ABSTRACT
The formation of Taiwanese national identity since the 1990s is commonly regarded as a creation of the subjectivity of Taiwan. Historical strategy is meant to renarrate the past, reexcavate the memories and reinterpret the history with regards to the formation and transformation of Taiwanese identity. Borders, as Vaughan-Williams identifies, are inherent to the logic of inside and outside, practices of inclusion and exclusion, and questions about identity and difference. The chapter views the production of knowledge as one of the discursive practices in which geographical or cultural boundaries of a group of people are formed, averred, contested and negotiated, thereby legitimizing a particular form of political community in which people live. It argues that historical and political knowledge play a constitutive role in the process by which national identity in Taiwan is shaped and reshaped. The significant role that the intellectual plays in the construction of national identity has been widely discussed.
