A Liberal Taiwan?

A Bangkok-based curator shared his heartfelt impression of Taipei after living in the city for three months: the capital of Taiwan owns artistic energy as strong as any other Asian city. Hearing this, I thought he was being cautiously polite, but he continued to express how he was impressed by local marginalized groups’ active participation in the arts, i.e. LGBTQ community and people with disabilities. I believe a dynamic civil society contributes to the cultural energy we experience in Taiwan today. It empowers marginalized communities and allows non-mainstream voices to be heard, pushing Taipei to become Asia’s leading indicator city for freedom, democracy, creativity, and human rights.

Taiwan had experienced a dark, martial-law-imposed post-war period. Even then, Chinese literati who had made Taiwan their home, as well as intellectuals educated during Japanese Colonization, strived to contribute to the island’s cultural landscape through their practices.

The 1970s and 1980s marked the beginning of a series of democratization and social movements. Issues related to gender, the environment, community, agriculture, labor, and aborigine rights were brought to public attention. Demonstrations and public discussions liberated a suppressed society, inspiring artists to engage in social and political activities. In fact, democratization in the mid-to-late 1980s did not only transform the political environment and enhance human rights in Taiwan, but also revolutionized the nation’s arts and cultural landscape. It had become possible to address politics publically in forms of performance art, visual arts, pop music, and films, and tabooed subjects such as body and sex were discussed openly. A society that encourages its citizens to express themselves and to speak their mind began to form.

Since the 1990s, Taiwan has strengthened its democratic system, recognized its unique identity, diversified its social values, and also witnessed globalization and the rise of consumerism. It has indeed established civil society, but nevertheless struggles to strike a balance between economic success and public commonwealth.

A shift in public value is observed amongst the millennials, showing an alignment with “post-materialism,”a concept created by the American political scientist Ronald Inglehart. While materialism prioritizes material satisfaction, post-materialism emphasizes autonomy, self-expression, and satisfaction derived from non-materialistic pursuits. Inglehart points out that materialists prefer the maintenance of order, whereas post-materialists advocate for political participation. Nontraditional political participation such as demonstrations, strikes, and occupy actions have become methods to pressure the administration for change. In the West, this generational conflict had manifested in a succession of student, environmental, and feminist movements in the 1960s.

A key to shift a materialistic society into a post-materialistic one is a healthy economy in which individuals are capable of seeking non-materialistic satisfaction. In Taiwan, this value shift was driven by both economic success and transformation brought by the series of social movements in the 1980s and 1990s.

We owe our lives to this social revolution.

Alignment to freedom and democracy, environmental protection, gender equality, and refusal to declare partisan allegiance has become the post-materialist norm in Taiwan. Post-materialists’ emphasis on self-realization and expression also contributes to “little happiness (小確幸),” a popular sentiment of achieving moments of joy despite difficulties in life.

Taiwan’s relatively high acceptance of the LGBTQ community, awareness of environmental issues, and tolerance for different ethnic groups have caught the attention of international media worldwide. These are the hard-earned conditions of long-term advocacy and grassroots mobilization, but have also created a backlash dividing generations based on value system differences. The result of the November 2018 referendum is a testimony to this powerful divide.

The referendum result points to several crises in Taiwan’s civil society: the rise of disinformation, anti-intellectualism, fact-less news reporting, conservative political stance, and populism.

These, of course, are crises faced by many countries in the world right now.

Vigorous art and cultural environment have deep roots in intellectualism and public participation. It is a platform for collective reflection, criticism, and imagination. Taiwan has become a safe haven for freedom and democracy but has to work on nurturing a more inclusive public understanding to maintain a truly open, sustainable, and diverse cultural landscape.