The two great minds are at it again! Translated…
Wen-Hwa Wang: As you got into middle age, did your dreams change? What dreams do you still have for the future?
Xiao-Wei Zhong: for myself, I don’t DARE wish for anything else. Like how Genghis Khan’s dreams and happiness, had already, abandoned me, like how yesterday had become.
As for me, I can only hold on tightly, to that small scoopful of water called, “Mrs. Zhong” now.
But for Taiwan, I do have a dream—I’d hoped to see a more tolerant, more open minded, more visionary world. At the bottom half of last year, because of work, I moved my whole family to Singapore. The different lifestyle brought a different and new vision—let’s skip the talks on the politics, in Southeast Asia, the assimilations of race, and religion, living together peacefully, side by side, it’d impacted me a lot.
Humans are, naturally, rejecting to those who are dissimilar. “Those who aren’t like my race, will think differently than I”, this, was deeply rooted, inside the human subconscious. “Self-Doubting + Egotistical”, is the natural defense mechanism for a race. Think about Taiwan’s “Korean Complex”—we couldn’t accept the fact, that we’re far behind compared to Korea in many ways, so, any small matter will lead us to believe, that they’re taking shortcuts, and cheating, causing us to all behave like witch hunters. The demon inside kept on making the loud calls; those Kimchi eating Korean sticks, always thought that they’re so amazing—even the faces and the bodies of those female movie stars are all fake, what else, are they willing, to be truthful about, how can they play fair?
When, would we, finally, take off, these colored spectacles called “race”, and remove ourselves of the shackles called “prejudice”?
A few months ago, the report of how a man named Davies who was born in Los Angeles, but gave UP his American citizenship, and became naturalized as a citizen of Taiwan, as he remembered the roads he’d traveled to get to where he was, he’d smiled and told: that day, the American Institute in Taiwan worker couldn’t believe his requests, inquired him again: are you sure you want to do this? Nobody’s pointing a gun to your head? You’re not trying to evade taxes, are you? “That man also asked, ‘why do you want to give up the citizenship of the world’s greatest country?’ I’d told him, did you NOT see my skin color? And all the things that the news reported on (the racism)?”
Davies continued, “This country wanted to embrace me, up to this day, they’re all, very kindhearted toward me, and used the views of Martin Luther King: defining you based off of your deeds, not the color of your skin.” He believed, that Taiwanese people would comment, “that Davies guy, is an African American, also, a very good man too.”
As I read this story, other than feeling moved, I also felt ashamed: because Taiwan really hadn’t gotten that good yet—think of how we treated the foreign hired helpers, as well as the spouses from China. We must keep on working, and lift ourselves, to a higher realm, use Davies’s words, “They will say, ‘that guy named Davies, is a good man; oh, by the way, he’s also, an African American too.”
How, do we overcome the inferiority in our minds, not just in race, but extending it to sexuality, to age, to religions, as well as other realms, to seek out a society which people from all walks of life can feel proud to live in, this, is what I’m willing to work in.
Wen-Hwa Wang: this is the very end, I’m going to head off to bed soon, you still quoted Genghis Kahn? Aren’t you torturous?
You mentioned the story of Davies, he said that Taiwan had treated him, based off of his character, and not his skin color, judged him based off of his deeds. I’m really proud, hearing about it, but I couldn’t help but wonder, if we can treat Davies like that, couldn’t we also, treat everybody else using the same way too?
I too, hoped to see a more tolerating, a world without prejudices. But, this ideal is not going to be like your child, grow up on its own, happening all on its own. This ideal must be worked at by you and me, as well as everybody else too.
How? Through writing, speaking, holding seminars, the effects are limited. Through education, takes too long. Use politics and legislature is the best way, but, unfortunately, neither one of us is an expert in that area.
My way is to help those new companies set up, and helping those already established enterprises innovate. Entrepreneurship and innovation not only affects the economics, the successful products would also help people change their views. The cell phone from Apple defined beauty. The Google culture changed the way we work. Facebook, even Uber, changed how we relate to one another. As companies like these gets set up by the numbers, people are more opened to the differences in one another, we’d become, boundless.
I’ll use a metaphor you’d said before, maybe, we will find out, that the Scientific Peter Pan’s biggest challenges is NOT breaking down the Devils, nor is it to hunt down the Mirror Man, but himself. What made us old and deteriorate, is NOT the years, it’s our thoughts.
And so, this tells us to keep our mind open, to be ready, to embrace the new ideals as they come to us, but, most of us are only accepting to those ideals that don’t stray too far from our own value systems, and we totally negated those ideals that goes against our own belief systems, because we don’t like it, when our beliefs are being challenged, but, having our beliefs challenged is HOW we will become more mature!