Taiwan to loan prized jade cabbage to Japan

Japan better beef up the security around these artifacts so they won't get stolen. Japanese security & police are painfully lax to say the least.

Eastern European THIEVES are watching the news. They will come and get them. Watch Out!

meat-shaped stone

Huh?

former wartime enemy

Former colony. Since 1895.

I work with a jaded cabbage. They can take her anytime.

Former colony. Since 1895.

The land, yes, the government, no. The nationalist Chinese that escaped to Taiwan were at war with Japan in the 40s.

@tokyo-star

The land, yes, the government, no. The nationalist Chinese that escaped to Taiwan were at war with Japan in the 40s.

Yes. The article should say "government", or even better - "current government". But the way it is written suggest the people of Taiwan in WW2 were at war with Japan, when they weren't, at least not offcially. Shoddy writing or poor research.

Check them for radiation contamination before bringing them back home after the exhibition. Actually no point throwing pearls at pigs. The inhabitants of this country are aborigines and still harbour aboriginal instincts belonging neither in Asia nor elsewhere.

ReformedBasher, I was thinking the same thing - whoever wrote this has a very limited understanding of recent Asian history and seems to see through a European (WW2 = 1939-45) or American (1941-1945) lens. I like both your suggestions: "current government" or "former colony".

I've seen the jade cabbage. I expected it to be larger, considering how prominent it is in all mention of advertising of the Museum. It is beautiful, though. I wish I could hope that the crowds here would be any thinner. It was tough to get a good long look. Thanks in advance to Taiwan, anyway, for the loan.

I imagine that China will use the opportunity of their arrival here to demand that Japan return of all these treasures that "rightfully belong to the PRC".

This was a very confusing headline or me. i was looking forward to seeing the results of an international vegetable-growing contest.

I am sightly disappointed. A prize cabbage would be massive.

Thanks Taj. Accuracy and objectivity are nice, aren't they?

I imagine that China will use the opportunity of their arrival here to demand that Japan return of all these treasures that "rightfully belong to the PRC".

Why doesn't the PRC do the reverse and send their own treasures? Make up an excuse to satisfy the masses and start mending fences. If the 12 Girls band still existed, I'd definitely recommend them as "living national treasures". They were popular in Japan a while back. When they visited, the sponsors arranged for their parents to fly over here. That's the kind of diplomacy that both "sides" understand.

ReformedBasher, I was thinking the same thing - whoever wrote this has a very limited understanding of recent Asian history and seems to see through a European (WW2 = 1939-45) or American (1941-1945) lens. I like both your suggestions: "current government" or "former colony".

@taj--On the other hand, the KMT renounced all treaties with Japan in 1942 and that included the one that ceded Taiwan. So I am sure as far as many people are concerned, Taiwan was a part of China and both were at war with Japan as one.

And if you go back further, no one can argue that Taiwan was not a part of China during the Sino-Japanese war and was not a colony until after. So in that sense, Japan was a wartime enemy to Taiwan in anyone's eyes.

And it was not a friendly colonization. The Japanese were overlords and the enemy.

Considering all this, "wartime enemy" is as accurate as "former colony". The relationship between the U.K. and the former colony of Australia, this certainly isn't.

A jade cabbage?? This sounds so STRANGE IN ENGLISH, but I am sure in Chinese it must be really cool??

A jade cabbage?? This sounds so STRANGE IN ENGLISH, but I am sure in Chinese it must be really cool??

It's a jade in the shape of a cabbage, whats so weird about it?

@ControlFreak

And it was not a friendly colonization. The Japanese were overlords and the enemy. Considering all this, "wartime enemy" is as accurate as "former colony". The relationship between the U.K. and the former colony of Australia, this certainly isn't.

I bet you think the Australian aborigines just love that their country was stolen from them and they were often shot as "pests".

In all of the 5 minutes you've obviously misspent learning world history, you apparently missed out on how Japan went to some lengths to colonize Taiwan in a much better way than European powers were doing at the time.

And Taiwan was legally owned by the Japanese since 1895. The KMT did not even exist then.

The article above states the KMT took the treasures to prevent them from being stolen from the IJA. It's fair to say that the KMT stole them from China to prevent them from being stolen from the communists when they ran away to Taiwan.

Furthermore the KMT were not welcomed with open arms. Please do some research into their atrocities in Taiwan. A lot of the Taiwanese still look favourably on the Japanese occupation compared to the KMT.

And if you go back further, no one can argue that Taiwan was not a part of China during the Sino-Japanese war and was not a colony until after. So in that sense, Japan was a wartime enemy to Taiwan in anyone's eyes.

Taiwan is usually dated as having been ceded to Japan in 1895 at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, but in reality it had ceased to be governed by Imperial officials following the 1874 invasion of Taiwan, which was mainly a pretext that Japan used to claim the Ryukyu Islands. From 1874-1895 Taiwan is not only a self-governing body, but actually contains two separate political entities--an aboriginal organization in the south and a semi-autonomous Chinese faction in the north, heavily influenced by increasing Japanese pressure from the new bases in the Ryukyus. Not to mention the fact that Japan claimed military protectorship over Taiwan, despite the fact that the Qing Empire was still claiming the territory. During that period the total lack of Qing presence in the island is apparent when we look at the French invasion during the Sino-French War, which seized Keelung and occupied much of the island in 1884. The Qing Empire was no longer a serious governing presence after 1874.

@Freshie

Interesting facts about the Qing. Thanks.