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Due to its historical and geopolitical contestations, Taiwan is a country whose people possess divergent imaginations of the national community. Such a condition has been described as institutional liminality, which captures Taiwan's status as not a complete nation state nor a non-nation state; not China nor non-China. Under such a condition, people recognize themselves either as Taiwanese, Chinese, or both. Through utilizing the concept of imagination, especially Anderson's notion of "imagined communities" and Harvey's interpretation of "geographical imagination," this paper investigates the representation of imagined communities embedded in various revisions and makings of the national curriculum in Taiwan. A specific focus is put onto the revision of the national historical curriculum at the senior high school level and the resistance to it during 2014-2016. It is argued that through organizing protests and boycotts against the revision, students are no longer simply pure receivers of official knowledge, they actively express their imagination of the national community and participate in the negotiation of official knowledge, which gives the national curriculum a more democratic base.

The paper reviews Asia-Pacific higher education and university research, focusing principally on the "Confucian" education nations Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong China, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam. Except for Vietnam, these systems exhibit a special developmental dynamism--still playing out everywhere except Japan--and have created a distinctive model of higher education more effective in some respects than systems in North America, the English-speaking world and Europe where the modern university was incubated. The Confucian Model rests on four interdependent elements: (1) strong nation-state shaping of structures, funding and priorities; (2) a tendency to universal tertiary participation, partly financed by growing levels of household funding of tuition, sustained by a private duty, grounded in Confucian values, to invest in education; (3) "one chance" national examinations that mediate social competition and university hierarchy and focus family commitments to education; (4) accelerated public investment in research and "world-class" universities. The Model has downsides for social equity in participation, and in the potential for state interference in executive autonomy and academic creativity. But together with economic growth amid low tax regimes, the Confucian Model enables these systems to move forward rapidly and simultaneously in relation to each and all of mass tertiary participation, university quality, and research quantity and quality.

The question of how rising atavistic nationalism will affect democracies worldwide is an essential one of our time. In this paper, I focus instead on conducting a comparative historical analysis of atavistic nationalism in two unrecognized states: North Cyprus and Taiwan. I argue that the democratic crisis of our times is, in its essence, economic and has been precipitated by the failure of democracies to build domestic capacities to support democratic values. Furthermore, I posit that engaging populaces at the local political level will prove essential to preserving democracies around the world. I conclude by underlining that atavistic nationalism is indeed a significant threat to regional and global peace and requires further co-operation on trade and governance, and should be engaged at the local level. Lastly, I suggest that co-creating local cultures that will act to soften atavistic nationalism, which feeds off the perception of threats and fear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I analyse how Taiwanese liberalist scholars have discursively and operationally shaped the meanings of Taiwanese democratization via a mix of liberal values and nationalist concerns. I will argue that a valid understanding of democratization in Taiwan has never emerged in a way that adequately responds to a liberalist perspective of the country's ongoing political development. Instead, such an understanding has been subjectively influenced by liberal intellectuals writing on the subject. In other words, current discourses in Taiwan represent efforts on the part of scholars to manage connections between liberalist values and nationalist concerns rather than shared views regarding facts emerging from Taiwanese democratization. In this paper I discuss four types of liberalist orientations to Taiwanese democratization - universal, moderate, pragmatic and nationalist - in the contexts of national-identity constraints, a balance between liberal values and national identity, and flexibility regarding liberalist and nationalist concerns. I conclude that democratization research in Taiwan reflects an aspect of knowledge production formulated by the relationship between the researcher and the subject under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how nationalist narratives from Taiwan grappled with incorporating their 'island frontier' into conceptions of a Chinese unitary state. In the post World War II era, after the Chinese Nationalist government-in-exile re-established itself on the island of Taiwan, US-dominated scholarship strategically framed Taiwan as a convenient substitute for the study of China. This framing went hand in hand with the re-sinicization project on the island vigorously pursued by the Nationalists after they took control over the island after the collapse of the Japanese Empire. The Nationalist agenda emphasized the historical connection between the island and mainland China in order to politically create an imagined, and imagining, national community across the Strait. This paper critically investigates how continent-based nationalist narratives have sought to incorporate offshore islands into their unitary framework. It does so by deploying the concepts of geobody, geomancy, geochronology, geosymmetrical analogies, and regional demarcation to explore the geographical ideas on the construction of the postwar national imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how hallyu—the recent influx of Korean popular culture in Taiwan—has transformed the image of South Korea among the people of Taiwan. South Korea and Taiwan share a similar historical past. Nevertheless, the