On this week's @SinicaPodcast, leading Taiwan scholar Shelley Rigger of Davidson College discusses her excellent new book ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฐ๐ฏ: ๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐๐ข๐ช๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข'๐ด ๐๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ช๐ค ๐๐ช๐ด๐ฆ. supchina.com/podcast/how-taโฆ
We also publish a transcript of our podcast for those who prefer reading. You can find that here: supchina.com/2021/10/14/a-hโฆ
Shelley brings up something that way too many mainlanders fail to recognize and internalize: That Taiwan's colonization from 1895 to 1945 created a vast "psychological distance" from the mainland during exactly the period where modern Chinese nationalism was formed.
Think about all that happened between 1895 and 1945! The Scramble for Concessions, the Hundred Days Reforms, the Boxers and the Eight-Nation Army, the Xinhai Revolution, the New Culture and May 4th Movements, the Warlord Period, the KMT reorg, the Northern Expedition...
... the White Terror, the Jiangxi Soviet, the Long March, the whole Nanjing Decade, the North China Plains War, the Dec. 9th Movement โ all of this and much, much more. All the critical moments in the development of modern Chinese nationalism bypassed them.
And yet somehow there's this expectation that Taiwanese people should identify with China? This is something I've argued myself blue in the face with many friends and family members for years, but Shelley just puts it so well, and so plainly.
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