WHY I AM TAIWANESE, NOT A FOREIGNER

[BLACKCRUSADER]

Everyone else regards you as a foreigner.

Actually they don't. Its only the bigots like you that go around insisting that I will always be a foreigner here. You are so out of touch with reality.

[SANDMAN]

Yeah, mine's dual nationality. But he's still half-caste, mixed blood, whatever you want to call it.

[MAOMAN]

Yeah, mine's dual nationality. But he's still half-caste, mixed blood, whatever you want to call it.

Everybody in the WORLD is mixed blood. It's a silly (in)distinction.

[SANDMAN]

Yeah, mine's dual nationality. But he's still half-caste, mixed blood, whatever you want to call it.

Everybody in the WORLD is mixed blood. It's a silly (in)distinction.

And one that he'll have to live with as long as he lives here. Yours too. No point hiding your head in the sand about it.
What's silly, to me, is the notion that El Jefe is 100% Scottish, 100% German, 100% Canadian and 100% Blackfoot.
Mine is mixed blood, and that will inform the way he's treated by his peers, whether we like it or not.

[BLACKCRUSADER]

Sure and my son was treated as a local by his peers here. There were no issues about his "nationality" or where he came from.

[MAOMAN]

You're right, to some extent. But we also get to choose in how we identify ourselves. For me, I'm Canadian, but my nationality doesn't resonate with me as much as my ethnicity does. Sure, everybody else sees a Canadian, but that isn't how I see myself. Or rather, it's just one aspect of my identity.

We have a unique chance to be a little didactic here. Cultural ideas about identity take time, but they DO change, and sometimes very quickly. When I first arrived in Taiwan, no one referred to aborignals as 原住民, they were always 山地人. My daughter's kindy has quite a bit of ethnic diversity in it, although she is certainly the most visible example. But the teachers are wonderfully enlightened. None of this "half-Taiwanese" business for any of the kids, regardless of where their parents come from.

Anyway, it's better to be in the vanguard than in the flanks. Much less dust.

[BLACKCRUSADER]

You're right, to some extent. But we also get to choose in how we identify ourselves. For me, I'm Canadian, but my nationality doesn't resonate with me as much as my ethnicity does. Sure, everybody else sees a Canadian, but that isn't how I see myself. Or rather, it's just one aspect of my identity. We have a unique chance to be a little didactic here. Cultural ideas about identity take time, but they DO change, and sometimes very quickly. When I first arrived in Taiwan, no one referred to aborignals as 原住民, they were always 山地人. My daughter's kindy has quite a bit of ethnic diversity in it, although she is certainly the most visible example. But the teachers are wonderfully enlightened. None of this "half-Taiwanese" business for any of the kids, regardless of where their parents come from.

Anyway, it's better to be in the vanguard than in the flanks. Much less dust.

Yes you always go around telling everyone you are Canadian. And you are not in the vanguard of having mixed kids in local schools here. You are decades behind. Your ethnicity is Caucasion, you always tell people you are menonite russian. I do not refer to myself as Australian a country I have not lived in since 1986 and have visited perhaps 5 times since I left. I've been to Australia one in the last 17 years in 2010 for a brief trip to visit my sister and my son who was enrolled at University of NSW.

I refer to myself as Taiwanese because I am one.

[Bismarck]

I'm not South African

Dragonbones

Mate, are any of these more specific phrasings objectionable, in your eyes, for a person born in SA, with former SA citizenship, and currently an ROC passport? They all seem factually correct to me:

South African by origin,
South-African born,
a former South African (by nationality),
a South-African born ROC passport holder, and
a naturalized Taiwan citizen of South African origin.

Since when people apply simpler labels like "South African" or "Taiwanese", they variously think of ancestry, birthplace and citizenship, it's inevitable that some disagreement will occur if these two simpler labels are used. So perhaps they should be avoided.

South African by origin, - Incorrect imo. In origin, but not South African. Although, more truthfully, I'm British in origin.
South-African born, - Sure. South African born Taiwanese.
a former South African (by nationality), - Sure.
a South-African born ROC passport holder, and - Sure. But, I'd prefer "a South African born Taiwanese (citizen).
a naturalized Taiwan citizen of South African origin. - Sure.

Ancestry - Great grandfather was Dutch. The Dutch were here before the Han. And some of their descendents are still running around in the genes of some southern and northern Taiwanese. My ancestry is Anglo Saxon, if not Dutch. Not South African.
Birthplace - South Africa. No one's perfect. Pres. Ma was born in HK.
Citizenship - I'm not a dual citizen. I need a visa to travel to South Africa.

I agree with avoiding labels, but I specifically prefer to avoid the South African label. Can that at least be respected by my friends, if not strangers?

[BLACKCRUSADER]

I also needed a visa to visit Australia in 2010. Nobody batted an eyelid that although I was born in Australia that I was Taiwanese. Just stamped in and have a nice visit. I was treated just like any other foreign visitor to Australia because after all, I am Taiwanese.

[SANDMAN]

What about their peers, though? The Wee's teachers are great, too. Its the other kids that will become more of a concern as the years progress.