CHAPTER 4 COMPARISON OF THE MOVEMENTS AND QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS
4.2 Q UESTIONNAIRE RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
4.2.1 Demographics
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reach, 2) the threat provided by the PRC, and 3) their identity. This has led to the mutual recognition between the young generations, which are struggling in overall similar grounds.
4.2 Questionnaire results and analysis.
The present section will be dedicated to show the results of the data obtained by respondents of the survey. First, it will present the demographics of the sampled used in the present survey. Second, the results of the question set to trace the meaning of “being Taiwanese” will be provided, along with a description of the process of its formulation.
Third, the results showed in this section will seek to provide the reader the information about readership, sources of information, and show the impacts of both social movements in the Taiwanese students taking the survey. Fourth and final, the present author will provide his interpretation and analysis of the survey’s data. Let us proceed to the analysis.
4.2.1 Demographics
The data collection was conducted via Google documents from June 3th to July 1st 2015.
The total number of respondents was 460 students from a total population of 55,893 students. The three universities considered in the present study were: National Taiwan University (172), National Taiwan Normal University (142) and National Chengchi University (142). The maximum level of confidence achieved in the present survey was 95 percent, with a confidence interval (error) of 4.55 percent. From the 460 respondents 285 were women and 175 men. The participants were between the ages of 19 to 30 years old85. It was also asked the identity of the interviewees. The options provided to the interviewees were the following: Hakka, Min-nan, Mainlander, Aboriginal, Foreigner, Taiwanese, Don’t know, other. The “Taiwanese” option of was added as valid but after the respondents were
85 Despite the explanation provided with the survey, there were a few cases in which the respondents exceeded the targeted age. Nonetheless, the overall results were not affected.
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asked to select the meaning from a series of definitions provided by the survey. This was handled in this fashion due to the ambiguity behind the Taiwanese identity.
The option “other” was provided as many Taiwanese students taking the survey or their respective parents felt they had overlapping identities. The most common cases came from those who wanted to clarify that they were ethnically “Min-nan” but they also felt
“Foreigner” or “Min-nan” and “Hakka” but they felt “Taiwanese”.
The following graphics show the respondents per university and gender.
The standard age of the respondents was 22.5 years old as most of them were between the ages of 19 and 23 years old.
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The students were request to select their identity and the results were the following ones.
This particular question resulted in one of the most difficult formulations in the entire survey.
The reason why this was challenging is because Taiwanese identity is rather ambiguous.
Hence, before launching the survey the author of the present study conducted a pre-survey to locate some perspectives on the idea of “being Taiwanese”. The responses of the people interviewed in this initial assessment, which were all students, varied largely. What was clear was that the idea of ethnicity was mixed with the idea of identity. From the 20 students that were interviewed in this initial
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assessment, 12 said that “Min-nan” and “Hakka” ethnicities conforms the modern Taiwanese. The rest of the students would not have a clear the idea and would respond for instance that their family members are “Hakka” or “Min-nan” but they also felt Taiwanese.
Additionally, in a survey descriptions provided could not be long otherwise the respondents would have complications in selecting intricate answers, thus affecting the results. To address the challenge the present author referred to professor’s Malte Philip Keading theoretical framework regarding national identity (Identity Formation in Taiwan and Hong Kong - How much difference, how many similarities?, 2011). Keading’s framework identifies three key perspectives in the discussion of national identity, which are: ethno-cultural nationalism, multi-ethnic nationalism and political or state nationalism.
National identity is a complex term that has generated several theoretical approaches. As Malte Philip Keading argues, the discussion rounds over two perspectives: the essentialist (primordial) and constructivist approaches. The first argues that national identity refers to certain bloodline, language, race and territory, and poses a great level of “coerciveness”.
The second, as the names “constructivism” entails, argues that identity views the nation as an “imagined political community” that points at its invention and creation refusing any
“primordialism”86.
Therefore, national identity lies between the ethnical and civic identity definitions. On one hand, Kaeding tell us that professor Anthony D. Smiths argues that the ethnic model takes the community of birth, native culture (including endemic languages), traditions and customs as the most important elements. On the other, the civic model makes reference to the legal and political aspect of the society that has a set of rights, duties, common civic culture, ideology and historic territory (Kaeding, 2011). Nevertheless, there are civic and ethnic elements contained in the definitions on different levels.
86 Primordialism means that nations are ancient and natural phenomena. (Kaeding, 2011)
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Kaeding provide us with the definitions of the three most common discourses found in the Taiwanese case:
1) Ethno-cultural nationalism: […] […T]he Taiwanese identity is based on specific historical experiences and perceived cultural differences between the Taiwan people and mainland Chinese[.T]he focus is on the colonial past of the island and its long separation from the China.
2) Multi-ethnic nationalism: […] [T]he Taiwanese nation is a harmonious, democratic and tolerant nation of four ethnic groups, the Mainlanders, the Hoklo, the Hakka, and the aborigines.
3) Political or State nationalism: […] [T]he foundation of a Taiwan nation is in line with the institutions of a liberal state. The rise of the Taiwan identity is seen as directly connected to its geographical and political separation from China and its subsequent democratic development. (Kaeding, 2011)
Supported on these ideas, the options that appear in the survey were formulated and presented to the students for their selection.
As it can be appreciated the option that was most selected was the one that corresponds to
“multi-ethnic nationalism”. It is clear that most Taiwanese students taking the survey feel more comfortable to see themselves as a community that has a set of particular ethnic groups, in a specific territory with singular cultural, linguistic and religious configurations, encompassed all together in this notion of being “Taiwanese”. This answer is immediately followed by the response that adheres to the mixture of “political or state nationalism criteria” and “ethno-cultural nationalism”. From all the respondents, 30.2 percent (+/- 4.5) agreed that Taiwanese identity that is more inclusive (as it also combines “nationalized citizens”) and has a direct link to the sovereignty of the Taiwanese state. Hence, defined in this manner: Taiwanese are all who were born or nationalize Taiwan’s citizens regardless of their ethnicity, culture, customs, language and religion.
The third most selected option accounting for the 13.5 percent (+/- 4.5) of the respondents is the one that mixes “multi-ethnic nationalism” and “political or state nationalism”. This is
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an interesting option because the intention of this proposition was to measure if Taiwanese students taking the survey found more appealing an idea that provided equal level of strength to ethno-cultural and state nationalism. Finally, the two least selected options were a variant of “political or state nationalism” (only considering born citizens) and “ethno-cultural nationalism”. The first with only 43 votes (9.3 percent [+/- 4.5]) defends that to be Taiwanese is to be a born citizen in the territory of the Republic of China. The second is the least appealing because it talks about the “native culture” that refers only to the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan.