North-South divide in Taiwan

North–South divide in Taiwan refers to the uneven distribution of resources in regard to political, wealth, medical, economic development, education and other aspects across the country over past decades that has drawn the social and cultural differences between northern and southern today.

Quotes

• Foreign language quote.
  • During meals, I miss my children so much and think if my son/daughter's performance at work is good. I would like to know whether or not he/she has eaten dinner tonight like I have.
  •  A mother whose son/daughter has unwillingly left her to work in northern Taiwan., Wishing to see my beloved children work in their hometown one day (Nov 5, 2018), as translated by Wikpedian (Nov, 2019)

• The map that extends from central Taipei has limited and controlled the Taiwanese's independent thinking. The round head and thin tail of the shape of Taiwan island seem to imply the predisposition of the KMT government which has determined the central government's unfair policies and resultant uneven development between the north and the south since the end of the period of Taiwan under Japanese rule . This sad story of the left-behind peripheral areas of Taiwan utterly established the gravely authoritarian characteristics of Taipei City. Of course, it made southern Taiwanese feel neglected, inferior and deprived like second-class citizen.
  • Iron Bull (鐵牛), Asian Games in Kaohsiung? (1994), as translated by Wikipedian (Nov, 2019)

• I don't know which political party started to unfairly distribute resources, showing clear evidence of a strong bias in favor towards northern Taiwan and against the south, not to mention Pingtung County has been snubbed in every respect for decades. Over the past two to three decades, it's not just that Kaohsiung citizens have been forced to drift northwards. It's also that citizens from Pingtung, Chiayi, Yunlin, and Changhua have been mandated to drift northwards. As to inhabitants of Taipei, I presume that they drift abroad
  • A native of Pingtung, What sin has Kaohsiung committed? (Nov, 2018), as translated by Wikipedian (2019)

• It's exhausting to grasp every opportunity to return to Kaohsiung having family reunion during the vacation. Because before we see our loved ones, we have to come up against long queue for tickets and endless south-bound traffic jams. These hardships and pains are not something those big governors living in the palace in Taipei can ever understand. If southern Taiwan had developed an environment that features better working conditions and study atmosphere, I must have stayed in southern Taiwan and wouldn't have to confront all these bitterness..... Do people even know the fact that over three-fourths of universities in Taiwan are based in the teeny flat land north of Hsinchu? Not to mention all the major companies, better working remunerations are treasured and collected in Taipei. Every time, when it comes to holidays, the north-south bound traffic becomes a mess. The whole of these entire messes are the consequences of the unfair distribution of the resources in the north against southern Taiwan. That's why we see many migratory birds on the streets just before and after the vacations in Taiwan.
  • 何文豪 [Ho Wen-Hao], op-ed (1994)

• The central government has invested all of the money in northern Taiwan, including its technology budget and economic development budget. Everything is in northern Taiwan. Not to mention, all of the policy makers also live in northern Taiwan. In these politicians' visions, southern Taiwan doesn't even exist!
  • Ding-Peng Liung (Professor of business administration in NSYSU), Space (1995), as translated by Wikipedian (2019)

• Southern Taiwanese are leaning forward so-called Taiwan-centered awareness over time. Nonetheless, Taiwan-centered awareness has been labeled politically. If our minds agree to such sentimental values manipulated by the politicians, consumption and customer's behavior would shift to that side. Consequently, people in Taiwan begin passing up the opportunity to engage in relatively advanced customer behavior. Southern Taiwan is indeed intentionally conserving things that are gone obsolescent...... The professed "local-ism" is supposed to move forward as the time elapses. In the present climate, the mind of Taiwanese society begins to wander and be missing in a childish age. If this kind of tendency continues, I think metropolitan areas in northern Taiwan will swiftly be enclosed by backward hamlets.
  • Charles Kao (Taiwanese), Taiwan reverses the progress it made in the past 20-30 years (2004), as translated by Wikipedian (2019)

• Highly-educated researchers are Taiwan's paramount property. We understand that the scientific industrial zone in Hsinchu was run out of capacity. Whereas, we had tried to convince our researchers to relocate to the scientific industrial zone in Tainan in which the capacity never ran out. But we failed. Our researchers just didn't want to move to southern Taiwan. Furthermore, in the past, UMC forced their R & D team to move to Tainan under the same dilemma we face today. Then not for too long, UMC's R & D team broke up. This is why our technology still leads ahead of UMC nowadays. Taken together, we have no choice but to build our new R & D centers on a mountain in Hsinchu.
  • Taiwan Semiconductor, TSMC representative in the environmental impact evaluation conference held in Taiwanese Environmental Protection Administration (June 2019), as translated by Wikipedian (November 2019)

• It is another gray and gloomy reality that many workers' dream openings are only available in northern Taiwan...
  • 高人, Is it hard to see us in Kaohsiung? (1994), as translated by Wikipedian (December 2020)

• I do wish to be working in my hometown but the stark reality is that southern Taiwan's market is just too little in every respect. In Taipei, I work as a marketing manager for a company selling cosmetics, and my monthly salary is almost 50k. In the past, I attempted to find a similar job in Tainan. During the interview, Tainan's employers recognized my experience but they only afforded to pay me 30k a month, which is the salary I received in my first year of career without experience. When they saw me looking astonished, they shrugged their shoulders saying "This is Tainan." I sighed deeply and thought that the recent statistics showed that the Taiwanese average monthly salary was 41k. Although I am above the average, I cannot save a penny when I take into account the expensive housing rental fee, transportation fees, basic social activities expenditures, and meals. Despite working in my hometown Tainan may help cut spending and keep down costs, Tainan's general phenomenon of low payment is devastating my sense of accomplishment at work, which is even worse than working in Taipei.
  • Xiao Lin with master's degree, The difference between Northern Taiwan and Southern Taiwan in remunerations is just like the difference between the heaven and the hell (December 2010), as translated by Wikipedian (December 2020)