"I'm from Taiwan"

I kind of feel like a stupid American right now. For the past few years of working up in Alaska, a large amount of Taiwanese come on cruises and visit the beautiful fjords of the Inside Passage. Also, a large amount of other nationalities. When us bus drivers are loading our passengers in the mornings, we have to check passports since we go into Canada for our trips typically. No big deal.

Here's why I feel like a stupid American. On more than one occasion, I would look at somebody's passport and it would say "Republic of China" on the passport. Politely, I would acknowledge that they were "Chinese" and mark it down on my paper. To which, many times I would here the retort (once forcefully), "I'm from Taiwan." In my ignorance, I really didn't understand and all I cared about was that the passport said China.

As I've been studying Chinese history in-depth for the past month, I feel like a complete dolt now. China has a rocky enough history as it is, full of death, revolution, and tragedy. I, being an American, who barely even knew what the Taiping Rebellion (20 million deaths), Boxer Rebellion (22 million deaths), or Great Leap Forward (20-43 million deaths, guess they lost count) was before this month, had no clue the severity of the difference between Taiwan and China. By the way, the mass deaths in china that I just mentioned: 1) Occurred within the last 150 years and 2) isn't even all of the deaths. Let's talk about WWI, the Sino-Japanese War, WWII, the Cultural Revolution, etc. Jeez...

To put it simply, ever read about Mao Zedong and the Communist Revolution of China, circa 1949. Yeah, not a pretty thing and before that happened, China was: the Republic of China. Now, it is the People's Republic of China, this occurring after the Chinese Civil War (hello!). And the losers of that war, now known as the "Republic of China" are all living in what we know as Taiwan. So, um... yeah... I have to wonder what those poor Taiwanese people must of thought of me on my bus. "Stupid American."