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Revolutionary Taiwan: Making Nationhood in a Changing World Order
In the early 1990s, the people of Taiwan gained the right to vote for their executive and legislature. In building a democratic society, they transformed how they saw themselves and their homeland. The outcome of democratization was nothing less than revolutionary, producing a new, de facto nation and people that can be justly called "Taiwanese."
Yet this revolution remains unfinished and incomplete. In an era of increasing US-China rivalry, the People's Republic of China (PRC) claims sovereignty over Taiwan and insists that "reunification" is the historic mission of all peoples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The PRC threatens war with and over the island, inviting a crisis that would engulf the region and beyond.
Common ideas about Taiwan-that it "split with China in 1949" or "sees itself as the true China"-fail to explain why the Taiwanese withstand pressure from the PRC to relinquish their democratic self-governance.
Revolutionary Taiwan sheds light on this. Each chapter shows how democratization in Taiwan constituted a revolution, changing not just the form of government but also how Taiwanese people conceptualized the island, coming to see it a complete nation unto itself. At the same time, however, Beijing has blocked the "normal" endpoint of this an open declaration of statehood and welcome into the global community.
Revolutionary Making Nationhood in a Changing World Order brings the Taiwan story to a general audience. It will appeal to students and readers interested in international relations, contemporary geopolitics, and East Asian Studies. Informed by years of academic research and life in Taiwan, this book provides an entry point to a remarkable place and people.
Yet this revolution remains unfinished and incomplete. In an era of increasing US-China rivalry, the People's Republic of China (PRC) claims sovereignty over Taiwan and insists that "reunification" is the historic mission of all peoples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The PRC threatens war with and over the island, inviting a crisis that would engulf the region and beyond.
Common ideas about Taiwan-that it "split with China in 1949" or "sees itself as the true China"-fail to explain why the Taiwanese withstand pressure from the PRC to relinquish their democratic self-governance.
Revolutionary Taiwan sheds light on this. Each chapter shows how democratization in Taiwan constituted a revolution, changing not just the form of government but also how Taiwanese people conceptualized the island, coming to see it a complete nation unto itself. At the same time, however, Beijing has blocked the "normal" endpoint of this an open declaration of statehood and welcome into the global community.
Revolutionary Making Nationhood in a Changing World Order brings the Taiwan story to a general audience. It will appeal to students and readers interested in international relations, contemporary geopolitics, and East Asian Studies. Informed by years of academic research and life in Taiwan, this book provides an entry point to a remarkable place and people.
220 pages, Paperback
Published September 3, 2024
About the author
Catherine Lila Chou
2 books1 followerCatherine Lila Chou is Assistant Professor of History at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. For six years prior, she taught at Grinnell College in Iowa, where she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2024. She holds a PhD in early modern European history from Stanford University. Dr. Chou's work has appeared in Historical Research, Parliamentary History, Journal of British Studies, and Historical Journal.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 20, 2024
In recent years, Taiwan’s profile in the US press has increased. Yet, according to the book’s authors (and another recent book), many people in the US do not have a good understanding of Taiwan, its people, and their aspirations.
This book provides the reader with many insights into the aspirations of the Taiwanese (those who live on the island), their struggle for an identity over the last century, and the challenges they faced and currently face. In their narrative, the authors move the reader from seeing Taiwan solely as a point of conflict between the US and China to understanding Taiwan as the home of 23 million people who have struggled against colonialization by Europeans, Qing China, Japan, then the KMT (Kuomintang) party-state Republic of China, and in the early 1990s to achieve in the early 1990s a blossoming of democracy and de facto self-governance.
Yet, just as the Taiwanese threw off the yoke of the KMT party-state, that had ruled with terror and martial law from 1949 to 1987 (and a bit beyond) to achieve democracy, in the early 2000s they faced the growing power of another party-state, the Chinese Communist Party (CPP), which claims Taiwan as part of China. According to the CCP, the fate of the Taiwanese is to be decided by the 1.4 billion Chinese, not the 23 million Taiwanese. The CCP aggression towards Taiwan has escalated, using economic, diplomatic, and disinformation pressures, to achieve their goal of ingesting and then homogenizing the Taiwanese, as they have with peoples and cultures in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet.
