The tragedy of the Taiwanese:
And yet, though things are much more convenient, many people are not satisfied. As far as they are concerned, a passport ought to symbolize security and honor.
Many people feel humiliated that Japan and European countries such as England and France do not stamp their visas in ROC passports, issuing them on separate sheets of paper.
"The ROC units posted abroad are for the most part economic units," Fu points out, "and their status is low. How can people believe that they will be of much assistance?"
"It's a sad fate to be from Taiwan," says Lo Chiung-hsuan. "Our foreign reserves are so high and our movies win major international prizes, but one has to put up with so much that is unfair. To get to the root of the problem, we've got to join the United Nations. Only that will give us the qualifications we ought to have as a nation."
To this end, The Liberty Times began in April of this year to broadcast public service commercials on television and radio. "Push for a return to the United Nations," they urged, "and let our children and grandchildren be proud of their ROC passports."
Of course there are still people who don't agree with this way of putting things.
"My friends and I don't think that we've been ill treated on account of our ROC passport," says Jackson G.S. Chi, a dentist at the Yelling Dental Clinic who frequently goes abroad to attend international conferences as a representative of our national camping association. He thinks this must be an opinion held by some ROC citizens as a result of their own shortcomings--their lack of poise or inability to communicate with foreign customs officers.
He remembers that in 1984 he went to Poland to attend a conference and on a whim decided to go to visit the then socialist East Berlin. He went to arrange the visa on the spot, and everything went very smoothly. The visa cost him 25 marks, but the tour guide said Koreans had to pay 40 marks. Out of curiosity he asked why, and was told, "You Taiwanese are just coming to enjoy yourselves but the Koreans might be doing some spying."
In the political spotlight: Possession of a foreign passport, which used to represent high status, has of late become something people keep to themselves and reveal only to the closest of friends.
"In the past, everybody would put a special cover around their ROC passports as if they were ashamed of them," says Jack Tsou, who specializes in immigration to South Africa as the general manager of Springbok Management Consultants and carries several passports himself Now everyone has taken these covers off their ROC passports and put them on their other passports.
This has largely been the result of the current Taiwan political climate. When Legislator Chen Wan-chen was being prosecuted for illegally reentering Taiwan, she argued, "Why couldn't I return to Taiwan? Though abroad for so many years, I never held another passport."
To display their own patriotism and show that their allegiances weren't divided, politicians have made it a fashion to turn in their foreign passports. When candidates were being nominated to run for the legislature last year, one candidate publicly renounced his American passport. In 1989 when Li Tsung-fan was running in elections for Tainan County Magistrate, he did the same with his Japanese passport.
"When elections roll around, the DPP always comes here to look into who has two passports," says Liu Peng-chun, deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Entry and Exit.
And it was in such a political environment the 1991 election law revisions were passed. They include a new stipulation under article 67, which requires elected officials to renounce their foreign passports before taking office.
Passports and patriotism: Such a political climate has gradually affected the way most people look at their passports.
Amy Chen emigrated from Taiwan when she was young and returned to Taiwan to work after graduating from college. People have wondered about which passport or passports she holds and have doubted whether or not she identifies with Taiwan. Using the holding of which passport as a litmus test for national allegiance is not limited to Taiwan. It's just the same in Japan.
While Wang Chen-chih's insistence on keeping his ROC passport and refusal to take a Japanese one is often cited by Taiwanese, it works to his detriment as a baseball player in Japan. Whenever the home run king doesn't perform well, sports writers attack him for having his loyalties elsewhere.
"But does having a foreign passport equate with not being patriotic?" asks Jackson G.S. Chi. He believes that it most definitely does not. He has a good friend who after graduating from college stayed in England for more than a decade, all the while holding an ROC passport. One year they separately left Taiwan and England for a meeting in Bulgaria. Extremely proud of their breaking new ground for the ROC, his friend even brought along a flag. When they raised it at the conference, they were both overcome with patriotic fervor.
"Later, in order to pursue a career in England," Chi notes, "he obtained a British passport." Chi holds that having a foreign passport has nothing to do with loving one's country or not.
He also reveals that ever since the goal of Taiwan independence was formally included in the DPP's Charter, people have felt uncertain about the island's future. With an international economic slump, many Chinese have returned to Taiwan to work, but "fearing that Taiwan will one day really be independent," they dare not give up their other passports.
Even if two thirds of the members of the Academia Sinica carry foreign passports, they identify with the ROC just as before, and they have made contributions to scholarship here in Taiwan.