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Taiwan Society at the Fin de Siécle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

For old Taiwan-hands, the island's traffic serves as the best metaphor for society there: it lurches between extremes of Hobbesian chaos and paralysis. Drivers either rush frenetically with little regard for others or get stuck in traffic jams of epic proportions, all the time emitting dangerous pollutants into the air everyone must breathe. A superhighway may have six carefully demarcated lanes, but at any time there seems to be a minimum of ten discernible streams of traffic, as vehicles weave in and out, honking, bullying, dodging and frequently colliding. A frontier ethos still rules in this parvenu society, where 25 years ago motorcycles began to replace bicycles, and now privately-owned cars including all the priciest prestige models from around the world, are ubiquitous, riding and parking wherever their drivers feel able to stake out a claim. Sometimes it seems as if everyone is on the move, or trying to move, unwilling to yield to others, treating strangers with shocking incivility.

Type
Taiwan Today
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1996

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References

1 The World Bank, World Development Report 1994(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994),Google Scholar Tables 25, 29. See also United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1995 (New York: Oxford University Press 1995), p. 155, where Taiwan falls in the ”high human development” category. Because it is not a member of the World Bank or United Nations, Taiwan's data are not published in the compendia of these organizations. There is some concern at the ”abnormally elevated sex ratios” in Taiwan, as the ratio of boys to girls born has surpassed the threshold of 106. SeeRoger Mark, Selya, ”Abnormally elevated sex ratios in the Republic of China on Taiwan: an exploratory review,” The American Asian Review, Vol. XII, No. 3 (Fall 1994), pp. 15–36. One immediately thinks of the situation in the similarly male-preferenced mainland Chinese society where there are persistent stories of female infanticide and abortion of female foetuses, driven in large part by the drastic single child family programme. Taiwan has had an active family planning and birth control programme since 1959 (officially since 1968) and, with no limit on children per couple, has reached a fertility rate of 1.86. SeeGoogle ScholarDiana, LinROC wins the world's applause for strides in family planning,”Free China Journal (FCJ), 14 July 1995, p. 4.Google Scholar Also, Jessie, Cheng, ”More senior citizens, fewer kids,”Free China Review (FCR), Vol.45, No. 12(December 1995), pp.42–46;Google Scholar and Arland, Thornton and Hui-Sheng Lin, Social Change and the Family in Taiwan(Chicago:University of Chicago Press,1994) esp. ch. 11. Since 1984, the birth rate has fallen below replacement level, prompting the government in May 1995 to urge people to marry earlier and raise the birth rate back to two children per couple.Google Scholar

2 Thornton and Lin, Social Change and the Family in Taiwan, p. 270.

3 To some extent, the need to support the elders in one's family was behind the high savings rate.

4 Cecilia, Chang, ”Serving those who served,” FCR, Vol.39, No. 3 (March 1989), pp. 8–13. Other articles in this issue of FCR also address the situation of Taiwan's elderly.Google Scholar

5 In 1995 it was ten adults of working age for every person over 65. This is expected to fall to 3:1 over the next four decades (Cheng, ”More senior citizens,” p. 45). A 1989 island-wide survey indicated that the vast majority of adult children provided financial support for their parents, with the authors concluding that traditional values, including filial piety, played an important role in this. See Yean-Ju, Lee, William L. Parish and Robert J. Willis, ”Sons, daughters, and intergenerational support in Taiwan,”American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 99, No. 4 (January 1994), pp. 1010–1041.Google Scholar

6 In 1952 leading causes of death included gastroenteritis, pneumonia, TB and heart disease. In 1994 they were malignant neoplasms (cancer), cerebrovascular diseases (strokes), accidents and heart disease (table on p. 12 in Jessie, Cheng, 'Truths, half-truths, and statistics,” FCR,Vol. 45, No. 12 (December 1995), pp. 12–13). For some elaboration on the public health consequences, see Jasmin Torres Flores, ”Health policy in new drug development in Taiwan: apreliminary report of a case study,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1996.Google Scholar

7 FCJ, 3 March 1995, p. 4. See also Chan, Huo-sheng and Yang Ying, ”The development of social welfare in Taiwan,” in Jason, C. Hu(ed.), Quiet Revolutions on Taiwan, Republic of China(Taipei:Kwang Hwa Publishing Co.,1994), pp.452–477;Google Scholar and Philip, Liu, ”Hassles with health care,” FCR, Vol. 45, No. 4 (April 1995), pp 52–58.Google Scholar

