Cross- ethnic identity

of meaning in the thematic analysis allows the researcher to identify crucial relationships within the different findings and research question. Then the need for flexibility is a massive aspect of in them after applying thematic analysis on all the for the elven interview transcripts. Even though the sample size was not significant to be representative, they were some interesting patterns that can be explored in future research.

3.3 Data collection and sampling 3.3.1 Definition of population

This research aims to explore the diversity within the Taiwanese society. Data is collected using in-depth- interviews that will be conducted on the middle class and upper-class women. They are the most targeted audience for skin whitening companies. According to previous studies, the difference in ethnic origin shapes the way each person perceives color (McKay, Avery, and Morris, 2008). This research will sample Taiwanese women from different ethnic groups.

3.4 Cross- ethnic identity

For this study, eleven female participants from different Taiwanese ethnicity groups were interviewed to gets a full sample of all the different types of women in the Taiwanese society and how different or indifferent they perceive the skin whitening phenomenon. The following will give an informational background on all the various ethnic groups in Taiwan. Ethnic identity is often considered as a social construct (Waters, 1990). Ethnicity is usually invisible and unconscious because societal norms have been constructed around different ethnic, and cultural frameworks, values, and priorities. Ethnic identity is a critical part of the overall context of an individual and whole collective identity. A cross-cultural study is a comparative study of how people differ across various cultural backgrounds. In the case of this research, it will be a comparison amongst the

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

different Taiwanese ethnic groups to identify the difference and cultural relations within the skin whitening phenomenon culture. For some of the various ethnic minority populations in Taiwan, ethnic identity is manifested in a very conscious way. The manifestation is affected mostly by two conflicting social and cultural influence.

The first is a deep conscious immersion into cultural traditions and values due to religious beliefs, familiar neighborhood, and educational communities instill a definite sense of ethnic identity and confidence. Secondly, individuals are often required to filter ethnic identity through negative treatment and media messages received from others because of their race and ethnicity (Chávez and Guido-DiBrito, 1999). It has been suggested that cultural identification highlights an intersection between racial perceptions of others “racism” and racial perception of self “racial development” (Chávez & Guido-DiBrito,1999). It may be valuable in consideration of racial and ethnic identity in relations to skin whitening.

3.4.1. Ethnic groups in Taiwan

Taiwan ethnic mix (news.bbc.co.uk)

‧

Taiwan's current populations of twenty-three million mainly consist of many ethnic groups. In particular, five main ethnic groups: The aborigines, Hokkien, Hakkas, Mainlanders, and new immigrants. The Hokkien Han Chinese ethnic group makes up around 69% of the total population, putting them at the spot of the largest group in the country. The Hakka Han Chinese follows with them making up about 15% of the total population (Huang, 2018). These ethnic groups have contributed significantly to the cultural diversity, economic, social, and political spheres in Taiwan.

The interactions of these ethnic groups have led to the borrowing of cultural practices, intermarriages, and growth or population (Huang, 2018).

The different ethnic groups have played a vital role in the dynamics and differentiation of the various integrated groups in Taiwan. With this research, it will be interesting to explore the impact of the skin whitening phenomenon that has become such a vital part of the Taiwanese general public lifestyle. Divided into five ethnolinguistic groups, Taiwan is considered

"ethnolinguistic" and not "ethnic. “This is due to some groups of people maintaining there is every little ethnic difference between some of these groups that exist on the Island (Noels, Kil, & Fang, 2014). This belief is only in relations to the different racial features and divided language and culture. Taiwan's aborigines spoke Malayo-Polynesian language, but they were not a homogeneous group. The group is often placed in the classification of aboriginal mountain people.

Who carried a considerable risk of possibly being displaced or assimilated into a more technologically advanced society that is present today (Noels, Kil, & Fang, 2014). It is believed that the aborigines had the first contact with each of the successive emigrating cultures. The different Aboriginal tribes and groups are sparsely located all over the Island of Taiwan. While sharing a common ethnicity, the groups significantly differ in their language, religious, and traditional customs.

‧

Hoklo still holds its position as the largest group in Taiwan, making up an estimated two-thirds of the Taiwanese population to date (Jennings, 2012).With their language, the Hoklo are usually known as Taiwanese, though not all Taiwanese speakers are Hoklo, and not all Hoklo speak Taiwanese(Liao, 2019). The Hoklo Han Chinese mostly migrated from China to Taiwan in the 19th century before the establishment of the Japanese rule. They primarily spoke Sinitic languages a standard Chinese dialect. (Noels, Kil & Fang, 2014). The culture of Hokolo significantly evolved in relations to their language, from that of their homeland across the Strait.

