"Dancing Bears" by Witold Szabłowski

The title "Dancing Bears" immediately reminded me of North Korea, a country famous for its bear performances. The book uses the last dancing bears in the European Union as a metaphor for people who moved from former communist countries into a free, democratic system: freedom may look like a universal value, but nobody (no bear) knows how to exercise this natural right without learning it.

The ban on bear performances reminded me that as a child I also often went to see the dolphin and sea lion shows at Ocean Park in Hong Kong. I just found out that, because of protests by animal-rights activists, the show was cancelled in 2020, and it makes me a little sad. Children today will never see a sea lion clap its flippers or a dolphin knock a ball with its nose... If we carry this thought further, shouldn't we then ban horse riding too? And aren't various pet competitions inappropriate as well?

I got a little sidetracked. These were just my associations with the title and have nothing to do with the content of the book. "For bears, the shock of freedom is so strong that after being released from the cage they cannot simply be let straight into the forest. They need several days to get used to it.

Freedom is a new challenge.

New sounds.

New smells.

New food.

Freedom is a great adventure."

And isn't it the same for people who taste "freedom and democracy" for the first time? After eight years of living in Czechia, I have an ever stronger feeling that democratic education in Taiwan is clearly inadequate. Under such circumstances, how are Taiwanese people supposed to know how to use the power they hold in their hands properly?

If you're interested, you can borrow the book from the Prague Traditional Chinese Library. Look at Poland and reflect on ourselves: how can we achieve real "democracy and freedom"!