I got this email earlier. looks interesting:

Hello there~~
I come from a beautiful country called "Taiwan"~~
My name is "Burner", greetings to all fixed gear riders out there.
There is a steady growth in Fixed Gear riding happening here in Taiwan.

With the help of this web site www.fixedgeartaiwan.com

I hope to collaborate and share information with all Fixed Gear riders around the world. You may send photos of your bikes along with information or individual modification regarding your bikes to this email address: burner.mbp@gmail.com

And I will post it on the www.fixedgeartaiwan.com

Look forward to all riders that are willing to share their thoughts and enjoy the fun of riding Fixed Gear bicycles.

is Taiwan a country now?

Uhoh, politics by the 2nd post.

I think it's a province...

... of the world.

first pic in the gallery

i don't care did you look at the pics on the site?? theres the 50 yr aniversary campy groupo on a bike...
wow I have only ever seen it in a display case.

Ah, yea.... and the chain rings and the cranks in other pics.

opps, my bad

Of course it's a country, it was established iun 1949 by the Nationalist losers in the Revolution Chang Kai Shek and Sun Yat Sen. Frosty relations with China have thawed a little in recent years...

Hey! I resent that.

Some people jokingly refer to Taiwan as the 51st state of the US...

What I don't understand is why the Fixed Gear Taiwan site is in English and not Mandarin...

it would be like Labour moving to the Isle of White (after a long and American funded civil war of course)- and calling it a new country.

Fixed gear is like flying, the first language is English.

but i digress... yay for more fixed gear websites :)

Not quite right. The ruling regime in Taiwan is officially dubbed the Republic of China (ROC), which has been around since 1911. The ROC used to rule the big chunk of land that everybody calls China, with its capital in Nanjing.

In an epic fail in 1949, the ROC managed to lose that entire chunk of land to the Chinese Communist Party, who set up the People's Republic of China (PRC). The ROC government, led by Chiang Kai-shek (Sun Yat-sen was dead by then), high-tailed it to Taiwan and set up shop there.

Since then, there's been the ROC in Taiwan, and the PRC in mainland China. Most of the world acknowledges the PRC to be the "legitimate" China, and they're one of the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council. The PRC blocks any move by the international community to treat the ROC/Taiwan as a nation. Which is why the Taiwanese team competes in the Olympics under "Chinese Taipei" rather than "ROC" or "Taiwan".

However, the ROC/Taiwan is a de facto independent country... we've got our own democratically-elected government and all that, independent of the PRC government. I think most of the world, especially the US, doesn't know what to do... on the one hand, nobody wants to piss off China. But on the other hand, Taiwan's got lots of semiconductors and bicycles...

Which explains why countries like the US like to send a chunk of fleet into the eastern Pacific on training exercises whenever China makes noises about reclaiming it's soveriegn rights etc. Although I don't think China likes the word soveriegn much.

...yeah China wants it back - but I guess they'll wait till the games are over!

a right kettle of worms ive opened here. sorry cg5154 if you have taken offence. its just my personal opinion from my studies on the issue.

free tibet anyone?

No offense taken... everybody's entitled to their own opinion.

Besides, there are roughly 1.3 billion people in China who think Taiwan isn't a country. My own grandparents are mainlanders, and I learned a long time ago not to mention "Taiwanese independence" around them.

Maybe because the word is spelled "sovereign" :-P

the US had a very long history of helping the nationalist government of China.. before 1949, they were the US's biggest allies in Asia.

this only increased after 1949 of course, but in the form of Taiwan... heck, 'China' wasnt even recognised as a country for mmmaanny years..

and yeh, the main role of the US navy in S.E Asia after Vietnam has been to 'defend' Taiwan. and sell it weapons.

the man has a point.. back to bikes

i'd say tw is a country
has anyone noticed the "taiwan" flag in olympic?

There's no Taiwan flag in the Olympics. It's "Chinese Taipei".

this is abit sad

hanging out in the Carhartt London office per chance?? :)

I like this thread, its educational....

its pronounced "edumacational" ,-)

So people speak mandarin in taiwan? Intameresting.

Hi, I'm a former Taiwan resident living in the UK now. Taiwan is indeed a country but only if you recognise it as such. I think the UK stopped recognising Taiwan in 1972. If you pick up an English/UK dictionary Taiwan will not be listed as a country. There's only a handful of countries that currently recognise the "Republic of China" (Taiwan) and Taiwan currently has no representation at the UN. The tricky situation at the olympics is mostly down to China - who refuse to have "Taiwan" or "ROC" represented. It's all about "face" which is very important to Chinese politicians it seems.

The bottom line is that Taiwan is as you perceive it. If you think it's a country then that's good enough for now;-)

The official language of Taiwan (ROC) is Mandarin, but only since 1945 when the Japanese handed Taiwan back to the Nationalist Chinese after the war. For 50 years before that Taiwan was a Japanese colony and the spoken language was Japanese. Most Taiwanese also speak what is commonly known as "Taiwanese" which is in fact a language that also came from China but is very different from Mandarin. Throw into the mix some local languages from the aborigines and it gets quite confusing!

Bikes: There are plenty of cycles in Taiwan but you rarely see them on the road. It's a little to hot and humid in the summer and the traffic/polution/scooters make it a dangerous way of getting around.

Kind of...I work there.

Hi guys this is Bao from FixedGearTaiwan, i didn't expect to see such a great confusing issue.
Many thanks to Zouo which helped to explain so much about Taiwan, appreciate your help.
Well i guess Zouo has explained most of the confusion regarding Taiwan and i'm not going to say much about politics today.
My aim is to promote Fixed Gear riding here in Taiwan, and increase international awareness for Taiwan Fixed Gear / Single speed riders.
I'm sure many of you guys own a frame or parts that is "Made In Taiwan", and i'm very proud of my country even if we are not recognize as a country in the UN.

Greetings to all UK riders, keep us posted with Fixed Gear culture.

Regards,
Bao
www.fixedgeartaiwan.com

I was in Taiwan last month but didn't see any fixies. Saw only a couple of guys on bikes but it was very hot and humid. There are 23 million people in Taiwan and 11 million motorbikes. This means that if each bike had a rider and a pillion passenger, there would only be 1 million people left to walk the streets or ride fixies.

The Imperial Museum in Taipei is worth a gander. No bikes but many treasures.

Hey Bao

Good luck with the site, dude, keep on working hard!

Nice one

Thanks Sano, we are growing by the numbers everyday, hope you guys can visit Taiwan in the future, come during winter, it will be much comfortable to cruise around.

Bao

I must say that Taiwan is an amazing place and add that winter would be better than summer.