Civility in Taiwan

The level of civility is much higher in Taiwan and in China, something Chinese visitors to Taiwan readily acknowledge and regard as owing to Taiwan having preserved traditional Chinese culture. However, prior to 1990, Taiwan’s state of civility was similar to that in China. This chapter traces how Taiwan made this transition and argues that it was accompanied by Taiwan’s evolving from a plethora of small, inward-looking communities to a society with a unified identity based on a civil nationalism, a society in itself to a society for itself. This came about through a combination of political struggles, economic development and rural-urban migration, and the self-help movements (zili jiuji) of the 1980s. Manifest changes in civil behavior began with Taiwan’s democratization. Some aspects of the increase in civility, e.g. driver behavior, were helped along by rule enforcement, some by the demonstration effect of a large-scale public philanthropic project, and some simply by people putting into practice what they had been taught in school. Taiwan has high levels of philanthropy and voluntarism an many charity-focused civil society groups

Civility in China

This chapter explores the level of civil and uncivil behavior in China with examinations of tourist’s conduct, road behavior, how people treat strangers, conceptions of and attitudes toward disturbing others, treatment of public space and public goods, observance of rules and laws, acts of charity, compassion toward and consideration of others, and egregious actions of the rich, the powerful, and the privilege. Chinese tourists are notorious for their boorishness and breaches of propriety and are a cause of shame and consternation at home; other causes of shame are the treatment of strangers in distress such as the Little Yueyue incident and attempts to extort money from Good Samaritans, the defining case being that of Peng Yu. Driver behavior is influenced by China being at a very young stage of mass car ownership as well as by notions of loss of face and the desire to be first, and behavior toward others by the dichotomizing of society into those with whom one is familiar and strangers and the lack of concern with the latter, though response to disasters is impressive. Civility is hindered by a strong sense of the self, wealth and status inequality, and a casual attitude toward laws and rules.

Introduction

A 1963 op-ed piece in the ruling party newspaper by an American graduate student listing incivilities and breaches of public morality became a call to develop civility in Taiwan that almost immediately spurred the formation by two university students of the China Youth Self-Awareness Movement. It was active for several years, recruiting youths to encourage civil behavior in society, but it was disbanded in 1969 when one of its leaders was arrested for rebellion. This chapter defines and operationalizes civility as it is perceived in Taiwan and China and how it will be applied in this book and enumerates the behaviors regarded as uncivil, noting also that, after Taiwan began its democratization process, its level of civility manifestly increased. It also explains the methodology and sources of information used in the study and outlines the chapters.

Civility

The notion of civility originated in Europe as feudalism gave way to the Enlightenment as a way to civilize the behavior of the lesser lords and knights at court, later spreading to the rising bourgeoisie and to other commoners. It was also encouraged by the Church. It has been taken up by political philosophers who see it as implying that all in society are one’s consociates and as being crucial for democracy and citizenship. A public sphere is necessary for its existence, which can be facilitated or hindered by social factors. There was no Chinese tradition of civility embodied in Confucianism, the ceremonial ritual behavior demanded being deferential, between those of unequal statuses, not based on the equality of all as fellow human beings. A community compact institution began in the Ming to teach Confucian behavior to the masses but it was a failure. The notion of public weal or behavior consistent with civility was almost completely absent in dynastic China on the part of either the government or the general public.

Discussion

This chapter discusses various factors germane to the development of civility. It deals first with differences between Taiwan and China relevant to Taiwan's having become a civil society and China's greater difficulties in doing so: differences in area, population, population composition, and integration; Taiwan's economic development beginning thirty years earlier and also being uninterrupted by internal factors; Taiwan's greater income and wealth equality; differences in social unity and in governance, especially elections in Taiwan and the KMT government's non-interference with the existing social organization; and the differential levels of trust in the two societies. It next assesses, in light of the information in previous chapters, the set of conditions listed in Chapter Two as likely either to facilitate or hinder civil development. It finishes by examining the links between civility and post-industrial values, becoming a 'society for itself,' and democracy.

Comparability of China and Taiwan

This chapter argues that comparing Taiwan and China as a way to understand what conditions are necessary for a society to develop civility yields valid results. They share a cultural heritage, were under the same government until 1895 and were governed by similarly authoritarian governments for much of the period since up to 1990. It refutes the erstwhile claim that Taiwan was tainted by its period as a Japanese colony and therefore not really Chinese. It then recounts the various campaigns employed by the Kuomintang government in China from the 1920s to 1949 and in Taiwan from 1945 to 2000 and by the Chinese Communist Party from 1949 to the present in China, especially since Reform and Opening Up. It then shows, through an examination of moral education textbooks from each, that despite the paroxysms in China under Mao, they have very similar ideas about what constitutes civility.