1. Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.1 Generational Puzzle
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Sunflower Movement was its ability to inject itself into politics across the Taiwan Strait, thus forcing Beijing to take social forces into consideration as it adjusts its policies6. In June 28th of 2014, Zhang Zhijun's visit to Taiwan, China's top official for Cross-Strait relations, was a sign of new Beijing's considerations towards Taiwan. The visit was landmark for Cross-Strait relations, since Mr Zhang was the first-ever head of the mainland's Taiwan Affair Office (TAO) to visit Taiwan. Zhang met with his counterpart, Wang Yu-chi of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC). They agreed to study issues relating to Taiwan’s involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)7.
Indeed, as Taiwan is a democratic regime, civil society in Taiwan has the potential to shape Taiwanese domestic politics. Hence, the relationship between civil society and domestic politics seems to be the key factor that can lead to a possible political change in Taiwan and ultimately in Cross-Strait relations. Therefore, to foresee the development of domestic politics and the future of the relations between ROC and PRC with the aim of promoting peace in the Taiwan Strait, it is important to understand the structure of political opinion. Analysing civil society's political values and attitudes towards and Cross-Strait relations is critical to achieve such a purpose.
1.1 Generational Puzzle
To understand society's different political values and attitudes, it is important to comprehend the complex nature of Taiwanese society, which has been shaped by different political regimes (Japanese colonial rule, KMT's authoritarian regime, and a democratic regime), socio-economic contexts, and ethnic factors. Not all the Taiwanese have undergone the same life experiences or have been influenced by similar political ideas or values.
Despite the existing socio-economic and political differences between individuals and groups, some shared commonalities can be found. Some groups of individuals, as a
6 J. Michael Cole, "Was Taiwan's Sunflower Movement successful?," The Diplomat, July 1, 2014, http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/was-taiwans-sunflower-movement-successful/
7 Shannon Tiezzi, "The Sunflower Movement hangs over Chinese Official's trip to Taiwan," The Diplomat, June 25, 2014, http://thediplomat.com/2014/06/sunflower-movement-hangs-over-chinese-officials-trip-to-taiwan/
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result of having experienced social changes and historical events, share to some extent a homogenous set of political values and attitudes that ultimately have had an impact on Taiwan domestic politics.
To analyse Taiwanese society's political values and attitudes and the causes of political change in the island, a theoretical framework able to take in account the existing differences and particularities of the individuals and groups as well as the factors that have contributed to the political change is needed. Generational studies can provide a tool to decipher such social and political complexities. The notion of generation is used to make sense of differences between age groupings in society and to locate individual's selves and other persons within historical time8. In addition, new generations experience historical conditions differently than do older (parent) generations, and in this difference lies the potential for marked social change9.
There have been several previous attempts to study Taiwanese society's political values and attitudes from a generational approach, namely Shelley Rigger, Andy Chang, T.Y Wang and Yun-Han Chu.
Andy Chang and T.Y Wang, in their article entitled "Taiwanese or Chinese?
Independence or Unification? An analysis of Generational differences in Taiwan"
published in 2005, provided a generational model to analyse Taiwanese society and its political generations. According to them, the history of Taiwan has crafted four main political generations, as a result of different living experiences such as the Japanese colonial rule, Taiwan's withdrawal from the UN in 1971, the establishment of DPP in 1986 and the peaceful transfer of political power in 2000.10 See table I.
8 Jane Pilcher, "Mannheim's sociology of generations: an undervalued legacy, "BJS 45, 3 (1994):
481.
9 Joseph,R, Demartini, "Change agents and generational relationships: A reevaluation of Mannheim' s problems of generations," Social Forces 64, no.1 (1985): 2.
10 Andy Chang and T.Y Wang, "Taiwanese or Chinese? Independence or Unification? An analysis of Generational differences in Taiwan," Journal of Asian and African studies 40 (2005):
34.
