Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s to 1950s
What does it mean to be Taiwanese? This question sits at the heart of Taiwan’s modern history and its place in the world. In contrast to the prevailing scholarly focus on Taiwan after 1987, Becoming Taiwanese examines the important first era in the history of Taiwanese identity construction during the early twentieth century, in the place that served as the crucible for the formation of new identities: the northern port city of Jilong (Keelung).

Part colonial urban social history, part exploration of the relationship between modern ethnicity and nationalism, Becoming Taiwanese offers new insights into ethnic identity formation. Evan Dawley examines how people from China’s southeastern coast became rooted in Taiwan; how the transfer to Japanese colonial rule established new contexts and relationships that promoted the formation of distinct urban, ethnic, and national identities; and how the so-called retrocession to China replicated earlier patterns and reinforced those same identities. Based on original research in Taiwan and Japan, and focused on the settings and practices of social organizations, religion, and social welfare, as well as the local elites who served as community gatekeepers, Becoming Taiwanese fundamentally challenges our understanding of what it means to be Taiwanese.

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Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s to 1950s
What does it mean to be Taiwanese? This question sits at the heart of Taiwan’s modern history and its place in the world. In contrast to the prevailing scholarly focus on Taiwan after 1987, Becoming Taiwanese examines the important first era in the history of Taiwanese identity construction during the early twentieth century, in the place that served as the crucible for the formation of new identities: the northern port city of Jilong (Keelung).

Part colonial urban social history, part exploration of the relationship between modern ethnicity and nationalism, Becoming Taiwanese offers new insights into ethnic identity formation. Evan Dawley examines how people from China’s southeastern coast became rooted in Taiwan; how the transfer to Japanese colonial rule established new contexts and relationships that promoted the formation of distinct urban, ethnic, and national identities; and how the so-called retrocession to China replicated earlier patterns and reinforced those same identities. Based on original research in Taiwan and Japan, and focused on the settings and practices of social organizations, religion, and social welfare, as well as the local elites who served as community gatekeepers, Becoming Taiwanese fundamentally challenges our understanding of what it means to be Taiwanese.

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Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s to 1950s

Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s to 1950s

by Evan N. Dawley
Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s to 1950s

Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s to 1950s

by Evan N. Dawley

Hardcover

$65.00 
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Overview

What does it mean to be Taiwanese? This question sits at the heart of Taiwan’s modern history and its place in the world. In contrast to the prevailing scholarly focus on Taiwan after 1987, Becoming Taiwanese examines the important first era in the history of Taiwanese identity construction during the early twentieth century, in the place that served as the crucible for the formation of new identities: the northern port city of Jilong (Keelung).

Part colonial urban social history, part exploration of the relationship between modern ethnicity and nationalism, Becoming Taiwanese offers new insights into ethnic identity formation. Evan Dawley examines how people from China’s southeastern coast became rooted in Taiwan; how the transfer to Japanese colonial rule established new contexts and relationships that promoted the formation of distinct urban, ethnic, and national identities; and how the so-called retrocession to China replicated earlier patterns and reinforced those same identities. Based on original research in Taiwan and Japan, and focused on the settings and practices of social organizations, religion, and social welfare, as well as the local elites who served as community gatekeepers, Becoming Taiwanese fundamentally challenges our understanding of what it means to be Taiwanese.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674237209
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 04/16/2019
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs , #420
Pages: 426
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Evan N. Dawley is Assistant Professor of History at Goucher College.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables, Maps ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Abbreviations xvii

Note to the Reader xxi

Introduction 1

1 Building and Populating a Vanguard City 27

2 "Love of City and Love of Self": Constructing Identities in the Crucible of Jilong 78

3 "Civilization Enters Here": Local Elites, Social Organizations, and the Reterritorialization of Jilong 119

4 Sacred Spaces: Religions and the Construction of Identities 161

5 Realms of Welfare: Social Work and Border Defense 205

6 Defining New Boundaries in the Reconstruction of Jilong, 1945-1947 247

7 Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the Re-creation of Jilong, 1945-1955 290

Epilogue: History, Memory, and the Usage and Utility of Taiwanese Ethnicity 331

Glossary 349

Bibliography 353

Index 391

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