mona on the road

In September 2010, I had an opportunity to visit Taiwan as an exchange student.
Before arriving in Taiwan, my major concern was the disputes on politics, particularly the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan. Before I left for Taiwan, I was warned repeatedly by my parents and friends of not participating in any political discussions during my stay there. Due to disputes over political identities, I worried that students exchanging from mainland China would not be welcomed by local students at the beginning. Each time when I heard Taiwanese calling themselves “Taiwanese” instead of “Chinese”, I felt deeply disturbed. However, instead of arguing with them, I would choose to keep silent to avoid unnecessary quarrels. Still, as I spent more days in Taiwan, I had more contacts with local people and found things were different from what I had thought. Instead of showing hostile attitudes towards people coming from mainland China, most local residents were quite respectful and showed great willingness to talk with me about their understanding of the “Taiwanese” identity. From their words, I came to see that even though Taiwan inherited many traditions derived from the mainland, the region also developed its unique cultures, with an even greater separation in social development. Encouraged by the sincerity of the local residents, I decided to take an open mind and began to feel that their words made sense in some aspects though I could not totally accept it emotionally. .
So you see, seeing the world through the eyes of others' just avoids us to be narrow-minded. Never stop travelling, or you may take what you see as the whole world, while truth is that there's always a new perspective waiting to be discovered, through other eyes.