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Explaining Dual Identity in Taiwan: A Two-Dimensional Perspective on National Identity
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measurement focusing solely on political domain, the domination of dualidentity would disappear, and the majority of the populace would have ei-ther a Chinese national identity or a Taiwanese national identity. If the firsthypothesis is correct, in which Taiwanese identity is local/regional in nature,we would see the domination of Chinese identity. If the second hypothesisis correct, in which Chinese identity is cultural in nature, we would seethe domination of Taiwanese identity. The expectations of both competinghypotheses are not confirmed by our data analysis.
Graph 1 shows the distribution of national identities in Taiwan from
1992 to 2003. (The percentage distribution of the nine categories during thisperiod can be found in Table 3). As Graph 1 demonstrates, even thoughthe questions posed are about the preference for the boundary of politicalcommunity in the future, there are still a large proportion of respondentsholding dual identity. Under this measurement, the category of dual identitydid not disappear. It even steadily grew in these years, and from 1996 onbecame the largest group in the sample. This existence of the dual identity,measured in terms of the boundary of political community, shows clearlythat they are not the combination of two different domains, whether thelocal with the national, or the political with the cultural. In addition, alarge number of persons upholding both identities seem to suggest that thecoexistence of the two national identities among the same people was notconflicting. Two national identities are compatible. As Graph 1 points out,only half of the population in Taiwan held a national identity which treatsChinese and Taiwanese as mutually exclusive, while for the other half, theyare not. The conventional polarized ‘either-or’ assumption seems to ignorethe attitudes of the latter half of population. The fact that a significantproportion of the population hold two national identities at the same timehas important implications for both the theory of nationalism in general andthe explanation of dual identity in particular.
(Graph 1 about here)
(Table 3 about here)
Graph 1 suggests that the first competing hypothesis is incorrect. The
hypothesis assumes that dual identity is the combination of Taiwanese localidentity with Chinese national identity. Therefore, as this hypothesis wouldconclude, the predominance of the dual identity reflects not the coexistenceof the two national identities but the domination of Chinese identity. Butthe Chinese nationalists in Graph 1 failed to meet the expectation of this
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| | Authors: Shen, Shiau-chi. |
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measurement focusing solely on political domain, the domination of dual
identity would disappear, and the majority of the populace would have ei-
ther a Chinese national identity or a Taiwanese national identity. If the first
hypothesis is correct, in which Taiwanese identity is local/regional in nature,
we would see the domination of Chinese identity. If the second hypothesis
is correct, in which Chinese identity is cultural in nature, we would see
the domination of Taiwanese identity. The expectations of both competing
hypotheses are not confirmed by our data analysis.
Graph 1 shows the distribution of national identities in Taiwan from
1992 to 2003. (The percentage distribution of the nine categories during this
period can be found in Table 3). As Graph 1 demonstrates, even though
the questions posed are about the preference for the boundary of political
community in the future, there are still a large proportion of respondents
holding dual identity. Under this measurement, the category of dual identity
did not disappear. It even steadily grew in these years, and from 1996 on
became the largest group in the sample. This existence of the dual identity,
measured in terms of the boundary of political community, shows clearly
that they are not the combination of two different domains, whether the
local with the national, or the political with the cultural. In addition, a
large number of persons upholding both identities seem to suggest that the
coexistence of the two national identities among the same people was not
conflicting. Two national identities are compatible. As Graph 1 points out,
only half of the population in Taiwan held a national identity which treats
Chinese and Taiwanese as mutually exclusive, while for the other half, they
are not. The conventional polarized ‘either-or’ assumption seems to ignore
the attitudes of the latter half of population. The fact that a significant
proportion of the population hold two national identities at the same time
has important implications for both the theory of nationalism in general and
the explanation of dual identity in particular.
(Graph 1 about here)
(Table 3 about here)
Graph 1 suggests that the first competing hypothesis is incorrect. The
hypothesis assumes that dual identity is the combination of Taiwanese local
identity with Chinese national identity. Therefore, as this hypothesis would
conclude, the predominance of the dual identity reflects not the coexistence
of the two national identities but the domination of Chinese identity. But
the Chinese nationalists in Graph 1 failed to meet the expectation of this
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