8 Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan ,Social Indicators in Taiwan Area of the Republic of China 1993 (Social Indicators 1993)(Taipei 1994), pp.154–55.Google Scholar See alsoMerisa, Lin,”Greater demand for size XL,”Google ScholarFCR Vol. 40, No. 1 (January 1990), pp. 49–51, which notes that in 1987, 25% of boys and 18% of girls in elementary school were obese.Google Scholar

9 Cheng-hung Liao, ”Urbanization in Taiwan: 1900–1985,” in Hsin-Huang, Michael Hsiao, Wei-Yuan Cheng and Hou-Sheng, Chan(eds.),Taiwan: A Newly Industrialized State (Taipei: Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University, 1989), pp.345–377; Wang Wei-lin, ”Zi renkouxue guandian kan woguo dushihua” (”A demographic perspective on our nation's urbanization”),Google Scholar inChu, Ts'en-lou (ed.), Woguo shehui di bianqian yufazhan (Our Nation's Society's Change and Development)(Taipei:Dongda Pub. Co., 1981), pp.397–28. Because two-thirds of the island is mountainous, the population is crowded onto the western plains, giving Taiwan a population density of 585 people per sq. km, second in the world after Bangladesh (810) and before South Korea (449) (FCJ, 17 February 1995, p. 4).Google Scholar

10 Illustrative of the multiple problems involved is the scene in Lee Ang's film Eat, Drink, Man, Woman when one daughter discovers that the still-incomplete high-rise she bought a flat in was built on a toxic waste dump. The building will not be finished and all her money is forfeited.

11 Susan, Greenhalgh, ”Networks and their nodes: urban society on Taiwan,”The China Quarterly, No.99(September 1984), pp.529–552.Google Scholar

12 Facilitating personal contact, in 1993 there were 1,352 pagers and 539 mobile phones per 1,000 households {Social Indicators 1993, pp. 176–77). Total consumption expended on transportation and communication grew from 2.58% in 1964 to more than 13% in the early 1990s (Ibid.. pp. 174–75). Despite the rise in private cars to just over 2,000 per 10,000 people in 1993, motorcycle ownership remains high – 5,227 per 10,000 people in 1993 (Ibid.. p. 180). In addition to travelling in personal vehicles people are flying more: the number of domestic air flights grew from 191,132 in 1990 to 354,437 in 1993, along with the entry into the market of several private airlines. Passenger kilometres flown around this small island and to several offshore islands jumped from 1.18 billion in 1990 to 2.4 billion in 1993 (ibid. p. 182).

13 References for this section include: Ramsay, Leung-Hay Shuand Chung-Cheng Lin, ”Family structure and industrialization in Taiwan,” California Sociologist, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer 1984), pp.197–212;Google ScholarArland, Thornton, Ming-Cheng Chang and Te-hsiung Sun, ”Social and economic change, intergenerational relationships, and family formation in Taiwan,” Demography, Vol.21 (4 November 1984), pp.475199;Google ScholarThornton, and Lin, Social Change and the Family in Taiwan; and Yvonne Yuan, ”Small is still big,” FCR, Vol. 43, No. 11 (November 1993), pp. 5–12.Google Scholar

14 Thornton, Chang and Sun, ”Social and economic change,” and Thornton and Lin, Social Change and the Family, esp. chs. 12–13.

15 Thornton and Lin, Social Change and the Family, ch. 6. There has been a substantial increase in pre-marital sexafter the teenage years as well as pregnant brides, but not out-of-wedlock births.

16 ”Chinese women in Taiwan seek autonomy not in the western sense, as of the category ’woman,’ but in their positional roles within the family. In the modern world, Chinese women, as well as men, are embedded in a web of changing human relations through which they find meaning and value in their lives.“ Catherine S. Farris, ”Women, work, and child care in Taiwan: changing family dynamics in a Chinese society,“ American Asian Review, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Fall 1993), pp. 134–151, at p. 151. Some 70% of college-educated married women work outside the home. Anthropological fieldwork at Chinese Television System revealed how professional women attempted to juggle “complicated” careers while trying (at least on the surface) to meet society's expectations of remaining “simple,” in the process “reinforc[ing] the existing social ideology and power relations between genders.” Sangmee, Bak , “Negotiating the meaning of women's work, family, and kinship in urban Taiwan,” in Harvard Studies on Taiwan, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA:Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, 1995), pp. 271–285, at p. 271.Google Scholar

