ladies and gentlemen will land on a
remarkable Ireland the scenery is
spectacular miles of mountains that run
right along seacoast and full reefs that
will just take your breath away
you forgot to tank the people practice
great hospitality to foreigners they
will always be point anyway in the
National Palace Museum you can see
Chinese antiques such as this painting
called along the river during the
changing festival and this piece of
jadeite called the jadeite cabbage in
your hotel room you can watch CTS
Chinese television system flick through
your passport with new stamp on it
unless you're in the Republic of China
wait China no I put the flight to Taiwan
town if you're fooled by this facade of
a name you will not pass your Asian
history class so what is this place is
to identity
I want China what's your deal let's draw
the curtains guys that's such a bad pun
Taiwan an island in the West Pacific
Ocean culturally speaking as influenced
by many different people being an island
the only way to come here used to be by
sea and that's indeed how many people
came here the Dutch the Spanish the
Portuguese several European countries
even passed by or colonized Taiwan
before
Boadicea colonize well of course Taiwan
has its own indigenous peoples Taiwanese
Aborigines are the Austronesian peoples
sharing the same roots with Indonesia
Malaysia Philippines and Polynesia so
European Austronesian times culture is
the mixture of these two
oh but apart from the aboriginal and
colonial peeps the han chinese who lived
along the southeastern sea coast of
china
that's the cocaine and cantonese people
also brought along their own cultures so
the language taiwanese is actually a
variant of southeastern mean chinese
dialects of course in 1949 when the KMT
government came to Taiwan they also
brought along Han Chinese people from
other provinces there was also a time
when Taiwan was ruled by Japan and
that's when Japanese culture flew in
along with the westernized education
system this era lasted for half a
century to this day some of our grand
pops and grannies still speak Japanese
in recent years immigrants from
Southeast Asia have reached a total of
700,000 people that's one out of every
33 people in Taiwan
needless to say their culture has also
become an indivisible part of Taiwan as
you can probably tell now Taiwanese
culture is actually a big fusion of
multiple diverse cultures it's not hard
to imagine people in Taiwan are pretty
used to respecting and accepting other
cultures Buddhism bacteria temples Islam
assalamualaikum
Christianity hallelujah maybe it folk
belief or ancestral worship any kind of
religion of faith is welcome in Taiwan
what about sex and gender you got it
Taiwan has just made same-sex marriage
legal becoming one of the few countries
with same-sex marriage in Asia this high
degree of freedom has also extended into
other rights freedom of the press
freedom of speech and of course the
right to vote in 1996 Taiwan held its
first presidential election and became
the first democratic country and Han
Chinese
although Taiwan's democracy has only a
short history of 20 to 30 years we now
all take it for granted we can talk
about politics all day long and protest
on the streets to fight for our own
rights okay so history religion politics
what else is special about Taiwan Taiwan
is also rich in arts from street dance
to the Cloud Gate Dance Theater which
combines modern dance with oriental soma
aesthetics from traditional stone wood
and pottery sculptures and the temples
to the modern bronze and steel
sculptures of jewel me from temple
performances that please the gods 2p
Li's glove puppetry on TV from
sophisticated and delicate tea
ceremonies easily accessible handmade
tea taiwan's high level of liberty has
also enabled it to combine different
elements via traditional modern foreign
or local it's brand-new forms of art
Chinese thickened meat soup with Western
fried chicken tastes like modern art so
what is Taiwan really like Taiwan is a
small island food but has all kinds of
breathtaking natural sceneries we have
268 mountains higher than three
kilometers Taiwan is a free country
we would go to 23 million free spirit
but I guess more importantly Taiwan is a
friendly and kind place this is kind of
hard to present but let's hear some
number according to the whu-oh Taiwan
was the top one blood donor in 2015
donating 30% more than the lunar oh
speaking of donations Taiwan donated
more money to Japan after the great
touhou and earthquake in 2011 than any
other country or region in the world how
about that for being kind
alrighty after all that talk you must
have a basic understanding of Taiwan
don't you look you don't have to
actually be here to understand
understand there's so much more that's
if you come so why don't you mark your
calendars and grab that ticket and come
see Taiwan for yourself
[Music]