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I'm 28 years old, I'm from social sciences. I studied education policies and political science previously, although currently, because of the war, most of my efforts, of course, are focused on supporting Ukraine and the Ukrainian people through small and big projects. I am active in the movement called "Taiwan Stands with Ukraine." In Mandarin, I believe it's called "台灣烏克蘭陣線", which is a movement of Ukrainians, and non-Ukrainians, and Taiwanese who do organized various events in support of Ukraine. And I'm also a co-founder of "烏克蘭之聲"(Ukranian Voices) along with Mariana.
People think I'm Taiwanese or "華人" so I have to say that, no, I am KoreanUkrainian. There is a term "高麗人" or "高麗裔烏克蘭人" you know, like "高麗菜".
It's Korean people who lived in the former Soviet Union. And they happened to be there because of a deportation. It was a forceful deportation when Stalin, the Soviet dictator, took 172,000 Korean people, put them in the train, and transported them all. And they didn't have a choice. They couldn't say, "I don't want to go." They just had to go, and all their houses were taken away. So that's how my family happened to be in the place where I was born, in Uzbekistan. And then, in 1990s, my family moved to Ukraine. So I grew up in Ukraine in a very diverse family. We're Korean, but we have some Uzbek culture and, of course, a local Ukrainian culture. And then, somehow, 28 years after that, I ended up in Taiwan.
And through these various projects, what we do is we try to promote the Ukrainian narratives. Because, you know, before this full-scale invasion, Taiwanese people didn't know much about Ukraine. It was a very basic understanding. And so when this all started happening, many people had misconceptions or misunderstandings, and we, as Ukrainians living in Taiwan, we thought that it's our duty to help and fix those and communicate with the Taiwanese people and tell them that some things were misunderstood. This war is often perceived as a conflict between two nations that were previously, as they say, "brotherly" nations,"兄弟", right, which they were never, and was never the case.
Russia has been the colonizer for Ukraine. They've been the imperial power that killed people over 300 years. It didn't last for one year and didn't last since occupation of Crimea in 2014. It's been going on for centuries. And that's something that we tried to make people understand. And of course, a very important part in this is increasing the bilateral understanding to also help Ukrainian people better understand Taiwan. I think it's also a part of being a Ukrainian who lives in Taiwan. We want our countries to see each other.
I used to be a researcher. I researched Taiwan's, yeah, I researched Taiwan's Indigenous Language Education Policy (原住民族語教育政策). Yeah, I didn't have to speak ever, never. Before this war, I never talked to journalists, I think, never talked to artists.
I understand why there might be that sentiment, because right now the war that we have is a big war, right? It's not just an information war, it's not just cultural war. It's everything and there's a lot of weapon happening, and people dying a lot, and there's tanks, and shooting, and all that. And some people might feel like their help is not enough or not relevant, especially when so much hard power is involved, people who are from soft power fields might feel helpless, right? And people of art perhaps might feel like they cannot do as much, because they cannot give weapons, they cannot, you know, send huge amounts of money, they cannot go and fight. Which I believe is not the case at all, because if you see the Ukrainian society this year and the Ukrainian society since 2014's revolution, Ukrainian society is mobilized very quickly, and everyone is valuable, and everyone's contribution is valuable. It's artists, it's teachers, it's musicians, it's people who write poems, people who create whatever craft, people who promote Ukrainian clothes, people who promote Ukrainian businesses. These people's help is as relevant as soldiers who are fighting in the war or volunteers who are bringing humanitarian aid.
A very important component of this war is that it's also a genocide against Ukraine. And genocide that includes not just physical killing, it includes the destruction of Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian language, and the fight against the very notion of being Ukrainian. When Russians say that they want to denazify Ukraine, what they mean is they want to destroy the idea of Ukrainian person and Ukrainian nation, and they want to instill in us that we are little Russians. That's why, when they are trying to destroy Ukrainian culture, when they are burning Ukrainian books, they are burning Ukrainian traditional clothes, they are prohibiting Ukrainian language, we have to manifest that through any possible channel. We have to go out there.
We have to go out there, we have to write poems, write novels in Ukrainian, we have to translate Taiwanese literature into Ukrainian, we have to translate Ukrainian literature into Mandarin or other languages of Taiwan, we have to go out there and bring art in all its forms, music in all its forms that celebrates Ukrainian culture and celebrates Ukrainian language because those are being forced to disappear right now. That is a very important part of this fighting. So what we do here is, it might feel like we're helpless sometimes. And I'm pretty sure many Ukrainians felt this. Those who live outside of Ukraine, sort of a guilt, you know? I'm not in Ukraine right now, I cannot go and fight, I cannot support people right there. And I feel like I'm not useful enough. But with time, we realize that, first of all, by just surviving, by just living, we are already fighting Russia. By not giving in, by going out there, talking to Taiwanese people and saying they are killing us. Help us. That is already a big part of it. Every small project that Ukrainians undertake here in Taiwan or in other countries of the world is very important.
