“When fiction is treated as real, what is real becomes fiction.”
— Dream of Red Chamber
We often forget the fact that a country is just a concept, something we imagine. The borders we draw, the laws we enact, the money we use, the taxes we pay with the money we use, and the government where our tax dollars go, are all products of our imagination. As residents on the island of Taiwan, we can attest to this.
We follow the laws of a country that Chinese Communists consider to be a government that ceased to exist in 1949. We pay our taxes to a democratically elected government not officially recognized by most other democratically elected world leaders.
We choose to incorporate the name Taiwan into our brand, not as a tribute to its birthplace, but to remind people the reality we are living in. A reality governed not by the laws of physics and biology, but by stories and ideas. The situation with Taiwan is a clear example of such reality.
How do we deal with this reality of make-believe? A fantasy world where storytellers and idea sellers reign supreme.
The word Rebel in the name comes from a quote by Albert Camus:
“The only way to deal with a world without freedom is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
“Le seul moyen d'affronter un monde sans liberté est de devenir si absolument libre qu'on fasse de sa propre existence un acte de révolte.”
We imagine and believe in things that do not exist in the physical world; therefore, it is important to know we imagine and believe in things that do not exist in the physical world.
To see reality for what it is, is to be free from what we are not. This sums up the essence of the name Taiwan Rebel.
