Sept 24 (Sn) 2017 Mrs. Kaepernic: "Guess that makes me a proud bxxxh."

Xena Crystal LC Huang

Among all the responses from the sport entrepreneurs, sport politicians, and significant individuals, guess: which one is the most powerful ?


NFL, NFLPA respond to President Trump's anthem comments
"The NFL and NFLPA showed supports for players and players' rights following remarks made by President Donald Trump condemning player protests.
nfl.com
The NFL and NFLPA showed support for players and players' rights following remarks from President Donald Trump, who while speaking at a political rally on Friday, said NFL fans should boycott games and team owners should fire players who fail to stand for the national anthem prior to games.
"The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement released Saturday morning. "There is no better example than the amazing response from our clubs and players to the terrible natural disasters we've experienced over the last month. Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities."
NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith released this statement Saturday morning:
"The peaceful demonstrations by some of our players have generated a wide array of responses. Those opinions are protected speech and freedom that has been paid for by the sacrifice of men and women throughout history. This expression of speech has generated thoughtful discussion in our locker rooms and in board rooms.
"However, the line that marks the balance between the rights of every citizen in our great country gets crossed when someone is told to just 'shut up and play.'
"NFL Players do incredible things to contribute to their communities. NFL Players are part of a legacy of athletes in all sports who, throughout history, chose to be informed about the issues that impact them and their communities. They chose -- and still choose today -- to do something about those issues rather than comfortably living in the bubble of sports. Their decision is no different from the one made by countless others who refused to let 'what they do' define or restrict 'who they are' as Americans."
The responses came after Trump said, "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired!' You know some owner is going to do that. He's going to say, 'That guy disrespects our flag; he's fired.' And that owner, they don't know it. They're friends of mine, many of them. They'll be the most popular person, for a week. They'll be the most popular person in this country."

Few owners have said anything publicly about players not standing for the anthem or making other gestures -- such as raising a fist during the playing of the anthem -- since free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick didn't stand during a Week 3 preseason game in 2016. Kaepernick said he's standing in protest of what he felt was unfair treatment of minorities by law enforcement and the legal system. Several players, like Seattle defensive end Michael Bennett and Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, have continued anthem protests initiated by Kaepernick, and have said they are doing so for the same reasons as Kaepernick did.
On Saturday, New York Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch issued the following statement:
"Comments like we heard last night from the president are inappropriate, offensive and divisive. We are proud of our players, the vast majority of whom use their NFL platform to make a positive difference in our society."
Miami Dolphins owner and founder of Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) Stephen Ross said the following via a statement:
"Our country needs unifying leadership right now, not more divisiveness. We need to seek to understand each other and have civil discourse instead of condemnation and sound bites. I know our players who kneeled for the anthem and these are smart young men of character who want to make our world a better place for everyone. They wanted to start a conversation and are making a difference in our community, including working with law enforcement to bring people together. We all can benefit from learning, listening and respecting each other. Sports is a common denominator in our world. We all have the responsibility to use this platform to promote understanding, respect and equality."
San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York also released a statement on Trump's remarks:
"The callous and offensive comments made by the President are contradictory to what this great country stands for. Our players have exercised their rights as United States citizens in order to spark conversation and action to address social injustice. We will continue to support them in their peaceful pursuit of positive change in our country and around the world. The San Francisco 49ers will continue to work toward bringing communities, and those who serve them, closer together."
Green Bay Packers Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy also released a statement:
"It's unfortunate that the President decided to use his immense platform to make divisive and offensive statements about our players and the NFL. We strongly believe that players are leaders in our communities and positive influences. They have achieved their positions through tremendous work and dedication and should be celebrated for their success and positive impact. We believe it is important to support any of our players who choose to peacefully express themselves with the hope of change for good. As Americans, we are fortunate to be able to speak openly and freely." Teresa Kaepernick, Colin's mother, responded to Trump referring to players as, "Sons of bitches," on Twitter, stating, "Guess that makes me a proud bitch."

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Xena Crystal LC Huang   Sports reflect social class...? In this case, secretly, I'd better like figure-skating, while openly, I have to watch the national sport -football for many non-personal reasons . What a sport cognitive dissonance!
Wanna know who responded powerfully?