17 Eugenia, Yun,“Childcare choices,” FCr,Vol.43,No. 11 (November 1993),pp.20–24. To alleviate some of the burden of increased dependency, the government has promoted a Sexual Equality in the Workplace Act, which includes provisions on maternity and paternity leave (Ken Chiu, “Job equity act given the green light,” FCJ, 19 April 1996, p. 4).Google Scholar

18 Winnie, Chang, “Unequal Terms”, FCR, Vol.43, No. 11 (November 1993), pp.26–31. Also, Thornton and Lin, Social Change and the Family, ch. 10.Google Scholar

19 Robert M. Marsh and Cheng-kuang Hsu, “Modernization and changes in extended kinship in Taipei, Taiwan: 1963–1991,” in Phylis, Lan Lin, Ko-wang Mei and Huai-chen, Peng(eds.), Marriage and the Family in Chinese Societies(Indianapolis:University of Indianapolis Press, 1994), pp.53–78.Google Scholar

20 For additional research on aspects of the family in Taiwan in the early 1980s, seeHsieh, Jih-changand Chuang, Ying-chang(eds.) The Chinese Family and Its Ritual Behavior(Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica,1985).Google Scholar

21 Council for Economic Planning and Development, Taiwan Statistical Data Book 1995 (TSDB 1995) (Taipei, 1995), p. 11.Google Scholar

22 Ibid.. p. 261.

23 Since 1968 Taiwan has had nine years of compulsory but not free education. There have been plans since 1982, still not implemented, to extend this to 12 years.

24 TSDB 1995, p. 270.

25 To avoid the stress, conformity and traditional rote-based pedagogy of the educational system, many parents who can now afford it have begun to send their children abroad or to the international and emerging alternative schools on Taiwan. In 1984,2,300 children between the ages of six and 15 went abroad; in 1991 this reached 20,000 (Eugenia, Yun, “Stressed-out system,” FCR, Vol. 44, No. 9 (September, 1994), pp.4–15, at p. 7; for more information, see other articles in the special section on educational reform in this issue of FCR).Google Scholar

26 Winnie, Chang, “After-school schooling,” FCR, Vol.44, No. 9 (September 1994), pp. 18–23.Google Scholar

27 Hei-yuan Chiu, “Education and social change in Taiwan.” in Hsiao, Cheng and Chan, Taiwan: A Newly Industrialized State, pp. 187–205, at pp. 188ff. The ROC constitution mandates that “no less than 15% of the national budget, 25% of provincial budgets, and 35% of county and municipal budgets shall be appropriated for education.” Quoted in The Republic of China Yearbook 1994 (Taipei: Government Information Office, 1994), p. 319.

28 In 1995, the Ministry of Education announced that the value of Sun Yat-senism would be reduced from 100 to 50 points on the university entrance exam. Lianhe boo (United Daily News), overseas edition, 31 May 1995, p. 3.

29 The following relies on Sun Chen, “Investment in education and human resource development in postwar Taiwan,” in Stevan Harrell and Huang Chun-chieh(eds.),Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan(Boulder: Westview Press, 1994 pp.91 –110).Google Scholar See also young Yi-rong, Jiaoyu yu guojiafazhan - Taiwan jingyan(Education and National Development - The Taiwan Experience) (Taipei: Guiguan Pub. Co., 1994).Google Scholar

30 Yi-rong Young, “Taiwan,” in Willy Wielemans and Choi-Ping Chan(eds.), Education and Culture in Industrializing Asia(Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1992), pp. 327–378, at p. 353. The MOE's tight control began to loosen in the late 1980s. See Yun, “Stressed-out system.”.Google Scholar

31 In 1993, work force with a senior high vocational-technical (including normal school) educational level reached 23.6%, up from 4.57% in 1964 (Social Indicators 1993, p. 87).

