The DPP authorities, from Chen Shui-bian to Tsai Ing-wen, have been engaging in so-called “de-sinicization”. However, in recent years, more and more teenagers on the island have begun to use mainland social media and pay attention to mainland pop culture. On the one hand, the DPP authorities are constantly trying to create “natural independence”, and on the other hand, the mainland’s increasingly powerful cultural strength, where will the identity status of young people in Taiwan go?

Mainland social media has a strong presence in Taiwan’s “Gen Z”
While the DPP authorities were engaged in “de-sinicization”, Taiwanese media noticed that Taiwan’s “Executive President” Su Zhenchang read a poem from the mainland’s hit drama “Towards the Republic” in the “Legislative Yuan”, and discovered that the original Su, who has to deal with the mainland to the end with a broom, actually loves watching “Story of Yanxi Palace”. In recent years, the emergence of some social platforms has led to some new phenomena in cross-strait exchanges.
According to Taiwan’s United News, Lin Yichen, a primary school teacher in Taiwan, wrote on Facebook that the sixth graders she teaches have been exposed to mobile phones and the Internet since kindergarten. As soon as the sound is heard, almost the whole class can follow along with the jingle.” She also referred to the so-called “simplified character error”, saying that students often have problems mixing simplified and traditional characters. As soon as the article came out, it immediately resonated, reflecting the psychological anxiety of Taiwanese society over the “Tik Tok phenomenon”.
According to the article, since TikTok(Douyin) set up an operation team in Taiwan in early 2018, according to statistics, monthly active users are as high as 3 million, and nearly 70% of them are under the age of 24. It is understood that the non-mainland version of Douyin provided by TikTok in Taiwan has no direct exchange of content between the two sides, but in fact, most of the videos watched by young people in Taiwan on TikTok are the same content as the mainland version of Douyin.
In addition to TikTok, Xiaohongshu is also very popular on the island. In February this year, Taiwan’s “Wind Media” said that young people in Taiwan had moved from the social media “photo wall” owned by Meta to Xiaohongshu, and the photo wall was ridiculed as “played by the elderly.” Check the list of popular free apps on the Google Store in Taiwan. As of February 11, Xiaohongshu ranked first, and other popular social platforms were Twitter (5th), Photo Wall (6th), and Facebook (9th). ; Xiaohongshu, TikTok and bilibili came out on top in the “Social” and “Video playback and editing” projects. Some netizens on the island said on the forum that many people on Xiaohongshu would recommend her favorite comics, as well as some teachings on editing photos, “How to tie hair, wear clothes, and make up, it’s really an encyclopedia!” In addition, mainland primary school students The favorite snack “Konjac Shuang” has also aroused heated discussions in Taiwan. According to Lianhe News, chasing mainland film and television dramas, celebrities and variety shows, watching bilibili, surfing Douyin, and chatting about beauty tutorials on Xiaohongshu has long become a daily routine for Taiwan’s “Gen Z” (born from 1995 to 2012). .
Regarding the influence of mainland social platforms on young people in Taiwan, Taiwan’s “Executive Yuan” spokesman Luo Bingcheng previously stated that foreign forces’ infiltration methods are ubiquitous and pervasive, and we need to be more vigilant. He also said that disinformation and “cognitive warfare” will continue to evolve and change, and “it doesn’t end with removing an app.”
Analysis believes that the resistance of some people on the island to mainland social media is actually an anxiety about Taiwan’s marginalization, and objectively reflects Taiwan’s weak and passive position in cultural competition. Senior media person Bai Dehua wrote on the 28th, “When did Taiwan become so lacking in cultural self-confidence?” After the DPP came to power, it regarded the spread of mainland culture as a threat, “but the problem does not seem to be cognitive warfare or simplified characters, but Taiwan’s Cultural self-mutilation”. A comment published by Taiwan’s Zhongshi Electronic News stated that Taiwanese young people have a high degree of acceptance of mainland social platforms, jumping out of the so-called “independence” stance and becoming a subtle identity, “This is a new practice of cross-strait integration and development. “. Through the new media platform, young friends can get to know and understand each other more, “over time, a new development trend of integration will gradually be formed”.
“Natural Independence” or “Natural Tradition”?
Whether it is traditional culture such as ancient writing, or popular software such as Xiaohongshu, the influence of Taiwanese young people on the mainland cannot be ignored. However, does this mean that these island teenagers have become “natural”? Public opinion is divided. Some people think that under the subtle influence of the next generation, they will naturally have a favorable impression on the mainland; but some people think that entertainment and life are one thing, and political statements are one thing, so they can infer whether the next generation is “natural” or “natural”. “Natural independence” is too direct and arbitrary.