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Xena Crystal LC Huang

I respect Colin's mother deeply:

Mrs. Kaepernic, responded to the most powerful man in the world (plus a little bit wiser than the N.Korea's) referring to players as, "Sons of bitches," on Twitter, stating, "Guess that makes me a proud bitch."

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Xena Crystal LC Huang An old poster made last year as a teaching material.

Sept. 23 (Sa) 2017. What happened in Crystal's Art Appreciation Class, today?

September 2017: Summering Fall

Arts/Club Fair, Feline Majesties, and the Lambeau Field
...../\„,„/\.......//^ ^\\ Live simply
...( =';'= )....(/(_•_)\) Speak kindly
..../" * * "\...._/'' * ''\_ Care deeply
....(,,,).(,,,)....(,,,)^(,,,) and Love completely
願您 慈悲為薪, 智慧如火. Happy birthday to you!! 092317 (Sa)

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18 You, 吳思蜜, Rachel Moser and 15 others
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Xena Crystal LC Huang Pam ( Chair of Sociology Department of UW-EC), professors: Ellen (UW-EC), Jennifer (CVTC), Sean (UW-EC/CVTC) ad I (CVTC) attended Naomi Tutu's talk at the Schofield Auditorium after a nice gathering at the Mona Lisa.
Here is the highlight of Naomi Tutu's talk: http://www.weau.com/.../Humans-rights-activist-Naomi-Tutu...


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Xena Crystal LC Huang Series#5 "What happened in Crystal's Art Appreciation (Introduction to Visual Art) class, today?" http://www.pbs.org/.../confederate-monument-removed-one.../
In my diversity classes, always a small group of students dislike the race theme (not much fuss about class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ableism, and their intersections), in particular, related to history of "Race" (OR slavery). A tough subject matter SINCE "2016", though I started teaching/facilitating this course in 2006, till now, in the Midwest region.
On the other hand, a different scenario:
This fall semester, 37% of the current enrollees in the Art Apprefciation class have taken my Sociology before.
The intersections of Visual Arts and Sociology created an interesting phenomenon on Sept 22 (F) art vs. society discussion.



Confederate monument removed by one Kentucky city finds another home
Cities around the country are grappling with…
pbs.org

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Xena Crystal LC Huang Continued the above, original pedagogical design was to do group-role-playing (take on the role of the 3 city-mayors' of Kentucky (according to the above PBS video, not New Jersey), the descendants of confederate soldiers/generals/veterans, art historians, descendants of slavery, local residents, and as an art student so far learned from this class, in particular, tied to the purposes and functions of art: delight, commemoration, worship/rituals, persuasion, commentary, and self-expression). Due to time constraint, we ended up group and individual discussion. Wanna know the conclusion?



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Xena Crystal LC Huang The conclusion was : (Note: I am the only minority who speaks with a cute Taiwanese accent, in terms of race/ethnicity, in this class).
Approximate
60% saw both sides (or more than 2 perspectives, such as commemoration, persuasion, or "worship"?) of the Charlottesville event.
25% had no opinion,
9% did not answer, and
6% said that the monuments/statues, though pubic arts embedded with history, should be taken down or moved away from the salient sites!!!

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09-02-2017 (F) An unintended consequence through a casual chat: Pedagogy of the Oppressed vs. Oppressors and Taiwan

An unintended consequence through a casual chat ended to this:
What is the deepest root of the domestic and global conflict: Race/ethnicity, religion, or something else?

Xena Crystal LC Huang·Saturday, September 2, 2017
In a chat with my colleagues yesterday about week one casual events (9/1 F, 2017), ended up with our commonality: race and ethnicity issues (embedded in domestic and global stratification), for we three, are teaching sociology and diversity studies).
I shared my thoughts that Taiwan might not exactly experience “racial” conflict, but much about ethnic clashes/warfare (usually intersecting with socioeconomic status). My colleague showed interest to know more about it. In addition to this event, recently, Foxconn’s gigantic deeds have also opened up a window for curiosity about Taiwan. Coincidentally, last night, I found a reflective paper written a while ago, resonating now more than ever, whether in the US, or in the world. Though today,  I might not fully agree with some old thinking addressed in the following paper, I would like to share here with its originality.

