Contents:
1. Introduction
1.1 The people, language, and history: an outline
1.2 Contemporary scholarship on nationalism and the study of Taiwanese nationalism
1.3 Dominated ethnic groups, nationalism and humanist intellectuals
1.4 Cultural nationalism and political nationalism
1.5 The politics of cultural uniqueness
1.6 Modernization ideology and cultural nationalism
1.7 The question of dissemination channels
1.8 The organization of the book
2. Japanese colonialism and literary and linguistic reforms in colonial Taiwan
2.1 Japanese colonialism and Taiwanese resistance in the 1920s
2.2 Japanese linguistic assimilationism
2.3 Literary and linguistic reforms in colonial Taiwan
2.4 Conclusion
3. Postwar linguistic problems, literary development, and the debate on Hsiang-t'u Literature
3.1 Early Mainlander-Taiwanese contact and the linguistic problem
3.2 Early KMT rule and the 2-28 incident
3.3 The 1947-49 literary discussion
3.4 KMT rule in the 1950s and 1960s
3.5 Combat literature, KMT ideology, and the development of modernist literature in the 1950s and 1960s
3.6 The debate on 'Hsiang-t'u' literature
3.7 Conclusion
4. Crafting a national literature
4.1 Native Taiwanese writers in the 1950s
4.2 The early history of Taiwan literature and Li Poetry Magazine
4.3 KMT rule and the rising of the Taiwanese opposition movement in the 1970s
4.4 The debate on Taiwanese consciousness and 'Hsiang-t'u' literature
4.5 Ch'en Ying-Chen, Yeh Shih-T'ao, and 'Hsiang-t'u' literature: 'pro-China' versus 'pro-Taiwan'
4.6 'De-Sinocizing' Taiwanese literature: the first half of the 1980s
4.7 Political changes since 1986
4.8 Crafting a national culture: the second half of the 1980s and after
4.9 Crafting a national literature
4.10 Conclusion
5. Crafting a national language
5.1 The official language policy and its consequences
5.2 Crafting a national language
5.3 The Hoklo writing system and Taiwanese nationalism
5.4 Hoklo literature and Taiwanese literature redefined: bringing language in
5.5 Conclusion
6. Crafting a national history
6.1 KMT rule and the pro-China view of history
6.2 The development of the pro-Taiwan view of history and Taiwanese nationalism
6.3 Conclusion
7. Conclusion
7.1 Taiwanese nationalism as an historical 'latecomer'
7.2 Taiwanese cultural nationalism reconsidered

In the aftermath of 1949, Taiwan’s elites saw themselves as embodying China in exile both politically and culturally. The island—officially known as the Republic of China—was a temporary home to await the reconquest of the mainland. Taiwan, not the People’s Republic, represented China internationally until the early 1970s. Yet in recent decades Taiwan has increasingly come to see itself as a modern nation-state. A-chin Hsiau traces the origins of Taiwanese national identity to the 1970s, when a surge of domestic dissent and youth activism transformed society, politics, and culture in ways that continue to be felt. After major diplomatic setbacks at the beginning of the 1970s posed a serious challenge to Kuomintang authoritarian rule, a younger generation without firsthand experience of life on the mainland began openly challenging the status quo. Hsiau examines how student activists, writers, and dissident researchers of Taiwanese anticolonial movements, despite accepting Chinese nationalist narratives, began to foreground Taiwan’s political and social past and present. Their activism, creative work, and historical explorations played pivotal roles in bringing to light and reshaping indigenous and national identities. In so doing, Hsiau contends, they laid the basis for Taiwanese nationalism and the eventual democratization of Taiwan. Offering bracing new perspectives on nationalism, democratization, and identity in Taiwan, this book has significant implications spanning sociology, history, political science, and East Asian studies.

In the aftermath of 1949, Taiwan's elites saw themselves as embodying China in exile both politically and culturally. The island-officially known as the Republic of China-was a temporary home to await the reconquest of the mainland. Taiwan, not the People's Republic, represented China internationally until the early 1970s. Yet in recent decades Taiwan has increasingly come to see itself as a modern nation-state. A-chin Hsiau traces the origins of Taiwanese national identity to the 1970s, when a surge of domestic dissent and youth activism transformed society, politics, and culture in ways that continue to be felt. After major diplomatic setbacks at the beginning of the 1970s posed a serious challenge to Kuomintang authoritarian rule, a younger generation without firsthand experience of life on the mainland began openly challenging the status quo. Hsiau examines how student activists, writers, and dissident researchers of Taiwanese anticolonial movements, despite accepting Chinese nationalist narratives, began to foreground Taiwan's political and social past and present. Their activism, creative work, and historical explorations played pivotal roles in bringing to light and reshaping indigenous and national identities. In so doing, Hsiau contends, they laid the basis for Taiwanese nationalism and the eventual democratization of Taiwan. Offering bracing new perspectives on nationalism, democratization, and identity in Taiwan, this book has significant implications spanning sociology, history, political science, and East Asian studies.