Search

In Taiwan, the persistent sex segregation in high school curriculum track has been documented since 1982. This study focuses on the gender beliefs held by adolescents, their parents, and their math teachers, examining to what degree the egalitarian gender beliefs affect the high school curriculum track decisions in Taiwan by using the Taiwan Education Panel Survey. Results show that when adolescents' parents hold egalitarian gender beliefs, both girls and boys have higher odds of choosing non-traditional gender paths. However, the adolescents' own egalitarian gender beliefs only matter for female adolescents, not for male adolescents. This research explores the mechanisms of egalitarian gender beliefs held by multiple socialization agents on non-traditional gendered education decisions. It advocates on the programs that foster egalitarian gender attitudes, which may narrow the sex segregation in high school curriculum tracks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an approach based on the sociology of quantification, this article illustrates how actors utilised statistics when importing family planning to Taiwan and exporting their experience to international policy makers. The functions of statistics—producing knowledge and making policies—assisted the implementation of international programmes in Taiwan, where any actions leading to a population decrease were prohibited in the 1950s. The Population Council and Taiwanese officials first secured the provincial government's tacit consent by claiming the programme to be an experiment in general population policy rather than one focused on the insertion of intra-uterine devices (IUDs). They went on to win the central government's endorsement in 1964 by presenting IUD insertions as tools for achieving the ideal population size for economic development. Finally, experts packaged and repackaged the Taiwan programme as a success by wielding locally-collected statistics, reframing the programme to fit the conclusions of international research at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nationalist Party retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War. Faced with a population explosion, economic recession, and a serious shortage of resources, the Nationalist government retained the "wartime regime" instituted during the civil war, while strengthening control of key foods -- which significantly affected people's daily life, and notably diet. This article argues that the purpose of implementing the wartime regime was not only to stabilise livelihoods, particularly to secure basic living conditions for a large number of soldiers and government employees; it also helped the Nationalist Party consolidate its authoritarian rule and establish a firm grip on national resources, facilitating national defence and economic development. The stringent control measures of the wartime regime caused, however, a gross imbalance between staple and subsidiary foods in the diet of local people, leading to consumption of excessive amounts of starchy staple foods and widening the gap between the diets of farmers and non-farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the shared history of Japanese colonization of Okinawa, Taiwan, and Korea. Topics discussed include the workings of the Japanese Empire in Taipei as exemplified by the Jingtong Mine that saw its golden days in the 1920s, the influence of pro-Japanese collaborators in the Korean War as well as its impact to the Japanese economy, and the so-called "Anti-reversion Theory" in Okinawa.

Taking one of the most representative subgenres of lifestyle TV, the cooking show, as a case study, in this article, we examine the history and changing cultural meanings of this televisual genre in the context of Taiwan's postwar social history and TV industry. We conduct textual analyses of Taiwanese cooking shows across three different historical stages: Fu Pei Mei's shows (the 1960s–1980s), Chen Hong's shows (the 1990s), andMetrosexual Uber-Chefwith Master Ah-Ji (the 2000s), in order to advance a critical exploration of the complex relationships between these popular media texts and their social and industrial contexts. We argue that, in line with the ongoing transformations in Taiwan's society and television industry over the postwar era, the cooking show essentially shifted from educational-cultural to entertainment programming. However, at the same time, the pedagogical function of teaching both cooking skills and life ethics was maintained throughout the different stages, albeit represented very differently in each of the three periods, corresponding with the social and industrial contexts pertaining in each. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the history of the Seminary and Institute (S&I) program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in Taiwan. Particular focus is given to the improvement and expansion of educational programs and facilities. Details on the efforts of educator Alan Hassell and his family and staff to found Taiwan's first S&I classes are presented. Topics discussed include teacher training and turnover and educators Wang Lu Pao and Wan Kon-Leung

