Democracy and national destinies on Taiwan

In the case of Taiwan, experts have debated whether passionate national loyalties (Taiwanese or Chinese) facilitated or stymied democratization. This paper argues that nationalism facilitated political change in Taiwan. In fact, democratization during the 1980s and the 1990s was spurred in part by the pursuit of two conflicting national destinies. The Chinese Nationalist Party legitimized reform as the end of a century‐long process for the reconstruction of the Chinese nation. To many Nationalists, particularly those born on the mainland, Taiwan was the fulfilment of Sun Yat‐sen's vision of China known as the Three Principles of the People. At the same time, many opponents of the regime saw successful reform as one step towards the realization of a Taiwanese nation. Dominated by those who identified themselves as Taiwanese, generally those of Chinese descent whose ancestors had lived on Taiwan prior to 1945, these activists hoped to take power through the ballot box, then implement a series of policies to strengthen an island‐wide identity.     

THE FORMATION OF “TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITIES”

This article will explore the multicultural challenges resulting from increasing numbers of migrant workers and foreign (non‐Chinese) brides in Taiwan, and discuss how such outside cultural influences create new forms of cultural expression, identity and citizenship. It will further describe experiences and present theories specific to Taiwan’s experience. Research on “transnational communities” is fairly advanced in Taiwan. “Transnational communities” in Taiwan are expected to “assimilate” quickly into mainstream Taiwanese society, and personal cultural needs and influences are largely ignored. These communities continue to remain isolated from mainstream Taiwanese society, thus making them “invisible” to society as a whole. Therefore, this research hopes to encourage research into “transnational communities” within the field of cultural policy studies and provide a basic picture of the cultural influence and development of these communities in Taiwan.     

Identities,Rationality and Taiwan’s China Policy: The Dynamics of Cross-Strait Exchanges

Identities have been viewed as determining Taiwan’s China policy, but this article argues that identities cannot explain Taipei’s China policy without reference to rationality. The article develops a theoretical framework that synthesises identities and rationality and examines Taipei’s cross-Strait exchange programs. We argue that whether Taipei imposes or relaxes bans on cross-Strait exchanges depends not only on its identities but also on its rational decisions in response to the status of cross-Strait relations. On the one hand, a Taiwanese administration that upholds a one-China identity rationally restricts exchanges when cross-Strait relations are tense; conversely, it opens exchanges during cross-Strait détente. On the other hand, when Taipei embraces a Taiwanese identity, it is only in times of cross-Strait tensions that Taipei advances exchanges as a rational gesture of goodwill taken to avoid spirals of tension; conversely, exchanges will be low on Taipei’s policy priority list when cross-Strait crises recede.     

台商投资大陆地区的区位选择及其空间拓展研究

台商在大陆地区已经有三次大规模的投资热潮,每次热潮都有不同的产业特性以及相应的区位偏好,从而导致在大陆地区规律性的空间拓展。本文在分析台资在大陆地区空间拓展特征的基础上,就台资转向大陆以及在大陆地区空间拓展的原因展开分析,认为台资企业在全球范围内的发展战略与其对外投资的区位选择密切相关。同时,大陆地区台资在当地化的嵌入程度也是影响其企业发展战略的一个重要因素,从而影响台资的空间扩展路径。     

学习十六大精神做好对台工作

中共十六大报告有关台湾问题的分析很精辟,不但包含了我党以往行之有效的政策,而且根据目前海峡两岸形势的变化提出了一些新的主张,概括起来就是五个坚持、三个新意,明确了今后对台工作的思路和重点.当前,台湾的"台独"势力利用台湾岛内的省籍情结和台湾同胞"出头天"的思想,将台湾人民的台湾意识向"台独"方面引导,造成了我们统一前景的严峻形势,而"出头天"思想的产生与中国近代史特别是台湾近500年历史对台湾民众心态的影响是分不开的,只有了解和理解广大台胞的心态,才能有针对性地做好新时期的对台工作.     

Identity challenged: Taiwanese women migrating to Australia

This article investigates the experiences of Taiwanese women who migrated to Australia between 1980 and 2005. It is part of a larger project about the migration experiences of Taiwanese women who moved to Australia and to Canada with the aim of providing a direction for facilitating cultural transition for future female migrants. The article presents some of the findings from 21 semi-structured interviews which were conducted between July and October 2011, shedding light on the role that gender, age at the time of migration and family situation play in debates around cultural identity and the place of Taiwanese women in Australia. Relational-cultural theory serves as the theoretical framework for the central argument that – in spite of the differences between younger women and those in their 30s and 40s in relation to the motivation to migrate and ways to connect – the ability to build new relationships in Australia while maintaining existing ones in Taiwan is essential to establishing a positive view of self, and consequently to successful migration.     

