Nationalism, national identity and narratives of reunification in Taiwanese self-conscious nation building process – a case for independence.

Abstract

Taiwan’s nation building process is often apprehended mainly from the angle of Cross-strait relations, or of Taiwan’s place in psychologically-laden Chinese Great Nationalism, whereas no great room is left to follow the crafting of Taiwanese national identity throughout the country’s peculiar history and liminal position in the international system. This thesis will examine the rise of Taiwanese national conscience, considering it from the different perspectives of history and politics, economy, and ethnography. Within the framework of the main literature on Nationalism, and especially the works of Anderson and Gellner, this work will provide sufficient elements, if not to recognize de facto sovereignty to Taiwan, at least to better understand why it makes no sense to claim it as part of China since ancient times. After de-constructing, re-constructing again: observing the unravelling of Formosa’s history will hopefully shed some light on Taiwan’s peculiar path, divergent from China’s, and on the issue of Taiwanese sovereignty.