Abstract
This volume centers on the creation of varied forms of individual and group identity in Taiwan, and the relationship between these forms of identity—both individual and collectively—and patterns of Taiwanese religion, politics, and culture. We explore the Taiwanese people’s sense of who they are, attempting to discern how they identify themselves—as individuals and as collectivities—and then try to determine the identity/roles individuals and groups construct for themselves. We also explore how such identities/roles are played out within the family and peer group, at the local level of the village, town and neighborhood, and on the regional level, the national level, and within the larger Chinese cultural/religious universe. In this volume, we seek to answer questions about the complex nature of identity/role and the processes of identity formation, and then determine how such identities/roles are reflected in the religious, sociocultural, and ethno-political actions and structures that have shaped Taiwan’s multileveled past and its many faceted present. In this introduction, we first suggest how individuals and groups in the overlapping realms of Taiwanese politics, religion, and cross-strait relations can utilize identities/roles as cultural constructs.
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Notes
For more on incense power, see P. Steven Sangren, History and Magical Power in a Chinese Community (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987). For more on the Chen-lan Kung and its pilgrimage,
see Huang Mei-ying, T’aiwan Ma-tsu hsin-yang te hsiang-huo yü yi-shih (Incense and Ritual in Taiwan’s Ma-tsu Cults) (Taipei: Tzu-li wan-pao, 1994), as well as the chapter by Murray Rubinstein in this volume.
In recent years role theory has become a basic element in the sociological school (and psychosociology school) of social interactionism. One recent book in this field is John P. Hewitt, Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology (Allyn and Bacon, 1997).
The list of materials is extensive. Among those I obtained in a brief search were “Functionalism, Identity Theories, the Union Theory,” in T. Subzuka and R. Warner, eds., The Mind Body Problem: The Current State of the Debate (Oxford: Backwells, 1994); Rosenthal, chapter V. “Behaviorism, Physicalism and the Identiry Thesis,” http://csaclab-www.uchicago.edu/philosophyProject/sellars/rosent5a.html.
tudies on role and identity include: Blake E. Ashworth, “All in a Days Work: Boundaries and Micro Role Transitions” in Academy of Management Review, July, 2000;
Shawn Megan Burn, Roger Aboud, and Carey Moyles, “The Relationship Between Gender Social Identity and Support for Feminism” in Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, June, 2000;
Dennis A. Gioia, “Organizational Identity, Image, and Adaptive Instability,” in Academy of Management Review (January, 2000).
This is taken from http//www.3.wcedu/-GUFSON/HBSE/THEORY/tsld016.htm. See also Catherine R. Cooper, “Theories Linking Culture and Psychology: Universal and Community Specific Processes” in Annual Review of Psychology, 1998.
Clare Cassidy, “Identity in Northern Ireland: A multidimensional approach” in Journal of Social Issues, Winter, 1998;
Kelly H. Chong, “What it Means to be Christian: The Role of Religion in the Construction of Ethnic Identity and Boundary Among Second-generation Korean Americans” in Sociology of Religion, Fall, 1998;
Ujvala Rajadhyayaksha, “Life Role Salience: A Study of Dual Career Couples in the Indian Context” in Human Relations, April, 2000,
Stephen W. Floyd, “Strategizing Througout the Organization: Managing Role Conflict in Strategic Renewal” in Academy of Management Review, January, 2000.
The most useful overview of Confucianism and its impact upon China and East and Southest Asia is John H. Berthong, Transformations of the Confucian Way (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998).
On Confucius and his thought see David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames, Thinking Through Confucius (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987).
For an analysis of Mencius see Kwong-loi Shun, Mencius and Early Chinese Thought (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997). On Confucianism and society in early Second Millennium A.D. China
see Robert P. Hymes and Conrad Schirokauer, Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). On Confucianism and issues of role and identity
see Pei-yi Wu, The Confucian’s Progress: Autobiographical Writings in Traditional China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
Steven R. Bokencamp, “Death and Ascent in Ling-pao Taoism” in Taoist Resoures, vol. 1, 2 1989, 1–21: and “Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures” in M. Stricmann, ed., Tantric and Taoist Studies (Brussels: Institute belgede hautes etudes chinoies, 1983), 2: 434–486.
