Taiwan Joins World Car-Free Day Celebrations

Over the past week Taiwan's major cities (except Taichung) participated in events leading up to World Car-free Day, which is held on September 22nd.

CNA reports on Taiwan Focus:

Taipei Deputy Mayor Chen Wei-jen said at an unplugged concert at Daan Forest Park that emissions from motorcycles and automobiles are the largest source of air pollution in the city since it no longer host factories.

"We hope our citizens will support the carfree campaign to reduce carbon emissions," Chen said, adding that Taipei boasts a convenient public transport system which comprises mass rapid transit and bus services.

In Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, Mayor Chen Chu kicked off a mass bicycle ride across major city streets by cycling fans to drum up support for the carfree campaign.

Chen said CNN has rated Kaohsiung as one of Asia's five most cycling-friendly cities. The city has 26 cycling paths totaling 500 kilometers in length, she said, with plans to extend them to 1,000 km.

I hope some of you got out there to participate. Sadly, my city government is more concerned with the plight of large developers and their boozy entertainment empires to really give a rat's ass about World Car-free Day.

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Chinese State Journalism Takes a Stake in Taiwanese Cycling:

Check out this piece from Xinhua. It starts out as a typical human interest piece about Taiwanese cycling tourism, but two things rub me a little raw. The first is that, since this is the Chinese state media, it must have an angle. That angle appears to be to promote increasing Taiwanese reliance on Chinese tourism. The second is that Taiwanese cultural tourism is being "localized" by Chinese state media and some "Pan-Blue" stations in an obvious effort to have Chinese and Taiwanese citizens imagine each other as part of the same national community; a phenomenon which is simple fantasy. Of course, the other side of the coin is the risk of exposing years of propaganda for what it is...

and

The China Post reports that Taiwan's Action Blue Cycling Team will be helping the Clinton Global Initiative in raising funds to combat blindness in Africa. It is always nice to see Taiwanese people assert themselves on the word stage through this type of activity.

Chinese State Media Sells Cycling Tourism in Taiwan

The state owned broadcaster and English language propaganda outlet, Chinese Radio International, has released an interesting story promoting Bicycle tourism in Taiwan.

After several days on the road in Taiwan, I've came to realize that the charm of this far-flung island lies not only in its landscape and scenery, but also its people.

The opening sentence above immediately frames Taiwan as the exoticized and fetishized object of desire. This island that is supposed to rest snugly in the bosom on the "motherland" is perceived as "far flung". Furthermore, "its people" firmly locates Taiwanese as "other". Had the author followed traditional protocol they would have been "us" or "our compatriots".

I have met many fellow travelers throughout the journey, most of whom are Taiwan locals who try to enjoy themselves away from the hustle and bustle in Taipei. Some of them even settled in the countryside of eastern Taiwan, making a living by managing shops selling coffee, travel souvenirs, and commodities of various kinds.

A Du is one of these self-employed travelers. He sells bicycles in his shop and works as a local guide leading tourists on bicycle tours into the rural country roads in his spare time. A Du has his own theory of discovering the beauty of Taiwan. He suggests his customers see Taiwan from a different perspective, even if it means you have to lie down on the ground and listen to the trucks whooping by.

Despite the ambiguity of the term, "Taiwan locals", the author goes on to fixate on this period of "contact" between "one" and the exoticized "other". In an oddly foreboding tone Taiwanese are described in ways that echo earlier European colonial enterprises that filled volumes on the "strangeness" of the natives.

Wang Yuping, the owner of a lifestyle studio in Hualien, also shares A Du's attitude towards traveling. She operates a café shop where tourists can find an array of local travel information. The former Taipei dweller brings groups of travelers to visit ethnic families in Taiwan so as to offer them an in-depth view of Taiwan's culture.

The term "ethnic families" is used to gloss over the troublesome topic of Taiwan's indigenous population and align them more closely with China's own ethnic construction of minzu, a term borrowed from Japanese nationalism to define human populations in terms of "race". The author sidesteps the thorny issue of who these "ethnic people" are while by proxy maintaining the Chinese nationalist belief that its modernist Han construct is not "ethnic".

Entrepreneurs also have their eye on the expanding travel market in rural Taiwan. Zhang Qinglai spent ten years establishing a holiday resort in Yilan, which invites tourists to experience life on a ranch. He named his ranch "Shangri-La," in dedication to the peaceful and carefree lifestyle he wished the ranch could offer.

I think this is just funny in that it references "Shangri-la", the name for the fictive Himalayan paradise of Tibetan lore.

As Taiwan plans to allow individual mainland tourists to travel to the island this year, backpacking and independent traveling is also becoming a trend within the island. What's more, I believe the bounty of Taiwan's travel resources are in the lesser-known countryside.

The way China officially conceives its relationship with Taiwan and the way that relationship is actually conducted are entirely different things.

Beyond that, I have to wonder who the intended audience is for this article. It is wonderfully written in readable English and I suppose it is intended for "Overseas Chinese" and therefore the foreign audience may affect the content.

Lastly, with China's state media getting into the act it signals the importance tourism plays in China's own goals for Taiwan.

What I do see is more Chinese discovering Taiwan for its particularity and having to come to terms with its differences.

Food for thought.

Also:

CENS declares Taiwanese bicycle export value has increased 10%