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Epilogue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2020

Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang
Affiliation:
University of Missouri, Columbia
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Summary

The Epilogue summarizes the main findings of the book. It discusses mainlander identity formation in democratized Taiwan in conjunction with contemporary social survey data and the historical trajectory delineated in the preceding chapters. The discussion offers an alternative way to contemplate the current and future relationship between Taiwan and China from the perspective of conflicting historical memories. The Epilogue also reveals the author’s personal background and subject position – as a descendant of native Taiwanese political victims who tries to understand mainlander trauma. It cautions against the Caruthian psychoanalytic assumption that human suffering constitutes some kind of universal experience that will automatically bring diverse peoples and cultures together. It also questions the sociological approach’s tendency to see shared traumatic memories as mere instrumentalist “social constructs” for power and identity, which sometimes obstructs the larger ethical goals of recognition and reconciliation. Based on the author’s inner struggle and transformation in researching and writing about the misery and displacement of his perceived oppressors, the chapter proposes “multidirectional empathic unsettlements” as a modality to build historically informed cross-cultural empathy that could reconcile nations and communities with entangled but incompatible memories of past suffering.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Great Exodus from China
Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Modern Taiwan
, pp. 259 - 277
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Epilogue
  • Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, University of Missouri, Columbia
  • Book: The Great Exodus from China
  • Online publication: 12 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784306.007
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  • Epilogue
  • Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, University of Missouri, Columbia
  • Book: The Great Exodus from China
  • Online publication: 12 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784306.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Epilogue
  • Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, University of Missouri, Columbia
  • Book: The Great Exodus from China
  • Online publication: 12 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108784306.007
Available formats
×