The transformation of Taipei City

During the Japanese colonial period, Taipei was the seat of Taihoku Prefecture, “taihoku” being the Japanese transliteration of “Taipei.” The Governor-General’s Office, Taipei Prefectural Government and Taipei City Hall — today the Presidential Office, Control Yuan and Executive Yuan respectively — along with other colonial institutions laid the foundations for the city’s development into Taiwan’s premier urban area.

After the Republic of China (ROC) fled from China — or, as some would put it, relocated to Taiwan and occupied it — Taipei became its capital. Power was inherited from the Japanese, and rewritten under ROC rule.

Taipei became the heart of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) party-state-military establishment. Its status fostered a sense of detachment from the rest of Taiwan. It was insisted that then-Taipei County be upgraded to a special municipality named New Taipei City, ignoring the reality that the area had consisted of several medium-sized cities surrounding Taipei.

The resulting system bears a certain resemblance to Tokyo, where 23 central special wards are bordered to the west by 26 cities also contained within the metropolitan government. New Taipei City emerged as an awkward administrative configuration, a product of a local government rushing to secure municipal upgrades.

In the 1994 direct elections for Taipei mayor, the KMT nominated Huang Ta-chou (黃大洲) while Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) broke away from the party to run as an independant. The split vote led to the victory of Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). At the time, raucous chants and yellow flags bearing slogans saying “Defend the ROC” filled Taipei’s streets, creating widespread anxiety.

However, prior to full democratization, there was another period in which Taipei elected its own mayors, and candidates outside the KMT establishment were often successful.

Henry Kao (高玉樹), an independent, enjoyed considerable popularity as mayor, serving in two periods: from 1954 to 1957 (as an elected provincial city mayor) and 1964 to 1972. He was elected in 1964 and remained in office as an appointed mayor after Taipei in 1967 was upgraded by the KMT into a special municipality. At that point, the mayorship was no longer an elected office, it was appointed by the party.

Many still regard Chen as the best Taipei mayor since the full restoration of direct elections. His administration’s approval ratings exceeded 70 percent, yet was defeated by the KMT’s Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) when he sought re-election 1998. What does this tell us about the civic identity of the people of “Chinese” Taipei? One may draw one’s own conclusions.

What followed was Taiwan’s first democratic transfer of power in 2000 when Chen, having lost the Taipei mayoral race, went on to become president. The quiet revolution of Taiwan’s democratization had taken shape.

During the 1998 Taipei mayoral election, Chen’s campaign headquarters was directly across the street from where I lived. I watched the vote count from my home alongside German sinologist Helmut Martin. When Chen lost, Martin found the result so incomprehensible that he cried.

How could this have happened? My answer would be that this is Chinese Taipei, haunted by the ghost of a consciousness shaped by exile and colonialism.

Apart from the oldest Taipei natives, there are at least three other types of Taipei people.

The first is represented in When the Flowers Bloom (花?季節), a short novel published in Japanese by Yang Chian-ho (楊千鶴 ) in 1942, depicting the awakening consciousness of Taiwanese women under Japanese colonial rule. The story was later reimagined by Yang Shuang-zi (楊?子) in her 2017 novel.

The second comes from the community of exiled government officials, merchants and businessmen who arrived in Taiwan in 1949, as depicted in author Pai Hsien-yung’s (白先勇) 1971 collection of short stories titled Taipei People.

The third are the Taiwanese who moved to Taipei from other parts of the nation, as depicted in novelist Wang Chen-ho’s (王禎和) short story Little Lin Comes to Taipei (小林來台北).

Nevertheless, the yoke of Chinese Taipei has continued to hold Taiwan’s premier city politically hostage.

Since the reinstatement of direct elections, Taipei has gone through one term under Chen, two each under the KMT’s Ma and Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), then-independent Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and one under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安).

Chiang entered the world as Chang Wan-an (章萬安), but claims that he is a descendant of the Chiang family, the great grandson and grandson of former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). Whether his surname is Chang or Chiang, the incumbent mayor has certainly leveraged the family name of the former presidents to his advantage.

We once again approach elections. Now, perhaps because of recurring questions about special privilege, he faces the younger, more talented and more perceptive Puma Shen (沈伯洋) of the DPP as an electoral rival. It is a test for the oft-repeated, but inconsistently practiced political idiom: “Choose the worthy and the capable.”

The KMT’s grip on the ROC’s exilic and colonial consciousness in Taiwan must change. Those who have become rooted here must emerge as members of a collective that still bears the name ROC, but exists in Taiwan. Transforming “Chinese” Taipei into Taiwan’s Taipei is a cultural question and a political project for the rebuilding of Taiwan. We must stop clinging to the dream of exiled, colonial China in arrogance and self-importance. Taiwan belongs to all Taiwanese, regardless of who arrived first or later, and Taipei belongs to Taiwan. Transformation toward a new, locally rooted identity must begin with Taiwanese consciousness in the city.