CULTURAL, ETHNIC, AND POLITICAL NATIONALISM IN CONTEMPORARY TAIWAN: BENTUHUA; ED. BY JOHN MAKEHAM

In the opening chapter, " 'Taiwanization' in Taiwan's Politics," J. Bruce Jacobs provides a detailed account of changes in Taiwan's political landscape over the past quarter-century, plotting the advances in democratization and an increasing bentuhua trend during the 1990s. He traces the impetus for these developments to the rise of the dangwai (literally, "outside the [Chinese Nationalist] Party") in the late 1970s. Based on his analysis of articles published in the opposition movement's magazine, Meilidao , Jacobs argues that the key political issue the dangwai movement sought to promote was democracy: "the issue of 'Taiwanization' or bentuhua received almost no attention at this time." The first half of the chapter introduces and analyzes the significance of a range of political issues in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The second half of this chapter deals with political events in the process of democratization from the late 1980s until today, under the rule of presidents Li Denghui (Chinese Nationalist Party [Zhongguo guomin dang ; GMD]) and Chen Shuibian (Democratic Progressive Party [Minzhu jinbu dang ; DPP]). Jacobs concludes, "the key element of politics under presidents Li and Chen has been 'democratization' not Taiwan 'nationalism' " and insists that it was the process of evolving democratization that provided the political climate which facilitated the expression of the bentuhua phenomenon of Taiwan consciousness rather than the other way around. Fu-chang Wang's chapter, "Why Bother About School Textbooks?: An Analysis of the Origin of the Disputes over Renshi Taiwan Textbooks in 1997," is also concerned with political upheavals in Taiwan such that today, "unlike twenty years ago, 'Chineseness' is no longer regarded as the core element in Taiwanese cultural identity." Wang explores this development by framing one particular question against a broad background of ethnic and nationalistic politics: "In 1989 the Minister of Education decided to add a new course of Renshi Taiwan (Getting to Know Taiwan) in the seventh grade. The decision was accepted without any controversy. In June 1997, just after the Renshi Taiwan textbooks were finally finished and three months before their scheduled adoption by all seventh graders throughout the country, a series of disputes and conflicts broke out over them. The conflicts, in the news media and on the streets, lasted for two months and ended abruptly when the commissioners in charge decided to release the textbooks as scheduled after some minor revision ## Identity in Literature Rosemary Haddon's essay, "Being/not Being at Home in the Writing of Zhu Tianxin" (chapter 3), explores the dissonance between the sentiments expressed in the novella, Gudu (Ancient Capital; 1997), and the exclusionary practices of bentuhua in which Taiwan's differences from China are emphasized. Haddon traces the ascendancy of the bentuhua political movement to the 1980s, one consequence of which was that by the early 1990s, many "mainlanders" (waishengren ) 2 felt a growing sense of political and social alienation. Consistent with what Fu-chang Wang has termed a shift from a "China-centered paradigm" to a "Taiwan-centered paradigm," Haddon similarly identifies a crisis within the émigré community that "forced a paradigmatic shift from the view of China as the 'old home' to a perception of it as the 'old country' (yuanxiang), that is, the place from which one comes and to which it was no longer possible to return." Haddon's focus is on the human face of this paradigm shift. Recent visitors to Taipei would have noticed that prerecorded announcements on Taipei's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system informing passengers of the name of the next station are now given in English, Madarin, Hoklo, and Hakka. In February 2004, TV viewers were treated to a slick advertisement designed to sell Chen Shuibian's bid for reelection in the March elections. The advertisement presents ## A Note on the Term Bentuhua Contributors to this volume disagreed on how to translate the term bentuhua into English. During the workshop held in preparing for this volume and in ensuing discussions, various translations were suggested, including "localization" (and its related term "localism"), "nativization," "indigenization," and "Taiwanization" (Taiwanhua ). Jacobs discusses these translations in chapter 1 and argues that localism may refer to a narrow concern for one's local community rather than the national one. In the context of discussing national identity in Taiwan, such a connotation would be misleading. As he points out, this term is also misleading because it "fits too closely with the Chinese view of Taiwan as a 'local' government." The drawback with indigenization is