Ripples of trauma: an exploration of the intergenerational legacy of the descendants of Taiwan’s White Terror political prisoners
Creators: name: Chen, Mu-Fan
Publisher: name: The University of Edinburgh
Year: 2024
Subjects: Taiwan’s White Terror political prisoners
White Terror political prisoners
political repression
descendants of political prisoners
White Terror (1949-1992)
Kuomintang (KMT) regime
Taiwan
Han immigrants
Chinese diaspora
political prisoner

description: This thesis explores the longer-term effects of political repression on the descendants of political prisoners in Taiwan. The White Terror (1949-1992) was a four-decade-long period of political repression in which anyone who was under suspicion of opposing the Kuomintang (KMT) regime could run the risk of being arrested, imprisoned or executed. While Taiwan’s democratisation process, beginning in the 1990s, ushered in significant changes in sociopolitical circumstances, the legacy of the White Terror continued to affect its political prisoners, their families and descendants. This thesis investigates these intergenerational effects on the descendants of political prisoners by aiming to unfold their lived experiences, taking into account the impact of tensions between wider society, local communities and their families and the influences of familial dynamics on the descendants. In-depth individual qualitative interviews were conducted with six research participants from three families. Two members from each family were recruited, one of whom was a child of a political prisoner and the other a grandchild. The three families come from the three main population groups in Taiwan, namely indigenous peoples, early Han immigrants and Chinese diasporas. Analysing these participants’ accounts phenomenologically and hermeneutically, the research finds that the experience of political imprisonment and the stigma of being a political prisoner has led these families to encounter multiple relational ruptures during the White Terror, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. There were ongoing tensions between the families, local communities and wider society under political repression. Being an ethnic minority, the indigenous participants also experienced intersecting oppressions. Encountering the first generation’s long-term political imprisonment, the early Han immigrant participants recounted the ambivalent relationship between them and the people around them and the constant uncertainty that pervaded their lives. In contrast, the Chinese diaspora participants grew up in an environment where they were more distanced from their family’s troubled past through the reinvention of the first generation and the supportive community in which the family flourished. These offered protective effects against the intergenerational impact of political violence. Multifaceted silence forms a dominant theme in these accounts. Being embedded in a society that was being politically oppressed, all politically sensitive topics became taboo. Although the event of political imprisonment significantly affected these families, they were muted throughout the White Terror. This also generated more silence in their families. Muteness and silence permeated these families, and they had to suffer and live with political repression silently. Nevertheless, the tensions between these families and wider society and the silence within these families did not vanish as Taiwan became a democratic country but continued to emerge in different forms. Drawing on these findings, the thesis revisits the concept of intergenerational trauma with a situational perspective and the interwoven relationships between wider society, local communities, political prisoners’ families and individuals. This thesis argues that intergenerational trauma can also be described as a continuing experiential phenomenon. The descendants have not left the trauma situation these families live in, this situation still exists and is maintained by ongoing traumatising circumstances and the dynamics of traumatised families.