32 Eugenia, Yun, “The road to autonomy,”FCR, Vol. 45, No. 6 (June 1995), pp.4–15.Google Scholar

33 TSDB1995, pp. 267–68.

34 Ibid.. pp. 275–76.

35 Julian Baum, “Home sweet home,” Far Eastern Economic Review, 29 September 1994, pp. 66–68;Google ScholarJim, Hwang, “Reverse brain drain,” FCR, Vol.43, No. 8 (August 1993), pp. 16–21;Google ScholarChen-ching, Li, “Returning home after studying in the USA: reverse brain drain in Taiwan,”Cultural and Educational Review(TaipeiEconomic and Cultural Office in the U.S.), March 1995, pp. 20–24 and September 1995, p. 14.Google Scholar

36 FCJ, 24 March 1995, p. 4, and 12 May 1995, p. 7. “Among the college educated who were employed during the period 1984 to 1988, around 25% were employed in fields unrelated to their previous fields of study” (Chai-lin Cheng and Yu-hsia Chen, “Income levels and occupations of public vs. private university graduates and the efficiency of government investment in higher education,” in Joel, D. Aberbach and Kenneth L., Sokoloff (eds.),The Role of the State in Taiwan's Development(Armonk, NY:M. E. Sharpe, 1994, pp.275–303, at pp. 276–77.)Google Scholar

37 For two historically grounded studies from Taiwan which look at social forces, rather than classes, seeChang, Ching-han, Chang Shao-wen, Pao Ch'ing-t'ien and Hsu Jen-chen, Taiwan shehuili difenxi (Analysis of Social Forces in Taiwan)(Taipei: Huanyu Pub.Co., 1971);Google Scholar and Hsiao, Hsin-huang, Huang Shih-ming and Weng Shih-chieh, “Bainianlai Taiwan shehuili di fushen yu zhuanxing”) (“Fluctuations and changes in Taiwan's social forces over the past 100 years”), in Bainianlai di Taiwan(Taiwan's Past 100 Years) (Taipei:Qianwei Pub. Co., 1995), pp. 110–149.Google Scholar Also, Hill, Gates,China's Motor: A Thousand Years of Petty Capitalism(Ithaca, NY:Cornell University Press, 1996), which uses a multiple modes-ofproduction approach.Google Scholar

38 This refers to Erik Olin Wright's neo-Marxist concept, employed by Jia-you Sheu to Taiwan. See “The class structure in Taiwan and its changes,” in Hsiao, Cheng and Chan, Taiwan: A Newly Industrialized State, pp. 117-149; and “Specifications, estimation and socioeconomic profile of Taipei's middle classes,” paper prepared for the International Conference on East Asian Middle Classes and National Development in Comparative Perspective, Taipei, 19–21 December 1994.

39 G. S., Shieh, “Boss ” Island: The Subcontracting Network and Micro-Entrepreneurship in Taiwan's Development (New York: Peter Lang,1992).Google Scholar Also, Justin, D. Neihoff, “The villager as industrialist: ideologies of household manufacturing in rural Taiwan,” Modern China, Vol. 13, No. 3 (1987), pp. 278–309, where 87% of the families which continued to farm also had household factories, the majority of which were not even recorded in government registries.Google Scholar

40 Young-min Yun, “Economic development and social fluidity: capitalist developmental state and class mobility in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan,” unpublished Ph.D., dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1994. On education and status attainment, see Hou-sheng and Ying Chan, “Origins and destinations: the case of Taiwan,” in Hsiao, Cheng and Chan, Taiwan: A Newly Industrialized State, pp. 207–262.

41 Lucie Cheng and Ping-Chun Hsiung, “Women, export-oriented growth, and the state - the case of Taiwan,” in Aberbach and Sokoloff, The Role of the State, pp. 321–353.

42 Bi-ehr Chou, “Changing patterns of women's employment in Taiwan, 1966–1986,” in Murray A. Rubinstein (ed.), The Other Taiwan: 1945 to the Present (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1994), pp. 330–354. See also, Mary C. Brinton, Yean-Ju Lee and William L. Parish, “Married women's employment in rapidly industrializing societies: examples from East Asia,” American Journal ofSociology,Vo\. 100, No. 5 (March 1995), pp. 1099–130. Males' income overall is about 1.5 times that of females (Social Indicators 1993, p. 92).