that it could be used to refer to the identity politics of Aboriginal Taiwanese instead of the issue this book focuses on. Rejecting nativization as somewhat vague, Jacobs argues that Taiwanization is the most appropriate translation, faithful in spirit because it "translates the meaning rather than the literal text of the word bentuhua." Since the 1970s, politically indigenization has principally referred to the process whereby benshengren demand and secure full civil citizenship, achieve equal political citizenship and political power, and are able to pursue the goal of a distinct nationstate status for Taiwan. Culturally it refers to the general idea that the uniqueness of Taiwanese society/culture/history must be appreciated and interpreted from the viewpoint of the Taiwanese people per se. In this sense, Jacobs' translation of bentuhua as Taiwanization is apt. 20 In Taiwan today, however, the term "bentuhua"-the closest literal translation equivalents of which are indigenization and nativizationis much more popular than "Taiwanhua." As editors, we have allowed individual contributors to adopt whichever translation they feel is appropriate and to adopt alternative translations according to the context. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 Introduction......Page 8 I: Democratization and Nationalism......Page 22 1 “Taiwanization” in Taiwan’s Politics......Page 24 2 Why Bother about School Textbooks?: An Analysis of the Origin of the Disputes over Renshi Taiwan Textbooks in 1997......Page 62 II: Identity in Literature......Page 108 3 Being/Not Being at Home in the Writing of Zhu Tianxin......Page 110 4 The Indigenization of Taiwanese Literature: Historical Narrative, Strategic Essentialism, and State Violence......Page 132 III: Memory and the Built Environment......Page 164 5 Reading History Through the Built Environment in Taiwan......Page 166 IV: The “China-centered” Paradigm and Indigenization......Page 192 6 Indigenization Discourse in Taiwanese Confucian Revivalism......Page 194 7 The Movement to Indigenize the Social Sciences in Taiwan: Origin and Predicaments......Page 228 Epilogue: Bentuhua—An Endeavor for Normalizing a Would-Be Nation-State?......Page 268 Notes on Contributors......Page 284 C......Page 286 F......Page 288 I......Page 289 L......Page 290 P......Page 291 S......Page 292 W......Page 293 Z......Page 294 The essays in this volume analyze what is arguably the single most important aspect of cultural and political change in Taiwan over the past quarter-century: the trend toward "indigenization" (bentuhua). Focusing on the indigenization of politics and culture and its close connection with the identity politics of ethnicity and nationalism, Cultural, Ethnic, and Political Nationalism in Contemporary Taiwan is an attempt to map prominent contours of the indigenization paradigm as it has unfolded in Taiwan. The opening chapters concern the origin and nature of the trend toward indigenization with its roots in the unique historical trajectory of politics and culture in Taiwan. Subsequent chapters deal with responses and reactions to indigenization in a variety of social, cultural, and intellectual domains. This volume analyzes what is arguably the single most important aspect of cultural and political change in Taiwan over the past quarter-century: the trend toward 'indigenization' (bentuhua). Focusing on the indigenization of politics and culture and its close connection with the identity politics of ethnicity and nationalism, this volume is an attempt to map prominent contours of the indigenization paradigm as it has unfolded in Taiwan. The opening chapters concern the origin and nature of the trend toward indigenization with its roots in the unique historical trajectory of politics and culture in Taiwan. Subsequent chapters deal with responses and reactions to indigenization in a variety of social, cultural and intellectual domains. "The essays in this volume analyze what is arguably the single most important aspect of cultural and political change in Taiwan over the past quarter-century: the trend toward "indigenization" (bentubua). Focusing on the indigenization of politics and culture and its close connection with the identity politics of ethnicity and nationalism, Cultural, Ethnic, and Political Nationalism in Contemporary Taiwan is an attempt to map prominent contours of the indigenization paradigm as it has unfolded in Taiwan."--Jacket
This volume analyzes what is arguably the single most important aspect of cultural and political change in Taiwan over the past quarter-century: the trend toward indigenization (bentuhua). Focusing on the indigenization of politics and culture and its close connection with the identity politics of ethnicity and nationalism, this volume is an attempt to map prominent contours of the indigenization paradigm as it has unfolded in Taiwan.