In this paperwork, I am going to respond to the following subject- why Taiwan is considered by many social scientists to be a laboratory for national identity; reflecting upon the social construction and source of national identity in my native country.
As depicted through a literature review, more Taiwanese are affirming their individual national identity, whereby, they have started taking vital inventiveness, such as writing their history. According to experts, they claim that modernization could be playing a significant role in the transformation of the Taiwanese. It is important to note that modernization as presented in the model has been playing a vital role towards the development of national identity movements across the world as it is the case in Taiwan. The Taiwan is pushing for their own national identity- they do not want to be acknowledged as Chinese, but as Taiwanese. The Taiwanese are said to have started asserting new customs so as to be unique from the Chinese society. Literature review has it that Taiwan was first recognized as a sacrificial province of China and secondly as the seat of a government mainly unrecognized by the international society, thereby, making it exclusive from other cultures. The actions that the Taiwan community is taking, segregating itself from the Chinese society, has alerted the world, whereby, the social scientists have adopted the appropriate measures of studying this upcoming new society- the social scientists have branded the Taiwan as a laboratory for national identity . They are in the process of making up their history so as to establish itself, the Taiwan, as a complete society by its own (Brian Hall, 2003).
It has been depicted in the reading that numerous tools have to be adopted so as to make it possible for social construction to take place. In America, we go to church on Sunday, meaning that this customs of going to church on Sunday could have been borrowed from the ancient religious beliefs. It is important to note that in order for something to become real, we must start by creating a thing, whereby, that thing progresses to becoming real and acceptable in the community (William, pg 19).
Works Cited
William G. Roy. Making Societies The Historical Construction of Our World: University of California, Los Angeles. PINE FORGE PRESS. Thousand Oaks, California. London. New Delhi.
Brian Hall. Modernization and the social construction of National Identity: The Case of
Taiwanese Identity. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, Vol 47, Nationalities: Negotiating
Communities, Boundaries, and Identities (2003), pp.135-169 .