You know, sometimes it's protests, which is very important to deliver our messages to the media, to the public. Sometimes it's just cultural events, like organizing a small concert for Ukraine. It might not even raise that much money, but by the fact that we celebrate Ukrainian music, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian culture, will already help Ukraine resist this war. That is something that I've come to realize, and I hope all Ukrainians realize that doing something is always better than doing nothing. And by that I don't say that every Ukrainian has to do at least something. No, if you run from war, if you just come to Taiwan as a student, and you feel like you need to be in a safe space, just live your life, and you're already resisting Russia's genocide by just living.
Well, I am from southern Ukraine, which is very special but of course every Ukrainian would say that their place is special. It's special because there's a lot of agriculture. There's a lot of farming. There's no mountains at all. It's just flat and you know kilometers after kilometers of fields and there's sea, the Black Sea and there's the Azov Sea, there's beaches and there's a desert, and there's what we call a steppe.
Steppe is a very Ukrainian thing I feel like, it's just vast territories of flatlands that are very fertile and you can grow virtually anything there and my province is known for watermelons. It's the watermelon province of Ukraine. It's even a registered trademark if you say Kherson watermelons. No watermelons from other parts of Ukraine can claim that name of that province.
Gardens and food and fields played a very important part of my life. I'm obviously from a small village. You have maybe 10 streets aligned next to each other and then you go out there and there's just fields and fields and fields and sometimes when the sunflowers blossom or wheat fields, you know. You see this picture of a blue sky and yellow field which is pretty much like the Ukrainian flag. That's the typical picture of my childhood. I didn't know a city before I was maybe a teenager. It was all about village. And it's very small and everyone says hi to each other. In the city they don't, but in the village even if you don't know that person very well you still say hi, because if it's just one to two thousand people living there, you just say hi. And, yeah, a lot to do with garden and vegetables and fruits, always fresh food on the table, even in winter you still have greenhouses where you grow stuff, you have your own milk, you have your own eggs, right, you have your chickens there. And it has to do a lot with food, of course. Perhaps part of that is our Korean culture at home, because it's very food-centric. Food plays a very important part in it. And sharing food with each other as a community also.
I don't think I had a specific ideology when I was a teenager and I started studying politics. Perhaps I just thought that it would be the most interesting thing to study. I didn't have any particular talent towards technical or, you know, nature science, natural sciences. And it was just interesting to see how the world works. People think that, many people think that politics is something that, you know, politicians do, which is not true. Our life is politics. Everything is politics. What you do at home in your bed is politics, because your government can say what not to do and what to do. And in some countries, you know, that can lead towards grief consequences, even your personal life. Language is Politics, language is heavily politics, I think language is everything in our lives. I did my bachelor's research about language policy, I did my master's research about language policy, and I think that language is everything, but it's politics.
Grew up in a certain environment at home, and then certain different environment outside of home, and I started kind of rediscovering Korean language when I was in high school because my parents don't speak Korean, they cannot write Korean. And then I ended up learning a bunch of other languages. And then I volunteered with Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon for several months. And I studied Arabic and I studied Spanish. And then I ended up in Taiwan. And I loved Taiwan for the linguistic diversity, you know, you hear "Tai yu" (Taiwanese 台語), you hear "Kejiawen" (Hakka 客家話) you hear indigenous people. Well, you don't hear indigenous languages as much. I think you would meet a lot of Ukrainian people. You wouldn't know they are originally Russian speakers, I mean, when they were born. But they might tell you that, yes, they made this deliberate choice to start speaking Ukrainian now, and it's a statement, and it's a state of mind, but it's also a political statement, and it's a tool to fight in this war.
