Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Taiwan Identity. Re-positioning amidst multi-layered realities

Seiler-Holmer, Gudrun LU (2011) SANK01 20102
Social Anthropology
Abstract
The question to be dealt with in this study is to what extent the emergence of a distinct Taiwan identity has influenced people's self-perception, with respect to the profound economic and political changes in Taiwan since the 1980s, such as the lifting of martial law, democratisation and Taiwanisation (bentuhua). Assuming an existing interconnectedness between identity, politics, ethnicity and nationalism, it will be examined how the people of Taiwan, i.e. the Hoklo, the Hakka, the Mainlanders and the Aborigines (yuanzhumin), construct their identities in a multicultural society amidst an intensifying nation-building process. By applying Barth's (1969) theory of ethnic groups and boundaries, Taylor's (1994) notion of multiculturalism as... (More)
The question to be dealt with in this study is to what extent the emergence of a distinct Taiwan identity has influenced people's self-perception, with respect to the profound economic and political changes in Taiwan since the 1980s, such as the lifting of martial law, democratisation and Taiwanisation (bentuhua). Assuming an existing interconnectedness between identity, politics, ethnicity and nationalism, it will be examined how the people of Taiwan, i.e. the Hoklo, the Hakka, the Mainlanders and the Aborigines (yuanzhumin), construct their identities in a multicultural society amidst an intensifying nation-building process. By applying Barth's (1969) theory of ethnic groups and boundaries, Taylor's (1994) notion of multiculturalism as politics of recognition and reviewing Taiwan's nation-building process since the 1990s in the frame of Anderson's (2006) idea of the nation as imagined community, I look into how discourses on different levels have had a bearing on where and how ethnic boundaries are drawn or have become blurred. In conclusion, I suggest that with regard to the issue of identity, while there appears to be an ethnification process taking place on an individual level, simultaneously, there are cohesive tendencies perceptible on a national level. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Seiler-Holmer, Gudrun LU
supervisor
organization
course
SANK01 20102
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
imagined community, multi-culturalism, ethnic identity, Taiwanisation (bentuhua), Taiwan identity
language
English
id
1768011
date added to LUP
2011-01-24 10:10:46
date last changed
2011-01-24 10:10:46
@misc{1768011,
  abstract     = {{The question to be dealt with in this study is to what extent the emergence of a distinct Taiwan identity has influenced people's self-perception, with respect to the profound economic and political changes in Taiwan since the 1980s, such as the lifting of martial law, democratisation and Taiwanisation (bentuhua). Assuming an existing interconnectedness between identity, politics, ethnicity and nationalism, it will be examined how the people of Taiwan, i.e. the Hoklo, the Hakka, the Mainlanders and the Aborigines (yuanzhumin), construct their identities in a multicultural society amidst an intensifying nation-building process. By applying Barth's (1969) theory of ethnic groups and boundaries, Taylor's (1994) notion of multiculturalism as politics of recognition and reviewing Taiwan's nation-building process since the 1990s in the frame of Anderson's (2006) idea of the nation as imagined community, I look into how discourses on different levels have had a bearing on where and how ethnic boundaries are drawn or have become blurred. In conclusion, I suggest that with regard to the issue of identity, while there appears to be an ethnification process taking place on an individual level, simultaneously, there are cohesive tendencies perceptible on a national level.}},
  author       = {{Seiler-Holmer, Gudrun}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Taiwan Identity. Re-positioning amidst multi-layered realities}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}