my number and said she would call me back a few minutes later.

And her answer was clear: Chiang believes this is a low priority law, not nearly as important as those dealing with people's livelihoods, so it won't be dealt with for a while.

When I asked for how long "a while" is, I was told it will probably never get out of committee. Chiang's staff directly stated another problem was that the DPP led Executive Yuan brought this bill up, so after 5-20 "the Minister of Education will probably have a different viewpoint."

I'm going to launch a drive to save this law. I'll try to get attention through a few major portals (like Taigu-bang and Social Force) who might care about this law.

But since it needs blue support, I also need to woo blue people into applying pressure. Anyone know of Blue-friendly Chinese-language sites I can use to increase support?

Note: text of bill again.

Language laws

As we all recall (OK, maybe only me), this bill, which aimed to give official protection to all Taiwanese languages, has been stalled for years now. I translated an early draft sometime in 2003, I think.

Well, the latest incarnation appeared in February of this year, when the Executive Yuan started what will likely be one last try to pass the law.

It's currently passed the first reading and is languishing in the Education and Culture Committee.

If you want to help, contact those members on the committee and encourage them to pass this bill. Fax or phone calls are probably most effective. You'll see the committee is absolutely dominated by blues, so we need strong blue support on this. Focus especially on the chairs (in red) and the most loud and influential legislators on the list (Diana Lee and Hong Hsiao-chu).

教育及文化委員會
林正二	江義雄
江玲君	李慶安	林淑芬	洪秀柱	郭素春
陳亭妃	黃志雄	楊瓊瓔	管碧玲	趙麗雲
鄭金玲

In addition, the list of 1,500 proposed standardized characters for Taiwanese (a short list since most words have obvious Mandarin cognates) should be released by the end of this month, according to my last correspondence with the MOE.

Poll

Taipei Times:

The poll, conducted by the [DPP's] Poll Center on March 26 and March 27, questioned 1,043 adults. More than 69 percent of the respondents said any major accords signed between Taiwan and China must be put before the people of Taiwan in a national referendum. Only 26 percent said the accords did not need the approval of the people....

The poll also found that more than 88 percent of respondents agreed that Taiwan and China are two sovereign nations independent from each other, while only 8 percent of respondents said they were not....

The poll also discovered that nearly 82 percent of the people surveyed disagreed that the result of the March 22 presidential election indicated that the majority of Taiwanese were now more likely to accept unification with China.

Seems like good news and a fairly good indicator of the public mood. Obviously, the questions are stacked to produce answers the DPP likes, but that's how you control the debate -- frame the questions.

I'm glad to see strong support for a referendum upon those lines.

UDN opens up front in anti-Holo propaganda war

Update: Tailingua has a great critique of an English language editorial on this subject in the China Post.

UDN went all out today:

閩南語新課綱》楊青矗：台羅拼音不如ㄅㄆㄇ
閩南語新課綱》用ㄅㄆㄇ拼　別為難孩子（民意論壇）
閩南語新課綱》字音難統一 也沒有師資（民意論壇）
閩南語新課綱》民主社會 應讓拼音並存（民意論壇）
閩南語新課綱》新課綱研修 激辯沒結論
閩南語新課綱》孩子怨：沒人問我們想學什麼
閩南語新課綱》拜託！「難道台語也要補」
閩南語新課綱》「用閩南語MSN」 教部草案腰斬
閩南語新課綱》國中生要會用閩南語寫部落格
閩南語新課綱》不妥！「會干擾語言學習」

China Times:
小一拼音學台語教師：羅馬拼音沒打下基礎
閩南語正名「台灣」 課綱審委無共識

From the Guoyu Ribao:
小一學臺羅拼音教長：不宜
小一學臺羅拼音？ 爭議大未過關
缺師資　勉強上路反效果
學三種拼音　學童說會混淆

Obviously Liberty Times was more forgiving:
拼音學台語專家不同調
閩南語正名、小一學拼音未定案

The arguments against? Romanization sucks; you can't read it anyway (never mind you've never tried); neither can the teachers; nobody asks the students what they want to learn; teaching Holo will hurt other language education, including Hakka and Aboriginal languages; the academics working on the program can't agree on anything; the whole effort's a waste of time and resources.

As usual, I'm depressed at the enthusiasm UDN has for attacking Holo language education. Not to mention the load of distorted or false information in the articles.

There is one bit of truth in the articles that helps explain why this situation is so difficult: unqualified teachers. As the education system early on favored mainlanders and those fluent in Mandarin, and disparaged other languages, a great number of teachers speak very poor Holo Taiwanese or don't speak at all. Even those that can speak well have no clue how to read or write it on the whole. It's very difficult to use these teachers to give your kids real working fluency. I think you just have to bring in and train more teachers.

And as I was saying to my wife the other day, people are allowing Holo Taiwanese to die. It would take most native speakers less than an hour to learn some form of romanization or phonetic system for Holo Taiwanese; some systems, like the modified bopomo, I think you could teach in 20 minutes. But few ever make the effort to learn one, and most figure it's totally unnecessary. They have no idea there's Taiwanese literature and poetry. They wouldn't spend 10 minutes trying to struggle through a Taiwanese article or short story because it would take some effort.

With cultural attitudes like this, a top down plan is almost the only real option if we want to save these endangered languages. And since nearly everyone's starting from scratch anyway, I see no need to bicker over which writing system is used. Just pick one and move on to the next step.

Chen: We've made the KMT greener

President Chen Shui-bian, in an interview with the Financial Times, said that the DPP's greatest accomplishment in its eight years of power has been to make the KMT greener.

The publication of the interview coincides nicely with KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's ad in the China Times that Michel Turton blogs about today declaring that "Taiwan's future must be decided by the Taiwanese people," a significant departure from recent statements of him on this matter (including that Taiwan's future should be decided by "the people on both sides of the strait").

As I noted in a comment on Michael's blog, you'll note what Ma did not say: (1) That a referendum should be the mechanism for deciding Taiwan's future. The KMT's statements are lip service to what people here already take for granted, but you'll note the KMT still refuses to really put the ultimate power directly in people's hands.

But Ma's statement demonstrates Chen's point. The KMT has no choice but to make itself increasingly green to win. I think most of the young blue-leaning voters thought Ma's statement was already a solid KMT position.

But the KMT still has two steps to make before it will be fully green and end the blue-green divide: (1) accept the referendum as the only way to decide Taiwan's future and (2) drop the One China fantasy and accept the "one side, one country" reality.

I'm looking forward to that day.