A penny for your thoughts, a nickel for your patience, and a quarter for _____________ (ya, no-fluffy stuff, your fill-in-the-blank . )

--------------------------------------------------------------

Pedagogy of the Oppressed vs. Oppressors and Taiwan - A Reflective Paper as a Grad Student at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 2008

Introduction

This paper is based on my understanding of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed as well as the common perceptions of pedagogy of the oppressor to examine a two-stages colonial state that occurred in Taiwan’s history, in particular, during 1985 to 1945, and subsequently during 1945-1989.
The main point motivating my approach to this topic is due to a small episode happening in our classroom. I heard peers mentioning that Freire’s ideas were vague and seemingly foreign to their experiences. This is understandable for several reasons. There are different languages signifying unique experiences between post-modern societies such as America, and societies where people struggle for the basic human needs on daily basis in the developing and underdeveloped countries. I value Max Weber’s concept of Verstehen, which can mean either a kind of empathetic or participatory understanding of social phenomena. With well-disposed and deep awareness, people can comprehend the situations which they might not have the chance to experience firsthand. Furthermore, C. Wright Mills provides his “sociological imagination” or the cognitive transferring to capture the reality which could be alien to the observers or thinkers. Nevertheless, my real-life narrative is tied to a vivid history that is ongoing and is timely value-added to the Verstehen of Freire’s case. In short, the main purpose of this paper is trying to reexamine my understanding from Freire’s perspectives which make more sense to me when I recall things happening in Taiwan in the past and present. And I hope such understanding can be more objective to me, and, probably more sharable with my peers.

The following is a brief socio-cultural context to outline such concerns.

A brief Geo-historical contexts of Taiwan

Geo-politically speaking, Taiwan, also known as Formosa,[1] has been noted as a "trouble spot in Asian waters." Historically, Formosa inherits most of its cultural traditions from Mainland China. The Chinese migration to Formosa began in the 16th century. For the most part, settlers came from neighboring mainland provinces of Fukien and Canton. During four-century-long isolation from Mainland China under foreign colonization (e.g., Dutch 1620-64, Spain 1624-42, and Japan 1895-1945), Formosa developed a distinct sociopolitical-cultural identity of her own.
During World War II, two important events influenced the future of Formosa. First, in 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and intended to use Formosa as a base for a push southward into Indochina. Second, in 1943, the Cairo Declaration by the Allies pledged the restoration of Formosa to China, which would end Japan's half-century occupation of Taiwan.

Yet, the Chinese civil war (1945-1949) posed a dilemma in terms of rival claims of the governments of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung. These governments split China into two parts--the conflicting claims of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Since the early 1960s, Taiwan has progressed impressively in terms of economic growth. One significant factor contributing to its success is the last four decades of "political stability." From 1947, when Martial Law was proclaimed, until 1989, a diverse range of social movements and dynamics were totally prohibited. Behind her remarkable economic achievement, a leviathan of control hung over Taiwan's socio-edu-political life.

In the coming section, I borrow Freire’s instruments of oppression of the oppressor correlating to Taiwan’s experiences to illuminate his theories and practices.

A Reflection on Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the Oppressor

Under the above socio-cultural contexts, I interwove Freire’s ideas and concepts: conquest, divide and rule, manipulation, and cultural invasion into two stages of events happening in my parents’ generation and my first-hand experience (Japan’s occupation transiting to the Nationalist Party’s (KMT) practices on the local Taiwanese people).