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10 Table I: Generational Model
Source: Andy Chang and T.Y Wang, " Taiwanese or Chinese? Independence or Unification? An analysis of Generational differences in Taiwan", Journal of Asian and African studies 40 (2005)
In 2006, Shelley Rigger published an article entitled "Taiwan's rising rationalism:
generations, politics, and "Taiwanese Nationalism", in which, Rigger attempted to foresee the development of Cross-Strait relations applying Chang and Wang's generational model to study Taiwanese political generation's political values, nationalism and attitudes towards Cross Strait relations. Her theoretical approach not only was based on generational studies but also the notion that the relationship between democracy and domestic politics is the key factor to understand any political development in the Strait of Taiwan. In addition, Rigger provided a deep analysis of the different political generations, not only explaining the historical factors that shaped them but also analysing the social differences and political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations among them. Rigger argued that preferences patterns of different age groups in Taiwan differ in important ways, and maintains, moreover, that these age-related attitudinal disparities are not a function of age (are not life-cycle factors) but are manifestations of enduring generational differences11.
Rigger, in particular, paid attention to the 4th political generation of Taiwanese or the
"Strawberry tribe", as she mentioned them in her paper. The political generation born
11 Shelley Rigger, "Taiwan's rising rationalism: generations, politics, and "Taiwanese Nationalism, "Policy Studies 26 (2006): 3.
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after 1968, entered their formative years after 1986 and experienced peaceful transfer of political power in 2000. In that time, it was claimed to be the generation that in the future will change the political development of Taiwan. She analysed their political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations, and one of the resulting outcomes of Rigger's work was the evident generational change between the first three political generations and the 4th political generation with regards to political values, political engagement and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations. When the first three political generations had a closer relationship with politics, the 4th political generation seemed to be less politically engaged and more pragmatic regarding Cross-Strait relations. In focus groups organised by Rigger, young people assessed their political participation even more negatively. The word they used most often was "indifferent" (lengmo, 冷漠).
In their views, politics was distant and irrelevant (...), they were apathetic about politics, but strongly attached to democracy12. In addition, another characteristic of the 4th political generation was their pragmatism towards China and the lack of a high level of nationalism.
However, after Ma's first election in 2008, Taiwan domestic politics started to experience new social and political processes that began to affect the Taiwanese political landscape. On 6th of November of 2008, that indifferent attitude towards politics among young people started to change with the emergence of the "Wild Strawberry Movement" (yecaomeiyundong, 野草莓運動), a student movement that protested against the visit of the People's Republic of China's ARATS chairman Chen Yunlin ( 陈云林) to Taiwan.
In 2011, Shelley Rigger published another paper on generational politics in Taiwan, entitled "Looking Toward the Future in the Taiwan Strait: Generational politics in Taiwan"13, in which she updated her 2006's paper using data based on TEDS of 2008.
One of the amendments was that Rigger mentioned the "Wild Strawberry Movement"
(yecaomeiyundong, 野草莓運動). However, instead of discussing the emergence of the
12 Shelley Rigger, "Taiwan's rising rationalism: generations, politics, and "Taiwanese Nationalism,"Policy Studies 26 (2006): 53.
13 Shelley Rigger, "Looking Toward the future in the Taiwan Strait: Generational politics in Taiwan," SAIS review 31, no.2 (2011): 65-77.
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"Wild Strawberry Movement" (yecaomeiyundong, 野草莓運動), which clearly posed a challenge to her assumptions on the indifferent attitude of young people towards politics, she followed Andy Chang and T.Y Wang's generational model, and framed the
"Wild Strawberry Movement" into the "4th political generation" or the "Democratic generation" as she labeled that political generation in that paper. The importance of that student movement was that the protests reopened a debate about where Taiwan’s young generation stands on political issues14.
Later, as a result of the seeds planted by the Wild Strawberry Movement in 2008 and the Anti-Media Monopoly Movement (fanmeitilongduanyundong, 反媒體壟斷運動) in 2012, the Sunflower Movement (Taiyanghua xueyun, 太陽花學運) emerged in 2014.
The student protests against Ma's administration, its Mainland policies and poor economic performance, which turned out in March 18th with an occupation of the Legislative Yuan (Parliament) and lasted for 23 days was considered by some scholars, Chen, Duchatel, Wang, as a historical turning point for the contemporary political development of the island and Cross- Strait relations.
Indeed, the Sunflower Movement demonstrated new political realities and dynamics among the youth. They seemed to be more engaged in politics and more hopeful about their impact in politics as well as displayed a high level of nationalism. This movement led by students, 56% of the participants were students, and in particular 73% were college students15, clearly posed a challenge to Rigger's 4th political generation.
