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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2020
When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power, one million mainland Chinese were forcibly displaced to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek's regime. Today, this event is still largely considered as a relocation of government or a military withdrawal operation instead of a massive population movement. Contrary to popular belief, many of the displaced mainlanders were not Nationalist elites. Most were common soldiers, petty civil servants, and war refugees from different walks of life. Based on newspapers, magazines, surveys, declassified official documents produced in 1950s Taiwan and contemporary oral history, this article uncovers the complicated relationship between the regime in exile and the people in exile. It argues that the interdependency between the two, in particular between the migrant state and the socially atomized lower class migrants, was formed gradually over a decade due to two main factors: wartime displacement and the need to face an unfriendly local population together.
I would like to thank Steven B. Miles, Jeremy Brown, Micah Muscolino, participants of “State and Migration in Chinese History” workshop, and two anonymous readers for providing constructive commentaries.
1 The occupation of Zhoushan Islands had allowed the KMT forces to threaten Shanghai and Ningbo, and disrupt maritime traffic coming in and out of the Yangtze Delta.
2 Lin Tongfa 林桶法, 1949 dachetui 1949 大撤退 (Taipei: Lianjing, 2009), 64–65; Chen Ling 陳玲, Zhoushan chetui jimi dangan: liushinian qian de yiye cangsang 舟山撤退機密檔案: 六十年前的一頁滄桑 (Taipei: Shiying, 2010), 92–94.
3 The figure of 125,000 was the number reported by the Nationalist military at the time. The exact number of Zhoushan civilians whom Chiang's army forcibly transported to Taiwan remains unknown. Based on a rudimentary survey done by the Zhoushan local government in 1990, PRC historian Chen Ling proposes that number could be around 13,000. Chen, Zhoushan chetui, 95.
4 Zhang Xingzhou 張行周 ed., Yinghai tongzhou 瀛海同舟 (Taipei: Minzhu chubanshe, 1972).
5 Faced with a much stronger foe who now controlled vast regions and human resources of the Chinese mainland, the Nationalists took as many able-bodied men they could before leaving for Taiwan.
6 This traumatic history is now told by the elderly former Zhoushan residents in democratized Taiwan and also in China. See Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, “One Man's Quest: Chiang Ssu-chang, Roots, and the Mainlander Homebound Movement in Taiwan,” in Reconsidering Roots: Race, Politics, and Memory, ed. Erica L. Ball and Kellie Carter Jackson (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2017), 191–92; Changtian chuanbo 長天傳播, Ding Wenjing 丁雯靜, and Tang Yining 唐一寧 eds., Zuihou daoyu jishi—Taiwan fangweizhan 1950–1955 最後島嶼紀實—臺灣防衛戰 1950–1955 (Taipei: Shizhou wenhua, 2012), 42–55; Chen, Zhoushan chetui, 243–347.
7 Other similar constructions include 同舟涉海 and 風雨同舟.
8 Yang, Dominic Meng-Hsuan and Chang, Mau-kuei, “Understanding the Nuances of Waishengren: History and Agency,” China Perspectives 2010.3 (2010), 111Google Scholar, note 20; Ru Yin 茹因, “Jiexian” 界線, Zhongyang ribao, December 12, 1950, 6.
9 Yang and Chang, “Understanding the Nuances,” 112.
10 There has been a fifth and growing group called “New Residents” 新住民, comprised of recent immigrants from Southeast Asian states, Euro-American countries, and mainland Chinese brides from the PRC.
11 Yang and Chang, “Understanding the Nuances,” 110.
12 For more on the historical formation of Waishengren identity, see Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, The Great Exodus from China: Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Modern Taiwan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
13 For examples, see Zia, Helen, Last Boat Out of Shanghai: the Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution (New York: Ballantine Books, 2019)Google Scholar; Zhang Dianwan 張典婉, Taipinglun yijiusijiu: hangxiang Taiwan de gushi 太平輪一九四九: 航向台灣的故事 (Taipei: Shangzhou, 2009).
14 “Pan-Blue Camp” is an umbrella term describing a loose coalition of political parties in contemporary Taiwan that views both the Nationalist legacy in Taiwan and building closer ties with the PRC favorably. The main parties include the KMT itself, the People First Party (PFP), the New Party (NP), and the Chinese Unification Promotion Party (CUPP). For more on party politics in democratized Taiwan, see Fell, Dafydd, Party Politics in Taiwan: Party Change and the Democratic Evolution of Taiwan, 1991–2004 (London: Routledge/Curzon, 2005)Google Scholar.
