With democratization, the Taiwanese were able to freely express their Taiwanese identity, especially in opposition to efforts to bring Taiwan closer to China. This book derives from a wide-ranging conference on Taiwan at the University of Alberta from which the editors chose papers dealing with democratization and nation building. Ashley Esarey examines relevant events in the creation of the nation from the Japanese colonial period, through authoritarian Kuomintang (KMT) rule, and the democratization process up to the 2018 elections. [Extracted from the article]