2024/09/15 New Bloom Newsletter
TPP turmoil, PRC arrest, HK refugees in Taiwan, Taiwanese-owned factories abroad, Taipei People
Hi folks, Yo-Ling here with another New Bloom Newsletter! As I’m sure a lot of you have been following, the TPP has been in disarray in light of Ko Wen-je’s arrest; links and more in the news blurb below. I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight two New Bloom community members who have been providing excellent in-depth event summaries for the DAYBREAK events the first half of September, Rey and Micah. As mentioned previously, one of the main motivations for starting this newsletter is to bring the broader New Bloom readership in touch with the community that has formed in-person here in Taipei around DAYBREAK. Rey and Micah’s event summaries have really contributed to achieving this goal — big thank you to them both!
Okay, and now the news:
New Bloom News
The TPP has continued to unravel in early September. Party chair Ko Wen-je is now in prison and, though he was briefly released without bail, it does not look like he will get out of jail anytime soon. The TPP has increasingly continued to lean into the narrative that Ko is not guilty and that the DPP is targeting him as a form of political persecution, a claim that the TPP has also embraced. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has embraced this narrative, though the KMT still seems undecided on how far to go in terms of supporting Ko.
In the meantime, for the first time, the Chinese government has sentenced a Taiwanese independence advocate for the crime of separatism. The individual in question, Yang Chih-yuan, was relatively unknown. It is to be seen if China targets higher-profile individuals in the future.
Likewise, a surprise recall of the Kinmen county magistrate has failed. This seemingly occurred due to a split in the KMT, seeing as those involved in the recall were other KMT politicians, and the county magistrate, Hung Yun-tien, is also part of the KMT. The allegations may point to deeply-rooted issues of political corruption in Kinmen.
DAYBREAK Events
(Please see our Facebook page for all upcoming and past events)
2024/09/06 | Hong Kongers at the Intersection of Refugees and Taiwanese National Security
Summary by: New Bloom community members Micah (he/him) and Rey (he/him)
This bilingual Mandarin-English event of nearly 50 people explored Annie Huang’s 黃尚卿 Thesis: "At the Intersection of Refugees and Taiwanese National Security: A Case Study of Hong Kongese Refugees Following the 2019 Hong Kong Protests.”
Annie studied at UC San Diego Global Policy and Strategy master program, and National Chengchi University Law School. She has served as a senior INGO leader and a social entrepreneur in Taiwan, previously working with an NGO helping refugees for twelve years, which gave her profound insight into the current situation.
She opened by explaining that “everyone knows there is this door [to migrate to Taiwan] for Hong Kongers, but nobody knows where it is,” as Taiwan has no transparent legal process of asylum.
Her elaboration on the topic followed three sections, including very detailed bilingual slides:
1) Sharing from interviews with Hong Kong asylum seekers on their personal experiences with the de facto asylum process of Taiwan and sharing how difficult the process is for them on a personal and legal level, along with no paper trails or way to petition if rejected.
2) Showing how far Taiwan’s unclear de facto refugee policies fall from the guidelines put out by the:
1951 Refugee Convention of the United Nations. This conference created the International Principles For Asylum Seeker Policy, which outlines the UN Refugee Status Determination (RSD)
The International Association of Refugee and Migrants Judges (IARMJ)
3) Comparing the current opaque system in Taiwan to the very meticulous, humane “HANA” resettlement system South Korea has in place to integrate North Korean asylum seekers.
With a laugh early in the talk, Annie acknowledged that a masters law thesis can be dry for anyone. However, with great empathy and passion, Annie brought her wealth of research into clarity as she walked us through not only the chronological legal developments of the last ten years around the topic, but also called for a better future ahead.
“Waiting is actually very brutal,” she mourned, as she shared how many hopeful Hong Kongers can only petition the government either via email or through an NGO, and only once they have already come to Taiwan. They would have to wait day after day for months to years by the phone, not knowing when the Taiwanese government will call to open their case.
Annie highlighted that “processes should be refugee centered, not [government] interviewer centered. She pointed out that many refugees from Hong Kong are very young–as young as late teens–and have had to deal with being separated from family, not being able to continue their education, PTSD, food and housing instability as they are unable to legally work, and the process drags on to upwards of two years.
The audience was very moved, and during the question and answer time afterwards, one asked Annie, “what can the international community do?”
