Like I'm American because I was born here but I'm also American because I live on the land of the Ohlone people

And obviously racism will never let me not be Chinese so that's covered

Taiwanese identity is therefore not simply a mask hiding the Chinese and Hokkien culture underneath, it is a canvas where the paint of Chinese and Hokkien culture leaves their mark, but is a part of a full painting, perhaps an important part, but not the only part

If I really want to be reductive, Taiwan is not the Isn'treal of Asia, it's the America of Asia if it was a pawn instead of a general

Both countries colonized their Indigenous population, both countries financially support Isn'treal because of that history of colonization, both are complicit

It's linking an article by the Qiao Collective that eschews the word "Indigenous" to describe the Amis, Rukai, Seediq, Bunun, Puyuma, etc. but then has the gall to use 原主民 to refer to them, a word from the Chinese language, directly responsible for why many don't speak their Indigenous language!

What does perpetuate colonial harm and erasure is not centering the video on the Indigenous Taiwanese People that were massacred and harmed by the colonization of Taiwan in the discussion, the Amis, Rukai, Seediq, Bunun, Puyuma, just to name a few, cause it's their land that was taken from them!

Tbh the video almost got me down a identity crisis but then a fellow Taiwanese person was like "Let me give you clarity" and I was like "Oh no, you're absolutely right"

The vid/comments start with the factual basis that "Taiwanese culture has origins in Chinese & Hokkien culture" but come to the conclusion that it means that "Taiwanese identity perpetuates colonial harm and erasure because it is actually a mask for Chinese/Hokkien identity" and I have to disagree

Alot of Taiwanese food like Gua bao and Loh Ba Png is Fujianese in origin, hell, alot of Taiwanese food is Chinese in origin, but there's still alot of local specialties. Beef Noodle Soup and Boba Tea are the obvious but Bah-oan, Oamisua, Tsuabing, Aiyu Jelly, Pineapple Cake, Sishen Soup

Tai-gi, Taiwanese Hokkien, is Hokkien, absolutely, but! Tai-gi has unique slang and loanwords due to Japanese colonial influence (siò͘-tò͘ : short circuit, 便所: restroom), or the meaning is changed (術仔 is Coward in Tai-gi but in Xiamen it's knot on string/rope)

Cause it's one thing to say "Haven't you noticed Taiwanese American Restaurant Menus are so short"

It's another to use that to imply Taiwan is on the same level of gastronationalism as Isn'treal and align with commenters that are like "Taiwanese food is just Fujianese Food, Tai-gi is just Hokkien"

My point is that the problem with good practical governance is the same problem with vaccines. When it works too well, people stop believing they need it.

DOGE dissolving a massive amount of the federal workforce is going to open up chasms in service and competence ppl would have never anticipated.

When they called up their reps, the office standard reply was "We can't afford it. We told you what the new taxes were needed for, and you chose not to have them. "

"If you'd like the streetlight closest to your house lit up, though, we can do that for a few thousand dollars, plus a daily fee."