To our youth, in Taiwan！Nine things we should know

Text by MOOK Scenic Spots Liao Weiren   Photos by Our Youth, in Taiwan
 
On March 18, 2014, students from National Taiwan University stormed into the Legislative Yuan. From that day on, they occupied the building for a full 24 days, forcing mainstream media outlets and the ruling party—who had never covered social movements before—to face the demands of this generation, and allowing the public to hear the voices of this generation. It had a beautiful name: the "Sunflower Student Movement."

The director of “Our Youth, in Taiwan,” Fu Yu, spent six years from shooting to editing. Featuring Chen Wei-ting, one of the leaders of the Sunflower Movement, and Cai Boyi, one of the first mainland students to study in Taiwan, the film captures their fragility, confusion, and loss away from the spotlight, while also presenting the process through which the youth of this generation tempered their ideals.
 
The following nine lessons we are told are worth exploring, reflecting on, and responding to, one by one.

1.Social movements with butterfly effects have no end
 
A social movement is a collective action that consciously and organizedly seeks to change or rebuild social order, aiming to promote, improve, or resist the current state of society. The Sunflower Movement back then was a protest against the opaque handling of the “Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement.” Starting with a group of university students, it eventually mobilized nearly 350,000 people to take to the streets of Ketagalan Boulevard in protest.
 
And although the Sunflower Movement has come to a close, social movements will never truly end. Although injustices happen every day, the Sunflower Movement has already, like a butterfly effect, awakened the hearts and consciousness of the people.

2.Lessons and education given to us by history
 
History is never just history—it is the best teacher, a stark example. Watching the Sunflower Movement in the documentary, beyond the conflicts, protests, and occupations, these demands stemmed from government manipulation, deception, and attempts to serve the interests of certain groups through improper means.
 
Beyond learning from these lessons, we should also pass down these historical imprints to nurture a better next generation, so that future people understand how much effort and cost it takes to stand up against the government we elect—and to always remember not to become the kind of adults, authorities, and power holders we once despised when we grow up.

3.Mutual understanding and communication under nationalism
 
Today’s cross-strait relations are the product of history from the last century. We can’t change the facts that have already come to pass, but we can push them in a better direction. Nationalism is an ideology that advocates for the interests of one’s own nation and asserts the sovereignty of self-governance. And it is under completely different nationalisms that the two sides of the strait have been pulled in opposite directions, leading to the current situation.
 
But what we lack the most is actually mutual understanding and communication. How, under completely different environments and educational systems, can we further engage in deep, comprehensive, and unbiased understanding of each other, and achieve equal, non-utilitarian, and effective communication? This is something both sides must learn and face.