Everyone has a hot take after the results of Taiwan’s election over the weekend, and I’m no different. I’ll preface my hot take with “I said what I said” (as always) and “I won’t hold back” (because why would I?). International headlines, particularly western, are already tripping over themselves trying to crystal-ball-gaze, and frankly some headlines are little more than rank rabble-rousing for the feeble-minded.
In last Monday’s briefing, I said that “we will have enough information about whether 2024 and beyond will maintain a grotesque status quo or escalate into an eruption most of us would like to avoid.” I think we’re heading for a weird liminal, by which I mean intermittent, tit-for-tat posturing by the real powers behind the throne, China and the US. As Wang Xiangwei puts it, “I am not being cynical here, but unfortunately Taiwan’s future is not really decided by people in Taiwan. It was, is and will be decided by Washington and Beijing.”
Season of Cynicism
Cynicism might just save us all in this region. The escalation in the Red Sea this past week captures most of the west’s attention and resources, with constant 24/7 stream of horrors on live TV and social media. The Taiwan thorn is not particularly at the forefront of the ordinary citizen’s mind in the west, and that is perhaps for the best.
As a parting shot, to those who say that the people of Taiwan have spoken, yes they have indeed, and they will bear the consequences of their decisions, as do we all. Let’s be clear-eyed about the fact that all actions have consequences. To all who say that Taiwan shows how a Han Chinese nation can be a democracy, yes they do indeed – with a very regional flavour. Taiwan shows what the Chinese are in a putative democracy – 胡鬧 rowdy, 貪污 corrupt, 粗口 crass, 鬼鼠 secretive and 搞亂 mischief makers. They really do remind me of Nezha, the brash, arrogant child-god much beloved of southern Chinese (he really does speak to the male of the species), the totem of untamed male youth with a litany of gripes against his parents. Ignoring the inconvenient fact of the popular vote tally, it is no surprise to me, therefore, that they elected the embodiment of all those traits, William Lai, as their figurehead.
It would not be out of the question, I think, for Mazu, a Hokkien deity which unites devotees across the straits, to be an emblem of parental sanity and chastisement. We can but hope.
Heavy Stones
The next big election takes place a little further south, in the world’s largest Islamic country. CNA produced a fine documentary, well worth the entire watch, about its exiles, an era that formed a central conceit in the Netflix show Gadis Kretek. This purge of communists and communist sympathisers, which Bevins brilliantly catalogues in his book The Jakarta Method, is a shameful chapter in what is once again a putative democracy. Lee Kuan Yew refusing CIA bribes, against that backdrop, makes you realise just how heavy his stones were, pointing out US administrations’ nice intentions but lacking depth and finesse.
All that Shimmers is not Jade
We think we know jade, but do we really? Hanfu Girl, a Singaporean-based amateur historian of Chinese fashion and accessories, commences a blog series about jade, or what we think of as jade. Worth reading, and worth following.
Jodie’s Back!
Finally, the queen of suspense and thrill graces our small screens once again, and in a True Detective installation no less. The recent strikes have created a dearth of quality police procedurals, but I think we’re back on track with HBO’s True Detective: Night Country and Apple TV+’s Criminal Record, starring Doctor Who alum Peter Capaldi and Good Wife alum Cush Jumbo. It may not be winter in the tropics, but I’m going to get cozy in front of the telly and pretend it is.