"Writing ""Taiwanese"": The Péh-oē-jī romanization and identity construction in Taiwan, 1860s-1990s"

This dissertation explores how Pe̍h-oē-jī (Jiaohui roma zi/Baihua zi, literally meaning “church romanization” or “vernacular script” in Chinese, POJ hereafter) was transformed from a “foreign” writing system as a religious tool for Bible study into an identity arker for various groups of “Taiwanese” (Taiwan ren) in Taiwan from 1865 through the 1990s. Under three political regimes― the Qing Empire, Japanese colonial rule, and the post-war Nationalist regime, POJ, originally created by the Presbyterian Church missionaries for Taiwanese peoples in the 1860s, was utilized in proselytism, school education, medical study, and as an expression of Taiwanese culture and nationalism under different social, political, and cultural circumstances. Looking into the various ways whereby POJ has become symbolically associated with different identities deepens our understanding of how it was important in the process and politics of identity making in modern Taiwan. Based on POJ materials, I aim to provide the first history of POJ literacy in Taiwan and to provide an analysis of the critical role of POJ in the formation of “Taiwanese” identities in modern China.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

E Asian Languages & Cultures

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Su, Huang-Lan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Chow, Kai-Wing
• Xu, Gary
• Shao, Dan
• Chang, Lung-Chih

• Romanization
• Taiwanese Identity
• Pe̍h-oē-jī

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2015 Huang-Lan Su

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88263

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/88263