Taiwanization
Pan-Green Other Republic of China rule Japanese rule Lai Ching-te (DPP) Hsiao Bi-khim (DPP) Cho Jung-tai (DPP) 11th Legislative Yuan Han Kuo-yu (KMT) Shieh Ming-yan acting Vacant Vacant Vacant Control Yuan Chen Chu Lee Hung-chun Local government Central Election Commission Kuomintang Democratic Progressive Party Taiwan People's Party Others New Power Party Taiwan Statebuilding Party People First Party Taiwan Solidarity Union New Party Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Newspapers United Daily News Liberty Times China Times Taipei Times Propaganda Censorship Film censorship Lin Chia-lung Cross-Strait relations Special state-to-state relations One Country on Each Side 1992 Consensus Taiwan consensus Chinese Taipei Australia–Taiwan relations Canada–Taiwan relations France–Taiwan relations Russia–Taiwan relations Taiwan–United Kingdom relations Taiwan–United States relations Republic of China (1912–1949) Chinese Civil War One-China policy China and the United Nations Chinese unification Taiwan independence movement Taiwanese nationalism Tangwai movement Taiwanization (Chinese: 臺灣本土化運動), also known as the Taiwanese localization movement, is a conceptual term used in Taiwan to emphasize the importance of a Taiwanese culture, society, economy, nationality, and identity rather than to regard Taiwan as solely an appendage of China.
The localization movement has been expressed in forms such as the use of language or dialect in the broadcast media and entire channels devoted to aboriginal and Hakka affairs.
Some say when the first large wave of Han people emigrated from mainland China to Taiwan in the mid-16th century, they must have wanted to maintain some independence from the control of the ruling class in their original hometown.
The KMT viewed Taiwan primarily as a base to retake mainland China and quickly tried to subdue potential political opposition on the island.
The Bentuhua or localization/indigenization movement was sparked in the mid-1970s with the growing expression of ethnic discontent due to unequal distribution of political and cultural power between mainlanders and Taiwanese people.
Beginning in the 1960s, Taiwan was enveloped by the problems of rapid industrial development, rural abandonment, labor disputes and the uneven distribution of access to wealth and social power.
The reforms permitted under Chiang Ching-kuo allowed indigenization to increase as leading dissidents generated a response to the government's failures.
The pressures of indigenization and the growing acceptance of a unique Taiwanese cultural identity have met opposition from more conservative elements of Taiwan society.
Many mainlanders living on Taiwan complain that their own culture is marginalized by bentuhua, and initially expressed fear of facing growing alienation.
In the past decade these complaints have subsided somewhat as Taiwan increasingly views itself as a pluralistic society that embraces many cultures and recognizes the rights of all citizens.
Pro-unification politicians such as James Soong, the former head of the Government Information Office who once oversaw the limitation of Taiwanese dialects, began speaking in Hoklo on semi-formal occasions.
While the Taiwanese localization movement may view such efforts as emphasizing the importance of Taiwan's culture, this section addresses the perspective of those who likely support the Chinese reunification of all of Greater China under a single political entity.
[2][3] With the end of martial law in 1987 and the introduction of democracy in the 1990s after the Wild Lily student movement, an effort began to re-assert Taiwanese identity and culture while trying to get rid of many Chinese influences imposed by the Kuomintang.
[4] In April 2003, the Committee for Promoting Mandarin, which was part of Taiwan's Ministry of Education, released a legislation proposal entitled "Language Equality Law.
[10] In July 2007, the Taiwan Ministry of Education released a study that found 5,000 textbook terms, some relating to Chinese culture, as being "unsuitable".
"[18] Campaigning in this area continued in March 2006, where the Democratic Progressive Party sought to change the Republic of China year designation used in Taiwan to the Gregorian calendar.
[25] In March 2007, it was noted that the destruction of the Western Line railway base found below the floor of the Taipei Main Station and built in 1893 by Qing Empire-appointed Governor of Taiwan Province Liu Mingchuan was part of the government's call for desinicization through removal of the Chinese site.
[26] In July 2007, President Chen Shui-bian announced that he would allow mainland Chinese diplomas or students into Taiwan during the rest of his presidential term.
One phenomenon that has resulted from the Taiwanization movement is the advent of Taike subculture, in which young people consciously adopt the wardrobe, language and cuisine to emphasize the uniqueness of popular, grassroots Taiwanese culture, which in previous times had often been seen as provincial and backwards by the mainstream.
As part of making the upcoming U.S. visit by then vice-president Hu Jintao go smoothly, the United States cautioned the Chen Shui-bian administration not to "go too far" in cross-Strait relations.
[28] In April 2005, the CCP general secretary Hu Jintao and the former ROC Vice President and then chairman of the Kuomintang party (KMT) Lien Chan shook hands.
They included people ranging from academics like Chien Mu, reputed to be the last prominent Chinese intellectual opposing the conventional wisdom take on the May Fourth Movement, politicians like Lien Chan, from a family with a long history of active pan-Chinese patriotism despite being native Taiwanese, to gang mobsters like Chang An-lo, a leader of the notorious United Bamboo Gang.
Nonetheless, the state-owned media and academics employed by organizations such as universities' Institutes of Taiwan Studies or the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) periodically release study results, academic journal articles, or editorials strongly criticizing the movement as "the cultural arm of Taiwanese independence movement" (Chinese: 文化台獨) with the government's tacit approval, showing the PRC government's opposition towards Taiwanization.
In Hong Kong, Taiwanization movements have pushed localization or pro-Chinese Communist tilts among the traditionally pro-Republic of China individuals and organizations.
