The Encounter of Hybridity Through Space in Narratives: Life Stories from Taiwan’s Military Dependants’ Villages

Author: Pei-Ling Lee, Shih Hsin University, Taiwan
Email: leeplk@cc.shu.edu.tw
Published: August 2012
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.1.1.03

Citation: Lee, P.-L. (2012). The Encounter of Hybridity Through Space in Narratives: Life Stories from Taiwan’s Military Dependants’ Villages. IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.1.1.03


Abstract

After the defeat of the Kuomintang (KMT) by the Chinese Communist Party in the second civil war, over six hundred thousand soldiers and their dependants followed the KMT government’s retreat to Taiwan in 1949. The KMT government settled those soldiers and dependants in different counties in Taiwan in so-called “military dependants’ villages.” With the gradual elimination of these old villages, the experiences of living in their crude, crowded houses have become memories shared among older residents. The project researcher has employed in-depth interviews and narrative criticism to examine the life stories of the residents of the old villages in Pingtung City, the administrative capital of the southernmost county in Taiwan. The purpose of this project is to investigate the interrelationship of space, diasporic experiences, and hybrid identity in narratives. It is expected that the results of this project could enhance the cultural studies of the old military dependants’ villages in Taiwan. This research project is financially supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, R.O.C. (NSC 100-2410-H-128-022-MY2). The results discussed in this project are from the first half of a two-year research plan.

Keywords

ethnicity, difference, identity