BAS 2010 Social Anthropology Essay Summary 2010-03-05

Mo, Kuo-Chen / Mobile: +47-45677218 / Email: kuochen.mo@gmail.com

Rethink the Value of Senior Veterans’ Cultural Potential of

Today’s Taiwanese Society

Mo, Kuo-Chen / 莫國箴

Summary

I. Introduction

The ROC Government relocated to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War in 1949; meanwhile, the

movement of millions of people during the great migration to Taiwan, and the largest was a group of

the military and dependents who came from different provinces of Mainland China and spoke in

diverse accents by their own dialects and eating habits were quite different. The only common

denominator was that they were the so called “Mainlanders”. In the general impression, the senior

veteran is a special group of Taiwanese society. In fact, most of them were students or farmers with

genuine before they were forced to took part in the Chinese Civil War. They were lacking of attention

and better treatment during their early years in the army, and then because of the age or complex

reasons, most of them left the military with receiving quite a small amount of pension then entered the

local Taiwanese community one after another.

II. The value of senior veterans’ culture during the social change

With the economic booming up and democratic development in Taiwan, the general value of senior

veterans withers and declines gradually in this diverse and bustling new Taiwanese society. In the new

generation of most Taiwanese people also ignore and neglect the senior veteran’s contribution for the

stability of Taiwan’s modernistic development in the past, and nothing more than the miserable tragedy

is what we are losing the veteran’s multiethnic and rich connotation of Chinese culture; such as

literature, art, music, folk performance, food and residential military community, etc. It would be a pity

and regret in terms of overall Taiwanese social development. The following five points are the Change

that the senior Veterans have to confront in today's Taiwanese society.

1. The social shift and be neglected in new Taiwanese society

2. First-hand historical experience of senior veterans

3. Unsung heroes who quietly constructed the initial stage of Taiwan

4. Integrate the foreign culture into the local culture

5. Relative disadvantaged under the capitalist and political manipulation

III. Conclusion

1. To preserve and continue the senior veteran’s culture in order to reduce the defect of

generational gap for overall Taiwanese culture

2. The integration of ethnic and cultural and the model of selfless social values

3. The improvement of Veterans Affairs commission and positive policies

To change policies from the pessimistic attitude to the positive values and it can be improved in the

policy and the organizational operation specifically for the senior veteran by increasing the positive

values. To treat them as one of the cultural resource of Taiwan and provide an appropriate environment

then encourage the senior veterans to share their heritage of culture. It transforms the previous concept

of social assistance into another newly efficient use of social cultural resources. Furthermore, it can

help senior veterans to regain the self-confidence in the present Taiwanese society in the process of

cultural communication. It not only can reshape their self-value and inspire them to desire for

life-sustaining but also instead of the pessimistic attitude in waiting for dying.

Culture is the intangible asset for liberal and democratic Taiwanese society. We people have the

absolute power to express our individual political position, and choose what cultures we would like to

accept. Nevertheless, we also have an absolute obligation to preserve and sustain the pre-existing

cultures in the contemporary Taiwanese society and then pass down to future generations. The senior

veteran is the group which disappears rapidly in today’s Taiwanese society. It’s one of a quite important

social work for contemporary Taiwanese people to effectively preserve the overall Taiwanese cultures

during the limited period of time!