Kuomintang

 

The Pan-Blue Coalition (泛藍) is a political alliance in the Republic of China (ROC) consisting of the Kuomintang (KMT), the People First Party (PFP), and the New Party (CNP). The name comes from the party colours of the Kuomintang. This coalition tends to favor a Chinese nationalist identity over a separate Taiwanese one.

The Pan-Blue Coalition originally was associated with Chinese reunification, but has moved towards a more conservative position supporting the present status quo.

 

 

Taiwanese People

 

Beef Noodle Soup

When the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War, refugees from mainland China including Chinese Muslims introduced the beef noodles to the Taiwanese. Despite the traditional Taiwanese aversion to eating beef, and that virtually no wheat (a main ingredient of noodles) is produced in the island. Certain sources argue that the modern form of the Chinese beef noodles was actually invented in Gangshan, Kaohsiung by Republic of China Air Force personnel who fled to Taiwan from Sichuan. Despite the southern Taiwanese roots of the modern beef noodles, the City of Taipei styles itself as the "World Capital of Beef Noodles" and has recently started to host an annual Taipei Beef Noodles Festival.

 

Scallion Pancake

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Mainlanders or Waisheng ren (外省人; literally "extraprovincial person") are people who moved to Taiwan from mainland China after 1945. This group also includes all their descendants born in Taiwan.

The word mainlander can refer to two different groups:

  1. Waisheng ren (外省人; literally "extraprovincial person") are people who moved to Taiwan from mainland China after 1945. This group also includes all their descendants born in Taiwan.
  1. Dalu ren (大陸人; literally "mainland people") are residents of mainland China, especially citizens of the People's Republic of China who live in mainland China.

In the context of demographics of Taiwan, the term mainlander most likely refers to waisheng ren.

 

Names: The translations of waishengren and benshengren (本省人) into English poses some interesting difficulties. The usual English translation of waishengren is Mainlander, although many waishengren find this translation uncomfortable since it implies that waishengren are residents of mainland China, when they are all residents of Taiwan. Translating the term benshengren as "native Taiwanese" is also problematic because of confusion with Taiwanese aborigines. Most academic literature uses the terms waishengren and benshengren directly. The terms rarely come up in the English-speaking media.

Many supporters of Taiwan independence object to the term "other province people", because it implies that Taiwan is a province of China, and prefer the name "new immigrant" (新住民). The latter term has not become popular in Taiwan and is extremely unpopular among waishengren themselves.

Chinese Civil War veterans especially are called "old taro" (老芋仔, due to the similarity between the shape of Mainland China and taro leaves), or waisheng laobing (外省老兵), "external-province veteran," in Mandarin. In government publications and the media, they are also called "honorable citizens" (榮民).

Mainlanders make up about 10% of the population of Taiwan and are heavily concentrated in northern Taiwan especially in the Taipei area. Although no longer dominating the government, waishengren still make up a disproportionately large fraction of bureaucrats and military officers.