Dissolution and Reconstruction of National Identity: The Experience of Subjectivity in Taiwan

Abstract. Due to unique historical and structural conditions Taiwan society has long been troubled by a national identity problem. While this dilemma has captured significant academic interests in recent years, most treatments of the subject pay insufficient attention to the subjective factors which shape the national identity discourse on the island. This study attempts to reconstruct, from the subjects' perspectives, the discourses on national identity as they are devised by Taiwan residents. Based on Q methodology, we identify five discourses: Chinese nationalism, status-quoism, confused identity, Taiwan-prioritism and Taiwanese nationalism. These discourses are intertwined along the independence/unification continuum and share the common ground of respect for democratic institutions and liberal values and an awareness of Taiwan's de facto autonomy/independence. Our findings stand in sharp contrast to the ‘unification/independence’ dichotomy or the ‘unification/status quo/independence’ trifurcation commonly applied by the existing literature. Thus, the findings may serve as the basis for constructing a more comprehensive analytical framework facilitating further research on national identity issues in Taiwan.     

从台湾社会的发展看台湾留美运动的兴衰

战后台湾留学生运动的兴起、发展及衰落 ,与台湾现代化的萌芽、发展与成熟息息相关。 1 95 0年代至 1 960年代 ,台湾经济筚路蓝缕 ,到先进国家留学 ,成为一代青年的最高愿望。同时 ,台湾与美国经济发展的巨大悬殊使留美学生很容易做出滞留不归的抉择。从 1 970年代台湾开始经济起飞 ,到 1 980年代台湾完全脱贫致富 ,台湾留学生经济状况改善。同时 ,从 1 980年代起 ,美国劳工市场的不景气与台湾社会经济的发展吸引一部分留美学生返台工作。到 1 990年代 ,留美学生的返台率进一步提高 ,反映了台湾经济进入国际中心 ,劳工人才开始流向台湾。 1 990年代后期 ,留学美国运动开始衰落 ,许多台湾青年不再视留学为“正途”。这一现象不仅体现了台湾学术研究水平的提高 ,本土培养的研究人员已具有国际竞争力 ,也反映了台湾经济国际化、信息化的开始     

From fashion product industries to fashion: upgrading trends in traditional industry in Taiwan

In the 1990s, China opened its economic markets and replaced the New Institutional Economics (NIEs) of East Asia as the global centre for sourcing labour. This event changed the spatial and economic structure in Asia, especially in Taiwan. Based on the historical evolution of the textile and clothing industry in Taiwan, this study examined how traditional textile and apparel manufacturing was upgraded in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and in Tainan, the most historical city of Taiwan, under varying resource availability and under different city policies. While referring to both second-hand information and the literature, the results of interviews with fashion industry professionals were also considered. This study revealed that the potential to upgrade the fashion industry was highly associated with regional background characteristics. Additionally, lack of talent and the limited market for domestic brands create the largest bottleneck in the current fashion industry in Taiwan. Accordingly, the optimal solution for the fashion industry in Taiwan is to promote affordable Taiwanese brands and to use e-commerce. Such integration may enhance the position of the Taiwanese fashion industry in global networks.     

Sunflowers,youthful protestors and political achievements: lessons from Taiwan

ABSTRACT

In 2014, an interesting youth movement collective started small p political and big P Political action and resistance in Taiwan. Their protest was against the way a major trade agreement proposed between China and Taiwan was being non-democratically pushed through the Taiwanese legislature. In this article, we provide an analysis of the activities of the Sunflower Student Movement (SSM) as a means to record a relatively little-known youthful and youth-centric successful uprising. It serves to place the SSM, and other East Asian-based protests, on the map of young people’s political geographies, and explores the paradoxical political and spatial practices pursued by young Taiwanese. This case study makes visible the interconnectedness of big P/small p politics of everyday youth geographies within an Asian context.     

