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Between Taiwan and China---Lee Teng Hui's Concepts anf His Awareness of China

The experience and history shaped by various political groups in the modern history of Taiwan has left a significant mark in the hearts of the island¡¦s citizens. Ever since the 1990¡¦s, even the KMT, a party that had always regarded China ethnicity as the essence of localization, has gradually altered its insistence towards a less constrained attitude. As a result of this, the difference in national identity and the notion of culture emerges, leading Taiwan into an era of liberated ideas about national identity.
Lee Teng Hiu was the first citizen elected president of Rublic of China, Taiwan. He was brought up during the Japanese occupation, but accepted the radical political changes brought by the national government after the war. During his political career, he had experienced colonial, autocratic, authoritative, and democratic government systems. The combination of Japanese, Chinese, and American education during his academic pursuit had opened up his unique perspective of the world. Profoundly influenced by Kitaro Nishita¡¦s topical philosophy, the samurai spirit of Nitobe Inazo, Christian doctrines, and Marxism and Hegel¡¦s logical thinking, Lee found the motivation to authenticate his principles. In fact, the personal biography of Lee himself, is pretty much a representation of the modern history of Taiwan.
Because Lee is one of the most influential political elites in the history of Taiwan, his notion of the awareness of Taiwan and his comprehension and treatment of Mainland China also had a profound influence on the people of Taiwan in terms of their memories of history and collective identity. Thus, to understand how this collective identity had developed and transformed throughout the history of Taiwan, it is essential to scrutinize Lee¡¦s awareness of China, and the origin of his learning.
This research seeks to discuss the formation of Lee¡¦s concept of identity, whether or not the key of this identity has evolved, and how that sense of identity has roamed. This will be done through the analysis of the Taiwanese social structure during Lee¡¦s upbringing, restoring the Taiwanese society during the Japanese occupation of the Taisho and Showa dynasties, where the origin of his historical perspective on Mainland China came from, and also his concepts and experiences during adulthood. Lastly, the same notion of identity of his contemporaries will be compared in order to comprehend the origin of influence of the identity of Taiwan in Lee. After all, this sense of identity of the political elites will conceptualize, theorize, and the electoral issues will continuously influence the public notion of national identity. Thus, the clarification of the elite¡¦s notion will allow the understanding the identity at a subterranean level.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0808111-110601
Date08 August 2011
CreatorsHuang, Yu-Chun
ContributorsWu Mi-Cha, Shih Chih-Yu, Lin Bih-Jaw, Dzeng Yi-Ren, Shih Cheng-Feng
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0808111-110601
Rightsuser_define, Copyright information available at source archive

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