Ren Hui, head of the Liaison Department of the All-China Taiwan Federation, said in an interview with a Global Times reporter on the 28th that with the continuous enhancement of the comprehensive national strength of the motherland, the influence of mainland media, especially new media, is increasing day by day. “But we can’t be blindly optimistic. Young people on the mainland and the island share a lot of the same language, but their communication on these media platforms is more focused on topics such as entertainment, star chasing, and pop culture elements. If it involves political issues, they often There will be disputes or conflicts.”
Ren Hui believes that the concept of “natural reunification” or “natural independence” cannot accurately express the identity of the young people in Taiwan, and the terms “inclination to tradition” and “independence” are more accurate. He said that no one is born with a tendency to “Taiwan independence”, all of which are formed due to complex history and reality. Polls generally show that the distribution of Taiwanese national identity forms is in a “fuzzy” shape, with radical “unification factions” and radical “independence factions” accounting for about 10%. Reunification”, but these two identities are not very strong, and once some extreme situation occurs, such as the war due to the use of force in the mainland of “Taiwan independence”, it is very likely to give up the original position. Ren Hui said that the “independence” stance can be transformed under certain conditions and pressures, and it has swing and fragility.
Ren Hui told the Global Times reporter that the environment in which the DPP authorities use all means to slander and smear the mainland on the island has not changed. Under the special political environment on the island and the political manipulation of the DPP authorities, the current “Generation Z” is actually a generation that grew up with the “Taiwan Independence” syllabus. The national and historical views are flawed. The understanding of the mainland of the motherland is narrow and misplaced.
“If the culture of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan had a great influence on the mainland in the past, with the increasing comprehensive strength of the mainland, the mainland has a greater cultural influence on the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions now.” Ren Hui said that before and after the reunification, it is necessary to win the hearts and minds of Taiwan people. It is an important means to make full use of the Internet platform to tell the story of the mainland in a way that the other party’s language habits and intelligibility can understand.
Green camp politicians hype “cultural united front”
Since Taiwan’s first political party rotation, the DPP authorities have been strengthening the prevention of the so-called “cultural invasion” of the mainland. “Cultural United Front” has become a high-frequency vocabulary.
On the 22nd, Chen Jiaohua, a “power of the times” and “legislator” who also belongs to the Green Camp, said in the “Legislative Yuan” questioning that there is now a dictionary of idioms circulating on the market in Taiwan, which contains “secretary of the county party committee”, “the coastal areas of Fujian in my country”, and “defend dear.” “Motherland” and other terms should be Taiwanese booksellers who directly convert mainland books into traditional characters and sell them, which is suspected of “cultural united front”. Taiwan’s “Executive President” Su Zhenchang claimed that “it is very serious to poison children in this way.” Qiu Taisan, chairman of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said on the 23rd that according to Article 37 of the “Regulations on Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Straits”, mainland publications and film and television programs must be approved by the competent authority before they can be distributed in Taiwan. Earlier, the DPP “legislator” Zheng Yunpeng also proposed that the civil service examination should be abolished in languages, especially ancient ones. He claimed that most of the professional and technical examinations are no longer archaeological. In 2008, an “examination committee” proposed that “young people should not waste their youth on ancient texts.”
Zhao Shaokang, chairman of “Zhongguang”, said that the DPP once again displayed the ideology of “de-sinicization”, which did nothing to improve Taiwan’s competitiveness or cultural heritage. He said that civil servants who serve the public must have basic language logic and communication skills. If you can’t even write official documents, how can you be a civil servant? When Tsai Ing-wen wrote “Light up Taiwan”, there were three wrong words, and Taiwan’s “Presidential Palace” Spring Festival couplet “Freedom and Freedom” can also be written as “self-initiated”. The party hopes that future civil servants will be the same as Tsai Ing-wen, with an official document that is full of typos and laughable?”
“If you want to destroy the family, first destroy the text”, Taiwan’s “China Times” commented on this topic on the 26th, saying that children in mainland China have learned ancient Chinese since childhood, and most of the primary and secondary school students can export them into chapters; now the trend of learning Chinese is sweeping the world, but only Taiwan Governing green, “destroying the Great Wall for the sake of greed and fantasies, for the benefit of votes, and leading the younger generation of Taiwan to the rootless duckweed.”