A lecture, "the long road to becoming Taiwanese: history and identity formation on an offshore Chinese island/nation," was presented by Murray Rubinstein November 7 at the Asian American / Asian Research Institute in New York City. Stated Dr. Rubinstein, as Taiwan was settled by waves of Han-Chinese from the Minnan speaking areas of Fujian and the Hakka-speaking areas of northern Quangdon, a sense of both local, regional and island - wide identity began to develop. By the 1870s, Taiwan had become a province of the Qing Empire, thus reinforcing the people's sense of being part of a larger Han cultural, political and social entity. Yet, just at this moment of integration the Qing rulers hand Taiwan over to the Japanese as a spoil of war. The Japanese conquest of Taiwan changed Taiwan dramatically, making it a far more modern area than most of the Chinese mainland. The second ware of colonialism, the Guomindang takeover, led to another ware of development of the island along corporatist lines. This new invasion forced these pre-1945 Han immigrants to again assess who they were. The strugle for ethnic identity - for a Taiwanese identity - continues to this day. The lecture traces the evolution, in stage after painful stage, of this process of identity formation. There are quite a few in the audience commented negatively his view. Dr. Rubinstein received his Ph.D. in history at the New York University and has spent his academic career as a member of the History Department and Chair of the Asian / Asian American Studies program at the Baruch College of the city University of New York.
This is one of the series of lectures on every Friday evening, from October 3, 2003 to June 11, 2004.