Ask This Taiwanese: Strength in the Face of Mass Murders

Ask “This” Taiwanese is an advice column dedicated to pesky and uncomfortable questions about Taiwan or about being Taiwanese. June’s question deals with the collective trauma of the Laguna Woods shooting.

Send us your questions in the form here: https://forms.gle/t4ddFbfqWKoRstn2A

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Dear Ask This Taiwanese,

The tragic shooting at the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods on May 15th, 2022, really broke my heart and shook me to the core. There have been so many similar shootings this year already, and too often the motives are hate crimes too. But – this one was directed at us – Taiwanese. Do you have any advice on how we process this event when we are the victims or could be victims ourselves?

From a fellow heartbroken Taiwanese

Dear fellow heartbroken Taiwanese,

We are with you! We are heartbroken as well.

Thinking back on the moment when the news broke, we went through a roller coaster of feelings from shock and disbelief. To be honest, the sadness remains.

We know a lot of us felt this way. But your question is such an important one: we were hunted down to be killed for who we are. That is one extraordinary experience to process as victims of a hate crime, and it is something we are all experiencing.

It is one thing to know that hate can be dangerous, but it is quite something else when that hate is directed at us. 

The murder re-awakens memories of Taiwan’s darker period under martial law when Chinese nationalism was pushed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomingtang) onto the local Taiwanese population. During the martial law period, Taiwanese identity and languages were suppressed and Taiwanese activists and intellectuals were jailed or executed. The shooting, motivated by the same violent Chinese nationalism, is a reminder that being Taiwanese could mean death.

In the current day context, it shows Taiwanese people everywhere the danger that Chinese nationalism could mean to us again. In recent days, China under Chinese Communist Party rule has gone full force to make Chinese nationalism more inflammatory, more reactionary, and more violent. It is thus unsurprising that the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU), for which the shooter is a member and an officer, is funded and supported by The Chinese Communist Party.

But we must find a meaning that is about our own humanity and love. We must remember that something heroic did happen on that day too! We saw how our own defended and saved each other. Let us never forget that!

In Viktor Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, he said this about the Holocaust: “we know: the best of us did not return.” We wonder then—if the cost of each atrocity is the demise of the bravest and the best among us, isn’t it up to us now to be braver and to care even more so somehow we can honor our best by filling the void they had left? This is our legacy and we are reminded that even as victims we also have a choice. We chose to fight back.

Knowing that we were victims could debilitate us, but it could also motivate us. In times of deep tragedy and grief, we may need to remind ourselves harder on how to love.

We like the hashtag #TaiwaneseStrong by the Taiwanese American Citizens League (TACL). A simple phrase that reminds us that we hold the key to defining who we are. How we process our grief and recover from injustice is how we will define what it means to be Taiwanese.

As we process our emotions, here are three things that can be helpful to keep us #TaiwaneseStrong:

1. We focus on the heroism of Dr. John Cheng that saved lives that day. Orange County prosecutor Todd Spitzer said, after watching all the available security camera footage, that after the first gunshot was fired Dr. Cheng ran in the direction of the shooter, tackled him and did not let go even after he was shot and died. Spitzer calls him a “superhero.

2. We focus on symbolism for democratic progress. We talk about and learn about what members of the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church did to help push for reforms in Taiwan for over a century, as well as the residents of Laguna Woods, who may seem like our retired uncles and aunts but many of whom are first generation Taiwanese activists who had direct roles in building Taiwan’s democracy today.

3. We focus on uniting our community by unequivocally fighting hate and violence. We get involved and lead community organizations to contribute to our community and our societies, whether that’s America, Taiwan, or anywhere else. Show up with your Taiwan T-shirt and go to local Taiwanese events. Volunteer. Publish articles and join the national public debate. Write to your elected officials. Run for office. Be the embodiment of optimistic defiance.

As investigations unfold in the coming weeks and months, we will be hearing more details about why the perpetrator felt he had to come and murder us. Hatred is out there, but we will overcome it by reminding ourselves to love. We may even have to remind ourselves to fight as hard as we can to not give in to hate ourselves.

And in time perhaps we can see the blessing even in this experience; that we too can have a point of pain and tragedy for us to reference as we relate deeply to the pains in other communities, and as something that unites us, not just to each other as Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans, but as human beings committed to building a humankind that is better than we found it.

Sir Issac Newton once said about his own accomplishments that, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”.  Taiwanese progress has been generations in the making, and we too must not forget that courage must now be part of what we choose to inherit.

Love is what we got,

Ask This Taiwanese

(Feature photo by Jonathan Lee)