15 For a detailed discussion of the size of the mainland exodus to Taiwan, see Yang, The Great Exodus, 63–65.
16 For family strategies of Chinese elites, see Joseph W. Esherick's essay (chapter 13) and Sherman Cochran's essay (chapter 15) in Dilemmas of Victory: The Early Years of the People's Republic of China, ed. Jeremy Brown and Paul G. Pickowicz (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 311–36, 359–85. For guiqiao, see Glen Peterson, Overseas Chinese in the People's Republic of China (New York: Routledge, 2012); Shelly Chan, Diaspora's Homeland: Modern China in the Age of Global Migration (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018), chapter 5.
17 For examples, see Smart, Alan, The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, Fires and Colonial Rule in Hong Kong, 1950–1963 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Mark, Chi-Kwan, “The ‘Problem of People’: British Colonials, Cold War Powers, and the Chinese Refugees in Hong Kong, 1949–62.” Modern Asian Studies 41.6 (2007), 1145–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Peterson, Glen, “To Be or Not to Be a Refugee: The International Politics of the Hong Kong Refugee Crisis, 1949–55,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 36.2 (2008), 171–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Madokoro, Laura, Elusive Refuge: Chinese Migrants in the Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
18 Nedostup, Rebecca, “Burying, Repatriating and Leaving the Dead in Wartime and Postwar China and Taiwan, 1937–1955,” Journal of Chinese History 1.1 (2017): 111–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chang, David Cheng, The Hijacked War: The Story of Chinese POWs in the Korean War (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 Fan, Joshua, China's Homeless Generation: Voices from the Veterans of the Chinese Civil War, 1940s–1990s (New York: Routledge, 2011)Google Scholar; Meyer, Mahlon, Remembering China from Taiwan: Divided Families and Bittersweet Reunions after the Chinese Civil War (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 McKeown, Adam, Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change: Peru, Chicago, and Hawaii, 1900–1936 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Kuhn, Philip, Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008)Google Scholar; Miles, Steven, Chinese Diasporas: A Social History of Global Migration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21 Joshua Fan is the first historian to point this out. See Fan, China's Homeless Generation, 7.
22 Cited from Li Dongming 李棟明, “Jutai waishengji renkou zhi zucheng yu fenbu” 居臺外省籍人口之組成與分佈 Taipei wenxian 11/12 (1970), 73. This set of data has two limitations. First, the size and characteristics of the original sampled population are unknown. Second, some of the mainlanders working in the mining, industry, and transportation sectors could be working indirectly for the government, as many companies in these sectors were affiliated with state monopolies in the 1950s.
23 Taiwansheng hukou puchachu 台灣省戶口普查處 ed., Zhonghuaminguo hukou pucha baogaoshu 中華民國戶口普查報告書, vol. 2:1 (Taipei: Taiwansheng hukou puchachu, 1956), 719–20.
24 Ye Shitao 葉石濤, Taiwan wenxue shigang 台灣文學史綱 2nd ed. (Kaohsiung: Chunhui chubanshe, 1993), 83–84.
25 For two prominent cases, see Wu Wenxing 吳文星 ed., Taiwan shengli shifan xueyuan “Silu shijian” 臺灣省立師範學院「四六事件」 (Nantou City: Taiwansheng wenxian weiyuanhui, 2001); Zhang Yanxian 張炎憲 and Gao Shuyuan 高淑媛, Luku shijian daocha yanjiu 鹿窟事件調查研究 (Panchiao: Taipei xianli wenhua zhongxin, 1998).
26 “Wang Depu zuo zhaoji taisheng hukou pucha zhuguan” 王德浦昨召集台省戶口普查主管, Lianhe bao, July 31, 1956, 3; “Banhao quanguo hukou pucha” 辦好全國戶口普查, Lianhe bao, August 13, 1956, 2; “Huzheng shi shang kongqian chuangju taimin hukou pucha mingchen lingshi kaishi jiangyu mingchen liushi wancheng” 戶政史上空前創舉臺閩戶口普查明晨零時開始將於明晨六時完成, Lianhe bao, September 15, 1956, 1.
27 “Zongtong zhongshi taimin hukou pucha banling xunchi qieshi banli” 總統重視台閩戶口普查搬令訓飭切實辦理, Lianhe bao, September 7, 1956, 1.
28 Taiwansheng hukou puchachu ed., Zhonghuaminguo hukou pucha baogaoshu, vol. 2:1, 719.
29 For more, see Yang, The Great Exodus, 63–65.
30 Cited from Li, “Jutai waishengji,” 66. For the original census data, see Taiwansheng hukou puchachu 台灣省戶口普查處 ed., Zhonghuaminguo hukou pucha baogaoshu 中華民國戶口普查報告書 vol. 2:2 (Taipei: Taiwansheng hukou puchachu, 1959), 1–6. Volume 2 of the 1956 census was published in 1959.
