Paradox Blog

The date was March 18th, 2000. Chen Sui Pien Had won the presidential election of Taiwan. For those of us who had grown up in Taiwan, we glued to the news and watched in amazement how a historical event unfolding right before our eyes. We savored the significance that for the first time since 1940, the Nationalist Party would no longer govern Taiwan. Now more than a month had passed by. Though the news is no longer hot. We cannot but feel pride that our homeland has achievement true democracy.

On March 18, 2000, there was another news that had caught my eyes. It was the purchase of San Francisco's afternoon newspaper, the Examiner, by the Fong family, a Chinese-American publisher. Already there were talks about them not being able to handle a main stream newspaper. Already they reported that nobody in the Examiner wanted to stay on and worked for the future employers. Whether the critics and doubters had racial overtone or not did not matter. I was proud to even have the chance to ponder the potential of the change: Chinese American in control of a mainstream newspaper, news from our point of view printed, circulated and read. Of course, I should not have assumed that such a newspaper will be in accordance with my every opinion. I am none the less amazed and proud.