For much of the 1950s, ROC President Chiang Kai-shek tried to formulate viable “counteroffensive” plans to reclaim mainland China. A main part of this vision was to attract US military sponsorship; for the ROC conspicuously lacked the military strength to reconquer mainland China. However, the formulation of these plans had unintended results for Taiwan. Firstly, the military plans gave Chiang's subordinates an indirect way of stating the impossibility of returning to mainland China, while strenuously proclaiming their loyalty. Secondly, Chiang Kai-shek's admonishment “????” Wu Wang Zai Ju (Forget Not the time at Ju), the clarion call for the ROC's mainland counter offensive, unwittingly promoted a more sedentary form of national identity for the average Taiwanese. Finally, the more Taiwan developed economically by means of US aid, the more the Taiwanese silently distanced themselves from Chiang's Quixotic dream of reclaiming mainland China. Thus, Chiang's leadership in “counteroffensive” planning did more to distance the island state from the mainland than “reclaim” it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to retrace the making of the 1954 U.S.-Taiwan military alliance and shed new light on the Taiwanese perception of the issue. As will be revealed, the conclusion of the 1954 defense treaty between Washington and Taipei was not only a result of the American Cold War strategy in the Far East, as the numerous existing historical literature have admirably depicted. It was also a representation of Chiang Kai-shek’s sophisticated military diplomacy, involving the role of a hitherto little-known group of Japanese then serving as his “unofficial” advisors. New historical evidence also suggests that, in this military diplomacy, Chiang played with the United States, for signing a defense pact was originally not one of his priorities. Rather, what Chiang had initially sought from America was the means by which to rearm his forces so as to strengthen his position to launch a military recovery of the mainland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Title and flag are the baggage of Taiwan's complex past that was brought from China to Taiwan by the Kuomintang. It led to a series of conflicts between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. Taiwanese perspective has been used to discuss these sensitive issues. The impact of the international political situation on the China issue is discussed. The roles that IOC presidents – Avery Brundage, Lord Killanin and Antonio Samaranch – played in the development of the Chinese Question are analysed. In summary, due to exchange of international politics and the attitudes of the IOC presidents, the Taipei-based Committee had adopted the following names: the Chinese Olympic Committee (1949–1959), the Taiwan Olympic Committee (1959–1968) and the Republic of China Olympic Committee (1968–1979). Due to international reality, Taiwan finally had to use the name Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (1981 to present) and pay dearly for its continued participation in the Olympic Movement by changing its national symbols. The other sports federations in Taiwan were furthermore asked to follow the example of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and change their names and flags. Otherwise, they would not be allowed to maintain their memberships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the theory of social construction of reality deriving from the writings of Max Weber, Alfred Schutz, Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger to explain the origin of national identity and hence the emergence of a nation. It argues that social construction of national reality originates from everyday life experience taken for granted during the process of socialization. Individuals make sense out of the external world. Experiences taken for granted become actor's stock of knowledge. A common scheme of knowledge shared by the community serves to differentiate in-group (nationals) and out-group (foreigners). Collective consciousness thus defines national identity and hence a nation. Unless people (both in-group and out-group) interact with and learn from each other, different stocks of knowledge taken for granted will create political tension. This theory will be applied to understand the tensions in Tibet and along the Taiwan Strait. The paper further argues that Taiwan can hardly separate from mainland China in the future, while strong Tibetan consciousness continues to defy against powerful Chineseness, resulting in endless upheavals in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the influence of the U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade on the feminist movement to legalize abortion in Taiwan. According to the author, Taiwan's New Feminism (NF) movement used the decision to frame a rights-based justification for abortion in addition to the government's justification, which was based on population control and family planning. Topics discussed include privacy, choice, patriarchy, and female-selective abortion (FSA).