The more the CCP has applied pressure, the more many Taiwanese resist, drawing upon their unique path, first under Japanese colonialism when calls Taiwanese identity strengthen, then further after the KMT party-state administered Taiwan corruptly, resulting in the massacre of 10,000 to 20,000 of citizens on and after February 28, 1947, and finally breaking through KMT’s party-state martial law.
The book is laid out in a prologue, an epilogue, and four chapters:
1. Two Chinas Against a Taiwanese Nation
2. Four Ways of Telling Taiwanese History
3. “Chinese Taipei”: The Remapping that Explains Taiwan’s Geopolitical Predicament
4. Taiwan in the World.
That Taiwan is not an independent nation today is a result of many events (failures). To keep the ROC in the fight against Japan, the promise to consider land return was offered. Taiwan was given to the ROC to “administer” on behalf of the Allied Forces, but seized the land for the remnants of army and government after losing to the Communists in 1949. The Taiwanese were not consulted about who should administer them.
The KMT party-state also suppressed notions of Taiwan as an independent state, wanting to reconquer the mainland. The United States did not push for a mandate by the Taiwanese, both war-wary at the end of WWII and then, facing the rising threat of communism, bolstered the KMT regime.
Using a virtual tour of the National Museum of Taiwan History in Tainan as a template, the authors present several ways to view Taiwan in Chapter 2 (p 42):
• As a serial, settler colony that has yet to be decolonized
• As the site of a century-long struggle for self-determination that predates the existence of either the ROC or the PRC,
• As a territory that has already undergone unification with China (the ROC) once in the modern age, a chaotic and repressive experience for those who lived through it, and
• As a place that is routinely denied the right to tell its own history or shape its own future.
The last point is currently reflected by the pressure from the CCP to exclude Taiwan from international organizations, or if they are represented, such as the Olympics, to be forced to bear the name “Chinese Taipei.” Also, the CCP buys out the few remaining countries that recognize Taiwan as a nation. Unfortunately, the international liberal order is not confronting China on this issue. Thus, the might of the CCP is pushing out the right of self-determination.
Milos Vystrcil, president of the Czech Senate, visited Taiwan in 2020. Reminiscent of Kennedy’s statement of “Ich bin ein Berliner,” Vystrcil state I am a Taiwanese as he pointed to the analogy with the struggles of the Eastern European countries against the former Soviet Union… When it comes to the pressure to adhere to Beijing’s policies and attitudes on Taiwan, suppressing the voice of 23 million people who want to avoid losing their democracy, on some level, “we are all Taiwanese.” (p 28)
For the past several years, I have read many books about Taiwan and its history. This book gave me new insights into aspects of being Taiwanese, putting in context much of what I had read. While the Taiwanese are steering their course into the future, they have many constraints.
While the authors are extremely supportive of the Taiwanese voices being heard internationally, they do call out an issue of concern, discussed in the epilogue, on immigration in Taiwan. I had heard there were issues of how immigrants were treated. The authors state that the actions towards immigrants undermine the Taiwanese narrative of supporting democratic values and human rights. As the authors point out, while the Taiwanese were not given the choice of how CCP sees them, they do have a choice here.
This book, just released, joins other new books about Taiwan but differs in its urgency and perspective. The authors place the Taiwanese at the center of the book, their experience, their desire to be heard, and their aspirations. The authors hope that the world is listening.
FB. A compelling and urgent book that puts Taiwanese experiences, aspirations, and desire to participate and be heard in the global community. The authors write clearly, making the case that the world should listen to the Taiwanese. I highly recommend this book.
This book provides the reader with many insights into the aspirations of the Taiwanese (those who live on the island), their struggle for an identity over the last century, and the challenges they faced and currently face. In their narrative, the authors move the reader from seeing Taiwan solely as a point of conflict between the US and China to understanding Taiwan as the home of 23 million people who have struggled against colonialization by Europeans, Qing China, Japan, then the KMT (Kuomintang) party-state Republic of China, and in the early 1990s to achieve in the early 1990s a blossoming of democracy and de facto self-governance.
