Dupre- Jean-

The consolidation of Taiwanese identity in recent years has been accompanied by two interrelated paradoxes: a continued language shift from local Taiwanese languages to Mandarin Chinese, and the increasing subordination of the Hoklo majority culture in ethnic policy and public identity discourses. A number of initiatives have been undertaken toward the revitalization and recognition of minority cultures. At the same time, however, the Hoklo majority culture has become akin to a political taboo.

Providing an up-to-date analysis of the Taiwanese language revitalization movement, this book also proposes a reassessment of the relationship between national culture and identity. It argues that the dynamics of language politics and cultural recognition in Taiwan have been shaped by the logic of the party system. It suggests that cultural ideologies as they were articulated under the Democratic Progressive Party’s government were not solely attributable to power imbalance between Taiwan’s main political parties, but that they were instead characteristic of broader trends in Taiwanese party politics. More specifically, the book argues that Taiwan’s ethnolinguistic outcomes are largely attributable to the ethnic structure of the party cleavage, itself based on national identity.

Making an important theoretical contribution to the literature to many fields of study, this book will appeal to scholars of Taiwanese politics, sociolinguistics, culture and history.