This paper investigates the effects of higher education expansion on the phenomena of credentialism and gender discrimination in education. Using the survey data of Family Income and Expenditure by DGBAS, Taiwan from 1980 to 2009, we examine the time path of the effect of higher education expansion on household expenditures for children's education in Taiwan for five sub-periods: 1980-1990, 1991-1995, 1996-2000, 2001-2005, and 2006-2009. We show that, surprisingly, although the higher education expansion during the 1990s lowers the requirement of college entrance, credentialism seems to continue to prevail in the Taiwanese society. However, the higher education expansion does change parents' attitude on female children's education and increase the possibility for female children to attain higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the Guomindang retreated to Taiwan in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and party leaders feared an imminent Communist invasion. Lacking soldiers in the reserve army, Chiang turned to high school and college students to recruit and train for the armed forces. In 1953, the Ministry of National Defense Political Department implemented mandatory military training in all senior high schools on the island and soon began educating and dispatching military instructors (jiaoguan), both male and female, to gender-segregated schools. Boys received basic infantry training (such as target shooting) while studying GMD revolutionary and military history. Meanwhile, girls participated in similar exercises but also acquired nursing skills. As a result, compulsory military training became a powerful force in Taiwanese high schools throughout the 1950s, preventing student protests against the government and successfully mobilizing male and female youth under an increasingly militarized GMD state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the immediate postwar years, visual propaganda served as constitutive and instrumental means for the Nationalist government to 'decolonize' the minds of people in Taiwan. The 1948 Taiwan Provincial Exposition highlighted the impact of politics on exhibitions during the critical period in Taiwan's history. Unable to hold it in the national capital of Nanjing as initially planned, the Provincial Exposition Committee nonetheless maintained the core mission, 'enhancing the mainlanders' understanding of Taiwan,' and strove to mobilize official and individual participants from the mainland. Financed mainly by state-run enterprises, the Exposition delivered a spectacle in serving conservative interests, as encoded in the Exposition's slogan, 'Ensuring Prosperity through Stability.' The Exposition may be seen as an illuminating case to review postwar Taiwan at the threshold of a new era. This paper aims to reveal the complex, and perhaps paradoxical, narrative structures and competitive cultural forces behind the Exposition in redefining Taiwan as a part of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores planning for reconstruction in the Republic of China by focusing especially on the response to the British government-commissioned 1942 Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, better known as the Beveridge Plan, a blueprint for the post-war welfare state. The Beveridge Report was translated into Chinese in 1943, and its ideas were widely discussed among cosmopolitan social policy experts in the Republic of China's Ministry of Social Affairs. Chinese delegates returned from the International Labour Organisation conference in Philadelphia in 1944 persuaded that social security was the spirit of the age, and began to draw up plans for what one policy-maker called Chinas own Beveridge Plan. After 1945 some of these ideas were incorporated into policy. I argue that while the debate over social welfare in the Republic of China (ROC) hinged on indigenous traditions of benevolence, labour unrest and the relative weakness of the ROC state, it was also shaped by the nation's alliance with Britain and the US in particular, and the role of social policy experts in multinational organisations and networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs on the conflict between Taiwan and China during 1950. It is mentioned that the Communist forces of China had moved Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist regime in Taiwan out of the mainland and former U.S. president Harry S. Truman refused to provide aid to Taiwan. However, the war at Korean Peninsula changed the war scene, as Truman sent Seventh Fleet of the U.S. Army, under the command of Charles M. Cooke, to Taiwan Strait to avoid the invasion of Taiwan.

