Saturday, July 14, 2018

Rainbow Gathering Paints Taiwan Black In Bloom


          In Bloom, which calls itself “an online magazine covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific,” posted an article in its June 2018 issue by its editor, Brian Hioe, entitled “After Huashan Murder, Attempts to Scapegoat Creatives on Pitt and in Taiwanese Media” pandering to what it calls “the wake of the Sunflower Movement.” Let’s get this straight: there was no Sunflower Movement to have a wake from; there was no tsunami from co-opted youth used to do the Democratic Progressive Party’s bidding before the 2015 Taiwan presidential election (see my blog article,  This Stinking Taiwan Kettle of Fish)
          That being said, the In Bloom article is not wrong in highlighting what is a major problem in Confucian societies in Asia: misogyny. The “top-down” philosophy that has been the crux of disempowerment to youth and the poor, and has marginalized women since the dawn of society, in feudal, communist, and capitalist ruling classes is not, as Hioe says, in opposition to “a group of artists and young people [who] applied for use of the space from the city government, forming something like a small artists’ commune.” This 'commune' is an unorganized hodge-podge lending itself to chaos and eventual top-down re-creation. Hioe, editor of In Bloom, does not himself obey collective decision making at his own on-line magazine, as he may be wont to admit. But this is not my point. My point is that a self-described ‘family’ of privileged drifters that call themselves “Rainbow Gathering” descended onto Taiwan in the spring and chose to share Hioe’s article on their Facebook page to defend themselves from such criticism; they throw their lot with In Bloom in pointing the blame for the murder at Taiwanese men, exonerating themselves. Of course, they don't mention the low wages of over-worked men or the financial demands put on them in love relationships. 
The "In Bloom" article Rainbow Gathering posted:
The tragedy of the murder and dismemberment a 30-year-old woman named Gao occurring in the 120 Grassroots Self-Autonomous Zone should be taken for what it is; a deranged young man, perhaps drunk with male entitlement, perhaps just drunk, and the reaction of horrified Taiwanese, not to place the blame on the small group of youth, as Hioe thinks, but on lun-chi-ba-zhao living in general; where there are no rules, one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, in the public’s collective mind. There is no reason to get defensive or call youth scapegoats for a problem that is prevalent worldwide so long as a natural laissez-faire goes unguided, indeed rewarded, by society. But, again, this is not my point. Let me get back to the Taiwan Rainbow Gathering Facebook page administrator’s posting Hioe’s article while questioning my submission to the page, a submission that didn’t jive with his group’s self-image.
My article that Rainbow Gathering refused to post:
All through the spring I watched as privileged pilgrims, polluting the skies and earth, got lost finding the way to a chaotic gathering in Taiwan, for some reason, chosen by organizers. The jet-set pilgrims couldn't find the location up to the advertised start of the gathering because of the lack of 'consensus,' as they call the substitute for egalitarian democracy. Some guy named Jacobsen seemed to be running the show and was the man behind approving a half dozen poems I had written and shared with the site. Even after the Gathering disbanded, the site stayed up. A few days ago, I shared an article I wrote about my experiences with Taiwanese youth who were practicing English by learning how to improve the city, organize society, and become activists. Instead of winning approval, the content of the article was deemed “unrelated” to the Gathering by its new Facebook page administrator, some guy named Brian Alexander, whose main job is being an entrepreneur for some start-up English “radio” program called “Funshine.” Twice, he asked me to defend my posting the article, so I did, explaining that it was about how the youth in Taiwan could learn to deal with life in the city on their way to collective decision making and even communal living. Alexander had made up his mind, autonomously, not by consensus. My article wasn’t posted and I was removed from the Facebook group for defending my post!
I demand my poems of promise be removed from the Taiwan Rainbow Gathering Facebook page.
I have written a poem to celebrate the folk who deal with real life and shun the dreaming delusion of Rainbow Gatherings. Every English reader in Taiwan, and soon first-language speakers, will know how In Bloom and Rainbow Gathering blamed them for misogyny when the police removed a similar gathering after a person was murdered and dismembered there. That article was deemed relevant to Rainbow Gathering Facebook page; how vindictive and childish.
The public should note, "Funshine" English Radio, is run by such an outlook and will, by association, suffer lose in listener-ship from indignant Taiwanese who see the true color upheld by permitting a slur against Taiwanese in deference to communal living.
By blocking the dissemination of solutions for a true course for children to deal with city life, Taiwan Rainbow Gathering's administrator perpetuates the problem of top-down decision making.

 The poem:

the family gathers over the rainbow of Taiwan
high above the yellow horde proletariat of Hualien
black undertones of misogynist blame
privileged drifters' vengeful claim
permitting posting on their page for distaste
left on Taiwanese lips for the dismemberment waste
surely it was one of the sick Taiwanese men
and not one of the colorful among them...
democracy replaced by vague consensus
backpacking new-agers shouldering expenses
smoke screening cigarettes allowing pretenses
banned canine unleashing exclusions
for the primitive pleasure of field defecation
a tax and fee free squatting vacation
leaving jet fuel traces in the wake
leaving litter and bitterness in what they take
leaving the urban world for squalor
should visit a ghetto and leave a dollar
or better yet school young innocence
on how to survive without paying red cents
instead of banning this brother for suggesting
it is better to learn survival than to be guesting
off charity and a collective pot
that ties societies into a knot
my green lovers of natural flow
sans raw meat that the paleo know
shun me not with your rainbow pout
come back to reality and work it out

 Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

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