On Identity Shaped by Environment

In one of my papers presented to ASU, I proposed a citizenship based on locality or 'vox locus'.  This I said would ease so called ethnic tensions and be a better foundation of identity for achieving the one most important goal of any society: sustainable development and the protection of global diversity, be it ecological, linguistic or cultural.  Since the Lee era, many Taiwanese have come to understand 'Taiwanese' not as an ethnic or linguistic marker but rather a situational one.  The growth of the Taiwanese national identity came because of the twin factors of Taiwan's isolation from China and the post-1979 isolation of the ROC on the world stage.  Democracy reinforced the sense of many Taiwanese that they should determine their own affairs.  Those who lived here were those best able to make decisions that would help build a sustainable environment for the others who lived here and therefore shared the collective experience of suffering from the contingent effects of development that hurt their environment.  The environment therefore, not culture or language, is the key nodal point for a Taiwanese identity into the future.  Today, I stumbled upon a great article in the Guardian by an English woman sick of being asked where she's from simple because of her brown skin.  Her beef is that she is English because her experience is totally English.  Here's the link to the article, in which I found significant resonance with the ideas of a new Taiwanese identity born of practicality and experience that has grown significantly in the last 20 years.  I borrow a quote below as an illustration:

It's not that I'm embarrassed about my ethnic background. I don't think about it much, though it's good for jokes ("I'm half Iranian, half American – so basically, I hate myself"). But some people seem to want me to think about it. "Why don't you visit Bombay?" they enthuse. "You'd love it." They may be right, but have yet to explain to me why I'd love it more than Tokyo, or Guatemala, or any of the other places I haven't yet been. It's an odd misconception that you should somehow feel connected to a far-flung country because your ancestors lived there centuries ago, even if your entire life has been spent morris dancing in Loughborough.

It's not that I think the questioners are all differently faced versions of Nick Griffin (leader of the racists British National Party), either. I don't – they're probably just curious (except perhaps for the bloke who made a constipated noise when I told him my Dad was white). People with a different appearance often seem more interesting than those who look everyday, and questioners are clearly hoping for a more satisfying response than the mundane "Right here". When they don't receive one, they probe.

So my reluctance to enter The Conversation isn't due to shame or to fear of any dubious ulterior motives. It's partly down to exasperation at people thinking I'm less British than them because I'm brown; but it's mainly down to extreme boredom. 

Academics who harp on about ethnic cleavages in Taiwan and ethnic conflict are guilty of perpetuating a false consciousness born of considerations about the allocation of power and designed to undermine a new Taiwanese identity of multi-culturalism.  They should be responded to with a yawn and indifference. Since I imagine Taiwanese do not ask each other where they are from on the basis of their language or culture, perhaps one day in the future they will not ask those who seem to their eyes to be foreigners.  I look forward to a time when all people regard those living on Taiwan as, permanently or temporarily, citizens of a Taiwan environment.  Their existence in the environment facilitates their membership rather than Taiwan's environment being subsumed under a State constructed for other political or linguistic purposes and its peoples arbitrarily accorded citizenship by said State along unsustainable grounds such as ancestry, language or culture.  It's time to grow up and out of a nationalism and identity based on ancestry and adopt one based on the environment we all share.  In an island nation such as Taiwan, the possibilities for this are much higher than for landlocked communities.  We should strive to exploit these possibilities if we are to effectively face the challenges of the future together at a time when environmental impacts are acting to increasingly to shatter our ability to do so, not to mention destroying the communities in which we have built a diverse Taiwanese society.