| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article offers an analysis of the dynamic interplay of ogenous and exogenous forces that create the complexity of immigrant entity. It examines cultural identity and the related discourse of one particular immigrant group, the 'post-war immigrant aiwanese, in contemporary Japan. This group came to Japan after the end of Second World War. They have experienced complex transitions in both legal status and self-identification. Constituted from the legacies of Japanese colonialism and Chinese aonalism,he post-warmigr Taiwanese constantly negotiate and redefine their 'neither here, nor there' identities and thus constitute a distinct case within the population of overseas ethnic Chinese. Japan, widely considered to be a society of racial and cultural homogeneity, faces an increasing influx of migrants, in particular those from East Asia in recent years. Immigration thus leads to a broad range of concerns in contemporary Japanese society. While previous literatures of the Chinese and Korean Diaspora are widely researched, there is a vacuum on Taiwanese Diaspora in the associated scholarship. This study investigates the Taiwanese migrants' cultural adaptation and socialization under the Japanese discourse through literature reviews and field study. This paper argues that the post-war migr Taiwanese have constructed a transnational identity hidden in-between two cultures of Japanese and Chinese. In other words, this paper attempts to offer a perspective of Taiwanese under Japanese colonialism and Chinese nationalism that transcends the 'identity struggle' commonly experienced by immigrants around the world. This group of Taiwanese migrants in postwar Japan struggle with surveillance, assimilation, resistance and identity confusion. To balance between a survival strategy overseas and a primordial attachment to the motherland, their identification with group boundaries may shift in accordance with a variety of situations.
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