Overview

This study has focused on Taiwanese identity, the ascent of China, cross-Strait relations and the role of the US in Northeast Asia. An ensemble of methods has been applied in order to learn more about how these items theoretically and empirically impact upon each other. Our method thus draws on the broad-brush approach often employed to think about confusing and conflicted identities and their fundamental ideational questions, such as those posed by King Lear and Wu Hsing-Kuo. The significant difference in time and location for the preceding questions reinforces the point that issues of identity are global and immanent.

What, then, can be said about Taiwanese identity in connection with the ascent of China, cross-Strait relations and US activity in Northeast Asia? A look back at preceding chapters will set the stage for the tasks that remain to be carried out. All of this works towards a sense of where identity stands among the ideal points identified in Table 1.1, which include primarily ideology-or interest-based, along with gradations in between.

We began in Chapter 2 with a historical overview of Taiwan from early times, with emphasis upon the period after the KMT migration in the late 1940s and especially the years in the new millennium. This material created a context for research on our basic question about identity, while also providing a basic background to those who are specialists in neither Taiwan nor Northeast Asia.

Chapter 3 reviewed academic literature on the evolving Taiwanese identity and factors seen shaping its evolution to obtain a baseline model for elaboration through further research. This chapter demonstrates that there is a long, historical dynamic driving Taiwanese identity. Most critically, however, recent and dramatic improvements in China, especially economically, have created disequilibrium in the Taiwanese ideational process, requiring new efforts to capture these shifting systems and to reconcile them with past dynamics.