Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to touch on this - Cantonese is not really mutually intelligible with modern Chinese, that's CCP propaganda. They're big on the idea that there's only one Chinese language, and there are "regional dialects" but...those dialects meet an awful lot of criteria for being a different language. It's very similar to their push to make all Chinese culture and history Han Chinese. The mandarin spoken in Taiwan is 1:1 wit…
I wouldn't say it's quite that bad. The simplified characters are a lot older than the CCP and are often used in handwriting all over the Sinosphere. The traditional characters are still sometimes used in West Taiwan for things like shop signs.
LOL. I was confused and thought you meant the Western part of Taiwan, which made no sense. But I get your joke now: West Taiwan = mainland China.