How to speak about oneself: theory and identity in Taiwan

Abstract

In the life of nations, people address themselves and their collective identity in historically specific and changing ways. There are styles and registers with which people talk about themselves as a coherent group. Identities are addressed with certain valorized narratives and themes and legitimized with epistemologies under which people know themselves, and know that they know themselves. These ways of speaking about identity have a politics and a sociology, expressing changing social circumstances as the changing registers of national address.