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Explaining Dual Identity in Taiwan: A Two-Dimensional Perspective on National Identity
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of change in national identity, and of the majority who opt for the ‘statusquo’ have led to different conclusions about the nature of Taiwanese nation-alism, and to conflicting speculations of Taiwan’s future relations with thePRC as well.
This article proposes a two-dimensional perspective on the study of na-
tionalist politics in Taiwan. A more sophisticated picture of the changeof Taiwan’s national identity after the democratic transition is presentedwith two-dimensional perspective. Based on the analyses of empirical data,this paper finds that with the emergence and rapid rise of new Taiwaneseidentity during this period, Chinese identity nevertheless has maintained itspopularity. Contrary to the assertion of many researchers, the rising of newTaiwanese identity did not have the effect of replacing the Chinese identity.This finding points out that the ‘either-or’ perspective of national identitymay limit our understanding of Taiwan’s nationalist politics. The findingalso suggests that the conventional explanation of the change of nationalidentity shift in Taiwan in the past decade as a result of the nation-buildingproject of the Taiwanese nationalist movement is inadequate. A new theoryable to explain adequately this particularity of Taiwan’s nationalist politicsseems in urgent need.
Secondly, separating this period into three different stages, this paper
finds that, for the major period of time, two national identities compatiblycoexisted among the same group of people. A large portion of people heldneither an exclusive Taiwanese identity nor an exclusive Chinese identity,but dual identity, measured in terms of self-identification and attitudes to-ward Taiwan independence and Chinese unification. The predominance ofthe dual identity suggests that, in contrast to popular impression, Taiwan’ssociety is not divided by two antagonistic national identities. More impor-tantly, this article argues that for those large amounts of people who acceptboth independence and unification, they do not lack identity. On the con-trary, they have multiple identities. And the multiple identities we foundcoexistent among them are not the combination of the local with the na-tional, nor that of the political with the cultural. They are both “national”in nature. Its Taiwanese-ness component is expressed in its search for polit-ical autonomy, and self-determination while its Chinese-ness component isexpressed in its imagination of a Chinese nation (nation state). This findingsuggests the inadequacy of rational choice paradigm in explaining nationalidentities and its prediction of future relation between Taiwan and China.It is widely assumed that security concerns and China’s economic prosper-ity are major factors explaining people’s preferences to independence and
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| | Authors: Shen, Shiau-chi. |
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of change in national identity, and of the majority who opt for the ‘status
quo’ have led to different conclusions about the nature of Taiwanese nation-
alism, and to conflicting speculations of Taiwan’s future relations with the
PRC as well.
This article proposes a two-dimensional perspective on the study of na-
tionalist politics in Taiwan. A more sophisticated picture of the change
of Taiwan’s national identity after the democratic transition is presented
with two-dimensional perspective. Based on the analyses of empirical data,
this paper finds that with the emergence and rapid rise of new Taiwanese
identity during this period, Chinese identity nevertheless has maintained its
popularity. Contrary to the assertion of many researchers, the rising of new
Taiwanese identity did not have the effect of replacing the Chinese identity.
This finding points out that the ‘either-or’ perspective of national identity
may limit our understanding of Taiwan’s nationalist politics. The finding
also suggests that the conventional explanation of the change of national
identity shift in Taiwan in the past decade as a result of the nation-building
project of the Taiwanese nationalist movement is inadequate. A new theory
able to explain adequately this particularity of Taiwan’s nationalist politics
seems in urgent need.
Secondly, separating this period into three different stages, this paper
finds that, for the major period of time, two national identities compatibly
coexisted among the same group of people. A large portion of people held
neither an exclusive Taiwanese identity nor an exclusive Chinese identity,
but dual identity, measured in terms of self-identification and attitudes to-
ward Taiwan independence and Chinese unification. The predominance of
the dual identity suggests that, in contrast to popular impression, Taiwan’s
society is not divided by two antagonistic national identities. More impor-
tantly, this article argues that for those large amounts of people who accept
both independence and unification, they do not lack identity. On the con-
trary, they have multiple identities. And the multiple identities we found
coexistent among them are not the combination of the local with the na-
tional, nor that of the political with the cultural. They are both “national”
in nature. Its Taiwanese-ness component is expressed in its search for polit-
ical autonomy, and self-determination while its Chinese-ness component is
expressed in its imagination of a Chinese nation (nation state). This finding
suggests the inadequacy of rational choice paradigm in explaining national
identities and its prediction of future relation between Taiwan and China.
It is widely assumed that security concerns and China’s economic prosper-
ity are major factors explaining people’s preferences to independence and
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