43 John C. H. Fei, Gustav Ranis and Shirley W. Y. Kuo, Growth With Equity: The Taiwan Case (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

44 Social Indicators 1993, pp. 60–61. The ratio of the personal income of the top 20% of households as a percentage of the bottom 20% has also risen from a low of 4.17 in 1980 to 5.42 in 1993. Farm household income has risen to 82.53% of non-farm income. However, these income figures need to be used with caution, due to the huge size of Taiwan's underground economy and under-reporting of income. In addition, “income” is not the same as “wealth” which is distributed less equitably. See also, Philip Liu, “Discontent with a growing wealth gap,” FCR, Vol. 44, No. 6 (June 1994), pp. 36–41.

45 A stint as a worker is commonly perceived as an opportunity to learn a skill, accumulate capital and make crucial contacts, not a lifelong career. See Richard Stites, “Industrial work as an entrepreneurial strategy,” Modern China, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1985) pp. 227–246.

46. 46. Minzhu jinbu dang, Gei Taiwan yigejihui (Give Taiwan a Chance)(Taipei: Qianwei Pub. Co., 1995).

47. Shyh-Jer Chen and Koji Taira, “Industrial democracy, economic growth, and income distribution in Taiwan,” American Asian Review,Vol. XIII, No. 4 (Winter 1995), pp. 49–77; Chang-Ling Huang, “State corporatism in question: labor control in South Korea and Taiwan,” Working Papers in Taiwan Studies, No. 11, American Political Science Association, Conference Group on Taiwan Studies, 1995; Laurids S. Lauridsen, “Labour and democracy in Taiwan? Continuity and change of labour regimes and political regime in Taiwan,” Research Report No. 87, Department of Geography, Socio-Economic Analysis and Computer Science, Roskilde University, Denmark, 1992; Shieh Gwo-shyong, “Shichang zhuanzhi yu guojia quexi?! Cong laozi zhengyi kan Taiwanshi laodong tizhi” (“Market despotism and state absenteeism?! The Taiwanese labour regime as manifest in industrial disputes”), Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Small Seminar Series, No. 14, 1995; Jane Kaufman Winn, “There are no strikes in Taiwan: an analysis of labor law in the Republic of China on Taiwan,” Maryland Journal of International Law and Trade,Vol. 12, No. 1 (Fall 1987), pp. 35–63. FCRpublished several informative articles on the emergence of the autonomous labour movement in Vol. 36, No. 5 (May 1988).

48. In 1993, there were 934,588 medium and small enterprises, accounting for 97% of all enterprises. Cited in Minzhu jibu dang, Gei Taiwan yige jihui,p. 94.

49. Ch'en Shen-ch'ing, “Wu Zeyuan - boshi xianzhang cai zai zhengyi bianyuan?” (“Wu Zeyuan - is the Ph.D. county magistrate stepping on the edge of controversy?”), Tianxia (Commonwealth),No. 172 (1 September 1995), pp. 44–52; Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, “The state and business relations in Taiwan,” Journal of Far Eastern Business,Vol. 1, No. 3 (Spring 1995), pp. 76–97; Cheng-Tian Kuo, “Private governance in Taiwan,” Working Papers in Taiwan Studies, No. 4, American Political Science Association, Conference Group on Taiwan Studies, 1994; Chyuan-Jeng Shiau, “Elections and the changing state-business relationship,” in Hung-Mao Tien (ed.), Taiwan's Electoral Politics and Democratic Transition: Riding the Third Wave(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 213–225.

50. Wang Fu-ch'ang, “Shengji ronghe di benzhi: yige lilun yu jingyan di tantao” (“The essence of provincial assimilation: a theoretical and empirical exploration”), in Chang Mau-kuei et al.(eds.), Zuqun guanxi yu guojia rentong (Ethnic Relations and National Identity)(Taipei: Institute for National Policy Research, 1993), pp. 53–100.

51. Marshall Johnson, “Classification, power, and markets: waning of the ethnic division of labor,” in Denis Fred Simon and Michael Y. M. Kau (eds.), Taiwan: Beyond the Economic Miracle(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1992), pp. 69–97.

52. Wang Fu-ch'ang, “ Shengji ronghe huo geli? Taiwan qiye jingli renyuan di shengji zucheng, 1978–1988” (“Assimilation or segregation? Ethnic composition of managers in Taiwan's enterprises, 1978–1988”), Zhongguo shehuixuekan (Chinese Journal ofSociology),No. 14 (December 1990), pp. 117–152.

