【明報專訊】Netizens

Some mainland netizens maintain that the Republic of China ceased to exist when the Kuomintang was defeated in the Chinese civil war, and that any display of the "Blue Sky" flag hurts their feelings. A netizen from Fujian (福建) created a Weibo (微博) group demanding that Chang "retire from show business". As of November 17 the group had more than 5,000 supporters. A netizen hinted that, Taiwan being part of China, displaying the "Blue Sky" flag would cause Chinese people to lose face in front of foreigners.

Taiwanese netizens, however, are hugely supportive of Chang, regarding her as Taiwan's "heroine". But there are people who think the "Blue Sky" flag is a thing of the past and a new flag should be adopted to make it clear that Taiwan is no longer a part of China.

Governments across Taiwan Strait

Taiwan Premier Jiang Yi-huah (台灣行政院院長江宜樺) says that he "regrets" the controversy, adding that mainland people do not understand Taiwan enough.

In mainland China, the Taiwan Affairs Office (國台辦) comments that the controversy should not have arisen in the first place.

Deserts Chang

After the incident Deserts Chang wrote on her facebook page that while she is eager to listen to people of different views, things like the "Blue Sky" flag, pineapple cakes (鳳梨酥) and Traditional Chinese characters (繁體字) have the same meaning to her. They all represent the place she comes from.

Commentators

Some commentators have pointed out Taiwanese people's growing realisation that they are different from Chinese mainlanders. In commenting on the incident, Tanguy Le Pesant, a sociologist at National Central University (台灣國立中央大學), expressed the view that Taiwanese identity has grown continuously over the past 20 years and, to many Taiwanese people, the word "Chinese" only means "a sense of belonging to the Chinese civilisation".

An Yu (安裕), a Ming Pao writer, holds similar views, saying many Taiwanese people have started to call the territory ruled by the Chinese Communist Party "China" instead "mainland China". This shows that Taiwanese people now regard the mainland as "another country", he says.