Annie pointed out that the audience was indeed majority foreigners to Taiwan, and called for two things:
1) Educating the younger Taiwanese community on this issue, as because most young Taiwanese aren’t yet aware of and moved by the struggles on a personal level that asylum seekers face in Taiwan, the issue is never discussed in Taiwanese elections, etc. She pointed out that the older Taiwanese generation has deep rooted, historical fears on allowing foreigners a process into the country.
2) Pressure from the outside international community to move the Taiwanese government to clarify their policy, which has helped historically, so there is a more humane process.
Annie also pointed out a common protest to the issue of making a transparent asylum policy in Taiwan, which she is often asked: “how do you know they [incoming seekers] are not a [mainland government] spy?” She replies, “I don’t know. All I know is there’s a person who needs help.”
In closing, she emphasized that “the real back to this thesis is pro-democracy in this region. ‘We should fight China,’ Okay, well, we should help those who have fought, and fallen.” Lastly, she shared a heartfelt video created by Kacey Wong on YouTube, “Goodbye Farewell So Long Forever Hong Kong,” which tracks his journey leaving his homeland and entering Taiwan.
2024/09/07 | Taiwanese Factory Story: A Book Talk
Summary by: New Bloom community members Micah (he/him) and Rey (he/him)
In this talk, “Taiwanese Factory Story,” Fei Geng detailed her experiences across three years abroad in Taiwanese-owned factories in her book On Hold. To open the event, she explained the use of small red stickers passed out at the door, meant to cover the 20 attendees' cameras. This immersive exercise mimics the restrictions put on factory workers, to keep what happens in factories private.
Guangdong, China
She opened with her first experience at a factory for Hua Li, a company with many subsidiaries creating footwear. Both inside and outside of work, laborers’ needs are an afterthought. Fei Geng shared photos of their living quarters, and played a sound clip she took of the loud “white noise” workers are constantly subjected to in the factory. She also pointed out that the workers do not have the correct PPE, such as masks, to protect themselves from toxic chemical exposure.
During her time as a factory worker, she experienced the dehumanization that comes with being reduced to repetitive work, both cognitively and physically. Delighted by the methods of which workers resisted this, she documented as much as she could without neglecting her personal safety, such as a defective shoe from the assembly line being used as an ashtray, or what she dubs ‘cute vandalism’ on work machines–cute stickers. She also showcased “factory fashion”: women would don cheongsams and heels for work, switching to slippers to operate machine pedals with ease.
She pointed out that she was treated in a much more generous way because of her class and Taiwanese nationality, such as being offered two free pairs of shoes, which she awkwardly walked to collect in front of all other workers. She also pointed out that the Taiwanese managers, and her as a Taiwanese visitor were given better food and better tables during meal times.
She highlighted the differences between the advertising of the products and the conditions in which they were actually created. “All of the stuff may be ‘hand-made,’” she said, showing images of shoes being painted by workers on assembly lines, “but it’s made by who?”
Đồng Nai, Vietnam
Her second location was working for Pou Chen Corporation, the largest footwear manufacturer globally. Workers would sleep on the floor because the factory shuttle buses come as early as 4am to drive them 2 or 3 hours to the factory. She saw very dark and dingy conditions in work spaces and very large rats, but a convivial and communal canteen.
Between shifts on the factory floor, a few workers did handicrafts to earn more money on the side or spent time sitting together chatting. During a popular football match, the factory closed so workers could attend; otherwise, the workers may strike. She pointed out that the workers wear the same bright red national flag shirts while on strike, so that strike days oddly have a similar feeling to the match days.
She shares again with side-by-side comparisons, how the Taiwanese visitors or staff were treated with much better food, such as crab weekly. She also pointed out the low incentive for Taiwanese citizens to come manage overseas factories, so they are treated very well during the average 1-2 years they spend managing in the factories.
2014 Vietnam Anti-China Protests
She shared photos of burned Chinese and Taiwanese factories and stories of Chinese citizens burned to death, as protests broke out in the wake of China placing an oil rig in a disputed region of the South China Sea.
2018 Strike
This roughly one-week-long strike was in the wake of the Vietnamese government proposing a law which would give foreign investors a 99-year-lease on Vietnamese land. Cambodia also passed a similar law. There was a great deal of censorship by the government as well due to protests. She shared the differing images that she and her Vietnamese friend saw on social media at the time.
For her as a Taiwanese citizen, she was given priority along with Chinese citizens on shuttle buses that would help them move. She also saw posts that encouraged her to hide and stay safe. However, her Vietnamese friend’s social media had posts calling for national unity in the face of Chinese encroachment, and to rally and protest.
