Corn Laws
Taiwan, like many Asian countries, is seemingly obsessed with English. Originally I wasn’t going to bother commenting on the often ridiculous English usages here, as it is so oft commented upon by others, I’m rather bored of it as a topic of conversation. However I am still entertained when I see a particularly good misusage, and I do let it affect my purchasing decisions (my newest notebook cover reads: A popular bear boy bear lives with his many friends in an old toy shop in fairyland. Most advanced quality give best writing features). Recently I’ve noticed a number of fake university shirts around town. The other day I saw a C.O.U. (or Canadian Ontario University, which most certainly does not exist) sweat shirt. My personal favorite and the one that convinced me to comment, was a Corn Laws University shirt. I assume it is meant to look like the sort of shirt a law grad would wear. Upon sighting it, I wondered whether or not the designer was familiar with the historical importance of the British Corn Laws and their abolition in 1846 which her shirt, knowingly or not, references
Interestingly, the repeal of the Corn Laws symbolically marks the beginning of the free-market system which Taiwan would later use (along with copious American assistance) to such profit. As that shirt and others like it are emblematic of the global reach of English, which goes hand-in-hand with the free market capitalism exported by the British Empire and later the USA. It seems only fitting to have a tribute to the early days of that free market movement on shirts worn by the youths whose lives are so impacted by it. And while the wearer was likely ignorant of the statement made by his shirt, he was proclaiming by both his usage of English and tribute to the Corn Laws that the movement towards freer transit of goods, culture, people, and ideas begun in Europe in the 19th Century is alive and well in the Taiwan of the 21st.