Book Description
Exploring the transitional role of the state in Taiwan's economic development, this book moves beyond the "strong state" paradigm, focusing especially on the impact of trade with mainland China. Providing an irresistible business opportunity, cross-Straits trade and investment have served as a fulcrum by which societal interests have moved an unwilling state. Weighing the crucial forces at work-democratization, state-society interaction, and economic interdependence with mainland China-Leng offers a thorough analysis of Taiwan's current and future political and economic development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

the reality of the Straits relationship
This researcher has to admit that this book provides asian studies with a clearer and more realistic view of the relations between the Taiwan Straits.Taking away the political games being handed the general publicby governments of the ROC, PRC, and USA, this book provides not only anin-depth introduction to the history and current context of relationsbetween the ROC and PRC, to also give us thought as to how more intenserelations between these two regions will aid in their growth, development,and world peace.

the reality of the Straits relationship
This researcher has to admit that this book provides asian studies with a clearer and more realistic view of the relations between the Taiwan Straits.Taking away the political games being handed the general publicby governments of the ROC, PRC, and USA, this book provides not only anin-depth introduction to the history and current context of relationsbetween the ROC and PRC, to also give us thought as to how more intenserelations between these two regions will aid in their growth, development,and world peace. ... Read more

Book Description
Taiwan's Development Experience: Lessons on Roles ofGovernment and Market scrutinizes the main features of theTaiwanese development experience under five interrelated themes anddomains:Outward-orientation vs.inward-orientation; Sources of growth; Dynamic balancedgrowth process: the interaction between agricultural andnon-agricultural sectors; The role of government in thetransition to a more market-oriented economy; and The potentialtransferability of the Taiwanese development experience to developingcountries. In addition to highlighting the essential contributions of papers, theEditors also bring out the views and contributions, under each of theabove headings, of two distinguished former Cornell Universitycolleagues who are honored at the sponsoring conference - T.C.Liu and S.C. Tsiang. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by University of British Columbia on June 22, 2003. The length of the article is 678 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Information Technology: New Dimensions of Government and Citizen Interaction, and Human Security in Mainland China, and the Taiwan Experience.(Book Review)
Author: Yuezhi Zhao
Publication: Pacific Affairs (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2003
Publisher: University of British Columbia
Volume: 76Issue: 2Page: 288(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Soldier and the Citizen
I am not a politician nor a soldier. In depth understanding of Taiwan and China - this book is not for everyone, it is for someone who is truly interested in understanding the political system in Taiwan - post World War II and China. Excellent!

Unfortunately... people who criticize tends to be always louder than those who appraises... this is often the case.I must say... unless you know the history of China and Taiwan - one needs to step back.... this is an excellent book from inside point of view.

Poor scholarship at its worst
I have to agree 100% with the above review. It is astonishing that a book like was accepted for publication in the first place. Relying only on government materials and barely at all on Chinese sources, this book cannotbe recommended, not even for the lay person with an interest in Taiwan.

