Taiwanese nationalism

Taiwanese nationalism (simplified Chinese: 台湾民族主义; traditional Chinese: 臺灣民族主義; pinyin: Táiwān Mínzú Zhǔyì; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-oân bîn-cho̍k-chú-gī) is a nationalist political movement to unite residents of Taiwan as a nation and eliminate the current political and social division of Taiwan's people on the issues of national identity, the "Chinese reunification" vs. "independence" debate, and resolving the political status of Taiwan and its political dispute with China. It is closely linked to Taiwan independence but distinguished from it in that the independence movement seeks to eventually establish an independent "Republic of Taiwan" in place of or out of the Republic of China and obtain United Nations and international recognition as a sovereign state (country), while the nationalism movement seeks only to establish or reinforce an independent Taiwanese identity that distinguishes Taiwan's people apart from Chinese nationalism, without necessarily advocating changing the state's official name from "Republic of China" to "Republic of Taiwan".

The Taiwanese nationalism/identity issue resulted from the complex history and unresolved political and legal status of Taiwan.

Therefore, in context, Taiwanese nationalists seek to unite residents of Taiwan into a nation, i.e. a people of common Taiwanese identity and/or ancestry; whereas Taiwan Independence supporters seek to go one step further and officially change the state of "Republic of China"'s name to "Republic of Taiwan". In terms of Taiwan's political spectrum, Taiwanese nationalists range from "Light Green" inside the Pan-Green Coalition, to "Deep Green" of Taiwan Independence supporters. Note that all Taiwanese independence supporters are Taiwanese nationalists, but the reverse is not necessarily true, meaning that Taiwanese nationlists are not necessarily supporters of "Taiwan Independence" since some of them may support the "status quo" and be content with the current political status of Taiwan without a formal state name change, but merely assert their identity as "Taiwanese".

In the domestic dispute over the role of the Taiwanese localization movement, Chinese nationalists in Taiwan argue that Taiwanese culture should only be emphasized in the larger context of Chinese culture, while Taiwanese nationalists argue that Chinese culture is only one part of Taiwanese culture.^[1]

The left image shows a Passport of Taiwan (Republic of China), and the right image shows a Passport of China (People's Republic of China). They are legally mutually exclusive; meaning that most people living in Taiwan can only choose one from these two to identify themselves overseas by current law.[2] [3]

See also

• Sinocentrism
• Sinicization
• Desinicization
• Taiwanization
• Taiwanese literature movement
• Taiwanese people
• Taiwanese nationalism
• History of Taiwan
• February 28 Incident
• Qiandao Lake Incident
• Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
• Seediq Bale

References

2. Tzeng, Shih-jung, 2009. From Honto Jin to Bensheng Ren- the Origin and Development of the Taiwanese National Consciousness, University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-4471-6.