On the esplanade of Yuanshan Park, north of Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, walkers crowd the aisles of an organic farmers’ produce market. On this November weekend, families, where three or even four generations mingle, stroll around a precious only child, whose stroller crosses those of small dogs dressed in their Sunday best who are also given some fresh air, under a bright sun. winter which no longer warms up. Sitting on low walls, elderly people observe this peaceful spectacle by dipping their chopsticks into their meal boxes which they hold close to their chins.
At the entrance to the main Zhongshan Avenue, a young and slender singer, dressed in a flat-pleated miniskirt, moves discreetly on the platform of a truck set up as a stage. Around thirty onlookers listen to him, all smiles. It’s the Ring starlet, who has just created a new female pop music group, BOOM!, whose music video Still Love You is a big hit on YouTube. She sang as the opening act for Mayday, the “Chinese Beatles,” in Hong Kong in April. After a mini crowd bath, Ring slips away to the airport. She is due to fly to China, where she has already performed solo in around ten major cities.
The Middle Kingdom remains the El Dorado for part of Taiwanese youth. It is in this country, or thanks to it, that the biggest fortunes on the island have been born since the 1990s. China also opens up career opportunities that Taiwan, with its market of 23 million people, will never be able to offer. ‘residents. For younger generations, this big neighbor is both fascinating and increasingly intimidating. Its intentions are clear, everyone has heard the Chinese Communist Party declare that sooner or later it would be necessary “unite Taiwan, a rebellious separatist province, to mainland China, by force if necessary”.
On December 31, 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed that China will be “surely reunited”, to which Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen responded on Monday 1er January speaking of “peaceful coexistence” and recalling that the destiny of the island had to be decided by “democratic procedures”.
A democracy proud of its societal progress
Since 1949 and the victory of the communist revolution, the former master of post-imperial China, the Kuomintang (literally “Chinese nationalist party”), commanded by Chang Kai-shek, has taken refuge in Taiwan. He initially had the ambition to reconquer the motherland. But after almost forty years of martial law, Taiwan took the path to democracy in the 1980s. The emergence of an increasingly distinct identity ended up straining relations between the two shores.
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