In January 1979 the Republic of China (ROC) government in Taipei was derecognized as a result of United States recognition of the government in Beijing as the legitimate government of all of China. Devastated and demoralized as it was, the ROC government was determined to face the crisis and find a pathway to survive and prosper under new circumstances. It reset plans and priorities by focusing on improving the economic and social life of local citizens, instituted new reforms, encouraged civil society and democratic development, while dismantling the institutional bodies from the mainland to reflect the realities on the island. Taiwan's political evolution was accelerated dramatically both domestically and externally. Without repeating many of the domestic changes, this essay focuses mainly on three issues in Taiwan's external relations − 1) conduct of unofficial government relations, 2) question of Taiwan sovereignty, and 3) arms sales under Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) – all three imbued with heavy doses of varying political as well as legal interpretations without foreseeable resolutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A transitional polity in the third wave of democratization may adopt many western institutional forms, yet its minority and disadvantaged groups may continue to face greater obstacles in addressing environmental injustice issues than those in more mature democracies. In a recent case in Taiwan, residents in a disadvantaged community were initially unaware of or reluctant to acknowledge the environmental harms that had been inflicted upon them. They were not mobilized until policy entrepreneurs from outside the community began to press the issue on their behalf by gaining their trust and support and by navigating various political and policy institutions, which at the same time were undergoing democratic transformations toward more inclusiveness. The case illustrates the interactions of identity politics and social movement leadership in the context of changing political opportunity structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the artwork of Taiwanese video artist Chen Chieh-jen, focusing on the relationship of his art to the history of Taiwan. Chen's use of the concept of the body within his artwork is closely analyzed by the author, focusing on the way this use ultimately altered the development of Taiwanese art following an era of martial law on the island. The author is more broadly concerned with the effects of the government of the Taiwanese Kuomintang party (and its demise) on the development of Taiwanese art in general.

This essay analyzes why and how, compared with the sweeping student and youth movements in the United States, Europe, Latin American, Japan, and other places in the world in the 1960s, the postwar generation in Taiwan remained politically and socially passive. Focusing on the relations between their exilic mentality, historical consciousness, and national identity, the essay is concerned with the political-cultural factors that shaped their inactivism. This generation grew up dominated by narrative constructed by the displaced state and the previous generation in exile. Their exilic mentality mingled with a strong sense of isolation and obligation to the Chinese nation, though the rigid political and social control filled them with gloom. The postwar generation of intellectuals in 1960s Taiwan, both local Taiwanese and mainlanders, was not an active “generation for-itself” but constituted a passive “generation in-itself.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly works on Taiwan’s transformations have usually followed either an exclusive state-centred or society-centred approach in the study of the instutionalisation of human rights on the island. Using a state–society framework, this article investigates the extent of institutionalisation of human rights in Taiwan’s transitional society. Covering origin, transformation, impediments and espousals, creation of governmental and non-governmental institutions and re-institutionalisation, as junctures in the sequence of institutionalisation of human rights, this work helps to generate a better understanding of the transition and of the social and political forces that have contributed to this process in contemporary Taiwan. The inclusions and exclusions with respect to the societal factors and an inquiry into the nature of power distribution and state legitimacy could divulge the inputs for such an inquiry. Multiple factors influence the institutionalisation process and the transformation is necessarily a gradual and often pain-ful one, since efforts have to be geared towards both promoting and preserving the gains and preventing any backsliding. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article describes changes in the socio-economic and political position of women in Taiwan at the end of the last-beginning of this century, and also the women's movement in the island, as well as the basic problems it has to deal with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses historical remembrance and historic revisionism of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek, who led the Republic of China in Taiwan until his death in 1975. The author presents a historiography of studies of Chiang and an overview of primary source materials relating to Chiang available in international archives. Other subjects considered include the relationship between U.S. General Joseph Stillwell and Chiang, the U.S. military policies in Burma and China during World War II, the archival collection of materials related to Chiang's personal and political life at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and the relationship between Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen and Chiang.

Taiwan was subjected to the longest period of martial law in history, from 1948 to 1987, and for this period of time the fishing industry of Taiwan was closely controlled and monitored by the government and the military. From 1951 to 1982, the fisheries authorities of Taiwan were controlled to a large extent by high-ranking military officers. Besides this, the military also used a variety of methods to track the movement of fishermen in distant waters. Under such strict control and surveillance of the government, only a few politicians were willing to speak on behalf of the interests of Taiwan's fishing industry. The situation did not improve until two young men from the local fishing industry were elected into the national parliaments in 1972. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination of the impact that popular religion can have on the interpretation of history. The author draws on the interpretation of local history in Taiwan in order to show how different people can have different understandings of history. The author examines how religious narratives, spirit mediums and the governance of temples can all hold different meanings locally that may be in opposition to larger, society-wide views. The article examines how the reconstruction of temples in Taiwan is viewed by communities that house the temples as well as how China views the movement of temple restoration.

