While Taiwan is spending time and energy on raising awareness of social issues, Taiwanese have been neglecting the importance of cultivating, through education, both local and international cultural sensitivity.
The News Lens
Date: 2016/12/29
By: Eric Tsai
Marriage equality has been one of the biggest topics in Taiwan in the past month as the country is on the
Photo Credit: Ipsos MORI
verge of becoming the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage; this past Monday, the marriage equality bill passed a committee review in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s Parliament.
However, on Dec. 14, a report by U.K. market research company Ipsos MORI shows that Taiwan is the third most ignorant country out of the 40 evaluated, only behind India and China. After the report was released, a group of high school students dressed up in Nazi uniform to celebrate the school’s anniversary. The series of events bears the question: how can Taiwan be ignorant but also progressive?
Progressive
(of a group, person, or idea) favoring or implementing social reform or new, liberal ideas.-Oxford Dictionary
It seems Taiwanese people do not know themselves and their future well enough. One question asked in the IPSOS report reads: “When asked in a survey in [country], what percentage of people do you think said they personally believe that homosexuality is morally unacceptable?”
Survey takers believed that 47 percent of Taiwan believe homosexuality is morally unacceptable when in actuality only 22 percent of survey takers believed homosexuality is morally unacceptable. This was the lowest amongst all the Asian countries in this survey, with Japan and Hong Kong taking second and third with 31 percent and 32 percent. The rest of the Asian countries were all more than 50 percent. [FULL STORY]
