Technological construction as identity formation: building Taiwan's high-speed rail during the 1990s state transformation

Abstract

This article examines the construction of the Taiwan high-speed rail (HSR) as a vehicle for Taiwanese identity formation. The Taiwan HSR is the product of a hybridization of designs from Japan and Europe. Japanese and European engineers transferred HSR technology to Taiwan, but Taiwanese policy actors and engineers localized and assimilated this technology to the island's politics, society and history. They reconstructed the meaning of HSR technology through the dual processes of indigenization (bentuhua; ) and democratization that unfolded during the two decades of HSR planning and construction. While Taiwanese politicians attempted to advance competing political interests through the project, leading local engineers used it to reconstruct their professional identity from an international perspective. Both groups had their agendas. Taiwan's HSR project involved a technopolitical process in which identity formation and technological construction were mutually constitutive.