31 Li, “Jutai waishengji,” 69.
32 Xingzhengyuan guojun tuichuyi guanbing fudao weiyuanhui 行政院國軍退除役官兵輔導委員會 ed., Xingzhenyuan guojun tuichuyi guanbing fudao weiyuanhui yewu gaikuang 行政院國軍退除役官兵輔導委員會業務概況 (Taipei: Xingzhengyuan guojun tuichuyi guanbing fudao weiyuanhui, 1967), unpaginated report; “Guojun zhengmou gaijin shibing shizilü” 國軍正謀改進士兵識字率, Zhongyang ribao, September 18, 1952, 4.
33 Barnett, A. Doak, China on the Eve of Communist Takeover (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963), 297–98Google Scholar.
34 Barnett left Hainan in the same month and went on to report the situation in Taipei. In his coverage of Taiwan, Barnett focused mostly on KMT elite politics and the island's defensive preparations.
35 Yang, The Great Exodus, 41–42.
36 Changtian, Ding, and Tang, Zuihou daoyu jishi, 98.
37 Wang Dakong 王大空 et al., Likai dalu de nayitian 離開大陸的那一天 2nd ed. (Taipei: Jiuda wenhua, 1989), 148.
38 Yang Shengzhan 楊昇展, Nanying juancun zhi 南瀛眷村誌 (Tainan: Tainan xianzhengfu, 2009), 117–19.
39 For more on the Shandong students, see Wang Peiwu 王培五, Gao Huiyu 高惠宇, Liu Taiping 劉臺平, Shizijia shang de xiaozhang—Zhang Minzhi furen huiyilu 十字架上的校長: 張敏之夫人回憶錄 (Taipei: Wenjingshe, 1999); Tao Yinghui 陶英惠 and Zhang Yufa 張玉法 eds., Shandong liuwang xuesheng shi 山東流亡學生史 (Taipei: Shandong wenxianshe, 2004); Xu Wentang 許文堂 et al., Penghu yantai lianzhong yuanyu an koushu lishi 澎湖煙台聯中冤獄案口述歷史 (Taipei: Zhongyangyanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 2012).
40 Xu, Penghu yantai, xxxv.
41 Hu Taili 胡台麗, “Yuzai yu fanshu—Taiwan rongmin de zuqun guanxi yu rentong” 芋仔與蕃薯—臺灣「榮民」的族群關係與認同, Zhongyangyanjiuyuan minzuxue yanjiusuo jikan 69 (1990), 124–26.
42 George H. Kerr, Formosa Betrayed (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965); Lai Tse-han, Ramon H. Myers, and Wei Wou, A Tragic Beginning: The Taiwanese Uprising of February 28, 1947 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991); Steven E. Phillips, Between Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese Encounter Nationalist China, 1945–1950 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003).
43 For more, see Li Wangtai 李旺台 et al., Ererba shijian zeren guishu yanjiu baogao 二二八事件責任歸屬研究報告 (Taipei: Erberba shijian jinian jijinhui, 2006), 19–35.
44 The Nationalist authorities had tried their best to conceal the massacre, so the exact number of people killed cannot be determined. The mostly likely figure is from 18,000 to 28,000. Wangtai et al., Ererba shijian zeren guishu yanjiu baogao, 73.
45 Wangtai et al., Ererba shijian zeren guishu yanjiu baogao, 77–85.
46 Zongtongfu 總統府, “Zongtongfu dian xingzhengyuan yuanzhang Chen Cheng wei chaofa Taiwan minqingbaogao ji jianyi yijian” 總統府電行政院院長 陳誠為抄發臺灣民情報告及建議意見 (August 7, 1950) NHDAH, 071/098.
47 A number of official reports were produced by different Nationalist bureaucracies after the uprising was suppressed. All of them minimized the scope of the conflict and civilian deaths. They also blamed Japanese colonialism and the CCP for the upheaval. In the meantime, the leftist writers and newspapers in China affiliated with the CCP lauded 2-28 Incident as an armed struggle of the Taiwanese masses against the reactionary and totalitarian dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek.
