Look at the Phenomenon of Taiwan Public Forum’s Trend of Shallowness

Look at the Phenomenon of Taiwan Public Forum’s Trend of Shallowness

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 26, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

Recently "time zone" has suddenly become a hot topic in Taiwan’s public forum. A netizen proposed at the “public policy network participation platform” of the National Development Council the alteration of Taiwan’s time zone, changing it to the GTM + 9 time zone, the same as Japan and South Korea, symbolizing the cutting of the ties of subordination with Mainland China, and it quickly broke through the bar of co-sponsorships. Netizens of different opinions also immediately launched a proposal to "maintain the existing time zone," opposing the move of interfering with people's routines for political motives, and it also succeeded in winning the necessary co-sponsorships in just two days. For the two opposing proposals, the relevant Cabinet agencies have to come up with a response in December. [Translator’s note: The National Development Council’s (NDC) Join platform is an online platform where members of the public can propose policy ideas. Any proposal that is seconded by at least 5,000 other users would pass the criteria and be taken into consideration by the relevant authorities, who will post a detailed response on the platform within 2 months.]

In order to "symbolically" cut the ties of subordination with China, and to change the long-existing geographical time zone, the rationale is not only ridiculous, but it is also shallow thinking that does not take into account the actual effects and costs whatsoever. That this kind of nonsensical proposal surprisingly and quickly received echoes is precisely one of the phenomena that Taiwan's public forum exhibited a serious trend of shallowness. In the past few years, thanks to the Internet and mobile phones, Taiwan's public forum has become extremely hot; however, its contents, on the other hand, have a trend of being increasingly flat and vulgar, witnessing very rare viewpoints of depth or promotion of progressive values.

Taiwan’s society was once full of vitality; God knows when people's vitality, however, has been massively used for mutual confrontation and leading to canceling each other out. "Changing the time zone" is precisely a typical case in point: besides proposing the change, based on a ground of shallow and wishful thinking, a netizen proposed an idea in the name of democracy, and immediately a multitude of fuzzyheaded people swarmed to follow by echoing it. Then, another group of people had to move passively, introducing a counter proposal, attempting to forestall this foolish move which could cost dearly. When people only know the empty gimmicks of political figures, endlessly throwing shadow punches to deal with an imaginary enemy, and, moreover, enticing a crowd of different thinking to stage a confrontation, how could this kind of society still have momentum of progress?

Frankly speaking, the trend of Taiwan’s public forum going shallow not only worries people, it has made intellectuals feel a sense of setbacks and frustration. Moreover, they even have a feeling of shame and embarrassment when watching television together with overseas friends.

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