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This article asks why sorghum liquor, once a drink choice representing the taste of a dominant class, became a token of Jinmen identity among the islands' dominated local population. Being a Cold War battlefield, war-stricken Jinmen became a symbol of the Kuomintang government's determination to recover mainland China. Military authoritarianism transformed Jinmen's society in countless ways, including consumer fashions. The mass production of sorghum liquor began in 1953, with the military promoting its taste and establishing consumption of the liquor as part of a masculine ethos. This inspired mimicry among local consumers. Sorghum liquor became a local "traditional drink," and a signifier for an identity that revolved around its consumption. This development arose from local consumers seizing on their limited freedom by making this consumption choice and making it their own under military authoritarian rule. Consumption and taste thus gave new meanings to local identity and community subjectivity. (JCCA/GIGA)

AbstractThis article focuses on the Chinese emigrating from Jinmen, Fujian Province, between the 1850s and 1942. It examines how Chinese migrants in colonial Singapore responded to their displacement in the various spatial and temporal stands with special reference to migrants from the Jinmen Islands in close proximity to Xiamen, Fujian. Jinmen men jumped on the bandwagon to migrate to colonial Singapore and found themselves uprooted in a situation of neither here nor there. This piece of research illustrates the role of social organizations in which workers and traders were involved and the significance of these organizations and their activities in influencing the way Jinmen migrants sought to create a sense of belonging in placing themselves across borders. In the process it was the class differentiation within the Jinmen diaspora that led to the various agenda and ways of living in their negotiation of a sense of belonging.

This article explores the impact of the global Cold War on local politics through the study of a state deified female ghost Wang Yulan in Jinmen, Taiwan. The liminal status of ghosts in the Chinese celestial order makes room for possible multiple meanings of state-local contestation. Civilians' interpretations of the cult engaged with the official discourse to generate what Bakhtin called "dialogized heteroglossia," revealing the limits of state control over interpretation and ambiguous relations between the state and local society under martial law.

Macro sociopolitical milieu and micro interpersonal interaction are intimately connected, since transformation of one's cultural identity is realized in the ways in which one interacts with others through words. This paper outlines the modern Taiwanese cultural landscape — engendered through political, social, linguistic changes, as well as modern technological advances — which gives rise to new forms of talk. Political openness and rising local consciousness, changing social values to prioritize the self, emphasis on multiculturalism and multilingualism, revolution in modern technology and communication devices, and so on, have contributed to ways of language use diverging from traditional Chinese cultural values. No longer a subdued, other-oriented, reserved society subscribing to traditional cultural norms, Taiwan has embraced new forms of talk as it stands at a turning point. In light of the need for a contextualized and updated understanding of Chinese communication, as in the case of Taiwan, it is argued that many taken-for-granted assumptions endorsed through lens of "collectivism," must be scrutinized and re-examined.

This ethnographic study explores how people in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, engage words as cultural performance, whether they are spoken, written, or manifest themselves as cultural artifacts. Informed by their depth philosophical contemplation about the boundary between the universe and language, and made possible through their unique linguistic constructions, many Chinese treat various forms of expression as art and signs of wisdom, whether for expressions of solemnity, playfulness, or humor. Through poems, common sayings, matched couplets, chengyu, and so on, words entertain and enrich social life, help relieve human suffering, connect one life to another, and instill modern everyday encounters with a dash of traditional cultural ethos. This artistic endeavor also offers explanations for Chinese indirectness, as shades of meanings are seen as displays of varying degrees of engagement to cultural performances. Interview accounts and data collected through participant observation during several field trips conducted in Taiwan were analyzed to show how words participate in and give meaning to the construction of Taiwanese interpersonal life.

Definitions and contents of interpersonal communication have undergone significant change in modern Taiwan, as can be observed from the production of an ever-increasing number of translated books that purport to teach people how to communicate. Since skills taught in these foreign texts unavoidably reflect a Western cultural orientation, a counter-balancing force that elevates and highlights Chinese cultural traditions can be readily observed. In response to challenges from the West, books by Chinese natives call for readers' appreciation of speaking skills employed by ancient Chinese philosophers, politicians, and others. Through such rhetorical efforts that revitalize the image of eloquent ancient Chinese speakers, these popular media redefine "the Chinese cultural traditions," (1) as embracing articulate and eloquent speaking skills rather than merely emphasizing humbleness; (2) as a guide for the future rather than something to be discarded; and consequently, (3) as a solution to the seeming struggle between modernity and tradition. This paper traces the development of popular books during 1994–1998, analyzing selected popular books written by Chinese to examine how Chinese authors fashion their own unique discourse about communication to challenge and supplement extra-cultural ideas introduced by translated popular books.

"Following the move by Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist Party Kuomingtang (KMT) to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the late 1940s, and his subsequent lifelong vow to reclaim the mainland, "China " has occupied if not monopolized the gaze of Taiwan, where its projected images are reflected. Whether mirror image, shadow, or ideal contrast, China has been, and will continue to be, a key reference point in Taiwan's convoluted effort to find its identity. Language, Politics and Identity in Taiwan traces the intertwined paths of five sets of names Taiwan has used to name China since the KMT came to Taiwan in 1949: the derogatory "Communist bandits" the ideologically focused "Chinese Communists"; the seemingly neutral geographical designators "mainland" and "opposite shore/both shores"; and the ethnic and national label "China" with the official designation, "People's Republic of China." In doing so, it explores how Taiwanese identities are constituted and reconstituted in the shifting and switching of names for China; in the application of these names to alternative domains of Taiwanese life; in the waning or waxing of names following tides of history and polity; and in the increasingly contested meaning of names. Through textual analyses of historical archives and other mediated texts and artifacts, the chapters chart Taiwan's identity negotiation over the past half century and critically evaluate key interconnections between language and politics. This unique book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Taiwan studies, Chinese politics, communication studies and linguistics."--

In the article, we analyze how names for China are used by five ROC presidents in National Day speeches over 58 years (1949–2007), including "communist bandits"; "Chinese communists"; "mainland" and "opposite shore/both shores"; "China"; and "People's Republic of China." Each name registers unique historicity and each displays associated expressions, reshuffling power structures and allowing negotiation of ideological positioning. Sometimes overlapping, sometimes joining at edges, these names cleave to inconsistent layers of meaning, helping presidents negotiate courses of action in Taiwan's yet-to-be-resolved political identity.

This study explores how "New Taiwanese" was offered and constructed as a viable identity category for people in Taiwan through the news discourse of the United Daily News (UDN) referenced in 922 news reports between 1987 and 2007. From the term's first appearance in 1987, its promulgation as official discourse by the KMT government primarily between 1998 and 2000, to the end of 2007, "New Taiwanese" as an identity project (Laitin, 1998) has been utilized and challenged by political players of various camps at different junctures to achieve their political agenda. It has also gradually transformed its references and modified its meanings to join in the construction of Taiwan's national identity. As a mediating concept for "Taiwanese" and "Chinese," "New Taiwanese" has maintained a precarious and ambivalent positioning, having to constantly adjust to shifting ethnic relations of Taiwanese people and their complex, in-flux array of national identifications.