The other day, I wrote something about Taiwan and democracy (in the context of events in the Middle East). Wanted to share a letter with you.

“Back in ’06, Taiwan was split on the issue of President Chen Shui-bian’s corruption. I would go by a certain area in Taichung and they’d have a large area set up for demonstrations. I’d see people of all ages showing up and speaking their mind, including some of my mild-mannered, normally politically inactive relatives. My father-in-law was in awe that Taiwan had come so far. Thirty years earlier, they wouldn’t have dared speak out against their government. But even back then, he was happy at least it wasn’t Mao’s China.”

I’ll bet.

And this was terribly interesting: “A business partner and friend in Taipei started talking one day about his family. His parents fled in ’49. Much as Great Depression Americans tend to save money, Chinese Taiwanese of a certain age are never late for anything. They knew many people who did not get out of China in time. Things happened very quickly.”

One more slice of this letter: “I know that talking with cabbies is a cliché. But I really do have cabbies in Taipei, Taichung, Hsinchu, Tainan — pretty much everywhere — who express pride in both their freedom and their elections.”