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A growing number of Taiwan professionals are choosing to move to the Chinese mainland and act as a bridge for compatriots across the Taiwan Strait, drawing on their strengths to foster mutual understanding and promote Chinese culture.

"I don't want to remain a small fish in a pond," said Hsueh Ying-tung, a Taiwan animation director who moved to the mainland around 2018. "The mainland is like an ocean. I want to swim out to it and experience a broader world."

Although the island's Democratic Progressive Party authorities have been pursuing the severance of cultural ties with the Chinese nation and restricting exchanges and communication across the Taiwan Strait, statistics show that the number of first-time visitors from Taiwan to the mainland has been rising in recent years.

According to the National Immigration Administration, in the second half of last year, the number of first-time visitors from Taiwan to the Chinese mainland increased by 32.9 percent month-on-month and 40.9 percent year-on-year.

Many who have stepped beyond the island's "information cocoon" are working to narrow the communication gap between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. They have also come to realize that such exchanges not only broaden their horizons but also create new opportunities to promote shared Chinese cultural heritage.

Filling gaps in history

Lan Li, who moved to the mainland to study in 2017, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of History at Jinan University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Lan chose the major out of a strong personal interest. However, after beginning her studies on the mainland, she realized there was a great deal of history she had never learned in Taiwan.

Born in 1992, Lan went through the adjustment of high school history textbooks on the island when the "education authorities" separated Taiwan's history from Chinese history.

She said that many historical events were simplified in those textbooks. Take the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), for example, its details, she said, were largely glossed over.

Now a history researcher, Lan is committed to promoting a more comprehensive understanding of Chinese history, including the part of Taiwan.

She likens her role to that of the first group of government-sponsored students from Taiwan who studied at mainland universities in the 1940s. They are also the focus of her research.

After Taiwan's restoration to China in 1945, 92 students sponsored by the Chinese Kuomintang authorities were sent to the mainland to pursue higher education in 1946, Lan said.

"The 50-year forced separation across the Taiwan Strait following the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki left many Taiwan youth who grew up under Japanese colonial rule largely unfamiliar with the motherland," she said.

These young scholars became pioneers of cross-Strait cultural exchange. They introduced conditions in Taiwan to people on the mainland, and during summer breaks returned to the island to give lectures, helping foster a more accurate understanding of the mainland's development, according to Lan.

Today, a trend of "de-Sinicization" is also being promoted on the island by the ruling party. While the narrative is prominent, it may not reflect mainstream public opinion, Lan said. However, she noted that young people who lack the ability to make independent judgments can be easily influenced by such narratives.

Having studied and lived on the mainland for a long time, Lan said she is well-positioned to remain unaffected by the "Taiwan independence" historical narratives. "Young people like me should learn from those earlier sponsored students and serve as a bridge connecting the two sides of the Taiwan Strait," she added.