She was so elated seeing the strikes at one point that she ran out and took the sticker from her phone camera and cheered as she took videos, until her Vietnamese coworker reminded her that she is Taiwanese, and is of the nationality they are protesting against, so it was unsafe for her.
While at times there was an air of celebration among striking workers early on in the week, she also shared videos of police using tear gas and other non-lethal means to disperse the crowds of workers outside the factories mid week.
In response to the protests, the government only delayed the decision on the 99-year-lease laws.
She also highlighted one event soon after, when the first positive COVID case occurred in one of the factories. Although workers wanted to leave, the management locked the gates. So the workers forced the gates until there was a gap enough for people to stream out.
She emphasizes that in her work she doesn’t want to label the factories as sweatshops, but simply wanted to document the reality of the workers’ lives.
2024/09/14 | Short Story Reading Club Vol. 10 台灣故事短篇小説讀書會
Summary by: New Bloom community member Micah (he/him)
This event was a discussion of the iconic short story〈永遠的尹雪豔〉"Eternal Snow Beauty" by 白先勇 Pai Hsien-yung. This short story is the first of 14 published in the collection 臺北人, Taipei People in 1971.
The afternoon opened with four moderators, each with a different area of focus of the book club experience, and about fifteen attendees gathered in a cozy circle in the space.
The event was very organized and ran smoothly, with a simple schedule and guided questions in both languages to lead the groups through the discussions. The event flowed as follows:
Introduction
Rosalyn introduced the moderators and expectations of the space. People also shared a brief introduction of themselves. The diverse group was from several different countries and in Taipei to travel, work, or study. It was exciting to have so many perspectives uniting to discuss the same story.
“Walk Down Memory Lane” Led by Kevin
Kevin hung historical images of the places featured in the short story of Shanghai and Taipei on the walls of the space. Attendees were each given slips of paper with either excerpts of history or segments of the story itself, then invited to work together to find the images corresponding to the information on the slips. The result was a pair of attendees meeting by each image: one with a slip on the related history, and one with a related excerpt from the story itself.
This led to a deeper understanding of the historical context of the story that straddles two very different lived experiences between the era’s Shanghai and Taipei.
Discussion Groups
There was a Bilingual group led by moderator HL and two English speaking groups led by moderators Michelle and Rosalyn.
During this time attendees in these smaller groups went through the historical context of the story, character analysis, discussion of the plot, and more as they tried to unravel the myriad meanings of the piece.
My group has the fortune of including Mrs. S, who had a longer lived experience than the rest of the group. Her personal experiences and bilingual insights brought clarity and insight to so many aspects of the story that we were very grateful for.
I am reminded of how beneficial it is to discuss these historical stories in intergenerational company. Having the gift to sift through these kinds of historical narratives with people who have had, or are connected to people who have had, a place in that history is such an amazing opportunity.
Regathering into a Larger Discussion Group
This time allowed for each group to give a summary of their discussion. Insights were brought up such as:
The warping of space and time in the story, the way “Mahjong time is not real time” and Time is otherwise layered in the story
Different interpretations of the key character 伊雪艷 Yin Hsueh-yen as siren, mermaid, witch, vampire, goddess, death, and more
Yearning for places and times left behind, how some immigrant experiences layered over other immigrant experiences such as the 外省人Waisengren vs. the 本省人Benshengren, and the violence and nostalgia of those colliding experiences and the experiences of the people already living in Taiwan in the era of the story
The final sentence can be read as either acquiescing and sweet or cold and extractive, and the way the language of the original story in Mandarin and the English translation can lead to different interpretations
And many other insights, as well!
Conclusion
The event ended with expressions of gratitude to everyone, plans for the next reading club to center on Taiwanese women writers, and a celebratory group photo
Photos of the event on Google Drive here!!!
That’s it for now! We have A LOT of exciting events coming up in the second half of September. We look forward to seeing you at them, and especially our (habitually belated) 10th year anniversary party!
Coming up
Every Friday Trif Trans Bar每週五的跨性別酒吧 A popup transgender bar every Friday in Taipei
2024/09/15: August’s Protests in Indonesia and “Black September”: A Discussion
2024/09/19: Echoes of Courage: A Panel with Martial Law Survivors from the Philippines and Taiwan
2024/09/21: New Bloom Tenth Anniversary Party!
2024/09/28: Umbrella Revolution 10 Years On: The Evolution of Hong Kong Protest Art