我 28 歲，來自社會科學領域。我以前學習過教育政策和政治科學，但目前由於戰爭，我的大部分精力當然都集中在透過大小計畫支持烏克蘭及其人民。我積極參與一個名為「 Taiwan Stands with Ukraine」的運動，中文叫做「台灣烏克蘭陣線」，這是一個由烏克蘭人、非烏克蘭人和台灣人組成的運動，他們舉辦各種支持烏克蘭的活動。我也是「烏克蘭之聲」的聯合創始人之一，與瑪驪雅蒳（Mariana）一起創立。
人們認為我是台灣人或「華人」，所以我必須說，我是韓裔烏克蘭人。有一個說法是「高麗人」或「高麗裔烏克蘭人」，你知道，就像「高麗菜」 的高麗。這是指那些生活在前蘇聯時期的韓國人。他們之所以會在那裡，是因為一次強制遷徙。那是蘇聯獨裁者史達林將 17.2 萬韓國人強行遷徙，把他們放上火車運走，他們沒有選擇的餘地，無法說「我不想去」，他們只能去，所有的房子都被沒收。這就是我家人如何來到我出生的地方――烏茲別克。然後，在 1990 年代，我的家人搬到了烏克蘭。所以我在烏克蘭的一個非常多元化的家庭中長大。我們是韓國人，但我們有一些烏茲別克文化，當然還有當地的烏克蘭文化。然後，不知怎的， 28 年後，我來到了台灣。
通過這些不同的計畫，我們試圖推廣烏克蘭的敘事。因為在這次全面入侵之前，台灣人對烏克蘭的了解非常有限， 理解非常基礎。所以當這一切開始發生時，許多人有一些誤解，我們作為住在台灣的烏克蘭人，認為這是我們的責任，幫助說明並與台灣人溝通，告訴他們某些事情被誤解了。這場戰爭常被認為是兩個先前所謂的「兄弟」國家之間的衝突，但事實並非如此，從來不是這樣的情況。
俄羅斯一直是烏克蘭的殖民者。他們是 300 多年來一直在殺人的帝國勢力。這不是持續了一年，也不是從 2014 年佔領克里米亞開始的。這已經持續了幾個世紀。這是我們試圖讓人們理解的事情。當然，這其中非常重要的一部分是增進雙邊了解，幫助烏克蘭人民更好地了解台灣。我認為這也是作為住在台灣的烏克蘭人的一部分。我們希望我們的國家能彼此了解。
我曾經是個研究員。我研究過台灣，對，我研究過台灣的原住民教育文化政策。是的，我以前從來不必公開談話。在這次戰爭之前，我從未與記者交談過，也從未與藝術家交談過。
我理解為什麼會有這種情緒，因為現在我們所面對的戰爭是一場大戰爭，對吧？這不僅僅是一場資訊戰，也不僅僅是文化戰，而是各種形式的戰爭，有大量的武器參與，有很多人喪生，有坦克、射擊，種種情況都有。有些人可能覺得他們的幫助不夠或者不夠相關，特別是當如此多的硬實力參與其中時，軟實力領域的人可能會感到無助。藝術家也許會覺得他們做不了太多，因為他們無法提供武器，無法寄送大筆金錢，無法去參戰。但我相信這並不是事實，因為如果你觀察今年和 2014 年革命以來的烏克蘭社會，你會發現烏克蘭社會非常迅速地動員起來，每個人都是有價值的， 每個人的貢獻都是有價值的。包括藝術家、老師、音樂家、詩人、手工藝者、推廣烏克蘭服飾的人、推廣烏克蘭企業的人等，這些人的幫助和參與戰爭的士兵或者帶來人道援助的志工一樣重要。
這場戰爭的一個非常重要的部分是對烏克蘭的種族滅絕。這種種族滅絕不僅僅包括身體上的殺戮，還包括對烏克蘭文化、烏克蘭語言的摧毀，以及對烏克蘭人身分的打壓。當俄羅斯人說他們要對烏克蘭進行去納粹化時，他們的意思是他們要消滅烏克蘭人和烏克蘭民族的概念，他們想灌輸給我們的是――我們是俄羅斯人的一部分。這就是為什麼，當他們試圖摧毀烏克蘭文化、燒毀烏克蘭書籍、禁止烏克蘭語言時，我們必須通過任何可能的渠道來表達這一點。我們必須走出去。我們必須去寫詩、寫小說、用烏克蘭語言，我們必須將台灣的文學翻譯成烏克蘭語言，我們必須將烏克蘭的文學翻譯成中文或台灣其他語言，我們必須走出去，帶來各種形式的藝術、音樂，來慶祝烏克蘭文化和烏克蘭語言，因為這些正在被迫消失。這是這場戰爭的一個非常重要的部分。因此，我們在這裡所做的事情，有時可能會讓我們感到無助。我很確定許多烏克蘭人都有這種感覺。那些生活在烏克蘭以外的人，可能會有種罪惡感， 你知道嗎？我現在不在烏克蘭，我不能去參戰，我不能在那裡支援人們， 我覺得我不夠有用。但隨著時間的推移，我們意識到，首先，僅僅是通過生存，通過不屈服，通過走出去與台灣人交談，告訴他們， 他們在殺害我們，幫助我們，這已經是其中的一部分。烏克蘭人在台灣或世界其他國家進行的每個小計劃都非常重要。