Using an awakening narrative to leave behind a former national‐identity: an investigation of the conversion of national‐identity in Taiwan

National‐identity has become a civil religion and a major source of how people define themselves. Changing one's nationality thus is a salient event/social process in today's society; therefore, people's nationality conversion deserves more academic attention. Treating the convert as a social type and regarding people's self‐reports (or converts' accounts) as topics for analysis, this article examines the Taiwan case to illuminate how people tell their stories of converting nationality. ‘Converts’ usually employed an awakening narrative to leave their former national‐identity behind: For example, the ‘awakening’ plot is readily apparent, a huge contrast between a previous ‘wrong’ self and a current ‘correct’ self is mentioned, and the ‘awakening’ is delineated as an achievement. The symbolic awakening is harnessed as a strategic tool to create discontinuity autobiographically, to justify one's major change, to ensure that one's cognitive security remains intact, and to call for more awakenings. This article further notes that, since narrative itself is a practice, people always have ‘a self in the making’ which determines (and is determined by) how people (re)tell their life stories. Moreover, in Taiwan's case, we see that ‘awakeners’ usually admired early awakeners but blamed late awakeners (which constitutes an interesting triadic group relationship); people may also describe their experience of having multiple awakenings before the ‘grand’ awakening (‘Awakening’). © The author(s) 2015. Nations and Nationalism © ASEN/John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2015     

"一个中国":中国共产党对台方针政策不变的原则--写在《反分裂国家法》颁布一周年之际

新中国成立以来,中国共产党的对台方针政策虽然经历了从"解放台湾"到"一纲四目"乃至"一国两制"的演变,但坚持一个中国、维护祖国统一、捍卫国家主权和领土完整,是其不变的原则.中共十六大以来,中共新一代领导集体在坚持原则的同时,寄希望于台湾人民,处理两岸关系更趋务实灵活,进一步加强了其在两岸关系基本格局中的战略主导地位.     

Australia–Taiwan relations: the evolving geopolitical setting

Compared to its relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), Australia's relations with Taiwan are often underrated. As a substantial trading partner and as a polity that has transformed into a robust ‘Asian democracy’, Taiwan constitutes a significant if highly complex dimension of evolving Australian foreign policy. A workshop was convened at the Australian National University in early May 2007 to consider the evolving geopolitical, economic and socio-cultural dimensions of bilateral relations between these two regional actors. Among the basic themes emerging from workshop deliberations were how the growth of Chinese power would effect stability in the Taiwan Straits and throughout maritime Asia; how Chinese power would shape future order-building in the region and any role that Australia and/or Taiwan might play in that process; how Taiwanese democracy would factor into any future regional order and what Australia's future Taiwan posture should be given that that country is committed to a ‘one China policy’ acknowledging the PRC as China. Among the conclusions reached were that Australia must intensify its diplomatic efforts toward both Beijing and Washington to ensure that potential Sino–American differences over Taiwan do not escalate into military conflict and that time and generational change may work to facilitate a peaceful solution to this protracted security dilemma? ? The authors would like to thank Bruce Jacobs for his review of earlier drafts. View all notes.     

Playing with digital gender identity and cultural value

In cyberspace, anything is possible. Playing with digital gender identity has particularly flourished in digital dating games. Women can become the ‘masters,’ while men are the ‘pets’ when fabricating and manipulating digital gender identity to develop alternative heterosexual relationships. This implies that the breaking down of social and cultural barriers in cyberspace is possible if the digital dating game is seen as playful or a potential liberation from the barriers of digital gender identity to challenge the existing masculine power base. The current study attempts to fill the gap in knowledge related to challenging heterosexuality as the masculine dominant norm in cyberspace by examining Taiwanese online heterosexual relationship developments between gender identity and cultural value while playing a ludic digital dating game. The study employs netnography and recruits 40 people total, including Taiwanese workers and full-time university students, for participation in this research. The results highlight that the digital dating game is in some ways liberating, enabling Taiwanese users to present themselves as they want to express emotions, establish online heterosexual relationships in a nontraditional way, and engage in alternative digital gender play. These ‘ludic gaps’ allow for a fleeting, but unsustainable escape from traditional Taiwanese gender cultural values and practices. It is suggested that culture is inescapable, regardless of whether we are in the real world or cyberspace.     

A place called ‘Bielany’: negotiating a diasporic Polish place in Sydney

This paper examines the creation of a distinctly Polish place by Polish migrants and their children, in Sydney, Australia. I explore the use of place as a means of maintaining distinct ethno-cultural identity in diaspora by evaluating how different groups of Polish people contextualise their diasporic identity, attribute meaning to place, and how these meanings change through time. Differing generational cohorts and waves of migration within Sydney's Polish diaspora (re)create Bielany as a place for maintaining Polish identity by reproducing a familiar and homely place and by centring Bielany as a main venue for recreation and social functions. Notions of place attachment, expressed through participation in activities, ownership and maintenance of a communal Polish place, and emotional linkages to that place, evince their preference for and their connection to a shared and distinctly Polish place.     

