Introduction

To an extraordinary degree, Taiwanese ask themselves, “Who are we?” Over Taiwan’s history, people have answered this question differently. Until the arrival of the Dutch in 1624, Taiwan was the home of several aboriginal tribes who traded with Southeast Asia, built villages described by the Dutch as magnificent and who had excellent health and living standards. With the invasion of the Dutch in 1624 until the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in 1988, Taiwan underwent rule by six colonial regimes, who ruled as outsiders in the interests of the outsiders. Chinese began to immigrate to Taiwan during these periods of colonial rule and, like migrants elsewhere, changed their identities from their homelands to Taiwanese. This process has continued under democratization and the change of identities in Taiwan from Chinese to Taiwanese has been very rapid. This has strong implications for Taiwan as a nation.