These chapters from the Chuang Tz can be found in Theodore DeBary, ed., Sources of the Chinese Tradition 1st ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960). Scholarship on Taoism has expanded dramatically in recent decades.
Two general works are Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1993)
and Isabelle Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997).
Works relevant to my discussion include Roger T. Ames, ed., Wandering at Ease in the Zuangzi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998),
Livia Kohn, ed., The Taoist Experience (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993);
Livia Kohn and Michael LaFargue, eds., Lao-Tzu and the Tao-te ching (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998).
Those who are Buddhists in the United States deal with this contradiction. See the set of articles on Buddhism and American politics in Tricycle (Summer, 2000). On the relationship between Buddhism and the larger Chinese world see Jaques Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995). On Buddhism and society in the Ming
see Timothy Brook, Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993).
On the evolution of religious Taoism see Livia Kohn, Taoist Mystical Philosophy (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991);
Isabelle Robinet, Taoist Meditation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993).
On ritual and the roles of ritual specialists in Taoism see John Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (New York: Macmillan, 1987).
See also Michael Saso’s popular and very entertaining study, Blue Dragon/White Tiger: Taoist Rites of Passage (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990).
A key work for understanding the development of popular religion in China is Valerie Hansen, Changing Gods in Medieval China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
See also Kenneth Dean, Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults in Southeast China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993),
and Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Religions of China in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
Terry Kleeman, A God’s Own Tale (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991).
The basic book on Chinese pilgrimage is Susan Naquin and Chu-fang Yu, eds., Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
On pilgrimage in Taiwan see Chang Hsun, “Incense Offering and Obtaining Magical Power,” Dissertation for the Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1993. See also Murray A. Rubinstein, “The Revival of the Mazu Cult and of Taiwanese Pilgrimage to Fujian” in Harvard Studies on Taiwan: Papers of the Taiwan Studies Workshop, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Fairbank Center for East Asian research at Harvard University), 89–125.
On the sectarian tradition on Taiwan see David K. Jordan and Daniel L. Overmeyer, The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Sectarianism in Taiwan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986).
See also Ian A. Skoggard, The Indigenous Dynamic in Taiwan’s Postwar Development: The Religious and Historical Roots of Entrepreneurship (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), chap. 8.
On issues of Taiwanese identity see Alan M. Wachman, Taiwan: National Identity and Democratization (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1994).
The impact of identity as an element in Taiwan’s history is examined as a theme in the chapters of Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., Taiwan, A New History (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1999).
Identity politics also serves as a major theme in Hung-mao T’ien, ed., Taiwan’s Electoral Politics and Democratic Transition: Riding the Third Wave (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1996).
Hans Mol, Identity and the Sacred: A Sketch for a New Social-scientefic Theory of Religion (New York: Free Press, 1976). “Introduction” in Hans Mol, ed., Identity and Religion: International Cross-cultural Approaches, Sage Studies in International Sociology, 16 (London: Sage Publications, Ltd., 1978), 1–17.
See for example the works of Timothy Brook, Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Ming China; Yu Chun-fang, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late-Ming Synthesis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981);
Kenneth Dean, The Lord of the Three in One (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998);
Stephen E. Eskildsen, “The Beliefs and Practices of Early Ch’üan-chen Taoism,” M.A. Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1989;
Vincent Goossaert, “Le creation du taoïsm moderne. l’ordre Quanzhen,” Ph.D. thesis, École Pratique de Hautes Études, 1997;
Daniel Overmyer, Folk Buddhist Religion (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976);
Barend ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992).
Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., Taiwan, A New History (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1999).
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© 2003 Paul R. Katz and Murray A. Rubinstein
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Katz, P.R., Rubinstein, M.A. (2003). The Many Meanings Of Identity: An Introduction. In: Katz, P.R., Rubinstein, M.A. (eds) Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981738_1
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