Predominantly Buddhist and Taoist, they are a group that dominates the business world and the cultural life of the island. In the 1990s the democratization of Taiwan strengthens the group into becoming the most critical group in electoral politics (Chepkemoi, 2018). The Hoklo people intermarried with the native and adopted some of their customs and assimilated some of the aboriginals (Liao, 2019). The Hoklo people speak Hokkien dialect which cannot be understood by speakers of other Chinese dialects. The Hoklo Han Chinese have adopted most of the religions practiced in Taiwan as well as some cultural aspects of the Taiwanese aboriginals (Chepkemoi, 2018).

3.4.3 Hakka Han Chinese

The Hakka are Han Chinese originated from the Hakka-speaking provinces of China, such as Shanxi, Henan, and Hubei. They are impoverished and stigmatized subgroup of Han Chinese, whose settlements are scattered from Jiangxi to Sichuan (Erbaugh, 1992).

They make up around 14% of the total population of Taiwan(Chen, 2017). The Hakka people migrated to other countries all over the world, mainly due to social unrests and invasions.

‧

The Hakka do not hold their identity center on birthplace but ancestry and culture. As migrants, they repeatedly dug up their ancestors' bones and carried them in jars to their new settlements. The group strongly sees themselves as more Chinese than other Han(Chen, 2017). They persistently preserve that they are ancient in northern Han culture and always remind themselves where they come from formerly. During wars, they fled to Taiwan and settled there permanently. Most of the Hakka's today are recognized as leaders and military men. Mainly because, by the time of their settlement, there was little land left for cultivation, so their primary emphasis was on education and related careers(Chen, 2017).

3.4.4 Mainland Chinese

Another established member of the five existing groups is another Mainland Chinese settlement, who traveled to the country around the seventeenth century (Chepkemoi, 2018). They migrated to Taiwan in the 1940s from mainland China after Kuomintang lost the Chinese civil war in 1949. The migrants mainly consisted of soldiers, merchants, bankers, and other people who feared communist rule. The only way mainland Chinese were distinguished from the local Taiwanese people was that their native land was not Taiwan (Chen, 2017). The Hakka had to settle and cultivate land in the more fertile mountainous areas, as Hokkien had already populated the plains area that was most suitable to intensive farming. On top of the issues with land, there was a problem with mutually unintelligible dialect heightened the fabrication between the two groups.

Fortunately, this relationship changed after the Japanese occupied Taiwan. Under Japanese rulings as the two groups constituted the ruled Taiwanese, as opposers to the ruling of the Japanese.

Usually called Minnanren (閩南人) in Taiwan, this name stems from the origins of this group across the Taiwan Strait (Chepkemoi, 2018).

‧

The Hoklo Taiwanese the second oldest of Taiwan's four main groups. There were first brought over in large numbers by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century. Successive waves of settlers from Fujian arrived in Taiwan over the two centuries. Following their escape of poverty and famine, they sought their fortune in the frontier life of Taiwan (G. Knappand 1976). A few women were included in the trip most of the Hoklo in Taiwan will also have some percentage of Aboriginal DNA. Involved in the early Chinese settlers were social groups that were differentiated by different dialect and mainland ancestral heritage they include Hokkien and Hakka. Over 80%

of the Hokkien emigrated from Fukien province were mostly Hakka (G. Knappand 1976).

3.4.5 Aboriginal Taiwanese

Way before the arrival of the Han Chinese in the 17th century, Taiwanese Aboriginals have inhabited the Island of Taiwan for at least 8000 years (Schaffer and Rostow, 1982). Known as The Yuanzhumin (原住民) who are believed to have been the original inhabitants of the Island, tied to the Philippines, Malaysia, Madagascar, and Oceania and some other Polynesian groups in Asia.

They are Austronesian people, about genetics and linguistic traits. There is a lot of variation within the Aboriginal group, with more than a dozen tribes which vary in physiognomy, language, and culture. While Aboriginal peoples previously settled throughout the whole Island, the lowland groups were either assimilated into later immigrant Chinese groups or driven into the hills by these same settlers. So, the significant Aboriginal populations are concentrated in the harder-to-reach parts of Taiwan (Schaffer and Rostow, 1982).

These groups can be found in the mountainous terrain, narrow eastern plains and the Orchid Island in Taiwan. The aboriginals are the indigenous inhabitants of Taiwan who have been assimilated into other communities through intermarriages. The aboriginals have lost a great deal

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

of their cultural identity due to intermarriages cultural assimilation and continued contact with colonizers. While others face a threat of extinction (Schaffer and Rostow, 1982).

3.4.6 New immigrants

New immigrants (新移民) is a term coined by the former president of the Republic of China. The term refers to the group that consists of mainly new residents, originally from other nations like Vietnam, Thailand, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and many Southeast Asian workers. Newer members include a tiny community of ex-patriots from western countries like America and Europe as well as other countries like Japan and Korea (panorama, 2017).