Yet, just as the Taiwanese threw off the yoke of the KMT party-state, that had ruled with terror and martial law from 1949 to 1987 (and a bit beyond) to achieve democracy, in the early 2000s they faced the growing power of another party-state, the Chinese Communist Party (CPP), which claims Taiwan as part of China. According to the CCP, the fate of the Taiwanese is to be decided by the 1.4 billion Chinese, not the 23 million Taiwanese. The CCP aggression towards Taiwan has escalated, using economic, diplomatic, and disinformation pressures, to achieve their goal of ingesting and then homogenizing the Taiwanese, as they have with peoples and cultures in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet.
The more the CCP has applied pressure, the more many Taiwanese resist, drawing upon their unique path, first under Japanese colonialism when calls Taiwanese identity strengthen, then further after the KMT party-state administered Taiwan corruptly, resulting in the massacre of 10,000 to 20,000 of citizens on and after February 28, 1947, and finally breaking through KMT’s party-state martial law.
The book is laid out in a prologue, an epilogue, and four chapters:
1. Two Chinas Against a Taiwanese Nation
2. Four Ways of Telling Taiwanese History
3. “Chinese Taipei”: The Remapping that Explains Taiwan’s Geopolitical Predicament
4. Taiwan in the World.
That Taiwan is not an independent nation today is a result of many events (failures). To keep the ROC in the fight against Japan, the promise to consider land return was offered. Taiwan was given to the ROC to “administer” on behalf of the Allied Forces, but seized the land for the remnants of army and government after losing to the Communists in 1949. The Taiwanese were not consulted about who should administer them.
The KMT party-state also suppressed notions of Taiwan as an independent state, wanting to reconquer the mainland. The United States did not push for a mandate by the Taiwanese, both war-wary at the end of WWII and then, facing the rising threat of communism, bolstered the KMT regime.
Using a virtual tour of the National Museum of Taiwan History in Tainan as a template, the authors present several ways to view Taiwan in Chapter 2 (p 42):
• As a serial, settler colony that has yet to be decolonized
• As the site of a century-long struggle for self-determination that predates the existence of either the ROC or the PRC,
• As a territory that has already undergone unification with China (the ROC) once in the modern age, a chaotic and repressive experience for those who lived through it, and
• As a place that is routinely denied the right to tell its own history or shape its own future.
The last point is currently reflected by the pressure from the CCP to exclude Taiwan from international organizations, or if they are represented, such as the Olympics, to be forced to bear the name “Chinese Taipei.” Also, the CCP buys out the few remaining countries that recognize Taiwan as a nation. Unfortunately, the international liberal order is not confronting China on this issue. Thus, the might of the CCP is pushing out the right of self-determination.
Milos Vystrcil, president of the Czech Senate, visited Taiwan in 2020. Reminiscent of Kennedy’s statement of “Ich bin ein Berliner,” Vystrcil state I am a Taiwanese as he pointed to the analogy with the struggles of the Eastern European countries against the former Soviet Union… When it comes to the pressure to adhere to Beijing’s policies and attitudes on Taiwan, suppressing the voice of 23 million people who want to avoid losing their democracy, on some level, “we are all Taiwanese.” (p 28)
For the past several years, I have read many books about Taiwan and its history. This book gave me new insights into aspects of being Taiwanese, putting in context much of what I had read. While the Taiwanese are steering their course into the future, they have many constraints.
While the authors are extremely supportive of the Taiwanese voices being heard internationally, they do call out an issue of concern, discussed in the epilogue, on immigration in Taiwan. I had heard there were issues of how immigrants were treated. The authors state that the actions towards immigrants undermine the Taiwanese narrative of supporting democratic values and human rights. As the authors point out, while the Taiwanese were not given the choice of how CCP sees them, they do have a choice here.
This book, just released, joins other new books about Taiwan but differs in its urgency and perspective. The authors place the Taiwanese at the center of the book, their experience, their desire to be heard, and their aspirations. The authors hope that the world is listening.
FB. A compelling and urgent book that puts Taiwanese experiences, aspirations, and desire to participate and be heard in the global community. The authors write clearly, making the case that the world should listen to the Taiwanese. I highly recommend this book.
March 15, 2025
Very concise political history of Taiwan. It does a nice job of summing things up, and explaining why it's pretty important to recognize that Taiwan is not and has not ever been China.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews