
Tanners of Taiwan
Life Strategies and National Culture
Scott Simon(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 13. June 2019
Book
Hardback
196 pages
978-0-367-09678-6 (ISBN)
Description
Tanners of Taiwan is an ethnography of identity construction set in the leather-tanning communities of Southern Taiwan. Through life history analysis and ethnographic observation, Simon examines what it means to be Chinese - or alternatively Taiwanese - in contemporary Taiwan. Under forty years of martial law from 1947 to 1987, the Chinese Nationalist Party tried to create a Chinese identity in Taiwan through ideological campaigns that reached deep into families, schools and workplaces. They justified their rule through a development narrative that Chinese culture and good policy contributed to the prosperity of the Taiwan miracle. These ideological claims and cultural identities, however, have never been fully accepted in Southern Taiwan. This ethnography is the first to document from the ground level how those claims have been contested, and how a new Taiwanese identity has been constructed since democratization. Tanners of Taiwan provides more than a description of workplaces in Taiwan. Looking at the different perspectives of tanners, women managers, and workers, it demonstrates how cultural and other identities are constructed through dynamics of power and political economy. A small, affordable case studies book to be assigned with a core textbook in introductory anthropology courses. Shows how the US reader is connected to the seemingly distant lives of Taiwanese tanners. Simon follows hides from the US to tanneries in Taiwan, then elsewhere to be made into shoes and other leather goods, and then back to the consumer in the US - demonstrating concretely the notion of "global interconnectedness." Anchored in personal observation and ethnographic detail, the book makes very tangible such otherwise abstract notions as "national identity" and "global integration."
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
440 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-367-09678-6 (9780367096786)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2018
1st Edition
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download

E-Book
05/2018
1st Edition
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download

Book
03/2005
1st Edition
Westview Press Inc
€62.70
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Scott Simon
Content
Series Editor Preface , Notes on Transliteration of Mandarin and Taiwanese , Introduction , Historical Contexts , Social Background , Tanners and Family Firms , Corporate and Firm Networks , Women and Enterprise , Workers and Bosses , Cross-Strait Investment and National Identity , Political Movements-Toward a Free Taiwan , Glossary , The Labor Process of Leather Tanning