53. Wu Nai-teh, “Binglang he tuoxie: xizhuang ji pixie: bijiao Taiwan zuqun jieji liudong di chubu baogao” (“Betel nuts and sandals: Western suits and leather shoes: a preliminaryreport comparing class mobility of Taiwan's ethnic groups”), Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Small Seminar Series, No. 15, 1995.

54. Chang Mau-kuei, ‘Taiwan di zuqun, jieji yiji juecha zhi bupingdeng“ (‘Taiwan's ethnic groups, class and perceptions of inequality”), in Liu Chao-chia, Yin Pao-san, Li Ming and Huang Shao-lun (eds.), Fazhan yu bupingdeng - Dalu yu Taiwan zhi shehui jieceng yu liudong (Development and Inequality - Social Strata and Mobility in the Mainland and Taiwan)(Hong Kong: Asia Pacific Research Institute, 1994), pp. 291–329.

55. Thomas B. Gold, “Civil society and Taiwan's quest for identity,” in Harrell and Huang, Culture Change in Postwar Taiwan,pp. 47–68; Alan M. Wachman, “Competing identities in Taiwan,” in Rubinstein, The Other Taiwan,pp. 17–80. The main differences are based on history, not on race or culture (language, diet, beliefs, practices, etc.). Even a superficial visit to the Minnan region of Fujian province, where most Taiwanese trace their ancestry, reveals striking similarities to this day in many of these fields. Mainlanders on the mainland hold numerous prejudices and discriminate against people from other provinces or even regions within a province. On Taiwan they have been thrown together in a residual category, labelled “mainlanders” (waishengren,literally, people from outside the province), an identity by default. The brutality of the takeover and subsequent blatant subordination of the Taiwanese are at the root of the problem, now exacerbated by questions of identity or reunification with mainland China. For elaboration of concepts, see Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities(London: Verso, 1983), and Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). For additional research, see Chen Chung-min, Chuang Ying-chang and Huang Shu-min (eds.), Ethnicity in Taiwan: Social, Historical, and Cultural Perspectives(Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 1994).

56. Mau-Kuei Chang, “Middle class and social and political movements in Taiwan: questions and some preliminary observations,” in Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao (ed.). Discovery of The Middle Classes in East Asia(Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 1993, pp. 121-176), at pp. 122–23.

57. Hsiao prefers to say “classes” as this category includes so many heterogeneous sub-groups and segments. Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, “Discovering East Asian middle classes: formation, differentiation, and politics,” in Ibid.pp. 1–22. See also, Alvin So and H. H. Michael Hsiao, “The making of the middle classes in East Asia: some tentative hypotheses,” paper presented at the International Conference on East Asian Middle Classes and National Development in Comparative Perspective, Taipei, 19–21 December 1994. See also Nai-Teh Wu, “Social attitudes of the new middle class in Taiwan: a preliminary report,” at the same conference.

58. Jim Hwang, “In cash we trust,” FCR,Vol. 45, No. 3 (March 1995), pp. 34–39.

59. The proportion of consumption expended on recreation, education and cultural services has grown from 5.65% in 1964 to 17.28% in 1993 (Social Indicators 1993,pp. 63–65). The average monthly non-working hours per capita increased from 492 hours in 1966 to 528 in 1993. The average number of trips taken for pleasure per 1,000 people jumped from 12 in 1980 to 222.7 in 1993 (Ibid.. pp. 264–65). The average, household propensity to save has steadily declined from 29% in 1987 to 18% in 1994. The marginal propensity to save has also declined from over 30% in the mid-1980s to 10% in 1994; it was negative in 1988–89 (TSDB 1995,p. 62). The savings rate declined from 38% in 1986 to 28% in 1992 (Jim Hwang, “Desperately seeking fun,” FCR,Vol. 43, No. 7 (July 1993), pp. 4–21, at pp. 9–10). The 1987 financial liberalization and subsequent casino economy clearly had a major impact on savings behaviour.

60. FCJ,30 September 1995, p. 8.

61. Thomas A. Shaw, “ ‘We like to have fun’: leisure and the discovery of the self in Taiwan's ‘new’ middle class,” Modern China,Vol. 20, No. 4 (October 1994), pp. 416–^1*1^1. Also, special section on “Twentysomethings” in FCR,Vol. 43, No. 1 (January 1993).

62. Thomas B. Gold, “ ‘Go with your feelings’: Hong Kong and Taiwan popular culture in Greater China,” The China Quarterly,No. 136 (December 1993), pp. 907–925. Also, see the special section in FCR,Vol. 44, No. 6 (June 1994) on pop music.

