Tanners of Taiwan: Life Strategies and National CultureTanners of Taiwan is an ethnography of identity construction set in the leather-tanning communities of Southern Taiwan. Through life history analysis and ethnographic observation, Simon examines what it means to be Chinese - or alternatively Taiwanese - in contemporary Taiwan. Under forty years of martial law from 1947 to 1987, the Chinese Nationalist Party tried to create a Chinese identity in Taiwan through ideological campaigns that reached deep into families, schools and workplaces. They justified their rule through a development narrative that Chinese culture and good policy contributed to the prosperity of the Taiwan miracle. These ideological claims and cultural identities, however, have never been fully accepted in Southern Taiwan. This ethnography is the first to document from the ground level how those claims have been contested, and how a new Taiwanese identity has been constructed since democratization. Tanners of Taiwan provides more than a description of workplaces in Taiwan. Looking at the different perspectives of tanners, women managers, and workers, it demonstrates how cultural and other identities are constructed through dynamics of power and political economy. A small, affordable case studies book to be assigned with a core textbook in introductory anthropology courses. Shows how the US reader is connected to the seemingly distant lives of Taiwanese tanners. Simon follows hides from the US to tanneries in Taiwan, then elsewhere to be made into shoes and other leather goods, and then back to the consumer in the US - demonstrating concretely the notion of "global interconnectedness." Anchored in personal observation and ethnographic detail, the book makes very tangible such otherwise abstract notions as "national identity" and "global integration." |
Contents
HISTORICAL CONTEXTS | 11 |
SOCIAL BACKGROUND | 33 |
ΤΑΝNERS AND FAMILY FIRMS | 47 |
Copyright | |
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An-ping Annette Lu anthropology asked baseball glove bosses capital capitalists Ch'ing Chen Shui-bian Chhoa Chianan Plain Chiang Kai-shek Chinese culture Chinese Nationalist Party class identity Confucianism corporate daughters Democratic Progressive Party discourse election entrepreneurs family firms family members family tanneries father foreign workers Formosa Leather global hire Holo Taiwanese husband ideology important interview investment island James Soong Japan Japanese joint venture kam-cheng Kaohsiung Kaohsiung County Koxinga labor process land leather industry leather tannery leather tanning Lee Teng-hui Lien Chan machine Mainlanders Mandarin manufacturing martial law narratives national identity Native Taiwanese neries networks Peikang perceived percent political president production Republic of China rural Seng-li social Soong southern Taiwan Tainan County Taipei Taiwanese identity Taiwanese national Taiwanese tanneries Taiwanese workers tanneries in Taiwan tanners of Taiwan tannery owners tanning industry technicians thau-ke-niu tion wanese wet tanning wife wives women Yunlin Yunlin County