Made in Taiwan
Om identitetskonstruktion i Taiwan
National IdentityTaiwanNarrativesCross-strait relationsPolitical and administrative sciencesStatsvetenskapFörvaltningskunskapLaw and Political Science
Taiwan's recent democratization seem to have rallied a wider support of the notion of a national identity amongst its citizens which in the year 2000 led to the election of the pro-independence party DPP and President Chen Shui-bian. Meanwhile, China insists on the "one country, two systems" formula, regarding Taiwan as merely a Chinese province, and continues to fight any Taiwanese initiative towards sovereignty. Through a narrative perspective, this essay analyzes the self-conscious national identity-building quest embarked upon by DPP and President Chen Shui-bian. The analysis consists of three parts. Firstly, a text-analysis of President Chen Shui-bian's speeches is conducted to examine in what way he enforces and legitimizes the identity-building-process through narratives. Secondly, the DPP's efforts to restructure Taiwanese history and culture to create a shared sense of belonging is examined. Finally, the study summarizes the results of the DPP-led pursuit of a Taiwanese national identity by evaluating national-identity-surveys to observe whether the Taiwanese people's self-image has changed during the last five years or not.