Since 1945, history studies in Taiwan have been primarily influenced by three factors: (1) the Japanese colonial legacy; (2) the continuance of modern Chinese historiography from the mainland; and (3) the importation of Western historiography. As a result of interactions of various historiographies, diversification characterizes Taiwan's historical study. A number of research articles have discussed this characteristic, yet there has not been a comprehensive study. One of the ways to explore the development of history studies in Taiwan after 1945 is to study its historians, academic institutions and publications, master's and doctoral theses, and academic journals. The major function of historical journals is to disseminate new knowledge and to exchange academic ideas. All together eight history journals in Taiwan are studied in this article: Continent Magazine (Dalu zazhi), Youth Quarterly (Youshi xuezhi), Thought and Words (Si yu yan), Chinese Cultural Renaissance Monthly (Zhonghua wenhua fuxing yuekan), Shih-huo Monthly (Shi huo), Bulletin of the Historical Association of the Republic of China (Zhongguo lishi xuehui shixue jikan), Chinese Historical Review (Shixue pinglun), and New History (Xin shixue). Using quantitative analysis, this article is an attempt to study their content and interests, summarize the historical theories and methodologies introduced in them, and discuss the direction of historiographical trends in Taiwan from 1945 to 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part I. Discusses the impediments between a reconciliation in East Asia. Parallelism of the relation between Taiwan and Mainland China with that between North and South Korea; Assessment of the status of the Cold War in East Asia; Issues pertaining to the era of territorial colonialism and its subsequent anti-colonialism in the region; Focus of the 1994 film, 'Dou-san,' on the colonial effects in post-Second World War Taiwan.

Explores the evolution of statutory health insurance in Taiwan from its inception in 1950 up to the inauguration of the National Health Insurance Program in 1995. Adoption of various statutory health insurance schemes; Taiwan's specific historical circumstance.

Looks back on the economic, political, and social progress made by Taiwan during the 50 years prior to 1999. Impact of World War II on the island's economy; Land reform in the early 1950s; Challenges of political repression, economic destruction, and social distress faced by Taiwan in its first two decades as the Republic of China.

Presents a chronology of major events in Taiwan from the year 1945 to 1993.

This article provides an introduction to two new types of local gazetteers that appeared in post-World War II China and Taiwan. One gazetteer, "Zunyi Xin Zhi" (Zunyi New Gazeetteer), which began publication in Hangzhou, China, in 1948, sprung from a temporary academic institution created during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War by student and faculty members of Zhejiang University. The other gazetteer, "Yangming Shan Xin Fangzhi" (New Yangming Shan Gazetteer), named after an area in Taibei (Yangming Shan), Taiwan, began publishing in 1967. Both gazetteers are built on the traditional concept of a local gazetteer, but each added elements that were more relevant to late-20th-century society. In a "Critique" at the end of the article, Song Xi provides commentary on these and other innovative forms of gazetteers. [ABSTRACT FROM CONTRIBUTOR]

The article presents an exploration into the history of computing and information technology development in the 1950s and 1960s in Taiwan. Details are given highlighting the influence of the Cold War on the foreign aid given to the nation during the period, including technological support. The large-scale importation of electronics into the nation through United Nations foreign aid programs for economic management purposes is particularly discussed. Conclusions are offered asserting the importance of considering international factors in the history of computing.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the social and political history of the Philippines and U.S. foreign policy, political hegemony, and the impact of Cold War on the people in Jinmen, Taiwan.