Stage one- Japan’s colonization

Freire pointed out that “the conqueror imposed his objectives on the vanquished, and make of them his possession. He imposes his own contours on the vanquished, who internalized this shape and become ambiguous beings: ‘housing’ another. From the first, the act of conquest, which reduces persons to the status of things, is necrophilia” (p.138). These concepts of conquest, ambiguous beings, and necrophilia phenomena can be illustrated by one of the most significant events happening in Taiwan’s history tied to Japan’s developing imperialism:

In reviewing part of the mid-19th-century history of Japan, the conspicuous transition was the Boshin War of 1867–1868 which led to the resignation of the Shogunate. Hereafter, the Meiji Restoration established a government-centered on the emperor and adopted Western political, judicial, and military institutions that transformed the Empire of Japan into an industrial world power. A consequence of embarking on a number of military conflicts to increase access to natural resources and human capital was to change the outlook of several Asian countries. Among them was Taiwan.
After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japanese militants seized more power and gained momentum. This conquest asserted the superior power of Japan over the senile, immobile, and deteriorating China’s last dynasty-Ching empire. Taiwan was annexed to Japan under 1895’s Shimonoseki treaty. As a ceded territory, local Taiwanese were reduced into a military-production base for Japan’s further southward actions. Being an oppressed state, the oppression is not only military, or economic, but cultural as Freire mentioned. I vividly remember that my parents gave me a cognitive dissonance when I was a student: I perceived my parents’ favoring Japanese governmental policies which were totally opposite to what I was taught at schools based on the Nationalist KMT’s political ideology (in particular, high school, and university that I attended). Not until as a grown adult later, had I understood my parents’ generation when cultural invasion, hegemony, and manipulation were beyond their comprehension.
In cultural invasion, Freire quoted from Fromm’s analysis that the objective conditions which generate whether in-home, such as parent-child relations in a climate of indifference and oppression or of love and freedom, or in a sociocultural context…And the atmosphere of the home is prolonged in the school, and on of the precepts is “not to think” (p.155.) To investigate such statements from my experience, I would admit my generation that this analysis has some validity, but in speaking for my parents’ generation, the issue was not just “not to think”, but with no such “a capacity to think”. I will have more details in the following section.

To be able to think, one of the premises was to expose the learning opportunities. Without learning, knowledge won’t be shared, challenged, and disseminated within and between socio-cultural contexts. In real life, the case was that not only my parents’ generation was not allowed to learn their own language and cultural practices, but also bought into glorified and internalized values, words, belief from the invaders. My father was allowed to have 4 years’ Japanese elementary education and was more or less, unconsciously, assimilated into a Japanese than a Chinese-Taiwanese (made me guiltily thinking of the pejorative term of “Zip Coon - without blackface”, and my eldest sisters and brother who were born during Japanese occupation era have Japanese names (Teroko 照子, Akiko 秋子, and Takeo 武雄) instead of like mine Li-chin (麗琴), a typical Han’s name since I was born much later than my older siblings).

There are enormous examples to allude to those situations. Due to space limits, I use some mundane cases. One of them was that my younger sister was born with a pretty face. My parents would feel a sense of strange pride when friends praised her as cute as a “Japanese doll.” Seemingly, Japanese food was more expensive than that of Taiwanese or well-known Chinese cuisines; kimono was more elegant than our own clothing (even though we know its style was borrowed from China’s Tang Dynasty in the 10th century); Japanese kids were well-educated, well-behaved, smarter, and cleaner than my own folks (even subconsciously we are aware that we are much outsmarting to Japanese). Such an internalized mixed inferior-superior complex was fostered via visible and invisible cultural domination through the colonial state.

In the rule and divide section, Freire provided his insight in the following statement, “As the oppressor minority subordinate and dominates the majority, it must divide and keep it divided in order to remain in power. The minority cannot permit itself the luxury of tolerating the unification of the people, which would undoubtedly signify a serious threat to their own hegemony” (p.141, 2000). In relating to the divide and rule to ensure the invader’s continuous domination, the local Taiwanese were selected by the royalty or submission to the Japanese magistracy. Certain “valuable” Taiwanese families were allowed a small quota to enter into Japanese high school and to emulate Japanese ways of life. Their Japanese diplomas would grant them better life chances to obtain office jobs, for example, being police officers (a hot job) who in terms guarded against their own people. The rest of the Taiwanese people with good health conditions were sent into basic Japanese elementary schools, in particular boys, who, in the long run, were the main productive force for Japan’s southward and source of military drafts. Women like my mother, who was in low SES status never got a chance to go to elementary school, except for a small group of daughters from elite Taiwanese families. 95% of women were encouraged to reproduce more offspring, in particular, boys, which reinforced the gender ideology that males were more valuable who could serve the grand destiny of the Japanese Emperor. The rice/food ration was given according to the children being reproduced. My parents ended up having 10 children without specific life skills, education, training, or other life chances to survive.

