Toilets and chatrooms - the challenges of freedom

Toilets and chatrooms - the challenges of freedom

Sat, Nov 06, 2010 The China Post/Asia News Network

What would Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp say to a group of divers who left a toilet carrying their signatures underwater off Taiwan's Green Island? What would the Chinese government say to Taiwan's Ministry of Education which recently suggested the island's top university harness its online chatroom posts? These two episodes made minor headlines this week in Taiwan media that has otherwise been overwhelmed the upcoming mayoral elections. But they provoke some thoughts about a fundamental value in this country - namely freedom, or the abuse of it. Those recreational divers apparently were not satisfied only with being able to enjoy the natural beauty of the coral reefs around the small island off the eastern coast of Taiwan. They wanted to do some "plastic surgery" - so to speak - to the marine world by creating their piece of installation art, which they reasoned would add fun to diving there. They brought along a new clean toilet, and signed their names on it. They carried it with them on their underwater trip, and left it there among the reefs. They filmed the entire process, and posted the video online. They did enjoy the trip, but their fun sparked the rage of many netizens who condemned their stupid, selfish and polluting act. They have since pulled the video from the Internet, and the authorities are mulling whether they have to be slapped with a fine for their act of pollution. These divers are not the only ones who have left such "we were here" objects around the Green Island. To be fair, underwater installation art is nothing new, though still quite rare. But is the Green Island toilet a work of art? What would be the verdict of Duchamp, who provoked a controversy by submitting a urinal to an art exhibition in 1917? In private, artists may embrace their own definitions of art, but when their works enter the public domain, the general public will have a say. Banksy's graffiti is widely recognized as art although many British people may not think so. But in Taiwan we can see many examples of graffiti that are much closer to vandalism than to art. These graffiti "artists'" messages - if any - fail to convey anything meaningful. They have the freedom to express their thoughts, but they abuse it. Those divers abused such freedom in a similar fashion. Freedom of speech and expression is also the core issue in the case concerning the education ministry's suggestion for National Taiwan University (NTU). After receiving complaints about political postings on a NTU-run social networking site, the ministry suggested the university tighten control to prevent students from being manipulated by politicians. The suggestion has prompted many of the site's users to accuse the ministry of trying to clamp down on the freedom of speech. The ministry has responded by claiming that it simply passed on the complaints to NTU. NTU's response is that it will ask the managers of the site to strictly enforce the house rules and watch out for libelous postings. The ministry may have committed the same kind of mistake that those divers did: they both attempted to force something on others. The divers tried to force others to share their "fun," while the ministry attempted to force its ideology on NTU and its students. Freedom of speech and expression is fundamental in Taiwan although under certain circumstances it has to be harnessed. The NTU students, as well as their counterparts from all other universities, must be allowed to exercise such freedom, as well as making their own judgments, instead of being told what they can say or read. In the divers' case, it is obvious that their "freedom" to have irresponsible fun should be restricted. Let's return to the questions we asked at the beginning of this editorial. The Chinese government would probably tell NTU to down the networking site, or filter out anything political or anti-government. And we are not sure what the French artist would tell the divers. But we suspect that Duchamp would tell the NTU students to speak freely, and not be afraid of expressing themselves or challenging the authorities. -The China Post/ANN