Negotiations of Taiwan's identity among generations of liuxuesheng (overseas students) and Taiwanese Americans

This multi-locale ethnography explores conceptualizations of Taiwan's identity among generations of liuxuesheng (overseas students) and second-generation Taiwanese Americans, for insight into the way "homeland" is defined, represented, and remembered among diasporic populations. Original contributions are made to collective memory theory by expanding historic generation models to accommodate immigrant historicity, as well as discussions in diaspora studies of inter- and intra-generational dynamics. This research recognizes that "Taiwanese" and "Chinese" are social constructs, reified and contested. By studying the identity of a place, the Taiwanese/Chinese identity dichotomy in academic and popular discourse is de-centered, creating greater theoretical space to consider collective memory and historic generation formation in diaspora.;Without formal recognition in the United Nations since 1971, the people of Taiwan have come to a broad consensus to maintain the status quo of strategic ambiguity, an arrangement rejected by a fringe minority advocating rapid reunification with China, as well as those who call for an immediate declaration of de jure independence. During four decades of martial law in Taiwan (1947-1987) politically active overseas students redefined concepts of the "homeland" from a province of China to a more Taiwan-centric identity. Competing student associations served to localize inter- and intra-generational negotiations, with official Republic of China student associations existing alongside unsanctioned Taiwan-centric groups, and joined in the mid-1990s by second-generation Taiwanese American student associations.;Based on interviews with generations of liuxuesheng leaders and activists, participant-observation with student groups, a comparison of "homeland" tours, and an analysis of student association websites, this dissertation presents contrasting conceptualizations of Taiwan held among generations of liuxuesheng and Taiwanese Americans. "Formosan" Taiwan emphasizes Taiwan's colonial past, and emerged from the counter-hegemonic pathos of a people long subjugated by foreign rule. Members of subsequent cohorts of liuxuesheng, faced with the repression of local traditions and language in Taiwan, emphasized Taiwanese cultural authenticity as the foundation of national identity. The youngest generation in the U.S. simplifies cultural nationalist discourse to create markers of Taiwanese "authenticity" in the context of multiculturalism in the U.S. "New Taiwan" emphasizes the four ethnic groups who share a common history of migration, and a future of common fate. Each of these contrasts with earlier conceptualization of Taiwan as a Japanese colony, and as a province of China. Finally, Taiwan may be the moral destination of a search for a lost heritage, roots-seeking, often with ambivalence toward the issue of national sovereignty. This research further indicates that conceptualizations of Taiwan held by generations of liuxuesheng were shaped by powerful events experienced in youth and young adulthood, including, for elder informants, a radical redefinition of the "homeland" once abroad. In contrast, second-generation Taiwanese Americans exploring Taiwan in terms of cultural "roots" rarely adopted anti-Chinese nationalism.