But an even more perplexing condition was yet to come which happened right after 50 years’ Japanese colonization. Ironically, the most horrendous blood-shedding did not occur under the alien’s oppression but in the hands of her folks. Such cultural dissonance and tragedy is another variation of the post-colonial state where the colonial masters’ retreat created a power vacuum or cultural dissonance between the newly dominant group and the old world practice.


Stage Two – The Tragedy of Taiwan

After Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II, meanwhile, Mao’s political power overshadowed Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government. The Chinese civil war created another peculiar stage of domination and hegemony on Taiwan under a complicated socio-political context.

After 50 years’ hegemonic enculturation from Japan, the Taiwanese lived under a double consciousness- on the one hand, Japan presented herself as a well-organized powerful regime, which deserved some credits in constructing Taiwan’s early stage of industrialization. On the other hand, and she was a foreign invader depleting both natural and human resources from Taiwan. No one could forget that sporadic uprising and minor rebellions were ruthlessly oppressed by the Japanese government in the early stage of subjugation of the Taiwanese people.

The Nationalist Chinese governments retreated to Taiwan to take over Japanese’s leftovers gave local people a complex hope that the “mother country” would take care of this “Asia’s orphan,” heal those unspeakable wounds, and live a better life in the future. However, what happened was quite opposite and unexpected. The defeated Chinese government by Mao’s communist party led more than one million ill-equipped, weary soldiers and various rank and files living under Chiang’s promise – bring them back to China with future prosperity. Taiwan again became another springboard for a promise that returning to China was the hope for those followers of Chiang.

50 years of Japan’s domination and culture invasion might not be successfully altering Taiwanese’s mind, but the legacies and influence did happen on local people. For instance, the early Nationalist government realized that Mandarin/Chinese would not be more communicable than Japanese, thus most government news, documents had to be promulgated in Japanese or bilingually. The Taiwanese acted and behaved more like the disliked and hated Japanese from the Nationalist Chinese’s point of view. Unavoidably, the suspicion and miscommunications derived from language barriers, mixed norms, and values between China-mainlanders and local Taiwanese culminated in the February 28th, 1947 massacre maneuvered by the Nationalist government on local 20,000 Taiwanese elites and dissents who demanded more cultural understanding and political autonomy. (Note, as of today - 9/1, 2017, I read this old paper, some new lights and discoveries found or published by other scholars since the massacre, though without controversies, I would like to add here: Japan’s involvement after she left Taiwan, and the infiltrators engaging in inciting insurgence from Communists of China and Taiwan. More research can be done in this regard).


After the atrocity, the art of “white terror” was enforced on the Island. The Martial law was enacted. And the most powerful social institution was proved to be the most effective hegemonic instrument which was education, playing an outstanding role in confining intellectual activities under the name of national security and confronting Communist China. The pronged approaches were exercised. One of the prongs was that all the Japanese and Taiwanese languages and cultural events were not allowed to speak or practiced in public. Many stories had been told that Taiwanese kids were severely punished and publicly humiliated by school teachers and administrators (mainly were China mainlanders) for their treasons or unpatriotic behaviors by speaking Japanese and Taiwanese or acting like ones. The other prong was about the super banking curriculum designed to reclaim China and to indoctrinate the detestation toward Communism China and Japan. The curriculum and instruction were fully condensed and aligned with the Nationalist Party’s ideology. Taiwanese students were taught to fight and scarify for the great cause of “the recovery of the lost land of China”, and one of such effects was my joining the military right after my graduation from National Taiwan University – a quality education opportunity did not mean to employability (plus I was an inexperienced young woman) under the rampant favoritism and nepotism practice at that time, except the door, opened up to be the war zone machine Thus responding to the calling of patriotism (Taiwan’s membership in the United Nation was replaced by China during the Nixon to the Carter presidencies) enthused by Nationalist government’s policy to ensure my parents who could have health care and medication accessibility became my one-way ticket. Beyond my own small world, in the larger society, the intellectual activities, newspaper agencies, social organizations were under scrutinized in the name of Marital Law which was sanctioned right after the February 28th local uprising, 1947 (this social upheaval was a research topic of my theses, published at UW-Madison).


