Description:
This interdisciplinary book explores the ever-present issue of identity in Taiwan from a spatial perspective and examines the ways in which the Kuomintang regime naturalized its political control, territorialized the island and created a nationalist geography. By addressing the relationship between the state and the imagined community, Bi-yu Chang establishes a dialogue between place and cultural identity to analyse the constant changing and shaping of Chinese and Taiwanese identity.
Review Quotes:
"Chang Bi-yu...the rich empirical data she has provided in each of her four case studies is thoughtfully analyzed, resulting in a broad-ranging picture of the KMT's attempts to employ cartographic representations, yearbook spatial discourse, elementary-school geography textbooks, and urban planning to solidify domestic support for its rule in Taiwan and to legitimate its claims over the "innate national territory" of Free China. One can only hope that this fine research will stimulate even greater interest in the history of cartography, spatial discourse, and urban planning in postwar Taiwan."
Douglas Fix, professor of History and Humanities at Reed College.
Cross-currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, Review Essay