From Social Visibility to Political Invisibility

The School in Nationalist Taiwan as Fulcrum for an Evolving World Ethos

This book began as a year-long ethnography of a school in Taiwan in 1991 then evolved more into a historical sociology of national formation and its cultural mindset. Cultural nationalism is a widely debated but poorly understood process. Contrary to prevailing perceptions, the Cold War may have given way to a more progressive open society, but the politicization of ethnicity hardened a more deeply entrenched cultural frame of mind. Instead of liberating an indigenous reality, Taiwanese consciousness has ironically polarized the political dead ends of reunification and independence. In the final analysis, the ethnography can serve as a paradigmatic case study for critical cultural studies. There are clear ramifications also for a comparative study of the cultural politics of other Chinese speaking or Asian societies and their histories.

About the author

Allen Chun is Chair Professor in the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Program, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. His interests involve cultural theory, nation-state formation, globalization and identity. His research focuses on Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. His recent books include Forget Chineseness: On the Geopolitics of Cultural Identification (2017) and On the Geopragmatics of Anthropological Identification (2019).

Bibliographic Information

• Book Title From Social Visibility to Political Invisibility
• Book Subtitle The School in Nationalist Taiwan as Fulcrum for an Evolving World Ethos
• Authors Allen Chun
• DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-98…
• Publisher Palgrave Macmillan Singapore
• eBook Packages Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies  (R0)
• Copyright Information The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023
• Hardcover ISBN 978-981-99-2017-4Published: 16 May 2023
• Softcover ISBN 978-981-99-2020-4Due: 30 May 2024
• eBook ISBN 978-981-99-2018-1Published: 15 May 2023
• Edition Number 1
• Number of Pages VIII, 291
• Topics Asian Politics, Cultural Studies, Pedagogy
• Keywords
  • Ethnography
  • Anthropology
  • Taiwan
  • Socialization
  • Nationalist