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Memories of the Future: National Identity Issues and the Search for a New Taiwan
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Comments/Reviews
Description: A five year collaborative effort, this book carefully analyzes the emergence of national feelings in Taiwan, their historical roots, and their contemporary manifestations. It addreses questions central to the looming and threatening international issue of Taiwan/China.
Part one considers the historical events that help to explain the emergence and development of a separatist, dissident discourse in Taiwan. The second part deals with the current issue of national identity transition. The final part places the national identity debate in a broader perspective by focusing on the larger issues of the maturation of the national identity question.
Selected Contents:
List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Taiwan, A Laboratory of Identities, StTphane Corcuff
Part I: Historical Roots
1. The Taiwan Republic of 1895 and the Failure of the Qing Modernizing Project, Andrew Morris
2. The February 28 Incident and National Identity, Robert Edmondson
3. Who Joined the Clandestine Political Organization? Some Preliminary Evidence from the Overseas Taiwan Independence Movement, Wei-der Shu
Part II: The Transition of National Identity
4. The Symbolic Dimension of Democratization and the Transition of National Identity under Lee Teng-hui, StTphane Corcuff
5. Mirrors & Masks: An Interpretative Study of Mainlanders' Identity Dilemma, Kuang-chnn Li
6. The Evolution of National Identity Issues in Democratizing Taiwan: An Investigation of the Elite-Mass Linkage, Tsong-jyi Lin
7. National Identity and Ethnicity in Taiwan: Some Trends in the 1990s, Robert Marsh
Part III: Perspectives on Ethnicity and Taiwanese Nationalism
8. Taiwan's "Mainlanders," New Taiwanese?, StTphane Corcuff
9. Toward a Pragmatic Nationalism: Democratization and Taiwan's Passive Revolution, Rwei-Ren Wu
10. The Political Formation of Taiwanese Nationalism, Chia-lung Lin
Conclusion: History, The Memories of the Future, StTphane Corcuff
About the Editor and Contributors
Glossary
Index
Comment(s): "An excellent new book, involving a very talented group of collaborators. The results are stimulating, especially the chapter on Waishengren." -- William C. Kirby, Harvard University
"Stephane Corcuff and his colleagues have raised Taiwan scholarship to a new level. Combining an historical approach with analysis of new public opinion data, this impressive study elucidates how ideas, attitudes, sentiments, and perceptions about individual and collective identity have changed throughout Taiwan's history, especially in the last fifteen years of rapid democratization. It conveys a new understanding of how events and forces have influenced the evolving beliefs of the Taiwan people, and therefore deserves a wide readership, especially by the leaders and elite in the People's Republic of China." -- Ramon H. Myers, Curator, East Asian Archives, Hoover Institution
"Rich in data and theoretical reasoning, this is an impressive collection of informed and scholarly works on contending national identities in Taiwan. From different angles the authors find and interpret the origins of both Chinese and Taiwanese identity while situated in a larger historical and global framework. It should be interesting to a wide range of concerned scholars studying nationalism, democratization, and post-colonialism." -- Chang Mankuei, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica
"In a masterly survey on the Taiwanization of Taiwan's mainlanders, or Waishengren, Stephane Corcuff explains the origin and subtleties of the term, its categories and subcategories and, as a multi-layered concept, the way it flutters between two poles of Taiwan and China. Corcuff tries to capture, like a bird in flight, a moment in the transition of Taiwan's identity from provincial status to one of national entity. He does it very well, while drawing attention to the tendency of the People's Republic of China to view identity as immutable and hence inflexible. The book is not easy to read but it is worth the effort, especially when you come to the timeless thoughts about Taiwan's past and future in the conclusions by editor Corcuff.The book should be read by those who advise China's leadership on the mainland's Taiwan policy." -- Gary Klintworth, Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia
"A marvelous book. Corcuff s notion of 'identification as a process' permeates many chapters, and they are simply great." -- Tun-jen Cheng, College of William and Mary
"I bought Memories of the Future and have been referring to it constantly. It is one of the best edited volumes I have ever read." -- Scott Simon, University of Ottawa
Review(s): "... worth the effort, especially when you come to the timeless thoughts about Taiwan's past and future in the conclusions by editor Corcuff. ... the book should be read by those who advise China's leadership on the mainland's Taiwan policy." -- Taipei Review
"Useful at all levels." -- Choice
"...yet another good one in the M.E. Sharpe series on "Taiwan and the Modern World"...students of Taiwan will want to read this book, and students of China should read it, so that they can develop a less stereotypical and Sinocentric view of Taiwan politics than the one that currently prevails." -- The Journal of Asian Studies
"Particularily innovative is the manner in which the linear unfolding of the book allows the reader to discern various aspects of state-society relations in Taiwanese identity politics hithero neglected or obscured." -- IIAS Newsletter #31
"Those of us who teach about Taiwan will be inclined to place this book on our required reading list as it provides the best overall assessment in English available thus far." -- American Journal of Chinese Studies
"...this is a sound work on Taiwan's national identity." -- Global Change, Peace & Security, Vol. 15, No. 2
"...definitely a worthwhile purchase." -- IIAS Newsletter No. 31
"Talk about a timely book! ... Corcuff and his colleagues have done the field of Taiwan studies a service with this admirable collection." -- China Review International
    
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