Taiwanese did not have a positive image of South Korea after 1992, when South Korea broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in order to establish diplomatic relations with mainland China. This work is based on ethnographic research done in Taiwan and South Korea from 2001–2003 and 2007–2009. It explores how hallyu has contributed to the rebuilding of the image of South Korea in Taiwan. It discusses Taiwanese perceptions of this image and the role of the South Korean government in improving it. It focuses on how a once-held negative image of South Korea has been transformed. The hallyu boom inspired many Taiwanese to remark on the influence of South Korean dramas and pop music in renewing their relationship with South Korea. It has provided an opportunity for Taiwan and South Korea to build positive relationships after the break-up of their diplomatic relations. Through hallyu, South Korea became a country that Taiwanese want to emulate, a model nation for Taiwan today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines the complex role of intellectuals in the nationalist movements in Taiwan and, by implication, their role in making war and peace across the Taiwan Strait. Ideal typical organic intellectuals, while following the ethic of responsibility, are willing to use dubious means, including extremisms like distortions, exaggerations and even war, in advancing their nationalist causes. These means can be politically effective, but they are ethically problematic. Professionals want to remain neutral and objective in their study of nationalism, and critical intellectuals want to focus on fairness and justice to all, especially to the disadvantaged groups, in any national developments or arrangements. The professional and critical intellectual groups follow the ethic of ultimate ends, but both are marginalized in the nationalist movements in Taiwan. They largely stand on the sidelines, watching history happen. They are ethical but seldom effective, unless they become partisan and are willing to use dubious means. Such action, however, would turn them into organic intellectuals. These three roles of intellectuals also represent three aspects of intellectuality. They are ideal typically in the sense that intellectuals may transit among the roles. Nonetheless, how intellectuals balance these roles and handle the dilemmas between ethics and efficacy affects the direction of cross-Strait relations, especially with respect to war and peace in the region. This article is based on a historical-comparative analysis of the role of intellectuals, interviews of intellectuals in Taiwan, and a textual study of their writings. It hopes to shed some light on the nationalist developments across the Taiwan Strait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern social life has seen a rapid increase in the number of ethnic groups demanding sovereignty over their own territory. Until recently, many of these demands were framed in response to foreign or outside colonizers, but many of the newer nationalistic movements are aimed at what have been termed "internal colonizers." Taiwan is one such society that has recently seen the development of such demands. Increasingly, more and more people both in and from Taiwan are rejecting the term "Chinese," choosing instead to call themselves "Taiwanese," claiming that theirs is a unique and separate culture. In this paper, I argue that Taiwanese identity--like all ethnic and national identities--is a social construction. I also develop a model to understand the formation of Taiwanese national identity, arguing that Taiwanese identity is a consequence both of Taiwan's unique modernization process and the forces that modernization typically produces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of "Chinese nation" has a close relationship with the rise, development and upsurge of modern Chinese nationalism from its proposition to establishment, and to universal identification among people of all ethnic groups. The period of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China was the formation stage of modern Chinese nationalism and also the stage of the proposition and initial usage of the concept of "Chinese nation": Modern Chinese nationalism developed around the period of the May 4th Movement. Under the impetus of the establishment of national self-determination theory, especially the rise of a national self-determination movement, the concept of "Chinese nation" was accepted and adopted by more and more people and finally established and formed. After the September 18th Incident, especially after the North China Incident and the July 7th Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the worsening national crisis promoted the upsurge of modern Chinese nationalism, and this upsurge made the concept of "Chinese nation" more widely and deeply disseminated and accepted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, female marriage migration from China and Southeast Asia has significantly increased the number of foreign-born citizens in Taiwan. This article is a preliminary investigation into how political parties responded to the growing multicultural makeup of the national community between 2000 and 2012. We examine the content of the Understanding Taiwan textbook, the election publicity of the two major political parties, citizenship legislation, and the results of interviewing immigrant women. The findings show that the change in the ruling party did make differences in terms of both parties' projection of immigrant women in election propaganda and citizenship legislation. However, inward-looking multiculturalism is practised by the two main political parties in Taiwan to forge national identity and enhance national cohesion rather than to promote the recognition of immigrants' different cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses national identity in Taiwan as of September 2012, focusing on an analysis of the nation's identity politics and democratization process which reportedly began in 1987. The institution of general political elections in Taiwan is addressed, along with an examination of the cross-Strait relations between mainland China and Taiwan. The cultural origins of China are assessed, as well as the evolution of socio-political developments in both Taiwan and China. Former Chinese President Lee Teng-hui is also mentioned.

