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Cultural Identity and the Politics of Recognition in Contemporary Taiwan*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

Taiwan is a geographic location, an economic force, a political presence, a social reality and a cultural expression. The “precious island” (baodao), in the minds of those who are vaguely familiar with East Asia in the English-speaking community, evokes sensations of stunning natural beauty, hard-working people and troubled international status. Those who have travelled there as tourists in recent years are easily impressed by the vibrant economy, cuisine, traffic jams, air pollution, rich folk traditions and colourful popular culture. While journalists and business executives may be fascinated by the transformative power of marketization and democratization in Taiwan's political economy, many students have been overwhelmed by the profound impact of economy and polity on all dimensions of the cultural world - literature, art, dance, music and drama - since the lifting of martial law in 1987.

Type
Taiwan Today
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1996

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References

1 For an informed discussion on this issue, see Mau-Kuei Michael Chang, “Provincialism and nationalism,” Taiwan Studies(Hong Kong,1995), pp.67–96.1 am indebted to Professor Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang of the University of Texas at Austin for this reference.Google Scholar

2 Steve Chan, East Asian Dynamism: Growth, Order, and Security in the Pacific Region, 2nd ed.(Boulder:Westview Press,1993), p.127.Google Scholar

3 For a distinctive Taiwanese Christian voice on this issue, see Cai Zhengdai, Taiwanhun de huhan (The Cry of the Taiwanese Soul)(Taipei: Renguang Pubbshing Co., 1994).Google Scholar

4 Winckler, Edwin A., “Cultural policy on postwar Taiwan,” in Stevan Harrell and Huang Chiin-chieh(eds.), Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan(Boulder: Westview Press,1994), p. 30.Google Scholar

5 I am indebted to Huang Huang-hsiung for several extensive conversations on this issue in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the summer of 1996.Google Scholar

6 John Fairbank, E. Reischauer and A. Craig,East Asia: Tradition and Transformation (Boston:Houghton Mifflin Company,1989), p.902.Google Scholar

7 Ibid.. p. 904

8 For a comprehensive study of Ch'en Ying-chen's political consciousness through literature, seeLi Xiangping,Taiwan de youyu(Taiwan's Melancholy)(Beijing: Sanlian Book Co.,1994).Google Scholar

9 Thomas B. Gold, “Civil society and Taiwan's quest for identity,” in Harrell and Huang, Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan, p. 53Google Scholar

10 For an example of the intellectual responses to the cultural implications of these political developments, seeFengyun luntan(ed.), Taiwan wenhua de weiji {The Crisis of Taiwanese Culture)(Taipei: Fengyun luntanshe, 1986)Google Scholar

11 See “The Kuomintang before democratization: organizational change and the role of elections,” in Hung-mao Tien(ed.),Taiwan's Electoral Politics and Democratic Transition (Armonk, NY:M.E. Sharpe,1996), pp. 4278.Google Scholar

12 For a succinct report on this incident in an obituary for Shima Ryutaro, see Yazhou Zhoukan, 25 February–3 March 1996, p.Google Scholar

13 “Interview with Peng Min-ming,” Tianxia {The Commonwealth), February 1996, p. 23.

14 I am grateful to Ping-tsu Chu for his thoughtful comments on the proper “tone” for addressing the following issues. I am of course solely responsible for the inadequacy of dealing with these delicate problems.

15 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992), p. 630.Google Scholar

16 For a fuller account of the question of ethnicity in Taiwan, see Chang, “Provincialism and nationalism.”

17 Stevan Harrell, “Playing in the valley: a metonym of modernization in Taiwan,” in Harrell and Huang, Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan, pp. 161–183.Google Scholar

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22 For this expression, see Wang Gungwu, The Chineseness of China: Selected Essays (Hong Kong:Oxford University Press,1991.Google Scholar