Fails to provide the rich perspective such a book demands
This is probably one of the worst books ever written on Taiwan, so bad I can only touch upon a few of its offenses.Using a narrow range of sources largely confined to those representing ruling party viewpoints, Bullard produces a document which indicates almost complete unfamiliarity with the realities of life on Taiwan, the literature on Taiwan or Taiwanese history.One never learns, for example, that the "political socialization" activities of the military among Taiwan's people took place during a period known as the "white terror", in which thousands of Taiwanese were imprisoned, tortured and killed for having unapproved views.For example, Bullard says that military programs in the universities were effective in preventing student demonstrations in the '50s and 60s, but fails to add that students whose politics lacked official approval often disappeared. There are lots of organizational charts and figures on participation, but precious little information on the effectiveness of work, interdepartmental politics, factional struggles, and so forth. There is little objective outside assessment of the information presented; frequently Bullard accepts the military's reviews of its own work, or fails to provide cites at all. For example, Bullard states of the military men used as "instructors" in Taiwan's schools that "Over the years they became accepted and generally welcomed by the students and especially the parents."(p. 148).Anyone even remotely familiar with Taiwan's educational environment knows that those men are generally held in contempt by the populace for activities even the ruling-party owned English paper admitted were often seen as "thought control."They were recently declared unconstitutional by the island's highest court.Bullard's cite for his astounding claim: a military pamphlet.Similarly, Bullard gives a dry recital of the duties of Poltical Warfare officers without ever seriously noting their importance to the regime or t! he fact that American observers worked to stamp them out because they were unethical and increased the problems of Taiwan's already dysfunctional military.Bullard rarely attempts to determine if rules were followed or if policies were actually obeyed in practice. On p. 94 he says "Corporal punishment was forbidden [in the military]."The most cursory check of sources on the issue, however, would have revealed the intense controversy over the island's high death rate among recruits (several hundred annually), the widespread accusations of the routine use of savage punishments and the lawsuits from individual parents, parents organizations and other concerned groups. More important, however, is the lack of political context.Taiwanese independence is barely mentioned; one of the most crucial political dynamics on the island, the struggle between competing Taiwanese and Chinese nationalisms, is lost to the reader.Bullard makes it seem as though the ruling party was struggling with the communists for the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese, but communism was never a major issue on Taiwan, and the real battle was (and is) against Taiwanese nationalism.A much more rich and nuanced view of this is called for. Bullard plans a second volume on anti-subversion activities. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1895 Japan acquired Taiwan as its first formal colony after a resounding victory in the Sino-Japanese war. For the next fifty years, Japanese rule devastated and transformed the entire socioeconomic and political fabric of Taiwanese society. In Becoming Japanese, Leo Ching examines the formation of Taiwanese political and cultural identities under the dominant Japanese colonial discourse of assimilation (dôka) and imperialization (kôminka) from the early 1920s to the end of the Japanese Empire in 1945.
Becoming Japanese analyzes the ways in which the Taiwanese struggled, negotiated, and collaborated with Japanese colonialism during the cultural practices of assimilation and imperialization. It chronicles a historiography of colonial identity formations that delineates the shift from a collective and heterogeneous political horizon into a personal and inner struggle of "becoming Japanese." Representing Japanese colonialism in Taiwan as a topography of multiple associations and identifications made possible through the triangulation of imperialist Japan, nationalist China, and colonial Taiwan, Ching demonstrates the irreducible tension and contradiction inherent in the formations and transformations of colonial identities. Throughout the colonial period, Taiwanese elites imagined and constructed China as a discursive space where various forms of cultural identification and national affiliation were projected. Successfully bridging history and literary studies, this bold and imaginative book rethinks the history of Japanese rule in Taiwan by radically expanding its approach to colonial discourses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent text
A great book drawing on postcolonial and postmodern thought that analyzes Japanese colonial rhetoric about Taiwan as well as different stages of Taiwanese identity-formation under colonization. Includes an analysis of Japanese representations of aborigines, a group that is often glossed over or ignored in books on Taiwan.

The nature of colonialism and its contemporary consequences.
This study is an excellent examination of Japanese colonialism in Taiwan and its consequences for the contemporary formation of national identity.Through examining not only the particular circumstances of Japan in Taiwan but also the nature of colonialism in general, Ching shows how colonialism is a social transformation which produces people of mixed identities.He draws upon "The Orphan of Asia" by Wu Zhuo-Liu as an example of this understanding.Ching also sets forth an interesting critique of postmodernism's hesitancy to draw judgments across cultural boundaries.The "miracle" of postwar Japan, essentially an almost immediate turn from complete external orientation to complete internal orientation and subjectivity, was made possible by the United States' appropriation of Japan's colonies and Japan's immediate alliance with the U.S. in the Cold War.Because of these factors, Japan never had to go through the harsh but important process of decolonization, and Ching shows how this failure affects the identity crisis of Taiwan today.Ultimately the book is oriented around "the politics of identity formation" in which Taiwan must come to hold a national identity which embraces the diversity of elements (Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, aboriginal, etc.) that have formed the ontology of Taiwan through history.

Taiwanesness
This is a detailed account of the Taiwanese response to colonization under the Japanese. Liu adroitly illustrates the monumental changes afoot in Taiwan of the early 20th Century and builds a strong case to support the idea of a Taiwanese identity seperate from China. Liu follows the steps colonialization drive that can later be seen in the Chinese colonization under the KMT. At times the language bogs down in anthropological terms of art, but is no less a valueable addition to the pool of information available on Taiwan.

Differences
The Taiwanese is once a part of Japanese,but now we are the Taiwanese,uneaqual to China. China is not eaqual to Japan,so how could China be eaqual to Taiwan? To say Taiwanese = Chinese is just China's excuse to occupy Taiwan,for China feel well-developed Taiwan is a BIG FAT SHEEP for them to eat.

Actually,I can say Chinese know nothing about Taiwanese traits and personailty. China would never be willing to understand it and communicate with us Taiwan,for Chinese is very self-focus arrogant people. So,to be nearset neighbor with China is the sadest fate for Taiwan. The book revealed the differences of Taiwanese and Chinese,focus on what is the life-experiecnce(historical)reasons of forming the "Taiwanese" identity. Readers can sense the logic a little from this book.

very good!
I think it's a good book.It gave us(chinese,especially taiwanese) a lot of infromation about the history of taiwan,and the relationship between the japan and taiwan(china).It let us know more,it make us understand more. ... Read more