This article deals with the formation of Taiwan’s homosexual cultural politics in the 1990s, the impact and implications of which are yet to be examined within the larger context of Taiwan’s cultural and political development and ethnic relationships. It is argued that the rise of this cultural politics is both a reflection and a source of a growing sense of identity crisis on the island. By examining the configurations of “queer” in various discursive domains, this interdisciplinary study seeks to delineate the cross-referencing ideological network of this cultural movement and its entanglement with the complexity of Taiwan’s nationalism. At the same time, to the extent that this movement tends to present itself as a radical politics from a privileged epistemological and cultural standpoint, this claimed radicalism is also scrutinized for its problematics and ironies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author focuses on how China viewed Taiwan and the people of Taiwan between 1931, the year Japan invaded Manchuria, and 1941, the year the U.S. entered World War II. Some of the subjects considered include nationalism, Chinese identity, Chinese political thought, and the ideology of nation-building and cultural identity. An overview of the historiography of competing Chinese and Taiwanese national identity exemplified in the writings of historians Emma Jinhua Teng, Alan M. Wachman, and Steven E. Phillips, is presented.

Recent naval ship visits and exchanges of goodwill between China and Japan suggest an improvement in the two countries' bilateral relationship, which had been steadily deteriorating since the late 1990s. In the longer term, however, Sino-Japanese relations will likely be tested or constrained by five key sets of issues: (1) territorial and resource disputes, (2) nationalism and issues of mutual antipathy, (3) Taiwan's political status, (4) the rapid rise of China's military power, and (5) the U.S.-Japan security alliance. The manner in which these issues are managed or resolved will likely play a major role in shaping the Sino-Japanese relationship and thus the overall geopolitical environment in East Asia. A key complicating factor in the relationship, however, is the persistence of divergent worldviews: Chinese leaders appear to be more consistently persuaded by realist notions of international politics, whereas Japanese leaders tend to favor liberal-institutionalist values. The two countries may use these different lenses to view the same incident or issue, potentially creating misunderstanding and miscalculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for rights to recognition among the indigenous activists in Taiwan was part of a larger movement for democratization before the lifting of martial law and was supported by international concurrence. The transfer of power from the Nationalist Party (KMT) regime to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) marks a rising consciousness of Taiwanese nationalism. By examining public discourses/rituals and the debates about the organizational reforms, I show how the changing perceptions and status of the indigenous population within the state are used to legitimize the new national identity. By examining the political processes involved in the politics of recognition, on the other hand, I also explore how the indigenous activists exploit to their advantage opportunities that have arisen during the national restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of Taiwan residents now have Taiwan-centered national identities, viewing the island as separate and independent from the Chinese mainland. Thus, few people on the island support Beijing's “one country, two systems” proposal. China's new leaders need to present fresh plans if they are truly committed to peaceful unification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to assess the political impact of the Referendum Law in Taiwan. Contrary to the prediction that uproar over the recent referendum on defense would cool with the law's passage, the issue has continued to spark debate on sovereignty, national security, cross-strait relations, and national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National identity is still one of the most contentious issues in present-day Taiwan. At the surface level, the confrontation between the “pan-blue” and “pangreen” party camps suggests the existence of competing and irreconcilable national identities. However, the overall quest for Taiwanese sovereignty against Beijing's insistence on the “one country, two systems” formula suggests the rise of an overarching consensus between all political parties that reflects the fact that a Taiwanese nation already exists. Although civic in nature, this nation may soon close ranks against the idea of “one China” if Beijing does not compromise on the issue of sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neither principled believers in independence nor principled believers in unification are numerous enough to give any elected Taiwanese leader a clear mandate for imposing a solution on the question of national identity anytime soon. The existence of a large number of non-committed rationalists would, in the short run, mitigate the polarized conflict and could, over the long run, shift the political equilibrium in either direction, depending on changing external conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the concept of national identity in Taiwan. Details on the quest of the country for sovereignty; Accounts on the domestic economic recovery and industrialization program of the country; Impact of cross-strait relations on the formation of the country's national identity.