Under such a Banking system, my generation learned the most detailed information about China (music, art, history, geography, philosophy, literature, politics and economics…etc.) but meagerly know about what Taiwan was, is, and will be. The China mainlander was portrayed as social elites due to the majority of them under Chiang’s promise granted the prominent social-economic positions that used to belong to Japanese’s rank and files in Taiwan. These social elite statuses mainly clustered in the educational systems, government officialdom, military, and state-owned industries. Thus the top 4 social institutions were under the Nationalist’s control: education, government, military, and economy.

In the previous section, I mentioned a perplexity of mine - why my parents paradoxically preferred the Japanese government’s treatment to the Nationalists, even though they were fully understanding it was a repressive foreign regime. Here is one episode to provide some explanation for the choice of the less evil, even though it sounded like an impossible joke! In the Japanese occupation era, the more children were produced, the more food ration was given- what a “great” policy! Under the Nationalist regime, due to the heavy military build-ups to fight against Communist China, the overloaded taxes were imposed on local Taiwanese farmers, workers, and businessmen. One of such taxes was on the headcounts in a household- the more people in a room, the heavier tax the household head had to pay. I vividly remember how my father was constantly intimidated by the Mainland China policemen and had to escape from the arrests, and then they just came into our shanty house lived with three generations, searching for any meager things left at home. Nobody questioned that there was no food on the table, no education, skills, and jobs available to have an income for the 10 children, grandparents, and some young uncles and aunts. My parents just had no energy to feed so many stomachs, not to mention to pay all kinds of taxes! It was a déjà vu of the peasants in the medieval feudaldom, or workers in the newly industrialized England.

Freire’s remarks on the oppressor who cannot permit or tolerate the solidarity of the subjugated people because it signified a serious threat to their own hegemony reminds my school days. I vividly recall if some students wanted to organize study groups, they had to report to the security agencies for approval and under necessary surveillance. Many rumors and speculations about several professors and social dissents who dared to criticize the government was mysteriously disappeared from our campus – the major mental power plant of this country – National Taiwan University. Under the white terror, most civilians were aware that there were “professional/secret agents” similar to America’s CIA's and FBI's or KGBs residing in major universities and research institutes. The mission of the culture of silence was completed. And this is what I meant by the high human cost in order to reach “stability”/status quo in exchange the economic growth as the totalitarian policy proclaimed.

Today I still can exactly remember my mother’s anxiety (grew up from the culture of fear) with tears in her eyes when I was heading for the U.S. to study sociology after I won a full scholarship via a 3 days’ national competition (in particular, on “social movements” as part of my social psychology discipline). She wanted me to promise her never to get involved with any politics and never say anything “inappropriately” – just “not to think” for the safety’s sake (as I mentioned she was never allowed to have a day of formal education. She could neither read nor write but love). As Freire’s remarks “Manipulation, like the conquest whose objectives it serves, at attempts to anesthetize the people so they will not think” (p.149, 2000).

Conclusion

Due to space limitations, this narrative presents a small part of my lived experience and observations scaffolded by Freire’s concepts depicted in the book- Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It is also subject to my personal biased even under my own careful self-scrutiny. My resonance to his thoughts, obviously, is quite strong. The Taiwanese people endured two significant stages of dehumanized processes echoing Freire’s argument: “Within an objective situation of oppression, an ideology is necessary to the oppressor as a means of further oppression – not only economic but cultural: the vanquished are dispossessed of their oppression has been limited, anti-dialogue becomes indispensable to its preservation” (p.139, 2000).

