ABSTRACT
Anthropological research on the Han in Taiwan during the 1960s was geared to a traditionalist orientation that viewed Taiwan within the framework of late imperial China’s Qing dynasty. Social change in Taiwan (and Hong Kong) was of little interest given what were thought to be the massive transformations taking place in Maoist China. This chapter deals with traditionalism, non-traditionalism, and post-traditionalism in Taiwan fieldwork, with the latter phase conditioned by the opening of mainland China to fieldwork and the consequent massive shift in anthropological attention to the People’s Republic. In a parallel development, traditionalism morphed into historical anthropology, which has attracted the attention of some anthropologists doing research on Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China.
