Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 Editorial matter, selection and conclusion © Steve Tsang 2012 All remaining chapter © respective authors 2012 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–1–137–00989–0 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 Contents List of Tables and Figures vi Preface and Acknowledgements vii Notes on Contributors ix List of Abbreviations and Acronyms xiii 1 Forces Behind the Vitality of Taiwan 1 Steve Tsang 2 The Resilience and Dynamism of Taiwan’s Democratic System 19 Shelley Rigger 3 Social Foundations of Political Vitality 37 Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao 4 Literature’s Role in Breaching the Authoritarian Mindset 57 Pei-Yin Lin 5 The Impact of Film and the Performing Arts on Life in Taiwan 80 Mark Harrison 6 The Media and the Vitality of Democratic Taiwan 98 Gary D. Rawnsley and Qian Gong 7 Cross-Strait Tensions and Taiwan’s Economic Vitality 119 Scott L. Kastner 8 Taishang as a Factor Shaping Taiwan’s Domestic Politics 139 Gunter Schubert and Shu Keng 9 Social Networks as a Source of Economic Vitality 164 Dung-sheng Chen 10 Innovation and Taiwan’s Vitality in the Knowledge Economy 190 Joseph Wong 11 Sustainability of Taiwan’s Vitality 211 Steve Tsang Index 216 v Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 1 Forces Behind the Vitality of Taiwan Steve Tsang Sources of vitality Modern Taiwan has often been described in terms of a miracle. For a long time it was its stunning economic achievements that got the limelight. Since the 1990s the successful democratization has led schol- ars to see it more in terms of political changes. Much as the people of Taiwan have every reason to be proud of their democracy and economic achievements, what really marks Taiwan out is the sheer vibrancy and vitality of the place and its people. The cultural, creative and social scenes are as full of vitality as the economy, which has re-shaped itself more than once in the post-war era. No visitor who has witnessed one can have failed to notice the colour, noise, enthusiasm and above all the vibrancy of a political election in Taiwan. As the most authentic inheri- tor of China’s Confucian tradition, the dynamism of Taiwan’s demo- cratic politics quietly but powerfully demands those who take the view that democracy is not suitable for a people steeped in the Confucian tradition to rethink and justify their assertion.1 The vitality of contemporary Taiwan cannot indeed be divorced from its democratic system and market economy. What democratization in the late 1980s unleashed was much more than a torrent of activities in politics and in civil society, significant as such a development was. It lifted restrictions and transformed the old repressive atmosphere into an essentially open and welcoming one for individuals with imagina- tion, a critical mind and creativity. It enabled the old authoritarian state to start a process of truth and reconciliation that eventually allowed its citizens to confront the conflicting demands on their sense of national and cultural identify put on them by recent history (see Chapter 5 by Mark Harrison). It allowed writers and creative thinkers to jettison the 1 Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 2 The Vitality of Taiwan limits imposed on their works by the old repressive regime (see Chapter 4 by Pei-Yin Lin). It also started the process that would transform the devel- opmental state into something less directly involved in choosing and picking winners in Taiwan’s relentless push in economic development and upgrading (see Chapter 10 by Joseph Wong). But Taiwan’s source of vitality goes beyond the political and eco- nomic systems. They merely laid down the framework for how people in Taiwan choose to live their lives. Once the old authoritarian system was being dismantled, it unleashed forces for change from different quarters. The activism of civil society (see Michael Hsiao’s analysis in Chapter 3) and the rise of a vibrant media (see Chapter 6 by Gary Rawnsley and Qian Gong) were to be expected. But it also brought forth forces for change from unexpected quarters. A particularly noteworthy one was the community of Taiwanese who had gone to the outside world, in particular the United States of America (USA), for higher education but then chose to settle in their host countries to escape the repressive authoritarian regime of the preceding decades. Many of them returned to Taiwan. As Joseph Wong explains in Chapter 10, they provided a large pool of highly educated and trained talent in a short space of time and played a very important role in building up Taiwan’s high technology manufacturing sector and research capacity. They also, according to Dung-sheng Chen (see Chapter 9), contributed greatly to the formation of transnational private and professional networks that enabled Taiwan to upgrade and modernize its economy. Above all, these returnees knew the language and culture but had little intention to give up what they had become accustomed to in the West as they sought to build a new Taiwan in the democratic era. Most of them were Taiwanese-Americans, and many retained this identity. But others re-integrated into Taiwanese society so well that they might as well be seen as American-Taiwanese. Whatever their personal sense of identity, be it multilayered and multidimensional or not, their return brought aspects of life in America and, to a considerably lesser extent, of Japan and Europe to the people of Taiwan, inspiring in particular the younger generations. Their efforts to build new careers for themselves quickly built up a momentum to push boundaries. They became an additional force that encouraged and supported the local residents to assert themselves as the old authoritarianism started to retreat. Taiwan’s vitality is rooted also in the modern historical experience and recognition that democracy is not a value or a political system that can be taken for granted. The people of Taiwan know that they cannot afford to be complacent. In their struggle to transform Taiwan from an Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–00989–0 Forces Behind the Vitality of Taiwan 3 authoritarian system to a democratic one, they had to confront not only the vested interests of the old Kuomintang (KMT) authoritarian regime on the island but also, as highlighted by Shelly Rigger in Chapter 2, the powerful irredentist regime of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) across the Taiwan Strait. The movement from below for democratic development in September 1986 quickly took on a life of its own, once the then strongman Chiang Ching-kuo indicated he would not suppress the technically illegal for- mation of an opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).2 There is no doubt that Chiang’s personal intervention was critical in pre-empting the old authoritarian regime – dominated by the KMT, which had control over the government, the armed forces and the secu- rity services – pushing back at this critical juncture in Taiwan’s history.3 Experience elsewhere, such as the military’s pushback after the Arab Spring in Egypt in 2011, reinforces the need to acknowledge Chiang’s positive contribution as Taiwan reached a turning point. Nevertheless, it was the movement from below that came to define the characteristics of Taiwan’s democracy that emerged (see Chapter 3 by Michael Hsiao). This courageous push from below and the strongman’s decision to exer- cise great self-restraint inspired and invigorated civil society and greatly promoted social movements. It was this breakthrough that marked the beginning of large-scale protests (involving over 5000 protestors) and social movements.4 The democratic breakthrough unleashed, albeit somewhat gingerly at first, the residents of Taiwan from the fear of repression that was prevalent hitherto.