Taiwanese? Chinese? Japanese?

Is Chinese people similar to Taiwanese?

I always got this question from my foreigner friends. The answer is "NOT AT ALL".

It's nothing political. Due to our history, we've been colonized by Japan for 50 years(1895-1945). You can find out we still have lots of architecture, infrastructure similar to Japan. Japan help us build up the railroad, the electricy system... etc. Also they educated the Taiwanese people, lots of elders( my grandmom as well) can speak Japanese. Therefore, our root is Chinese culture combine with some Japanese culture.

Do you hate Japan? Is the situation simlar to South Korea and Japan?

We love Japan, the Japanese culture. We've been received lots of stuffs from Japan since we was young. Anime, manga, TV game, J-POP, J-Drama.. I think the most difference between Taiwan and South Korea is we don't have an emperor back then. South Korea is a vassal state, Taiwan isn't.

Wastershed: after the Cultural Revolution(1966-1976). The communist vanished lots of valuable philosophy such as Confusionism, Taoism... Also they simplified the language, destoried the meaning of the font.

Democracy: after the White terror(1949-1991). Taiwan started to import lots of US culture stuffs, bulit-up high-tech industries. That made Taiwan capitalized and democratized. From 1960 to 1990, Taiwan was named as Asian Four Tigers due to high economy growing rate. From 1990-2000 is the Golden era in Taiwan, "台灣錢淹腳目" is spkoen everywhere. It means "Money flooded everywhere". By all these sucessful progresses, we held our first referendum on 2004.

We speak Taiwanese. Yes, it's "Ming nan" from Fujian dialect. Our ancestors are from mainland China. We studied Chinese history and have the same culture and customs. After several decades, our mindset and lifestyle are quite different.