63. Shu-mei Shih, “The trope of ‘mainland China’ in Taiwan's media,” positions,Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring 1995), pp. 149–83, at pp. 153, 157.

64. Frederic Jameson, “Remapping Taipei,” in Nick Browne, Paul G. Pickowicz, Vivian Sobchack and Esther Yao (eds.), New Chinese Cinemas: Forms, Identities, Politics(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 117–150; and William Tay, “The ideology of initiation: the films of Hou Hsiao-hsien,” in ibid.pp. 151–59.

65. Stanley Lai (Lai Sheng-ch'uan) has a Ph.D. in Theatre Arts from the University of California, Berkeley and is Taiwan's pre-eminent director and playwright. His That Night We Presented Comedians Dialoguesuses reverse chronology and a popular art form to investigate the history of Republican China. He has also entered the film world. Lin Hwai-min, creator of the Cloud-Gate Dance Ensemble, studied with Martha Graham. He has adapted popular Taiwanese stories, such as Hwang Chun-ming's “Days of gazing out to sea,” as well as Chinese myths into modern dance format. The Ensemble performed his opus Nine Songsin New York in 1995.

66. I have explored this in more depth in “Civil society and Taiwan's quest for identity.”

67. Chu Yen, “Sociocultural change in Taiwan as reflected in short fiction: 1979–1989,” and Sung Mei-hwa, “Feminist consciousness in the contemporary fiction of Taiwan,” in Harrell and Huang, Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan,pp. 205–226 and 275–29 respectively. See also the special issue on Contemporary Chinese Fiction From Taiwan in Modern ChineseLiteratare, Vol. 6, Nos. 1 & 2 (Spring/Fall 1992). Forableak view of Taiwansociety and Chinese character, see Bo Yang, Choulou di Zhongguoren (The Ugly Chinaman)(Taipei: Linbai Pub. Co., 1985).

68. For a sampling of articles by concerned intellectuals, see Kao Hsin-ch'iang and Yang Ch'ing-ch'u (eds.), Taiwan ye fengkuang: 1986 Taiwan shenghuo pipan (Taiwan is Also Crazy: Critique of Taiwan Life in 1986)(Kaohsiung: Dunli Pub. Co., 1987).

69. Huang Kuang-kuo, Mincui wangtai lun (On Populism and the Death of Taiwan)(Taipei: Shangzhou Wenhua Pub. Co, 1995); Jenn-hwan Wang and Sechin Y. S. Chien, “Maixiang xinguojia? Mincui weiquanzhuyi di xingcheng yu minzhu wenti” (“March towards a new nation state? The rise of populist authoritarianism in Taiwan and its implications for democracy,” Taiwan shehuiyanjiujikan (Taiwan: A Radical Quarterly in Social Studies),No. 20 (August 1995), pp. 17–55.

70. Thomas A. Shaw, “Are the Taiwanese becoming more individualistic as they become more modern?” Harvard Studies on Taiwan,pp. 145–162; Young, ‘Taiwan,“ pp. 340–46; Also, Yang Kuo-shu, ”Chinese personality and its change,“ in M. H. Bond (ed.), The Psychology of the Chinese People(Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 106–170.

71. Ma Ying-jeou, ”War on drugs: the experience of the Republic of China on Taiwan,“ speech published in August 1995.1 am grateful to former Justice Minister Ma for making this available to me. Also, Shaw, ” ‘We like to have fun’.“

72. Social Indicators 1993,pp. 212–13. As with crime statistics anywhere, these need to be used cautiously, and as noted, the perception of social breakdown may exaggerate the objective situation, although perceptions also have very real consequences. For instance, the rash of kidnappings of the children of wealthy businessmen for ransom in the late 1980s compelled many of them to move offshore. The English language China Posteditorial (31 August 1995, p. 4) said that ”materialism and hedonism, especially among young people, and the decline in traditional moral values“ as well as ”unscrupulous scrambling for political interests among politicians“ contributed to a 100% rise in robberies over the preceding six-month period. It called not only for strong anti-crime measures, but also for ”the establishment of high moral standards among the people. Achievement of this goal is possible only if people in top political fields pursue it, preferably by acting as role models.“ These are very Confucian analyses and proposed solutions. For a summary of some key findings of the 1990 Social Attitude-Opinion Survey, which also rank crime, public security and other indicators of social disorder as top concerns, see Hai-yuan Chu, ‘Taiwanese society in transition: reconciling Confucianism and pluralism,” in Rubinstein, The Other Taiwan,pp. 81–95.

