CIAO DATE: 06/2011
Volume: 40, Issue: 1
January 2011
"Whither Taiwanization?" State, Society and Cultural Production in the New Era (PDF)
Yoshihisa Amae, Jens Damm
Introduction to Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 1/2011: “Whither Taiwanization?”
Pro-colonial or Postcolonial? Appropriation of Japanese Colonial Heritage in Present-day Taiwan (PDF)
Yoshihisa Amae
Since the end of World War II, the Kuomintang (KMT) (Guomindang) government has erased all traces of Japanese rule from public space, deeming them “poisonous” to the people in Taiwan. This frenzy, often termed “de-Japanization” or qu Ribenhua in Chinese, included the destruction and alteration of Japanese structures. Yet, with democratization in the 1990s, the Japanese past has been revisited, and many Japa-nese structures have been reconstructed and preserved. This paper examines the social phenomenon of preserving Japanese heritage in present-day Taiwan. It mainly investigates religious/ spiritual architecture, such as Shinto shrines and martial arts halls (Butokuden), war monuments and Japanese statues and busts. A close investigation of these monuments finds that many of them are not restored and preserved in their original form but in a deformed/ transformed one. This finding leads the paper to conclude that the phenomenon is a postcolonial endeavour, rather than being “pro-colonial”, and that the preservation of Japanese heritage contributes to the construction and consolidation of a Taiwan-centric historiography in which Taiwan is imagined as multicultural and hybrid.
Lutgard Lams, Xavier Li-wen Liao
Over the last few decades, Taiwanese society has witnessed processes of localization/ Taiwanization/ de- and re-Sinicization (Sinification), all vying for legitimacy. These trends in the nation-building process are played out on the state as well as the civil society level. It can thus be useful to examine whether societal (de-)localization trends are paralleled in any ideological repositioning of official and/or media discourses after a change in ruling party. The current article investigates an important discursive site in Taiwan’s public space, the presidential discourse of the new Kuomintang (KMT) (Guomindang) era, starting from the inauguration address by President Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Yingjiu) on 20 May 2008.
Taiwan's Ethnicities and their Representation on the Internet (PDF)
Jens Damm
This paper examines various Web applications of the four “officially” recognized ethnicities in Taiwan and aims to identify the links between information and communication technologies (ICTs), ethnic identities and issues related to Taiwanization and its contestation. To give some background, the paper introduces Taiwan’s more recent multiculturalist policies, which should be seen as part of the broader Taiwanization and nation-building project. These multiculturalist/ ethnicity-related policies, directed toward the wider population as well as the specific ethnicities, are presented on the Internet by various government organizations and government-supported organizations. This paper also employs a discursive analysis of popular websites and blogs to examine the roles played by various societal and civic actors (ranging from NGOs to individuals) within Taiwan’s ethnicity discourse.
Generational Change and Ethnicity among 1980s-born Taiwanese (PDF)
Tanguy Le Pesant
This paper aims to show that Taiwanese born in the 1980s constitute a “post-reform” generation whose perception of cultural difference and ethnicity may challenge the efficiency of the “four major ethnic groups” categorization as an analytical framework for research on Taiwanese youth’s identity, political behaviour and social interactions. Using quantitative data from a questionnaire distributed in 15 universities nationwide in 2010 and qualitative data from interviews, this paper first focuses on the attitudes of Taiwanese born in the 1980s toward what are generally considered the three core elements of ethnic group-making in a Chinese socio-cultural context: patrilineality, locality and language. Then it shows that the combined effects of democratization, Taiwanization and contacts with mainland China have decisively impregnated their life experiences and influenced their perceptions of cultural difference. Consequently, the different aspects/ factors that contributed to the formation and the deepening of ethnic boundaries and ethnic conflict up until the 1990s are not effective anymore, nor are they significant for Taiwanese in their twenties. This process is transforming ethnicity rather than erasing it. Thus “having an ethnic identity” is still considered important by a majority, but its meaning and salience have changed, leading to the necessity to redefine, a process that could be undertaken using the concept of “symbolic ethnicity”.
Yin C. Chuang
This paper explores the popular concept of the relationship between Taiwan and China as a feminine/ masculine dichotomy which has been constructed within Taiwan’s national imagination. First, I will focus on how this dichotomy has been created within the process of identity-shifting in Taiwan since the 1990s as manifested in Taiwanese pop songs. Second, I will demonstrate how it has been appropriated within the process of nation-building. Two primary questions will be addressed: How is the national imagination of Taiwan in Taiwanese pop songs constructed through maternal and feminine images? How is the matrilineal genealogy in Taiwanese pop songs appropriated by the opposition camp, namely the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), to mobilize voters? I will investigate, from a cultural studies perspective, how cultural imagination has come to serve as the vehicle to formulate resistance, mobilize voters, gain power and, most importantly, reconstruct Taiwanese nationalism within Taiwan’s political limbo for decades. Furthermore, Margaret Somers’ discussion (1993, 1994, 1995a, 1995b, 1995c; Somers and Gibson 1994) of narrative identity is adopted as the framework for this paper in order to look at how identities are constructed within and across multiple realms. My research methods consist of conducting in-depth interviews and analysing texts.
Class Formation and Consumption among Middle-Class Professionals in Shenzhen (PDF)
Jacqueline Elfick
This paper explores the role of consumption in defining Chinese middle-class identity by examining the consumption practices of urban professionals. It is widely agreed that China has a thriving middle class. The exact definition of this middle class, however, is disputed by scholars and the Chinese popular press. Debates about class are also manifest in the daily lives of urban professionals. One of the most interesting areas in which identity is contested is that of consumption. The research is based on 60 in-depth interviews among professionals conducted in Shenzhen in the period 2004-2010. New wealth means that the myriad of goods on offer is accessible to large sections of the urban population. Professionals have become keen and selective shoppers. Many describe their consumption practices as informed by their own highly individualistic taste. This paper argues that professional consumption practices sometimes express individual taste but, more importantly, serve to articulate a collective social identity.