I would like to partially adopt Marx’s famous “religion” quote in this conclusion: “’ Hope’ is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Such a strong hope finally was reified after the Martial Law was lifted in 1987. The dynamic democratic movements took on the next stage of the dialogical pedagogy in Taiwan that has been fostering the resilience for Taiwanese people to achieve socio-economic development in the international community during the last two decades.

Thinking of my mother (passed away two and a half year ago) who was never allowed to enter school a day, but with strong “hope” that one day her daughter will become a “female” doctor or professor to preside “social justice” yet with the contradictory notion of wanting the daughter “not to think” too much!!

Finally, I mentioned at the onset of this paper that the main purpose of this paper was to reexamine my understanding from Freire’s perspectives via my recollections of events happening in the past which still have impacts on today’s practice in Taiwan, and hoping such understanding can make more sense to myself, and, could be sharable with peers.


[1] Portuguese sailors, passing Taiwan in 1544, first jotted in a ship's log the name of the island "Ilha Formosa", meaning Beautiful Island. In 1582 the survivors of a Portuguese shipwreck spent ten weeks battling malaria and Aborigines before returning to Macau on a raft (Mateo 2002: 2-9).

Sept. 2 (Sa), 2017 Revised repost - My best wishes: 不敲邊鼓, 不因物喜, 不以己背, 但盼 - 枳逾洋而化為橘, 浅嚐亞吧吃白蓮.

My best wishes: 不敲邊鼓, 不因物喜, 不以己背, 但盼 - 枳逾洋而化為橘, 浅嚐亞吧吃白蓮.
Xena Crystal LC Huang·Friday, August 4, 2017
Several FB friends were interested in Foxconn’s information. I combined and re-edited 2 of my posts into the following article. Some of my personal opinions and biases might not be unnoticeable. A penny for your thoughts:

These days, many economic, political, environmental specialists and pundits as well as relevant stakeholders (never lack of, the heavily interest-vested politicians) speculating, debating and critiquing on a gigantic investment associated with Partisan activities aroused my mixed feeling toward this big deed of a 2nd generation Chinese-immigrant in Taiwan (my native country) - TechGiant Mr. Terry Gou, 郭臺銘 ( who was raised and educated in Taiwan).

The highlight of this $10 Billion dollars' bid for the first 4 years' LCD tech project of the 鴻海富士康 Foxconn - A Hybridized Taiwanese-Chinese high tech super-enterprise, is mainly, EyE-ing on Wisconsin (夲卅, my current home state). This type of reversed global politic-economic Power hierarchy in the mega-magnitude of enterprising is nothing new. It happened to Japan, then Korea. Will see the new drama of the old script (旧瓶倒新酒, 老劇重演). The commonality of these business-industrial-complexes is that they all tightly connect with WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the rest of induced global stratification.

Foxconn, making a great fortune from China, a product of the invasive globalization, was nurtured by the technocratic Capitalistic-Communism, and a by-product of neo-colonialism revives from the ashes of an ancient burnt phoenix.

Both the architect and victim of the world-wide globalized doctrine, the gigantic business success and the socioeconomic/environmental issues (including internal and external - in China) were well documented.

Concerning all the excitements, salvation, skepticism, and “the risky political philanthropy” toward this massive deed of a politic-economic transaction (大手筆), I bestow a tiny wish to this event: 不敲邊鼓, 不因物喜, 不以己背, 但盼 - 枳逾洋而化為橘, 浅嚐亞吧吃白蓮.

(Note:以下膩耳的衷言, 就用中文寫吧, 也許可少被耵上 ? 这貼著張無辜黃臉皮的教書匠, 旣非權势富商貴胄, 也非諾貝爾獎得主, 更非閃星學閥名嘴異流, 在當朝 (州) 黃綠($)色恐佈之下, 少說兩句 ( 鄉愿也...尚未退出江[教] 湖 - [或糊口的糊]), 気色可能會好些? 能避點嫌就避吧! 烏龜爬门檻地一字一字小心地刻... 表達 “籠統瞹昧”, 多包涵!)