Book Description
In this thoroughly revised and updated edition, John Copper provides a comprehensive introduction to Taiwan. The book highlights Taiwan's unique attributes: its uneasy status as a nation-state, its successful trade-oriented economy-despite a lack of natural resources-its rapid transition to democracy in the wake of economic development, and its ambiguous relationship with the United States. Considering Taiwan's international role in the post-Cold War era, Copper weighs the future of this small but vital island nation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Essential reading if you want to understand Taiwan.
Although the book's organization resembles a textbook too much, theinformation is invaluable. Given that there is a mountain of booksavailable on China it is extremely helpful to read something about thefirst Chinese democracy. While I enjoyed the book as a whole I wasparticularly interested in the story of Taiwan's evolution fromdictatorship to democracy. This is especially cool because Taiwan is stillstrengthening its democracy.No other book examines Taiwan in such depth,which is not as great a compliment as it sounds since only a handful ofbooks really examine modern Taiwan. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Japan & The World Economy, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This paper investigates whether banks exercise forbearance lending to troubled firms by presenting a stylized model and then testing the hypotheses implied by this model, using firm-level data of Taiwan. During 1991-1996 when the economy started to show signs of weakening, banks are found to have exercised forbearance lending across all types of firms, hoping that the economy would soon recover to salvage those ailing firms. During 1997-2001 when the recession went even deeper, banks were found no longer to forbear loans. This period saw a more rapid decline in property prices, which coincided with a wave of asset liquidation during this period. ... Read more

Book Description
Known as the "Taiwan Miracle," the Republic of China on Taiwan (R.O.C.) has, over the past thirty-five years, experienced one of the world's highest rates of economic growth. Arguing that major theoretical frameworks for analyzing international political economy are often too simplistic in that they omit key factors or overly generalize from relationships found only in limited situations, Clark uses a detailed case history of the R.O.C. to suggest not only that development and dependency in contemporary society are extremely complex and indeterminate processes, but that development in Taiwan deviates significantly from the postulates of the two leading paradigms of international political economy. To go even further, Clark states that Taiwan's economic growth and transformation resulted from its deviation from the normal dependency syndrome. Indeed, a development strategy based on economic flexibility and periodic regime change that has made this flexibility possible are hallmarks in Taiwan's success story. The United States and other advanced industrial economies whose past successes have created economic and political barriers to future adaptation can be better understood in terms of the characteristics of R.O.C.'s development strategy. Part I of the three-part work focuses on environment, first discussing various paradigms and theories about development and then presenting an historical overview of Taiwan. The second part investigates Taiwan's international role, political development, and rapid economic growth. The volume closes with a chapter devoted to the implications of the Taiwan experience and political economy paradigms. Eight figures and thirty-five tables illustrate facets of Taiwan's development, including government structure, indicators of agricultural development, industrialization, educational progress, and export performance, among others. Because of the detailed presentations of political economy theories and their variants, especially in relation to economic and political development in Taiwan, this volume would be an excellent choice for courses in political economy, developing societies, Asian politics, and international relations theory, as well as libraries serving students in these areas. ... Read more

Book Description
The survival and position of Taiwan are examined here in light of Taiwan's dependence on the vagaries of American and Chinese (both PRC and ROC) geopolitical thought and machination. Jen-kun Fu traces the ROC's changing geopolitical position on Taiwan, particularly in light of improved relations between the PRC and the United States in the early 1970s. Fu also explores Taiwan's response to the challenges posed by the normalization of Sino-American relations and provides an overall assessment of Taiwan's continuing role in the changing geopolitics of East Asia and the Pacific. Employing a geopolitical frame of reference, Fu's central conceptual concerns focus on the interface between geography and politics, which derives from modern geopolitical theory. If we are to understand how Taiwan's leaders perceive their options and the geopolitical position of Taiwan, then we need to explore the various geopolitical premises on which they base their views. Fu contends that Chinese tradition is one among several important components of the intellectual milieu through which Chinese--and, in particular, Taiwanese--decision makers necessarily filter their judgment. The study concludes that both the PRC and the ROC have carefully manipulated the geographical mind in order to preserve the orthodox principles on which their governments are founded. Beginning with an overview of Western and Chinese geopolitical theories, Fu presents the intellectual framework within which the foreign policy-makers operate. Next, he examines the geographical and historical contexts of the "Taiwan issue" itself--how Taiwan has become both a pawn and a beneficiary of American Cold War geopolitics. Then the study considers Taiwan's reappraisal of its own position vis-a-vis the mainland, the United States, and the world. Various options for resolving the Taiwan issue are considered, particularly in light of the pervasive influence of outside powers. Scholars and students of geopolitics and international relations (especially relations between the superpowers) as well as Asian studies will find this study essential reading. ... Read more

Book Description
Postwar Taiwan has witnessed not only great changes in social, economic, and political structure, but also gigantic transformation in the world of thought. This book represents a joint effort to provide readers with accounts of some outstanding aspects of the kaleidoscopic phenomena of the postwar Taiwan transformation. ... Read more