Between Civic and Ethnic The Transformation of Taiwanese Nationalist Ideologies (1895 – 2000) Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculteit Economische, Sociale en Politieke Wetenschappen en Solvay Business School Vakgroep Politieke Wetenschappen Between Civic and Ethnic The Transformation of Taiwanese Nationalist Ideologies (1895 – 2000) Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Xiaokun Song Promotor: Prof. Patrick Stouthuysen Print: DCL Print & Sign, Zelzate © 2009 Uitgeverij VUBPRESS Brussels University Press VUBPRESS is an imprint of ASP nv (Academic and Scientific Publishers nv) Ravensteingalerij 28 B-1000 Brussels Tel. ++32 (0)2 289 26 50 Fax ++32 (0)2 289 26 59 E-mail: [email protected] www.vubpress.be ISBN 978 90 5487 575 8 NUR 754 Legal deposit D/2009/11.161/029 All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. CONTENTS CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... ix NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION .................................................................................... xi 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 3 2 Theoretical Framework Contemporary Theories of Nationalism: Definition and Typology ..................... 15 2.1 Defining Nationalism .................................................................................... 15 2.2 Typologies of Nationalism ............................................................................ 18 2.3 Summary ....................................................................................................... 43 3 General Background of Taiwan: Land, History, and People ............................ 49 3.1 Land .............................................................................................................. 49 3.2 Brief History of Taiwan ................................................................................ 50 3.3 People: Population and Ethnic Composition ................................................ 54 4 Contemporary Scholarship of Taiwanese Nationalism ....................................... 59 4.1 Defining Taiwanese Nationalism .................................................................. 61 4.2 Capturing the Nature of Taiwanese Nationalism: Civic or Ethnic? ............. 69 4.3 Summary ....................................................................................................... 75 5 Taiwanese Nationalism under Japanese Colonial Rule (1895-1945) .................. 77 5.1 Policy and Structure of the Japanese Colonial Rule on Taiwan ................... 78 5.2 A Brief Overview of Taiwanese Anti-Colonial Movements .........................85 5.3 The Political Dimension of Taiwanese Nationalism .................................... 95 5.4 The Cultural Dimension of Taiwanese nationalism .................................... 109 5.5 Summary ..................................................................................................... 117 6 Taiwanese Nationalism in the Martial Law Era (1945-1987) ........................... 123 6.1 The February 28 Incident and the Resurgence of Post-war Taiwanese Nationalism ................................................................................................ 125 6.2 Challenging the GMD‟s Rule: the Overseas TIM and the Opposition Movements in Taiwan ................................................................................ 139 6.3 Diverging Conceptualisations of the Taiwanese Nation in the Overseas TIM: People, History and Language ................................................................... 148 6.4 Summary ..................................................................................................... 163 7 Taiwanese Nationalism in the Post Martial Law Taiwan (1987-2000) ............ 167 7.1 Explaining Regime Transformation ............................................................ 171 7.2 An Additional Situational Variable: the Cross-Strait Relations in Retrospect ....................................................................................................177 7.3 Conceptualisation of A Taiwanese Nation in the Political Arena: from Differences to Consensus ........................................................................... 179 v 7.4 Conceptualisation of the Taiwanese Nation in the Cultural Arena ............. 200 7.5 Summary ..................................................................................................... 212 8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 219 GLOSSARY ............................................................................................................. 227 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 231 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The idea for this dissertation was conceived during several rounds of stimulating discussion at the international conference entitled “Social Sciences and Secession” held on 27 and 28 November 1998 in Brussels and organised by the Department of Political Science of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in co-operation with the Institute for European Policy of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The related research project received generous four-year support from the Onderzoeksraad of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) from 2000 to 2004, and the dissertation was successfully defended in its present form on 30 June 2004. The dissertation explores the historical evolution of nationalist ideologies in contemporary Taiwan. Given the relevance of the topic to a world that has yet to move out of the orbit of the nation-state system, I decided to publish it. Even without further updating, the analysis done in this dissertation may prove interesting for those readers and researchers who are interested in deciphering the profound impact exerted by nationalism on identity (trans)formation in contemporary Taiwan and in gaining a better understanding of the many controversies raging over the ongoing cross-Strait integration. For the completion of the research I owe a debt to many. First of all I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Patrick Stouthuysen, who has encouraged and guided me all the way. I also want to thank the other two members of my doctoral committee, Professor Ann Heylen and Professor Stéphane Corcuff. Young but established experts in Taiwan studies, both have provided me with valuable research materials and shared with me their keen insights into various aspects of Taiwanese society. For the final version of this disseration, Professor Michael Waller has provided me with invaluable comments. I would also like to thank Professor Ye Haiyan of Soochow University (Taiwan) and my dear friend, Michael Cai, for their great help in collecting material for this research. The staff of the VUB library have provided me with top quality service in interlibrary loan throughout all these years. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Bruno Coppieters. Without his support and continuous „pushing‟ I would never have completed and published this dissertation. Xiaokun Song Brussels/Guangzhou, 2 May 2009 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CCP Chinese Communist Party DPP Democratic Progressive Party GMD Guomindang MAC Mainland Affairs Council NICT National Institute of Compilation and Translation NP New Party NUC National Unification Council PFP People First Party PRC People‟s Republic of China ROC Republic of China ROCOT Republic of China on Taiwan SEF Straits Exchange Foundation TAIP Taiwan Independence Party TWMB Taiwan Minbao TIM Taiwan Independence Movement WUFI World United Formosans for Independence ix NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION In Taiwan a number of romanising systems are in use, including (1) the older Wade-Giles system, the most predominant one, (2) pinyin and (3) some conventional terms such as Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen. To avoid confusing combination of different systems, pinyin, is adopted as the main romanisation system for transcribing Chinese charaters in the titles of all references, terms and concepts, names of persons and places in Chinese throughout the whole text. A glossary of the romanised characters is provided at the end of the book. Unless specified, all translations of quotations in Chinese are provided by the author. xi Part One Introduction Chapter One Introduction With the democratisation of Taiwan‟s authoritarian regime in the late 1980s, identity politics has become one of the most salient political phenomena on the island. In every election campaign the complex and sensitive question of national identity surfaces and intensifies in almost all political debates. During the Republic of China (ROC)‟s first Taiwan-wide direct presidential election campaign in 1996, national identity was one important issue separating the four running candidates. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate, Peng Mingmin claimed himself to be Taiwanese. In his view, being Taiwanese had nothing to do with being Chinese. While