2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Chinese in U.S. Divided by Taiwan

And now a story from Los Angeles, where a radio station is putting itself in the middle of the debate over China and Taiwan. Reporter Rob Schmitz of member station KPCC sent this report.

Kay Chao says Taiwanese and Chinese Americans in Los Angeles work, eat and even sleep together, usually without a hitch 1. But all you have to do, she says, is throw a dash of a certain something into the mix to bring it to a boil. The spice that works best, she says, is politics.
“Usually we don’t talk about the politics, but when we talk about it, people get angry about it. And then if you are in a marriage, it cost the marriage. Probably, you know, the marriage is gonna fall apart.”

Chao, who's from Taiwan, says she's heard stories of divorce caused by arguments over the possibility of Taiwan's independence. Those stories come from her listeners. She is one of the most popular talk show hosts for the over 300,000 Angelinos, who speak Chinese.

Chao hosts a column calling show called Rush Hour on Pasadena-based AM station KAZN. Each evening at 6, commuters call in to speak their minds. Chao says recent changes in Taiwan’s political landscape are spurring a record number of calls to the show. Since 1949, Taiwan has essentially 2 been operating independently of China, despite the fact that the government of China claims it as its own. For (a) decades both sides have managed to deal with this ambiguous status quo. That is until 5 years ago when Chen Shuibian, a pro-independence candidate, won the Taiwanese presidential election. He was reelected last year and has put the issue of independence front and center in Chinese-Taiwanese politics.

On a lonely stage at a hot and stuffy 3 community center in Rosemeed, an elderly man closes his eyes and belts out a traditional Taiwanese song as KC Chen looks on. Chan says these are tough times for overseas Taiwanese like him.
“While China is growing more prosperous, militarily stronger and its international presence more and more obvious, you know, high profile, Taiwan is losing ground.”

Chen, who's active in local Taiwanese politics, is no fan of Kay Chao’s radio show. He says he is turned off by all the Chinese-Americans who call in. Chen laments 4 that nowadays democratic countries like the U.S., Germany and France prefer to deal with China’s authoritarian 5 regime rather than with his democratic Taiwan. This kind of treatment, says Chen, has a ripple 6 effect on relationships between Taiwanese and Chinese here in the U.S.

“To us, the Chinese people are not as open-minded as we'd like to see. After all, we can understand. Living under a closed-circuit environment for so long. And when you talk about something like democracy, it is just not that easy to get to their mind.”

John Chen, no relation to a KC Chen, picks at a spicy 7 chicken dish with his chopsticks at a restaurant in Monterey Park. He estimates that 9 out of 10 overseas mainland Chinese feel very strongly that Taiwan is a part of China. But he says he's learnt not to talk about these feelings with his Taiwanese co-workers.

Speaking in mandarin 8, Chen says most Chinese-Americans here have Taiwanese friends, but not too many. The ones they do have, he says, are those who don't support an outwardly independent Taiwan. He says he and his friends don't talk to the pro-independence Taiwanese except for confronting each other at local protests or on talk radio.

Back on the airwaves of KAZN, host Kay Chao referees 9 a yelling match on air and reminds her callers that this is a talk show, not a fight show. She wonders what her show would be like in 3 years when Chen Shuibian’s term is up and Taiwan holds a new election.

“So after 3 years, the election year comes, that will be very, very personal. Everybody just like, you know, get crazy about it.”
And her ratings, she says, would be even crazier.


Hitch: an unforeseen obstacle; something immaterial that stands in the way and must be circumvented 10 or surmounted 11.
Dash: A small amount of an added ingredient: a dash of sherry.
belt: Slang To sing in a loud and forceful manner