Culture of Tauland

Tauland her culture is a blend of Han Chinese, Dutch, and Austronesian Taiwanese cultures. Despite the overwhelming Sino-Dutch influence, Japanese and Korean cultures have influenced Tauuan culture as well. It is a diverse culture with free-spirited people yet very strong family values and a prominent de facto social hierarchy.

The culture has a lot of influences from Han Chinese culture with it being said those beliefs and values served as the foundation from which Tauland's culture as we know it today was developed. While many experts still disagree on how Han influences compare to Dutch influences, it is generally agreed upon that the Han have been dominant for centuries.

The people of Tauland are known to be great explorers and merchants that have gained a reputation for their openness, mobility while at the same time being a highly structured and conformist society with strict cultural expectations on both males and females. They export their culture abroad in the form of the very popular T-pop (Tauuan pop) which has made its core values quite well known across the world.

Language

The Tau language, often called Taues or Formosaans, is a West Germanic-based creole language with heavy Southern Min influences. It is only 20-45% mutually intelligible with Dutch, Amerikaans, and Afrikaans due to its geographic location and cultural heterogeneity.

Standardization

Today, Tau has been standardized, being given its own Latin-based script. Tau is spoken by all levels of society. However, the legal system uses the more formal and antiquated Deftpraat language. Deftpraat, more similar to the formal Hollandish dialect, is the main formal register of Tauland and is understood by the middle and upper classes.

Vocabulary

It is estimated that around 62% of Tau vocabulary is of Germanic and Latin origin, with 28% being of Sinitic origin. The remaining 10% consists of Corean, Japanese, Tagalog, Malay, and Viet words.

Colloquial language

In a casual setting, the colloquial Tau is spoken. It reflects the informality of the Amerikaens language, in contrast to the rigidity of Deftpraat and Continental Dutch.

Ethnicity

Taulanders, also known as Tau or Tauuans, refer to the ethnocultural group that has formed through centuries of intermarriage and cultural exchange between the Dutch, Han Chinese, and some Corean and Japanese settlers. Taulanders have seen themselves as distinct since the 1750s. Dutch sailors often married Han Chinese, Austronesian, and Corean women. This eventually led to ethnogenesis and the formation of the modern Tauuan ethnicity.

From a physical perspective, the Tauuan people are a mix of European (Caucasoid), Han/Altaic (Mongoloid), and Aboriginal (Australoid) in different proportions. Many describe them as simply 'Eurasian' in appearance. They may have blonde, black, brown, or even red hair. While most have black and brown eyes, a significant part of the population has green and blue eyes.

Tauland's beauty standards are Eurocentric, with a strong emphasis on desirable European features as a consequence of years of Dutch colonization. Pale skin is also seen as sublime due to the influence of the Dutch, Coreans, and the Japanese.

Religion

The prevalent form of religious belief in Tauland is a blend of Buddhism, Taoism, and Dutch Calvinism which have morphed over time into what Westerners simply called the Tau Church. On the surface, the Church adheres to mainstream Christianity, while in reality it is syncretic, including Calvinistic, Buddhist, Taoist, and folk beliefs.

Apart from the syncretic form of traditional Chinese folk religion, Humanistic Buddhism is the major distinguishing trait of modern Tauland Buddhism. Humanistic Buddhism traces its roots to the modernist Chinese monk Taihsu (1890–1947), who promoted more direct contributions to society through the Buddhist community. He was a significant influence on Yin Shun, who is generally considered to be the key figure who brought Humanistic Buddhism to Tauland.

While a majority of Tauland accepts a secular public sphere, it was found that around 90% of Tauuans believe in a higher power according to a 2019 survey. Despite secularism, traits of Dutch Calvinism, Confucianism, and Taoism are seen in everyday behavior - from the work ethic, to the outlook on the world, to immense social expectations.

The Arts & Media

Tauland has a thriving entertainment industry where various facets of Tauland entertainment, including television dramas, films, and popular music, has generated significant financial revenues for the nation's economy.

The cultural phenomenon, known as De Golf (lit. Tauland Wave), has swept many countries across Asia, making Tauland a major soft power through culture and entertainment. Their exports rival those of advanced countries such as the Netherlands, Nieuw Nederland, Mexico, and China. Tauland's soap operas have become popular in China and Corea.