Digitisation,digital interaction and social media: embedded barriers to democratic heritage

Abstract

The democratisation of heritage through digital access is a well-documented aspiration. It has included innovative ways to manage interpretation, express heritage values, and create experiences through the ‘decoding’ of heritage. This decoding of heritage becomes democratised, more polyvocal than didactic exhibitions, and less dependent on experts. However, the decision of what ‘heritage’ is and what is commissioned for digitisation (the encoding) is not necessarily a part of this democratisation. This paper will consider how digitisation reinforces the Authorised Heritage Discourse through the lens of Stephen Lukes’ three (increasingly subtle) dimensions of power: conflict resolution, control of expression and shaping of preferences. All three dimensions have an impact on how public values are represented in heritage contexts, but the introduction of digitisation requires more resources, expertise and training within established professional discourse. Social media may have a positive impact on the first two dimensions, but can reinforce hegemony. Alternatives are subject to epistemic populism. The role of digitisation and social media in the democratisation of heritage needs to be better understood. Questions regarding the nature and process of digital interaction, in terms of whose heritage is accessible, affect the very issues of democratisation digitisation appears to promote.     

From the ground up: cultural heritage practices as tools for empowerment in the Homeless Heritage project

Abstract

The Homeless Heritage project took place across two English cities (Bristol and York) between 2010 and 2014. The project sought to use a range of participatory heritage practices to engage contemporary homeless people in documenting their perspectives on each city. Drawing on data gathered over three and a half years this paper reflects on how collaborative cultural heritage practices can be useful in recording diverse stakeholder perspectives which can become catalysts for social change. It is further argued that two interactive exhibitions that resulted from the Homeless Heritage project contributed to the democratisation of knowledge, aiding negotiation of the complicated politics of contemporary homelessness in valuable ways.     

Networked practices of intangible urban heritage: the changing public role of Dutch heritage professionals

This study examines the changing roles of heritage professionals by focusing on the participatory practices of intangible urban heritage. Developments towards democratisation in the heritage sector led to a growing expectation that heritage professionals would work with local publics. This democratisation is manifested in (1) the use of digital media for grassroots heritage practices, (2) the broader scope of what is defined as heritage, and (3) a focus on communities in UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Heritage professionals are thus challenged to develop inclusive heritage practices, particularly in cities, which are characterised by a dynamic nature and cultural diversity. In this article, I analyse how urban heritage organisations and professionals have responded to these developments. Drawing on interviews and a qualitative content analysis of these organisations’ policy documents, I examine the ways in which heritage professionals reconsider their public role through what I define as networked practices of intangible heritage. This concept captures the networked structure in which heritage professionals increasingly work, and also demonstrates how heritage is given meaning through public practices that take place in both the physical and virtual realms of contemporary cities.     

Marketisation and democratisation in the Russian Federation: the case of Novosibirsk

The concurrent passage of the processes of democratisation and marketisation in the former communist world have attracted considerable attention throughout the social sciences. Less attention has been paid, however, to the local dimensions of change. Much of the literature lacks an understanding of the role of people and institutions at the local level in dismantling communism and building new structures and practices. This paper explicitly focuses on the local experiences of wider processes of transformation by exploring participation in and exclusion from debates over future strategies for local economic development in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. Drawing on literatures on markets and democracy, this paper argues that the expected democratisation of post-Soviet politics and the pluralisation of political representation are limited, at least at the local scale, by the playing out of the processes of marketisation and democratisation in grounded contexts, both local and global, by the passage of those transformations at a particular moment in history, and by their concurrence.     

蒋介石力阻美国将台湾问题"国际化"

蒋介石退踞台湾期间,对于美国寻找各种机会使台湾问题"国际化"的企图,基本上采取抗拒的立场.具体表现在在20世纪40年代末到50年代初期,针对美国叫嚣的"台湾地位未定论",蒋介石通过对<开罗宣言>的反复重申,坚持了台湾是中国一部分的立场,维护了中国对台湾的主权地位;在50年代中后期两次台海危机中,蒋介石坚守金门、马祖这两个与大陆保持联系的纽带,拒绝美国以海峡为界,实现"划峡而治"、制造"两个中国"的图谋,并在一定程度上与大陆形成一种默契,共同抵制美国的分裂活动;从60年代开始,借恢复中国政府在联合国的席位、美国企图在联合国内部造成"一中一台"的既成事实,针对这种情况,包括台湾蒋介石当局在内的海峡两岸中国人,取得一定共识,即在国际社会只能有一个代表中国主权的中央政府,台湾是中国领土不可分割的一部分,并共同挫败美国以联合国名义分裂中国的图谋.