不論統獨/不統不獨, 努力希望挺台灣: 良心話, 一點觀 -

實力加銭势, 因势利導, 營造國际型像 ( 臺灣 vs. 中共, 然, 此案似是糖衣臺灣手牽抱著琵琶半遮的中共, 並走私挾帶日夲), 投資跨國経濟公(私) 益, 比花銭打肉包子小犬外交, 來得看得見與實際. (但幕後四個參與者的政財經意圖, 與政治取向 - 各懷 ”瑰” 胎, 那就見人見智了).

臺灣目前的國际型像, 尤其在環境與動物保育, 人權伸張, 與民主運作上, 是比彼岸來得好一點, 就因如此, 这筆 "深奥" (臺灣, 中共, 美國, 加上威卅之間的八腿探戈) 的生意, 难逃李代桃薑, 或或瓜田李下之嫌.

持平之論, 的確不容易, (不是大陸, 也非台灣. 入此”民主共和” 型的狼犲虎穴, 小心喲). 新牺牲, 旧策略, 日夲韓國都做过. 只是太寵坯一群群一票票, 养尊処優的無奈生靈.

當利字当头, 他们 “會搞不清” 臺灣 vs. 中共, 以致於魚目混珠, 掛羊头賣狗肉, 反正也無所謂, 只要把銭, 不管是幾鬼搬運, 來買學位綠卡的也好, 來鍍層金銀好招咬壯騙 (騙, 這個字有兩部分?) 的也好, 养二奶, 包三奶, 當寓公寓婆, 享受美國只此一家別無分號的孤寂無奈的也好, 淘空自己國家老夲, 投资美式桃花源當武陵遊魂的也好, 隔洋嘆唱後庭花的也好, 對洋精神喊話也好, 打玩政經牌的也好, 自甘楚犲晉佣 (筆者大槪也难逃此嫌, 那怕是非才蒙嫌的??..) 是最好 - 只要好處通通給 我弄進來就対了...這可能是美國之所以美的主因之一吧?

Well, 你怎麼說...有奶就是娘, 有銭就叫爹, 有銭可使大鬼玩大磨.

这就是有國家(尤其是 ”壓吧” 型) 的人的可愛処之一吧....?

進一步而言, 深入狡虎穴, 謀取小羊皮, 除非是政治投資急切, 以及其他非科技謀利考量, 或者從事"政治慈善事业", 這無非是威州史無前例一椿異举!!

切記 : 此地的 CEOs不愛/敢用本地的工人(視他们為"超級耗油的灯". 絕對不會像是廉價好欺負的大陸勞工, 也沒有在大陸時的語言文化障礙), 他们 無情的遣散夲地藍領階級工人, 以及當朝(卅) 壓制有工会的白領職工, 常是驚心動魄的頭條新聞. 自從 70s-80s 迄今, 大資夲家把工廠大量外移出走到第三世界, 攫取贫窮國家的廉價勞力與資源, 造成美國內部 (尤其是威卅) 過去十幾年產业蕭條, 惡化國內國際贫富不均, 間接滋养境內外無知疾病動亂的溫床, 這是有目共睹的事實.

這些有"侍" 無恐, 老神在在, 嗜利如血的资本家 (除了有"良心,社會責任"的, 幾何??) , 感染與受制於超級草莽達爾文- 资本主義毀滅性的本质, 利字當头, 捨生取利, 飛蛾撲火似地盲目生產, 刺激無奈無知蒼生無止尽的過度消費與超級浪費, 影響地球生態失恆. 這是大家聴腻了的慣語.

眾所週知, 夲卅的卅長以鐵腕打壓勞工/工運, 與剝削教育经費的超级典型共和黨资夲主義作風而名噪一時, 並被富商/大型资本家相中, 視為一顆好用的政治棋子, 一反威卅 長期辛勤建造的 Progressive State 國际型像. 再者, 中期選舉與改選 逐漸逼近, 是难掩司馬昭之心. 言帰正傳, 基夲可预見的勞資糾葛, 再加上老生常彈的環保爭論, 將是這件奇異買賣的核心論點與呼之可出的問題.

美國政治鬧劇日日連番上演, 也許 - 此番"沆瀣一氣", 也是把戲碼多加一椿?