Posted on Jun 9, 2022
Complex Taiwanese and Chinese identities are exposed after gunman enters church
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https://www.npr.org/2022/06/09/ [login to see] /complex-taiwanese-and-chinese-identities-are-exposed-after-gunman-enters-church
Just before David Wenwei Chou glued and chained shut the doors of California's Geneva Presbyterian Church, then shot the elderly congregants inside, he mailed his handwritten diaries to a Taiwanese newspaper.
He titled his screed: "Diary of an Angel of Destroying Independence" — referring to Taiwanese independence from China.
The rampage this past May left one person dead and five injured. It also exposed how complex Taiwanese and Chinese identities are — and how a combustible mixture of political enmities imported by diaspora communities combined with American gun culture can prove deadly.
At first, English-language coverage mistakenly described Chou, the shooter, as a Chinese immigrant. In fact, he was born in Taiwan to Chinese parents who left China following the end of a brutal civil war in 1949 — a group of people in Taiwan called waishengren, meaning "outside province people." Many waishengren were part of a mass exodus of Kuomingtang officials and their families, the political party that lost to the Communist Party that now governs from Beijing.
Just before David Wenwei Chou glued and chained shut the doors of California's Geneva Presbyterian Church, then shot the elderly congregants inside, he mailed his handwritten diaries to a Taiwanese newspaper.
He titled his screed: "Diary of an Angel of Destroying Independence" — referring to Taiwanese independence from China.
The rampage this past May left one person dead and five injured. It also exposed how complex Taiwanese and Chinese identities are — and how a combustible mixture of political enmities imported by diaspora communities combined with American gun culture can prove deadly.
At first, English-language coverage mistakenly described Chou, the shooter, as a Chinese immigrant. In fact, he was born in Taiwan to Chinese parents who left China following the end of a brutal civil war in 1949 — a group of people in Taiwan called waishengren, meaning "outside province people." Many waishengren were part of a mass exodus of Kuomingtang officials and their families, the political party that lost to the Communist Party that now governs from Beijing.
Complex Taiwanese and Chinese identities are exposed after gunman enters church
Posted from npr.org
China
Taiwan
Religion
Christianity
Firearms and Guns
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel good morning, thank you for the solid read/share of the most informational good buddy.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."For some, immigrating to the United States can be a fresh start: a chance to wipe the slate clean of Old World grudges to live simply as an American. For Chou, emigrating from Taiwan seemed only to amplify historical divisions — a phenomenon Taiwanese writer Leona Chen calls "the immigrant time capsule."
"The very salient political conflicts and tensions experienced during martial law were sort of incubated and carried over by our parents and grandparents' generation," says Chen. "Then they just continued to stay that way even as Taiwan has evolved and changed and softened some of those divisions."
Chou, the shooter, is in police custody and has been charged with one count of capital murder and five counts of attempted murder. Dr. John Cheng, who died in the church attack, is remembered as a hero for charging Chou and helping subdue him long enough for the police to arrive.
So far, there's no indication of imminent war between China and Taiwan, but the casualties of this conflict are already cropping up."
..."For some, immigrating to the United States can be a fresh start: a chance to wipe the slate clean of Old World grudges to live simply as an American. For Chou, emigrating from Taiwan seemed only to amplify historical divisions — a phenomenon Taiwanese writer Leona Chen calls "the immigrant time capsule."
"The very salient political conflicts and tensions experienced during martial law were sort of incubated and carried over by our parents and grandparents' generation," says Chen. "Then they just continued to stay that way even as Taiwan has evolved and changed and softened some of those divisions."
Chou, the shooter, is in police custody and has been charged with one count of capital murder and five counts of attempted murder. Dr. John Cheng, who died in the church attack, is remembered as a hero for charging Chou and helping subdue him long enough for the police to arrive.
So far, there's no indication of imminent war between China and Taiwan, but the casualties of this conflict are already cropping up."
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When people attempt to compare China-Taiwan with Russia-Ukraine, they sometimes ignore familial or ethnic ties. Some Taiwanese have distant or close family in mainland China based on previous civil war and somewhat open travel between places before COVID.
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