48 People in Taiwan call this 過客心態, which can be translated as “sojourner mentality.”
49 Ru Yin, “Jiexian,” 6. Ru Yin was Geng's penname.
50 Junliang 君亮, “Taipei xiaoyan” 台北小言, Changliu 8.10 (1954), 55.
51 Junliang, “Taipei xiaoyan”, 56.
52 The social and local news sections of both Zhongyang ribao and Lianhe bao in the 1950s were filled with negative portrayals of the native Taiwanese. The locals were considered uncultured, backward, superstitious, vain, shallow, and licentious. The mainlanders liked to focus in particular on the over-the-top extravagance of the Taiwanese religious festivals. See “「Baibai」 daguan: Taiwan minjian de yizhong jingren langfei” 「拜拜」大觀: 臺灣民間的一種驚人浪費, Zhongyang ribao, February 12, 1951, 4; Jiang Menglin 蔣夢麟, “Dui quansheng nongmin tongbao de jidian xiwang” 對全省農民同胞的幾點希望, Zhongyang ribao, February 5, 1952, 4; “Sanchung zhen 「bai」zai” 三重鎮「拜」災, Lianhe bao, June 5, 1956, 5.
53 He Fan 何凡, “Taiyu pian de neirong” 台語片的內容, Lianhe bao, February 20, 1957, 6. He Fan was the penname of Xia. Most of the readers in Taiwan during this time knew Xia as “He Fan.”
54 Gong Shi 貢士, “Chengxiang xiaodiao: Shancheng jinshuo riyu” 鄉城小調 山城禁說日語, Lianhe bao, November 16, 1954 “Xishuo ribenhua yifei zhongguoren beixian jinyou riyou jiaotan” 喜說日本話 疑非中國人 北縣禁用日語交談, Lianhe bao, January 7, 1955, 5.
55 Jiang Sizhang 姜思章, Xiangchou—yige ‘waishengren’ de liuli jiyi wu youshang 鄉愁:一個「外省人」的流離、記憶與憂傷 (Taipei: Wenjintang, 2008), 301.
56 Jiang, Xiangchou—yige ‘waishengren’ de liuli jiyi wu youshang, 383.
57 Jiang, Xiangchou—yige ‘waishengren’ de liuli jiyi wu youshang, 8.
58 Jiang met a mature and sophisticated Nationalist air force pilot in prison from Guangdong Province who became his surrogate big brother and best friend. This became the turning point in his life. The pilot advised him not to resist, but to accept his fate and wait for the right time to act against the KMT. The flight officer was on death row for a failed attempt to steal a fighter jet and fly back to China. Later, Jiang watched him being taken away from their cell for the execution. Jiang Sizhang, interviewed by the author, Academia Sinica, Taipei, July 27, 2014.
59 This was the former School of Political Cadre (政工幹部學校) in the Peitou District of Taipei City. Today, the institution is reorganized into Fu Hsing Kang College of the National Defense University (復興崗學院/國防大學政治作戰學院).
60 For more on this story, see Yang, “One Man's Quest,” 182–201.
61 In the early 1950s, the Nationalist police and security forces rounded up thousands of vagrants and suspected army escapees on the streets of Taiwan every year. Most were sent back to their original units or to prisons, mental institutions, and almshouses. For examples, see Wu Guozhen 吳國楨 “Taiwansheng baoan silingbu sanshijiu niandu gongzuo baogaoshu” 臺灣省保安司令部三十九年度工作報告書 (1950) NHDAH, 0040/0410.03/4032.3/1; Taiwansheng baoan silingbu 臺灣省保安司令部, “Taiwansheng baoan silingbu sishi niandu yi zhi jiuyue fen zhengsu gongzuo shishi tongjibiao 臺灣省保安司令部四十年度一至九月份整肅工作實施統計表 (January–September 1951) NHDAH, 0040/0410.03/4032.3/2.
62 Notable figures included the group's spiritual leader Hu Shi 胡適 (1891–1962), Lei Zhen, Fu Sinian 傅斯年 (1896–1950), Wang Shijie 王世杰 (1891–1981), Mao Zishui 毛子水 (1893–1988), Zhang Foquan (張佛泉 (1907–1994), Xiao Daoping 夏道平 (1907–1995), Yin Haiguang 殷海光 (1919–1969), and Fu Zheng 傅正 (1927–1991).
63 For more on the magazine, see Xue Huayuan 薛化元, Ziyou Zhongguo yu minzhu xianzheng: 1950 niandai Taiwan sixiangshi de yige kaocha 《自由中國》與民主憲政: 1950年代台灣思想史的一個考察 (Panchiao: Daoxiang chubanshe, 1996).
64 The magazine started publishing letters from readers in early 1951. See Shi Zhang 士璋, “Duzhe laishu: ‘Zhengqu renmin’ duhougan” 讀者來書: 「爭取人民」讀後感, Ziyou Zhongguo 4.3 (1951), 35.
