My reply to a young Taiwanese reader

A young Taiwanese reader asked me the following question below one of my articles:

Would you mind to telling me that have you ever been to Taiwan? And if so, what is your assessment of Taiwanese characteristics and culture, and what advice do you have for young people and students in Taiwan?

This is my reply.

Thanks for your question. I haven’t been to Taiwan yet, but I will definitely go very soon. I have indeed dealt with a lot of Taiwanese in Australia. When I compare them with people from Mainland, I can see a sharp contrast. The flaws that I see in many mainland Chinese – twisted logical process, absolutely terrified by any authority feature, extreme selfishness and lack of sympathy for others, adoration for dictatorship, etc., are not present in Taiwanese. This is, to me, largely because of two reasons:

1. There are a lot of poisonous stuff in Chinese culture – I thoroughly discussed it in “儒家文化的評判式思維是中华民族千年愚昧的根源”. The local Taiwanese before the Nationalists (guo-min-dang) escaped from the mainland did not have this burden.
2. The people who were able to flee to Taiwan were all rich and educated elites. This forms a much higher baseline and starting point.

As to the suggestions I as an outsider can give to young people in Taiwan:

There are much bigger influences that the CCP has on the Taiwanese society than you know, on every level, explicit and subtle. There are three types of people you may meet every day in your daily life in Taiwan:

1. CCP spies
2. People who are not formal employees of CCP but their income indirectly comes from CCP and therefore they would say what CCP wants them to say. This may very possibly include Guo Min Dang.
3. People who have been brain-washed by CCP without knowing.

I am sure you know all these, but you may not know how deep and wide the influence is.

I just want you to know how beautiful Taiwan is – its people, its culture and its democratic values. A huge amount of people in the world, including commoners like me and elites and leaders really want to keep it that way. For example, if a CCP invasion happens, if Taiwan accepts me, I will go to Taiwan to fight for its independence. Don’t listen to so many media and people in Taiwan telling you “The US won’t bleed for Taiwan so we’d better keep CCP happy” – they 100% will!

So be international in your mindset. Follow news around the world. Keep an accurate feeling about how the world thinks. Know that Taiwan is already an independent country and its second to none. Be brave to stand up against bullies across the channel. We are standing with you.

As to personal development, fear is the single reason for all of human’s suffering and flaws. It is a brick wall between us and all beautiful things. Be brave to face all challenges, and ask yourself: “What if all that I worry come to pass?” When you are able to answer “So what?!”, you will feel a sudden drop of all your burdens, and you will be really free. Real freedom doesn’t come from money – Elon Mask is the richest person in the world, but from the stupid things that he did to Tweeter, we all know he is absolutely trapped in and suffering from the angers in his heart. Anger is just a different alias for fear.

True freedom comes from the fearless courage to face and accept whatever life throws at you. It does not depend on anything outside of your mind – you can gain it even if you don’t have a cent and physically in a prison.