New Taiwanese

Abstract

Positivist political and social sciences privilege survey responses as providing legitimate data on “real” Taiwanese identity, and many of the preceding arguments can be brought to bear to critique the knowledge that they themselves produce. The survey strategy of simply asking people whether they think of themselves, or name themselves, as Taiwanese or Chinese is covered in the review of Derrida’s arguments on naming and the production of meaning. Lin Tsong-jyi has used that kind of survey data from the Election Study Centre at National Chengchi University to discuss “the distribution of national identities,” noting “increasing Taiwanese identity and decreasing Chinese identity” as “two significant and general trends.”¹ He is really talking about the naming practices of the Taiwanese people. These surveys assume that naming is indicative of a social object called identity, so that the word Taiwanese corresponds to a measurable social phenomenon called Taiwanese identity. However, on the basis of Derrida’s reflections on the act of naming, even in the institutional setting of an opinion survey, the sign Taiwanese can be understood as a site of political contestation that has become invested with the meaning of nationhood.