You would think with China beating down their door, Taiwan would arm their entire population
There is a youtube content provider called Brandon Herrera that has a library of cringe-worthy firearm pictures and memes. If these types of home-made goofy guns interest you, check him out. He's pretty funny. He just posted a whole video on a home-made 9mm SMG he made from designs commonly available and published from Europe, called a Luty (named after the designer).
China-Taiwan relations are.....complicated.
This is further complicated when we view the conflict with our "Western Eyes," as doing so often misses the subtleties of tradition, history, and cultural values exert on the systems at-play, of which the Asian term "Face" plays especially into overt interactions that we see on the world stage at-large.
An easier and ironically more transparent way of looking at this tricky interplay is an analogy to the Japanese ideas of the "Private" versus "Public" faces. In the Chinese tradition, we don't mention this divide, yet it is *always* there. In business interactions, for example, two competing companies can publicly appear at-war, and salaried employees literally crossing the street so they don't get in each other's way and perhaps grow the grudge from a simple misunderstanding - yet their executives are drinking together in private rooms at a strip-joint, where the actual business negotiations are occurring.
A fun game you can try the next time you share an elevator with a middle-age-and-up or obviously first-generation Asian immigrant: Time your exit from the elevator to coincide with theirs, thereby eliciting an apology and obvious retreat from both parties. Observe that he/she will insist that you be given the right-of-way to depart, first. Now look back over your shoulder (or simply move out of the way, if you're walking in the same direction) as you exit: look at how fast they are rushing off to their destination.
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But in terms of Taiwan's military and culture of conscription:
Funny related story -
My father served his mandatory conscription in the mid-1960s. At the time, our family was rather wealthy versus the majority of the populace, and he was among few of his age to have an automatic Seiko wristwatch.
So many of his classmates asked him for the time during his time in the service that he eventually just turned his watch around on his wrist, so that he could simply raise his arm and allow his classmate to see the time.
Well into his 40s -my teen- he still wore his wristwatch that way.
