Kuo, Yang-Yi; (2018) Lost Homelands Reinvented: Material Culture of the Chinese Diaspora and Their Family in Taiwan. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This research delves into the everyday practice of the now-elderly Waishengren, the Chinese diaspora in Taiwan, who retreated from China to Taiwan after World War II. The thesis compares and contrasts how Waishengren and their family, either from mainland China or the island of Taiwan, make sense of dwelling in Taiwan for more than a half century, and how they define their relationship with other (imagined) ethnic groups in Taiwan through material culture. This is revealed by (1) interviewing Waishengren and their families; (2) phenomenologically describing public and domestic space; (3) investigating the (in)significance of homes and homelands to them, and (4) exploring the way the Waishengren situate themselves in a time of emerging ‘Taiwanese statehood’. Semi-structured interviews with 40 households were conducted in LN Village in Hsinchu City of Northern Taiwan, and photographs, maps, spatial diagrams, floor plans, selected socio-spatial data and archives are exhibited and analysed in order to further understand how the Chinese diaspora and their family construct multiple identities through homes and potted-plant gardens in contemporary Taiwan.

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