What is clear is that the reason the Sunflower Movement flourished was due to the enduring generational differences. The students involved in the movement seemed to have new political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations.
14 Shelley Rigger, "Looking Toward the future in the Taiwan Strait: Generational politics in Taiwan," SAIS review 31, no.2 (2011): 66
15Chenwanqi, "shuilai xueyun? taiyanghuaxueyun canyu zhedejibenren koutuxiang"
PTS News Network July 14, 2014,
http://pnn.pts.org.tw/main/2014/07/14/%E8%AA%B0%E4%BE%86%E3%80%8C%E5%AD%
B8%E9%81%8B%E3%80%8D%EF%BC%9F%E5%A4%AA%E9%99%BD%E8%8A%B1%E 5%AD%B8%E9%81%8B%E5%8F%83%E8%88%87%E8%80%85%E7%9A%84%E5%9F%B A%E6%9C%AC%E4%BA%BA%E5%8F%A3%E5%9C%96%E8%B1%A1/
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The Sunflower Movement's emergence in 2014, as a result of a new socio-economic and political context, and in particular the involvement of the young generation in politics, posed new scholarly questions that need to be addressed.
According to Andy Chang and T.Y Wang's generational model, the history of Taiwan has been shaped by historic events that have led to the emergence of political generations. Therefore, whether the Sunflower Movement is considered as a turning point for the contemporary political development of Taiwan as well as an important formative event or a critical situation, can it be conceived a catalyst for the emergence of a new political generation? Secondly, if the students involved in the movement seemed to display new political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations, does this represent a new political generation? if so, why has it emerged and What are their political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations? Lastly, if it turns out that a political generation has emerged from the Sunflower movement, how should it be explained with regard to the evolution of the Rigger's Democratic generation, the Wild Strawberry movement and the Sunflower Movement's generation? In addition, through analysing the political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations of the young people who participated in the Sunflower Movement, in particular, university students, this thesis not only seeks to understand their political values but also attempts to foresee and consider the future of Cross-Strait relations with the aim of promoting peace in the Strait of Taiwan. Will this political generation impact Cross-Strait Relations? The main goal of this thesis is to attempt to answer all these questions. It is worth mentioning, that the discussion of the Wild Strawberry Movement is needed for two reasons. Shelley Rigger did not explain its location regarding the existing political generations and it was a vital for the emergence of the Sunflower Movement in 2014.
As noted previously, this research will primarily study the young generation that participated in the Sunflower Movement (They were born between late 1980s and 1990s). The reason being that the Sunflower Movement was consisted mostly college students who were in their formative years, 18-25 years old, and as will be explained later, is a critical period in which political values and attitudes emerge. In addition, the future lies in the hands of young people, they are the ones who react to new conditions.
Older people are, on the whole, too set in their ways to be responsible for social or
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political change, so most long-term change comes about by way of generational replacement16. On the other hand, when it comes to the understanding of political engagement, political socialisation studies among the youth assume that if we can find out more about the political orientations of young people, this already offers us a glimpse of the future. A clear illustration of this logic can be found in Russell Dalton's work on the evolution of political trust. Dalton noted that back in the 1950s, multivariate analysis showed a negative relation between age and trust (indicating that older people are significantly more distrustful). However, in the most recent studies, this relation has been turned around, as younger age cohorts now are clearly more distrustful than older respondents. According to Dalton, this finding allows us some grounds for speculation about future trends.17
In addition, in the Taiwanese context, at the moment, policymakers are most sensitive to the preferences of older Taiwanese, who form the bulk of political elite and the active electorate.18 However, to foresee the future scenarios of domestic politics and Cross-Strait relations, it is important to take into account the political values and attitudes of the young generation as they will become the future political elite and the active electorate. In the future, the political centre of gravity will shift towards today's young leaders and voters. If these two's groups preferences diverge, we may see a shift in Taiwan's policy direction. Alternatively, the views of the young might come to resemble those of the older generation once they reach a similar age19. Thus, studying young generation's political values and attitudes is crucial to anticipate the future of the political development in Taiwan and Cross-Strait relations.
