Why I Have Problems With Double Ten Day

I’ve never viewed Double Ten Day (October 10th) as a cause for celebration. What’s even worse is hearing Double Ten Day being referred to as Taiwan’s National Day or worse yet, Taiwan’s birthday.

So when an invitation arrived via email from the Taipei Economic Cultural Office in New York (aka TECO-NY, Taiwan’s de facto embassy in New York City) to a Double Ten Day celebration, I was initially reluctant to accept the invitation. My partner, on the other hand reacted with enthusiasm and saw it as an honor. In exchange for begrudgingly agreeing to attend, I decided to write a piece about my mixed feelings about Double Ten and what it represents.

The invitation arrived in my email inbox with the subject line: “Invitation for the 113th National Day Reception of the Republic of China (Taiwan).”

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You may be wondering why is Taiwan also known as the Republic of China (ROC) and how has the ROC come to be synonymous with Taiwan?

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To explain this, I must unravel the complicated history behind what October 10 refers to and how it has come to be a celebrated day in Taiwan. Double Ten refers to the Wuchang Uprising (aka the start of the Xinhai Revolution), which started on October 10, 1911 in China. The Xinhai Revolution resulted in overthrowing the Qing dynasty thereby ending thousands of years of dynastic rule in China, and to the founding of the Republic of China. This is why Double Ten Day has been celebrated by the ROC. The ROC was established in China after the The Xinhai Revolution, on January 1, 1912.

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But what does this have to do with Taiwan?

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Taiwan has its own history; its indigenous people have been traced back to times before China’s earliest inhabitants. It’s also worth noting that while all of the aforementioned events related to Double Ten were happening (the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 and founding of the Republic of China in 1912), Taiwan was actually a colony of Japan (1895-1945). These facts, clearly show that October 10, 1911 is not and could not be Taiwan’s birthday. In fact, this date is not even the birthday (or anniversary) of the Republic of China, which was not founded until January 1, 1912.

Taiwan has been colonized by several foreign regimes including the Spanish, Dutch, Chinese Ming dynasty loyalist Koxinga, Chinese Qing dynasty, French, Japanese, and the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang aka KMT) who lost control of China to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the end of World War II. Consequently, the KMT was forced to flee to Taiwan in 1945. Japan had lost to the Allied Forces and gave up its claim on Taiwan. The CCP later proclaimed the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949, hence this year being the 75th anniversary of the PRC. The Republic of China is marking its 113th national day this year, which if counted from its founding in 1912, should actually be its 112th anniversary.

The people of Taiwan were not consulted about the arrival of the Chinese Nationalists after Japan left in 1945. The Chinese Nationalists brought with them the Republic of China framework. Which is why the official name of Taiwan became the Republic of China. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party viewed the retreat to Taiwan as temporary saying “prepare for one year, counterattack in two years, sweep out the enemy in three years and succeed within five years." The Chiang regime operated as an authoritarian one-party state, with the people of Taiwan experiencing 38 years of martial law (1949-1987) and the White Terror era. There were no basic human rights, no right to privacy, freedom of thought, expression, or press. The people of Taiwan were controlled through a police-state, extreme censorship, and systemic erasure of Taiwanese identity, culture and languages (such as Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and various indigenous languages). For me Double Ten Day has long represented this repressive period of Taiwan under the Republic of China.

Double Ten is not Taiwan’s national day; it celebrates an event important to the formation of the Republic of China, which really has nothing to do with Taiwan. It was only through historical happenstance that the Republic of China ended up in Taiwan.

Decades of struggle by the people of Taiwan have contributed to the democratization of Taiwan, the establishment of political parties to challenge the autocracy of the Chinese Nationalist Party and the transition from authoritarianism to democracy. In 1996 Taiwan had its first direct presidential election. At 28 years Taiwan is a young democracy and has been rated by the Freedom House as one of the freest democratic countries in Asia. A lot has transpired in the time that Taiwan has been known in parallel as both the Republic of China and Taiwan. But Taiwan has been unable to drop the Republic of China moniker because of China’s objections to Taiwan declaring independence.

The first Double Ten Day celebration held in Taiwan by the Chinese Nationalists was a military parade on October 10, 1949. At this year’s Double Ten Day celebration hosted by the Taipei Economic Cultural Office in New York, among those invited were U.S. government officials, distinguished friends and allies of Taiwan, and many Taiwanese American community leaders who are doing meaningful work to support the community and to promote Taiwan. In reality Double Ten Day has become a celebration of Taiwan. The distinguished guests who spoke at the event praised many of Taiwan’s developments and accomplishments, affirmed their support and relationship with Taiwan and thanked Taiwan for its critical assistance in providing masks to New Yorkers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an honor to be invited and acknowledged as someone who is making contributions to Taiwan. However, there was an occasional mention of Taiwan’s birthday or Taiwan’s national day, which made me cringe.

There are also still a lot of problematic vestiges of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s one-state party rule in Taiwan, which include all of the Republic of China-related symbols in Taiwan (such as the ROC flag and anthem), many of which have come to represent Taiwan. That is subject worthy of its own discussion and Jenna Lynn Cody has written about it quite succinctly.

Double Ten Day has been celebrated as a national holiday in Taiwan for over seven decades. In a sense, it has become a Taiwanese holiday since Taiwan is one of the few places in the world that celebrates it. Given the quagmire that Taiwan is in, Double Ten Day has also become a placeholder for Taiwan’s national day, until one day that Taiwan can just be called Taiwan and can have a national day that truly reflects Taiwan’s journey to nationhood.

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Felicia Lin is the Producer & Host of Talking Taiwan, the longest running Taiwan-related podcast now at over ten years and counting. Talking Taiwan is a Golden Crane Podcast Award Winner, and shortlisted in the 2024 International Women’s Podcast Awards “Moment of Visionary Leadership” category. Talking Taiwan is about stories connected to Taiwan and Taiwan’s global community. To learn more about Talking Taiwan visit: www.talkingtaiwan.com