Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism analyses the development of Taiwanese cultural ideology and its role in Taiwan's political change. It examines how the concept of a "Taiwanese nation" has been created by intellectuals who challenge Taiwan's political structure and are opposed to reunification with China. These intellectuals include writers, literary critics, local language revivalists, and both amateur and professional historians. Hsiau examines the ways in which these groups articulate the uniqueness of Taiwanese culture by reclaiming a distinctive literary heritage, linguistic tradition and historical development, in order to justify a nationalist project of political restructuring. Historically, political nationalism has usually been preceded by a long period of cultural nationalism. In the case of Taiwan, however, the author argues that cultural nationalism emerged almost simultaneously with its political counterpart. Hsiau examines the implications for our theoretical understanding of nationalist movements of this reversal of historical sequence, and provides a systematic analysis of the role played by humanist intellectuals in nation building.
Drawing on a wide range of Chinese historical and contemporary texts, Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism addresses diverse subjects including nationalist literature; language ideology; the crafting of a national history; the impact of Japanese colonialism and the increasingly strained relationship between China and Taiwan. This book is essential reading for all scholars of the history, culture and politics of Taiwan.