1.3 Guiding Hypothesis
In 2014, the Sunflower Movement was a result of a specific socio-economic and political context. The students, who participated in it, had different political values and attitudes towards domestic politics and Cross-Strait relations to the preceding generations. Therefore, this thesis hypothesises that the students became into the
16 Marc Hooghe, "Political socialization and the future of politics," Acta politica 39 (2004):333.
17 Ibid, 333.
18 Shelley Rigger, "Taiwan's rising rationalism: generations, politics, and "Taiwanese Nationalism," Policy Studies 26 (2006): 3.
19 Ibid, 3.
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Sunflower's political Generation, a political generation that emerged from the Sunflower Movement. This political generation has a set of political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations that differ from the preceding political generations. They believe in participatory democracy, they are more social and politically engaged, they have a clear Taiwanese self-identity, they are in favour of independence of Taiwan, They support Pan-Green parties or new parties and they don't have good opinions about the PRC's government. As a consequence of these political values and attitudes, they have the potential to shape domestic politics and ultimately Cross-Strait relations.
1.4 Variables
It is necessary to establish the set of variables that are going to guide this thesis.
Therefore, the dependent variable is the Sunflower political Generation. In addition, this thesis will evaluate the different political values and attitudes towards domestic politics and Cross-Strait relations of Sunflower Generation such as its self-identity, "Taiwanese nationalism", partisanship, Independence vs Unification issue, democracy, political engagement, political socialisation and opinions on China.
The independent variables that have caused the emergence of the Sunflower generation have been the universities students' political socialisation and political learning in social activism prior to the emergence of the movement, domestic politics, and in particular, those related to the economic performance of Taiwan and those that have direct affected the living standards and expectations of the students and Cross-Strait relations. The intervening variable is Taiwan's democratic political regime. See research framework in Appendix.
1.5 Literature Review on Political generations and Political socialization
When studying any social phenomena, it is important to apply theoretical tools and select the most suitable theory or theories. To facilitate our understanding, when analysing the Sunflower's political Generation and its political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations, it is evidently faced and this requires a multi-theoretical foundation. Two theories are necessary in this instance. Firstly, a theory to explain the generational aspect of the entity of study. Secondly, another theory to
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explain how political values and attitudes are acquired by the youth as well as how they are maintained and can consequently shape the political reality.
Political generational theory, that will enable us to understand the generational aspect of the Sunflower's political generation, will primarily based upon Karl Mannheim's Problem of Generations. However, the notion of political generation that is operated in this thesis is based on the definition provided by Michael X Delli Carpini's work entitled Stability and Change in American Politics. In addition, to analyse the evolution of Taiwanese political generations, this thesis will rely on the generational model proposed by Andy Chang and T.Y Wang, which is in the paper entitled "Taiwanese or Chinese? Independence or Unification? An analysis of Generational differences in Taiwan", as it provides a conceptual framework that systematically divides Taiwanese society into different political generations. Furthermore, Shelley Rigger's works entitled Taiwan's rising rationalism: generations, politics, and "Taiwanese Nationalism and Looking Toward the future in the Taiwan Strait: Generational politics in Taiwan will be the starting point as it offers an extensive analysis of the different political generations of Taiwanese and their political values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations.
Political socialisation theory will be the tool to comprehend how the Sunflower political's generation acquired their values and attitudes towards Cross-Strait relations.
Greensberg's work entitled Political socialization provides the theory used in this thesis.
This thesis will pay attention to three political socialisation agents: state institutions that have shaped political values in Taiwan since the democratisation of Taiwan and in particular since 2000, social movements prior to the emergence of the Sunflower movement and the Sunflower movement as a formative event. To study the importance of social movements as agents of political socialization, both books entitled East Asian Social Movements: Power, Protest and Change in Dynamic Region and Mobilizations, protests and engagements: Canadian perspectives on Social Movements are crucial.
1.6 Methodology
This research relies upon two different data collection techniques. The primary data will be in-depth interviews of participants of the Sunflower Movement, university students.
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The majority will be between 18-25 years old. 21 university students from different universities National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, Yangming University, National Sun-Yat Sen University, Taipei Medical School, National Dong Hwa University and National Taiwan Normal University were interviewed in April of
The majority will be between 18-25 years old. 21 university students from different universities National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, Yangming University, National Sun-Yat Sen University, Taipei Medical School, National Dong Hwa University and National Taiwan Normal University were interviewed in April of