77 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE tinctive shared identity both catalyzes and helps guarantee human rights, creating a mutually reinforcing relationship that strengthens democratic resilience despite significant geopolitical challenges. Taiwan governance: A brief overview and history Taiwan’s tumultuous political evolution has profoundly shaped its inhabitants’ collective identity. The island’s 16 officially recognized indigenous tribes (and over a dozen unrecognized) maintain distinct cultures, languages, customs, and social structures (Council of Indigenous Peoples, 2025). Indigenous peoples make up only 2.5% of the current population, but they were Taiwan’s original inhabitants. Are they the only ones who are truly Taiwanese? Would they consider themselves Taiwanese? In one account from NPR, Teyra Yudaw, a Truku person, captures this perspective: “because I’m Indigenous, I am a real Taiwanese person” (Chang et al., 2024). Yet Yudaw also notes the oppression and marginalization of the natives, who still face social, cultural, and economic discrimination within Taiwan (van Bekhoven, 2016). European colonization by the Dutch and Spanish in the 1600s marked the first documented shift in identity. Were the inhabitants of this small island considered European between 1624 and 1662? After the world wars, Taiwan alternated between Chinese and Japanese governance, which significantly affected the citizens’ ways of life. Today, generational identity differences are stark: Younger generations increasingly identify as solely Taiwanese, while older generations may still see themselves as Chinese or even Japanese due to Taiwan’s colonial past. Japan’s 50-year reign emphasized assimilation (dōka) through policies that transformed government structures from those inherited from Chinese dynasties to instead reflecting Japanese ways of life. The final stage of dōka was the Kominka policies, which included changing Chinese to Japanese surnames, banning Chinese and Taiwanese languages while promoting Japanese, recruiting Taiwanese citizens to fight for Japan, and attempting to extinguish traditional folk religions (Lee, 2012). After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Taiwan was handed over to China’s KMT government, which implemented de-Japanization and re-Sinicization through the Cultural Renaissance Movement. Language in schools was changed to Mandarin Chinese. Chinese music, art, and literature were promoted. Japanese films were banned, and even clothing styles were altered to be more Chinese-like. Local Taiwanese dialects were forbidden in schools and public places. Traditional xiqu and folk arts were deemed primitive, and Taiwanese history was virtually erased from textbooks and education systems. Chinese culture was associated with sophistication, whereas Taiwanese culture was stigmatized as taboo and vulgar (Cheung, 2017). Each of these cultural upheavals has contributed in some way to Taiwanese identity (Chang, 2004). Taiwan’s democratization in the 1980s led to a cultural awakening and domestic demand for political reform. The KMT was forced to adopt a more holistic approach, leading to the establishment of the Council for Cultural Affairs (now the Ministry of Culture) to oversee Taiwan’s cultural development, gradually extending political power to the Taiwanese people. The shift from Chinese-centric education to a celebration of local heritage did double duty: affirming Taiwanese identity and strengthening democratic resilience. In the 1990s, the Community Construction Movement was launched to build Taiwanese consciousness and a new identity, designed not to simply promote local consciousness but also to create a social infrastructure resistant to authoritarian influence (Chang, 2004). In short, Taiwan’s cultural renaissance bolsters rights protection and commitment to pluralistic democracy in an era of authoritarian pressure. Current environment on identity The Election Study Center at National Chengchi University (2025) has been conducting annual polls since 1992 to gauge “Changes in the Taiwanese/ Chinese Identity of the Taiwanese.” As shown in Figure 1, by June 2024, 64.3% of residents identified solely as Taiwanese, 30.4% as both Taiwanese and Chinese, and merely 2.2% as only Chinese. The “Taiwanese only” identity has risen more than 50 percentage points since 1992. This steady increase can be attributed to the aging population, generational replacement, retaliation against China’s military threats and stifling world stance (discussed in the next section), the broadening definition of what it means to be Taiwanese, and the ongoing Taiwanization and de-Sinicization of the island (Wang et al., 2023). Today, Taiwanese identity is increasingly civic in nature rather than ethnic, based on shared democratic ideals (Lousche, 2022). Identity as resistance to authoritarian pressure The tense cross-strait relationship between mainland China and Taiwan is complex and deeply rooted in
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