ABSTRACT
Issues of national identity have been central to the study of Taiwan in the 1990s and 2000s within the disciplines of anthropology, political science, and related fields. It was only in the 1980s, with the beginning of contacts across the Taiwan Strait, that a civic form of national identity started to emerge from Taiwanese ethnic identity. This chapter examines whether investment in China has increased or decreased identification with China and Chinese culture. Taiwanese tourists and investors started traveling to China in great numbers, and the leather industry was one of the first to be integrated with business counterparts on the mainland. Most tanners investing outside of Taiwan have moved production to China, especially the heavily polluting wet tanning stages of the labor process. As the domestic market for tanned leather has diminished rapidly in Taiwan, many tanners consider moving to China to be closer to their major customers.