65 Fu Zheng 傅正, “Cong benkan de ‘duzhetoushu’ shuodao guoshi wenti” 從本刊的「讀者投書」說到國是問題, Ziyou Zhongguo 21.10 (1959), 36.
66 Tian Xin 田心, “Duzhe toushu (yi): Xinnian yutong” 讀者投書(一): 新年語痛, Ziyou Zhongguo 20.4 (1959), 29.
67 For examples, see Xia Guipei 夏貴培, “Duzhe toushu (er): yige junren de hua” 讀者投書(二): 一個軍人的話, Ziyou Zhongguo 18.9 (1958), 31; Ding Kaicheng 丁開誠, “Tuichuyi guanbing daiyu zhiyan” 退除役官兵待遇直言, Ziyou Zhongguo 19.6 (1958), 31; Chen Zhechun 陳哲春, “Duzhe toushu (er): Gonggong changsuo, motan guoshi!” 讀者投書(二): 公共場所，莫談國事!, Ziyou Zhongguo 16:9 (1957), 29; Yiqun lujun zhongxiaji junguan 一群陸軍中下級軍官, “Women duiyu tiaozheng daiyu an de kangyi” 我們對於調整待遇案的抗議, Ziyou Zhongguo 23:2 (1960), 29.
68 For the uneasy partnership between the United States and Chiang Kai-shek's exiled regime on Taiwan, see Tucker, Nancy, Strait Talk: United States-Taiwan Relations and the Crisis with China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 1–28Google Scholar; Hsiao-ting, Lin, Accidental State: Chiang Kai-shek, the United States, and the Making of Taiwan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.
69 Qing xin 清心, “Lutai zaxie” 旅臺雜寫, Changliu 2.10 (1951), 30. For a similar account, also see Xie Bingying 謝冰瑩, “You huodong fangzi xiangqi” 由活動房子想起 Changliu 1.2 (1950), 20–21.
70 “Guiqiu jiuming!” “跪求救命!” Zhongyang ribao, February 19, 1951, 1; Beishi tuojian Luosifu lu zhengfu juewu wancheng weijian jinqi fenduan chaichu” 北市拓建羅斯福路政府決予完成違建今起分段拆除, Zhongyang ribao, July 11, 1955, 4.
71 “Fuwulan: Qiuye de husheng! Pan shehui renshi ciyu yuanshou” 服務欄 求業的呼聲！盼社會人士賜予援手, Lianhe bao, September 27, 1951, 7.
72 For examples, see “Dongbei tongxianghui choukuan jiuji tongxiang” 東北同鄉會籌款救濟同鄉, Zhongyang ribao, July 16, 1949, 4; “Jiangsu tongxianghui jue dengji shiye tongxiang” 江蘇同鄉會決登記失業同鄉, Zhongyang ribao, December 15, 1949, 4; Li Huang 理璜, “Jingtao hailang zhong de fangzhou—fang sili Taipei Aiai jiujiyuan” 驚滔駭浪中的方舟—訪私立台北愛愛救濟院, Zhongyang ribao, January 13, 1951, 4.
73 Taiwansheng gongchan guanlichu 臺灣省公產管理處, “Taiwansheng gongchan guanlichu gonggao ‘geji jiguan gongjiao renyuan zuyong guoyou tezhong fangwu jiaozu banfa’” 臺灣省公產管理處公告「各級機關公教人員租用國有特種房屋繳租辦法」 (1952) NHDAH, 275–1/02109.
74 Hu Xuyi 胡虛一, “Jiaoshi yu「qiong」!—jieshao zhongxue jiaoshi de daiyu jiqi shenghuo” 教師與「窮」!—介紹中學教師的待遇及其生活, Ziyou Zhongguo 20.11 (1959), 16–17.
75 Hu, “Jiaoshi yu,” 16.
76 He Simi 何思瞇, Taipeixian juancun diaocha yanjiu 臺北縣眷村調查研究 (Panciao: Beixian wenhuaju, 2001), 23.
77 “Cong Chiang furen de weida yundong kan fangwu zhengce” 從蔣夫人的偉大運動看房屋政策, Zhongyang ribao, May 26, 1956, 2.
78 Xingzhengyuan, Xingzhengyuan guojun. There was also the category of “righteous people” 義民 that did not belong to the categories of officers and soldiers.
79 Wen Nong 文農, “Ziyou zhongguo dongxi hengguan gonglu de jianshe” 自由中國 東西橫貫公路的建設, Ziyou Zhongguo 19.7 (1958), 12–13.