你知道，有時候是抗議活動，這對向媒體、公眾傳達我們的訊息非常重要。有時候僅僅是文化活動，比如為烏克蘭組織一個小型音樂會。它可能甚至不會籌集太多資金，但通過慶祝烏克蘭音樂、烏克蘭語言、烏克蘭文化，我們已經在幫助烏克蘭抵抗這場戰爭，這是我領悟到的一點。 我希望所有的烏克蘭人都意識到，做些什麼總比什麼都不做好。我不是說每個烏克蘭人都必須至少做些什麼。如果你逃離戰爭，如果你只是作為一名來台灣的學生，並且覺得需要一個安全的空間，那就過好你的生活，你已經通過生存在抵抗俄羅斯的種族滅絕。
嗯，我來自烏克蘭南部，那是一個非常特別的地方，但當然每個烏克蘭人都會說自己的地方很特別。它特別在於有大量的農業活動，有很多農場。這裡沒有山，只有平坦的地勢，一望無際的田野。這裡有海，黑海和亞速海，有海灘和沙漠，還有我們稱之為草原的地方。
草原是烏克蘭非常特殊的景色， 那裡有廣袤的平原， 非常肥沃， 你幾乎可以在那裡種植任何東西，我的省份以西瓜而聞名， 被稱為烏克蘭的西瓜之省。 如果你提到赫爾松西瓜，這是一個註冊商標，其他地方的西瓜都無法使用這個省份的名字。
花園、食物和田野在我的生活中扮演了非常重要的角色。 顯然的， 我來自一個小村莊，也許有十條街道排列在一起，然後你走出去，眼前就是一望無際的田野。有時候當向日葵盛開或小麥田一片金黃時，你會看到這幅藍天黃田的畫面，這基本上就像烏克蘭的國旗。這是我童年時的典型畫面。在我青少年時期之前幾乎不太知道城市的生活，全都是關於村莊的生活。村莊很小，每個人都互相打招呼。在城市裡不會這樣，但在村莊裡，即使你不太認識那個人，你還是會打招呼。因為那裡只有一、二千人居住，你就是會打招呼。對，這裡的一切都和花園、蔬菜和水果有關，餐桌上總是有新鮮的食物，即使在冬天，你仍然有溫室裡種植的東西，你有自己的牛奶，你有自己的雞蛋，你有自己的雞。這當然與食物有很大關係。也許這部分與我們家中的韓國文化有關，因為它非常以食物為中心。食物在其中扮演了非常重要的角色。作為一個社區，彼此分享食物也很重要。
我想我在青少年時期開始學習政治時並沒有特定的意識形態。也許我只是覺得這是最有趣的學習科目。我對技術或自然科學並沒有特別的天賦。看到世界如何運作是很有趣的。很多人認為政治是政治家在做的事情，這是不對的。我們的生活就是政治。一切都是政治。你在家裡床上做的事情也是政治，因為你的政府可以決定你可以做什麼和不能做什麼。在某些國家，即使是你的個人生活，也可能會導致嚴重的後果。語言是政治，語言非常政治化，我認為語言是我們生活中的一切。我在大學時研究語言政策，碩士也研究語言政策，我認為語言是一切，但它也是政治。
我在某種環境中長大，在家裡是一種環境，在外面又是另一種環境。我在高中時開始重新學習韓語，因為我的父母不會說韓語，他們也不會寫韓語。然後我學了很多其他的語言。 後來，我在黎巴嫩為巴勒斯坦和敘利亞難民做了幾個月的志工。我學習了阿拉伯語和西班牙語，最後我來到了台灣。我喜愛台灣的語言多樣性，你知道，你會聽到台語，聽到客家話，聽到原住民的語言。嗯，你不太會常聽到原住民的語言。我想你會遇到很多烏克蘭人，你不會知道他們原本是說俄語的，我的意思是說，當他們出生時就開始學說俄語， 但他們可能會告訴你，他們現在特意選擇開始說烏克蘭語，這是一種聲明，也是一種心態，但這也是一種政治聲明，是一種在這場戰爭中戰鬥的工具。
