Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Music reflects the personality of a nation’s people. When I was studying abroad, I noticed a difference in the musical styles of Taiwanese and Westerners. It seems to me that most of the music played on Western radio or TV has a lively rhythm and positive lyrics, whereas the music in Taiwan commonly has melancholy tones and sad lyrics. Taiwanese singers lament their misfortunes and destinies, as well as their misery and uselessness. Even love songs are filled with self-devaluing and worthless sentiments.

Perhaps this is due to the history of colonization, as well as the White Terror of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, which led to a sense of learned helplessness that permeates Taiwanese culture, psychology and music.

Washington’s China policy usually oscillates between containment and engagement. Prior to former US president Donald Trump’s trade dispute with China, the US placed greater emphasis on cooperation than competition with China, especially at the economic level, as it believed that the mutual benefit of cooperation would benefit Americans.

Since the start of the dispute, mutually beneficial trade has gradually been replaced with competition, undermining the basis for cooperation between the countries. Now, US-China competition has evolved into a technology war that is defining the direction of relations between the two powers for the foreseeable future.