Exceptional membership and liminal space of identity

Student migration from Taiwan to China

Bibliographic Data

ID2355657
AuthorsP C Lan (0000-0002-4641-2006, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, corresponding author), Pei-Chia Lan, Yi-Fan Wu (0000-0001-8872-6014, National Taiwan University, Taiwan), Yifan Wu (0000-0002-0715-4163, National Taiwan University)
Year2016
Volume31
Issue6
Pages742-763
Publication date2016-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-5809 • E-ISSN: 1461-7242
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0268580916662389
OpenAlexW2509088829
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited25

The opening of China's economy has attracted an inflow of Taiwanese migrants, including student migration for higher education. Taiwanese migrants in China have created a 'transnational social field,' which is simultaneously an exceptional space of sovereignty and a liminal terrain of identity. Based on in-depth interviews with 61 Taiwanese students in China, this article looks into the paradoxes between nationalization and globalization at the intersection of state policy, migration trajectory, and identity politics. The Chinese government has offered Taiwanese citizens exceptional membership and privileged access to college admission, in order to uphold China's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan and promote the agenda of reunification. Taiwanese students capitalize on such institutional privilege and cultural ties to facilitate their transnational mobility and flexible capital accumulation. They also develop different strategies to negotiate their ethnic or national identification: assimilating as Chinese, reasserting a Taiwanese identity, and claiming a cosmopolitan identity

China · Globalization · Liminality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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