Traces the growth and evolution of a Taiwan's sense of itself as a separate and distinct entity by examining the diverse ways a discourse of nation has been produced in the Taiwanese cultural imagination.

In discussions of postcolonial nationhood and cultural identity, Taiwan is often overlooked. Yet the island—with its complex history of colonization—presents a particularly fascinating case of the struggle to define a “nation.” While the mainland Chinese government has been unequivocal in its resistance to Taiwanese independence, in Taiwan, government control has gradually passed from mainland Chinese immigrants to the Taiwanese themselves. Two decades of democratization and the arrival of consumer culture have made the island a truly global space. Envisioning Taiwan sorts through these complexities, skillfully weaving together history and cultural analysis to give a picture of Taiwanese identity and a lesson on the usefulness and the limits of contemporary cultural theory.

Yip traces a distinctly Taiwanese sense of self vis-à-vis China, Japan, and the West through two of the island’s most important cultural movements: the hsiang-t’u (or “nativist”) literature of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Taiwanese New Cinema of the 1980s and 1990s. At the heart of the book are close readings of the work of the hsiang-t’u writer Hwang Chun-ming and the New Cinema filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. Key figures in Taiwan’s assertion of a national identity separate and distinct from China, both artists portray in vibrant detail daily life on the island. Through Hwang’s and Hou’s work and their respective artistic movements, Yip explores “the imagining of a nation” on the local, national, and global levels. In the process, she exposes a perceptible shift away from traditional models of cultural authenticity toward a more fluid, postmodern hybridity—an evolution that reflects both Taiwan’s peculiar multicultural reality and broader trends in global culture.

"“June Yip’s book on contemporary Taiwanese fiction and film is a readable and theoretically-informed treatment that has aspirations to cover the Taiwan xiangtu literature movement and the emergence of New Taiwan Cinema.”" - Chinese Literature

"Envisioning Taiwan is a brilliant analysis of the present state and nature of Taiwanese culture. . . . What is so very remarkable about this book is that Yip challenges the orthodoxies of both the political blues and the political greens in Taiwan. While the greens have undoubtedly embraced a vision of a Taiwan of far more mixed origins than was allowed by the old Confucian paradigms, the blues for their part have tried to claim an internationalism that contrasts with the greens' allegedly more local viewpoint." - Taipei Times

"Extraordinary. . . . Yip proposes that this lack of an agreed status that supposedly bedevils Taiwan may not be such a bad thing. . . . Far from being a territory sidelined from international affairs, . . . hi-tech, multicultural Taiwan may be blazing a trail into the future of all mankind. . . . The concept is a fascinating one. . . . Yip is to be congratulated. If the idea gains currency, it could set the cat among a wide variety of pigeons." - South China Morning Post

"The book identifies and analyses in a rather convincing and well-documented manner the most crucial texts of the formation of a new Taiwan." - The China Quarterly