The Boston Globe
Date: January 07, 2018
By Jeff Jacoby GLOBE COLUMNIST
THERE IS A moment in “1776,” the acclaimed musical about the American founding, in
DAVID CHANG/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Red banners congratulated students on successfully entering universities, seen outside the Jinou Girls High School in Taipei.
which Benjamin Franklin explains to the Continental Congress why he no longer thinks of himself as an Englishman. He is aggrieved that the colonists are denied the full rights of English citizens, but that isn’t the whole of it.
“We’ve spawned a new race here — rougher, simpler, more violent, more enterprising, less refined,” Franklin says. “We’re a new nationality. We require a new nation.”
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I thought of that scene as I was having dinner recently with three students in Taipei. Celia Chung, Tony Chang, and Polly Cheng attend National Chengchi University, one of Taiwan’s leading institutions of higher education. I met them during a visit to Taiwan sponsored by the Association of Foreign Relations, a Taiwan-based NGO that promotes international awareness of the island’s affairs. After several days of hearing from middle-aged diplomats and civil servants, I had sought out a chance to talk with young people unconstrained by party line or official platitudes. I especially wanted to know what it meant to them to be Taiwanese. [FULL STORY]
