1. BAS 2010 Social Anthropology Essay Summary
2010-03-05
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!
Mo, Kuo-Chen / Mobile: +47-45677218 / Email: kuochen.mo@gmail.com