Tauland, due to her Eurasian influences, had always had traditional music that was a mix between the West and East. Genres such as Levensliederen, trot, and aboriginal music are among the most popular ones. The emergence of the Tauland pop group De drie Gasten in the 1980s marked a turning point in Tauland popular music (T-pop). The genre modernized itself by incorporating elements of popular musical genres from across the world, making it appeal to a wide audience.

Western-style pop, hip hop, rhythm and blues, rock, folk, and electronic music have become dominant in the modern Tauland popular music scene. Traditional music is still enjoyed. T-pop stars and groups are well known across Asia and have found international fame, generating a lot of money for Tauland's economy. Many T-pop acts have also been able to secure a strong overseas following using online social media platforms. These groups often have dedicated fan bases across the world and political spectrums, it is often noted that many of these fans are not able to understand a majority of what is being sung.

Since the success of the film Rode Draak in 1989, the Tauland film industry has begun to gain recognition internationally. Always having had a strong fascination with cinema the Tauland film industry is deeply rooted and highly developed, this translated into many high-quality domestic films that still hold a majority of the domestic market.

Holidays

Due to the variety of cultural influences, mainly from Dutch and Han cultures, Tauland observes various cross-cultural holidays as well as its own unique holidays. Several mainstream holidays in the Netherlands or China have been suited to Tauuan culture. Tauland adheres to the Gregorian calendar rather than the Chinese lunisolar calendar.

The major official holidays within Tauland are as follows:

• New Years: 1 day (1 January)
• Chinese New Year: 3 days (begins 12th of February)
• Spring Festival: 3 days (1st, 2nd, and 3rd days of 1st Lunisolar month)
• Republic Commemoration Day: 1 day
• Easter: 2 days (just like in the Netherlands)
• Christmas: 2 days (25th and 26th of December, combines Chinese Christian and Dutch Christian cultural elements)
• 30th of December

Lifestyle

Spatial management

Tauland is densely populated and needs to protect their land from natural events. This has led to a rational and collective approach to spatial planning, and particularly to water management. This has been a direct consequence of its Dutch routes through its history. Tauland has seen its rivers deepened and widened to allow more water to flow through it and make it more economic for its use.

In urban planning, this is seen in:

• The retention in some cities retain the public ownership of most land through the ground rent (erfpacht) system, which facilitates comprehensive development and socializes increases in land prices;
• the widespread provision of social housing through housing associations, mixed with private ownership;
• rational mobility, including a dense railway network and, since the 1970s, the world’s best cycling infrastructure. Almost everybody cycles as a matter of course, and cycling has a modal share of 27% of all trips (urban and rural) nationwide.

Taulanders often minimize the ostentatious display of status and wealth differences. They accept the need to follow rules but they combine this with a tolerance of diversity and respect for privacy.

Sports

Sport is considered a national pastime in Tauland, and about half of the adult population actively takes part in sports activities. The most important all-embracing organizations for sports in Tauland is the Tauland Sports Confederation. In total over 8 million people (about 38% of the total population) are members of a sports club.

The most popular sports are martial arts, climbing, football, tennis, athletics, field hockey, running, and equestrianism to name a few. A key part of the Tauland sport culture and their general active physical fitness comes in the mandated twice a week gym classes that are in all schools from lower to higher education. The main goal of this is to promote physical fitness and promote sports to keep the population healthier, happier, and fitter.

Since the 1980s there has been a sharp increase in the number of gyms within the country. Due to social pressure and a rigid beauty standard, activities such as cardio, CrossFit, and weight training have become quite popular in the county.

Family

Tauland family structure is based upon both Dutch and Chinese influences, this comes from the fact that many early marriages were between Dutch males (often sailors) and Chinese or Austronesian females. These two influences often over the generations morphed into a strong family structure that has things in common with the Dutch kinship and Chinese kinship systems.

In the modern-day, the Tauland family or Gezyn as it is called typically consists of a father, a mother, and three children, though some families have four. The extended family is considered to be within two degrees of consanguinity. The parent’s role is to take care of the children and provide stability and encourage them in regard to academic pursuits and to achieve what is expected of them by their family be it academic, art, financial or in some cases personal goals. This great pressure upon children to conform to social norms has somewhat changed as social norms have changed but the basic pressure is still there albeit in a different less direct form.

What is considered family in Tauland is quite smaller in regards to numbers than on the mainland. Within the family structure, a family might consist of grandparents, their children, and their children, yet beyond that, there is no real connection to other blood relatives outside of the grandparents having contact with their brothers or sisters. While related by blood, it is often the case that a family name might be prevalent and connected by blood but those members not feeling any affiliation to their distant relatives.