著者

若林 正丈

雑誌

東洋文化研究 (ISSN:13449850)

巻号頁・発行日

no.5, pp.121-139, 2003-03-31

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It is a well-known fact that identity politics emerged in Taiwan following its political democratization. Competing notions and discourses concerning the identity of Taiwan’s polity are vying for political support. This can be better understood in the context of post-war years, when the Taiwall state was reconstructed as a“settler state”(in Ronald Weitzer’s term)by the Chinese Nationalist Party(the Kuomintang:KMT). KMT’s retreat to Taiwan after its defeat in the Civil War against the Chinese Communists restructured Taiwan’s multi-ethnic society by bringing in a new “ethnic”group, the Mainlanders. The Mainlanders or Waishengren (literally people of outer provinces), who fled with the KMT regime to Taiwan, also monopolized the core positions of the settler state. Although this is a widely recognized fact, academic studies concerning this situation and the role of Waishengren in post-war Taiwan remain limited. This study is a preliminary effort to contribute to the existing researches on Waishengren. It first shows that a deep ethnic division between Waishengren and Benshengren (literally people of this province)was formed as a result of Bensh engren’s uprising against the KMT-led Taiwan provincial government, on February 28,1947, and the subsequent harsh suppression which claimed between 180,00 and 28,0001ives(the February 28 1ncident). Based on the demographic data of Waishengren, the study then provides a rough picture of the social outlook of Waishengren during the early years of their settlement in Taiwan.