This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Storm, C. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Dominant Migrants in Taiwan

Migrant Discourse, Settlement, and Identity

Center for East Asian Studies, Dresden University of Technology, Germany

Taiwan has a remarkable history of immigration. Most of the people in Taiwan today can be regarded as descendants of migrants who arrived in a number of major migration waves. In the course of the cultural studies project, migration of newcomers is often dealt with in terms of marginalization and vulnerability of migrants. The case of Taiwan, however, differs from that matrix since it had always been the migrant groups who after an exceptionally short time obtained a dominant position on the island. It is a truism that the heritage of migration continues to influence the society's self-awareness. Additionally, Taiwan as a de facto independent entity is a "new nation"—like Singapore or Israel—and it faces severe problems in determining its national identity at the borderline of external and internal challenges. The article analyzes the Taiwanese identity debate under the framework of migration issues and its strategic use of the postmodern discourse of marginalization. Both contribute to some features in the Taiwanese quest for identity. These features consist of the very specific mixture of political, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural aspects, the borders of inclusion and exclusion in the construction of a Taiwanese "we," and the intransigence of the debate. The specific migrant heritage of Taiwan and an evolving perception of "suffering" ( ) will be employed to explain these traits.

Key Words: identity • migration • marginalization • ethnicity • Taiwaneseness

China Information, Vol. 22, No. 1, 39-65 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0920203X07087721


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?