Exploring Taiwan's Political Culture and Body Language for the Taking of ''Oaths of Office''

WHAT IS THE PROPER ARM SALUTE FOR TAKING AN OATH OF OFFICE IN COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD AND IN PARTICULAR IN TAIWAN? A friend in Germany posed this question. With special emphais on Taiwan's way of taking an oath of office for elected politicians nationwide. HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED THIS? SEE BELOW

First, two recent photos from the front page of Apple Daily newspaper on May 21, the day after the second inauguration of President Tsai on May 20 to illustrate what Jesper told me.

LETTER TO EDITOR IN TAIPEI TIMES 5/31
https://taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2020/05/31/2003737335

DEAR EDITOR:

RE: Oath of office gesture

Elected and unelected politicians and national leaders in Taiwan have sworn the oath of office with the right arm raised at a 45° angle for more than 70 years, first introduced by Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介石) in 1949, according to photos of him online.
This Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) oath of office gesture was then used by presidents Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), according to photos available online.
The gesture has become so normalized in the course of 70 years that even Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidents Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) used the same body language during their inaugurations without being aware that they were using a KMT political gesture, brought to Taiwan by Chiang.
However, Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), in photos available online, used the oath gesture of the right hand raised in the same way as politicians in Japan, Europe and the US take the oath of office.
Is it not time for the DPP to follow their own path and stop using the KMT oath of office gesture? The KMT can still use its own Chiang-inspired gesture, as it is part of KMT culture. However, the DPP needs to wake up and stop using the KMT oath gesture.
signed ''Anonymous''


MORE PHOTO LINKS:

https://english.president.gov.tw/Page/251







If the current style of body language for taking an oath of office in Taiwan was created by Chiang Kai-shek in China and brought the 45 degree raised arm style to Taiwan in 1949 and then the style was used by the KMT for 50 years until the DPP win election in 2000 to 2008 and again in 2016 to 2024, should President Tsai now that she is aware of the KMT history of the oath gesture stop using it herself and ask all DPP politicians to stop using and start using the traditional oath gesture used in Europe and the USA and by Sun Yat-sen himself long ago? Will she be persuaded to change her ways, Jesper asked.


In Taiwan political culture, when politicians who take an ''oath of office'' as Tsai did on May 20, they raise right arm at 45 degree angle in what ''looks'' like to some foreign observers as a ''Nazi style" salute.

But that *cannot be the case as Taiwan has never had *anything to do with Nazi Germany of Hitler's time. Jesper sent me a photo of Tsai pictured in Apple daily front page. ''I've noticed this body language for oaths for many years as an friend and European observer of Taiwan," Jesper told me. I was shocked! Could it be true? I looked again at the photos he sent me.

''Maybe this kind of oath of office body language was learned during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan for 50 years since Japan was ally of Nazi Hitler but I doubt it, " Jesper wrote.

''Or from KMT culture, following the way Chiang Kai-shek and his son and Lee Teng-hui executed their oaths under KMT rule. Have you ever noticed this? It is bad ''optics'' in international media. What do you think? I can send u photo if you don't believe me," Jesper added.

Another friend, this one an older Taiwanese man in Taipei told Jesper re this brouhaha: "I have not noticed that ....but now that you mentioned it .....yes it seems what you said is true. This particular act could have ben started by the Chinese Nationalists KMT with those at the DPP following the precedents. So I am not sure about Taiwanese copying from the Japanese -- do Japanese take an oath of office with right hand at 45 degrees?"

"Suffice it to say if the 45 degrees angle signifies the Nazi fashion then we shouldn't follow the evil regime's practice. Symbolism does matter," Jesper said.

Jesper said he ''copied'' this issue and photos to a few acquaintances in Europe and Taiwan to see if anyone might know something.

''Taiwan was never a nation so it must have copied from the KMT or the Japanese, rather than its own making and intended to mimic the Nazi style," the elderly Taiwanese man told Jesper. "We'll see what the responses are. No matter what, I agree a person's rigjht arm should be raised perpendicularly at 90 degrees to avoid any misunderstanding in the international arena."

Jesper replied: "Yes I agree. Main thing is if enough people raise the issue, and without blaming anyone in particular because we don't know what happened in history to create this particular ROC oath of office  body language style, maybe things can change. Yes raising the right hand in a perpendicular way is key here."

Jesper is the first person to bring up this sensitive issue and he said that nobody in Taiwan really cares.

"It would be interesting if a newspaper or  blog in the Chinese language in Taiwan or overseas raised this issue just to explore it," Jesper said. "I wonder how the KMT and the DPP would react? If the Liberty Times or Apple Daily published an article in Chinese in Taipei it would get people thinking. But who would be brave enough to write it?"

COMMENTS ARE WELCOME, JESPER SAID, PRO OR CON.

HE SAID HE HAS NO AXE TO GRIND AND NO DOG IN THE FIGHT. BUT AS A FOREIGNER FROM GERMANY, HE IS CURIOUS WHAT OPINION IN TAIWAN AMONG TAIWANESE WOULD  BE?
RESEARCHERS EXPLAIN WITH PHOTOS:

https://www.360kuai.com/mob/transcoding?url=9de5655626a0b9411&cota=3&kuai_so=1&sign=360_7bc3b157&fbclid=IwAR0BEvpKYX8SUrKlgabosE2JLS7NS_NMI85nP5Vu84_2IHBA7NqFR72BTVs

https://freewechat.com/a/MzIxNTM2Nzg3MA==/2247495708/1?fbclid=IwAR3YpEDzA9Epv9sperRav3w-GZsSjP21Db4ifz6VJ3RgNp0wAGYMe3OQuzQ

https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/17/12/1/n9915698.htm/amp?fbclid=IwAR062pCOErQGrTdWhnVurmw_LRKtZ7VZZWnNTMqmp_ZiHyowFqBmjB0DEWk