Ryu2.mind

My dad calls me on my cell phone a couple of weeks ago -- from HongKong.  He's in the airport right now, buying a ticket toShanghai.  What?!  Apparently, he was in Taiwan to tend tosome family matters, and his friend in Hangzhou called him as he wantedto buy a house and have my dad co-sign some papers, so he dropped byShanghai for one night to pay me a rather surprise visit.

What madethis visit unique from his many previous ones to the mainland was thefact that he entered using his Taiwanese documents rather than his USpassport.  Like most post-1965 Chinese/Taiwanese immigrants, my parents are dual US/Taiwancitizens.  (And yes, my dad was one of the thousands that flewback and participated in the soap opera that was the 2004elections.)  It's perfectly legal too: Taiwan allows dual citizenship.  The US itself is delibrately ambiguouson the issue. We got talking, and then he mentioned how it might be agood idea for me to apply as well, since I'd qualify through lineage.

So,if all goes well, I'll have dual citizenship soon, American by birth aswell as Chinese... well, technically speaking, a fellow "Taiwancompatriot" in the eyes of the PRC. ;)  I'll get a ID card, andcan apply for a Taiwan passport (with a special "Overseas Chinese"status) and a "台胞证" (travel document used by Taiwanese in lieu of apassport for entering the mainland, HK, and Macau).

There's just one catch: as a male, I'll have to make sure I don't stay in Taiwan for more than 4 months at a timeuntil I'm over 40 years old, lest I get drafted into the army. =P  Oh well, all the Taiwanese are moving to Shanghai anyways... ;)

Theadvantages are undeniable -- especially in this day and age where theUSA is no longer viewed favorably in much of the world, and where said"much of the world" happens to be where I hold the most interest in visiting. Had I had a second passport, it'd have been much easier for me to, forexample, enter the DPRK.  Going forward, I'll probably continuethe use of my US passport for the "Judeo-Xtian" world as well as the PRC,and start to use a Chinese/Taiwanese passport for... well, just about everythingelse.

Forthe longest time, I was blissfully ignorant myselfabout these little loopholes in immigration law, or of the fact thatmany of my friends have been enjoying these perks themselves. That blue book with the eagle on the cover was enough to get meanywhere I wanted to gowithout applying for a visa, and that was good enough for me.  Butas it turns out, I'll be joining an ever increasing club: indeed the majorityof my friends from Hong Kong or whom have Hong Kong parents have twopassports, for example (apparently there was a big rush to acquire foreign passports amidst the pre-1997 uncertainty).  In elementary and junior high, I had abunch of Jewish classmates and most of them had dual US-Israelicitizenship.  Apparently, as long as you have a single grandparentfrom Ireland, you can claim Irish citizenship.  And so on...

Indeed,something I've been pondering more and more through living as a parttwo cultures and countries is the very nature and meaning ofnationality.  What does being a citizen of a country represent to each person?

Isit just a extra bit of data, like your age, gender, weight, orheight?  Is it something of convenience to shop for, like buying ahouse and seeing whether or not it will be a good "investment"? Is it a covenant of implied loyalty and allegience to a set of sharedvalues and beliefs?  What if others perceive your country to beupholding a different set of values than what you thoughtof it as?  How about when someone is born with citizenship like Iwas, as opposed to choosing to immigrate and become naturalized --would the latter make it more significant because a concious decisionwas involved?  Gray areas galore, depending on the situation onechooses to apply these questions to...

One thing's for sure, inour increasingly global and mobile society, it's fascinating just howmuch more fluid, inclusive and less defined this whole concept isbecoming.  Already, regional bodies like the EU and APEC havestarted to break down these traditional notions by allowing seamlesstravel across borders within their regions, and it's fascinating to seehow this trend continues as time goes on.

In the midst of all this complexity, I'm ultimately thankful that I umambiguously possess a third citizenship as well -- a Kingdom not of this world... ;)