73. For a historical review, see Ngo Tak-wing, “Civil society and political liberalization in Taiwan,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars,Vol. 25, No. 1 (January-March 1993), pp. 3–15.

74. Hsu Cheng-kuang, Chang Hsiao-ch'un and Hsiao Hsin-huang (eds.), Zilijiuji: 1986 Taiwan shehuipipan (Self-Salvation: Critique of Taiwan Society in 1986)(Kaohsiung: Dunli Pub. Co., 1987).

75. Kao Hsin-Ch'iang and Yang Ch'ing-ch'u (eds.), Zoushang jietou: 1987 Taiwan minyun pipan (Take It To The Streets: Critique of Taiwan's People's Movement of 1987)(Kaohsiung: Dunli Pub. Co., 1988); Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, ”The rise of social movements and civil protests,” in Tun-jen Cheng and Stephan Haggard (eds.), Political Change in Taiwan(Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992), pp. 57–72. For popular attitudes toward the demonstrations (and confusion about them), see Hsiao Hsin-huang, ‘Taiwan minzhong dui shehui yundong di liaojie yu zhichi: bian yu bubian” (”The Taiwan people's understanding and support for social movements: changes and non-changes”), in Yin Ch'ing-ch'un (ed.), Taiwan shehui di minzhong yixiang: shehui kexue di fenxi (Popular Attitudes in Taiwan Society: Social Scientific Analysis)(Taipei: Academia Sinica, Sun Yat-sen Humanities and Social Science Institute, 1994), pp. 41–64. For a detailed study of one of the most galvanizing series of protests, which took aim not only at the state but at a multinational corporation (Dupont) planning a sizeable investment in Taiwan at a time when the floundering state was desperately seeking foreign support, see James Reardon-Anderson, Pollution, Politics, and Foreign Investment in Taiwan: The Lukang Rebellion(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1992).

76. Lu Ya-li, ”Political modernization in the ROC: the Kuomintang and the inhibited political center,” in Ramon H. Myers” (ed.), Two Societies in Opposition: The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China After Forty Years(Stanford: Hoover Institution Press 1991), pp. 111–126. See also Hsin-huang Michael Hsiao, ”The changing state-society relation in the ROC: economic change, the transformation of the class structure, and the rise of social movements,” in ibid.pp. 126–140.

77. Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, ‘Towards consolidated democracies: five arenas and three surmountable obstacles,” paper presented at the International Conference on Consolidating the Third Wave Democracies: Trends and Challenges, Taipei, 1995.

78. For a debate on the relevance of the concept ”civil society” for China, see the symposium, ” ‘Public sphere’/‘civil society’ in China? Paradigmatic issues in Chinese studies,” Modern China,Vol. 19, No. 2 (April 1993) and references therein.

79. For an overview, see David K. Jordan, ”Changes in postwar Taiwan and their impact on the popular practice of religion,” in Harrell and Huang, Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan,pp. 137–160.

80. Murray A. Rubinstein, ”The New Testament Church and the Taiwanese Protestant community,” in Rubinstein, The Other Taiwan,pp. 445–474.

81. Joseph Bosco, ”Yiguan Dao: ‘heterodoxy’ and popular religion in Taiwan,” in ibid.pp. 423–444.

82. Several examples can be found in FCR,Vol. 45, No. 5 (May 1995).

83. This draws on Ku Yen-lin, ”The feminist movement in Taiwan, 1972–87,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars,Vol. 21, No. 1 (January-March 1989), pp. 12–13. Hsiu-Lien Annette Lu, one of the progenitors, reflects on her experience in ”Women's liberation: the Taiwanese experience,” in Rubinstein, The Other Taiwan,pp. 289–304. Also, Winnie Chang, ”Invisible injuries,” FCR,Vol. 42, No. 3 (March 1992), pp. 62–67 on sexual harassment.

84. See the special issues on civil society of Dangdai (Contemporary),1 March 1990 and Zhongguo luntan (China Tribune),25 September 1989. Also, Mayfair Mei-hui Yang, Gift; Favors, and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994) for discussion of minjian.