| dc.description.abstract | The discourse premised on the assumption that there are four ethnic groups in Taiwan tends to view each group as internally homogenized. When it broaches the subject of indigenization, the mainlanders in Taiwan are considered as an ostracized group, ill-adapted to the process of indigenization. The thesis seeks to understand whether this is indeed the case with members of the Clan Association of the Zhuangs. Because they moved to Taiwan after World War II, they can be categorized as both mainlanders and Hakkas. Conducting its research on the basis of face-to-face and phone interviews, the thesis examines the process of their adaptation to the new environment. That process is considered in two contexts: how their culture and ways of living have come to acquire local characteristics and how they have responded to the politically motivated movement of indigenization (also called Taiwanization).
The Clan Association of the Zhuangs consists partly of soldiers and government functionaries who followed the KMT regime to Taiwan when it retreated from the mainland in 1949. The majority, however, are those who immigrated in 1948 to seek work and better living conditions and to escape the social and economic disorder caused by the civil war taking place then in the mainland. Assisted by the clan members of the Zhuangs who had already established themselves in Taiwan, they settled in sooner than non-Hakka mainlanders. Since their arrival in Taiwan, they had regularly participated in the various gatherings of the clan, which eventually evolved into the formal organization called the Clan Association of the Zhuangs. The Association was founded in 1980, at the time when the consciousness of Taiwanese sovereignty started to emerge. Founding the Association can thus be seen as an attempt to resist Taiwanization and to build ties with China. For most of the members, however, the Association functions to remember the ancestors, to observe birth and funeral rites, and to strengthen emotional bonds between members. Lending psychological support to its members, it also enables them to identify themselves with Taiwan while consolidating their Hakka identity.
When the movement of Taiwanization flourished in 1990’s, the Hakka identity they shared and the connections formed among them consequently facilitated their adaptation to the process of indigenization. In response to the question of their ethnic identity, they have no objection to being identified as Taiwanese Hakkas, because they have established a rapport with them. Not only do they see no threat to themselves in the policy of indigenization promoted by the government, but they have something to offer to the policy as well, namely, their food culture of pestled tea, which contributed to the formation of larger Hakka culture. | en_US |