The China that was not to be: nostalgia and the exilic imagination of Taiwan's mainland diaspora

Abstract

Studies of diaspora typically inquire after culturally homogenous populations driven from their homelands and living as subalterns in their new environs. In this paper, we look at such an exiled population living not at the periphery, but in the upper rungs of its host society, and as such is able to impose its ancestral language, literature of nostalgia, and exilic world view upon its host population. We show how mainland refugees of the Chinese Civil War entering Taiwan between 1945 and 1949 have managed, for some 40 years, to import an exoglossic linguistic standard, set literary trends born of nostalgic longing, define a culture of pan-Chinese nationalism, and impose an imaginary geography of historical China upon the local population. We further illustrate how this nostalgia-tinged interpretation of Chinese history and culture has shaped a generation of Western views of China and imparted a literary and cultural legacy far beyond expectations generated by the diaspora's small numbers. Finally, as travel bans are lifted and counter-diasporic movement made possible since the 1980s, we show how contact with reality spells the death knell for diasporic identity and vitality, which, among Taiwan's third-generation mainland diaspora, are now little more than a historical curiosity and cultural commodity with which to look back in wonder.