Diaspora, Hidden “In-between-ness”, Cross-borderer:
an Exploration of Taiwanese Immigrants’ Identity in Contemporary Japan
Peichun Han (Waseda University)
Abstract
I am currently working on my PhD dissertation which examines cultural identity andthe related discourse of one particular immigrant group, the “postwar comer” Taiwanese,in contemporary Japan. This group came to Japan after the end of WWII andexperienced complex transitions in both legal statuses and self-identifications.
Constituted from the legacies of Japanese colonialism and Chinese nationalism, theimmigrant Taiwanese constantly negotiate and redefine their “neither here, nor there”
identities and thus constitute a distinct case within the population of overseas ethnic
Chinese.
This study investigates the Taiwanese migrants’ cultural adaptation and socializationin the Japanese social setting through literature review and field study. The author hascollected data through questionnaire distributions and interviews. This paper argues
that the postwar comers of Taiwanese have constructed a transnational identity either
hybridized or hidden in-between two cultures of Japanese and Chinese. In other words,
this paper attempts to offer a perspective on Taiwanese under Japanese colonialism andChinese nationalism that transcends the “identity struggle” commonly experienced byimmigrants around the world. This group of Taiwanese migrants in postwar Japan
struggle with surveillance, assimilation, resistance and identity confusions. To balance
between a survival strategy overseas and a primordial attachment to the motherland,
their identity of group boundaries may shift in various directions in accordance with the
dynamic situations.
Although compared to the US or some European countries, Japan is not considered to
be a country of significant migration but a society of racial and cultural homogeneity.
However, Japan had accepted a large number of immigrants from its previous colonies,
such as Korea and Taiwan. Since the economic boom and labor shortage in the 1980s,
Japan faces an increasing influx of immigrants, in particular those from East Asia.
While previous literatures of the Chinese and Korean Diaspora are widely researched,
there is a vacuum on Taiwanese Diaspora in the associated scholarship. Different fromtheir Chinese and Korean counterparts residing in Japan, Taiwanese migrants appear to368be an invisible group of culture identity. Unlike Chinese and Korean communities thathave kept strong cultural identities that stress their countries of origin, Taiwanesemigrants keep transnational ties to their homeland Taiwan while practice in a way of in
between Japanese and Chinese cultures.
To maintain one’s Japanese-ness is not only a strategy for advantageous survival in
Japanese society, but also serves as nostalgia for the colonial period. Meanwhile,
Chinese traits are embedded in cultural identity, employment or in the daily life
practices of the Taiwanese. The labels of Chinese, Taiwanese and overseas Chinese
which are used for self identification by the Taiwanese have multiple meanings. Just
as their interpersonal networks are indefinite and extensive in membership, those labels
are vague in meanings, and can be used to include not only other Chinese in Japan, butalso Taiwanese and Chinese outside of Japan. In this flux of meanings, there is no one
definite label used by the Taiwanese migrants to bind themselves to one ethnic group.
Cross-border identity is often articulated along the lines of political orientations or ofcertain perceivable cultural features. However, at the level of daily life practice, thearticulated self identification might not be unproblematic; boundaries of self ascribed
identification might have fissures. Taiwanese migrants usually do not describe
themselves in static terms such as Chinese or Japanese. However, such terms aresubject to negotiation and renegotiation in practice on the one hand, and people’s
everyday behaviors might be contradictory to their articulated identities on the other.
Their group boundaries may shift in various directions in accordance with situations.
To clearly comprehend the multifaceted transitions of Taiwanese immigrants’ culturalidentity, it is necessary to examine not only the background of international history as
well as social setting, but also the migrants’ behaviors unfolding in daily practice. This
working paper, in the current stage, provides basic backgrounds and tentative finding of
the migrants’ identity. It is expected to increase quantity and quality of the interviews
to derive further discussions and findings.
Brief Bio of Peichun Han:
Peichun Han is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the Waseda University.
She received her B.A. in International Relations from the National Taiwan University
in 2002, and M.A. in Public Policy from the Georgetown University at Washington DCin 2004.

She is currently working as a TA at the Department of International Liberal369

Studies, Waseda University. Her research interests focus on East Asian and migration
studies, particularly those related to identity and cultural comparison. Her working
dissertation researches on Taiwanese Diaspora. She examines the unique traits ofTaiwanese migrants in Japan through comparative approaches. In addition to anumber of editorial articles on newspaper, her paper “China Studies in Japan” waspublished on the Quarterly of Mainland China Studies (National Taiwan UniversityPress, 2005).

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