Introduction

The chapter begins with a concise introduction to Taiwan’s most recent experiences of political hegemony: Japanese colonialism (1895–1945) and Chinese rightwing marital rule (1945–1978). Such imposition of hegemony was materialized in the everyday experience of the islanders through embodiment. By proposing the concept of transformance, the book sets out to account for underprivileged bodies’ endeavor in overcoming sociocultural asymmetries and to chart the understudied trajectories between (post)colonialism and interculturalism. To illustrate the idea of transformance, the book examines five reconceptualized bodies that first emerged between the years of 2000 and 2008. The years were a watershed in the island’s localization and democratization when the oppositional party won the presidency for the first time in history.